Podcaster: Shane and Chris
Title: Objects to Observe in the January 2021 Night Sky
Organization: Actual Astronomy
Link : https://actualastronomy.podbean.com/
Description: The Actual Astronomy Podcast presents Objects to Observe in the January 2021 Night Sky and places a focus on sky events to help newcomers see the planets as Jupiter, Saturn, Mercury and the Moon meet up as well as a pairing of Mars and Uranus plus a lunar libration mare. Comet Atlas also makes a maneuver as it exits telescopic visibility.
Bio: Shane and Chris are amateur astronomers who enjoy teaching astronomy classes and performing outreach where they help the eyes of the public to telescope eyepieces.
Today’s sponsor: Big thanks to our Patreon supporters this month: David Bowes, Dustin A Ruoff, Brett Duane, Kim Hay, Nik Whitehead, Timo Sievänen, Michael Freedman, Paul Fischer, Rani Bush, Karl Bewley, Joko Danar, Steven Emert, Frank Tippin, Steven Jansen, Barbara Geier, Don Swartwout, James K. Wood, Katrina Ince, Michael Lewinger, Phyllis Simon Foster, Nicolo DePierro, Tim Smith, Frank Frankovic, Steve Nerlich
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Transcript:
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Chris Beckett: Welcome to episode 79 of the actual astronomy podcast. This is the objects to observe in the night sky for January 2021
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Chris Beckett: I’m Chris and joining me is Shane your amateur astronomers who love looking up at the nighttime sky and this podcast is for anyone who enjoys
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Chris Beckett: Doing astronomy and wants to see some amazing celestial sites for themselves. Shane. Welcome to 2021 we’re not quite there yet. In the real world, or in the password, but we will be very shortly. By the time this podcast drops
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Shane Ludtke: Yeah, exactly. Um, you know, 2020 is obviously being a hard year for a lot of people, you know, the pandemic is really turn things upside down. But you know when I sit back, so I’m writing an article
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Shane Ludtke: For the local astronomy clubs newsletter. I’m the editor, so I I write an article every edition.
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Chris Beckett: ain’t gonna happen says precedent and everything.
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Shane Ludtke: It’s pretty. Yeah. It’s wicked.
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Wicked.
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Shane Ludtke: But you know when I look back at 2020 from an astronomical perspective, what are your it’s being you know we we had Jupiter and Saturn will position for most of the year for most of the warm months for really good observing and then obviously they ended with, you know, the great conjunction.
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Shane Ludtke: You know, we had Mars super closer, closer than it will be until 2034 and you and I and many others had some wonderful observations of that.
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Shane Ludtke: There was the unexpected comment Neil wise, which, you know, was was outstanding.
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Shane Ludtke: And then you know the other thing that is very apparent, especially if you try to buy any brand new astronomy gear.
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Shane Ludtke: Is there’s a real resurgence of amateurs looking through telescopes, because you can’t buy new gear. It’s very difficult to buy new gear right now because the demand is far exceeding the supply
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Shane Ludtke: Yeah, and I think that’s a wonderful thing to that people are becoming more engaged in astronomy. So anyway, I know we’re not here to talk about 2020 we’re, you know, doing a 20
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Shane Ludtke: January 2021 observing report, but I just
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Shane Ludtke: Kind of recap the year, a little bit that it was a it was an outstanding astronomy year
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Chris Beckett: Yeah, it was. And sort of fortuitous as as the planets went, because of course it’s it’s easier to observe planets at home, at least for for many of us who live under unfortunate like pollution.
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Chris Beckett: Conditions and so with with the planets up the way they were with, you know, Jupiter and Saturn and Mars. And then even starting back in, in, in March with Venus.
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Chris Beckett: You know, we had our sort of lockdown declared here around the middle of March. And then, of course, that’s when Venus was getting
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Chris Beckett: towards its best. So I was like, well, I can’t go to do deep Skype serving because you know you’re not really supposed to go running around.
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Chris Beckett: You know there were saying don’t really, you know, go running around too much and and so I
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Chris Beckett: You know, was able to do lots of Venus observing and got really into that and then as the other planets and some of the other things have come along.
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Chris Beckett: It’s been really good to to be observing at home, for the most part, though I did do do do one deep, deep, dark sky trip but
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Chris Beckett: As we roll into 2021 I’m looking forward to that vaccine and and hopefully everything. Getting back to normal. And then, or at least normal as you and I see it, where we go roaming around the countryside in the dark of night.
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Chris Beckett: That’s our normal
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Shane Ludtke: Yep, yep. Can’t wait.
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Chris Beckett: So, so once we once you get to to that point, I think.
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Chris Beckett: Be be pretty excited. So, so, yes. So we’re going to talk about what to look at in January 2021 and Shane, you’ve got something to say about the sun.
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Chris Beckett: See how I run that
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Shane Ludtke: I hijacked your notes.
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Shane Ludtke: So to kick off January. January 2 is a super sun.
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Chris Beckett: You’ve created something
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Chris Beckett: akin to a monster.
