Podcaster: Shane and Chris
Title: Objects to Observe in the May 2023 Night Sky
Organization: Actual Astronomy
Link : https://actualastronomy.podbean.com/
Description: The Actual Astronomy Podcast presents Objects to Observe in the May 2023 Night Sky. In this episode we’ll talk about the recent Aurora Borealis which lit up our skies. There will be a Penumbral Lunar Eclipse, however, this will be mostly a photographic event. We then go over some of the pairings of the Moon and Saturn then Jupiter is occulted (passed over) by the Moon before concluding with two nights on either side of Venus.
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.
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Transcript:
00:01:13.000 –> 00:01:18.000
3, which is, I believe, a. G. 3. Where is it? G. 4.
00:01:18.000 –> 00:01:22.000
I can’t remember a geomagnetic storm.
00:01:22.000 –> 00:01:27.000
Essentially what that means is when the aurora is that strong, like even some of the Southern Us.
00:01:27.000 –> 00:01:36.000
States, I think we’re able to see it. If it was clear that night, and you know, at least within my social media feeds for our kind of region.
00:01:36.000 –> 00:01:42.000
Here, man, there is a lot of great photographs that people are able to capture. You know.
00:01:42.000 –> 00:01:54.000
Lots of color, and even in my backyard, you know, in the city I was able to see the Aurora, and it extended well into the southern sky like it was in it was almost an all sky. Aurora.
00:01:54.000 –> 00:02:03.000
Yeah, it was pretty spectacular. There, I’ll just scroll, I took some photos of it, and I suppose that’s one thing that I’m taking photos and making lots of notes then I’m like, maybe we should use these. So this one here.
00:02:03.000 –> 00:02:17.000
This is from just a yard here in the city, and you can see I’m rate by a whole row of street lights, and you can still see huge aurora.
00:02:17.000 –> 00:02:26.000
And this is looking towards the south, southwest, and you can see the aurora is covering a essentially in the entire southwesttern sky.
00:02:26.000 –> 00:02:33.000
Yeah, yeah, it was very extensive. I was looking at it around 9, 30, and it flared up.
00:02:33.000 –> 00:02:38.000
And then it’s sort of settled down, and then I think it flared up and and that’s the thing with Aurora.
00:02:38.000 –> 00:02:42.000
Is, you just really never know what you’re going to get.
00:02:42.000 –> 00:02:45.000
And anyway, it was a spectacular night, for it.
00:02:45.000 –> 00:02:50.000
So we hopped in the car and and drove out of town about 10 min.
00:02:50.000 –> 00:02:55.000
Here, looked at the Aurora for a short while, got back in the car to warm up.
00:02:55.000 –> 00:03:00.000
We were gonna leave, and then everything just almost like the moon, suddenly came up.
00:03:00.000 –> 00:03:20.000
Everything was that bright, the Aurora was just so spectacular we get out of the car, and then I saw this, just to my laughter, towards the west, and you can see coming down from overhead into the southwest was this huge curtain, and it sort of wrapped around and eventually
00:03:20.000 –> 00:03:25.000
enveloped the moon, and Venus and I’ve never seen the rural like that.
00:03:25.000 –> 00:03:26.000
It was absolutely as bright as you could ever imagine, it being like at the North Pole, or something like that.
00:03:26.000 –> 00:03:35.000
And then it was in the south and into overhead. It wasn’t in the North at all.
00:03:35.000 –> 00:03:38.000
It was very strange in that respect.
00:03:38.000 –> 00:03:48.000
Yeah, that part of it is very weird to me that you know, with your photo capture there, you know it shows it in the South, and very strange, very strange.
00:03:48.000 –> 00:03:51.000
Yeah. Coming in from the south. That’s coming in from the south from overhead.
00:03:51.000 –> 00:03:56.000
Sort of sweeping down to the south, and then moving back up.
00:03:56.000 –> 00:04:05.000
So I imagine it was visible pretty far so, and the way this was moved, all of this color here was visible to the unaided eye.
00:04:05.000 –> 00:04:21.000
You just saw it as a like paler versions of this we could see the greens pretty easily, you can even see the purples, especially when you held up the phone to take a photo, and then you were looking at it as the image sort of appeared it takes like a few seconds to take the photograph.
00:04:21.000 –> 00:04:28.000
You could see that color as you saw the photo take shape and the and the color in the photo.
00:04:28.000 –> 00:04:31.000
Then, when you were looking, you’re like, Okay, yeah, that is the purple like, it was just like confirming what you were seeing.
00:04:31.000 –> 00:04:34.000
It was really neat.
00:04:34.000 –> 00:04:35.000
Yeah, yeah. Those opportunities for bright aurora don’t happen all of the time.
00:04:35.000 –> 00:04:46.000
So it was pretty neat to be able to see a little bit of it, at least from the city, and you know a lot of people at work.
00:04:46.000 –> 00:04:52.000
We’re sharing photos, too. I just love events like that because it really captures the attention of folks.
00:04:52.000 –> 00:04:58.000
This one here is, need I like that? We, you know, we’re on the sort of the poll line you can see.
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This is the constellation Virgo, and to see the Aurora, in front. Usually you’re used to seeing if you ever had Aurora like this, and I’ve never seen a role like this.
00:05:09.000 –> 00:05:15.000
Anyway, it uses in front of something like Ursa Major, the Big Dipper Cassiopia, or something like that.
00:05:15.000 –> 00:05:20.000
But this is Virgo, and this is like into Corvis and Hydra, and that sort of region of the sky.
