#24G - The Eclipse from North and South - Dawn is Where the Worlds Are - - & 2 More Stories
TGT 4/15/24: Partial and Total Eclipse Observations; Mars with 3 other Planets; Night sky loses, gains its only planet(s); Expecting a Nova T-CrB.
Cover Photo - The Great American Eclipse
In This Issue:
Cover Photo — The Great American Eclipse
Welcome to Issue 24G!
A 2 PM Twilight - Early Reporting on the Eclipse Outside and Inside the Shadow
Sky Planning Calendar —
* Moon-Gazing - Waxing and Waning Gibbous Sites
* Observing—Plan-et - Mars points to Saturn, Mercury and Neptune; Evening Sky Gain’s One Planet, Loses One Planet.
* Border Crossings - Close but No (Crescent) CigarTowards Cosmic Awareness - T Coronae Borealis
Welcome to The Galactic Times Newsletter-Inbox Magazine #24G!
A very photographic issue this time! TGT presents images from inside and outside the totality shadow path of the April 8th total eclipse of the Sun. So far, haven’t heard anybody seeing or photographing Comet Pons-Brooks during totality. Any TGT readers see it?
There is also an article for something else predictable, the eruption of the recurrent nova T Coronae Borealis, due any day now. Take a peak every clear night for a new 2nd magnitude jewel in the Northern Crown, but it doesn’t shine there long!
Planets—look in the dawn for Mars. It passes three others. Meanwhile the evening sky loses its only bright one, but the pre-dawn night-times gain one.
Enjoy!
Publisher — Dr. Larry Krumenaker Email: newsletter@thegalactictimes.com
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A 2 PM Twilight
Having just come back very late Friday from an unexpected three day trip to Eastern Georgia, it was too late to drive the 8 or so hours to the nearest point of totality, with a then-iffy forecast, Jonesboro, Arkansas. Turned out that central and northeastern Arkansas were about the only Southern areas with few clouds so that visibility of the totality would have been possible. On either side of the shadow path were total obscuration—by clouds—of the whole show; 80-100% clouds and/or thunderstorms. Well, Arkansans could use a decent break once in a while.
Since I am in the 83% partial eclipse zone, my only experiments would be to see what effects of the shadow passing 450 miles from me would do. Would it even be noticeable?
Turns out, yes, if you are looking for it.
My sky was only slightly hazy and my house faces nearly due west. So I took photos every 45 minutes with an iPad and phone before and after maximum eclipse. My photos were specifically a ground shot under the eclipsed Sun, and ~90 degrees away near the spot where Polaris would be at night, above my treeline in the North.
Here are the pairs of photos from 90 minutes before maximum, and at max .
Notice that the light did darken even at this far distance; the grass grows darker and the northern sky, too.
Then, notice, at eclipse max…there were thin crescents everywhere!!
My friend from Massachusetts, Rich Stillman, did get into another rare cloud hole, in NE New York State. Leading a crowd of 75 in how to observe the eclipse, he sent me interesting shots.
First, a photo of totality. It is interesting for comparison to our Cover Photo of Issue 24F, April 1, 2024. A long spike was expected eastward. Didn’t seem to happen.
Second, a beautiful landscape shot during totality, showing Venus to the lower right of the Sun, the closeness explains why Venus is too hard to see now in the dawn. Jupiter was visible to the Sun’s upper left, though it was out of range of this photo scene. No other planets, nor Comet Pons-Brooks were seen though the high clouds could have obscured them.. but those same clouds were bright sunset colors in the distance outside of the shadow cone.
Finally, our issue Cover Photo comes from Mr. Stillman, too. All the frames that went into a small video, arranged in order. Do you think it would make an interesting poster? Let me know at the email address below!
Sky Planning Calendar
Moon-Gazing
Moon passages by a star, planet or deep sky object are a good way to find a planet or other object if you’ve never located it before.
April 19 The Moon is at Apogee late in the evening. Hello, micro-waxing Gibbous Moon. (Since ‘gibbous’ means “fat” in Latin, isn’t that an oxymoron?)
