The Quadrantid Meteor Shower

The Quadrantid Meteor Shower occurs during the coldest time in the northern hemisphere.  A few days into the new year we are treated to 'falling stars' from a possible parent asteroid known as 2003 EH1. 

The weather usually an issue for the Quadrantids.  It is usually quite cold during a typical peak and not a lot of people are interested in spending a few minutes outside in the late evening and early morning. 

The radiant is a point between Boötes and Draco sitting in the northeastern sky.  If you have trouble locating Boötes or Draco, use the more familiar Big Dipper.  The handle of the large spoon will essentially point you to the radiant.  The best time to catch the meteors will be between midnight and morning twilight, but you may be able to see a bunch before the day turns.  The map below highlights this region.

Quadrantid Radiant

According to the American Meteor Society the following table indicates, on average, how many meteors we should be able to see per hour. 

City	Suburbs	Rural	Optimal
5	10	25	120

If you would like to record your observations a printable sky map is provided at the link below.  It represents the sky at 1:00am.

Quadrantid Meteor Shower

Instructions for filling out the sheet can be found at the meteor shower blog post below.

Explore the Universe - Meteor Showers

Hopefully the weather is mild and the sky is clear to try to catch a meteor!

2018 Week 1: (December 31-January 6)

It is the first week of the year and there are exciting things happening!  The weather in Calgary is supposed to warm up to above freezing.  We have been suffering in the low negative 20°C's for over a week now!  This turn of weather is good for anyone who may want to watch the Quadrantid Meteor Shower which peaks this upcoming Wednesday.  You may also be surprised to know that the Earth will be at its closest point to the Sun late on January 2.  This may seem counter intuitive since it is so cold, but the seasons are determined by the tilt of the Earth.

Date	Event
January 1	Full Moon (Supermoon)
January 2	Uranus Stationary
January 2	Earth at Perihelion
January 3	Quadrantid Meteors Peak
January 5	Regulus 0.9°S of Moon
January 6	Mars 0.2°S of Jupiter

As you can see from the table above the first week of 2018 is jam packed with good stuff.  New Year's Day will have the largest Full Moon of the year as it occurs a mere four hours after the Moon's perigee.  Expect the media to start hyping this up as a premiere event when in actual fact the size difference is quite imperceptible.

Uranus will stop its retrograde motion and begin its prograde motion once again.  Apparently retrograde motion has significance in astrology since when I search for it I get nothing but psuedoscientific warnings.

The main excitement for the week comes from the Quadrantid Meteor Shower.  With a calculated hourly rate of 120 it is one of the most prolific showers.  It is best to get out of the city as, according to the American Meteor Society, rates drop to 25 in rural moonless nights and down to 10 and 5 with more significant light pollution.  With a harsh supermoon viciously illuminating the sky this prolific shower may turn into a flop.  However, it is always worth checking it out because you may get lucky.  We will look more into this shower with a posting in a few days.

Later in the week will be a few conjunctions that some people enjoy viewing or photographing.  The breast of Leo, Regulus, will be sitting just below the Moon on Friday night.  The next morning, check out Mars and Jupiter dancing together in the sky.

This may be a good chance to see some planets before the Sun comes up.  The map below shows the southeastern horizon shortly after 6am on the morning of January 6, 2018.  Jupiter and Mars are extremely close to each other just to the East of the bright Libra star: Zubenelgenubi.  Following them up from the horizon will be Mercury and Saturn.  I am not sure how good of a look you will get of these because the Sun shortly follows them up.

Planets - January 6, 2018

A closeup view of Jupiter and Mars is provided below.

Jupiter and Mars, January 6, 2018

Jupiter and Mars will fit into the same field of view of a highly magnified telescope and may be worth the trouble to haul one out into the cool Winter.  However, if you stick with a basic pair of binoculars you will not only see both planets, but Alpha Librae: Zubenelgenubi in the same field.

