See Saturn, Mars and the Moon Shine in This Week's Evening Sky
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See Saturn, Mars and the Moon Shine in This Week's Evening Sky
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See Saturn, Mars and the Moon Shine in This Week's Evening Sky
If the weather is clear in your area on Sunday night (November 11) until the end of next week, you will have the opportunity to see what the three "most requested" objects are likely to look like for most people. Through a telescope: The moon and the planets Saturn and Mars.
When it comes to the planets, remember that during the middle and the last part of the summer we had four bright planets conveniently covered by the evening sky. Arranged from southwest to southeast were Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, and Mars. But since then, Venus has moved into the morning sky, while Jupiter is too close to the sun to be seen.
That now leaves us alone with Saturn and Mars to search after the sun has set, and in another month it will be Saturn's turn to leave as well. This weekend, the moon will pay a visit to the "ringed wonder" and then meet with Mars on Thursday. Let's take a closer look at both couples, starting with the moon and Saturn.
Soon it will be time to bid farewell to the masterpiece of the solar system, the Magnificent ringed planet Saturn. We will have about another month before it starts to disappear in the fires of sunset. And on Sunday, it will provide one of the final opportunities for many to identify him positively, since he will be close to a Crescent moon. Wait until about an hour after the sun has set, then focus your gaze on the southwest horizon.
The moon will have spent four days since the new phase and 18 percent will be illuminated, floating almost 20 degrees above the horizon. While your clenched fist held at arm's length measures approximately 10 grades wide, that moon arch will appear almost "two fists" up. Once you see the moon, take note of a bright and lonely "star" that shines with a yellowish white tint to its lower right. That will be the solar system version of the "Lord of the Rings". Of course, make sure there are no trees or tall buildings that obstruct the view of these two celestial bodies. After all, both will descend rapidly as the sky darkens and both will remain in view for only 90 more minutes before they disappear below the horizon.
Of course, you can see the famous rings of Saturn only with a telescope, although some can glimpse them using stabilized (or stabilized image). high power binocularsor small telescopes. But to get a definite view, you will need an eyepiece that magnifies at least 30 power. Larger instruments will provide more pleasant images. Through a 6-inch telescope at 150 watts, the view is quite dramatic; With 10 inches to 250 watts, the view is amazing. But you can see it as soon as possible at night, since our atmosphere is much more turbulent near the horizon; as Saturn descends through the southwest sky, your image will appear as "shaken" or distorted a bit.
Itself
After leaving the vicinity of Saturn, the moon will head to a course to the east against the stars in the background, and Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday night will be virtually on its own. For the owner of a telescope, the moon is perhaps the most interesting of all objects in the sky, because it is close enough to be seen really well. Even a simple pair of binoculars of 7 powers will show defined characteristics on its surface. Check the area especially around the line that separates light and darkness (called the "terminator") and you will see craters and other lunar features that stand out in bold because they are partially in shadow.
With each passing night, more of the lunar surface will light up and the half moon will gradually expand. Finally, Thursday night will be the turn of another planet to be visited by the moon. That will be Mars, the Red Planet.
The moon visits Mars
By the way, although most almanacs and calendars will be shown on Thursday (November 15) as the night of the first quarter of the moon (average), this is not strictly correct. This is because the moment of the first quarter phase takes place at 1454 GMT, or 9:54 a.m. Eastern Time. That's when the moon is illuminated at 50 percent and the terminator appears straight. But at that point, the moon is below the horizon for North America. When we arrive in the afternoon hours, the moon will pass many hours after the first quarter; it will be illuminated at 53 percent and the terminator will no longer be straight, but slightly convex.
Around 3 degrees to the upper left of the moon that night you will see Mars, which continues to move away from Earth. Although we call Mars the planet "red", you will see that it really shines with a yellowish orange tint. This coloration is due to the oxidation of the iron oxide that covers a large part of the Martian surface. Here on Earth we have something very similar to that in the colors of the famous Arizona Painted Desert. Still, the orange-yellow color apparently suggested blood to ancient sky watchers, and since the "wandering stars" we know as planets were named by the ancient deities, it seemed appropriate to name this wandering topaz as the god of war.
Frank Melillo of Holtsville, Long Island, New York, made an image of Mars the night of October 31 (Halloween). He writes: "I took an image of Mars that night and I have attached it here Yes, now it is gibbous and it's like three days before the full moon." Mars usually appears gibbous three months before and after the opposition. Close to next Spring, Mare Tyrrhenum and Mare Cimmerium dominate the album as a long, dark band on the entire record, with a diameter of up to 12 arcseconds. "
Credit: Frank Melillo
On November 1, Mars burned in -0.6 magnitude at a distance of 73.4 million (118.2 million kilometers) from Earth. But at the end of the month, it will be 20.5 million miles (almost 33 million kilometers) farther from us and, consequently, it will have been noticeably attenuated to a magnitude 0, or only about a third of the light that appeared at the end of July (lower magnitudes are brighter). Unfortunately, a high-level dust storm of the plan hid most of the surface of Mars at that time. The storm has since been cleared, but the apparent size of Mars now appears to be only 40 percent as large as it was when it was closest to Earth. However, some observers like Frank J. Melillo of Holtsville, New York, are still taking some good quality images.
From here, Mars will continue to shrink and dwindle as its distance from Earth increases. By the beginning of 2019, even a large telescope will have difficulty highlighting any feature of the surface. By then, Mars will be only a small point.
Joe Rao is an instructor and guest professor at the Hayden Planetarium in New York. He writes about astronomy for the Natural History magazine, the Farmers' Almanac and other publications, and is also an on-camera meteorologist for Verizon FiOS1 News in the Lower Hudson Valley of New York. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and in Facebook. Original article about Space.com.
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