Posted on by VirtualAstro

How to find Saturn in the Sky this Weekend

If you want to find the planet Saturn in the sky this weekend, but aren’t sure where to look, this guide should help you.

Saturn is visible all night long at the moment and is quite easy to find, as it is just past opposition which makes it quite bright.

Credit: Adrian West

Find the constellation of Leo the Lion (high in the Southern sky at around 10pm) by looking for the backwards question mark asterism (red in the diagram), which is the head of Leo. Find the last 2 stars in Leo’s body and draw an imaginary line through these 2 stars, and arc to the left and down until you reach a bright yellowish star. This is Saturn.

If you continue drawing this imaginary line a little further you will find the bright bluish white star Spica, in the constellation of Virgo.

Right now, Saturn should be an easy target to spot with the naked eye, but looks great through binoculars and is truly amazing through any telescope.

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Now is the Time for Observing Saturn in the Night Sky

A current view of Saturn (middle) and also at opositions from the last six years from present (left) clockwise to bottom left. Credit: Efrain Morales Rivera, Jaicoa Observatory, Aguadilla, Puerto Rico.

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April is Global Astronomy Month, and as a highlight, the “Lord of the Rings” is back prominently in the night sky! This past weekend, Saturn reached opposition, when it is closest to the Earth in its orbit. Opposition means Saturn is directly opposite the Sun in the sky, so it rises in the east at sunset and sets in the west at sunrise – meaning it will be in the sky all night long! Saturn is also the only planet visible before midnight in April. But the beautiful ringed planet will be looking even brighter that it has been for the past few months.

Special thanks to Efrain Morales Rivera for sending us this montage of Saturn images, showing a current view of Saturn in the middle and the ringed planet at oppositions from the last six years.

Around opposition there is a phenomenon known as the Seeliger Effect, which might actually be a couple of different effects combining to enhance the brightness of Saturn: Since the Earth is smack dab in the middle of the Sun and Saturn, sunlight is coming from directly behind us and directly at Saturn. And there’s also the phenomenon called coherent backscattering, which is where if you shine a beam of light at something that is made from a lot of separate particles (like Saturn’s rings) the light is reflected back with greater intensity from the direction directly opposite the beam. The middle image of Saturn in the montage above reveals brighter rings from the Seeliger Effect, as well as highlighting the ‘Serpent storm’ in the northern hemisphere.

You can read more about the Seeliger Effect on AstroBob’s website.

This is also a great time to try and see some of Saturn’s moons, too.

Astronomers Without Borders are sponsoring a special Saturn Watch event April 11-16. See their website for more information about “Saturn Watch” and activity suggestions.

Here are more Saturn resources.

There are also several other fun observing events for Global Astronomy Month:

On April 9 the Global Star Party will unfold as darkness sweeps around the Earth. This is the night to set up your telescopes and share the wonders of the sky with others.

From April 10 to 16 it’s Lunar Week, to turn your gaze turns toward Earth’s natural satellite, and take a close-up look the Moon’s craters and “seas”.

April 12th is Yuri’s Night — and a very special one too, as it is the 50th anniversary of the first human in space.


April 17 is SunDay, highlighting our very own star.

The month closes with the Lyrid Meteor shower. On April 21/22 get comfortable in something warm and spend
the night scanning the sky for meteors caused by debris left behind by Comet Thatcher.

See more on the Global Astronomy Month website.

You can hear a podcast about Dark Skies Month on the April 5th 365 Days of Astronomy podcast.

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Kickstarting the Joy of Astronomy

Sidewalk astronomy back in 1921 in New York City. Credit: Wikipedia

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You’re probably familiar with Sidewalk Astronomy – where amateur astronomers set up telescopes on street corners or other public places to share free views through a telescope with those who might not otherwise have the chance. These are great opportunities for public education about astronomy and the Universe in which we live. We just got a note from a long-time sidewalk astronomer, Jay Horowitz, who has a plan to set up telescopes on A LOT of street corners. He wants to share telescope views of the skies with people all over the US. But he needs a little help to make his plan come to fruition.


“ I want to give thousands of people the opportunity to see firsthand the universe in which we live, turning young minds on to the power of science and sparking curiosity and awe in adults,” Jay wrote us in an email. And so, he has set up a Kickstarter page – and you might be familiar with this new “crowd sourcing” way to fund creative projects.

Kickstarter projects are efforts by people to do something they love, something fun, or at least something of worthwhile and of note. But they might not have the funds to do it. Kickstarter is an all-or-nothing funding method where projects must be fully-funded or no money changes hands.

