Upcoming celestial events...

pgriz · Jan 12, 2013

For those who want a bit of celestial presence in their imagery, a few events may be of interest.

First, there is a large sun-spot group on the sun that is rotating towards Earth, and has had some flare activity. There is a potential for large flares and CME (coronal mass ejection) events that give rise to Aurora Borealis seen more southward than usual. My go-to web site for this information is SpaceWeather.com -- News and information about meteor showers, solar flares, auroras, and near-Earth asteroids.

The new moon of Feb. 11 will be about 3% illuminated and will be about 10 degrees above the horizon 1/2 hour after sunset. A bit to the left of it and about 4 degrees below, you can catch a relatively rare good appearance by Mercury. For those that want a planetarium program (free) that allows you to see what it out there at any point of Earth, and at any time, download from here: Stellarium.

There are two comets that are entering the inner solar system, and should (maybe) provide a good show. Comet PanSTARRs is expected to be visible from about March, and "may" give an interesting combination with the new moon on March 12 (again, just after sunset, looking west). Some interesting info on this comet is here: Comet PANSTARRS possibly visible to eye in March 2013 | Space | EarthSky and here: Bright Comet PANSTARRS Promises Skywatching Treat in 2013 | Comet Photos | Space.com

Another comet that "may" be spectacular, is comet ISON, which will make its show in December. more info on it here: Big sun-diving Comet ISON might be spectacular in late 2013 | Space | EarthSky.

Hope you can get some of these into your images!

EDIT (March 12): tonight and tomorrow nights are your opportunity to shoot Pan-Starrs together with the new moon if you have a clear western horizon at sunset.

shefjr · Jan 12, 2013

Thanks for this!
I am subscribing to this in the event that you have any updates.

TCampbell · Jan 12, 2013

If I could just get a clear sunny day and NOT also be totally swamped with work, I'd pull out my Lunt Ha scope and get some images of the sun.

My club is scheduled to be doing some presentations and public observing next weekend. Hope for clear skies.

pgriz · Jan 13, 2013

shefjr said:
Thanks for this!
I am subscribing to this in the event that you have any updates.

Shefjr, bookmark the spaceweather.com web site and check in there - it is updated every day. There is also a phone alert option for which you pay, where they alert you to any of a variety of events that may pop up.

TCampbell said:
If I could just get a clear sunny day and NOT also be totally swamped with work, I'd pull out my Lunt Ha scope and get some images of the sun.

My club is scheduled to be doing some presentations and public observing next weekend. Hope for clear skies.

Priorities, Tim, priorities! I'd love to see any of your H(alpha) images of the sun, even if they are not recent.

@ other TPF members... I have put this post up mainly to get you to think about planning a shoot. To make an arresting image, it is usually best to combine the celestial event with interesting foreground elements, and that requires planning, so that you can be at the right place at the right time, and looking in the right direction.

Another useful application is the "Photographer's Ephemis", available as free download for PC, Mac, iOS, Androis, etc. found here: The Photographer's Ephemeris This allows you to know when the moon or sun will rise or set, and allow you to move your vantage point so that you can put an appropriate foreground object in the right place. For example, where would you need to be to position the rising full moon behind Mt. Baker? (Answer, various places, but near Wilkinson Rd. and Witter Rd. on Whitbey Island is one such place, with the moon rising at 6:13 pm on Monday, February 25, 2013). It also helps show you what the angle of the sun would be (and its direction) at any time of the day, so that you can plan having the light just right. For example, suppose you are on Cambridge St. and Bowdoin in Boston, and you want to shoot the setting sun when it is exactly at the other end of Cambridge - Which day of the year would that be, and at what time will you have to be there to capture the image? (Answer is Saturday, March 16, 2013 at 6:52pm ).

boborone · Jan 15, 2013

Thanks for posting this. I've been running around looking for a spot to west for a good shot with the crescent that's out right now. Almost all the lightened area is completely on the bottom and it's right after sunset. So lots of evening action going on to catch in foreground.

pgriz · Feb 5, 2013

Sooo.... It is now Feb. 5, 2013, and Feb. 7-8 Mars and Mercury will be very close together in the west, just after sunset. Feb. 11, you'll have the new moon and Mercury. Mercury will be at its highest elongation on Feb. 17, 2013 for this apparition.

Feb. 15, there's a 58 meter rock flying past Earth at about 36,000 km. Wear your hard hat if it makes you feel better, but this one will miss us, even though it will be closer to the surface than the geosyncronous satellites.

For those in the southern hemisphere, Comet Lemmon is brightening up to 7th magnitude (too dim to see by eye, but within range of binoculars, telescopes and DSLR exposures).

KmH · Feb 5, 2013

:lmao: Way back in the day before there was a World Wide Web, I had a Weekly Astronomy Update as the outgoing message on my telephone answering machine.

In astronomical terms 36,000 km is like someone shooting a bullet across the top of your head and the bullet parts your hair but just barely misses your scalp.

They estimate a 50 meter rock made the 3/4 mile wide Meteor Crater in Arizona about 50,000 years ago. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meteor_crater
They figure any people or animals within 150 to 200 miles of the impact were killed.