April 23 Blue-white Spica is three lunar diameters away from the Full Moon (1.4-degrees).
You can really use this to find out how big angular measures, especially those of the widths of your fingers at arm’s length because that nearby Moon is a Full Moon, and ever so slightly less than a half degree.
April 26 Now the waning Gibbous Moon is near a red star, Antares. Can you see the color difference?
Observing---Plan-et
==Mars seen with three other worlds; From one night-time planet to….one night-time planet.==
Mercury is hidden until month end, when on the 26th it will rise in the dawn at least 45 minutes before Sun rise. It won’t ever get much into good viewing position for Northern Hemisphereans, but those below the Equator are going to get a really good show in early May. But take a try around the 28th when it is just North of East, very low to the ground, and below and left of the ‘double planet” Mars and Saturn (see below).
Venus. What Venus? Other than during the recent eclipse, it is ot-of-view on vacation until the end of June.
Mars is making up for its dim, small telescopic show by mixing it up with other planets. In addition to Mercury (and Venus, if you try) being below and left of it at month’s end, Saturn, which it passed closed to in early April, is now 12.5-degrees from that on the 29th, but Neptune (telescopic observers only!) is a mere 0.2-degrees away from Mars.
Jupiter enters the twilight zone, setting at the end of evening twilight on the 20th. On that day, get that telescope out and look around an hour after Sunset some 2-degrees north of Jupiter (right as we see it) for dim, small-in-apparent diameter Uranus. In about two weeks, that setting time shrinks to less than 45 minutes after Sun set and it is gone from view for a while.
Saturn rises at the start of morning twilight on the 21st. With Jupiter at the same time now in the twilight, Saturn by month’s end becomes the only in-a-dark-sky planet, by default.
Border Crossings
The Sun enters the constellation of Aries, from Pisces, on April 19. Astrologically it is in Aries until 19th so there isn’t even a one-day commonality. Close but no crescent-shaped banana.
Towards Cosmic Awareness
The Watching for Recurring Nova T Coronae Borealis
Regular novae don’t announce themselves, nor do they occur on a predictable basis. But recurrent novae are (somewhat) predictable. And, like the anticipated birth of a child, we know approximately when it is going to happen, but we have to monitor conditions every day, in case it comes early.
The star T Coronae Borealis (T Cor Bor or most simply T CrB) is just such an object. Normally a 10th magnitude star—visible at the dim end of high-powered binoculars or moderate amateur telescopes—explodes up to 2nd magnitude, as bright as Polaris the North Star, or its neighbor Alphecca (sometimes, Alphekka), the brigtest star of the constellation of Corona Borealis, the Northern Crown. The constellation itself is a semi-circle of stars, the easterly neighbor of Boötes the Herdsman, and its bright star Arcturus. The image below is all these objects location at roughly 10PM Daylight Time at this Issue’s date. At this time of year, T CrB is up all night so you can check the Crown to see if it has any new shiny jewels hanging off it any time you are out at night.
The first modern views of the star were explosions in May 1866 and February 1946. According to Schaefer, B. E. (2023), [The recurrent nova T CrB had prior eruptions observed near December 1787 and October 1217 AD. Journal for the History of Astronomy, 54(4), 436-455. https://doi.org/10.1177/00218286231200492] there is evidence for at least two more explosions. One cycle of about 80 years earlier, a British Reverend Frances Wollaston in 1787 spotted it, measuring its position as it lasted at least a few days. About 7 further cycles back in 1217 AD, a German Abbot saw a new star shining “for many days” in the position of T CrB. So this recurrent star seems rather steady in its eruptions.
To monitor with optics, here are a pair of closer-in maps, the first (and the above) from using Stellarium, and the last from in-the-sky.org.
The star goes through a pattern of brightening and dimming before it explodes, leading to predictions of eruption this year, from now until September. The eruption lasts for days, certainly less than a month, generally, with a secondary brightness peak below naked eye level, about three months later and lasting for 3-4 months.
Good luck….
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