I got news today about scientists finding an Earth-like planet orbiting a Sun-like star, but the article didn’t say where it is so I can at least observe the star if not the planet. After digging I found that the star is GJ 1214 in Ophiuchus. That isn’t a terribly bright part of the sky but if I can find travel directions maybe we can hop there some night.
Here is a 1° map centered on the R.A. and Dec. of GJ 1214. I guess the fact that nothing appears there is understandable since this star/sun appears to have just been discovered.
Catres du Ciel graphic
This map of Ophiuchus shows roughly where the GJ 1214b should be since the label for SLE 17 is a carryover from the 1° view. Since the Sun is currently in Oph it is going to be a while before we can look for GJ 1214.
Other stars that have been recently found to be exo-suns (and ones that we might be able to find - one is even a naked-eye object) with super-Earths (planets 1-10 times as massive as the Earth) include:
61 Virginis |
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Mag. 4.74
R.A. 13h 18m 24.30s
Dec. -18° 18' 49.0" |
23 Librae |
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Mag. 6.45
R.A. 15h 13m 18.70s
Dec. -25° 20' 45.4" |
HD 1465 (HR 72) | |
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Mag. 6.46
R.A. 00h 18m 41.87s
Dec. -08° 03' 10.8" |
These might be interesting things to show passers-by since they are in the news.
The BBC is reporting that NASA has measured the coldest temperature of anywhere in the Solar System where they have been able to make measurements and it is practically in our back yard. They measured temperatures inside the rims of lunar craters where the Sun never shines. Because they are so close to the poles and are so deep the rays of the sun are blocked by the rim and in the winter the temperature bottomed out at 26 K (absolute zero is 0 K). The coldest crater was Hemite with Peary and Bosch as close runners up. I was able to find Hemite and Peary on the north polar regions plate USGS Geologic Lunar Atlas but I can't find a reference anywhere to tell me where to go looking for Bosch.
detail from USGS Geologic Lunar Atlas, North Side of the Moon
In this piece of the map the north lunar pole and Hemite and Bosch are in the upper right corner. The rest of the map is there to give them some context since we can't observe them but do see some of the craters along the bottom of the map.
There is a giant sunspot up there today that Space Weather says is eight times as large as the earth. From the pictures it looks like it should be visible without optics.
| Observing Location | 10 Ave @ 52 St, New York, NY
Long.:
Lat.: |
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| Observational Period | 1445-1500 EST |
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| Atmospheric Conditions |
| Cloud Cover | Clear |
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| Temperature | 30 |
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| Wind | Light Breeze
gusting to
Gentle Breeze |
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| Wind Chill Effect | 22° F |
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| Humidity | Moderate |
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| Barometric Pressure | 30.25" Hg
Steady |
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| Feels Like | Cold |
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| Instruments | Naked-eye w/shade 10 + shade 5 glass welder’s filter lenses- Charlie |
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| Observing Party | Charlie Ridgway
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| Target | Sunspots |
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| Constellation | Opn |
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| Category | Solar |
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Time
yyyymmdd.hhmm | 20091217.1445 EST |
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| Comments |
Distance
Light Time | 0.9841 AU
8m s |
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| Angular Size | 32.5' |
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| Altitude | 14° 20' |
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Heliographic Latitude
(B0) | -1.27° |
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Heliographic Longitude
(L0) | 219.59° |
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Parallactic Angle
(P) | +8.86° |
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Carrington rotation number
(CR) | 2091 |
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I know they are out there, I saw them on the Web, but I can’t see them. They are actually it, one group of spots in the NW quadrant of the Sun. At eight times the size of the earth I think they should be seeable without magnification but suspect that they are too close to the limb for me to see them with my eyesight.