But they also now estimate the rock was a 100 meter rock when it entered Earth's atmosphere, and that "It is believed that about half of the impactor's bulk was vaporized during its descent, before it hit the ground."

99.9% of Earth's atmosphere is within about 42 kilometers of the Earth's surface. An impactor traveling at 15 kilometers per second will cover that distance in just 2.8 seconds.

So a key to how big a crater an impactor that reaches Earth's surface will be is dependent on the impactors size and speed.

Iowa has a big impact crater that's about 22 miles wide and 3 miles deep, but few people know about it because it is filled with glacial till and we can't see it - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manson_crater.

Garbz · Feb 7, 2013

If you can't wait till March then comet C/2012 F6 Lemon is visible now. Presently it's right below the South Celestial Pole passing through the Octans. From a dark sky it's easily photographable.

pgriz · Feb 22, 2013

Got clouded out for some of the posted dates. However, February 17 had a clear (but cold) sunset, and I took some shots. The one attached below is labelled, as the planets are not obvious even when you're looking for them.

Not the most gripping image from a photographic point-of-view, but it serves as a record of a time, and place.

For those in the southern Hemisphere, there's a show going on. See: [video=vimeo;59571509]http://vimeo.com/59571509[/video]

Tony S · Feb 22, 2013

Comets are cool when you can see them...

Comet McNaught 1/12/07

Garbz · Feb 24, 2013

Indeed. I did manage to catch a glimpse of Lemmon while it was in the sky. Unfortunately its tail broke up the day I went out photographing

pgriz · Feb 24, 2013

Garbz, that's a nice shot. Certainly, the green glow that seems to be the signature of this comet comes across really well. It's curious that the tail is gone. Could it be that this one is not very "dusty"?

Garbz · Feb 28, 2013

The tail has always been faint, but unfortunately it disintegrated about a day before I got to take the shot. Living in the tropics in Australia we're in our rainy season so I didn't manage to get a shot any earlier and haven't seen the sky since either

From the looks of some other photos on the iceinspace forums everyone photographing that weekend was disappointed but the tail has slightly rebuilt itself since. Unfortunately as well it's now in the Phoenix constellation which sets too early for me to take a photo.

pgriz · Mar 3, 2013

Ok, update. www.spaceweather.com had this on their site: "By March 12th and 13th, the comet will reappear in the sunset skies of the northern hemisphere not far from the crescent Moon; think photo-op!"

That's in 9 days, people. Those of you in the Northern hemisphere, find yourself a clear western horizon and cloudless skies (ok, the second may be a little more difficult for you to arrange). But if you want to shoot a comet, this is your chance!

TCampbell · Mar 3, 2013

On the 13th, the comet will be directly between the sun and the moon (which will be thin a crescent on that day - new moon is the 11th). But since a comets tail always blows "away" from the sun, it means relative to our point of view, the tail will appear to be pointed at the moon.)

You might be able to see it on the 9th, but it'll only be 9º above the horizon after sunset (at least at my latitude of about 42º N). On THAT day, it *may* be as bright as magnitude 0.5 (which is pretty bright). You may have to find a hill so that your view to the horizon isn't obscured by buildings and trees.

Each day afterward it will continue to be higher in the sky BUT... it'll also be getting farther from the sun and that means it'll be less bright.

BTW, when it comes to comet brightness and their tails, they often disappoint by not doing what we hope they'll do. We'll hope for the best, but no guarantees.

If we get lucky, the comet performs, and the clouds stay away (and that's a lot of "ifs") then I'll try to get some images of it.

BTW, on the 13th, the angular separation between the head of the comet and the moon will be about 9 1/2º (9º 34'). The "angular" field of view of an APS-C DSLR using a 100mm lens is 12.8º on the horizontal direction (8.6º vertically). That means it would be a "comfortable" fit in the field of view using a 100mm lens to get both the comet and the moon in the same frame. ALSO... since the comets tail will appear to be pointed toward the moon and the crescent moon's lit side will face the sun (which also faces the comet) it will create the illusion that the comet is shining light onto the moon. It might make for a great photo for anyone who can get the shot without the clouds interfering.

Here's a simulated view of C/2011 L4 PANNSTARS generated by my computer planetarium software (Starry Night Pro Plus) and this approximates what you'd see just after sunset (this image is facing WEST) on March 13th if you used a 40mm lens on a DSLR with an APS-C size sensor to capture the photo. The black spot in the tail is the crescent moon -- you would not notice the black disk... you'd probably just see the white crescent. Also, this image does not accurately depict the tail... the software depicts the tails of all comets the same. I can run the clock forward to later this year when C/2012 S1 ISON will be coming by (November/December) and it depicts the exact same "tail". It doesn't account for the realistically expected brightness or shape.

If you live in the northern hemisphere you'll be able to start seeing the comet probably as early as the 9th (those in the southern hemisphere can see it already) but I set up this simulation for the 13th because THAT is the day when the moon will be right behind the tail.

Good luck to everyone who plans to try to capture this and don't forget to post your images!