Skywatcher's Guides

Skywatcher's Guide - April and May 2013

Visit our public 16" telescope at Flandrau Science Center on Thursday through Saturday nights (free of charge) where you can meet our astronomers personally. Ask questions, enjoy the night sky, and experience both the telescope and online resources from 7 until 10pm.

Written by: Tim Van Devender (Flandrau Telescope Operator)
Images contributed by: Tim Van Devender, Alistair Symon (Flandrau Telescope Operator), Nine Planets, and Students for the Exploration and Development of Space (SEDS)

Navigation

Monthly Overview

The month of April has our late winter/spring constellations Gemini and Auriga following the setting sun. Leo is high in the sky with its distinctive backwards question mark denoting the mane of the Lion. The Big Dipper is high in the sky marking the constellation Ursa Major (Big Bear). [If you have a picture of a bear with a long tail please send it]. From the star Regulus in Leo we "spike to Spica" in Virgo and then "arc to Arcturus" in the constellation Boötes (pronounced Bo-uh-tays). Virgo marks the path straight up out of the plane of the Milky Way into the vast Virgo Cluster of galaxies. On a clear dark night out beyond the city lights you wonder what that faint glow is until you zoom in through a scope and see a LOT of galaxies.

During May the Milky Way galaxy wraps around us on the horizon leaving us lookup up and out of the galaxy into the vastness of inter galactic space. If you happen to be able to view this from a dark, southern location in North America with a low horizon it can be an amazing sight giving you a true sense of perspective of our place in the Universe. I suggest a trip to one of the state and/or National Parks of which the southwest has many. From the urban lights this means we are looking at a sparser population of nearby stars to form constallations and interesting formations of the Milky Way's dense dust lanes are on the brighter horizon hidden from view.

The morning and evening sky also hosts a number of pretty conjunctions with our inner planets, the Moon, Jupiter and now Saturn. These are always ejoyable for a scenic photo or early evening walk.

Observational Highlights - Solar System

image by Tim Van Devender

Jupiter is getting lower in the evening sky just as Saturn rises into an early evening spectacle. The 16" Cassegrain reflector at Flandrau's Telescope Observatory gobbles up these photon to deliver them directly to our visitors eyeballs. With the Moon these objects are the premiere viewing we are capable of providing and with our clear spring/summer skies this is the don't miss event of the season.

Saturn will be directly opposite of the Sun from our perspective on Earth at the end of April. Therefore it is up all night, rising at sunset and setting at sunrise. It is also highest during the "darkest" part of the night making this is the middle of the best time to view Saturn. This is really the beginning of the "Saturn season" for our Flandrau visitors as the planet is fully illuminated and now begining to climb higher into the evening sky.

Observational Highlights - Miky Way

As I mentioned the Milky Way wraps around the horizon during May evenings. This may be a bad time to look at individual objects in the Milky Way, but it is actually an interesting opportunity to experience the "full scale" of the Milky Way from a dark location at the latitudes in the southern United States. For instance, standing on a hill an hour after sunset in Big Bend National Park you would be standing on the flat disk of the plane of our galaxy. Look overhead into the constellation Virgo and you are looking straight up out of the Milky Way! Another hour after twilight if you have not turned on any lights you will be fully dark adapted and your eyes will be fully saturated with photons from this half of the Milky Way Galaxy and far, far beyond.

Observational Highlights - Galaxies

These are difficult to see from town during the spring and summer months. Luckily a short drive away from the lights (plus 45 minutes for dark adaptation) and presto! A plethora of galaxies in the Virgo cluster form a misty haze of glowing galaxies off in the distant reaches of time and space. A little closer to home there are many beautiful large and bright galaxies of our own local group in the northern constellations around the Big Dipper. M101 an M51 are just a few dozen light years off and recently had some impressive super novas that helped the U of A nail down some important numbers in factoring both distance and luminosity of Type 1A super nova events.

Frequently Asked Questions – When will Sky Watcher's Guide be available?

Sadly this question has been far too common lately. I apologize for the recent delay in updating this content due to limited volunteer staff hours. This does prompt the opportunity to explain a bit about how Flandrau works with the Tucson and UA Science community.

