items Featured In TGP NOMINAL Xtra - May Skies 2019
Ross Hockham's May Sky Guide:
The ETA Aquariid meteor shower peaks at the beginning of the month (5/6th)
and with the moon out of the way, it makes it worth a look up for.
They actually originate from the tail of the famous Comet Halley and are said to produce around 15-20 meteors per hour,
but have said to peak at 40-60 before.
Halley's Comet last wowed astronomers in 1986 and won't be back till 2061,
I was only four so can't remember seeing it, but I do remember Hale-Bopp's appearance in 1995.
I think when I first started astronomy,The ETA Aquariid meteor shower was happening so I went to Ivinghoe Beacon.
I remember climbing up the hill and watching the sunrise and looking for Comets because I didn't know what I was doing.
now I realise it's probably too bright and should have gone a bit earlier.
But at least this time, I will get to see some of the pieces from the famous Comet as it burns up in our atmosphere.
The best time to look is the pre-dawn eastern sky as they radiate from the constellation Aquarius,
although not giving you much time to spot one they are said to be fast and often leave lingering trails in their wake.
On the 7th Mars (The God of war) has moved through Taurus (The Bull) and is now positioned by the bull’s horns.
The crescent Moon shouldn't be too far from it, so a nice time to spot it.
Just after the Sun sets, look for the crescent and Mars.
it will be just above it, but will drop below the horizon soon after.
On the 9th, a round 10pm,The Moon will move through Taurus.
If you have good eyes or a pair of binoculars, watch the stars nearby.
Some will gradually disappear behind the crescent.
Around 9pm the brightest of these stars will slip behind followed by more,
as the Moon visibly moves across the sky.
On the 14th Minor planet 11 Parthenope does just this again in Libra,
(discovered in 1850 named after a Siren in Greek mythology that founded Naples)
Followed by the Minor planet 20 Massalia on the 20th.
The Dwarf Planet 1 Ceres on 28th but this time in the Constellation Ophiuchus (arf-e-u-kus),
moving towards Scorpius mid-June it should be visible through binoculars (10x50).
It was visited in 2015 by NASA's DAWN space craft.
showing us Ceres (the largest body within the asteroid belt) was made up of rock and ice.
There are in fact 7 minor planets for you to spot this month all around the Libra, Scorpius and Ophiuchus constellations. Have a look over a few nights and see if any of the white dots have moved.
The Dwarf Planet 1 Ceres on 28th but this time in the Constellation Ophiuchus (arf-e-u-kus),
moving towards Scorpius mid-June it should be visible through binoculars (10x50).
It was visited in 2015 by NASA's DAWN space craft.
showing us Ceres (the largest body within the asteroid belt) was made up of rock and ice.
There are in fact 7 minor planets for you to spot this month all around the Libra, Scorpius and Ophiuchus constellations. Have a look over a few nights and see if any of the white dots have moved.
The OSIRIS-Rex space Craft has recently arrived at Bennu,
which is a carbonaceous asteroid discovered by the LINEAR Project on 11 September 1999.
Bennu is kinda diamond shape and rockier than originally thought, making landing harder than expected.
It is a potentially hazardous object that is listed on the Sentry Risk Table,
with the second-highest cumulative rating on the Palermo Technical Impact Hazard Scale.
It has a cumulative 1-in-2,700 chance of impacting Earth between the years 2175 and 2199,
so we won’t have to worry about it but possibly future generations will.
Sentry is a highly automated impact prediction system,
operated by the JPL Centre for Near Earth Objects Studies since 2002.
It continually monitors the most current asteroid catalogue for possibilities of future impact with Earth,
over the next 100+ years.
Whenever a potential impact is detected it will be analysed and the results immediately published,
by the near-earth object program.
However, several weeks of optical data are not enough to conclusively identify an impact year in the future.
We have had large impacts on Earth in the past, like the Meteor Crater in Arizona.
Which may have contributed to the demise of the dinosaurs.
There are theories that The Asteroid Belt was probably going to be another planet but for some reason it couldn't clump together or possibly got torn apart by the gravity of possibly Jupiter and the Sun or an upheaval in the early Solar System.
Nothing is all that it seems in space, take a look at the New Horizons discoveries with Pluto and Ultima Thule.
16th We get another chance to spot the Moon maiden.
It's best seen through reflector telescopes, as the mountainous region that creates the effect of a lady with flowing hair, sitting on a rock wall needs to be seen upside down for its best effect.
It can be found as part of the Promotorium Heraclides.
Find the crater Plato follow it left to the Jura mountains and it's on the southern tip of Sinus Iridium
It's best seen through reflector telescopes, as the mountainous region that creates the effect of a lady with flowing hair, sitting on a rock wall needs to be seen upside down for its best effect.
It can be found as part of the Promotorium Heraclides.
Find the crater Plato follow it left to the Jura mountains and it's on the southern tip of Sinus Iridium
On the 18th, Mars moves close to the open cluster M35,
a nice open cluster just above Castor's leg in Gemini, which looks like two stick men.
In fact here you actually get two clusters for your hard work spotting it.
NGC 2158 is a tighter cluster just bottom right of it and looks a little like a globular,
and is 9000 light years farther away than M35.
From the 19th to the 21st, our Moon will be just to the right of the planet Jupiter,
then the next it'll move past the king of the solar system and will rise up o the left from the morning horizon.
Then from the 21st to the 23rd, the same happens with the planet Saturn,
which never ceases to amaze people who peek with a telescope.
If you watch it for 16 days you'll see its Moon Titan do one orbit around the planet, aptly named due to its size.
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