August Skies
Southern Skywatch was 10 years old with the April issue!
The "sketching the sky" competition is now offically closed, but if kids still want to send a sketch in, pleased do so before August 7, when the prizes will be awarded.
To enter, either email me for my mail address reynella@mira.net and post the sketch to me, or if you have a scanner, scan the sketch and email it to me at the above email address.
So get your pencils ready, and Sketch!
Useful info for visitors from New Zealand, Southern India and Asia, South Africa and South America.
August 2-4; the Crescent Moon, Venus, Regulus, Saturn and Mars form a terrific lineup. August 5-6; Venus and Regulus close. August 10; Mercury and Regulus close. August 13, waxing Moon close to Jupiter. August 13-14; Venus and Saturn very close. August 14; Persiids meteor shower. August 15-16; Mercury, Venus and Saturn very close. August 17; Partial Lunar Eclipse. August 21-22; Mercury and Venus close. August 30-31; Mercury, Venus and Mars close
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.
[ Astroblog Updated astronews and images at Astroblog!] [Astronomy Media Player] [Aurora Alert! ] [Coming events and Updates ] [Out in Space ] [ The Moon] [Planets] [Meteors] [ Comets] [ Occultations ] [Partial Lunar Eclipse August 17] [Stars] [Star Maps] [Using the Maps] [Iridium Flares and the International Space Station pass predictions (via Heavens Above)] [
Clear crisp Winter nights are often the best for star gazing, with the broad sweep of the Milky Way arching across the sky. However, it gets very cold, so don't forget to rug up before doing any extended star watching. Dew formation can also mean some dampness, so a blanket or rug to sit on is a good idea, as well as a thermos of your favorite hot beverage. Winter sees our night skies dominated by the Southern Cross, sprawling Scorpio and Sagittarius, in which the heart of our galaxy hides, so it's well worth stepping out into the chill for an astronomical thrill.
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.
Return to Menu
Aurora Alert UPDATED 21/01/08: Sunspot cycle 24 has offically started. We are still in Solar Minimum, but expect things to begin to pick up aurora-wise towards the end of the year.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.
Return to Menu
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.
Return to Menu
Coming events25 January 2008; Occulatation of Regulus
31 January 2008; Venus and Jupiter close
1-2 February 2008, Venus and Jupiter very close
2 February 2008, Occultation of Antares
7 February 2008, Partial Solar Eclipse
24 February 2008, Opposition of Saturn
6 March 2008, Venus, Mercury and Moon very close
30 April 2008, Occultation of Neptune (Northern Australia)
1 May 2008, Saturn and Regulus close.
6 May 2008 Eta Aquarid meter shower
9 June 2008, Saturn and Moon close to Regulus.
1 July 2008, Mars and Regulus very close together, Saturn nearby.
6 July 2008, Good alignment of Mars, Regulus, Saturn and Moon.
9 July 2008, Opposition of Jupiter.
9-11 July 2008, Mars and Saturn close. 14 July, Occultation of Antares.
2-21 August 2008, Venus, Mercury, and Saturn close together, Mars nearby.
17 August 2008, Partial Lunar Eclipse
1-18 September 2008, Mercury, Mars and Venus close together.
12 September 2008, Mars and Venus very close together.
4 October 2008, Occultation of Antares (WA).
1 December 2008, Very close meeting of Venus, Jupiter and the Moon.
29th December 2008, Occultation of Jupiter by Moon, Mercury nearby.
Out in SpaceCassini has watched collisions of small Moons.
The NASA Mars rovers SPIRT is on an energy diet. Meanwhile OPPORTUNITY finds more evidence of water.
The Phoenix Lander has found ice on Mars.
Mars Reconaissance Orbiter has used radar to peer through the Martian ice-caps.
Return to Menu
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.
New Moon is on the 1st
First quarter on the 8th
Full moon on the 16th
Last quarter on the 23rd
On the morning of the 2nd the thin crescent Moon is near Venus, forming a line with Venus, Regulus, Saturn and Mars. On the evening of the 3rd the crescent Moon is near Saturn. On the evening of the 4th the crescent Moon is near Mars. On the evening of the 13th the waxing Moon is close to Jupiter. On the morning of the 17th there is a partial Lunar eclipse.
