
September Skies
Useful info for visitors from New Zealand, South Africa and South America.
Evening September 1; Venus, Mars and the bright star Spica form a nice triangle, with Venus close to Spica. September 5; Mars close to Spica. September 9; thin cresent Moon near Saturn. September 11; thin crescent Moon close to Venus, Mars and Spica. September 22-23; Moon near Jupiter. September 25, Occultation of eta Piscinis.
Looking up at the stars is still a rewarding pursuit, despite the increasing light pollution in our major cities. The southern sky is full of interesting objects, many of which go unseen in the northern hemisphere. All you need for a good nights viewing is yourself, a good idea of where south and east are, and your hands. Optional extras are a small pair of binoculars, a torch with red cellophane taped over the business end and a note book. A great many tips for backyard astronomy may be found here, although many of them are more relevant to the northern hemisphere. A general article on amateur astronomy from New Scientist is here (May require subscription otherwise see the TASS site.).This page is designed to give people a simple guide to the naked eye sky. In the descriptions of planet and star positions, distances in the sky are given as "fingers width" and "hand span". This is the width of your hand (with all the fingers together as in making a "stop" sign, not bunched as a fist) or finger when extended a full arms length from you.
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Spring is here! Spring brings a new round of interesting objects into view in the heavens. Scorpio and Sagittarius slowly leave our night skies to be replaced by Orion and its nebulae, and bright Sirius. The Southern Cross grazes the southern horizon before rising again in summer. It still gets very cold at night, so don't forget to rug up before doing any extended star watching. A blanket or rug to sit on is a good idea, as well as a thermos of your favorite hot beverage.
While these pages are primarily intended for the use of people observing in Australia, non-Australian Southern Hemisphere observers will find most of the information here applies to them. The star information will be most helpful, when you correct your location for latitude (see the Stars section for appropriate location information). Most Moon phase, planet, comet and asteroid information will be very similar to what will be seen in New Zealand, South Africa and South America. Countries close to the equator (eg Indonesia) will have somewhat different southern and northern views, but the eastern and western views should be similar enough to get a good idea of what is going on.Occultations, eclipses and aurora are highly location dependent, and it would be best to get a local almanac for these events. If there is no local almanac available, email me and I might be able to help you. I do try and give general info for occultations and eclipses in the Oceania area of the Southern Hemisphere.
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Aurora Alert UPDATED 1/09/10: The first decent solar storm hit us on AUgust 4th and 5th. Not much in the way of aurora, but things should start improving now.Auroral images and descriptions from past geomagnetic storms are now at the auroral image web page.
While we are at solar minimum, it will still be possible to see the occasional aurora. Tasmania, King Island and Southern Victoria are the most likely places to see aurora. However, on August 24, 2005 there was a massive auroral storm seen as far as northern NSW. Naturally, the best views of any aurora will be away from the city and bright lights. Aurora occur when charged particles from the solar wind enter Earths outer atmosphere and interact with the oxygen and nitrogen atoms producing eerie displays of coloured lights. During solar maximum, which occurs every 11 years, the number and speed of the particles are higher, allowing them to penetrate the Earth's magnetic field at lower latitudes than normal. Observers in Tasmania are likely to see green glows or sheets of light in the southern sky. Observers in Southern Victoria are more likely to see a red glow in the southern sky, although more spectacular displays are possible.
The Astronomical Society of Tasmania has a webpage devoted to this phenomenon. The Australian IPS radio and space services covers Aurora and related phenomena in very great detail (too much if you don't know much about them) but has a nice education page. Flinders Uni also has real time magnetometer readings, however, this will probably not mean much to most people.
Aurora will generally follow solar flares by about 2 days, and a number of instruments are watching the sun for these outbursts. The solar mimiumin should occur in 2006, and sunspot numbers, and hence flare rates are dropping considerably, sometimes months will go by without an alert, then you have three in a week. The space weather site at http://www.spaceweather.com gives notice of when solar winds likely to cause aurora will arrive. Alternatively, send an email to reynella@mira.net with "subscribe aurora alert" as the subject and I will send you an email alert of any likely auroral event (or other interesting sky phenomena). However, even a strong solar flare is no guarantee that you will be able to see aurora, but it does increase the probability.
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Email alerts I try to update this page fairly regularly outside of the monthly postings. However sometimes things happen which I can't get in fast enough, or you forget to mark your calendar. If you would like to be alerted to or reminded of interesting astronomical or sky phenomena, send an email to reynella@mira.net with "subscribe aurora alert" as the subject. This is the old aurora alert list, but with auroras rare as we climb out solar minimum (except for the occasional humdinger, like the August 2005 auroral event), it is doing double duty. Astroblog will have images when possible of these events soon after.
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Coming events1 January 2010; weak Partial Lunar Eclipse (WA only)
30 January 2010; Opposition of Mars
30 January 2010; Blue Moon
12 February 2010, Crescent Moon close to Mercury
18 February 2010, Asteroid Vesta at opposition
15 March 2010, Crescent Moon close to Jupiter
22 March 2010, Saturn at opposition
30 March 2010; Blue Moon
17 April 2010, Moon occults Pleiades
15-20 April 2010, Mars near Beehive cluster
6 May 2010 Eta Aquarid meter shower.
16 May 2010, Thin crescent Moon and Venus close together.
7 June 2010, Mars close to bright star Regulus.
11 June 2010, Moon occults Pleiades
15 June 2010, Venus close to thin crescent Moon.
20 June 2010, Venus near Beehive cluster.
26 June 2010, Partial Lunar Eclipse.
10 July 2010, Venus and Regulus close.
13 July 2010, Mercury in Beehive cluster with crescent Moon nearby.
28 July 2010, Mercury and Regulus close.
31 July 2010, Mars, Saturn and Venus close.
8 August 2010, Mars, Saturn and Venus close.
12 August 2010, Crescent Moon and Mercury close together.
13 August 2010, Crescent Moon, Venus, Mars and Saturn all close together.
19 August 2010, Venus and Mars close.
1 September 2010, Venus close to Spica, Mars nearby
5 September 2010, Mars close to Spica, Venus nearby.
11 September 2010, Mars, Venus, Spica and the crescent Moon close.
21 September 2010, Opposition of Jupiter.
7 October 2010, Mars and venus close.
10 October 2010, Venus, Mars and crescent Moon form nice triangle.
22 October 2010, Orionid meteor shower.
30 October 2010, Blue Last Quarter Moon.
5 November 2010, Crescent Moon close to Spica and Venus.
7 November 2010, Crescent Moon close to Mercury.
18 November 2010, Leonid meteor shower.
21 November 2010, Mars and Mercury close.
3 December 2010, Venus, Spica and crescent Moon close with Saturn nearby.
7 December 2010, Mercury and crescent Moon close.
14 December 2010, Mars and Mercury close.
14 December 2010, Geminid Meteor shower.
29 December 2010, Saturn, Moon and Spica close.
Out in SpaceCassini has imaged moons in the making.