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Shane Ludtke: Yeah, well you know I know how much you love the media branding super moons and and all of that. So I thought I would put a super sun in here just to poke at you a little
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Shane Ludtke: But really what
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Chris Beckett: You’re the worst possible person I know.
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Shane Ludtke: Why do you even do this with me.
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Chris Beckett: And I do this as a solo bug.
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Shane Ludtke: So anyway, on January 2 Earth is that perihelion
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Shane Ludtke: Which means it’s at its closest point to the sun.
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Shane Ludtke: So the sun will actually appear just slightly larger
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Shane Ludtke: It’s, it’s really akin to a super moon, you know, in a lot of regards
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Shane Ludtke: The
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Shane Ludtke: The actual ability to see this though is, is, you know, it’s more of an a, an event to note as opposed to an event to observe
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Shane Ludtke: The only way you’d really probably tell the difference in the size of the sun would be is you take a photograph of the Sun in July, when we’re the furthest away from it.
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Shane Ludtke: And then you take a photograph of the Sun in January when we’re the closest and compare the two images and there’ll be a slight difference. But anyway, if your solar observer January 2, you know, it probably doesn’t get better than that. If you’re seeing conditions are good.
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Chris Beckett: And I always have to chime in and say never look at the sun with your I needed I you will go blind or have permanent damage one way or another, and do do that.
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Chris Beckett: Shane is an experienced solar observer has specialized solar observing equipment, but I do know, we do have listeners out there that are solar observers and have a lot of these really cool like hundred alpha and calcium and such solar telescope, so
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Chris Beckett: I think it is worthwhile mentioning. Now the difference though, and I can do like the way you put this business with the super sun.
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Chris Beckett: But whereas with the moon. That’s when the moon is that it’s
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Chris Beckett: perihelion but this is when Earth is at its pure healing and point in relation to to the sun. So there is a bit of an astronomical difference there. Right.
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Shane Ludtke: Yes, absolutely.
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Chris Beckett: Yeah, I have to mention that because sometimes people get caught up in these monitors or naming or semantics or
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Shane Ludtke: Whatever, then
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Chris Beckett: The astronomy gets gets lost a little bit, you know, there’s actually a solar tied. I grew up in the oceans, you know these things. But there’s a solar tide and you know that
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Shane Ludtke: Yes, yes.
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Chris Beckett: So it’s kind of that that’s sort of one of the things you learn when you’re when you’re growing up in the ocean. Because when the, when the moon and the sun do meet up, you will get a bump.
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Chris Beckett: In the tide as well. And so I think I’ve mentioned this before but I lost many clubs as a small child and a few toys that that float away because
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Chris Beckett: You would go and you would mark that high watermark on on you know there’s there’s a low tide that still high tide. And then there’s the high time which is a high high tide.
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Chris Beckett: Just like the solar tide and combined with the lunar tide and then you’d mark the low one thinking that. Oh, I can leave my toys will be safe above this line.
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Chris Beckett: And then you go and and you have your nice night’s sleep and you get up in the morning, you’re ready to go back and plan the, you know, our beach or beaches, not that fancy it literally eight and a half by 10 feet and you run down to the beach and your toys or other submerged or gone
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Shane Ludtke: You
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Chris Beckett: Know what happened and then your dad’s like yeah, there’s two tides.
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Chris Beckett: Died. It’s good. You learn this today, you learn something, it cost you $15 of plastic. Alright.
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Chris Beckett: So the third we have
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Chris Beckett: A meteor shower peak.
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Shane Ludtke: Yes, but unfortunately the moon is just possible. And it’s not a favorable time to observe
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Shane Ludtke: This meteor shower. It’s the quadratic meteors. Is that what it is.
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Chris Beckett: It is according to my quadratic equations.
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Shane Ludtke: Okay, okay.
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Chris Beckett: But quite quite quite trustees was like an old timey constellation that we don’t have any more.
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Shane Ludtke: Okay.
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Chris Beckett: Oh. Can anyone see these meteors anyway.
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Shane Ludtke: Because of the moon.
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Shane Ludtke: Before the general yeah because of the moon.
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Chris Beckett: Yeah, and I think in general, this, this isn’t like a like a big shower. I’ve never, I don’t think I’ve ever seen one. Maybe I’ve seen like one
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Shane Ludtke: Yeah. Newer full moon and meteors do not mix well. You want a dark sky in order to see meteors
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Shane Ludtke: In fact, most like if you’re if there is a good meteor shower and if you’re under a light polluted sky, you probably won’t see them either. You do need to get to a dark sky to really, you know,
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Shane Ludtke: Experienced these so there’s there’s always that factor with with a meteor showers. You have to look at what phase is the moon. And really, if it’s not new moon. If there’s any kind of moon in the sky. It’s probably going to wash out some of your experience.
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Chris Beckett: Speaking of dark sky mix anyway. Fill Phil got a new telescope and he sent us this photo and there is some spirits on his shelf. And for some reason, when I opened up the email. I can see is these. And I’m like,
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Chris Beckett: What is going on anyway. So you’re getting the telescope, but it was
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Chris Beckett: Below it was below that the the dark sky mix that he was making alright so January 9 to 12th, there is
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Chris Beckett: Something happening. It is difficult to see, this is one of those things that
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Chris Beckett: I kind of look at and go, this is one of those things you might hear in the media or something. But I think it’s going to be too difficult to see, what are we, what are we looking at on the morning of the mornings of the ninth to the 12th Shane.
