Look Out Of Your Window Now! Astronomical events.

BobClay

BobClay

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Fair question. Those of us who grew up with 9 planets before they demoted Pluto tend to be a bit suspicious of the new designations, although I accept the reasons for doing so.
Pluto revealed with that mission that it wasn't some boring frozen rock, but a world of features and happenings. (Colder than Tern Hill on a bad day though .. :o)
 
Withnail

Withnail

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The Hawk

The Hawk

Well-Known Forumite
BobClay said:
Fair question. Those of us who grew up with 9 planets before they demoted Pluto tend to be a bit suspicious of the new designations, although I accept the reasons for doing so.
Pluto revealed with that mission that it wasn't some boring frozen rock, but a world of features and happenings. (Colder than Tern Hill on a bad day though .. :o)
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Finally got round to ticking off Neptune and completing the set of planets (the 8). Nicely positioned in the night sky at the moment, but it still requires some reasonable optics and knowing exactly where to look.

To me it was just a pale microdot in the night sky, but to Voyager 2, back in 1989, it looked like this:
800px-Neptune_-_Voyager_2_%2829347980845%29_flatten_crop.jpg
 
BobClay

BobClay

Well-Known Forumite
Betelgeuse, the giant red star on the left shoulder of Orion, has been behaving strangely in recent months. It's been getting fainter.

https://spaceweatherarchive.com/2020/01/10/the-fainting-of-betelgeuse-update/

This star is a definite candidate to go supernova at some time during the next million years or so. If it did it would light up the sky, and be visible during daytime as it isn't that far away … about 650 light years. It isn't likely, (not within our lifetimes anyway) as there are other explanations for the dimming. But it is possible.

It would surely be something to see.
 
The Hawk

The Hawk

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Been taking advantage of Neptune's position, very close to Venus tonight, to have another look at our Solar System's most distant planet.

Oh, and Betelgeuse does seem fainter than usual. Or is that Beetlejuice?












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BobClay

BobClay

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Some reports put it's magnitude down by 25%, which is a lot. But it has done this before, it's an unstable giant, destined to go pop one day and scatter into the abyss elements essential for the building of life.
Beetlejuice is a copy your long lost ancestor. Looking at him above, for some … maybe not so lost or long ago. :heyhey:
 
BobClay

BobClay

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I was sad to see that Dr Heather Couper had died. She was one of those people whose enthusiasm for her subject overflowed in bounds, even if you weren't that keen on the subject you couldn't help but be impressed. (And I've always been keen on her subject.)
The BBC have always been good at finding people to explain things who become natural presenters of often quite difficult subjects.
She was a Star …

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-51562165
 
The Hawk

The Hawk

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BobClay said:
I was sad to see that Dr Heather Couper had died. She was one of those people whose enthusiasm for her subject overflowed in bounds, even if you weren't that keen on the subject you couldn't help but be impressed. (And I've always been keen on her subject.)
The BBC have always been good at finding people to explain things who become natural presenters of often quite difficult subjects.
She was a Star …

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-51562165
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And, like the rest of us, she came from the stars, and to the stars we will all return.
 
BobClay

BobClay

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We are all star dust …. or as Jim Al-Khalili put it … (somewhat less romantically) … nuclear waste. (He is another excellent BBC science presenter.) :)
 
BobClay

BobClay

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Some may have noticed a particularly bright Venus in the western sky after sunset. In fact the third brightest thing in the sky after the Sun and the Moon right now. Often called 'the evening star' although it isn't a star but a planet. In fact the closest planet to the Earth at times, comes much closer than Mars for instance.
At first Venus seems to hit all the spots: it is close to the same size as the Earth, it has a very definite atmosphere, it's close by (astronomically speaking) but that's where the spots come to an end.
If you wanted a definition of hell .... then Venus is up there with the best ... (even including Cannock !!)
Nobody is going to be going there anytime soon.
 
BobClay

BobClay

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If you look outside now you'll see Venus and a crescent Moon close to each other. Quite a sight ... with sunset these two are left as the brightest objects in the sky.
 
Gramaisc

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
Ireland has just recorded its highest atmospheric pressure for the month of March, previous record for March was back in 1900.

1,051.3 hPa at Malin Head earlier today.

All the way up to 1,054 hPa, out beyond Rockall.
 
BobClay

BobClay

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Gone cold though this last couple of days. My barometers both reading 1040mb but the thermometer has ate its gun !!! :eek:
 
Gramaisc

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
BobClay said:
If you look outside now you'll see Venus and a crescent Moon close to each other. Quite a sight ... with sunset these two are left as the brightest objects in the sky.
Click to expand...
Although I didn't see it, it was mentioned on the radio this morning that "the ISS passed between Venus and the Moon" last night.

Obviously, this was meant to indicate their relative orientations from our Earth-bound perspective, rather than the actual spatial arrangement.

It then occurred to me that Harrison Schmitt, the sole surviving member of the Apollo 17 crew, is the person who has actually been most recently "between Venus and the Moon" - although, it was way back in December 1972.

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