| | Groups | Spots | R |
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| North | 0 | 0 | 0 |
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| South | 0 | 0 | 0 |
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| Total | 0 | 0 | 0 |
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| R = (Groups * 10) + Spots) |
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| Observing Location | TotL |
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| Observational Period | 1625-1800 EST |
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| Atmospheric Conditions |
| Cloud Cover | ClearAlthought it is officially clear in NOAA parlance there is a stripe of cloud indicating a front moving in from the west that is right above the treeline where I need to see. There is also a generalized thin cloud/haze/smog. |
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| Temperature | 28° F |
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| Wind | Gentle Breeze
gusting to
Moderate Breeze |
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| Wind Chill Effect | 18&def; F |
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| Humidity | Moderate |
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| Barometric Pressure | 3028" Hg
Rising |
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| Feels Like | Cold |
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| Instruments | Naked-eye - Charlie |
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| Observing Party | Charlie Ridgway
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| Target | First Crescent Moon |
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| Constellation | Sgr |
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| Category | Lunar |
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Time
yyyymmdd.hhmm | 20091217.1630 EST |
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| Comments |
| Lunation | 1076 |
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| Phase | Waxing Crescent |
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| Age | 1.40d |
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Distance
Light Time
(from earth) | 402,216 km
s |
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| Elongation | 14° 57' 35.5" |
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| % Illuminated | 1.8% |
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| Morning Terminator Colongitude (λ E) | 283.2° |
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| Evening Terminator Colongitude (λ W) | 76.8° |
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| Libration in Latitude | +1° 48' |
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| Libration in Longitude | +1° 41' |
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| Magnitude | -1.70 |
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| Angular Size | 29.71' |
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| Altitude | 6° 17' |
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|  Virtual Moon Atlas graphic |
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Not Seen
I knew going out that this was going to be a difficult and probably futile attempt. The ecliptic is fairly shallow and the Moon is below it. I didn’t help myself any by going out unprepared. I hadn’t gotten an azimuth on either the Moon or Sun at sunset or an elongation of the Moon. And I arrived later than I had planned so didn’t get to see where the Sun was setting. Add to that the stripe of clouds moving out of the west right where I think the ecliptic was.
 Stellarium graphic
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| Target | Jupiter |
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| Constellation | Cap |
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| Category | Planet |
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Time
yyyymmdd.hhmm | 20091217.1700 EST |
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| Comments |
Object
Class | Classical Planet |
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| Elongation | 57° 33' 59.4" |
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Distance
Light Time
(from Earth) | 5.4653 AU
m s |
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Distance
(from Sun) | 5.0668 AU |
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| Angular Size | 36.0" |
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| Magnitude | -2.2 |
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Central Meridian
I/II/III | 141.00°/76.31°/206.64° |
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| Altitude | 32° 42' 31" |
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| Moons |  Stellarium graphic |
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Jupiter was either the second or third “star” that I say tonight. I don’t remember whether I saw Jupiter or Deneb first. Although Jupiter is much brighter it is in an area of the sky where I wasn’t concentrating my vision. In the short time I was there it seemed to have moved across a considerable distance in the sky but I might have helpe that impression along when I changed my location. Neptune was there right beside Jupiter but too faint to be seen without optics.
 Carted su Ciel graphic |
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| Target | Iridium 29 Flare |
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| Constellation | Cam |
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| Category | Satellite |
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Time
yyyymmdd.hhmm | 20091217.1728 EST |
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| Comments |
| &nbsl; | CalSky |
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| Time | 1728:14 EST |
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| Alt. | 29.3° |
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| Az. | 23.6°
NNE |
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| Mag. | -3.0 |
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| Surface | solar panels |
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I am not sure whether or not I saw this satellite. I had set an alarm to give me a one-minute warning for the event and shortly before the alarm went off I saw a bright satellite falling between Mirfac and Algol. It continued to fall to the north and seemed to be dimming. I was wondering if I might be witnessing an unpredicted double flare but as it fell past Cas into Cam it winked out and never came back. If this was Iridium 29 the time and location of the flare were way off. If it wasn’t then I didn’t see Iridium 29 at all and what did I see?