00:05:20.000 –> 00:05:27.000
You can see this is getting very low down on the southern horizon.
00:05:27.000 –> 00:05:30.000
Very, very interesting that it did, that.
00:05:30.000 –> 00:05:34.000
Yeah, yeah, that’s super cool.
00:05:34.000 –> 00:05:38.000
Did you get any other? I guess that was just the one that you were able to get out.
00:05:38.000 –> 00:05:44.000
Yeah, yeah, that was about it. I contemplated going out last night, but it was a little too windy in my backyard, and it’s weird.
00:05:44.000 –> 00:05:53.000
My backyard, depending how the wind blows! It turns into a wind tunnel there, so you can be standing in the driveway and it’s you know, barely a breath of wind in the backyard.
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It’s like 25 kilometers an hour.
00:05:54.000 –> 00:06:03.000
It’s strange, so so I did not observe last night, but I know you got out one other night, so, testing a new ipiece.
00:06:03.000 –> 00:06:08.000
Yeah. The name before last Mike and I went out and took a took a whole pile of photos.
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This is the only one we can sort of barely see this.
00:06:09.000 –> 00:06:15.000
Is. This is Mike with his 78 Takahashi.
00:06:15.000 –> 00:06:19.000
And then this is at the same distance. So this is a 10 inch. Tkahashe.
00:06:19.000 –> 00:06:24.000
Now, I’m just kidding just sort of looks much larger in the photo. There.
00:06:24.000 –> 00:06:27.000
Yeah, you’re 100
00:06:27.000 –> 00:06:31.000
Yeah. Just a 100 there. And we were testing it.
00:06:31.000 –> 00:06:32.000
You can see a big, the eye pieces on the end of the telescope.
00:06:32.000 –> 00:06:38.000
It’s about as big around as the telescope.
00:06:38.000 –> 00:06:46.000
Yeah, and for those listening that may not watch the video, this is an enormous IP like ridiculously annoying.
00:06:46.000 –> 00:06:48.000
It’s insane.
00:06:48.000 –> 00:06:56.000
So this is the 17 Explore scientific 92 degree, and I made a bit of an emboxing video.
00:06:56.000 –> 00:07:01.000
I started thinking, we get this stuff in. Maybe we’ll try to do some unboxing videos. I don’t know.
00:07:01.000 –> 00:07:10.000
I was just playing around. So just like in in the true style of when we were starting the podcast we were just sort of record stuff and put it out, I was just like, I’ll just record it as I’m working through anything.
00:07:10.000 –> 00:07:15.000
And maybe we’ll we’ll fire it. So I think it went up on the Youtube channel.
00:07:15.000 –> 00:07:16.000
Yeah, yeah, it did.
00:07:16.000 –> 00:07:24.000
Cool, and this ipiece is fantastic. So we just we just put it in sort of for first light.
00:07:24.000 –> 00:07:30.000
It is a big eypiece. There’s a lot of things with this ipiece which surprised me.
00:07:30.000 –> 00:07:36.000
I heard it was pretty big and heavy. It’s 2.7 5 pounds.
00:07:36.000 –> 00:07:38.000
It’s 2.8 9 on explore scientific site.
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2.8 9. Is that what it is?
00:07:40.000 –> 00:07:44.000
Yeah, like, basically 2.9 that I round it up. Call it 3.
00:07:44.000 –> 00:07:47.000
Yeah, so basically it’s a 3 pinpoint.
00:07:47.000 –> 00:08:01.000
IP. But the one thing people haven’t mentioned in the online reviews that that I’ve read, anyway, is that it’s very well balanced.
00:08:01.000 –> 00:08:02.000
Okay.
00:08:02.000 –> 00:08:04.000
The weight is, is more towards, like the bottom third, and so it in a way, it doesn’t quite feel that heavy.
00:08:04.000 –> 00:08:09.000
It definitely is a heavier eyepiece and I wondered about the design.
00:08:09.000 –> 00:08:10.000
I thought, oh, it looks like we big and clunky.
00:08:10.000 –> 00:08:13.000
And even in this photo, like you can see, it is a large eye piece.
00:08:13.000 –> 00:08:18.000
But I had no trouble getting it, even in my small little camera carrying ipiece case.
00:08:18.000 –> 00:08:25.000
I had no trouble, just sort of inserting it in vertically, and it didn’t like make that I piece case feel sort of oddly heavy.
00:08:25.000 –> 00:08:36.000
I just made sure I put it in the center of the eyepiece case, and that was totally fine. But the views through a Shane are unlike anything I’ve ever seen before through an IP.
00:08:36.000 –> 00:08:49.000
Hmm, yeah, I’m curious to look through it. I’ve looked through the ethos in the past the 100 degree fields, and you know I mentioned it before on the podcast that I I didn’t love it because I felt like I had to move my eyeball around too much.
00:08:49.000 –> 00:08:56.000
To take in the whole field, but the eye relief isn’t quite as nice on the ethos, and you know, this one being just a little smaller at 92 degrees, and maybe it’s the sweet spot for me.
00:08:56.000 –> 00:09:03.000
So, anyway. Yeah, I would love to look through it at some time.
00:09:03.000 –> 00:09:09.000
It presents the image in a truly unique way, although it is similar to one other.
00:09:09.000 –> 00:09:15.000
Ipiece, the main benefit of this ipiece is that I believe it’s it’s essentially designed for those of us who were glasses to be able to get a boat as wide a field of views.