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.
Return to Menu
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 evenning sky facing west in Melbourne on August 2 at 6:10 pm AEST (similar views will be seen from other cities at the equivalent local time eg 6:30 pm ACST Adelaide.
The Evening sky facing west in Melbourne on August 10 at 6:30 pm AEST (similar views will be seen from other cities at the equivalent local time eg 6:30 pm ACST Adelaide.Mercury enters the evening sky early in the month, joining the spectacular lineup of the planets on 8 August. On the 8th, Mercury is just 4 fingerwidths above the western horizon half an hour after sunset. You will need a level, unobscured western horizon to see Mercury. Mercury rises over the rest of the month. By the 10th, Mercury is a handspan above the western horizon half an hour after sunset and is just a fingerwith from the bright star Regulus. By the 15th and 16th Mercury is nearly two handspans above the western horizon half an hour after sunset and a fingerwidth from Saturn. On the 21st Mercury is over two handspans above the horizon and a fingerwith from Venus. By the 31st Mercury is three handspans above the western horizon, and forms an attractive triangle with Venus and Mars that can be covered with your hand. Venus has some fantastic encounters this month. On August 1 Venus is a handspan above the western horizon half an hour after sunset, forming a triangle with Regulus and Saturn. On the 2nd the Crescent Moon, Venus, Regulus, Saturn and Mars form a brilliant line-up. You will need a clear, level horizon to see the Moon in this line-up. On the 6th Venus is a fingerwidth from Regulus. On August 13 Venus and Saturn are half a fingerwith apart, with Mercury just 3 fingerwiths below. Between the 14th and 16th Venus, Mercury and Saturn form an attractive triangle in the twilight. On August 21, Venus is two handspans above the horizon, and one fingerwidth from Mercury. By August 31, Venus is around 3 handspans above the western horizon half an hour after sunset, and forms an attractive triangle with Mars and Mercury.
Mars is dim but still quite recognisable. Mars is in the constellation of Leo during this month. On the 1st Mars is 5 handspans above the north-western horizon half an hour after sunset. Mars form an attractive lineup with Venus, Regulus and Saturn. On the 2nd, the Moon joins this lineup. On the 4th the Crescent moon is ust 3 fingerwithds from Mars. On the 15th Mars is a little under 5 handspans above the horizon, and 3 handspans above the triangle of Venus, Mercury and Saturn. By August 31, Mars is around 3 handspans above the western horizon half an hour after sunset, and forms an attractive triangle with Venus and Mercury.
Jupiter is easily visible in the evening sky this month. Jupiter is past opposition, but is still big and beautiful. Now is a very good time to make telescopic observations of this banded world. If you don't have a telescope, go along to your local astronomical societies open day and have a look. Not just the planet itself is worth watching. Following Jupiter's moons in binoculars or telescopes should be very rewarding (5, 11 and 19 August have a nice series of events). Those with decent telescopes can try and follow Jupiters 3rd Red Spot. On August 1, Jupiter is next to the "handle" of the "teapot" in Sagittarius. Jupiter is nearly at the zenith at 10:00 pm local time. On August 13 Jupiter is just 2 fingerwidths from the waxing Moon. By the 15th Jupiter is nearly at the zenith, in the northern sky. By the 31st Jupiter is 11 handspans above the northern horizon at 10:00 pm local time, very close to the "handle" of the "teapot" in Sagittarius.