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| Target | Iridium 31 Flare |
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| Constellation | Per |
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| Category | Satellite |
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Time
yyyymmdd.hhmm | 20091217.1735 EST |
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| Comments |
| | Heavens
Above | CalSky |
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| Time | 1735:33 EST | 1735:32 EST |
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| Alt. | 61° | 61.1° |
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| Az. | 47°
NE | 46.3°
NE |
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| Mag. | -4 | -4.0 |
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| Surface | | MMA2 |
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This flare occurred at the right place and time. It was very bright and appeared to jump around like a UFO, which I attribute to the interaction of the light reflected from it with the cloud that light was passing through.
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| Target | ε Aur |
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| Constellation | Aur |
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| Category | Double Star |
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Time
yyyymmdd.hhmm | 20091217.1740 EST |
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| Comments | ε Aur is definitely fainter than either η Aur or ζ Aur. I had to work at finding ε while ζ was always much easier to locate (maybe because it is nearer to η shich is currently the brightest of the Kids).
 Stellarium graphic |
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| Target | Algol, β Per |
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| Constellation | Per |
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| Category | Double Star |
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Time
yyyymmdd.hhmm | 20091217.1745 EST |
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| Comments | Algol is much brighter than ρ Per tonight.
 Stellarium graphic |
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| Target | Resurs 1-4 Flare |
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| Constellation | Per |
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| Category | Satellite |
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Time
yyyymmdd.hhmm | 20091217.1758 EST |
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| Comments |
| | CalSky |
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| Time | 1758:33 EST |
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| Alt. | 38.8° |
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| Az. | 68.4°
ENE |
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| Mag. | 0.5 |
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Just as my one-minute warning went off I saw a satellite in Per. I suspect that this was Resurs 1-4 but the timing is off again although the location was reasonable.
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Even though there was some atmosphere I saw a lot of stars and identified almost everything I saw.
I saw both geese and ducks flying over the Great Lawn for the first time this season. We have been told by one of the dog walkers that the Parks Department was trying to hire dogs to chase the birds off trying to rid the park of them.
I keep forgetting to write about it, but the trees at Broadway and 34 St are decorated with strings of white LEDs arrayed in tubes. There is software on a controlling circuitry that causes then to light from the top of the string to the bottom, each string probably having about 20 LEDs and many strings in each tree. There is a sustain to the lights so there is a stripe of light that appears to travel down each tube bleed off from top to bottom as the lighting progresses. I suppose it is supposed to look like light shining on icicles but to me it looks like shooting stars. It is a nice effect.
| Observing Location | Drip Rock |
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| Observational Period | 2150-2215 EST |
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| Atmospheric Conditions |
| Cloud Cover | Scattered Clouds (I think)Conditions seem to have worsened over the last two hours. I can see areas if the sky where there appear to be clouds but I am still seeing a lot of stars. |
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| Temperature | 21° F |
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| Wind | Light Breeze |
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| Wind Chill Effect | 14° F |
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| Humidity | Moderate |
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| Barometric Pressure | 30.30" Hg
Steady |
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| Feels Like | Cold |
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| Instruments | Naked-eye - Charlie |
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| Observing Party | Charlie Ridgway
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| Target | Mars |
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| Constellation | Leo |
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| Category | Planet |
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Time
yyyymmdd.hhmm | 20091217.2200 EST |
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| Comments |
Object
Class | Classical Planet |
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| Elongation | 126° 35 52.2" E |
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Distance
Light Time
(from Earth) | 0.8225 AU
m s |
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Distance
(from Sun) | 1.6155 AU |
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| Angular Size | 11.4" |
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| Magnitude | -0.4 |
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| Central Meridian | 104.64° |
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| Altitude | 15° 19’ |
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 Stellarium Graphic
 Meridian graphic |
This was my first attempt at observing the red planet in the night sky. I am reasonably certain that waht I saw was Mars. It was big and bright and had a slight orange tinge to it. I couldn’t find Regulus but the angular relationship between what I took to be Algieba and Alnilam and the distance relationship between where I thought Regulus should have been and Pollux was right.
 Stellarium graphic
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