Check out Jay’s Astronomy On The Road Kickstarter project, where his goal is to take science around the country in 2011 and 2012. He’s looking to raise money for a Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope, a solar telescope, and fuel for transporting the telescopes between locations. He and his group will provide free views of the skies in schools, libraries, and on city streets all over the United States.

“The telescopes will always be used for public education and will never be for private use, even down the road,” Jay said.

There are also some notable prizes for those who donate, including lunch with some of the big names in astronomy.

Jay’s Sidewalk Astronomy resume is impressive: he founded a successful sidewalk astronomy group in New York City and also volunteered as a telescope operator and educator at an observatory, and taught astronomy in the Dominican Republic.

Consider donating to this great project. You can also follow the project on Twitter.

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Double Spaceship Sighting Alert – and last chance to see Discovery in orbit

Discovery and ISS pass over the UK on March 7, 2011, captured by Will Gater.

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UPDATE: We’ve already got a sighting! The image above was taken this evening in the UK by science writer Will Gater.

Space shuttle Discovery undocked from the ISS on early Monday, March 7, and depending where you live, you might have an opportunity to see the two spaceships flying in tandem. This is an incredible sight, and will be the last opportunity to see Discovery in orbit, as she will be retired after she lands and completes the STS-133 mission. Spaceweather.com reports that the station and shuttle will be flying over parts of the United States and Europe Monday and Tuesday, appearing in the night sky as a closely-spaced pair of bright lights. The ISS is bigger, so will appear as the brighter object trailing the smaller Discovery as they move across the sky.

To find out if you’ll be able to see the two spaceships in your area, there are a few different sites to check out:

NASA has a Skywatch page where you can find your specific city to look for satellite sighting info.

Spaceweather.com, has a Satellite Tracker Tool. Just put in your zip code (good for the US and Canada) to find out what satellites will be flying over your house.

Heaven’s Above also has a city search, but also you can input your exact latitude and longitude for exact sighting information, helpful if you live out in the country.

Seeing the two spacecraft flying closely in tandem is a very unique and thrilling sight. Good luck!

Below, watch some of the incredible views as Discovery performed the fly-around maneuver of the ISS early Monday.

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

What’s Up for March?

Jane Houston Jones from JPL provides a video report on the happenings in space this month, and what you can see in the night sky in March: the MESSENGER spacecraft goes into orbit around Mercury on the 18th, and you can see the swift planet in the evening skies, too! Meanwhile, celebrate Sun-Earth day on the 19th, and view the sun through solar safe telescopes.

Jones was also featured on a recent 365 Days of Astronomy podcast, talking with Jane Platt and providing a “Sneak Peek at the Springtime Skies.”

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Look to Orion and Help Measure the Darkness of Your Night Sky

Orion as seen from Easter Island. Credit: Wally Pacholka / AstroPics.com / TWAN. Used by permission.

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How dark are your skies? GLOBE at Night wants to know! Join the 6th annual worldwide GLOBE at Night campaign, which is going on right now in the northern hemisphere. “We are running two campaigns this year, from February 22nd to March 6th and from March 22nd to April 4th in the northern hemisphere and March 24th to April 6th in the southern hemisphere,” said Rob Sparks from the National Optical Astronomy Observatory, which is one of the sponsors for this year’s campaign.

By participating in the international star-hunting campaign, you will help address the problems of light pollution locally as well as globally. More participants are needed this year, so sign up to be a citizen scientist today!

Light pollution is a serious and growing global concern. With half of the world’s population now living in cities, many urban dwellers have never experienced the wonder of pristinely dark skies and perhaps, maybe never will. But light pollution is also a concern in areas of safety, energy conservation, cost, health and effects on wildlife, as well as our ability to view the stars.

But this is also one of the easiest environmental problems you can address on local levels.

GLOBE at Night is a wonderful way for everyone around the world to participate to raise public awareness of the impact of artificial lighting on local environments. This event encourages everyone – students, educators, dark sky advocates and the general public – to measure the darkness of their local skies and contribute their observations online to a world map.

The campaign is easy and fun to do, and as in previous years, there are just five easy steps to participate. But this year, there is now an app for that, where participants can submit their measurements in real time if they have a smart phone or tablet.

“There is now a mobile website to submit data,” Sparks told Universe Today. “It will take the GPS data, time and date from your phone and has a cool little graphic to help you determine the brightness of the sky. It even had a red screen feature for night use.” The app can be found at this link.

