Watch This Space for September 2014
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Watch this Space for September 2014 Planet Watch Moon Phases The Planets on view this month are: New Moon First Quarter Not visible this month 24/ 09 / 14 02 / 09 / 14 Mercury: Venus: mag -3.8, before dawn is a morning star Full Moon Last Quarter Mars: mag +0.7 in Libra, sets about 9pm 09 / 09 / 14 16 / 09 / 14 Jupiter: mag –1.7 in Cancer rises about 3am Saturn: mag +0.7 in Libra, sets about 9pm The Sun Uranus: mag +5.8, in Pisces, rises about 8pm Neptune: mag +7.7, in Aquarius, sets around 4:45am Rises: 06:39, 15th September, Sets: 19:19 Constellation of the Month Serpens — The Serpent Serpens is unique in being split into two separate parts: Serpent Caput (Head) and Serpens Cauda (Tail) with Ophiuchus (The Serpent Bearer) in between. It is a faint constellation, 23rd in size of the 88 constellations. Notable stars: Ser - (Unukalhai) Brightest star in the constellation at mag 2.6. It is a double star, mags 2.6 and 11.8, separation 50”. Ser - Is also a multiple star mags 3.9, 9.9, 10.7 separations 31” and 201”. Some Interesting Objects: Ophiuchus contains 82 NGC objects, including 2 Messier objects, M5 and M16. M5 - Globular cluster mag 5.8. Constellation map credit: Torsten Bronger M16 - Star cluster in the emission nebula IC4703. The nebula contains the “Pillars of creation”, famous for the Hubble picture taken in 1995. The whole complex is often referred to as M16. NGC 5962 - A mag 11 spiral galaxy with tight spiral arms. NGC 6118 - A mag 12 spiral galaxy. Nicknamed the "Blinking Galaxy" as visu- ally it has a tendency to flick in and out of view. Seyfert’s Sextet - A group of 6 galaxies, all about mag 15-16, appearing very close together. Five of the six are about 190 Mly away and are gravitationally interacting. The sixth object is a distant (877 Mly) spiral galaxy in the back- ground. Hoag’s Object - A rare ring galaxy. A faint object (mag 16) consisting of a nearly perfect ring of young hot blue stars circling an older yellow nucleus. About 600 million light-years away. The “Pillars of Creation” and star cluster M16 Image: Steve Broadbent, 10min total RGB, iTelescope T11 Lunar Feature of the Month Janssen Janssen is a severely worn impact crater, but the outer boundaries of the crater can still be deciphered. Janssen’s degraded state has been due to subsequent impacts in the area, the craters Fabricius, Steinheil, Watt & Lockyer can all be found in the immediate vicinity. Despite these overlaying craters one cannot fail to notice that Janssen does not have a circular rim like all other craters, in fact you can see that this craters perimeter takes on a more hexagonal appear- ance and makes it somewhat unique. Another feature of in- terest is a rille that lies within Janssen itself and runs for some 140kms! Janssen Crater. Janssen Rille can be seen extending from Fabricius in the North east to the south of Janssen. Image by Lunar Orbiter 4 1967 ©NASA The Sun in August Despite the Sun being around maximum, it has been relatively quiet during the course of August. However, on August 24, 12:14.42 sunspot AR2151 released a M5.6 flare, described as ‘magnificent’ by Space Weath- er. AR151 was, fortunately, just emerging around the eastern limb of the Sun so the CME was not Earth Di- rected, i.e. a ‘lightbulb CME. However, the Earth did not escape entirely. A pulse of extreme UV radiation partially ionized the planet's upper atmosphere. This "Sudden Ionospheric Disturbance" affected normal propagation of VLF radio transmissions over the dayside of Earth, recorded at the Polarlightcenter in Lofoten, Norway. Flare image: SDO/SOHO. Radio data: Rob Stammes Polarlightcenter Laukvik Lofoten ,Norway ISS and Iridium Flares this month ISS visibility ISS night-time visibility, magnitude greater than –2.0, height greater than 30° Zenith Start End Date Time Mag Dirn Ht Dirn Ht Dirn Ht No evening passes ISS Events Transits of Sun and Moon Longer than 1 sec and night-time close passes Date Time Event Thu 4 Sep 10:14 ISS transit of Sun 15:03 ISS transit of Sun Fri 5 Sep 18:57 UFO F2 transit of Moon Sun 7 Sep 10:24 Falcon 9 transit of Sun Mon 8 Sep 23:49 Intlst 5F11 transit of Moon Tues 9 Sep 7:49 ISS transit of Sun 12:37 ISS transit of Sun Satellite flares Magnitude greater than -4.0, height greater than 30° Date Time Satellite Mag Dirn Ht Sat 13 Sep 21:39 Metop B -4.1 E 68° Wed 17 Sep 20:41 Iridium 63 -4.9 N 31° Sun 28 Sep 19:33 Iridium 63 -4.3 N 51° Data from CalSky: http://www.calsky.com .