The astronomy program at the Flandrau Science Center is almost entirely volunteer based, especially the Telescope Observatory and Sky Watcher's Guide. Micheal Magee is our staff sponsor and his main responsibility is the prgramming and operation of the Grace H Flandrau Planetarium. The new iMac computer system in the Observatory is thanks to the efforts of Michael. Michael's time and staff resources are largely limited to the Planetarium so he relies on a large contingent of skilled volunteers to maintain and operate the Telescope Observatory. The Wickman Observatory has always had a large and semi-autonomous docent program since it opened in the fall of 1975. The Tucson Amateur Astronomy Association and the UA students are often recruited to work the night hours which run slightly later than the main museum is open.

Since 2010 the Flandrau Science Center has been part of the overall UA Science outreach program. As part of that program our volunteers our now part of the larger pool of UA Science volunteer and outreach operations directed by Kellee Hanson. This partnership has worked well bringing new volunteers to Flandrau as well as providing new opportunities for long-term Flandrau volunteers, including Osiris-Rex ambassadors, Tumamoc Hill docents and working at Biosphere 2.

After re-opening in 2011, the management at Flandrau offered the Observatory volunteers (who worked quietly behind the scenes through the closure to keep the Observatory and education outreach programs alive) the opportunity to provide their unique perspective on evening star gazing to the U of A and southern Arizona communities in a more public way. Several people offered to help take up this responsibility including a long term volunteer, an astronomy major, a corporate executive and myself (a software engineer). Unfortuantely as many volunteer efforts go the staffing is often unpredictable as our volunteer staff ebb and flow through the program. Currently I am the sole remaining contributor to the Sky Watcher's Guide and am looking for more contributors to help keep this publication alive in its current form.

If you are interested in providing your local insights to the community on interesting observations of the night sky via the Sky Watcher's Guide publication (writing skills preffered though astronomy experience is not strictly required) then please contact Tim Van Devender.

Interesting Night Sky Events during April and May 2013

04/02/13	Moon at last quarter.
04/10/13	Moon 2.2° SSE of Jupiter. Comet 63P Wild1 at perihelion. This comet is only visible through a telescope (magnitude 10) as it passes closest to the Sun. It will be visible in the constellation Leo high in the sky late evening.
04/18/13	Moon at first quarter. Great time for a lunar observing just after sunset.
04/20/13	Astronomy Day. The U of A and Flandrau Science Center host the Sharing the Sky Foundations annual star party on the U of A mall. This star party has been an annual event since 1975.
04/25/13	Full Moon. Can't see anything during a full Moon? Hah! Check out those ejecta rays from the craters Tycho and Copernicus. Now try to imagine the impact that spread that blast of dirt over half the lunar surface!
04/26/13	Moon 3.5° SSW of Saturn. Later in the evening but worth the wait.
04/28/13	Saturn at opposition. Saturn will be directly opposite of the Sun from our perspective on Earth. This is the middle of the "best" time to view Saturn.
05/02/13	Moon at last quarter. Tim's 40th birthday. A shockingly small number in astronomical scales.
05/06/13	Eta Aquarids meteor shower. Unfavorable year due to moonlight in the morning hours.
05/09/13	Venus 4.1° SSE of Pleiades. This is the start of a series of interesting conjunctions involving Venus in the evening sky. New Moon.
05/10/13	Moon 1.4° S of Venus. Watch for the Moon passing Venus in the early evening.
05/12/13	Moon 2.6° S of Jupiter. A morning conjunction for the early risers.
05/16/13	Mercury 3.3° SSE of Pleiades. Mercury joins the after sunset crowd for those with a clear western horizon.
05/17/13	Moon at first quarter. Oh ya! I love this time of month.
05/22/13	Moon 0.54° WNW of Spica and 3.7° SSW of Saturn. A pretty triangular conjunction. Can you spot the different relative speeds of the Moon, Saturn and Spica?
05/24/13	Mercury 1.4° N of Venus. About as close as Mercury and Venus get for a while. Full Moon.
05/27/13	Mercury, Venus and Jupiter 2.4° apart. Very neat morning and evening conjunctions going on this week.
05/28/13	Venus 1° N of Jupiter. A very close conjunction of two planets. C/2011 L4 Pan-STARRS 5°N of Polaris. Comet Pan-STARRS may not have turned into the visual comet of the year but it is still visible in low power scopes heading into the Big Dipper. See skypub.com/panstarrs for updates and charts of where to look.
05/31/13	Moon at last quarter. Mars 4° SSE of Pleiades. Mars is essentially on the opposite side of the solar system right now making it a "challenge" object. Also very close to the Sun so a bit risky to start hunting in a scope.

