The Orionid Meteor Shower

After what is usually a poor showing by the Draconids this month many sky watchers turn to the Orionids for some hope.

The Orionid Meteor Shower comprises the dust and debris leftover from Halley's Comet.  If you missed Halley's Comet back in 1986 you get a chance to see its debris twice a year: The Eta Aquariid Shower and the Orionid Shower.

The Orionids peak around October 21 every year and the best time to see this shower is in the middle of the early Morning.  Orion will be rising in the southeast around midnight and you should start to see meteors soon thereafter.  The radiant point is just to the East of Orion's club as shown in the image below.

Orionid Radiant

The Orionids peak at around 10-20 meteors per hour and are best seen away from the light pollution of urban centres and the Moon.  While you are waiting, take in the sights of the Pleiades Star Cluster or the Great Orion Nebula.  Pack some binoculars to get a better view of these objects.  While looking for meteors be sure just to use your naked eye as binoculars will confine your field of view.

City	Suburbs	Rural	Optimal
5	10	15	23

As with other meteor showers I have provided a log chart for recording your observations.  Please find it below.

Orionid Meteor Shower

Instructions for filling it out can be found: Explore the Universe - Meteor Showers

Binocular Highlights - October/November

Many people I know do not have a telescope but they have a pair of binoculars.  Whether they're used for hunting, birding or creeping they can also be used for astronomy.  In some cases, binoculars offer better views of wide objects than telescopes.  I posted a blog back in March regarding the use of binoculars for astronomy linked below.

http://simonjastronomy.blogspot.com/2017/03/binoculars-what-should-i-look-for.html

Binoculars are a great way to start learning the sky.  Their wide field of view allows for a wide margin of error when looking for a star or other celestial object.  Practice by finding your favourite constellation and see if you can pick out all the naked eye stars with your binoculars.  Count how many binocular fields of view they are away from each other.  Write it down.  This will get you accustomed to aiming them in the correct direction and finding your footing around the sky.  You may get the shakes while looking through them.  There are a few things you can do that can help.

• Hold the binoculars with your hands close to the aperture.
• Lie on your back and rest the binoculars on your eyes.
• Hook them up to a tripod.
• Lean them on a fence or other study object.
• Don't hold your breath.  It may seem like a good idea but it can negatively affect your eyesight among other things.
• Buy image stabilizing binoculars for a small fortune.

I use the pair of binoculars shown below.  They give a wide 4.4° field of view with generous 70mm apertures to collect a lot of light.

15x70 Binoculars (4.4° Field of View)

Once you have taken on several constellations and feel confident you can hop from star to star and can take in some Autumn sights that are beautiful in a set of binoculars.

One of the best places to start is in the constellation: Perseus.  Provided in the link below is a target sheet with objects of interested highlighted in red with the size of a typical binocular field.

Perseus Binocular Observing Sheet

If you follow along with the provided observing sheet you can see that the Double Cluster is a great target.  Just below Cassiopeia this pair of open clusters can be found.  In fact, Gamma Cassiopeiae and Delta Cassiopeiae point in a straight line right to the pair of clusters.  In the same field as these two there is a third cluster known as the 'Muscleman Cluster' or Stock 2.  See if you can see what looks like a person posing with the double bicep flex.

Moving a few binocular fields to the northwest you should come upon Kemble's Cascade.  This region looks like a waterfall of stars cascading down in a straight line.  Lucian Kemble was born in Southern Alberta so feel a sense of Canadian pride as you find this asterism.

A few binocular fields from the Double Cluster in the other direction will get you to M31 - The Andromeda Galaxy.

M31 - Andromeda Galaxy

Below the Double Cluster is a very large cluster of stars around Perseus' brightest star.  This cluster is known as Melotte 20.  A few fields East of this location may bring you to M34; another open cluster.

Another good place in the sky to jump around with binoculars is Aquarius and Pegasus.  The observing sheet for this region is provided below.

Aquarius Binocular Observing Sheet

This area I would consider you require some intermediate skill with your binoculars.  There is a familiar sideways 'Y' shape in Aquarius that I always look for.  It has helped me find Neptune in my early astronomy days.  If you find this 'Y' with your naked eye, stick it in your binoculars.  Scan slightly to the West toward the bright star Altair (Southern Star of the Summer Triangle).  If you are lucky you may pick out a small fuzzy object.  This is the globular cluster M2.  Cruise North of M2 toward the naked eye star Enif.  If you have good eyesight you should be able to split this star into a double.  One binocular field to the West should be another faint fuzzy; the globular cluster M15.

We are hoping to plan some binocular sky nights in the school field in the next little while so keep posted for details!