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Well,
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Shane Ludtke: On the heels of the great conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter.
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Shane Ludtke: Saturn and Jupiter and Mercury will be I think about what is it three degrees apart.
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Shane Ludtke: Or is it even closer than that.
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Chris Beckett: Well they some of them get as close as 1.7 degrees think mercury and Saturn.
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Shane Ludtke: You know,
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Chris Beckett: Pair up at at two degrees or less now.
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Chris Beckett: I think all three of them will fit in a three degree circle.
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Chris Beckett: Yeah, be
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Chris Beckett: Cool just under two and a half degrees apart now it’s going to vary depending on when people
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Chris Beckett: Are observing exactly in relation to to their closest points. So, in sort of one thing that that I struggle with a little bit when we’re working on these show notes.
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Chris Beckett: Is that we’re observing in basically that the middle of North America, if you threw a dart at North America and and we’re, we’re essentially i think i think we’re 500 kilometers off the absolute center of North America, so not even that far.
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Chris Beckett: But because of that everything is sort of relative so somebody you know we have listeners over in the UK.
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Chris Beckett: It’s going to be different for for them because you know the moon is going to be moving past the planets at the rate of
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Chris Beckett: Things like, you know, whatever it is, 15 degrees a day or something like that. So, so things are going to sort of appreciably switch by many degrees, depending on
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Chris Beckett: When and where people are looking at them and I was doing these was starting to go. Okay.
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Chris Beckett: Now for the UK. What is it now for Japan. What is it, but I think probably what we’re going to do in the future is just give people like universal time or something and saying this is the closest point. But really, in essence that within, within the course of that day.
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Chris Beckett: People are are going to get a, get a pretty good view, no matter where you’re in on the morning of the ninth there. They’re going to be sort of in the general vicinity
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Chris Beckett: Of each other in the nighttime sky or in the morning sky.
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Shane Ludtke: Yeah, and maybe maybe just a point to add to that is
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Shane Ludtke: You know all of this stuff that we talked about, it’s, it’s a good idea to open up your planetarium software, whether it’s on a computer on a phone.
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Shane Ludtke: And if you’re interested in observing any of the stuff we talked about check it out on there for your location for where it will be in the sky, as well as the timing, because a lot of the stuff that Chris and I talked about will be, you know, for 50 degrees latitude.
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Shane Ludtke: You know, right in the middle of North America.
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Shane Ludtke: So, things will vary a little
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Chris Beckett: Yeah, yeah, they will very, very little bit, but, you know, even for, you know, we have a few people that we chat with
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Chris Beckett: Over in the UK and it’s it’s different, but it’s not that different. And, but they do notice it’s interesting because it’s like, hey, I noticed it was a little bit differently. It’s still saw whatever event. It was we’re talking about, but the like.
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Chris Beckett: I noticed that this was a little different. Some people will actually witness those differences which which is fine.
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Chris Beckett: And it’s all still relatively. One thing I did, though, is I, you know, sort of ran the calculation, something like, huh, but I want to see these, how can I best see them. So I was trying to figure out what gets me about a three degree field of view, sort of, with the most power possible so
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Chris Beckett: I have a little bit of an underutilized eyepiece, which I shouldn’t be under utilizing I think it’s my most expensive IPS
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Chris Beckett: Which is 12 and a half millimeter with a boat and at 40 degree field of view. And if I use that in my 60 millimeter at F six because I can use my 16 millimeter F six or 10
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Chris Beckett: They use it at F six or 5.9 I get 29 power and a three degree field of view. And I feel like 29 power and three degrees is pretty good.
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Shane Ludtke: Yeah. That’s awesome.
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Chris Beckett: Yeah, I think that, that’ll be a good good view for tracking that down, she sort of not to go off and too much of a dogleg here, but what
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Chris Beckett: planetarium software software’s do you use or recommend for for people to use further planning. NOW WE RECOMMEND USE
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Chris Beckett: atlases and paper out on the night sky because screens will impact your ability to see things celestial objects. But when people are planning sessions. What do you recommend. Where do you recommend for them to start
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Shane Ludtke: Um, I like well so planetarium software I use sky Safari.
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Shane Ludtke: It’s pretty popular. There are lots of other ones out there, but I just love the, the amount of objects in sky Safari. It’s very intuitive to use
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Shane Ludtke: And you can you can really dial in like your own custom settings like what magnitude of stars or what magnitude of deep sky objects you wanted to, to display.
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Shane Ludtke: So it’s, it’s awesome. I think it’s one of the better ones out there now.
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Shane Ludtke: caveat I obviously haven’t used all of the other ones out there so I’m sure there’s some others that you know work great as well but sky Safari is what I use.