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 Fri 1 Aug 1:46 GRS: Crosses Central Meridian Fri 1 Aug 20:24 Gan: Disappears into Occultation Fri 1 Aug 21:38 GRS: Crosses Central Meridian Sat 2 Aug 1:54 Gan: Reappears from Eclipse Sat 2 Aug 5:33 Io : Transit Begins T Sun 3 Aug 2:43 Io : Disappears into Occultation Sun 3 Aug 3:24 GRS: Crosses Central Meridian Sun 3 Aug 5:33 Io : Reappears from Eclipse Sun 3 Aug 23:16 GRS: Crosses Central Meridian Sun 3 Aug 23:59 Io : Transit Begins T Mon 4 Aug 0:36 Io : Shadow Transit Begins ST Mon 4 Aug 2:16 Io : Transit Ends S Mon 4 Aug 2:53 Io : Shadow Transit Ends Mon 4 Aug 19:07 GRS: Crosses Central Meridian Mon 4 Aug 21:09 Io : Disappears into Occultation Tue 5 Aug 0:02 Io : Reappears from Eclipse Tue 5 Aug 1:13 Eur: Transit Begins T Tue 5 Aug 2:27 Eur: Shadow Transit Begins ST Tue 5 Aug 3:57 Eur: Transit Ends S Tue 5 Aug 5:03 GRS: Crosses Central Meridian Tue 5 Aug 5:12 Eur: Shadow Transit Ends Tue 5 Aug 18:26 Io : Transit Begins T Tue 5 Aug 18:29 Cal: Shadow Transit Begins ST Tue 5 Aug 19:05 Io : Shadow Transit Begins SST Tue 5 Aug 20:42 Io : Transit Ends SS Tue 5 Aug 21:21 Io : Shadow Transit Ends S Tue 5 Aug 22:16 Cal: Shadow Transit Ends Wed 6 Aug 0:54 GRS: Crosses Central Meridian Wed 6 Aug 18:31 Io : Reappears from Eclipse Wed 6 Aug 20:06 Eur: Disappears into Occultation Wed 6 Aug 20:45 GRS: Crosses Central Meridian Thu 7 Aug 0:14 Eur: Reappears from Eclipse Fri 8 Aug 2:32 GRS: Crosses Central Meridian Fri 8 Aug 18:30 Eur: Shadow Transit Ends Fri 8 Aug 22:23 GRS: Crosses Central Meridian Fri 8 Aug 23:48 Gan: Disappears into Occultation Sat 9 Aug 18:15 GRS: Crosses Central Meridian Sun 10 Aug 4:10 GRS: Crosses Central Meridian Sun 10 Aug 4:28 Io : Disappears into Occultation Mon 11 Aug 0:02 GRS: Crosses Central Meridian Mon 11 Aug 1:45 Io : Transit Begins T Mon 11 Aug 2:31 Io : Shadow Transit Begins ST Mon 11 Aug 4:02 Io : Transit Ends S Mon 11 Aug 4:48 Io : Shadow Transit Ends Mon 11 Aug 19:53 GRS: Crosses Central Meridian Mon 11 Aug 22:55 Io : Disappears into Occultation Tue 12 Aug 1:57 Io : Reappears from Eclipse Tue 12 Aug 3:30 Eur: Transit Begins T Tue 12 Aug 5:02 Eur: Shadow Transit Begins ST Tue 12 Aug 19:56 Gan: Shadow Transit Ends Tue 12 Aug 20:12 Io : Transit Begins T Tue 12 Aug 21:00 Io : Shadow Transit Begins ST Tue 12 Aug 22:29 Io : Transit Ends S Tue 12 Aug 23:17 Io : Shadow Transit Ends Wed 13 Aug 1:40 GRS: Crosses Central Meridian Wed 13 Aug 20:25 Io : Reappears from Eclipse Wed 13 Aug 21:31 GRS: Crosses Central Meridian Wed 13 Aug 21:43 Cal: Disappears into Occultation Wed 13 Aug 22:26 Eur: Disappears into Occultation Thu 14 Aug 1:19 Cal: Reappears from Occultation Thu 14 Aug 2:51 Eur: Reappears from Eclipse Fri 15 Aug 3:18 GRS: Crosses Central Meridian Fri 15 Aug 18:20 Eur: Shadow Transit Begins ST Fri 15 Aug 19:24 Eur: Transit Ends S Fri 15 Aug 21:05 Eur: Shadow Transit Ends Fri 15 Aug 23:09 GRS: Crosses Central Meridian Sat 16 Aug 3:14 Gan: Disappears into Occultation Sat 16 Aug 19:01 GRS: Crosses Central Meridian Mon 18 Aug 0:48 GRS: Crosses Central Meridian Mon 18 Aug 3:33 Io : Transit Begins T Mon 18 Aug 4:26 Io : Shadow Transit Begins ST Mon 18 Aug 20:39 GRS: Crosses Central Meridian Tue 19 Aug 0:42 Io : Disappears into Occultation Tue 19 Aug 3:52 Io : Reappears from Eclipse