Category Archives: Sky Viewing

Public Viewing “Ad-hoc” schedule: May – August 2015

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I’ve talked to some of our telescope volunteers and we’re going to be moving to more of an “ad-hoc” viewing schedule for the summer months.

The schedules of our volunteers gets a bit harder to organize, the viewings are later in the evening, and we need to book our meeting room at least two days in advance.

Instead of booking a date and hoping for better weather, we’ll be looking for a period of time where it looks like really good viewing weather and then trying to find a couple of volunteers.  This means we’ll still be trying to have a viewing about once a month, but it will only be announced at shorter notice and it could be on different days of the week.

How to get the news of the next viewing:

  • Subscribe to our twitter feed, @UPEIAstronomy
  • Subscribe to our Google Groups email listserv, UPEI Telescope
  • Check near the top of this website.

Happy viewing!  I’m really hoping we can get a good viewing in the month of May as Saturn is looking like a good evening viewing target and it’s right up there with Jupiter for my favourite planet.

Check out other good viewing targets picked by Astronomy Magazine for the first half of May 2015!

 

Skywatching in PEI for April 2015

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UPDATE: No viewing evening of Saturday April 11th (too cloudy)

The Cleardarksky predictions for Charlottetown the evening of  Saturday April 11th are pretty bad, so we are cancelling the viewing for tonight.  I’m contacting volunteers to try and reschedule for next Thursday or Saturday evening and the TBA in title above will be updated once confirmed.   The later part of the next week currently has “mainly sunny” as the forecast for Wednesday to Saturday.

Canada’s “Space”, the science fiction television station, has a nice collection of information on star watching, including videos that give tips and information on stars and our solar system’s planets, telescope tips and some nice photos. .

 

When will the sky be clear?

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The weather in PEI can change quickly and frequently involves clouds, all of which can make it tricky to see the stars. A quick look at our list of past Public Viewings shows that we end up cancelling about half of the time because of uncooperative weather.

Forecasts offered by weather services can be pretty brief so it can be difficult to figure out at what time on what night the sky may be clear enough for some astronomy.

Fortunately, there is an astronomer’s forecast provided free by Clear Dark Sky. This forecast interprets local Environment Canada data through an astronomy perspective. The forecast for Charlottetown is shown below.

There is detailed information on the forecast website about how to interpret all the information provided in the above forecast, but lets just go over the basics.

The day of the week and time of day (to be read vertically in a 24-hour format) are provided above all the coloured squares. A thick red line separates one day from another.CDStime

The “Cloud Cover” line is the most important for naked-eye sky viewing. You won’t be able to see the sky if there’s clouds in the way! A white square for a particular hour indicates cloud cover whereas a dark blue square indicates no clouds. Colours in-between represent partial cloud cover.CDScloudcover

The “Darkness” line tells you when it will be dark enough for viewing (with no accounting for local light pollution). Darkest sky will be represented by black squares. On moonlit nights, you will see light blue to deep blue squares, depending on the fullness of the Moon.CDSdarkness

So now, at a glance, you can tell what’s the best time of night to head out to do some star or planet gazing.

Total Lunar Eclipse on April 15

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What is a total lunar eclipse?

A lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon moves into the shadow of the Earth. When the Moon is completely covered by the darkest part of the Earth’s shadow (called the umbra), then the eclipse is said to be total. Lunar eclipses only ever occur at the full Moon, as the Earth must be between the Sun and Moon to cast a shadow on the Moon.

What will it look like?

Lunar eclipse in 2008 as viewed from the USA. Photographed by John Buonomo, retrieved from Wikimedia Commons

The first parts of the eclipse when the Moon is in the lighter part of Earth’s shadow (called the penumbra) are very hard to see. In this partial eclipse phase, if you’re in a very dark location and looking carefully, you may notice a  darkening of parts of the Moon’s surface.

The real interesting viewing starts when the total eclipse phase begins. At this time, the only light reaching the Moon from the Sun is light that passes just around the edges of Earth through its atmosphere. The blue colours of the sunlight get scattered away and only the redder colours reach the surface of the Moon to be reflected back for us to see. The Moon will be darker than usual and probably tinted red/orange. Exactly how much it’s tinted depends on atmospheric conditions at the time of the eclipse.

When you can I see it?

The total eclipse will begin Tuesday morning (April 15) at 4:07 am in local time for PEI. The total eclipse stage, when the Moon will look darkest and possibly reddish-orange, will last until 5:25 am. Some of the most interesting moments to watch can be just as totality is beginning (start viewing by 4:00am) or just as totality ends (start viewing by 5:20am).

Watching the entire eclipse can be kinda long and boring, but if you set your alarm clock for an appropriate time in the early morning, you can get up, watch the eclipse for however many minutes you feel like, and then probably still get back to bed for an extra hour or more of sleep before starting your day.

What if it’s cloudy?

If the weather doesn’t cooperate with viewing the eclipse in PEI (i.e. the Moon is blocked by clouds), you can watch the eclipse online in a broadcast by NASA or by Slooh Observatory.

Jupiter in our evening sky

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JupiterFall2013

Jupiter is currently in the constellation Gemini (which has two bright stars, Pollux and Castor), found east of Orion. Shown here at 10:00 PM AST on November 24, 2013.(Image source: screenshot from free planetarium software Stellarium: www.stellarium.org)

Jupiter is appearing once again in our evening sky after several months absence.

As Earth and Jupiter both travel around the Sun, Jupiter’s position relative to the Sun changes as viewed from Earth.  When Jupiter is on the other side of the Sun from Earth (called conjunction), we are unable to see Jupiter because it appears to be near the Sun from our vantage point (and its reflected light is overwhelmed by the Sun’s light).

JupiterConjunctionVsOppositionWhen Jupiter is on the same side of Sun as Earth (called “opposition”), it appears bright and highest in our night sky.  As Jupiter nears opposition (which next occurs in January, 2014), it changes from rising just before sunrise to rising earlier in the night.  Currently, it’s rising around 8:00 PM and can then be seen in the evening and night sky.

You can easily spot Jupiter with the naked eye – it’s one of the brightest objects in the sky.  Look for it east of Orion near two bright stars of the constellation Gemini (as shown in the first image above).

If you have binoculars that you can hold good and steady, you may also be able to spot Jupiter’s four largest moons (called “Galilean” after Galileo, their discoverer) as four bright dots in a line around Jupiter.  These moons will switch position from one night to another as they orbit around Jupiter.

Jupiter and its largest moons viewed through binoculars
(Source: http://en.es-static.us/upl/2009/07/jupiter_galilean_moons_300.jpg)