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Shane Ludtke: And there’s another piece of software that’s lesser known and it’s it’s called astral planner and not it’s not available on tablets or phones or anything like that. In fact, I think. No, I think there’s a Mac version and a Windows version.
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Shane Ludtke: Okay, you need a computer and it’s not planetarium software. It’s true planning and logging software.
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Shane Ludtke: Okay. And what I love about it is
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Shane Ludtke: I think just about if you can imagine like pick any catalog. And I think that you can load that catalog into the planning software.
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Shane Ludtke: And then you can generate like plans or lists of your own like let’s say you want to do variable stars and you want you know the magnitudes variation to be a certain amount and the period of the variance to be a certain amount
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Shane Ludtke: You know you can plug all of those things in, as well as, like, you know, brightness and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And it’ll just spit out a report for you all objects to observe
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Shane Ludtke: And you can limit it based on your horizon and all sorts of things. So it’s the most powerful planning software that I’ve found
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Chris Beckett: And it’s
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Shane Ludtke: Awesome for logging as well because you know you can put in all of your equipment, your locations where you like to observe and, you know, put in your written logs. At the end of the night. It provides finder fields for each object it’s it’s really good.
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Shane Ludtke: Wow, so
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Chris Beckett: What’s it called again it
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Shane Ludtke: Astral planner.
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Chris Beckett: Astro planner.
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Shane Ludtke: Yeah, simple
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Shane Ludtke: I’m trying to think. I think Paul Rodman is the developer. And I believe he’s a he’s an amateur observer, like you and I know
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Shane Ludtke: He does this out of the basement of his house.
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Chris Beckett: Like yeah
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Shane Ludtke: Yeah, he’s a wonderful developer he supports the heck out of this thing and I i’ve been using this for probably 10 or 12 years now.
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Shane Ludtke: Yeah, it’s pretty awesome.
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Chris Beckett: I’m just looking at master planner.net runs starts out at $45 American
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Chris Beckett: Maybe 25 I know there’s there’s a bunch of different versions of here.
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Chris Beckett: Seems to run between about 45 and $130
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Well,
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Shane Ludtke: Maybe he’s changed his pricing model, but at one point, you could use it for free. But if you wanted to. And I think you’ve got like the NGC IC catalog.
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Shane Ludtke: You wanted to do all of the other catalogs, then you had to pay
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Shane Ludtke: Like $40 or something like that to get a license to use it all.
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Chris Beckett: Well and. And on that note, I’ll say this. So I started using bank way back in the day. Free Software anything. Thank you can still get it.
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Chris Beckett: It’s sort of France. It’s called cart, the CEO.
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Chris Beckett: And this era. P. S.
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Chris Beckett: Space. Do you and then space CEO, which is something about the night and I really, really liked it a lot.
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Chris Beckett: But then when I started teaching my astronomy classes I needed something that looked a little bit better.
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Chris Beckett: And so actually ended up trying sky Safari, like you mentioned, and I liked it. And I think I have like the teacher edition or something and I typically wouldn’t
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Chris Beckett: Have bought that, but there are some features that I use for my class, and it’s I think it’s designed for people that are teaching like astronomy classes. So I forget what it costs, but
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Chris Beckett: So I get a small, very small stipend for teaching my astronomy class. And as part of that, what I do is is I keep that that license up today because I do rely on that quite heavily and it’s designed
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Chris Beckett: For using in and in a classroom environment. So it’s super handy.
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Chris Beckett: I understand that there is one. And I’ve used a little bit on my Linux side of my Chromebook partition and that is the the solarium
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Chris Beckett: I don’t know if you use that at all.
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Shane Ludtke: No, I have not used delirium. I’ve seen that like local astronomy meetings.
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Shane Ludtke: During presentations I’ve seen people shows delirium, but I’ve no
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Shane Ludtke: Because it’s
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Chris Beckett: I think it’s free. I think it’s really are there, there’s a pretty good free version like Sky surprised actually has a free version. Now, as well.
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Chris Beckett: I think they came out with the free version after they they had, they had the paid versions first and then they put out a free version.
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Chris Beckett: For whatever reason, I don’t know, I still pay for, for my version but but again it’s it’s one of those things you kind of, you kind of get what you pay for. And
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Chris Beckett: And the, these aren’t really really expensive things and they certainly do like to have good planning software is I think critical the the piece of software that I really, really love, but I don’t use it that much. And I actually own it.
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Chris Beckett: Is the sky tools by sky hound.
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Chris Beckett: And it’s I think it’s the best, but it’s windows own
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Chris Beckett: And so I
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Chris Beckett: Don’t really have a work Windows computer I kind of don’t feel right. Installing like really big astronomy platform package on that.
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Chris Beckett: But I don’t think my bother my work or anything. I know the IT guys super well they’re actually into astronomy, too. So it’s not going to be
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Chris Beckett: An issue, but I’m kind of like I feel like at least in my mind I’m crossing some sort of line if I’m still looking like a huge astronomy platform.
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Chris Beckett: On my work machine, you know, because one day, it’s going to crash, they’re gonna be like what happened. I don’t know. I was just running like a simulator and
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Chris Beckett: That might not so
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Chris Beckett: You know so sky tools. If you have a Windows machine is is in that has
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Chris Beckett: What do you call it, you’re logging.