Tue 19 Aug 20:11 Gan: Transit Ends Tue 19 Aug 20:39 Gan: Shadow Transit Begins S Tue 19 Aug 22:00 Io : Transit Begins ST Tue 19 Aug 22:55 Io : Shadow Transit Begins SST Tue 19 Aug 23:57 Gan: Shadow Transit Ends ST Wed 20 Aug 0:16 Io : Transit Ends S Wed 20 Aug 1:12 Io : Shadow Transit Ends Wed 20 Aug 2:26 GRS: Crosses Central Meridian Wed 20 Aug 19:09 Io : Disappears into Occultation Wed 20 Aug 22:17 GRS: Crosses Central Meridian Wed 20 Aug 22:20 Io : Reappears from Eclipse Thu 21 Aug 0:48 Eur: Disappears into Occultation Thu 21 Aug 18:09 GRS: Crosses Central Meridian Thu 21 Aug 18:43 Io : Transit Ends S Thu 21 Aug 19:41 Io : Shadow Transit Ends Fri 22 Aug 3:35 Cal: Transit Begins T Fri 22 Aug 4:04 GRS: Crosses Central Meridian Fri 22 Aug 19:01 Eur: Transit Begins T Fri 22 Aug 20:55 Eur: Shadow Transit Begins ST Fri 22 Aug 21:45 Eur: Transit Ends S Fri 22 Aug 23:41 Eur: Shadow Transit Ends Fri 22 Aug 23:56 GRS: Crosses Central Meridian Sat 23 Aug 19:47 GRS: Crosses Central Meridian Sun 24 Aug 18:47 Eur: Reappears from Eclipse Mon 25 Aug 1:34 GRS: Crosses Central Meridian Mon 25 Aug 21:26 GRS: Crosses Central Meridian Tue 26 Aug 2:30 Io : Disappears into Occultation Tue 26 Aug 20:30 Gan: Transit Begins T Tue 26 Aug 23:44 Gan: Transit Ends Tue 26 Aug 23:48 Io : Transit Begins T Wed 27 Aug 0:39 Gan: Shadow Transit Begins ST Wed 27 Aug 0:50 Io : Shadow Transit Begins SST Wed 27 Aug 2:05 Io : Transit Ends SS Wed 27 Aug 3:07 Io : Shadow Transit Ends S Wed 27 Aug 3:13 GRS: Crosses Central Meridian Wed 27 Aug 3:59 Gan: Shadow Transit Ends Wed 27 Aug 20:57 Io : Disappears into Occultation Wed 27 Aug 23:04 GRS: Crosses Central Meridian Thu 28 Aug 0:15 Io : Reappears from Eclipse Thu 28 Aug 3:12 Eur: Disappears into Occultation Thu 28 Aug 18:16 Io : Transit Begins T Thu 28 Aug 18:55 GRS: Crosses Central Meridian Thu 28 Aug 19:19 Io : Shadow Transit Begins ST Thu 28 Aug 20:32 Io : Transit Ends S Thu 28 Aug 21:36 Io : Shadow Transit Ends Fri 29 Aug 18:44 Io : Reappears from Eclipse Fri 29 Aug 21:23 Eur: Transit Begins T Fri 29 Aug 23:31 Eur: Shadow Transit Begins ST Sat 30 Aug 0:08 Eur: Transit Ends S Sat 30 Aug 0:43 GRS: Crosses Central Meridian Sat 30 Aug 2:17 Eur: Shadow Transit Ends Sat 30 Aug 20:34 GRS: Crosses Central Meridian Sat 30 Aug 23:19 Cal: Disappears into Eclipse Sun 31 Aug 3:17 Cal: Reappears from Eclipse Sun 31 Aug 21:24 Eur: Reappears from EclipseSaturn is visible in the north-western evening sky. Saturn is no longer suitable as a telescopic object, due to its closeness to the horizon. On August 1st Saturn is 3 handspans above the north-western horizon half an hour after Sunset. Saturn iformas a line with Regulus, the brightest star in Leo, Mars and Venus. On the 2nd, the Moon joins this lineup. Over the month Saturn will progressively move northwest and closer to the horizon. On August 3, the crescent Moon is near Saturn. On August 13 Venus and Saturn are half a fingerwith apart, with Mercury just 3 fingerwiths below. Between the 14th and 16th Venus, Mercury and Saturn form an attractive triangle in the twilight. By the 15th and 16th Saturn is nearly two handspans above the western horizon half an hour after sunset and a fingerwidth from Mercury. Thereafter Saturn heads towards the horizon and is lost to view before the end of the month.