The NASA Mars rover OPPORTUNITY has imaged whirlwinds on Mars. Sprirt remains silent.
Mars Express images a mysterious elongated crater.
The Mars Reconaissance Orbiter finds a fresh crater.
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The Moon:
Current Phase of the Moon.
This is a JavaScript applet kindly supplied by Darren Osbourne. It shows the Moon as Southern Hemisphere viewers see it, and is upside down from the Northern Hemisphere perspective.
Last quarter on the 2nd
New Moon is on the 8th
First quarter on the 15th
Full moon on the 23rd
On the evening of September 9 the thin crescent Moon is not far from Saturn. On the evening of September 11 Venus, Mars and the thin crescent Moon are close together. On September 22 and 23 Jupiter and waxing Moon are close together. Occultation of eta Piscies on the 25th.
An interactive calendar of the Moon's phases.
A view of the phase of the Moon for any date from 1800 A.D. to 2199, US based, so that the Moon is upside down with respect to us. The image above is from this source.
The phases of the Moon have been linked in the popular imagination to activities as diverse as madness and menstruation. However, careful study has shown that there are no such links. This web page outlines how the Moon is unconnected with a wide range of human activities.
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Planets:Finding planets, even with the directions below, can sometimes be difficult if you are unfamiliar with the sky. However, the Moon is very obvious, and can be a guide to location planets. Not only that, the combination of the Moon and bright planet(s) is often very beautiful. Thus the guide below gives the dates when the planets and the Moon are close together.
The evening sky facing west in Melbourne on September 11 at 7:00 pm AEST showing Venus, Mars and Spica close together. (similar views will be seen from other cities at the equivalent local time eg 7:00 pm ACST Adelaide.
The evening sky facing north-west in Melbourne on September 23 at 9:00 pm AEST showing Jupiter, Uranus and the Moon close together. (similar views will be seen from other cities at the equivalent local time eg 9:00 pm ACST Adelaide.Mercury appears in the morning sky this month, but never really makes it out of the twilight glow. On the 15th, Mercury is three handspans above the north-east horizon half an hour before sunrise. After mid-month, Mercury rapidly lowers towards the horizon, and is lost in the twilight. Venus is seen blazing in the early evening sky during September. On September 1 Venus is over 5 handspans above the western horizon an hour after sunset, just a fingerwidth from the bright star Spica (alpha Vriginis) and just above Mars. During the month Venus passes through Virg into Libra. On September 11 Venus, the thin crescent Moon, Mars and Spica are close in a nice massing with Saturn below. On September 15 Venus, Mars and Spica form a triangle just over a handspan across. Venus is five handspans above the western horizon an hour after Sunset at this time. On September 30 Venus is four handpans above the western horizon an hour after sunset. By then Venus forms a nice triangular line-up with Mars and the bright star alpha Librae. Venus is a distinct crescent in small telescopes by now.
Earth is at spring equinox on September 23rd, when day and night are equal length.
Mars now quite faint. Mars will not be more than a smallish disk in small to medium telescopes, it is still worth a look. Telescopic viewing is now difficult as Mars is never far from the murk of the horizon.
On the evening of September 1 the distinctive red Mars can be seen five handspans above the westen horizon an hour after sunset. Mars is in the constellation of Virgo, three fingerwidths from Spica and Venus. On the 5th Mars is two fingerwiths from Spica. On September 11 the thin crescent Moon, Mars, Venus and Spica are close in a very nice massing with Saturn below. On September 15, Mars, Venus and Spica form a broad triangle just over a handspan across. Mars is four handspans above the western horizon an hour after Sunset at this time. On September 19 Mars and Venus are two fingerwidths apart. On the 30th, Mars and Venus form a broad triangle with the bright star alpha Librae and Mars is just over three handspans above the western horizon an hour after sunset.
Jupiter becomes prominent in the evening sky this month, being at opposition on the 21st. On September 1, Jupiter is five handspans above the north-eastern horizon at 10:00 pm local time. On the 15th Jupiter is seven handspans above the eastern horizon at 10:00 pm local time. On September 22 and 23, people can see the Moon just over a handspan from Jupiter. On September 30 Jupiter is eight handspans above the eastern horizon at 10:00 pm local time. Now is an excellent time to observe Jupiter in a small telescope, and jupiters Moons are always good, even in binoculars.
Jupiter is within a binocular field of Uranus, Uranus is the brightest obect within a binocular filed to the north of Jupiter and by the 16th it is withing a low power telescope field of Uranus.You can chart their approach to each other using this spotters map showing Jupiter and Uranus as seen in binoculars here, the circle shows the field of view of 10x50 binoculars, the small circle shows 25 mm eyepiece fields for 6" reflectors. Uranus itself is bright enough to be (just) visible to the unaided eye under dark sky conditions.
