Mars continues to shine until November, from magnitude -1.2 to magnitude -1.8 and its disk expands from 15″ (arcseconds) to its maximum of 17″. The first of the month at midnight sees it about 35 degrees above the eastern horizon and above and to the left of Betelgeuse in Orion. At the end of the month around midnight, it will be around 65 degrees above the horizon SSE and above and to the right of Betelgeuse. Its motion is now clearly retrograde – westward – and since we are catching up with it and also approaching the winter solstice when our north pole moves away from the sun (and towards Mars) it seems much higher in the sky. . It will reach its closest approach to Earth early on November 30, although its real opposition is six days later, as Mars’ orbit is more elliptical than ours.
Jupiter was in opposition at the end of September and is attracting attention all night. My wife and I met a friend while we were walking our dog and she asked me what that bright star or planet was that she could see every night. I told her it was Jupiter and she said she thought so, but someone else told her it was too bright so it must be Venus. I pointed out, probably unnecessarily, that it would be difficult to see an inner planet outside of Earth’s orbit. I guess she will have another conversation with her friend about this shortly.
Saturn moved well past its opposition in mid-August. I tried several times to see Titan, its largest moon, with 15 x 70 binoculars but without success. At 40x in a telescope it’s easy but not with binoculars. I will keep trying.
On another subject, but which will be important very soon after, daylight saving time ends on the morning of November 6; put your clocks back an hour because the real big deal for November will be two hours on the night of November 7-8. Two minutes after midnight (so on the 8th), the moon comes into contact with the penumbral shadow of the Earth and the eastern limb of the moon begins to see less and less of the sun. Although there is a gradual darkening of this eastern limb, at around 1:09 a.m. it reaches umbral shadow and begins to enter full shadow. At 2:16 a.m., the moon is in complete shadow. The mid-eclipse is around 3 a.m. on the 8th and the moon passes a little north of dead center through the umbral shadow. The moon can be almost invisible in a deep lunar eclipse, its only illumination comes from sunlight refracting through the earth’s atmosphere, and the color can range from pale gray to pinkish gray to deep red.
During this deep part of the eclipse, any good pair of binoculars should show a faint star about two or three moon diameters in the upper left at around 10:30 moon. If your eyesight is excellent, it may be visible to the naked eye. This “star” may look pale green and probably won’t twinkle as much as most stars; it is because it is the planet Uranus. It was brought to my attention at our last SCAC meeting in October that although the moon is coming out of the penumbral umbra it is passing very close to Uranus, the best time to see Uranus is when it is not blown away by the glare of a full moon. Good catch, Bruce! The screenshot accompanying this article is from Stellarium and shows what we should see at mid-eclipse – around 3am on November 8th.
Interestingly, Uranus was discovered on March 13, 1781 by astronomer William Herschel, the first planetary discovery since biblical times. According to Wikipedia, at the time, the crowns of Great Britain and Hanover were united under King George II. William played oboe in the Regimental Band of the Hanoverian Guards but after some military setbacks inflicted by the French, he was sent to safety in England after the death of his father.
To quote Wikipedia, βIn addition to the oboe, he played the violin and harpsichord and later the organ, composed many musical works, including 24 symphonies and numerous concertos, as well as church music. Six of his symphonies were recorded in April 2002 by the London Mozart Players.
Herschel’s younger sister, Caroline, who joined him in England in 1772, was also somewhat gifted. In addition to accompanying him as a soprano soloist in concerts, she joined him in his astronomical work, ground mirrors, worked as his observational recorder, discovered Messier 110 – a companion galaxy to the galaxy d ‘Andromeda – and discovered eight comets.
It makes us all feel like we’ve really accomplished something remarkable in our lives, doesn’t it? Does anyone reading this actually play the oboe? Do you know anyone who does? Have you found any planets recently? To learn more about this remarkable pair, visit: space.com/18704-who-discovered-uranus.html
The November club meeting open to the public will be November 11 at the Sechelt Library at 7 p.m. The talk topic will be posted on the Sunshine Coast Club website at sunshinecoastastronomy.wordpress.com/.
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