Snake River Skies The Newsletter of the Magic Valley Astronomical Society September 2020 Membership Meeting MVAS President’s Message See President’s Message for September Centennial Observatory Due to the impossibility of maintaining With August coming to a close, we bid farewell to Comet C/2020 F3 proper social distance within the confined (NEOWISE). It became an inspiration for some and produced the space of the observatory dome, the most spectacular astrophotography for others. observatory is currently closed until further notice. See President’s Message. With the month of September we are beginning to see the return of Faulkner Planetarium cooler temperatures to the region and, along with that, the shifting of See page 11 for Details the night skies to the fall constellations. Cooler weather also means better views through any telescope, or binoculars. www.mvastro.org Club Officers The Herrett Center has reopened! But for the foreseeable future, the observatory will only allow groups who arrive together to proceed to Robert Mayer, President the observatory one group at a time, for time-limited views through the [email protected] telescope. Telescope views on the lawn in front of the Herrett Center th Gary Leavitt, Vice President will also continue for September. The first will be on the 12 beginning [email protected] at 8:45 pm. Dr. Jay Hartwell, Secretary Also at the Herrett Center, International Observe the Moon Night is scheduled for September 26th, 8:00 to 10:00 pm. Telescopes will be Jim Tubbs, Treasurer / ALCOR [email protected] out front on the lawn. Chris Anderson is looking for volunteers. If you 208-404-2999 have not already done so, please let him know ASAP if you can help. David Olsen, Newsletter Editor Sadly, the Boise Astronomical Society (BAS) has had to cancel the [email protected] Idaho Star Party™ for 2020 due to the COVID pandemic. However, their guest speaker Andreas Faisst will give his talk on "The Rick Widmer, Webmaster Formation of Galaxies Revealed by the Largest Time Machines” in the [email protected] BAS Zoom membership meeting scheduled for Friday, September th Magic Valley Astronomical Society is a 18 at 7:00 pm. Andreas is from NASA/Caltech so it should be an member of the Astronomical League interesting evening. Details will follow via an e-mail to the club members. Our monthly meeting will be held on the 12th at 7:00 pm via virtual conference like last month. Tim Frazier will make a presentation on Astrophotography; details will be sent via the membership e-mail list. Until next month, David Olsen, for Rob Mayer by request. M-51 imaged by Rick Widmer & Ken Thomason Herrett Telescope - Shotwell Camera Calendar September 2020 Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat 1 2 3 4 5 Corn Moon 11:23 pm BSU 1st Friday Astronomy Visible 100% Age: 15.03 Days 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Last Quarter MVAS General Moon Meeting at 7:00pm via Zoom Observing on the lawn in front Visible: 49% ↓ of the Herrett Age: 22.25 Days Center at 8:45pm 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 New Moon Visible 0% Age: 0.54 Days 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 First Quarter International Moon Observe the Moon Night Herrett Center Visible 55% ↑ Front Lawn Age: 7.81 Days 8:00pm to 10:00pm 27 28 29 30 Snake River Skies is the Newsletter of the Magic Valley Astronomical Society and is published electronically once a month. Snake River Skies © 2020 by David Olsen for the Magic Valley Astronomical Society, All Rights Reserved. Images used in this newsletter, unless otherwise noted, are in the public domain and are courtesy of NASA, Wikimedia, or from MVAS File Photos. Full Moon names follow the traditional various First Nations history. Be Careful – Be Safe – Get Out There – Explore Your Universe September Celestial Calendar by Dave Mitsky All times, unless otherwise noted, are UT (subtract 7 hours and, when appropriate, 1 calendar day for MDT) 9/1 The equation of time, which yields the difference between mean solar time and apparent solar time, equals 0 at 2:00 9/3 The Moon is 3.9 degrees southeast of Neptune at 1:00 9/4 The Martian winter solstice occurs at 4:00 9/6 The Moon is 0.03 degrees north of Mars, with an occultation occurring in southern Europe, northern Africa, Cape Verde Island, and central and northeastern South America, at 5:00; the Moon is at apogee, subtending 29' 28" from a distance of 405,607 kilometers (252,032 miles), at 6:29 9/7 The Moon is 