00:09:15.000 –> 00:09:21.000
You can see with glasses on. I think that’s that’s the purpose.
00:09:21.000 –> 00:09:32.000
Yeah, yeah, interesting, just back to the wait last comment that I’ll have about it is like, I didn’t realize how big this thing was.
00:09:32.000 –> 00:09:38.000
And I. You know I always assumed that the 31 neglar was kind of the biggest boat anchor of them all.
00:09:38.000 –> 00:09:44.000
Because a lot of people and myself included, complain about balance issues when when using the 31 Nicar.
00:09:44.000 –> 00:09:45.000
Yeah.
00:09:45.000 –> 00:09:47.000
But it comes in at like 2.2 pounds.
00:09:47.000 –> 00:09:48.000
So you know anybody that is contemplating this one should consider the weight.
00:09:48.000 –> 00:09:58.000
Of this certainly would not be a good eyepiece and a small telescope. I just think you’d have a lot of balance issues.
00:09:58.000 –> 00:10:18.000
I think so, although it’s a that. There was this ipiece blue away. All my preconceptions of what this ipiece would be like, and it’s really hard to describe how this ipiece works when you read reviews the most common complaint about this ipiece is
00:10:18.000 –> 00:10:26.000
that they didn’t make more, and in different focal ratios or different vocal links. I guess.
00:10:26.000 –> 00:10:27.000
There’s the 17 and the 12, I think.
00:10:27.000 –> 00:10:30.000
Yeah, like it. There’s only the 17 and the 12.
00:10:30.000 –> 00:10:31.000
Many people commented. They wish they would do a larger one.
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I don’t, because I couldn’t imagine what that would be like.
00:10:38.000 –> 00:10:48.000
I wish they would make something like a 6 or something to that effect, I think would be spectacular, but the surprise with this ipiece was for me.
00:10:48.000 –> 00:10:51.000
Anyway, I thought for sure I’m gonna use my low power finder.
00:10:51.000 –> 00:10:59.000
I balanced my telescope for my 30 twotwo mass, Yama, which is only like a 16 ounce or 17 ounce ipiece.
00:10:59.000 –> 00:11:03.000
This IP, I think, is 44 ounces. So it’s it’s a huge difference.
00:11:03.000 –> 00:11:14.000
But even with a balance there, when I just locked down the control for the zeemeth, I haven’t no trouble with the IP in this telescope, and it tracked fine.
00:11:14.000 –> 00:11:18.000
It sort of through the telescope, tracking off a little bit, but we headed on M.
00:11:18.000 –> 00:11:24.000
30, and it stayed in the field of view for 20 min, and then I just sort of had to adjust it.
00:11:24.000 –> 00:11:29.000
So I was surprised I didn’t even bother adjusting the telescope to balance, for it.
00:11:29.000 –> 00:11:30.000
Hmm! Right on.
00:11:30.000 –> 00:11:37.000
So that kind of surprised me. I think, like I said most of the weight is low down, and I think that’s why the other thing, with this eyepiece that surprised me is how it presents the field of view.
00:11:37.000 –> 00:11:51.000
So I’ve tried observing, with other larger field of view, eye pieces, and like you, I they don’t do much for me, because I I need the eye relief.
00:11:51.000 –> 00:11:55.000
But what somehow, what they’ve done with this eyepiece is they’ve made it almost feels more like a binocular field that you’re looking at.
00:11:55.000 –> 00:12:01.000
It makes things appear larger. It’s almost like the magnification seems more so.
00:12:01.000 –> 00:12:23.000
Mike and I were looking. We askedimated the power that this bypiece was given, and it was confusing, because we figured it was probably about like 60 magnification, but in my scope it was closer to 40 magnification, and you know how with binoculars how they things.
00:12:23.000 –> 00:12:29.000
Appear larger. Just like it just appears to have not quite more magnification, but, like the scale, is larger.
00:12:29.000 –> 00:12:36.000
You know how binoculars do that. And if you close an eye it kind of goes away, and you open the eye and comes back.
00:12:36.000 –> 00:12:38.000
This ipiece. Does that?
00:12:38.000 –> 00:12:39.000
Weird.
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It’s really strange. The other thing that was very strange, about the sidepiece is, I’ve probably observed more with Mike than anybody else.
00:12:45.000 –> 00:12:55.000
In my entire life. The one thing Mike and I know all too well is that our eyes focus a completely different points.
00:12:55.000 –> 00:13:06.000
They couldn’t be more different. So whenever we go to one another’s telescopes, it’s always a game of adjusting the focus, because it’s just it’s it’s usually off by a significant amount.
00:13:06.000 –> 00:13:08.000
And with this eyepiece Mike walked over, and he said, It’s in focus. I can.
00:13:08.000 –> 00:13:16.000
I don’t have to adjust the focus of the side piece, and we’re like what. So then we went over and took it and put it in his scope.
00:13:16.000 –> 00:13:17.000
And again we didn’t have to adjust the focus of the eyepiece, and it did the same thing.
00:13:17.000 –> 00:13:25.000
We’re presented like this seemingly larger image scale.
00:13:25.000 –> 00:13:30.000
Even apart from how it presents, like a pretty wide field of view.
00:13:30.000 –> 00:13:31.000
Anyway, it was just larger. It was very, very different. Sort of eyepiece to look through.
00:13:31.000 –> 00:13:37.000
It was almost hard to go back to looking through any other.
00:13:37.000 –> 00:13:43.000
Ipiece. It was so different. But you know what reminds me of the only other IP I’ve ever looked at that kind of did.