To participate, you will match the appearance of the constellation Orion in the first campaign (and Leo or Crux in the second campaign) with simple star maps of progressively fainter stars found. Then you submit your measurements, including the date, time, and location of your comparison. After all the campaign’s observations are submitted, the project’s organizers release a map of light-pollution levels worldwide. Over the last five annual 2-week campaigns, volunteers from more than 100 nations contributed 52,000 measurements, one third of which came from last year’s campaign.

The five easy star-hunting steps are:

1) Find your latitude and longitude.

2) Find Orion by going outside an hour after sunset (about 7-10pm local time).

3) Match your nighttime sky to one of the GLOBE at Night magnitude charts

4) Report your observation.

5) Compare your observation to thousands around the world.

Go to the GLOBE at Night website for all the details. There is even a 10-minute audio podcast on light pollution and GLOBE at Night. Or download a 45-minute powerpoint and accompanying audio. GLOBE at Night is also on Facebook and Twitter.

Be a part of GLOBE at Night and help the campaign exceed the 17,800 observations contributed last year. Your measurements will make a world of difference.

Thanks to the GLOBE at Night team for securing permission for Universe Today to post the lead image, from Wally Pacholka from AstroPics.com and TWAN (The World At Night).

Posted on by VirtualAstro

Choosing a New Telescope – GoTo or not GoTo

Guide to Meade Telescopes
MeadeETX125PE

I am often asked by people “I’m a beginner, so what telescope should I buy?” Or more often, what GoTo telescope would I recommend for someone starting out in astronomy?

When venturing out and buying your first telescope, there are a number of factors to consider, but because of glossy advertising and our current digital age, the first telescope that people think of is a GoTo.

Do you really need a GoTo or would a manual telescope suffice? In order to make a good decision on what telescope to buy, you need to decide on what you want to use the telescope for — observing, photography, or both and does it need to be portable or not? This will help you make the best decision for the mount of your telescope.

GoTo telescopes are usually advertised as being fully automatic and once they have set themselves up, or are set up by the user, they can access and track and many thousands of stars or objects with just a simple touch of a button. These features have made GoTo scopes are very desirable with many astrophotographers.

Manual telescopes are not automatic or driven by motors as GoTo scopes are. They are predominantly used for observing (using your eyes instead of a camera) and the scope is moved by hand or by levers by the user to find different objects in the eyepiece. Manual telescopes usually have a finder scope, red dot finder or laser finder to aid in finding objects in the eyepiece. They are unable to track objects, which can make them unsuitable for photography.

GoTo Vs Manual
Compared to GoTo telescopes, manual telescopes are much more economical as you are basically buying a very simple mount and an optical tube assembly (the telescope tube, or OTA). With GoTo you are adding electronics and control mechanisms to drive the scope, which can add heavily to the cost. A small GoTo telescope could cost the same as a lot larger manual Dobsonian telescope.

Good GoTo telescopes make astrophotography very accessible and enjoyable, especially with the addition of cameras and other kits. As opposed to manual scopes, GoTos can be used for long exposure astrophotography. Be aware though, that much astrophotography is done with very expensive imaging equipment, but good results can be achieved with web cams and DSLR cameras.

Manual telescopes are brilliant at helping you discover and learn the sky as you have to actually hunt or star hop for different objects. I once met a person who had been using a GoTo telescope heavily for a year, and at a star party I asked her to show some kids where a well known star was with my laser pointer, she didn’t know because she was used to her GoTo scope taking her to objects.

So which one should you buy?
I would recommend for pure visual observing a manual telescope such as a large Dobsonian or Newtonian telescope. The human eye needs as much light to enter it as possible to see things in the dark, so a big aperture or mirror means greater light gathering and more light entering your eye, so you can see more. What you saved by not having GoTo, you can spend on increasing the size of your telescope.

If you want to add photography or imaging capabilities then I would definitely recommend a good quality GoTo scope or mount. You will get a smaller aperture compared to the manual scope for the same money, but the scope will track for astro-imaging and can also be used for visual observing. Be prepared to spend a lot more money, though.

Consider how you want to use your telescope and the size of your budget. Avoid buying low end, cheap, budget, or what is known as “department store” telescopes to avoid disappointment. Save up a little longer and get a good telescope. Visit your local astronomy store or telescope distributor and before you buy ask an astronomer, they will be glad to help.

I hope you enjoy your new telescope for many years to come 🙂

Dobsonian Telescope

Posted on by VirtualAstro

How To See NanoSail-D From Your Own Backyard

Artist concept of Nanosail-D in Earth orbit. Credit: NASA

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The night sky has many wonderful objects to look at on a clear evening, including many man-made satellites, and the always impressive International Space Station (ISS). Now there’s a new addition to these artificial delights: the first ever solar sail to orbit the Earth, NASA’s Nanaosail-D Satellite. Want to know how you can see it?

