Section updated: Nov 15th, 2024
Target Observations for Tuesday’s Nov. 19th's Session:
The night of the 19th will offer plenty of things for us to see! The night will offer a Waning Gibbous Moon, that won’t rise until after 9 pm. The Ring Nebula and the nearby bright star Vega and its stellar spectra will be available. We’ll have Cygnus’s Veil Nebulae (NGC 6992 & 6960), the “Blue Snowball” (NGC 7662) and the “Saturn Nebula” (NGC 7009) planetary nebulae, as well as the globular “Jellyfish Cluster” (NGC 7099), to see early on in the night. And to the south, we may be able to see the Sculptor Galaxy (NGC 253), which is 10 million light years away. As the Moon will not be near them that evening, they should be good to see.
That evening, a near edge on ringed Saturn will be transited by its moon Enceladus (from 6:08 pm until 8:37 pm) with its shadow appearing immediately below its rings. Its other moons will appear at its side with its orange moon Titan appearing bright.
We’ll spy on the sky-blue planet Neptune and have a chance to see Neptune’s doomed moon of Triton.
Nearby Neptune, we will take a look at asteroid Massalia, which will happen to appear very near the origin point of celestial coordinates in the sky. It will appear only as a dot in the scope that may move a tiny bit, so it may not seem to be very special. However, a growing theory and recent evidence indicates that this asteroid had a major and profound effect on the evolution of life on our planet. We’ll discuss it that night so that we’ll have a better appreciation for what we’ll see of it in the telescope.
The Earth is orbiting nearer and nearer to Jupiter, and it is almost at our opposition point to the Sun. It rises at 6:43 pm on Tuesday night It is so noticeable in our sky, especially as it appears so high up on the ecliptic. Its height from the horizon means that there will be less atmosphere in our way, so we can get more exquisite and detailed views of it. Its moons will all appear west of the planet. Starting at 9:46 pm, its moon Europa will pull a disappearing act, it will pass into the planet’s shadow, taking about 4 minutes to do so. It will appear to do so at just over 2/3rds of the planet’s apparent radius away from it, completely disconnected with the planet. It is one thing to “know” that its moons orbit the great planet, because that is what the textbooks told you that they do. It is quite another thing to personally witness it that they do and have evidence of it for yourself.
The pale aqua planet Uranus will be seen near the Pleiades on the 8th. Its spin axis is obliquely tilted over by 98° from the ecliptic plane. Because angular momentum is conserved, its axis always points out in the same direction in space. But now in its 84 year orbit, the planet has traveled around the Sun so that its north pole is oriented back at the Sun and us as well. So, when we observe it, we’ll be looking right upon its north pole. There is a small possibility that we could see up to 4 of its moons, too.
Note: at the time of this writing, our views of these nightly targets may be challenged by the effects of the system that currently is the tropical storm Sara. It may reach our state then to give us mostly cloudy skies for the evening. So, if you are planning to come, do check the weather conditions.