00:13:43.000 –> 00:13:47.000
That was the Admin scientific. 28 R. Ke.
00:13:47.000 –> 00:13:51.000
I’m not sure if you ever look through that IP or not.
00:13:51.000 –> 00:13:59.000
Yeah, I have one. Yeah, it’s kind of a neat people describe it as a floating in space effect, because the edge of the Ipiece casing is almost invisible.
00:13:59.000 –> 00:14:01.000
The the glass is basically the width of the eyepiece, and it’s a very different experience with the Rk.
00:14:01.000 –> 00:14:10.000
E, 28,
00:14:10.000 –> 00:14:18.000
That it that I piece from explore scientific reminds me of that ipiece, and it’s a very similar experience.
00:14:18.000 –> 00:14:22.000
Cool. Well, I’m looking forward to looking through it one night.
00:14:22.000 –> 00:14:26.000
Yeah, we saw this, though, I’m gonna zoom in on this.
00:14:26.000 –> 00:14:30.000
We saw this arc. I know you said it looked like a contrail, but it was more green to the eye.
00:14:30.000 –> 00:14:32.000
I think it’s because it’s close to the moon.
00:14:32.000 –> 00:14:49.000
Here you couldn’t see the green of it, but it was one of the Steve type of Aurora marks, and it started over in the west, right over Venus, and I thought at first it was a con trail that Venus was lighting up because it was evenly
00:14:49.000 –> 00:14:56.000
illuminated, and it was rate. Venus was rate in the bottom of it, and I said to Mike, I said, Look at that, I said.
00:14:56.000 –> 00:14:57.000
Venus is lighting up like a con trail or something, and Mike said, I don’t think that’s a contra.
00:14:57.000 –> 00:15:02.000
I think that’s one of these Steve things, I said.
00:15:02.000 –> 00:15:11.000
No, no, we’ll wait, and if when it drifts off Venus, maybe it will become less illuminated, or the moon will start brightening it up, and then it moved off, and then it got very green.
00:15:11.000 –> 00:15:15.000
Once it was out from behind Venus and then it did drift towards the moon.
00:15:15.000 –> 00:15:21.000
And you can see in this shot that the dimmest part of this feature is actually beside the moon.
00:15:21.000 –> 00:15:35.000
And that’s because the moon was washing it out. If it was a contrail it would be brightest, closest to the moon, and then it would be less bright as it went along, and when a passed in front of the moon it was kind of it just kind of made it all sort of murky around that
00:15:35.000 –> 00:15:39.000
area. And but it didn’t light up like you would have expected it was.
00:15:39.000 –> 00:15:51.000
It was a very strange thing to see, so I took a pile of photos I wish I’d take them more when it was further up, and then, soon as it passed, we had all this cloud move in, so we kind of lost it at that point.
00:15:51.000 –> 00:15:55.000
But it was visible in the sky, probably for about 30 min or so.
00:15:55.000 –> 00:15:57.000
Hmm, interesting.
00:15:57.000 –> 00:16:03.000
Really neat. So any other observations to share before we.
00:16:03.000 –> 00:16:04.000
No, sir!
00:16:04.000 –> 00:16:11.000
Dive in. So May fifth, we’re gonna have a full moon, and there’s a penumbra lunar eclipse.
00:16:11.000 –> 00:16:13.000
But these penumbra lunar eclipses.
00:16:13.000 –> 00:16:14.000
They’re not very exciting. A.
00:16:14.000 –> 00:16:25.000
No, they’re pretty easy to miss. In fact, if you didn’t know what was happening, you probably wouldn’t never really catch it, even if you were looking up.
00:16:25.000 –> 00:16:27.000
Do you ever try to look at one?
00:16:27.000 –> 00:16:31.000
I don’t think I have. I don’t recall, anyway.
00:16:31.000 –> 00:16:35.000
You won’t. You won’t? I didn’t recall, and I did.
00:16:35.000 –> 00:16:48.000
I tried to go out and look at one of these once with a bunch of people, and I’m not even sure if I can say that I saw it, or maybe it was like some thin cloud passed over the moon or something that that’s almost the effect.
00:16:48.000 –> 00:16:57.000
It’s maybe a dimmed it down a little bit, but I would say like, maybe 5 or 10%, it’s basically something that is visible.
00:16:57.000 –> 00:17:09.000
Only, I think, through an astro photographer’s lens I’ve seen some beautiful astronautography of penumbra lunar eclipses, but this isn’t one of those, and lunar eclipses where it goes deep red or anything of that sort.
00:17:09.000 –> 00:17:18.000
Yeah, yeah. The like. A proper lunar eclipse is far more engaging and and interesting to look at.
00:17:18.000 –> 00:17:28.000
Yeah, cause this is just when it goes through the penumbra, which is the outer shadow of the earth being projected into space. And what we want is an umbra lunar eclipse.
00:17:28.000 –> 00:17:31.000
When the moon goes through the the interactor portion of earth’s shadow.
00:17:31.000 –> 00:17:38.000
And that’s when we get the beautiful dark red and crimson tones that that we all know and love for lunar eclipses.
00:17:38.000 –> 00:17:42.000
May twelfth. We have the last quarter moon, and then, on the thirteenth, in the morning sky, and I put my note up here for about 5 50 odd Am.
00:17:42.000 –> 00:17:53.000
For us, Shane. Anyway. Saturn is going to be 3 degrees ish above the moon.