Stay tuned for more information about the Quadrantids and our January edition of the McKenzie Lake Star Night!  Follow us at:

www.facebook.com/simonjastronomy

or

www.twitter.com/simonjastronomy

for the latest events and news throughout 2018!

2017 Top Space Stories (Part II)

This is Part II of the top space stories of 2017.  It was certainly a great year for space exploration and interesting transient events.  Part I can be found here:

http://simonjastronomy.blogspot.com/2017/12/2017-top-space-stories-part-i.html

Cassini Grand Finale

Enough cannot be said about the great Cassini mission.  Launched in 1997 to explore the wonders of Saturn, Cassini exceeded all expectations.  The accompanying Huygens probe landed on Titan and provided the first images from the surface of this great moon.  Cassini explored the many moons of Saturn and even plunged through the giant geysers of Enceladus.  The video below captures the highlights of the mission.

Rivers and seas of methane and ethane on Titan form their own 'hydrological cycle' similar to that on Earth with water.  On September 15, 2017, Cassini plunged into the atmosphere of Saturn to prevent the contamination of possible life on Titan and Enceladus.  It broke up in the skies of Saturn and final contact was received at 11:55 UTC.  Information from this mission will fill many textbooks for decades to come.  Additional missions to Titan and Enceladus are already being planned.

First Interstellar Object

An object was discovered on October 19, 2017 from the Pan-STARRS telescope on Hawaii.  Initially it was labelled as a comet and then reclassified as an asteroid.  On November 6, it was then reclassified to an interstellar object.  This was the first known object from a different solar system than our own.  Current predictions show it coming from the direction of Vega; a bright star 25 light years away.  The International Astronomical Union has labelled it 1I/'Oumuamua, the first such object receiving an 'I' designation.  The video below from NASA discussed this discovery in more detail.

The name 'Oumuamua comes from Hawaiian and means 'scout'.  This asteroid is scouting our solar system from somewhere else in or galaxy.  It was examined for radio signals on the small chance it could be artificial in origin as a possible spaceship.  This sounds a lot like science fiction, but it was necessary to rule it out.

Giant Solar Flare

After the great eclipse in August we experienced some amazing solar weather a few weeks later.  The two events were completely unrelated.  Throughout the first 10 days of September, 4 X-Flares occurred on the Sun.  These are the strongest flares we have seen in a decade.  They were also pointing toward the Earth so we were able to feel the effects of them throughout the week.  The image below is the sunspot region these flares emanated from.

Sunspot Region 2673

Radio blackouts occurred and there were some people indicating they were having trouble with their satellite radio while on a lengthy car ride.  The solar flares were responsible for some great displays of aurora that reached down to typically much lower latitudes.

An article about this event is provided below.

https://www.universetoday.com/137150/unexpected-solar-flare-also-largest-twelve-years/

I am looking forward to 2018 as I am sure there will be some historic events to capture the imagination.  Keep posted on all important space news and local astronomy events at our Facebook Page!

www.facebook.com/simonjastronomy

We are also on twitter:

https://twitter.com/simonjastronomy (@simonjastronomy)

There seems to be a warming trend throughout next week which will hopefully allow for comfortable viewing of the Quadrantid Meteor Shower set to peak on January 3, 2018!

2017 Top Space Stories (Part I)

It has been an amazing year for astronomy!  I would like to run down some of my favourite space stories from 2017.

In no particular order:

1. Total Solar Eclipse
2. TRAPPIST-1 Solar System
3. Gravitational Wave and Light Detection
4. Cassini Grand Finale
5. First Interstellar Object
6. Giant Solar Flare

Total Solar Eclipse

This year offered the first solar eclipse since I began really paying attention to the sky.  I remember borrowing a shade 14 welding mask from the shop and peeking at the October 23, 2014 partial eclipse, but that was more on a whim.  August 21, 2017 had been marked in my calendar since the Spring of 2016.  Calgary would see the Sun 80% covered by the Moon.