Return to Menu
Starshine 3
Return to Menu
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.
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.
Return to Menu
Meteor showers:
Date Meteor Shower ZHR Illumination 2/08/2008 alpha-Capricornids 5 0.25 6/08/2008 iota-Aquarids 8 0.5 13/08/2008 Perseids 100 0.8 21/08/2008 alpha-Cygnids 5 0.5The 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.
Sadly, the Perseids are very low on the horizon in Australia and for all of us south of Brisbane, the radiant (where the meteors appear to originate in the sky) will be below the horizon. While the ZHR is around 100, Australian observers in the North should expect to see 6-7 meteors per hour under clear conditions. On August the 12th and 13th, between around 3.30 am and 5.30 am (yes, that's right, bleeding cold morning time), go out and face North. The meteor shower will be between two to three handspans from the horizon. A map showing the location of the meteor radiant as seen facing north from Brisbane at 4.00 am is here. (also useful for Alice Springs and Darwin, Townsville etc. where the radiant is higher).
The Perseids are associated with the comet Swift-Tuttle, which has a 135 year orbit around the sun. The best Perseid showers were in 1991 and 1992, when Swift Tuttle was at perihelion (the closest approach to the sun) at 1 AU from the Sun, around 400 meteors per hour were seen. Swift Tuttle is now much further out.
Outside of the showers, you can still see sporadic meteors. Rates seen from the Southern Hemisphere are around 12 random meteors being seen per hour during the late morning hours and 2-4 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.
g hours and 2-4 per hour during the evening. The evening rates will be reduced slightly 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.
Return to Menu
Comets:
There are no naked eye or binocular Comets visible in the Southern Hemisphere at this time. A list of current comet ephemerides is at the MPC.
Return to Menu
Occultations:No interesting naked-eye occultations this month.
Eclipse:Partial Lunar eclipse August 17:
On the morning of Sunday, August 17, there will be a partial eclipse of the Moon. It occurs in the early morning, nd although a fairly deep eclipse, twilight will signficntly interfere with observation before maximum eclipse is reached in central and southern states. The eclipse is best seen from Westen Australia. However, even the eastern states will see a significant part of the Moon covered before the sky becomes too bright.
The eclipse will be seen in the Africa and India, as well as parts of South East Asia, South America and Australia. While the first phase of the eclipse is the penumbral phase, observers usually find it difficult to see any darkening until umbral contact. Times listed below are local times.
For people in Africa and Asia, see here for a map and contact timings.
The following table shows the time of first contact with the umbra (the inner part of Earths shadow) mid eclipse, last contact, and Sunrise/Moonset. Local lunar mid-eclipse times will be the same for all east coast locations (7:10) , central locations (6:40), and western locations (5:10). Local sunset and twilight times will vary, see the forms below the table for your local sunset and twilight times.
City Enters Umbra Mid Eclipse Leaves Umbra Sunrise/Moonset Adelaide (ACST) 5:05 am 6:40 am 8:14 am 6:54 am Darwin (ACST) 5:05 am 6:40 am 8:14 am 7:02 am Brisbane (AEST) 5:35 am 7:10 am 8:44 am 6:17 am Sydney (AEST) 5:35 am 7:10 am 8:44 am 6:32 am Melbourne (AEST) 5:35 am 7:10 am 8:44 am 7:03 am Hobart (AEST) 5:35 am 7:10 am 8:44 am 7:03 am Perth (AWST) 3:35 am 5:10 am 6:44 am 6:54 am 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.
-->
Return to Menu
Stars:
The southern evening sky at 10:00 pm AEST in Melbourne on August 1 (similar views will be seen from other cities at the equivalent local time eg 10:00pm ACST Adelaide).