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Shane Ludtke: In stuff built
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Shane Ludtke: In and
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Chris Beckett: It’s pretty good. Yeah, it that is advanced software, though, so
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Shane Ludtke: Yeah, it’s expensive.
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Chris Beckett: It’s expensive. I get it as a gift, my wife bought it for me as my as a as a Christmas present mean Christmas present. Several years ago, it is good. It is really good. But one of the sort of one of the funny things with astronomy is that
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Chris Beckett: It definitely is better to kind of start sort of on on the on the beginner slope for some of this stuff because like i don’t think somebody who’s brand new to astronomy, even if somebody like super computer savvy should sit down and start messing around with sky tools.
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Chris Beckett: That’s just going to be painful. I think because it works well if you know like
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Chris Beckett: You know the NGC from the IC and all that kind of you that you have to have a working knowledge of
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Chris Beckett: The night sky amateur astronomy and how the catalogs all mesh together because they haven’t built that into it.
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Chris Beckett: It just built with the understanding that, you know, all that stuff when you’re you’re getting this package was, I don’t even know how much it costs, but it it’s not inexpensive but definitely worth it.
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Chris Beckett: I should get another Windows machine and just
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Chris Beckett: Update My license on that because it is. It’s pretty good.
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Chris Beckett: Maybe if we get a
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Chris Beckett: Anyway, we’ll go from there we’ll stop talking about different things and get back
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Chris Beckett: To the sky this month.
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Shane Ludtke: No more squirrels.
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Chris Beckett: No more square. Exactly. You know my thing. Alright. So, January 11 and lot of this stuff is in the morning sky. So this one is also in the morning sky.
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Chris Beckett: And again, if you’re observing the morning sky and you’re observing planets in the morning sky be super careful because planets can get awfully close to the sun. So be sure to check your local sunrise times and
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Chris Beckett: And don’t observe after that time for your exact location because it can be easy enough.
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Chris Beckett: For people to accidentally get get a peek at the sun and if you do can be detrimental and damaging to your vision for sure. So morning sky January 11 both 6am our time. I think we’ve got the Venus and moon parents
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Chris Beckett: And and then by the 15th, they form this 15 degree arc between Saturn Jupiter and the moon.
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Chris Beckett: In the nighttime sky so that would probably be pretty interesting to take a look, x i think we’re still pretty dark these morning so we actually get
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Chris Beckett: Here in Saskatchewan and those that live at 50 degrees north, like many of our listeners do and for the North, even you get a pretty good chance. I think that’s seeing this big arc of Jupiter, the moon and Saturn.
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Shane Ludtke: Yeah, that would be pretty neat to take in.
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Shane Ludtke: 15 degrees is a great naked eye field and
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Shane Ludtke: Those two by 52 binoculars that we have would
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Shane Ludtke: Be cool too.
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Chris Beckett: Yeah. So, but, but how big, like how would somebody know what 15 degrees is on the nighttime sky and like, is there any way to sort of metric that out so that somebody who’s not really as familiar with astronomy would be able to figure out like how big 15 degrees isn’t the nighttime sky.
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Shane Ludtke: Well, if you hold out your fists so closely, you know, make a fist in your hand hold out your arm, the width of your fist knuckle the knuckle is about 10 degrees.
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Shane Ludtke: Or 10 inches to
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Shane Ludtke: Just sort of a natural phenomenon that works for everybody.
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Chris Beckett: Yeah, we’re all scaled about the same.
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Shane Ludtke: Yeah, exactly. So, you know, you’re this field is about a fist and a half with the sky.
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Shane Ludtke: Mm hmm. So that’s, that’s the guide.
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Chris Beckett: Yeah, and binoculars tend to have it but a five degree field of view. Some of them are larger, maybe they would have a an eight or nine degree field of view if they’re very wide.
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Chris Beckett: So this, this is going to be larger than what a what a typical binocular would be able to take in and it’s at the horizon, but you could use binoculars to kind of sweep through the field and then maybe maybe be able to pick them up sort of one by one.
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Shane Ludtke: Yeah yeah
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Shane Ludtke: I can’t talk. All of a sudden
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Chris Beckett: That’s okay.
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Shane Ludtke: It would be it’ll be a pretty easy thing to locate as well with Jupiter being the, the primary
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Chris Beckett: Bright Spot yeah yeah should be good. So what’s happening. You did. Did you have this one on the 13th or did I put this in.
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Chris Beckett: That’s when New Moon is
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Shane Ludtke: I think you put that in. I
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Chris Beckett: Guess I
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Shane Ludtke: Went if
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Chris Beckett: It’s New Moon, so I’m like, Okay, what is the constellation at the meridian. So, so the meridian is the highest point
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Chris Beckett: As seen from a line that runs north, sir, through through the polls.
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Chris Beckett: So what’s, what’s the highest constellation and it’s Eridanus which is a constellation, most people aren’t gonna be familiar with. It’s big and it’s faint.