The 10m x 10m reflective sail is designed to act like a brake and gradually create drag in the upper atmosphere, slowly pulling a satellite down and de-orbiting it at the end of its working life. Nanosail-D is testing the potential of this technology to reduce space junk and debris.

NanoSail D. Image credit NASA

The satellite has a huge reflective sail and could potentially be many times brighter than the planet Venus when it catches a glint from the Sun. Unlike the International Space Station (ISS) and other satellites, the sail will not be visible when it is directly above us as we will be looking at it edge on, It will be more visible when closer to the horizon.

The Nanosail-D satellite will be visible from now and for the next few months. To see it you will need to know exactly when it will be visible from your location. To do this, go to heavens-above.com or spaceweather.com where star charts with times and pass details will be displayed after you enter your observing site.

Once you know the time and location in the sky of the pass of the satellite, make sure you are able to get a good view of the horizon, or part of the sky where the satellite due to appear. Give yourself plenty of time, go outside and get ready. I always set a 30 second reminder on my watch or cell phone, so I don’t have to fumble around or guess the time.

Unlike the ISS and most other satellites, Nanosail-D passes may only last a few, or a few tens of seconds, so make sure you are looking in the right place at the right time. You will see an amazingly bright star-like object rise up, get brighter and then suddenly disappear. When it “disappears” it is still passing over, it’s just no longer at the right angle or is no longer being illuminated by the sun. NanoSail-D has few reflective surfaces compared to many on the ISS.

To enjoy the Nanosail-D passes:

• Make sure you know the right place in the sky and the time of the pass, by checking on the web.
• Make sure you will be able to get a clear view of it from your viewing location.
• Set an alarm or get ready for the pass as it only lasts a few seconds.
• NASA expects NanoSail-D to stay in orbit until April or May 2011.
• If you are an astrophotographer, don’t forget, NASA and SpaceWeather.com are having an imaging contest of NanoSail-D. Find out more here.
• Most of all, get your friends and family outside with you to watch Nanosail-D and enjoy!

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Travel Destination: World’s First Dark Sky Island

An aerial view of Sark.

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Looking for a great vacation spot with those all-important dark skies for astronomical observing? A small island in the English Channel off the French coast of Normandy might be just what you are looking for. The Channel Island of Sark has been officially recognized for the quality of its night sky by the International Dark-sky Association (IDA), who have designated it as the world’s first dark sky island, the latest in a select group of dark sky places around the world.

An aerial view of Sark.

What makes the Sark skies so dark? The island has no public street lighting, there are no paved roads and cars, so effectively, there is no light pollution in the skies. Those who have been there say the night sky is very dark, with the Milky Way stretching from horizon to horizon, meteors streaking overhead, and countless stars on display.

The people who live there have made dark skies one of their priorities. Through a long process of community consultation, a comprehensive lighting management plan was created by Jim Patterson of the Institute of Lighting Engineers, and many local residents and businesses have altered their lighting to make them more dark sky friendly, ensuring that as little light as possible spills upwards where it can drown out starlight.

Roger Davies, president of the Royal Astronomical Society, said, “This is a great achievement for Sark. People around the world are become increasingly fascinated by astronomy as we discover more about our universe, and the creation of the world’s first dark sky island in the British Isles can only help to increase that appetite. I hope this leads to many more people experiencing the wonders of a truly dark sky.”

For more information on Sark, see the island’s website.

For more information on the International Dark-sky association: http://www.darksky.org/

Source: Royal Observatory Greenwich

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Win iPhone App for Observing: TeleCalc

Screenshot from 'TeleCalc'

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There’s a new observing app for the iPhone, iPod and iPad, called TeleCalc. Enter in two data points about your telescope (aperture and focal ratio) and two about the eyepiece (focal length and diameter) the program calculates angular field of view, best eyepiece magnification, resolution (Dawes, Rayleight), exit pupil, limiting stellar magnitude and light gathering power.

TeleCalc is available in eight languages: English, Spanish, French, Italian, German, Portuguese, Russian and Japanese. Search “TeleCalc” in iTunes to download it or find it on the iTunes store.

Thanks to developer Fabio Rendelucci who has given Universe Today 3 free TeleCalc apps to give away.

The first 3 people to answer the following question will be sent a code for a free TeleCalc app:

To find the magnifying power of any telescope, divide the focal length of the telescope by the focal length of the what other telescope piece?

Submit your answers in the “Comments”

Also, if you’re looking for more, take a look at all the apps that NASA has available for both iPhone and Android.