Maximum Solar Eclipse - Calgary

We had a great time with beautiful weather at Olympic Plaza.  Hundreds of people turned out to take in the sight through the telescope.  Many people I know trekked down to the totality zone and took some amazing photographs.

Eclipse 2017

TRAPPIST-1 Solar System

There was big news announced back in February.  The TRAPPIST-1 System had 7 terrestrial planets orbiting a cool red dwarf star.  Several of these planets were in the habitable zone where they could hold life.  All of these planets orbit within 9 million kilometers of their host star.  Compare this to Mercury which is nearly 60 million kilometers away from our Sun.  The image below was an artistic representation released by NASA.

TRAPPIST-1 System (Image Credit: NASA/JPL - Caltech)

The shortest orbital period is just over 36 hours while the longest is about 19 days.  Earth's is approximately 365 days.  The news article below describes the great excitement about this discovery.

https://www.universetoday.com/133556/huge-news-seven-earth-sized-worlds-orbiting-red-dwarf-three-habitable-zone/

Gravitational Wave and Light Detection

Gravitational wave astronomy really came to the forefront of the news this year.  The first detection was announced back in February of 2016.  However, four published detections were announced this year.  The most significant was a neutron star merger that was confirmed by electromagnetic detection of the event occurring in the galaxy NGC 4993.  This was the first time a gravitational wave detection was confirmed by another source.  The video below highlights this great event.

I studied gravitational waves back in my General Relativity course nearly a decade ago.  I am astounded at the progress made in this field.  I thought it would remain a theoretical construct of the Einstein Field Equations for several more decades before we had some experimental footing.

The press release from this event is linked below.

https://www.ligo.caltech.edu/page/press-release-gw170817

Catch Part II of my picks for the Top Space Stories of 2017 in a blog posting later this week!  As always you can keep on top of the latest news at our Facebook Page below.

www.facebook.com/simonjastronomy

2017 Week 52: (December 24-30)

It is the final week of the year and the excitement of the holiday season caused this entry to be a little late!  Fortunately nothing was missed.  The weather in Calgary is bitter and we are under an extreme cold warning throughout the week.  I'm not sure if anyone will be out observing the sky, it's best to just stay inside!

However, if you do venture outside the following two events will be in the sky.

Date	Event
December 26	First Quarter
December 30	Aldebaran 0.8°S of Moon

The First Quarter Moon will be visible through your South facing windows.  It will look eerie through the clouds that typically float by during the cold Winter evenings.  Later in the week, close to the end of the year the Moon will make a close conjunction with Aldebaran.  This is the Alpha Star in Taurus surrounded by a bunch of dimmer stars forming the Hyades Cluster.  The image below shows Aldebaran on the left side of the Moon approaching an occultation.

Aldebaran Occultation

The beauty of the Winter constellations permeates the night sky and is certainly worth a look when the temperature rises back above what feels like that of Pluto.  As the year winds down I hope to write a few more entries before 2018.  I was hoping to do a more thorough blog about the Winter Solstice and another about astronomy New Years' Resolutions.  Also, the year wouldn't be complete without a rundown of the most exciting space news of 2017!  Moving into the new year the first entry will likely be a full primer on the Quadrantid Meteor Shower.  Unfortunately we'll have a Full Supermoon polluting our cold sky with its unwanted light.


It has been an exciting year, I hope you have enjoyed the weekly updates and were able to see a few items on the lists.  2018 is shaping up to be just as exciting (even without a fantastic solar eclipse)!

Constellation Profile - Mensa

It has been a two month ride through the southern celestial hemisphere.  This is the last of Lacaille's famous constellations.  There are many other constellations in the south that I am sure we will profile in the coming year.  Mensa is different from all of the other Lacaille constellations as it does not reflect laboratory equipment found in enlightenment times.  It represents Table Mountain which overlooks Cape Town and is the only constellation in the sky that features a terrestrial object.  Lacaille did most of his work from the Cape and chose to name the constellation after this amazing landmark.