2017 Week 42: (October 15-21)

Last week was not a very exciting week for astronomy, especially with the snowfall.  However, this upcoming week has some promise.  The table below shows the many sights in the sky that we can check out.

Date	Event
October 15	Regulus 0.2°S of Moon
October 17	Zodiacal Light visible before morning twilight
October 17	Mars 1.8°S of Moon
October 18	Venus 2.0°S of Moon
October 19	Uranus at Opposition
October 19	New Moon
October 21	Orionid Meteors Peak

The waning crescent Moon is cruising back toward the Sun and will meet a few Solar System objects along the way.  On Sunday, the Moon will nearly cover Leo's bright star Regulus.  This should be visible in the early morning twilight sky.  Look for the Moon and you will see Regulus hanging out just to the South.  Two mornings later you may see the Moon spending some time with Mars.  Mars may be difficult to see without binoculars as it is on the opposite side of its solar orbit than us.  This same morning the Moon will be about 5° from Venus.  Unfortunately the close 2.0° Venusian conjunction happens on the other side of Earth to us Calgarians.

Thursday is a big day.  Uranus will be at opposition the same day as the New Moon.  The Moon will not be polluting the sky with light and, from dark skies, you may have a chance to see Uranus with your naked eye.  In the southeast sky you should be able to see the bright stars of Aries in a line.  They will curve down and point to Omicron Piscium.  Uranus will be in the same binocular field as this star.  The map below shows this region of the sky.

Uranus Skymap

The next few weeks the Zodiacal Light will be visible in the morning prior to sunrise.  It is best to have clear, dark skies to observe this phenomenon.  For more information about the Zodiacal Light click on the link below.

http://simonjastronomy.blogspot.com/2017/02/what-is-zodiacal-light.html

At the end of the week the Orionid Meteor Shower will peak.  Since it occurs near the New Moon you can witness them without much natural light pollution.  Later in the week I will devote an entire blog post to these meteors.  The Earth will travel through a region of space inhabited by the dust and ice from the famous Halley's Comet.  The hourly rate is about 20-25 and with dark skies you may be able to catch one every few minutes.

What is an Asteroid?

There has been some discussion in the news recently about the near-miss of an asteroid.

An asteroid can simply be described as a minor planet that is larger than 1m and can reach diameters in the hundreds of kilometers.  They differ from comets in their composition.  A comet is typically made of ice while an asteroid is a rocky, carbonaceous and metallic.  Objects smaller than a meter in diameter are typically referred to as meteoroids that compose the majority of the meteors that fall to Earth.

Sometimes asteroids fall to Earth.  The famous Chelyabinsk meteor that fell to Earth in February 2013 was a 20m wide near-Earth asteroid.

Chelyabinsk Meteor (Image Credit: Marat Ahmetvaleev)

Most asteroids reside in the region of our Solar System between Mars and Jupiter.  A group known as 'Jupiter Trojans' sit in Jupiter's stable Lagrange points 60° ahead and behind of the planet's orbit.

There are a class of asteroids known as 'Near Earth Objects' that may pose a risk to our home planet.  A (NEO) is typically defined as any body in the Solar System that has a perihelion (closest approach to the Sun) inside Earth's orbit or 30% the distance from Earth to the Sun outside Earth's orbit.  This includes more than ten thousand asteroids, more than a hundred comets and a bunch of meteoroids and spacecraft.

Most large (>1km) near Earth asteroids have been cataloged with some still waiting to be found.  Large asteroids like this may cause global damage if they were to hit the Earth.

Asteroid 2012 TC4 has been in the news this week.  It is a small asteroid (10-20m in diameter) that passed about 50,000km from the Earth this morning.  To visualize how close this is, consider that the Moon is between 350,000-400,000km away depending on where in its elliptical orbit it is.

2012 TC4 Close Approach (Image Credit: NASA)

You can see many asteroids from your backyard with binoculars or a telescope.  The asteroid, Vesta, can actually sometimes be seen with the naked eye in excellent dark sky conditions when it is near opposition.  It is quite large (~525km diameter) and relatively high albedo (reflectivity).  The best trick for finding asteroids is to use the Pluto method.  Determine the location of the asteroid using mapping software.  Sketch or photograph the region under observation.  Repeat the next day and see which 'star' in the region moved during that 24 hour period.  That will be your asteroid.  I still have not had the opportunity to find and track an asteroid but I hope to soon.  Tracking the orbit of Neptune last year was my first foray into witnessing orbital motion in the outer Solar System.

Vesta (Image Credit: NASA Dawn Spacecraft)

The Dawn spacecraft was sent in a mission to explore the asteroid belt.  Using ion thrusters it was able to enter and leave the orbit of asteroids.  It visited Vesta (above) in 2011 and moved onto the dwarf planet Ceres in 2015.