All descriptions here are based on the view from Melbourne at 10.00 pm AEDST (Australian Eastern Standard Time) on 1 August 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 for Central and Western time zones should see roughly the same views at 10.00 pm ACST and 9.00 pm AWST. 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 constellation of Cetus, the Whale, is just coming over the horizon. Five handspans up from the eastern horizon and one handspan to the left is the faint but rambling constellation of Aquarius. Six handspans up and one to the right is bright Fomalhaut, Alpha star of Piscis Austrinus.
Eight handspans above the horizon and one to the left of east is the battered triangle of Capricornius, the Water Goat, currently hosting Uranus and Neptune. 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.
Straddling the Zenith is the distinctive "teapot" shape of Sagitarius, the archer. The "teapots" spout is pointing east, its handle west, and its lid points to the left (north). This constellations panalopy of clusters and nebula reach full prominence. 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.
From the Zenith continuing on west, the distinctive "hook" shape of Scorpio, the scorpion, streches down towards the western horizon. Going up from the western horizon by about twelve handspans (or down from the zenith by 5) 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. 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.
Directly below the "T" of Scorpio by one handspan is a broad triangle of stars that marks Libra, the balance. Alpha librae (with the amazing name Zubenelgenubi) is the brightest star and apex of the triangle pointed at Spica, is almost midway between Spica and Antares. This star is a wide binary, and those with good eye sight and dark skies can usual see both components. Beta Librae (Zubeneschamali) is the next brightezst star in the triangle and closest to the horizon. Four fingerwidths to the left of Beta Librae is delta librae, this dim star (magnitude 4.9) is an eclipsing variable, where a dim star orbiting a brighter star eclipses the brighter star, causing a fall in precieved brigtness. Delta librae dims and brightens by one whole magnitude every 2.3 days, and is a good (if dim) naked eye variable. Libra also hosts the star HD 141569 (roughly a handspan below beta Librae, but at 7th magnitude invisible to the naked eye), which has a dust disk with dark lanes which may indicate planets.
Underneath alpha Librae by around four handspans and to the left by one handspan is bright white Spica, the brightest start in the contstellation of Virgo. Spica marks the top righthand corner of a rectangular group of stars that marks out the body of Virgo, the virgin. Virgo is now grazing the western horizon.
Six handspans to the right of spica is bright orange Arcturus, alpha star of the constellation of Bootes, the herdsman.
Directly to the left of Virgo by three handspans is the kite shape of Corvus the crow,
Returning to the Zenith and working towards the Northern horizon. Ten hanspans down from the Zenith (and 8 above the northern horizon) and two to the left is Rasalhague, alpha star of Ophiuchus, a large rambling constellation. A similar distance from the Zenith and 5 handspans to the right 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 white Vega, alpha Lyrae (the Lyre), three handspans from the horizon. Below and to the right of Vega, just above the horizon is bright Deneb, alpha star of Cygnus, the swan. In the norther hemisphere, Vega, Altair and Deneb make a prominent triangle in the night sky. Here their closeness to the horizon dims the splendor somewhat.
Between Altair, Arcturus, and Spica are a number of dim constellations, including Hercules. Hercules is almost mid way between Altair and Arcturus, and a reasonably prominent box shape just to the left of Vega marks the centre of the constellation.
Now return to the Zenith and go South. Directly south of the teapot of Sagitarius by about two fingerwidths, is the a delicate arc of stars, Corona Australis, the Southern Crown. About three handspans away from the Zenith and between due south and the curved tail of Scorpio is a small squarish constellation Ara. Another handspan south again brings you to the edge of the large, but dim, constellation of Pavo the Peacock. Peacock, alpha Pavonis, is a reasonably bright magnitude 2 star and lies three handspans left of due south. Delta Pavonis, about two handspans below and two handspans to the right 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 Pavo by about 5 handspans is alpha and beta Centauri, the so called "pointers", with Alpha being the yellow star which is furthest from the horizon, and Beta the blue white star below and slightly to the right. Between these stars and Pavo lie the dim constellations of trianglum and Circinus (the compass).
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.