Jupiter's Great Red Spot Events during April and May 2013

(when the Flandrau Telescope Observatory is open)

NOTE: The GRS is visible on the disk of Jupiter for 50 minutes before and after meridian transit time.

Date	Meridian Transit Time
04/05/13	09:19:00 PM
04/12/13	10:09:00 PM
04/13/13	06:00:00 PM
04/19/13	10:58:00 PM
04/20/13	06:50:00 PM
04/25/13	06:00:00 PM
05/02/13	06:50:00 PM
05/09/13	07:40:00 PM
05/11/13	07:19:00 PM
05/17/13	08:290:00 PM
05/24/13	07:19:00 PM
05/31/63	10:08:00 PM

Interesting Stars to Observe during February and March 2013

Name / Designation	Apparent Magnitude (lower = brighter)	Distance (light-years)	Notes
Sirius	-1.44	8.6
Arcturus	-0.05	36.7
Vega	0.03	25
Capella	0.08	42
Rigel	0.18	770
Procyon	0.4	11
Betelgeuse	0.45	427
Altair	0.76	17
Aldeberan	0.87	65
Spica	0.98	262
Pollux	1.16	38
Deneb	1.25	3230
Regulus	1.36	77	means “Little King”
Castor	1.58	52
Polaris	1.97	431
Algol	2.09	93	variable star
Denebola	2.14	36.2
Enif	2.38	670
Eta Cassiopeiae	3.5 / 7.4	19	480 yr orbit

Interesting Deep Sky Objects to Observe during February and March 2013

(highlights besides the Messier Marathon)

Designation	Name	Apparent Magnitude	Apparent Size	Distance (light-years)	Type
Messier 45	Pleiades	1.6	110'	440	open cluster
Messier 31	Andromeda Galaxy	3.4	3° x 1°	2,900,000	spiral galaxy
Messier 44	Beehive Cluster	3.7	95'	577	open cluster
Messier 42	Orion Nebula	4	85' x 60'	1400-1600	diffuse nebula
Messier 33	Triangulum Galaxy	5.7	67' x 42'	3,000,000	spiral galaxy
NGC 7009	Saturn Nebula	8	36"	2,400	planetary nebula
Messier 81	Bode's Galaxy	8.5	21'	1,200,000	spiral galaxy
Messier 82	Cigar Galaxy	9.5	14'	1,200,000	galaxy

Table of Images (Click on an image to expand)

Sketches and Images - Image Credit (Tim Van Devender)
Mars
Saturn
Jupiter
The Moon
Jupiter and Io Moon Shadow
Messier 45 (Pleiades)
NGC 884 and NGC 869 - Perseus Double Cluster
NGC 2024 - The Horsehead and Flame Nebulae
NGC 2237 - The Rosette Nebula
NGC 2264
Images from Alistair Symon
Messier 27 (Dumbbell Nebula)
Mssier 31 (Andromeda Galaxy)
Messier 33 (Triangulum Galaxy)
Messier 45 (Pleiades)
Messier 57 (Ring Nebula)
Images from Nine Planets
Jupiter
The Moon
Images from SEDS
Messier 13 (Hercules Globular Cluster)
Messier 15
Messier 27 (Dumbbell Nebula)
Messier 31 (Andromeda Galaxy)
Messier 33 (Triangulum Galaxy)
Messier 44 (Beehive Cluster)
Messier 45 (Pleiades)
Messier 57 (Ring Nebula)
NGC 7009 (The Saturn Nebula)
NGC 7293 (The Helix Nebula)