This table was created using The Planets 2.02 a free program available from http://www.cpac.org.uk Times are AEST, subtract 30 minutes for ACST and 2 hours for AWST. Add 1 hour for Daylight saving time. GRS = Great Red Spot. S = Shadow Transit, T = Transit Wed 1 Sep 2010 04:14 Eur: Shadow Transit Begins S Wed 1 Sep 2010 05:19 Eur: Transit Begins ST Wed 1 Sep 2010 06:50 Viewing Suspended - Sun Rises Wed 1 Sep 2010 19:45 Viewing Resumed - Jupiter Rises Thu 2 Sep 2010 03:08 GRS: Crosses Central Meridian Thu 2 Sep 2010 06:49 Viewing Suspended - Sun Rises Thu 2 Sep 2010 19:41 Viewing Resumed - Jupiter Rises Thu 2 Sep 2010 22:28 Eur: Disappears into Eclipse Thu 2 Sep 2010 22:59 GRS: Crosses Central Meridian Fri 3 Sep 2010 02:13 Eur: Reappears from Occultation Fri 3 Sep 2010 04:45 Io : Disappears into Eclipse Fri 3 Sep 2010 06:48 Viewing Suspended - Sun Rises Fri 3 Sep 2010 19:36 Viewing Resumed - Jupiter Rises Sat 4 Sep 2010 01:54 Io : Shadow Transit Begins S Sat 4 Sep 2010 02:23 Io : Transit Begins ST Sat 4 Sep 2010 04:10 Io : Shadow Transit Ends T Sat 4 Sep 2010 04:36 Io : Transit Ends Sat 4 Sep 2010 04:46 GRS: Crosses Central Meridian Sat 4 Sep 2010 05:51 Gan: Shadow Transit Begins S Sat 4 Sep 2010 06:46 Viewing Suspended - Sun Rises Sat 4 Sep 2010 19:32 Viewing Resumed - Jupiter Rises Sat 4 Sep 2010 20:18 Eur: Shadow Transit Ends T Sat 4 Sep 2010 21:08 Eur: Transit Ends Sat 4 Sep 2010 23:14 Io : Disappears into Eclipse Sun 5 Sep 2010 00:37 GRS: Crosses Central Meridian Sun 5 Sep 2010 01:54 Io : Reappears from Occultation Sun 5 Sep 2010 06:45 Viewing Suspended - Sun Rises Sun 5 Sep 2010 19:27 Viewing Resumed - Jupiter Rises Sun 5 Sep 2010 20:23 Io : Shadow Transit Begins S Sun 5 Sep 2010 20:28 GRS: Crosses Central Meridian Sun 5 Sep 2010 20:49 Io : Transit Begins ST Sun 5 Sep 2010 22:38 Io : Shadow Transit Ends T Sun 5 Sep 2010 23:02 Io : Transit Ends Mon 6 Sep 2010 06:24 GRS: Crosses Central Meridian Mon 6 Sep 2010 06:43 Viewing Suspended - Sun Rises Mon 6 Sep 2010 19:23 Viewing Resumed - Jupiter Rises Mon 6 Sep 2010 20:20 Io : Reappears from Occultation Tue 7 Sep 2010 02:15 GRS: Crosses Central Meridian Tue 7 Sep 2010 06:42 Viewing Suspended - Sun Rises Tue 7 Sep 2010 19:18 Viewing Resumed - Jupiter Rises Tue 7 Sep 2010 19:46 Gan: Disappears into Eclipse Tue 7 Sep 2010 22:06 GRS: Crosses Central Meridian Wed 8 Sep 2010 00:11 Gan: Reappears from Occultation Wed 8 Sep 2010 06:40 Viewing Suspended - Sun Rises Wed 8 Sep 2010 19:14 Viewing Resumed - Jupiter Rises Thu 9 Sep 2010 03:53 GRS: Crosses Central Meridian Thu 9 Sep 2010 06:39 Viewing Suspended - Sun Rises Thu 9 Sep 2010 19:09 Viewing Resumed - Jupiter Rises Thu 9 Sep 2010 23:44 GRS: Crosses Central Meridian Fri 10 Sep 2010 01:06 Eur: Disappears into Eclipse Fri 10 Sep 2010 04:29 Eur: Reappears from Occultation Fri 10 Sep 2010 06:37 Viewing Suspended - Sun Rises Fri 10 Sep 2010 19:05 Viewing Resumed - Jupiter Rises Fri 10 Sep 2010 19:35 GRS: Crosses Central Meridian Sat 11 Sep 2010 03:49 Io : Shadow Transit Begins S Sat 11 Sep 2010 04:07 Io : Transit Begins ST Sat 11 Sep 2010 05:30 GRS: Crosses Central Meridian Sat 11 Sep 2010 06:04 Io : Shadow Transit Ends T Sat 11 Sep 2010 06:20 Io : Transit Ends Sat 11 Sep 2010 06:36 Viewing Suspended - Sun Rises Sat 11 Sep 2010 19:00 Viewing Resumed - Jupiter Rises Sat 11 Sep 2010 20:07 Eur: Shadow Transit Begins S Sat 11 Sep 2010 20:40 Eur: Transit Begins ST Sat 11 Sep 2010 22:53 Eur: Shadow Transit Ends T Sat 11 Sep 2010 23:22 Eur: Transit Ends Sun 12 Sep 2010 01:08 Io : Disappears into Eclipse Sun 12 Sep 2010 01:22 GRS: Crosses Central Meridian Sun 12 Sep 2010 03:37 Io : Reappears from Occultation Sun 12 Sep 2010 06:34 Viewing Suspended - Sun Rises Sun 12 Sep 2010 18:56 Viewing Resumed - Jupiter Rises Sun 12 Sep 2010 21:13 GRS: Crosses Central Meridian Sun 12 Sep 2010 22:18 Io : Shadow Transit Begins S Sun 12 Sep 2010 22:33 Io : Transit Begins ST Mon 13 Sep 2010 00:33 Io : Shadow Transit Ends T Mon 13 Sep 2010 00:46 Io : Transit Ends Mon 13 Sep 2010 06:33 Viewing Suspended - Sun Rises Mon 13 Sep 2010 18:51 Viewing Resumed - Jupiter Rises Mon 13 Sep 2010 19:37 Io : Disappears into Eclipse Mon 13 Sep 2010 22:03 Io : Reappears from Occultation Tue 14 Sep 2010 03:00 GRS: Crosses Central Meridian Tue 14 Sep 2010 06:31 Viewing Suspended - Sun Rises Tue 14 Sep 2010 18:46 Viewing Resumed - Jupiter Rises Tue 14 Sep 2010 19:02 Io : Shadow Transit Ends T Tue 14 Sep 2010 19:12 Io : Transit Ends Tue 14 Sep 2010 22:51 GRS: Crosses Central Meridian Tue 14 Sep 2010 23:47 Gan: Disappears into Eclipse Wed 15 Sep 2010 03:27 Gan: Reappears from Occultation Wed 15 Sep 2010 06:30 Viewing Suspended - Sun Rises Wed 15 Sep 2010 18:42 Viewing Resumed - Jupiter Rises Thu 16 Sep 2010 04:37 GRS: Crosses Central Meridian Thu 16 Sep 2010 06:28 Viewing Suspended - Sun Rises Thu 16 Sep 2010 18:37 Viewing Resumed - Jupiter Rises Fri 17 Sep 2010 00:29 GRS: Crosses Central Meridian Fri 17 Sep 2010 03:43 Eur: Disappears into