3.0 degrees south of Uranus at 4:00 9/8 Mercury is at the descending node through the ecliptic plane at 18:00 9/9 The Moon is 6.2 degrees southeast of the bright open cluster M45 (the Pleiades or Subaru) in the constellation of Taurus at 0:00; the Moon is 4.1 degrees north of the first-magnitude star Aldebaran (Alpha Tauri) at 18:00; Mars is stationary at 18:00 9/10 Last Quarter Moon occurs at 9:26; the Moon is at the ascending node (longitude 85.2 degrees) at 23:00 9/11 The Curtiss Cross, an X-shaped illumination effect located between the craters Parry and Gambart, is predicted to be visible at 00:32; asteroid 19 Fortuna (magnitude +9.4) is at opposition in the constellation of Pisces at 7:00; the Moon is 0.3 degrees south of the bright open cluster M35 in the constellation of Gemini at 13:00; Neptune (magnitude +7.8, angular size 2.3") is at opposition at 20:00 9/13 Jupiter is stationary, with prograde (direct or eastward) motion to resume at 0:00; the Moon is 7.9 degrees south of the first-magnitude star Castor (Alpha Geminorum) at 0:00; the Moon is 4.3 degrees south of the first-magnitude star Pollux (Beta Geminorum) at 5:00; Venus is 2.3 degrees south of the bright open cluster M44 (the Beehive Cluster or Praesepe) in the constellation of Cancer at 10:00 9/14 The Moon is 2.1 degrees north-northeast of M44 at 5:00; the Moon, Venus, and M44 lie within a circle with a diameter of 4.4 degrees at 6:00; a double Galilean satellite shadow transit (Callisto's shadow follows Io's) begins at 6:57; the Moon is 4.4 degrees north-northeast of Venus at 7:00; Jupiter is at its southernmost declination at 20:00 9/15 The Moon is 4.1 degrees north-northeast of the first-magnitude star Regulus (Alpha Leonis) at 19:00 9/16 The Sun enters the constellation of Virgo, at longitude 174.2 degrees on the ecliptic, at 14:00 9/18 The Moon is at perigee, subtending 33' 17" from a distance of 359,082 kilometers (223,123 miles), at 13:48 9/19 The Moon is 5.9 degrees north-northeast of Mercury at 3:00; Mercury is at aphelion (0.4667 astronomical units from the Sun) at 3:00; the Moon 6.4 degrees north-northeast of the first-magnitude star Spica (Alpha Virginis) at 10:00 9/22 Mercury is 0.3 degrees northeast of Spica at 12:00; the Sun's longitude is 180 degrees at 13:31; the northern hemisphere autumnal equinox occurs at 13:31; the Moon is 5.8 degrees north-northeast of the first-magnitude star Antares (Alpha Scorpii) at 14:00 9/23 The Moon is at the descending node (longitude 263.9 degrees) at 13:00 9/24 First Quarter Moon occurs at 1:55; the Lunar X, also known as the Werner or Purbach Cross, an X-shaped clair- obscur illumination effect involving various ridges and crater rims located between the craters La Caille, Blanchinus, and Purbach, is predicted to be fully formed at 13:09 9/25 The Moon is 1.6 degrees south of Jupiter at 7:00; the Moon is 2.3 degrees south of Saturn at 22:00 9/26 Venus at ascending node through the ecliptic plane at 22:00 9/29 Saturn is stationary, with prograde (direct or eastward) motion to resume, at 3:00 9/30 Asteroid 68 Leto (magnitude +9.6) is at opposition in the constellation of Cetus at 3:00; the Moon is 3.9 degrees southeast of Neptune at 6:00 On this date in History Sept 1, 1804: Karl Harding discovered asteroid 3 Juno. Sept 7, 1746: Jean-Dominique Maraldi discovered the globular cluster M15. Sept 9, 1892: E. E. Barnard discovered Jupiter’s fifth satellite, fourteenth-magnitude Amalthea, using the 36-inch refractor at the Lick Observatory. Sept 11, 1746: Jean-Dominique Maraldi discovered the globular cluster M2. Sept 12, 1784: William Herschel discovered the barred spiral galaxy NGC 7753. Sept 13, 1850: John Russell Hind discovered the asteroid 12 Victoria. Sept 14, 1751: Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille discovered NGC 104 (47 Tucanae), the second largest and brightest globular cluster. Sept 17, 1789: William Herschel discovered the Saturnian satellite Mimas. Sept 19, 1848: William Bond discovered Saturn’s fourteenth-magnitude satellite Hyperion, the first irregular moon to be discovered. Sept 27, 1793: Comet C/1793 S2 (Messier) was discovered by Charles Messier. Sept 23, 1846: Johann Gottfried Galle discovered Neptune using Urbain Le Verrier’s calculations of its position. The Sun, the Moon, & the Planets The Sun is located in Leo on September 1st. It enters Virgo on September 16th. The Sun crosses the celestial equator from north to south at 13:31 UT on September 22nd, the date of the autumnal equinox.