Watch this Space for November 2014

Moon Phases Planet Watch

The Planets on view this month are: New Moon First Quarter 22/ 11 / 14 29 / 11 / 14 Mercury: mag -0.6 in the morning sky Venus: not visible this month Full Moon Last Quarter Mars: mag +1.0 in Sagittarius sets around 19:30 06 / 11 / 14 14 / 11 / 14 Jupiter: mag –2.0 rises at 22:30 on Cancer/Leo border Saturn: not visible this month The Sun Uranus: mag +5.7, in Pisces, sets around 03:30 Rises: 07:20, 15th November, Sets: 16:18 Neptune: mag +7.9, in Aquarius, sets around 00:00 of the Month Sagitta — The Arrow & — The Little Fox

These are two small faint constellations situated in the cen- tre of the “Summer Triangle” of Vega, Deneb and Aquila. Notable :  Sge - “Sham”. A rare G2 giant , mag 4.4, mass 4 , radius 20 .  Vul - A mag 4.4 red giant which is a wide optical binary which can be split with binoculars, separation 6.9’ map credit: Torsten Bronger PSR B1919+21 - The first pulsar, discovered in 1967 by Antony Hewish and Jocelyn Bell in Cambridge is in the constellation of Vulpecula.

Some Interesting Objects: Sagitta contains 3 NGC objects including Messier 71. Vulpecula contains 15 NGC objects including Messier 27 and Caldwell 37.

M71 - in Sagitta, NGC 6838, mag 8.3 globular cluster. M27 - in Vulpecula, “ The Dumbbell ” , NGC 6853, mag 7.5 planetary nebula. C 37 - in Vulpecula, NGC 6885, mag. 6.0 open cluster. NGC 7052 - in Vulpecula, an elliptical with a dust disk surrounding the central black hole. NGC 6820 & 6823 - in Vulpecula, and emission nebula. A star forming region with dust pillars. M27, image: Steve Futcher, Celestron C8 Brocchi’s Cluster - in Vulpecula. Also known as “ The Coathanger” , “Al Sufi’s Cluster” and Collinder 399. An asterism of up to 10 stars with the open cluster NGC 6802 at one end.

Lunar Feature of the Month Palus Somni Sitting on the north eastern shores of the Mare Tranquilitatis lies an area of uneven land known as Palus Somni, the Marsh of Sleep. This 143km area of light grey regolith is easily discernible against the darker Mare nearby. The Palus Somni was formed some 4.5 to 3.8 billion years ago and is best observed 4 days after new moon or 3 days after full moon. Near to the Marsh of Sleep lies the 142km diameter Sinus Corcordiae, the Bay of Harmony.

The Palus Somni and the Sinus Corcordiae are both shown in this image from the Clementine Probe in 1994 ©NASA

The Sun in October Unlike September, a lot has been happening on the Sun in October. On October 18 AR2192, a behemoth of a sunspot, appeared round the limb of the Sun. The structure noticeably changed as the Sun rotated and the final surface area was equivalent to that of 16 Earth discs. M, C and X class flares were predicted. It did produce several M-class flares and no fewer than five X-class. None of these resulted in an Earth-bound CME but they did produce some HF radio communication blackouts. The sunspot can clearly be seen in the image of the partial solar eclipse, seen over North America on October 23. The month ended with a spectacular Hyder flare, fortunately not Earthbound.

AR2192 Credit: Karzaman Ahmad. Partial solar eclipse. Hyder flare. Credit: SDO Langkawi National Observatory Malaysia Credit: James W. Young. Wrightwood, California

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 Duration (s) Sun 2 Nov 19:01 Intelsat 5F11 transit of Moon 16 Mon 3 Nov 18:02 Intelsat 5F11 transit of Moon 10 Tue 4 Nov 17:07 Intelsat 5F11 transit of Moon 42 Wed 5 Nov 00:13 Intelsat 502 transit of Moon 37 Fri 7 Nov 14:04 CRRES transit of Sun 297 15:03 Tiangong-1 transit of Sun 2 Sat 8 Nov 21:12 Falcon 9 transit of Moon 29 Sun 9 Nov 11:25 Stardust D1 transit of Sun 13 Thu 13 Nov 09:44 Stardust D1 transit of Sun 10

Satellite flares Magnitude greater than -4.0, height greater than 30° Date Time Satellite Mag Dirn Ht Mon 10 Nov 16:24 Iridium 46 -6.0 ENE 76° Thu 13 Nov 16:06 Iridium 25 -7.4 E 77° Fri 14 Nov 16:00 Iridium 47 -6.2 E 77° 17:00 Iridium 45 -7.5 NE 67° Thu 20 Nov 17:28 Iridium 32 -7.2 NE 59° Sun 30 Nov 18:31 Iridium 5 -6.4 NNE 39°

Data from CalSky: http://www.calsky.com