Eclipse Fri 17 Sep 2010 06:27 Viewing Suspended - Sun Rises Fri 17 Sep 2010 18:33 Viewing Resumed - Jupiter Rises Fri 17 Sep 2010 20:20 GRS: Crosses Central Meridian Sat 18 Sep 2010 05:44 Io : Shadow Transit Begins S Sat 18 Sep 2010 05:51 Io : Transit Begins ST Sat 18 Sep 2010 06:15 GRS: Crosses Central Meridian Sat 18 Sep 2010 06:25 Viewing Suspended - Sun Rises Sat 18 Sep 2010 18:28 Viewing Resumed - Jupiter Rises Sat 18 Sep 2010 22:43 Eur: Shadow Transit Begins S Sat 18 Sep 2010 22:53 Eur: Transit Begins ST Sun 19 Sep 2010 01:28 Eur: Shadow Transit Ends T Sun 19 Sep 2010 01:35 Eur: Transit Ends Sun 19 Sep 2010 02:06 GRS: Crosses Central Meridian Sun 19 Sep 2010 03:03 Io : Disappears into Eclipse Sun 19 Sep 2010 05:21 Io : Reappears from Occultation Sun 19 Sep 2010 06:24 Viewing Suspended - Sun Rises Sun 19 Sep 2010 18:24 Viewing Resumed - Jupiter Rises Sun 19 Sep 2010 21:58 GRS: Crosses Central Meridian Mon 20 Sep 2010 00:13 Io : Shadow Transit Begins S Mon 20 Sep 2010 00:16 Io : Transit Begins ST Mon 20 Sep 2010 02:28 Io : Shadow Transit Ends T Mon 20 Sep 2010 02:30 Io : Transit Ends Mon 20 Sep 2010 06:22 Viewing Suspended - Sun Rises Mon 20 Sep 2010 18:19 Viewing Resumed - Jupiter Rises Mon 20 Sep 2010 19:52 Eur: Reappears from Occultation Mon 20 Sep 2010 21:31 Io : Disappears into Eclipse Mon 20 Sep 2010 23:46 Io : Reappears from Ecl & Occ Tue 21 Sep 2010 03:44 GRS: Crosses Central Meridian Tue 21 Sep 2010 06:21 Viewing Suspended - Sun Rises Tue 21 Sep 2010 18:16 Viewing Resumed - Sun Sets Tue 21 Sep 2010 18:42 Io : Sh Begins & Tr Begins ST Tue 21 Sep 2010 20:56 Io : Transit Ends S Tue 21 Sep 2010 20:57 Io : Shadow Transit Ends Tue 21 Sep 2010 23:36 GRS: Crosses Central Meridian Wed 22 Sep 2010 03:48 Gan: Disappears into Eclipse Wed 22 Sep 2010 06:19 Viewing Suspended - Sun Rises Wed 22 Sep 2010 18:16 Viewing Resumed - Sun Sets Wed 22 Sep 2010 19:27 GRS: Crosses Central Meridian Thu 23 Sep 2010 05:22 GRS: Crosses Central Meridian Thu 23 Sep 2010 06:17 Viewing Suspended - Sun Rises Thu 23 Sep 2010 18:17 Viewing Resumed - Sun Sets Fri 24 Sep 2010 01:14 GRS: Crosses Central Meridian Fri 24 Sep 2010 02:09 Cal: Disappears into Eclipse Fri 24 Sep 2010 03:14 Cal: Reappears from Eclipse Fri 24 Sep 2010 06:15 Eur: Disappears into Occultation Fri 24 Sep 2010 06:16 Viewing Suspended - Jupiter Sets Fri 24 Sep 2010 06:16 Viewing Suspended - Sun Rises Fri 24 Sep 2010 18:18 Viewing Resumed - Sun Sets Fri 24 Sep 2010 21:05 GRS: Crosses Central Meridian Sat 25 Sep 2010 06:12 Viewing Suspended - Jupiter Sets Sat 25 Sep 2010 18:19 Viewing Resumed - Sun Sets Sat 25 Sep 2010 20:29 Gan: Transit Ends S Sat 25 Sep 2010 21:02 Gan: Shadow Transit Ends Sun 26 Sep 2010 01:06 Eur: Transit Begins T Sun 26 Sep 2010 01:18 Eur: Shadow Transit Begins ST Sun 26 Sep 2010 02:51 GRS: Crosses Central Meridian Sun 26 Sep 2010 03:48 Eur: Transit Ends S Sun 26 Sep 2010 04:03 Eur: Shadow Transit Ends Sun 26 Sep 2010 04:51 Io : Disappears into Occultation Sun 26 Sep 2010 06:08 Viewing Suspended - Jupiter Sets Sun 26 Sep 2010 18:20 Viewing Resumed - Sun Sets Sun 26 Sep 2010 22:43 GRS: Crosses Central Meridian Mon 27 Sep 2010 02:00 Io : Transit Begins T Mon 27 Sep 2010 02:08 Io : Shadow Transit Begins ST Mon 27 Sep 2010 04:14 Io : Transit Ends S Mon 27 Sep 2010 04:23 Io : Shadow Transit Ends Mon 27 Sep 2010 06:04 Viewing Suspended - Jupiter Sets Mon 27 Sep 2010 18:21 Viewing Resumed - Sun Sets Mon 27 Sep 2010 18:34 GRS: Crosses Central Meridian Mon 27 Sep 2010 19:23 Eur: Disappears into Occultation Mon 27 Sep 2010 22:28 Eur: Reappears from Eclipse Mon 27 Sep 2010 23:17 Io : Disappears into Occultation Tue 28 Sep 2010 01:40 Io : Reappears from Eclipse Tue 28 Sep 2010 04:29 GRS: Crosses Central Meridian Tue 28 Sep 2010 05:59 Viewing Suspended - Jupiter Sets Tue 28 Sep 2010 18:21 Viewing Resumed - Sun Sets Tue 28 Sep 2010 20:26 Io : Transit Begins T Tue 28 Sep 2010 20:37 Io : Shadow Transit Begins ST Tue 28 Sep 2010 22:40 Io : Transit Ends S Tue 28 Sep 2010 22:52 Io : Shadow Transit Ends Wed 29 Sep 2010 00:21 GRS: Crosses Central Meridian Wed 29 Sep 2010 05:55 Viewing Suspended - Jupiter Sets Wed 29 Sep 2010 18:22 Viewing Resumed - Sun Sets Wed 29 Sep 2010 20:09 Io : Reappears from Eclipse Wed 29 Sep 2010 20:12 GRS: Crosses Central Meridian Thu 30 Sep 2010 05:51 Viewing Suspended - Jupiter Sets Thu 30 Sep 2010 18:23 Viewing Resumed - Sun Sets Fri 1 Oct 2010 01:59 GRS: Crosses Central Meridian Fri 1 Oct 2010 05:47 Viewing Suspended - Jupiter Sets Fri 1 Oct 2010 18:24 Viewing Resumed - Sun Sets Fri 1 Oct 2010 21:50 GRS: Crosses Central MeridianSaturn is becoming lower in the evening sky. On September 1 Saturn is two handspans above the western horizon an hour and a half after sunset, and is rapidly heading into the twilight glow. On September 9 the thin crescent Moon is not far from Saturn. On September 15 Saturn is a handspan above the western horizon, half an hour after sunset. By September 30th Saturn is lost to view.