00:17:53.000 –> 00:18:08.000
I think my inner circle here is just over 3 degrees my inter circle here is 10 degrees, and so for us, and for those further west than us, or maybe in Japan, you’re gonna get a nice view of Saturn and the Moon very close together in the morning sky that could be a nice image.
00:18:08.000 –> 00:18:17.000
I suppose if somebody is trying to take a photograph over some landscape like buildings or hillsides, or something like that, should look nice.
00:18:17.000 –> 00:18:22.000
Yeah, yeah, would be a somewhat challenging photograph to get both exposed properly.
00:18:22.000 –> 00:18:26.000
But that’s the beauty of post-processing with photography.
00:18:26.000 –> 00:18:27.000
You can do some fun. Things like that.
00:18:27.000 –> 00:18:30.000
I know nothing about this.
00:18:30.000 –> 00:18:33.000
Yeah, I know enough to say what I just said, but I couldn’t tell you how to do it.
00:18:33.000 –> 00:18:42.000
May seventeenth, Jupiter and the moon they’re gonna be very close in the sky in the morning sky.
00:18:42.000 –> 00:18:45.000
And there’s even going to be an occultation of Jupiter by the moon.
00:18:45.000 –> 00:18:48.000
We get it here it will be above the horizon.
00:18:48.000 –> 00:18:59.000
But for us, I believe it’s a boat an hour and a half after moonrise, Jupiterized sunrise, so it’s going to be in a very bright sky, and then you can see here in my image Mercury is right here.
00:18:59.000 –> 00:19:02.000
So the sun is only just over here. I think it’s going to be pretty close.
00:19:02.000 –> 00:19:07.000
I think you’d want to be pretty careful making this observation.
00:19:07.000 –> 00:19:23.000
I’d I’d want to have a house or some other building of significance between me and the sun, and to figure out where Jupiter and the moon might be prior to that event, because Jupiter doesn’t move a percibly if you were getting up early in the morning for the few
00:19:23.000 –> 00:19:36.000
nights before, should be able to figure out where Jupiter is going to be, and where the sun is rising, and get a building between you and and the sun, in order to to see Jupiter and the moon kind of creeping around the edge of that building together and then maybe be able to make an
00:19:36.000 –> 00:19:40.000
observation of the all cultivator. Later on in the morning.
00:19:40.000 –> 00:19:47.000
Yeah, yeah, that looks what? 5 degrees or so above horizon, maybe a little bit more.
00:19:47.000 –> 00:19:51.000
Yeah, it’s about 5 degrees above the horizon at 4, 40.
00:19:51.000 –> 00:19:57.000
And I think the occultation occurs a couple hours after this, like an hour and a half after sunrise.
00:19:57.000 –> 00:19:59.000
Yeah, okay, interesting.
00:19:59.000 –> 00:20:12.000
Those further west can see it. I think if you’re in like, right on the west coast of North America, or maybe in Hawaii, or somewhere like that, yeah, I think yes, stand a pretty good chance. Think parts of Alaska, perhaps.
00:20:12.000 –> 00:20:19.000
But yeah, probably around the west coast is probably gonna be your best chance for seeing the aquilitation event again.
00:20:19.000 –> 00:20:27.000
Like you said, pretty close to the horizon, but the akultation is simply when the moon passes in front of a planet.
00:20:27.000 –> 00:20:34.000
In this case it’s Jupiter. We had an occultation of Mars back in December on the night of the Mars opposition.
00:20:34.000 –> 00:20:47.000
I think it was March, December ninth, I mean, because when we had that my resultultation by the moon. But this one here is much more difficult to see, because it’s going to be close to the horizon that always makes for a pretty challenging event, no matter how you cut
00:20:47.000 –> 00:20:51.000
it, and this one’s a daytime event for us, so I don’t know. We’ll see.
00:20:51.000 –> 00:20:53.000
Yeah, yeah.
00:20:53.000 –> 00:20:56.000
So there’s going to be some double shadow transits on Jupiter.
00:20:56.000 –> 00:21:00.000
But I think this is too low. When Jupiter is this lot, Sheen?
00:21:00.000 –> 00:21:09.000
I don’t know that anybody would stand a decent chance of seeing double shadow transits until Jupiter’s is at least in a somewhat dark sky.
00:21:09.000 –> 00:21:15.000
Well and better, seeing you know this like observing a shadow transit.
00:21:15.000 –> 00:21:31.000
You do need decent seeing to see the little block dot you know, of the shadow on Jupiter, and I think at, you know, 5 to 10 degrees here above horizon. It’s just going to be too dirty, too dirty of error to look through.
00:21:31.000 –> 00:21:39.000
Yeah, I think maybe once we get into like the latter half of June or something, I think maybe shadow transits would would be visible once Jupiter is, you know, another 10 or 15 degrees higher up, maybe.
00:21:39.000 –> 00:21:51.000
But I think really waiting for Jupiter to be in in a darker sky and higher up in in the midsummer, is probably a better bet than trying to hunt down those double shadow. Trans.
00:21:51.000 –> 00:21:55.000
Its. While that’s right on horizon. I don’t know.
00:21:55.000 –> 00:22:01.000
I think that would be pretty tough, because even when Jupiter is nice and high it can be easy enough to miss a shadow.
00:22:01.000 –> 00:22:05.000
Transit. Anyway, I couldn’t imagine trying to see when when it’s this low down.
00:22:05.000 –> 00:22:07.000
Yeah, agreed.
