LISTEN to this week’s Sky Report
This is the Griffith Observatory Sky Report for the two-week period ending Wednesday, July 25, 2012. Here is what’s happening in the skies of Southern California:
Another huge sunspot group, large enough to see through eclipse solar viewers, should be visible through about July 19 in the southern half of the sun (the lower part when examined at noon). The core of this group is known as spot AR 1520. In the last Sky Report, I incorrectly stated that sunspots appear to move from right to left–actually they move from left to right (west to east). They take about two weeks to cross the disk of the sun. The spots can also be viewed safely and in detail through Griffith Observatory’s solar telescope.
After sunset, the planets Mars, Saturn, and the bright star Spica–all in Virgo the Maiden–make a notable trio. The objects are located midway up in the southwest sky as darkness falls. Saturn is less than 5 degrees above Spica, and Mars closes in from 18 degrees to 11 degrees to the lower right of Saturn between the 11th and 25th. For scale, remember that a clenched fist appears 10 degrees across when viewed from arm’s length. Saturn and its rings are currently among the featured objects for public viewing through Griffith Observatory’s telescopes. The crescent moon will pose below the planets on Tuesday, July 24.
The moon appears in waning crescent phase in the morning sky until Tuesday, July 17. It will make an attractive grouping with the brilliant planets Venus, Jupiter, the bright star Aldebaran and the other stars of Taurus the Bull at dawn on Sunday, July 15. After new moon on July 18, it will emerge into the evening sky in waxing crescent phase after sunset on Friday the 20th, the 43rd anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing.
The star zeta Tauri is occulted by the moon on the morning of July 16. A telescope will be needed to see the center of the moon’s bright crescent block the light of the magnitude 3.0 star in brilliant twilight throughout southern California within a few minutes of 5:38 a.m., P.D.T.
A new crew is scheduled to launch to the International Space Station on Saturday, July 14 at 7:40 p.m., P.D.T. aboard a Soyuz vehicle from Russia. Among the crew of 3 is American Astronaut Sunita Williams, making her second 6-month stay on the ISS since 2007. The Soyuz crew is scheduled to join the other three residents already on the ISS when the capsule docks at 9:50 p.m., P.D.T. on Monday, July 16–within a few hours of the 37th anniversary of the first joint International Apollo/Soyuz mission in 1975. Live video coverage of the current mission is available on the Internet via NASA TV.
Free views of the sun during the day and of the moon, planets, and other celestial objects at night, are available to the public in clear weather six days a week (Tuesday-Sunday) through Griffith Observatory’s telescopes before 9:30 p.m. Check our website for our schedule. The next public star party of the Los Angeles Astronomical Society and the Sidewalk Astronomers is scheduled for Saturday, July 28.
From Griffith Observatory, I’m Anthony Cook, and I can be reached at griffithobserver@gmail.com.