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Starshine 321/1/2003 Starshine 3 came down in February 2003, on the 21st. See the Starshine home page for details and future missions.
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Iridium Flares, the International Space Station and other satellitesSee this amazing site for images of the space station taken through a telescope.
Iridium flares add a bit of spectacle to the night sky. The Iridium satellite network was set up to give global phone coverage, so an Iridium satellite is almost always over head. Occasionally, one of the antenna of the satellites is aligned so that it reflects the sun towards an observer, giving a brilliant flare, often out-shining Venus. However, the visibility of Iridium flares is VERY dependent on observer position, so you need a prediction for your spot within about 30 km. Hence I'm referring you to a web site for predictions rather than doing it myself.
- Heavens above, an excellent site. You need to choose your location or manually enter a longitude and latitude (once done the site remembers this). Predicts Iridium Flare occurrence, and gives the visibility the space shuttle, the International space station and heaps of other satellites. I find this the most useful site.
See an Irridium Flare at your Location. Courtesy of Heavens above. Choose your location from the drop down box
Or type in Your Latitude and Longitude in decimal format eg Darwin is -12.461 130.840 , to find your Lat Long go to this site.
See the International Space Station at your Location. Courtesy of Heavens above. Choose your location from the drop down box
Or type in Your Latitude and Longitude in decimal format eg Darwin is -12.461 130.840 , to find your Lat Long go to this site.
Another site, JPASS, doesn't do Iridium flares, but is very cool and does the International Space Station, and many other satellites. However, although the output is flashy, it's harder to use than heavens above.
- The JPASS site from NASA.
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Meteor showers:
Date Meteor Shower ZHR IlluminationThe figure ZHR is zenithal hourly rate. This is the number of meteors that a single observer would see per hour if the shower's "point of origin", or radiant, were at the zenith and the sky were dark enough for 6.5-magnitude stars to be visible to the naked eye. Illumination gives an idea of how dark the sky is, the lower the figure, the darker the sky.
There are no major meteor showers this month.
You can still see sporadic meteors. Rates seen from the Southern Hemisphere are around 5 random meteors being seen per hour during the late morning hours and 2 per hour during the evening. The evening rates will be reduced during the times around the full Moon due to interference by the Moons light.
A good page describing meteor watching is at the Sky Publications site.
The Meteor Section of the Astronomical Society of Victoria has some good information on meteor watching too.
Learn how to take a meteor shower photograph.
A Cool Fact about meteor speeds
A good page on detecting meteors using home made radiotelescopes is here.
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Comets:There are currently no comets observable with the unaided eye. A list of current comet ephemerides is at the MPC.
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Occultations:Occultation of the eta Piscinis by the Moon September 25.
On the morning of Saturday September 25 the nearly full Moon will pass in front of the moderately bright star eta Piscinis (mag 3.6), this will be visible from Southern and eastern Australia. While not spectacular, it will look nice in binoculars or a telescope, especially in Adelaide, where the star will skim the surface of the Moon before disappearing and reappearing. It will be a bit too hard to see with the unaided eye.
City Disappears behind bright limb Reappears from behind dark limb Australia Adelaide (ACT) 22:22 23:36 Brisbane (AEST) 23:03 23:43 Canberra (AEST) 22:42 23:43 Darwin (ACST) -- -- Alice Springs (ACST) -- -- Townsville (AEST) - - Hobart (AEST) 22:33 23:45 Melbourne (AEST) 22:37 23:36 Perth (AWST) -- -- --> Sydney (AEST) 22:45 23:47
Eclipse:No significant eclises this month. Find local sunset and twilight times for your city or location (courtesy of Heavens Above).
Use either the drop down box for the listed cities, or type in your latitude, longitude and city in the boxes below.
Type in Your Latitude and Longitude in decimal format eg -12.461 130.840 , to find your Lat Long go to this site.
Variable Stars:While most stars seem to shine with a constant brightness, there are some that undergo regular, dramatic change in brightness. The classic variables Mira and Algol are currently unobservable.
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Stars:
The southern evening sky at 10:00 pm AEST in Melbourne on September 1 (similar views will be seen from other cities at the equivalent local time eg 10:00 pm ACST Adelaide).
All descriptions here are based on the view from Melbourne at 10.00 pm AEST (Australian Eastern Standard Time) on 1 September and assumes a fairly level horizon. Starset occurs progressively earlier each day, so these descriptions are valid for 9.00 pm on the 15th and 8.00pm on the 30th. Readers fom other time zones should see roughly the same views at 10.00 pm local time. Corrections for cities other than Melbourne are given below.
How do I find east, west, north and south?
- Readers in Adelaide and Auckland should see roughly the same views at the local equivalent of 10.00 pm AEST.
- Readers in Hobart and Christchurch must decrease descriptions to the North by about five finger widths and increase those to the south by the same amount.
- Readers in Sydney, Fremantle, Perth, Santiago and Capetown should add 3 finger widths to the northern descriptions, and subtract 3 finger widths to the south.
- Readers in Brisbane, Alice Springs Rio deJanerio and Johannesburg must adjust North/South descriptions by two hand spans (and adjust for daylight saving).