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Chris Beckett: And if you’re in anywhere that has any sort of light pollution and knowledge is going to look like a big blank spot in the sky so
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Chris Beckett: But the New Moon is is on the 13th. I think we’re going to start trying to do another one of these sort of episodes for what to look out in the nighttime sky but centered around the new moon was was one of the ideas we were sort of kicking around in the past week or so.
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Shane Ludtke: Yeah we we spend a lot of time talking about solar system stuff for the month.
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Shane Ludtke: But obviously there’s a lot of other things to look at. So we’re going to, we’re going to try to put a little more focus on some of those other things like deep sky objects double stars that stuff more to come.
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Chris Beckett: Yeah yeah i think i think these ones are a little bit more approachable. So we put these, these ones out on the 365 days of astronomy, which is really awesome broad and
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Chris Beckett: Diverse listening audience.
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Chris Beckett: But then we do have people to do to subscribe to our feed and some of the people that write us through our feet are
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Chris Beckett: Much more advanced amateur astronomers than then we are even so looking for a way to to maybe include some of their observations as well as what we’re looking at. As we get into these new moon periods. Looking forward to the 16th got quite a few events coming up on the 16th there Shane.
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Shane Ludtke: Yeah, we do all hit the first one here so that night. There’s a 13% waxing crescent moon that is showing the vibration which favors the north eastern limb. So one of the
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Shane Ludtke: Fares, one of the, yeah. And one of the main features that you can see as a result of that favorable libration is a more a humble tea and something
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Chris Beckett: Let me try.
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Chris Beckett: Humbled Tiana
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Shane Ludtke: Yeah, that’s it.
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Shane Ludtke: That’s it.
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Shane Ludtke: Alright, so I didn’t include the image and I probably should have Chris but
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Shane Ludtke: It’s, um,
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Shane Ludtke: It’s just sort of a darker colored flat region that would be in that northeastern limb and
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Shane Ludtke: Okay, yeah, if it’s clear. I’ll try it on the 16th. However, you know, this time of the year. Our weather is highly
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Shane Ludtke: Reliable
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Chris Beckett: Highly Colt.
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Shane Ludtke: Too.
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Chris Beckett: Yeah yeah
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Shane Ludtke: We have easy
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Chris Beckett: That I was gonna say that. I did a Google search here and that should be fairly easy. It say, like you said, it’s a darker Moray or one of the lab of planes and it’s
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Chris Beckett: It’s sort of just above and to the right as viewed from Earth from the sea of rainbows, I think. Anyway, so that should be pretty good. Let’s see. 16th at the 25th all week that we have
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Chris Beckett: Mars and Uranus in the scene binocular field.
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Chris Beckett: Or so, so I made up some little finders there and we’re going to try to figure out a way to start putting these out a little bit. A little bit better. So we make up all these finder charts and then
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Chris Beckett: Like this time. If I’m teaching in class. I use them in my class. But if I’m not, then they’re just for your own
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Chris Beckett: Sake. So we got to figure out a way to start putting these out.
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Shane Ludtke: Yeah, I tried to tweet them out so
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Shane Ludtke: Good, we’re, we’re actually we’re at actual astronomy on Twitter. So, you know, some folks can find us there.
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Shane Ludtke: But we’re looking at maybe putting up a website here soon and start to include some of these
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Shane Ludtke: Visual references and some show notes.
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Chris Beckett: Yeah, because we, we do a lot more stuff we we put a lot more effort than necessarily what comes out in in the podcast I was talking to another observer who, for whatever reason, one of our articles get caught that was going to press and
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Chris Beckett: It got forgotten about. And it’s just something I do for fun, but the editor forgot to put it in and said the other observers, like, hey, like what, like what’s going to happen with that. I’m like,
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Chris Beckett: Nothing like I like I have nowhere else to. So I said, we’re looking at doing this. So maybe, maybe we can put some of that stuff up and what they are is their observations of Mars and all these people sent me sketches of Mars.
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Chris Beckett: Not related to our podcast but something else. I’m working on. And no, I have nothing. I have nowhere to go with them there.
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Chris Beckett: I had like a whole series of articles. I was going to do one on Mars. And then, for whatever reason, I guess the journal wasn’t as interested in visual observations of Mars.
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Chris Beckett: And so, so I have all these and it would just be kind of neat to put them up somewhere. So I think, I think our listeners would probably enjoy them. So, oh week on the 16th to the 25th, we have
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Chris Beckett: We have Uranus and Mars pretty close together in the sky, and then the moon, kind of, kind of, joins them later on, on, on the 20th or so it’s five degrees. So with the Uranus. So you need a really big binocular field to get them all.
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Chris Beckett: But, but it would be, it would be possible. By this time, you know, I don’t know when the last time you looked at Mars was it’s been a, I guess it’s been a
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Chris Beckett: Week since I last looked at Mars. It was starting to get pretty small, but then I’m thinking by by the 16th to the 25th end of January, it’s, it’s gonna be really small and pretty challenging to see any surface detail that point.
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Shane Ludtke: Yeah, for sure. I looked at Mars last week during the conjunction observe
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Shane Ludtke: Okay, when things got a little darker.