00:22:07.000 –> 00:22:18.000
May nineteenth. That’s the new moon. And on the evenings of May nineteenth and twentieth there’s the Grasslands National Park beyond the Big Dipper Star party.
00:22:18.000 –> 00:22:19.000
Yeah, I’m off that entire week. Let me just take a look here.
00:22:19.000 –> 00:22:23.000
Yeah, I’m off on vacation from the twenty-second until the 20 sixth.
00:22:23.000 –> 00:22:34.000
So I have a pretty large window, and I will be picking the best weather dates to go down there and do some observing, yeah.
00:22:34.000 –> 00:22:49.000
Nice. Very cool. May 20, s, and May 20, third. Sky. We have Venus paired with the moon, so Venus is, gonna be nice and high all month, in fact, and most people have been able to pick it out just on their own.
00:22:49.000 –> 00:22:54.000
I know when we had Bird on the show here, just in the episode, we only just recorded.
00:22:54.000 –> 00:22:58.000
We chatted about, people walking up and saying, Hey, what’s that bright star?
00:22:58.000 –> 00:23:02.000
And it’s not a bright start. It’s one of our closest neighbors, the planet Venus.
00:23:02.000 –> 00:23:06.000
But on the 20, s, and 20 third, you’re going to have the moon.
00:23:06.000 –> 00:23:11.000
And Venus basically rate side by side, just about 4 degrees apart for us in the evening sky.
00:23:11.000 –> 00:23:15.000
On the 20 s, and then a little bit further, maybe 6 degrees to the other side and to the north of Venus on the 20 third.
00:23:15.000 –> 00:23:23.000
That should be a pretty interesting pairing to see.
00:23:23.000 –> 00:23:24.000
Yeah, I always like, when planetary or solar system bodies kind of align and get close in the night sky.
00:23:24.000 –> 00:23:32.000
Always fun to look at.
00:23:32.000 –> 00:23:36.000
Actually had a look at the last one here. I think it was about.
00:23:36.000 –> 00:23:49.000
Week or so ago, maybe just over a week ago I went up and set up the little 6 Takahashi in the driveway with a low power eyepiece, and I could just squeeze the moon and Venus in to my field of view I think it looked more like this
00:23:49.000 –> 00:23:53.000
Monday, May 20, s date, when they’re a little bit closer.
00:23:53.000 –> 00:24:01.000
I think that’s gonna be pretty neat to see in the nighttime sky might be better for binoculars than for little telescopes, even though.
00:24:01.000 –> 00:24:03.000
Yeah.
00:24:03.000 –> 00:24:04.000
Then on the 20 fourth, we have Mars and the moon paired up.
00:24:04.000 –> 00:24:23.000
They’re going to be just over 3 degrees apart. So maybe in our wide field little telescope, or, again, a binocular, they’re not gonna be able to see much on Mars itself, because Mars is certainly pretty small and far away at this point, but just seeing the Moon paired up
00:24:23.000 –> 00:24:25.000
with another planet is always pretty neat to see.
00:24:25.000 –> 00:24:27.000
Yeah, it is.
00:24:27.000 –> 00:24:37.000
So it should be nice to see that Mars and Moon close approach there on the 20 fourth, hopefully, we can see some of those close approaches of the moon and and the planets.
00:24:37.000 –> 00:24:38.000
The other thing that we have coming up is on May 20, sixth.
00:24:38.000 –> 00:24:45.000
The lunar X is going to be visible from Western Canada in the early morning sky.
00:24:45.000 –> 00:24:51.000
So she, what is the lunar X. And how can people see this thing?
00:24:51.000 –> 00:24:56.000
Well, it’s it’s a clear, obscure effect.
00:24:56.000 –> 00:24:57.000
It’s just a shadow play on the moon. We’ve talked quite a bit about that in the past.
00:24:57.000 –> 00:25:05.000
In terms of what these features are. They’re not really like a feature.
00:25:05.000 –> 00:25:11.000
More of a shadow, play with what’s illuminated versus what’s in shadow on the moon.
00:25:11.000 –> 00:25:31.000
And these types of effects are visible near the Terminator, which is where the light terminates, and it becomes dark on the moon and yeah, the lunar X is probably one of the most popular clar up screen effects on the moon and the same night that the X is visible there’s a lunar
00:25:31.000 –> 00:25:36.000
V. Usually just or not. Usually it is north of the the X along the terminator.
00:25:36.000 –> 00:25:39.000
And usually it’s only visible for a short time.
00:25:39.000 –> 00:25:40.000
Span, unfortunately. So if it’s like Western Canada, then, like, maybe we might be able to see the early parts here.
00:25:40.000 –> 00:25:50.000
But you know, probably once you’re much further west than us looking, you know, Alberta, and sort of towards the west coast of the States.
00:25:50.000 –> 00:26:00.000
That’s probably going to be your best chance for seeing it. And if you’re in Eastern North America, there’s probably almost no chance of seeing it unless you stay up later, or something like that, usually it’s just like one sort of somewhat localized region.
00:26:00.000 –> 00:26:10.000
On the on the earth that makes it visible, a.
00:26:10.000 –> 00:26:16.000
Yeah, for any of these, you really do need to put in your location to determine whether or not you can see it, because it won’t be visible for the entire night.
00:26:16.000 –> 00:26:29.000
Therefore it is somewhat limited. But even though this one will be visible for Western North America, you know there will be future lunar axes only even from Europe.
00:26:29.000 –> 00:26:34.000
So everybody will get their chance at it. Throughout the course of the year.