- Readers in Darwin, Cairns, Brazilia, La Paz, Lusaka and Lima must adjust North/South descriptions by about 4-5 hand spans (and adjust for daylight saving).
Facing east, the faint constellation of Erandius, the river, stradles the the horizon and meanders upwards and southwards to where brightest star, Achenar, points to the small mangellanic cloud.
To the left is Cetus, the whale. Beta Ceti is a modestly bright star six handspans above the horizon, the rest of Cetus is relatively faint. Mira, Omicron Ceti (O on the maps) is a variable star with a period of about 332 days.
Cetus also hosts a nearby sun like star. Tau Ceti is 11.4 light years away from earth, looking 10 handspans up from east and two to the left is magnitude 2 Deneb Kaitos, beta Ceti. Two handspans below and slightly to the left is eta Ceti, two handspans to the right of eta Ceti, forming a triangle with eta and beta, is Tau Ceti.
Five handspans to the left of Cetus is Pisces, a rather non-descript constellation.
Continuing on to the zenith we find bright Fomalhaut, alpha star of Piscis Austrinus. Next to Fomalhaut is Grus, the crane, with a distinctive, battered cross-like shape.
Looking westward from the zenith, about four handspans down and three to the right is the battered triangle of Capricornius, the Water Goat. Of interest as well is alpha Capricorni, the brightish star at top left hand corner of the triangle that is Capricorn. This is a naked eye double star.
About mid-sky, directly west is the distinctive "teapot" shape of Sagitarius, the archer. The "teapot" is upside down, the "spout" is pointing south-west, its "handle" north-east, and its "lid" points down to the right (north-eastern horizon). This constellations panalopy of clusters and nebula are still easily seen.
M24, an open cluster about two fingerwidths to the right and slightly down from the "lid" of the teapot should be visible to the naked eye, just above this and slightly to the left by about a hand span is a number of open clustes and a patch of luminosity that marks the lagoon nebula. M22, a globular cluster, is close to the lid (between and about a fingerwidths left of the two stars that make the bottom of the lid), should be visible as a dim, fuzzy star on a dark night. Between these clusters and the "lid" itself runs the Great Sagitarius Starcloud. The center of our galaxy lies in Sagitarius, and on a dark night, the traceries of the Milky Way and its dust clouds are particularly beautiful. A high definition map of Sagitarius can be found here.
Continuing on west, the rambling constellation of Ophiucus occupies the space between Sagitarius and the western horizon.
Directly to the left of Ophiucus is the distinctive "hook" shape of Scorpio, the scorpion, streches down towards the western horizon. Going up from the south-western horizon by about two handspans you will see six bright stars forming a T, with the tail of the "T" nearly perpendicular to the horizon and a curved "tail" of stars. The bright red giant star Antares (Alpha Scorpius, the middle star in the three stars forming the tail of the T) is quite prominent. The area around Scorpio is quite rewarding in binoculars, and there is a small but pretty globular cluster about one fingerwidth above and to the north of Antares (between Antares and the leading star of the tail of the T). It can be hard to see in city conditions, and will be especially difficult to see this close to the horizon. A high definition map of Scorpio is here. Just before the point where the tail curves around is a series of star clusters that make up the so-called false comet. The illusion of a comet is quite strong in small binoculars as well, but in stronger binoculars the clusters are quite clear.
Returning to the Zenith and working towards the northern horizon. 6 handspans down from the zenith is the faint but rambling constellation of Aquarius.
12 handspans down from the Zenith (and six above the northern horizon) is the start of the constellation Pegasus, the winged horse. The distinctive box shape of the main constellation lies around three handspans to the right of due north.
At the same level as Pegasus, but seven handspans to the left is the three bright stars that mark Aquilla, the Eagle, with the brightest, white Altair, being in the center.
Continuing down towards the northern horizon, the next bright star is just a handspan above the horizon, and three handspans to the left of due north. This is Deneb, alpha star of Cygnus, the swan. The rest of the constellation forms a wide but distinctive inverted cross above Deneb with the long axis pointing west, almost parallel to the horizon.
Now return to the zenith and go South. Directly south below Grus brings you to the edge of the dim constellation of Tucana, the Toucan. About four handspans below the zenith, directly on due north, is Alpha Tucana. Just below Tucana and about a handspan and a half to the left is the Small Magellanic cloud, the second largest of the dwarf satellite galaxies to the Milky Way. This feature is best viewed on a dark night, away from the city. In this nebulosity is what looks to be a fuzzy star, this is 47 Tucana (marked 104 on the map), a spectacular globular cluster that is very nice through binoculars.
To the right of alpha Tucana by around three handspans is Peacock, alpha Pavonis, is a reasonably bright magnitude 2 star that heads the large, but dim, constellation of Pavo the Peacock. Delta Pavonis, about two handspans below and one to the left of alpha Pavonis, is one of the handful of sunlike stars within 20 lightyears of Earth that might have terrestrial planets in its habitable zone.
To the right of and some what below Delta Pavonis by about 4 handspans is the boxy shape of Ara, the Altar.
To the left of alpha Tucana by 5 handspans is Ankaa, alpha Phoenicis, of the constellation of the Phoenix, another relatively non-descript constellation.
To the left of alpha Tucana by 5 handspans and down by about one is bright Achenar, alpha Erandius.
Continuing directly down from alpha Tucana by four handspans is Octans, the octant (a navigating instrument the was the forerunner of the sextant). Octans houses the south cellestial pole, and the faint Sigma Octanis, the South Polar star, which is the southern equivalent of Polaris. At magnitude 5.5 you will be streached to see it under city conditions, but it is six handspans directly below alpha Tucana, forming the apex of an inverted triangle with two other faint stars (tau and chi Octanis).
Directly below Octans by around three handspans is the faint Chameleon, a narrow "kite" of four stars with the long axis parrallel to the horizon. To the left of Chameleon by a little over 3 handspans is the extended nebulosity of the Large Magellanic cloud, the largest of the dwarf satellite galaxies. Binoculars will reveal a rather attractive nebula near it, the Tarantula nebula.
To the right of Chameleon by around five handspans are the bright, distinctive alpha and beta Centauri, the so called "pointers", 4 handspans from the south-west horizon, with alpha being the yellow star which is furthest from the horizon, and beta the blue white star below. Between these stars and Chameleon lies the faint constellation Musca the fly. Between the pointers and Pavo lie the dim triangular constellations of trianglum and Circinus (the compass). Most of the rest of Centarus, the Centaur, is too close to, or below, the Horizon to be seen properly.