Two handspan from alpha Centauri to the right and a little down is a small star, about a handspan to the right again is a fuzzy star, this is omega Centauri (5139 on the map), a globular cluster of stars which is quite spectacular in good binoculars, and more spectacular than 47 Tucana (see below). Another handspan to the right is Centaurus A, a very radio bright galaxy (5128 on the map). You need a dark night and binoculars (at least 10 x 30) to see it, but it is one of the few galaxies you can see in the southern hemisphere (outside of the small and large Mangellanic clouds) without a telescope.
Returning to alpha Centauri, following a line south east through the "pointers" brings you to the Southern Cross, two handspans below the pointers and 6 handspans above the horizon at about the 3 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 (running parrallel to the horizon, with bright Acrux on the westerly end of the axis). Beta and delta Crucis, now running north-south, form the cross piece of the cross. Just above and 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 clearly visible in dark skies. The Jewel box in the Cross is a small open cluster just to the left of Beta Crucis, the uppermost bright star in the Cross at the moment. It is quite beautiful, but requires strong binoculars or a small telescope to see properly.
Just below the Southern Cross is Carina (the keel of the former constellation Argo Navis). A high definition map of this region is here. Looking almost anywhere in the area streching between Sagitarius and Vela/Carina will reveal an interesting cluster or star formation. However, the area two handspans below and slightly to the right of the Southern Cross, between it and the false cross, is particularly rich. Here you will find the "Southern Peliades" surrounding the tail star (Theta Carina) of a prominent kite shaped group of stars in Carina. Smaller and less spectacular than their northern counterparts, they still look very nice in binoculars. Four fingerwidths below the Southern Peliades are two rich open clusters, and the barely visible star Eta Carina. Eta Carina's spectacular nebula is only dimly seen in binoculars. Five hand spans below and two to the left of the Southern Cross is the False Cross, now only two handspans from the horizon. Just to the left of the False Cross is a good open cluster, normally just visible to the naked eye but hard to see this close to the horizon. Still very nice in binoculars though. Canopus (alpha Carina) is a bright yellowish star sitting just on the south-eastern horizon .
Just below Carina, sitting on the horizon is Vela, the sail of Argo Navis. When, Argo Navis was broken up into Puppis, Vela and Carina in 1750, they forgot to assign alpha and beta stars to Vela, and its brightest star at magnitude 1.5 is Gamma Velorum, now below the horizon. Most of Velas best sights are either below the horizon, or too close to be seen well. Kappa and delta Velorum, with iota and epsilon Carina, make the "false cross" (about 2 hand spans above the south-western horizon). A high definition map of Vela is here.
Three handspans straight up from south, and just to the left 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.
Six handspans up from the southern horizon and three 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, a spectacular globular cluster that is very nice through binoculars.
To the left of the Small Mangellanic cloud is the dim, non descript constellation of Tucana, the Toucan itself, then another 6 handspans further left near bright Fomalhaut is the battered cross if Gruss the crane.
Four handspans from the south-eastern horizon, in an area otherwise devoid of bright stars is magnitude 0.5 Achenar, alpha Erandi, lead star in the constellation of the river, which will soon ramble across the southern skies.
Return to Menu
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 August 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 August sky at 10.00pm AEST on 1 August can be downloaded here (augsky_e.gif 30 Kb) and a view of the western August sky can be downloaded here (augsky_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/Firefox 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 (Acrobat versions 4.05 and above are fine, and have good screen views), but print much better and come with legends.
Return to Menu
[December Skies] [January Skies] [February Skies] [March Skies] [April Skies] [May Skies] [June Skies] [July Skies]
Return to Menu
Cheers! And good star gazing!
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
Return to Menu
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
Astronomy for Kids
- 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
International Resources:
- Star Class Kids Club (costs $30/year for materials)
- Thursdays Class Room NASA sponsored site, more planetary science really
- Interactive site on the Sun, good kids resources
- ABC Space for Kids, Games, information and more.
- Online Astronomical Education from AstronomyWA, suitable for secondary school teaching. Fantastic resources
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.
Return to Menu
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-$10 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 2008 almanac and SkyMap Pro 11.0 . I highly recommend the Australian Astronomy 2008 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 $24.
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 2008 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: Wednesday, 30 April 2008, 11:30:13 PM