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Shane Ludtke: And I was using my little 16 millimeter telescope. Yeah, it’s a whole lot smaller than it was.
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Shane Ludtke: A month ago, I was able to make out a little bit of you know beetle features on the surface, but that was it a little bit of like kind of fame darkness.
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Shane Ludtke: You know, as opposed to some of the surrounding areas. I couldn’t. I wouldn’t even be able to sketch it, you know, like it was just, it was not very distinguished
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Chris Beckett: Yeah. And I kind of get to the point where I started observing Mars back in July and it’s it’s really exciting. You start observing, it’s getting closer. You know, you get a few cloudy nights, it comes through again closer still and
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Chris Beckett: You’re making all these or at least I’m making all these sketches.
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Chris Beckett: And it’s just really engaging and engrossing and then, you know, even for the month or six weeks after opposition. It’s still close to, if you get a good night. You can still see loads of detail.
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Chris Beckett: And then you kind of get to the point about two months after the opposition, where it’s
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Chris Beckett: You know, okay, it’s sort of the grand show is is over. And it’s video, you can still see some things, and certainly all that training and experience you’ve you’ve gained during that period of time.
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Chris Beckett: will serve you well and trying to trying to see some features, but you can get a little bit underwhelmed
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Chris Beckett: Alright, what’s happening on the 20th
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Shane Ludtke: The 20th. So for lunar observers out there, you will be able to see the phenomenon known as the Lunar X, as well as the lunar v which are
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Shane Ludtke: Pretty much, as stated one looks like an X one looks like a V. But they’re not they’re not really features on the moon. They’re kind of tricks that the shadows of the you know craters play when the moon and the sun are just at the right angle.
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Shane Ludtke: It creates kind of this. I don’t know illusion. I guess of a feature.
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Shane Ludtke: So on the 20th. Those are visible at 1900 Universal Time. So this is more of a I think kind of a European event. By the time oh gee, maybe like East Coast observers in North America might be able to catch some of this.
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Shane Ludtke: The because
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Shane Ludtke: Like the sun in that the Terminator on the moon is, you know, it’s changing every minute, essentially, and the Lunar X and the lunar V are only visible.
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Shane Ludtke: I don’t know how long it lasts for but its, its measured in hours.
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Chris Beckett: Yeah, and it is measured less than a day. So, yeah.
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Shane Ludtke: Yeah.
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Chris Beckett: Yeah, I think you got you got six or eight hours. So yeah, maybe
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Chris Beckett: Maybe the East Coast. So where I were first observed it as is the second person to observe the letter X.
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Shane Ludtke: Yeah, so
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Chris Beckett: It is a strange thing but
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Shane Ludtke: Yeah, no kidding.
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Shane Ludtke: So I don’t know. Give it a try. It’s a neat thing to see if you’ve never seen it. Just look along the terminator.
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Shane Ludtke: And especially if you’re in Europe. You can’t miss it. It really jumps out, you wouldn’t need a telescope. I don’t know if binoculars would be enough for that. I’ve never tried it with
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Chris Beckett: Powerful binoculars.
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Chris Beckett: Yeah. Yeah, something like my 2200 windsurf well alright
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Chris Beckett: Yeah, for sure. And the 23rd. We have mercury at greatest Eastern elongation 19 degrees from the sun. Now,
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Chris Beckett: Yeah, it’s it’s happening in the, you know, I think this is in the evening sky or have we come into the morning sky. Now I’m gonna have to look that one up. But anyway, it’s, it’s not going to be a great
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Chris Beckett: View of mercury. It’s only 19 degrees away from the sun. And I’ve seen it that close. But yeah, it’s an evening apparition, and it’s
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Chris Beckett: Yeah, it’s going to be really low down into the bright, bright he’s there, but for people that she’s Mercury which which I do, I’ll probably go out and try to see mercury on that day.
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Chris Beckett: Sometimes you get lucky and see it. It’s sort of a coin toss. You know, I’m probably maybe a little better than 5050 but probably like 6040 not much better than that.
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Shane Ludtke: Seen it
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Chris Beckett: And yeah. Other than that, we have a couple comments, but one of them, we looked at is we too close to the sun to even mentioned, we’re not gonna get into that because we were like, Oh, that is fairly bright binocular object, but
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Chris Beckett: It’s right on the side. Yes.
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Shane Ludtke: Yeah, I don’t think you’d see it.
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Chris Beckett: No, we don’t want to encourage like will go so far as to say, well, this is happening in Twilight. Be careful of the sun. We’re not going to give people an object that is
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Chris Beckett: Essentially at this at the sun. I think we think that one was too close to the sun to recommend, but you have common em three Atlas, which I think we talked about before. It’s getting how faint is is empty Atlas now.
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Shane Ludtke: Well, the December magnitude was around eight and then I think for January, it’s fading to 10 and, you know, fading fading fading more after that so
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Shane Ludtke: start observing it now if you want to try to catch it, it probably won’t look like much other than
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Shane Ludtke: Just like a fuzzy star almost are out of focus star in a way. Like, I don’t think it really has like a tail or anything like that.