Alpha Centauri is the closest star to our sun at around 4 light years. However, recent measurements with the Hippacaros satellite put the system 300 million kilometers further away than previously thought. Alpha centauri is actually a triple star, conssiting of two sunlike stars and a red dwarf, Proxima centauri, which is the closest of the triple stars to earth.
Returning to alpha Centauri, following a line south through the "pointers" brings you to the Southern Cross, two handspans below and to the left the pointers (one and a half handspans from beta Centauri to beta Crucis) and two handspans above the horizon at about the 5 o'clock position on a clock. A high definition map of Centaurus and Crux is here.
The Southern Cross is, as expected, a cross shaped formation with Acrux (alpha Crucis) and gamma Crucis forming the long axis of the cross (pointing down to the south-west, with bright Acrux on the end of the axis away from the horizon). Beta and delta Crucis, now nealy horizontal, form the cross piece of the cross. Just to the right Acrux is the coal sack. This dark area against the glow of the milky way represents a large dust cloud and is usually clearly visible in dark skies, but will be hard to see this close to the horizon. The Jewel box in the Cross is a small open cluster just above Beta Crucis. It is quite beautiful, but requires strong binoculars or a small telescope to see properly.
Just on the southern horizon, almost due south is Carina (the keel of the former constellation Argo Navis). Its position makes viewing the many spectacular clusters in this constellation difficult or impossible. However, bright Canopus is now two handspans from the south-eastern horizon, almost directly below the large Mangellanic cloud, and will continue to rise in the following weeks.
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Sky Maps
How to use the maps
Comparison of a section of a skymap showing the Southern Cross (Crux) and pointers, with the appearance of the night sky. The map and sky are for September 1 at 10.00 pm, facing south. Both show approximately 30 degrees (5 handspans) of sky just above the horizonThe maps look a little busy, as they cover all sky from horizon to zenith. The grid lines are navigational helpers; each horizontal or vertical line covers 30 degrees of arc (the gridlines in the illustration show 15 degrees of arc), which is roughly five handspans (where a handspan is the width of your hand, held flat light a "stop" sign at arms length). As you can see from the way the lines bunch up. The map is a little distorted, due to trying to project a spherical surface on a flat surface. The horizon is the lowest curved line on the map (for technical software reasons I can't block things out below the Horizon). Constellations are linked by lines and their names are in italics. Stars are shown as circles of varying size, the bigger the circle the brighter the star. The stars are named with their Bayer letter (eg a - alpha, the brightest star in a constellation, a Crucis is the brightest star in Crux). Variable stars are shown as hollow circles, double stars are marked with a line (eg a, b and g Crucis are all double stars, that look quite beautiful in a small telescope). Clusters and Nebula brighter than magnitude 6.0 are marked as broken circles (eg the Jewel box cluster next to b Crucis above which is best viewed in binoculars or a telescope) and squares respectively. To find Crux for example, locate Crux on the appropriate map (eg see the illustration above). Holding the Map, face either east or west (depending on the map), then use the grid lines to determine how far over and up you should look, then look for the Crux pattern in that part of the Sky.
GIF Maps
A view of the Eastern September sky at 10.00pm AEST on 1 September can be downloaded here (sepsky_e.gif 30 Kb) and a view of the western September sky can be downloaded here (sepsky_w.gif 30 Kb). These are more compact files but don't have a lot of resolution.If you wish to print the GIF maps directly from Netscape you must set the printer in landscape mode and you must set the margins to 0 cm (yes, that's right, 0 cm) or the maps will not print correctly.
PDF Maps
High Resolution PDF files can be obtained for the eastern (110 Kb) and the western (110 Kb) horizon maps.The Zenith Map (110 Kb) shows you the whole sky. You will need to face the one of the compass points, then hold the map with the appropriate compass point on the map at the bottom of the page.
You will need a PDF viewer such as Adobe Acrobat or GhostView to view and print them. They look slightly worse on-screen than the GIF files, especially as Acrobat 3.0-4.0 can only display them side on, but print much better and come with legends. However, Acrobat 4.05 and higher can display them in the proper orientation.
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[December Skies] [January Skies] [February Skies] [March Skies] [April Skies] [May Skies] [June Skies] [July Skies] [August Skies] Return to Menu
Cheers! And good star gazing!
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Ian's Astrophotography Gallery
Some of the photographs/images I have taken in recent years of astronomical phenomena that may be of interest.
- Partial Lunar eclipse. Partial Lunar eclipse, July 5, 2001
- My Solar eclipse report. Pictures from the Dec 4, 2002 solar eclipse in South Australia
- Transit of Mercury pictures! 7 May 2003
- Images of the partial solar eclipse 24 Nov 2003
- Transit of Venus June 8 2004 report
- Images of Jupiter, taken, after an enormous struggle, with my webcam, April 2005
- Mosaics of the Moon, more fun with my webcam, April-May 2005
- Animation of Sunrise on the Moon November 2006
- Animation of A shadow Transit on Jupiter May 2007
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Links
Societies:Australian Resources:
- OnLine Astronomical Societies in Australia, from the Astronomical Society of New South Wales Inc.
- Astronomical Society of Australia
Mornington Peninsula Astronomy Society
Astronomy Guild of Australia
Ice in Space
Australian Planetariums:
- A clickable star map for Victoria
- Monthly free Star maps. High quality, monthly maps for Southern and Northern Skies, has lists of interesting objects. Requires Adobe Acrobat to print.
- ASNSW Astro Almanac page for 2004
- ACT skywatch This site focuses on the ACT.
- Australiasky has moved, this nice site covers all of Australia, and has some nice features.
- Gordon Garradd's Astronomy Page
- Excellent Magellanic Cloud page with heaps of maps and info.
- Peter Enzerinks Astronomy page - Web based telescope/eyepiece calculator and other southern sky tidbits.
- Southern star gazer A bit heavy on graphics but pretty good.
- Buying a telescope in Australia, lots of helpful hints.
- Anglo-Australian Observatory
- MSSSO - Mt Stromlo and Siding Springs Observatory
- ATNF - Australian Telescope National Facility
- Parks Radio telescope facility
- RP - CSIRO Radio Physics (part of TIP Division)
- Spaceguard Australia the proposed search for Near Earth Objects including meteroids.
- Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex
- Melbourne's Astronomy Central
- Star Class, Astronomy Education
- Information about Aboriginal astronomy.
- Australian weather forecasts
- Sky and Space, Australia's Astronomy magazine.
- Planetary Society, Australian Volunteers events diary.
Australian Astronomy
- Canberra Planetarium and Observatory
- Launceston Planetarium
- Science Centre and Planetarium (Wollongong)
- Sir Thomas Brisbane Planetarium
- Perth Observatory and Planetarium
- Museum of Victoria Planetarium, Skynotes Index
- The Cosmos Centre in Charleville
Astronomy for Kids
International Resources:
- ABC Space for Kids, Games, information and more.
- Star Child NASA space information for kis 5-13.
- Interactive site on the Sun, good kids resources
- ABC Space for Kids, Games, information and more.
- Astronomy for Kids
- Astronomy for Kids (different site to the one above, and a bit simple, but lots of good images).
- Kids astronomy information from Astronomy Magazine
Stunning sites:
- SEDS, home of the Nine Planets Tour, and much much more
- The Planetary Society
- Center for Backyard Astrophysics
- Amateur Radio Telescopes
- International Occulation Timing Society
- Phil Plait's Bad Astronomy pages (very educational)
- SKY Online - Your Astronomy Source on the World Wide Web
- Astronomy Magazine
- Stellar distances
- Space Weather site (with Meteor counts)
- Near Earth Object home page (also follows comets, including LINEAR S4 and meteor showers)
Useful programs:
- A 3D map of satellites orbiting the Earth in real time! Simply amazing!
- The Anglo Australian Observatories 3D virtual tour through a 3D map of the Cosmos. Mind Blowing!
- Views of extrasolar planets seen from the Southern sky, stunning Java-driven map with heaps of (complex) info.
- Stellarium, free (but large) photorealistic sky charting software. What I use for the horizon views.
- Celestia, free 3D space travel software, see the Earth from Mars, see the Moon of EL62, see Saturn rise on Titan.
- Ian's Celestia resources. Save these files into the "Extras" directory
- Script to show Conjunctions of Earth from Mars.
- Definition File for asteroid 87 Sylvia and her two moons (see story here).
- Definition File for Pluto's two new Moons P1 and P2.
- Definition file for three Neptunian extrasolar planets of HD 69830.
- Asteroid 2004 VD17, which will not hit the Earth.
- Definition file for Comet 2006/P1 McNaught
- Definition file for for the Gliese 581 system that contains the most Earth-like world yet.
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Charts, Books and Software for Astronomy
If you would like to have charts available all the time, rather than relying on mine, for between $2-$20 you can pick up a planisphere from a newsagent or bookshop (or for a bit more you can get fancy ones from Australian Geographic, the ABC shop or the other Australian Geographic look alike shop, or the Wilderness Society, or even a binocular/ optical store). The planisphere won't give you position of the planets, so you will need to get the planet rise/set times. These can be found in most serious newspapers (the Age, the Australian, SMH etc. The Australian is probably the best bet for budding amateurs). The combination of planisphere and rise/set times is the best value for beginners though, if you are not too worried about identifying star clusters in your binoculars.Or, for $19.95 US, you can have the Touring the Universe through Binoculars Atlas http://www.philharrington.net/tuba.htm which can print observing charts, but has a few annoying quirks. These include having no horizon line, and the planets are shown in the wrong places.
I use a combination of a 1962 star chart, the Australian Astronomy 2010 almanac and SkyMap Pro 11.0 . I highly recommend the Australian Astronomy 2010 almanac. It is more helpful for planetary/comet/asteroidal observations and eclipses than for double stars, clusters galaxies etc, but is an excellent resource for Australian observers and anyone who would like to seriously follow the planets in Australia should have this almanac. It has easy to follow month-by-month summary information, as well as detailed charts, tables and whole sky maps. It is easily navigated. The Almanac is often in big bookstores or optical shops, or email info@quasarastronomy.com.au to purchase a copy directly for those outside major population centres. The Australian Astronomy almanac comes out in around November for the following year, and is now approx $28.
Sky and Space, the Australian equivalent of Sky and Telescope, is also very good, especially for breaking news. It is found in most big newsagents at $7.40 an issue. Disclaimer! I am now a contributing editor and write the planetary observation section for Sky and Space.
Sky and Telescope now also do an Australian version of their magazine.
For detailed chart drawing and timing of events, as well as satellite track predictions I feed the information from the almanac into the $150 AUD SkyMap Pro 11.0 , planetarium program. This is a very handy program which prints maps of every possible orientation and scale. The maps on this page are produced by SkyMap.
A shareware version of SkyMap that runs on windows 3.x, and win95 can be found here http://www.winsite.com/info/pc/win3/desktop/skymp21a.zip this is approximately 640 Kb zipped.
A shareware version of the win95 only version 5.0 is here http://www.download.net.au/cgi-bin/dl?13607
Other highly recommended Sky charting packages (win95/98/2000/XP sorry) are:
Cartes du Ciel at http://www.stargazing.net/astropc/ (FREE) a bit messy to install but very good.
Stellarium at http://stellarium.sourceforge.net/ (FREE) stunning photorealistic program, but requires grunty PC and OpenGL.
TheSkyVarious packages from $49 US to $249 US
Stary Night various versions from $49 us for the basic pack (10 day trial of the basic pack at http://www.siennasoft.com/english/downloads.shtml) up.
Earth Centered Universe $88 AUD (shareware version at http://www.nova-astro.com/)
On the other hand a standard Sky Atlas for serious observing (much handier than carting a computer with you) such as Norton's Star Atlas can range from $35 to $90.This is not meant to be a product endorsement of any kind (outside of the Australian Astronomy 2007 almanac. For any budding astronomers out there, it is fantastic value and no, I don't have any commercial interest in it, but I did win bronze in their website Olympics). I am now also a contributing editor for Sky and Space so naturally take my enthusiasm with the appropriate grains of salt (although I was enthusiastic before I was approached to write for it).
This page can be used freely for any non-commercial purpose but please attribute it correctly. However, see the disclaimer.
Email: reynella@mira.net
e-mail
Ian with any suggestions
Created: Wednesday, 1 April 1998, 11:22:13 PM
Last Updated: Monday, 30 August 2010, 11:30:13 PM