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Showing posts with label Venus. Show all posts

Thursday, June 7, 2012

TRANSIT OF VENUS -- WHAT’S THE BIG DEAL?

English: Transit of Venus - Venus completely over the sun Italiano: Transito di Venere sul Sole Русский: Прохождение Венеры по диску Солнца (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Why was the recent Transit of Venus across the Sun such a big event and why have I been so enthralled with it?

1. It’s rare. Even though Venus revolves around the Sun once every 225 Earth days (approximately), the tilt of its orbit relative to that of the Earth’s allows for this “line of sight” view only two times (separated by eight years) every 243 years - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transit_of_Venus.

2. Its duration (around 6 hours) was much longer than other viewable-from-earth astronomical phenomena such as lunar and solar eclipses which last only a couple of hours at most from start to finish. Therefore, the window of opportunity for watching the event was much greater.

3. It is unusual to be able to see Venus at all during the day, even though it is easily viewable in the evenings and mornings.

4. Scientifically, transits of Venus have been very important in that the study of them helped to produce accurate estimates of the distance from the Earth to the Sun. This distance, deemed one astronomical unit, is useful as a scale for describing the distances between other objects in the universe as well, in particular those of our own Solar System.

Furthermore, the June 2012 transit is anticipated to assist in the refinement of techniques that will be used in the search for exoplanets – planets that revolve around stars other than our Sun: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/16/venus-transit-june-5-new-alien-planet_n_1522342.html

5. Finally, it provided a great excuse for professional and amateur astronomers alike to commune and enjoy an important celestial sight. NASA even provided live webcasts of the event from several high-profile venues for people wanting to watch the spectacle, but were without the ability to do so: http://sunearthday.gsfc.nasa.gov/transitofvenus/

Additionally, many other local, formal and informal viewing gatherings were held around the world.

ASPEN ASTRONOMER (NOT!) – WHAT HAPPENED TO APRIL?

A meteor during the peak of the 2009 Leonid Meteor Shower. The photograph shows the meteor, afterglow, and wake as distinct components. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I can’t believe I missed the meteor shower on Sunday morning, April 22, 2012.

In March, the Aspen night skies were on fire with astronomical wonders and so was I when it came to observing them – so what happened to April?

In April, the skies continued their spectacular Spring show, but I missed most of it. I didn’t make a point of viewing, or even planning to view, the night skies until near the very end of the month - Some Aspen Astronomer, huh!

Although throughout the month I occasionally thought about checking out the heavens, I disregarded these thoughts until April 24, 2012, when I was jolted by the sight of a sliver moon consorting with Venus in the western Aspen skies – what a spectacular sight! No wonder this phenomenon is often the source of UFO reports.

I hastily attempted to photograph this juxtaposition with an old SiPix 1.3 megapixel digital camera relic and ended up with only less-than-stellar (pun intended) photos of it, so I surfed around the internet for some higher quality images -- even mediocre would be better than mine.

Here are the results:

Bad photos (mine):

Aspen astronomy: Moon Near Venus Twilight 4/24/12

Moon Near Venus Twilight 4/24/12 (Photo credit: richpalpine)

Aspen astronomy: Moon Near Venus Nightime 4/24/12

Moon Near Venus Nightime 4/24/12 (Photo credit: richpalpine)

Better photos, and videos of the Moon and Venus, (not mine) may be found here:

http://www.space.com/15422-venus-crescent-moon-photos-april-2012.html

http://www.flickr.com/photos/spacemike/7111249677/

http://youtu.be/65w4xGBoJuw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EuEKYbL9bFA

Ok, so I did manage to log one astronomy event for April, but shortly after witnessing this fabulous Moon-Venus treat, I found out that I had missed one of the major annual springtime shows, the Lyrid meteor shower.

The Lyrids, which arrive each year around April 16, and continue until approximately April 26 , appear to radiate from the constellation, Lyra. They usually peak during the night of April 21/22, which fell this year on a Saturday/Sunday.

Now mind you, even though it was on a weekend, I probably wouldn’t have managed to drag myself out of bed at something like 3:00 AM to witness the peak of the Lyrid meteor shower early Sunday morning anyway; but if I’d been on top of it, I might have been able to see some activity Saturday night. Unfortunately, I was oblivious to the event until I received an email from a friend asking if I had seen it – sadly, I had to reply that I hadn’t.

I found out that although the Lyrids are considered a major annual meteor shower, they are not one of the most spectacular. This provided little consolation.

The next major annual meteor shower is the Eta Aquarid (ETA) which appears to radiate from the constellation Aquarius, and peaks on May 5/6th . This conveniently occurs, once again, on a weekend and I plan on attending.

Aquarius rises only a short time before morning twilight begins, but I will drag myself out of bed early Sunday morning to view this next meteor shower, binoculars and better camera in hand, and I will begin my quest to make May a more productive Aspen astronomy month than April was.

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Hello Saturn! Awesome Planet Viewing in Aspen, CO

Image via Wikipedia Wow, we sure have been treated to some great planet viewing here in Aspen this month. All five visible-to-the-naked-eye planets are observable. I have seen Venus, Jupiter, and Mars before, but I have never knowingly been able to add Saturn or Mercury to complete the set.

I am really only an occasional astronomer, but Jupiter and Venus shining brightly in tandem in the west, southwest skies and growing ever closer to each other each night, really caught my eye.

In the first part of the month, Jupiter occupied the higher position in the sky of the two. One will be able to view their best conjunction in years at mid-month and they will reverse their relative elevation positions in the latter part of March. It has been fascinating to watch their little sky dance over the west end of Aspen.

I have been trying to find Mercury, but it’s a little difficult as it apparently can only be seen shortly after sundown, just above the horizon. One was supposed to be able to find it by drawing a line connecting the insides of Jupiter and Venus and continuing on to the sunset spot on the horizon, but I am not sure if that hold true as the month progresses. In locations like Aspen, it is difficult to view much in that area due to the topography, the sunset light scattering and some murkiness close to the horizon, but I believe I did get lucky enough to catch it early one evening, just before it set.

On the opposite side of the sky we have been treated to a great show from not only a fabulous full moon, but from guest appearances from the red planet, Mars, and the distant Saturn as well.

Although the moon is no longer full and has migrated further and further away from these planets, Mars continues to make its presence known, and Saturn, the most elusive naked-eye planet, continues to be seen near the star, Spica, the brightest star in the constellation, Virgo. As forecasted by Earthsky.org, I was able to “ …see the beautiful pairing of the waning gibbous moon with Saturn and Spica on the night of March 10 .”

Of course I had to find Spica before I could find Saturn. Aided by a great animation on www.nakedeyeplanets.com and using the Big Dipper as a guide, I found Arcturus, then Spica, and I finally did see Saturn, near the almost full moon, hovering over the eastern part of Smuggler Mountain.

March certainly has been a fantastic month for planet viewing – I hope April provides interesting Aspen astronomy opportunities as well.