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Shane Ludtke: No.
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Shane Ludtke: Not be visible through an amateur
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Chris Beckett: Telescope, it does do the strange sort of right angle left or Eastern hook up in just just just above or just north of Auriga
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Chris Beckett: I noticed I was like, whoa, that is a crazy. I’m not. I was trying to get my mind around what’s going on with the orbit, because it has to be like the comet orbit on our orbit must be they must they must diverged.
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Chris Beckett: Grossly at that point in time or something because it
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Chris Beckett: It looks like a right angle hook
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Shane Ludtke: I mean, yeah.
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Chris Beckett: You know, in the charts. I’ve never seen when I turn like that before.
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Shane Ludtke: Yeah, if people are wondering what we’re looking at. Just look for for comet see 2020 M three Atlas and search for a finder chart.
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Shane Ludtke: In these five charts plot the comets path through the constellations.
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Shane Ludtke: And they usually go in like two weeks chunks are in the period is irrelevant. But what what’s really strange about this is normally so you know the comets path will be joined by a line through the constellations and normally it’s like a very gradual you know curve.
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Shane Ludtke: But he has, you know, a hard 90 degree right hand. Yes, it’s a very strange pattern that neither Chris are really familiar with.
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Chris Beckett: Yeah, I haven’t seen quite do that before. So that’s, that’s interesting. But, you know, they’ve predicted that it’s gonna that’s just how it’s going to appear from Earth. I think is what it comes down to you.
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Chris Beckett: And that anyhow, that’s just, that’s just the way the way it’s going to appear to move amongst the stars and of course like Shane was saying we’re talking about a shift over the course of weeks.
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Chris Beckett: Really on the order of maybe almost a month or so so that you know it’s not happening all at once, you know, to be able to go out and see of like scoot to to the right.
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Shane Ludtke: Yeah. Good luck. Good point. It’s more just a fascination with the
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Shane Ludtke: finder charge this. Yeah, that’s something that you’ll see in the sky.
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Chris Beckett: Yeah, just sort of yeah just sort of a, you know, an orbital. He centricity that that shows up when you actually plot it out, but I need to give a night, you’re not going to see
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Chris Beckett: Something that outrageous. And so I think that’s it. I think that’s our objects to observe in the nighttime sky for January of 2021 Shane unless you have anything else to add,
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Shane Ludtke: No, that’s it.
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Shane Ludtke: Looking forward, I think the one I’m looking forward to the most well that the moon libration is kind of interesting. And then Jupiter, Saturn, and mercury in the evening sky just at sunset excited for that too. So hopefully we’ll have clear skies and we can observe that
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Chris Beckett: Yeah, sorry. Yeah, you’re right, though. That’s evening sky. So I’m not sure if I mentioned I
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Chris Beckett: Didn’t put that’s the ninth to the 12th. You’re right. That’s in the evening sky. I’m doing a whole pile of these together and they do.
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Chris Beckett: A retracement of this in the morning sky coming up in you know in towards like February in March, even
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Chris Beckett: So you kind of have that to look forward to. So you can see all this play out in the evening sky here on January 9 to the 12th with Jupiter mercury and Saturn coming together and then in the morning sky.
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Chris Beckett: In the coming months, and we’ll, we’ll talk what that is. As we move ahead. So if I’m I misspoke on. I’m sure I correct that now.
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Shane Ludtke: Yeah, perfect, perfect.
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Chris Beckett: All right, Shane we’re giving away a handbook.
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Shane Ludtke: We are Chris received some extra copies and he’s graciously agreed to give away one of the handbooks to a listener. Anybody can enter to win this thing. You just have to email us we are
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Chris Beckett: Not a competition.
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No.
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Shane Ludtke: We are actual Astronomy at GMAIL. COM. We will do a random draw when this podcast comes out the random draw will be just days away. So you basically have until, like, you know, January first or second to to enter this thing.
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Shane Ludtke: What we’re asking for. If you want to enter to win it, send us an email.
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Shane Ludtke: And send us one of your observation logs, maybe a sketch that you’ve done of an astronomical object or just something you would like to observe
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Shane Ludtke: In the future.
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Shane Ludtke: No criteria or anything like that. We just love reading that stuff.
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Shane Ludtke: And you know we we have enough submissions already that will
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Shane Ludtke: Turn this into a bit of an episode. Yep. We’ll talk about some of the observations that people have had and you know Chris and I will talk about our observations and
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Shane Ludtke: You know me as an amateur astronomer. I just love hearing about observations, whether they’re my own or what somebody else is doing. And you know, I kind of live vicariously through some people sometimes with the objects that they’re looking at
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Shane Ludtke: But also sometimes I end up adding
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Shane Ludtke: Objects to my observing list because I wasn’t aware of them. Or I forgot about them and they sound, you know, interesting. So it’s, it’s kind of a neat just a neat experience to do that collectively
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Chris Beckett: Alright, well thanks so much and look forward to it.
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Shane Ludtke: Yeah. Thank you, Chris.
End of podcast:
365 Days of Astronomy
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