2017 Week 41: (October 8-14)

It is Thanksgiving week in Canada and there are a few sights in the sky.  The chart below highlights some of these events.

Date	Event
October 8	Draconid Meteor Shower peaks
October 8	Mercury at superior conjunction
October 9	Aldebaran 0.6°S of Moon
October 12	Last Quarter

The Draconid Meteor Shower peaks in the early morning of Sunday, October 8.  However, if it was anything like last night you will need some great luck.  I was outside for about 45 minutes and had the misfortune to see a grand total of 0 meteors.  The Orionids later in the month may be more prosperous to meteor shower observers.

Mercury will be sitting behind the Sun on October 8 and will cruise into our evening sky once again.  The following evening Taurus' red eye Aldebaran will be very close to the waning gibbous Moon as visible from the Eastern Hemisphere.  We are really striking out for good things in the sky this week!

On October 12 the Moon will be at its last quarter phase.  This will occur at 6:25am in the morning and we can actually witness the exact phase from Calgary.  Exciting?  No.

Last Quarter

However, not all is lost.  We can be thankful that the following week has better sights for us.  Next week we can look forward to a better meteor shower, a planetary opposition and a few great conjunctions!

Fish Creek Park and the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada are hosting a star night this upcoming Saturday October 14!

More information can be found below:

http://calgary.rasc.ca/fishcreek2017b.htm

Also check out our facebook page below for up to date information about several other events happening in October!  There will be members at Fish Creek set up with their telescopes to see some great objects throughout the October sky.  Also, there are many exhibits and activities inside for the whole family.  Come join us for this free event!

www.facebook.com/simonjastronomy

Have a great and safe Thanksgiving weekend!

The Draconid Meteor Shower

There is a lesser known meteor shower that peaks in early October.  It is known as the Draconid Meteor Shower because they radiate from the constellation: Draco.  The best way to find Draco is to use the Summer Triangle as a guide.  In the evening throughout early October, the bright star Deneb will be sitting almost immediately overhead.  It forms a triangle with the brighter star Vega and another bright star to the south, Altair.  Using the diagram below as a reference look just to the northwest from the line between Deneb and Vega.  This will be your radiant point, right out of the head of the Dragon.

Draconid Radiant

The Draconid Meteor Shower occurs when the Earth transits a field of cometary debris from 21P/Giacobini-Zinner.

Several times a zenith hourly rate has peaked over a thousand meteors per hour.  However, we are not expected to have such a storm this year.  Also, if there is a bright Moon out it will pollute our skies wiping out any faint meteors.  However, still look up when it is dark and stare at that spot I pointed out in the map above.  You may get lucky.  Be patient.  .

I have provided a link below if you would like to create your own chart like I did with the Perseid Meteor Shower.

Draconid Meteor Shower Template

Instructions for filling it out can be found: Explore the Universe - Meteor Showers

Explore the Universe - Venus

Venus is the second closest planet to the Sun and the closest planet to Earth.  It is the brightest object in the sky besides the Sun and the Moon.  It has been recorded for millennia and finds itself in many myths.  Venus was the first planet in the solar system that our spacecraft visited (1962) and also the first with a lander back in 1970.

The image below was taken when Venus was a waning crescent.

Venus

Some of the fast facts about Venus are shown below.

Orbital Period (Year)	225 days
Rotational Period (Sidereal Day)	243 days (retrograde rotation)
Axial Tilt	2.64°
Surface Area	0.902 of Earth
Volume	0.866 of Earth
Mass	0.815 of Earth
Gravity	0.904g
Surface Temperature (mean)	462°C
Surface Pressure	9,200 kPa

Many of the items in the list above are absolutely fascinating. 

A year on Venus is shorter than its day! 

It is very close to the same size as the Earth. 

It is the hottest planet in our solar system with a temperature around 462°C.  The temperature on Venus does not fluctuate very much and remains approximately the same whether Venus is facing the Sun or not.  This is quite different than Mercury which fluctuates between -170°C and 450°C.

The atmospheric pressure on Venus is a whopping 9,200 kPa!  This would be similar to being over a kilometer under the Earth's ocean.  The winds on the surface of the planet only reach to a few km/h.  However, since the pressure is so high those light winds are enough to move rocks around and kick up a significant amount of dust.  The winds higher in the atmosphere can reach and amazing 700km/h.

Venus, just like Uranus, also rotates in the opposite direction to the other planets.  They would rotate clockwise as viewed from the North Pole.

Venus lacks plate tectonics but has many large volcanoes (many more than Earth) that periodically (half a billion years) resurface the planet.

Keep up to date on how you can see this bright planet by checking out the latest Weekly Update!

Good luck in your planet viewing!