00:26:34.000 –> 00:26:43.000
May twenty-seventh. We have the first quarter moon in the late afternoon and evening sky, was looking at the late afternoon first quarter moon.
00:26:43.000 –> 00:26:48.000
The other day we were driving around, and you could just sort of hang there in the afternoon sky, really nice to do you ever take the telescope boat?
00:26:48.000 –> 00:26:50.000
And look at it when it’s just sort of sitting there on a on a warm spring afternoon.
00:26:50.000 –> 00:26:55.000
It’s pretty neat to do a.
00:26:55.000 –> 00:27:02.000
Yeah, it is. It’s neat how some of the craters sort of blend in with the blue sky, and it almost becomes one.
00:27:02.000 –> 00:27:06.000
A May 20. Eighth. We have the lunar straight wall visible.
00:27:06.000 –> 00:27:09.000
And did you see those images, Jim sent here? I’ve got them here.
00:27:09.000 –> 00:27:12.000
I’m just gonna zoom in of of the lunar straight. While he took these.
00:27:12.000 –> 00:27:21.000
I think just the other day, because we’re recording this not too long after the seventh day moon.
00:27:21.000 –> 00:27:26.000
Yeah, yeah, it actually looked better in the email. I don’t know if it’s just the video dropping some resolution.
00:27:26.000 –> 00:27:27.000
Probably.
00:27:27.000 –> 00:27:32.000
But but yeah, you know good images. By Jim.
00:27:32.000 –> 00:27:39.000
And so this straight wall is, is an escarpment otherwise known as Ruupus Rectus is that he sits Latin, I guess.
00:27:39.000 –> 00:27:41.000
Yup, yeah, that’s how you say that.
00:27:41.000 –> 00:27:48.000
And it’s just a lunar fault line located in Southwestern Marynubian Ub. M.
00:27:48.000 –> 00:27:49.000
Yeah, it’s another. Need one of those clear, obscure effects visually, it really jumps out at you.
00:27:49.000 –> 00:27:55.000
It’s very, very dark. I guess it probably depends a little bit on the timing of when you’re observing it.
00:27:55.000 –> 00:28:02.000
But that’s another neat one that I enjoy.
00:28:02.000 –> 00:28:09.000
Mercury. Is that greatest? Yeah from the sun on May 29.
00:28:09.000 –> 00:28:10.000
However, I think it’s too. I think it’s really too close to the sun for making an observation.
00:28:10.000 –> 00:28:21.000
It didn’t even put a screen capturing, because even though it’s 25 degrees away because of the angle at the sun for us, anyway.
00:28:21.000 –> 00:28:24.000
And where Mercury is. Yeah, they’re 25 degrees away.
00:28:24.000 –> 00:28:32.000
But it’s not that. Mercury is 25 degrees above the sun rises, and then 25 degrees of red ascension.
00:28:32.000 –> 00:28:42.000
Later the sun rises. Basically mercury rises over to the right, and then the sun rises over to the right, and then the sun rises over to the right, and then the sun rises over to the left, like I don’t know, like half an hour later, or less.
00:28:42.000 –> 00:28:47.000
So the sky is just exceptionally bright, and I think that you’re still looking like close enough.
00:28:47.000 –> 00:28:49.000
I think it’s too close for comfort, and the sky is just gonna be so bright when mercury is in the sky at all.
00:28:49.000 –> 00:28:58.000
I think it’s it’s too dangerous, and probably not worth taking a look at, anyway.
00:28:58.000 –> 00:29:02.000
Yeah, there’s not much to see with mercury.
00:29:02.000 –> 00:29:16.000
And then, when the next week rolls around, I think Mercury gets brighter, but it heads towards the sun, so it’s brighter, but it’s even even much, much closer to the sun, so on May 30 first Mars enters the beehive I think this is going to be Neat I saw
00:29:16.000 –> 00:29:18.000
this in Sky and Telescope Magazine.
00:29:18.000 –> 00:29:22.000
I’m a subscriber, and I didn’t see this in in any of my other sources.
00:29:22.000 –> 00:29:38.000
But Mars is going to be on the rim of the beehive cluster, and I just put this this image here is what it’s going to look like on the thirty-first of May in the evening sky, and it just gets into the outer stars of the Beehive even
00:29:38.000 –> 00:29:41.000
though you’re not really gonna be able to see much of Mars through the telescope.
00:29:41.000 –> 00:29:44.000
Of course you’ll probably still be a to see it as a disk.
00:29:44.000 –> 00:29:48.000
And then over the following nights. It’s like 4 nights or so.
00:29:48.000 –> 00:29:54.000
You’ll see Mars slowly trition across the beehive cluster, which I think is gonna be a pretty neat site to be able to see, and should have a decent shot at actually being.
00:29:54.000 –> 00:30:02.000
We’ll see Mars in front of the Beehive on at least one of those nights.
00:30:02.000 –> 00:30:03.000
Usually we have a clear night every 4 nights, so there’s a good chance of seeing this.
00:30:03.000 –> 00:30:21.000
Little event. I think it is going to be neat. I wondered sometimes when a planet or the moon, or something, is in front of one of these clusters to me, it’s kind of underwhelming cause offense clients to the horizon, we were talking about with Jupiter and
00:30:21.000 –> 00:30:31.000
the moon, but this one Shane. When I ran the software and I should have put this the zoom in, you could really see how it’s going to sort of meander amongst these stars, I think it’s going to be a pretty neat event to see mars in front of the
00:30:31.000 –> 00:30:35.000
beehive. They’re going forward from May 30, first for the next 4 nights.
