Features: Calendar | Lunar Almanac | Monthly Topic
This Month's Night Sky - NOTE: The next paragraph describes the sky as it appears at 10 pm EST (11 pm EDT) near mid- month. The sky also looks this way at 11 pm EST (midnight EDT) during the beginning of the month and at 9 pm EST (10 pm EDT) by month's end.Calendar of Events
NOTE: For those observers not in the ET zone, convert the calendar times to your zone's time by subtracting one hour for CT, two for MT and three for PT. Don't forget to adjust for Daylight Savings Time when necessary by subtracting one hour from your planisphere's time.; Dawn and dusk times must also be corrected. See your local newspaper, TV news, or cable TV's Weather Channel for sunrise and sunset times. Unfortunately some of these events may occur during daylight hours in your area.
DATE | EVENT |
18 |
Look NE at 4 AM to see a pseudo-conjunction (5 degrees) of Venus and the bright star, Aldebaran (Taurus). |
19-22 |
Dim Mars and M45, the Pleiades of Taurus, fit in the same 5 degree binocular view. Look low on the ENE horizon, well below bright Jupiter, early in the morning. |
21 |
Our solstice occurs. Welcome to summer in our hemisphere! |
26 |
Look ENE at 5 AM to see a conjunction (5 degrees) of Jupiter and the Moon. |
27-28 |
The Bootid Meteor Shower peaks at early in the morning of the 28th. This is a "broad" shower and observers report seeing these meteors before and after the peak. It’s radiant is in the Constellation Bootes, which that will be nearly overhead at the peak. Over 100 events/hour were reported in 1998 and about 50/hr. in 2004. These "outbreaks" are unpredictable; this might be the year!! |
29 |
Look ENE at dawn (about 45 minutes before Sunrise to see the triangle formed by the thin crescent Moon, Mars and the bright star Aldebaran. |
Phases of the Moon | Phase and Date(s) | Best viewed before local midnight |
New |
Deep Space Objects | |
1st. Qtr |
Planets & Moon |
|
Full |
Moon |
|
Last |
Deep Space & Planets |
Topic of the month: Telescopic Finders
It is quite difficult to find an object in the sky when looking through a telescope. This is because the telescope has a very small field of view. So, for most of the history of the telescope, a smaller telescope of low magnification but with a large field of view, was used to "find" the object for view though the main instrument. Thus the term, FINDER. Of course the finder must be carefully aligned to the optical axis of the telescope to be useful! Finder "A" is typical optical finder, although its size
is overkill for most amateur telescopes at 11 power by 80 mm (11X80). Most
finders are between 6X30 to 8X50. Remember, the greater the magnification,
the smaller the field of view. The second number refers to the diameter
of the finder's objective (front lens) and is related to the brightness
of its image (the bigger, the brighter). This particular finder has a diagonal
(right angle attachment) making it easier to use when the telescope is
aimed near the zenith (straight up). Its ocular (eyepiece) contains a fine
cross hair, making it easier to bring the target into the telescopes field
of view. (Its diagonal uses a special prism that corrects its image. Although
it absorbs a bit more light than the typical mirrored diagonal, it is far
easier to use!)
--See
you next month! |
This installment of "Whats Up?" is ©2011 Ronald A. Leeseberg, encoded by Dawn Jenkins for Astra's Stargate. Images used in this installment of "Whats Up?, Ron"are ©2011 by Ronald A. Leeseberg.
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