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The Sky This Month Joel Swallow The Sky This Month • Decoding Astronomy : The Magnitude Scale • The Moon this month • The planets this month • Jupiter’s Galilean Moons • Vernal Equinox (March 20th) • Interesting stars in Cepheus • Messier Objects : Spiral Galaxies [4] Clocks go forward on March 26th – BST Decoding Astronomy : The Magnitude Scale [21] Dark Skies Limited to stars brighter than mag. 4 Can see stars fainter than mag. 7 (But you will need some binoculars!) [22] [1] The Moon This Month Full Moon: March 12th New Moon: March 28th Full Moon: April 11th [2] [3] The Planets This Month [10] Mercury and Venus : lost to the sun! 08:30 9/3/17 Mars – Dimming From Pisces to Aries • During March Mars dims from mag 1.3 to 1.5 as it moves from Pisces to Aries 20:00 8/3/17 20:00 29/3/17 Jupiter – In Virgo at about mag -2.4 • Currently rising ~ 9pm but getting earlier, rising before 8pm by the end of the month. 01:00 9/3/17 Jupiter – In Virgo at about mag -2.4 • Moon and Jupiter get very close! 14/15 of March 01:00 15/3/17 Saturn – mag 0.4 • Look to the south before dawn. • Rises later over the course of the month. • Tougher to see when it rises later due to the rising sun. 05:20 9/3/17 Uranus – In Pisces mag 5.9 • VERY tricky to see – getting lost in the sun as the month goes on! 20:10 8/3/17 The Galilean Moons • 4 largest moons of Jupiter discovered by Galileo. • Size comparison to the Earth and our Moon. • Biggest Moons In the Solar system: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Ganymede Titan Calisto Io Moon Europa (Jupiter) (Saturn) (Jupiter) (Jupiter) (Earth) (Jupiter) [5] The Galilean Moons • Each night the positions of the moons will change. Galilean Moon Orbital Period [Earth days] Io Europa 1.77 3.55 0.262 0.416 Ganymede 7.16 0.664 Calisto 16.7 1.17 Distance from Jupiter * [million miles] *Earth-Moon = 0.238 (mag. 4.6 – 5.6) The Galilean Moons [11] [12] Vernal Equinox [13] Monday, 20 March 2017, 10:29 GMT Vernal Equinox Marks the beginning of Astronomical Spring • Equi (equal) nox (night) – equal night and day…approximately. • On the Equinox the Sun shines down directly on the equator – your shadow is just beneath your feet. • Winter Solstice : Sun directly overhead at the (northern) tropic of Cancer. • Summer Solstice : Sun directly overhead at the (Southern) tropic of Capricorn. [14] Cepheus & Interesting Stars • Look to the North to find Cassiopeia and Cepheus. 21:00 8/3/17 Cepheus & Interesting Stars • Look to the North to find Cassiopeia and Cepheus. 𝛿 Cep 21:20 12/3/17 [19] • Deep red Garnet Star. (Mag 4.2). • Red supergiant, one of the largest stars we know about! • 4200 x Sun’s diameter. The Garnet Star (𝜇 Cep) Cepheus & Interesting Stars [20] • Delta Cephi (Mag 4.05): prototype Cepheid Variable Star • From the period of pulsation we can find how bright it really is and compare to how bright it appears and therefore find its distance. • Forms a rung on the Astrophysical distance measurement ladder. Messier Objects – Spiral Galaxies [18] M51 : The Whirlpool Galaxy • M51 is easy if the sky is dark – but tricky with too much light pollution or moonlight! Distance: 23 million ly Visual Brightness: 8.4 (mag) Apparent Dimensions: 11×7 (arc min) M51 22:00 8/3/17 M51 : The Whirlpool Galaxy [16] What will I see? • Binoculars : fuzzy blob. • Small telescope : Bright galactic core(s). • 8’’ + telescope : hint of spiral arms and dust lanes. M51, taken April 22, 2006 with 5-inch apo refractor at f/4.5 and Canon 20Da camera at ISO400. Four 10-minute exposures average-stacked. M51 : The Whirlpool Galaxy • What will I see? Hubble… [17] M 101 : The Pinwheel Galaxy M101 • Quite large (29’ x 27’) and feint (mag. 7.86) – best seen with low power eye piece (lower magnification). 22:00 8/3/17 M 101 : The Pinwheel Galaxy • Taken April 23, 2006 • with 5-inch aperture refractor at f/4.5 • Canon 20Da camera at ISO400. • Four 10-minute exposures average-stacked. M 101 : The Pinwheel Galaxy • Huge galaxy, with 70% more mass than the Milky Way. • 21 million ly away • Photons we observe tonight were emitted 21 million years ago. [15] The Sky This Month • Decoding Astronomy : The Magnitude Scale • The Moon this month • The planets this month • Jupiter’s Galilean Moons • Vernal Equinox (March 20th) • Interesting stars in Cepheus • Messier Objects : Spiral Galaxies • M51 and M101 [4] Clocks go forward on March 26th – BST The Sky This Month Joel Swallow Photo Credit 1. http://www.moongiant.com/phase/03/08/2017 2. http://www.littlethings.com/full-moons-2016/ 3. http://shewhodreams.weebly.com/april---pink-moon.html 4. https://saviorssoup.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/thief-at-night.jpg 5. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-yrjROnUTRtk/UHugMvnzj1I/AAAAAAAABnQ/1N27MdbNuoI/s1600/787px-Galileanasnom.PNG 6. http://www.paullknight.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/K01_8312-2.jpg 7. http://sbo.colorado.edu/SBO_OLD_SITE/sbo/astroinfo/galileo/galileo.voyager.jupiter.jpg 8. https://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/LEplot/LEplot2001/LE2017Feb11N.pdf 9. http://www.moongiant.com/Lunar_Eclipse_Calendar.php 10. http://www.swindonstargazers.com/telescope/planets.jpg 11. http://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/top-tips-for-using-ordinary-binoculars-for-stargazing 12. http://www.resonancepub.com/images/telescope_cartoon.gif 13. http://firstdayof.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/vernal-equinox-2016-march.jpg 14. http://www.worldatlas.com/aatlas/newart/imagee.gif 15. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinwheel_Galaxy#/media/File:M101_hires_STScI-PRC2006-10a.jpg 16. http://binocularsky.com/images/objects/M51-100.png 17. https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/images/420970main_M51HST-GendlerMr_full.jpg 18. http://www.absoluteaxarquia.com/nightsky/images/messier_6.jpg 19. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mu_Cephei#/media/File:Star-sizes.jpg 20. https://writescience.wordpress.com/tag/cepheid/ 21. http://timtrott.co.uk/magnitude-scale/ 22. http://www.universetoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Dark-sky-magnitude-scale-Inter-Dark-Sky-Assn.jpg