00:30:35.000 –> 00:30:39.000
Yeah. Too bad. It’s not a favorable Mars opposition year.
00:30:39.000 –> 00:30:44.000
Mars will be quite small, but nonetheless it’ll be neat to see it there.
00:30:44.000 –> 00:30:48.000
Yeah, I think so. I think it’s gonna be worth checking out.
00:30:48.000 –> 00:30:52.000
So that’s sort of our last calendar event. I took a look.
00:30:52.000 –> 00:30:55.000
I don’t know if you took a look at comments or anything else, but I couldn’t see that there was any comments that are going to be brighter than magnitude.
00:30:55.000 –> 00:31:13.000
10.5 visible from the northern hemisphere this month, I think there might be a couple in the southern hemisphere that are hovering around tenth magnitude, but really I couldn’t find anything that was that was of any bright significance at all when it came to
00:31:13.000 –> 00:31:15.000
comments this month. Unfortunately.
00:31:15.000 –> 00:31:17.000
Yeah, yeah. It’s the forecast for comments is basically nothing too spectacular for a little while, anyway.
00:31:17.000 –> 00:31:23.000
I don’t think anything too bright to be aware of it at this time.
00:31:23.000 –> 00:31:31.000
So we’ll keep watching, as we always do in case that changes.
00:31:31.000 –> 00:31:34.000
I also looked at meteor showers. There’s like I think it’s like the Edo query.
00:31:34.000 –> 00:31:39.000
It’s early in the month on the 6 but the moon interferes with that, so I didn’t.
00:31:39.000 –> 00:31:45.000
I don’t bother putting in events where the moon is essentially full at the time when the meteor shower is taking place.
00:31:45.000 –> 00:31:59.000
The night sky. Suppose somebody might be curious to quote and try to make some observations, but I think it gets confusing from people when you’re telling them to go out and take a look for stuff that requires a reasonably dark sky, and you’re just not going to have a dark sky with a when
00:31:59.000 –> 00:32:04.000
those meter showers are taking place this month. Unfortunately.
00:32:04.000 –> 00:32:06.000
Yeah, sometimes, that’s how it lines up.
00:32:06.000 –> 00:32:10.000
Yeah, unfortunately. So you have a double star, I see. Tell us about the double star you’ve picked this month.
00:32:10.000 –> 00:32:13.000
Yeah, so this is up in Corvis. The designation for the parent is a Stf.
00:32:13.000 –> 00:32:28.000
1, 6, 5, 9. And the reason this one jumped out at me is there’s actually not just 2 stars to look at in this or in this double star system.
00:32:28.000 –> 00:32:29.000
But there’s a 6 which is pretty cool now.
00:32:29.000 –> 00:32:41.000
The Ab. Stars are physically connected, I guess, or part of a system so like it’s a true double.
00:32:41.000 –> 00:32:45.000
The C. Star. Uncertain. More science needs to happen there and then.
00:32:45.000 –> 00:32:53.000
The remaining 4 stars are all optical alignments, but nonetheless it makes a, you know, a very interesting view.
00:32:53.000 –> 00:33:01.000
The separation is pretty pretty forgiving. These will be easy to split the closest pair is the A B Pair.
00:33:01.000 –> 00:33:07.000
At 28.1 arc seconds. The biggest distance is between the A and F.
00:33:07.000 –> 00:33:14.000
Star at 209 arc seconds. So all of those are very easy to split, even with small aperture.
00:33:14.000 –> 00:33:15.000
And the magnitude of these stars, the dimmest is the C. Star.
00:33:15.000 –> 00:33:25.000
At 10.9, and then the F. Star, I think, is the brightest.
00:33:25.000 –> 00:33:29.000
At 6.6, and then they kind of vary in between.
00:33:29.000 –> 00:33:30.000
So for anybody that’s looking for kind of a larger system to look at.
00:33:30.000 –> 00:33:48.000
This, you know, is one to add to your list, as far as color goes, it looks like mostly kind of blue, white stars, so I don’t think you’re going to see a large pop of color, but it is always interesting to see multiple stars like this in a system.
00:33:48.000 –> 00:33:53.000
But also ones that really vary in magnitude, you know, to go from 6.6 to 10.9.
00:33:53.000 –> 00:33:57.000
There’s a 9.9 and an 8.3, you know.
00:33:57.000 –> 00:34:03.000
Just need to start to be able to recognize some of the magnitudes of stars as well.
00:34:03.000 –> 00:34:07.000
So, anyway, that’s the one that I would throw out there for me.
00:34:07.000 –> 00:34:10.000
Have you taken a peek at this one yet, or is on your to observed list for the spring?
00:34:10.000 –> 00:34:16.000
To observe list. Yeah, yeah, I will be looking at it at some point here in the month of May.
00:34:16.000 –> 00:34:24.000
Nice. Look forward to hearing your observation. Anything else. To add to this, our objects to observe, in the May 2023 night, Skyshane.
00:34:24.000 –> 00:34:25.000
That is all.
00:34:25.000 –> 00:34:28.000
Well, thanks. Shane, thanks everybody for listening to your listeners.
00:34:28.000 –> 00:34:29.000
Please subscribe and do a favor of sharing the show with stargazers.
00:34:29.000 –> 00:34:34.000
You know we’d appreciate it as the more we grow the better the show.
00:34:34.000 –> 00:34:49.000
Thanks for listening, and you can always reach us at actual astronomy@gmail.com.
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