Table Mountain (Image Credit: Cape Town Magazine)

It is impossible to view from Calgary because it resides in the very South of the celestial sphere.  With a declination range from 70-85°S you can only begin to see it when you drop near to the equator.  It is a small constellation with very dim stars.  The brightest star is dimmer than 5th magnitude and will be difficult to find from the suburbs in the Southern Hemisphere.  However, the Large Magellanic Cloud forms its northern border.  Look below our satellite galaxy for a tabletop formation.  That is Mensa.

Star-hop to Mensa

Mensa forms an open trapezoid type shape representing Table Mountain.  Lacaille's original image in his planisphere is shown below.

Lacaille Mensa

Bode later developed a book known as the Uranographia and depicted this mountain within its pages.  This depiction is shown below.

Uranographia Mensa

As mentioned earlier, the Large Magellanic Cloud borders Mensa in the North.  Although this blog won't go in too much detail about our satellite galaxy it is worth mentioning a few things.

It stretches across about 10° of the sky and is a fairly bright object.  It is the third closest galaxy to our own Milky Way and is the fourth largest in the Local Group.  It was noted by Ferdinand Magellan during his early 16th century voyage and Western astronomers denoted it by his name.

The Tarantula Nebula finds itself a home within the Large Magellanic Cloud.  An article was recently written about this amazing region of space.  It is known to be one of the most active star forming regions within the entire Local Group.  This nebula was even noted by Lacaille during his two year voyage to chart the southern sky.

The Large Magellanic Cloud is probably number one on my list of southern hemisphere wonders that I wish to explore when I drop below the equator.  The image below shows the LMC with the Tarantula Nebula in the upper left of the galaxy.

Large Magellanic Cloud (Image Credit: ESA: Eckhard Slawik)

There are a few other deep-sky objects found throughout the constellation, but certainly not as exciting as the LMC.  If you have the chance to go to the southern hemisphere it is worth looking at the cloudy haze found at the top of the sky's Table Mountain.

Constellation Profile - Norma

The tour of the southern constellations continues with a stop over at Norma.  Even though it sounds like a female name it actually refers to a carpenter's square.  Lacaille continued to use enlightenment lab equipment to represent his sky.  Unfortunately for residents of Calgary, Norma remains below the horizon throughout the entire year.  To find this constellation in the southern sky simply locate the two bright pointer stars, Alpha and Beta Centauri.  They will point to the other Lacaille constellation of Circinus.  Circinus the compass opens right onto Norma.  The constellation looks like a four-sided trapezoid that seems to sit underneath the tail of Scorpius.

Star-hop to Norma

As a key element of enlightenment architecture, Lacaille placed it up in the sky along with many other items.  An image from his original planisphere is shown below.

Lacaille Norma

The map was improved on half a century later by the astronomer Johann Bode.  His depiction of this region is below.  As you can see, the shape sits right below the tail of Scorpius.

Uranographia Norma

Norma has a plentiful supply of deep-sky objects as the Milky Way flows right through the middle.  The constellation even contains an arm of our galaxy known as the Norma Arm.  There are many open clusters that are visible through binoculars so it becomes a great region for casual observers.  I am certain if I were to travel south enough I would spend a lot of time here.

Norma also contains the Ant Nebula.  I have only seen a handful of astrophotographers image this beautiful looking nebula.  The image below is from the Hubble Space Telescope.

Ant Nebula (Image Credit: R. Sahai (JPL) Hubble Heritage Team)

Norma also contains the fastest spinning Magnetar (SGR J1550-5418).  An article about possible starquakes from this magnetar is presented below.  Although approximately 15,000 light years away it was felt by our own atmosphere.

https://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/nasas-fermi-satellite-finds-hints-of-starquakes-in-magnetar-storm

The southern sky is full of wonders.  Each constellation has its own story to tell containing their own hidden treasures.  When I read stories of objects tens of thousands of light years away affecting Earth it makes me feel our own galactic neighbourhood is a little closer!