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Astronomy News - July 2009

Hello, and welcome to the monthly astronomy news page!

Of course the main goal of the Austin Planetarium is fund raising to make possible building a planetarium in Austin. But we thought it would be nice to also start offering some astronomy information. After all, a planetarium is all about the fun of astronomy and astronomy education.

This page offers some limited information about astronomical events for the Austin area this month. Sections that will always be included on this page are:
  • An almanac showing when the sun sets or rises today, when the Moon sets and rises and the current Moon phase.
  • A calendar depicting moon phases and (if applicable) other events such as meteor showers, star parties, etc.
  • The visibility of the ISS (International Space Station) from Austin
  • Each planet visible to the naked eye with some information, whether it is for observing purposes or current missions to these planets.
  • A special events section, where a more detailed description is given of astronomical events for this month.
  • A Did You Know? section where we discuss each month a different astronomy or related topic.
If you have any astronomy related questions, this is your chance to Ask the Board! The board of the Austin Planetarium consists of amateur astronomers and an astronomer/lecturer from a major Planetarium in Europe. We will be more than happy to answer your astronomy questions.

If you would like to read other issues of Astronomy News you can select from the following months:



Sun and Moon
SunriseSunset
6:33 am8:37 pm
MoonriseMoonset
4:56 pm2:38 am
Current Moon Phase:
Waxing Gibbous
Lunar Illumination: 84.54%

image of current moon phase

Next Full Moon
on July 7, 2009, 4:22 am

An almanac, like the famous Farmers' Almanac, is an annual publication with all kinds of data on weather or on the calendar. Astronomical almanacs show data like the rise and set times of the Sun and Moon for a given date. With the advent of computers and the internet, we can now generate data on the fly and display them in a variety of useful formats. So, instead of data for an entire year, often an astronomical almanac shows data for one day. This is exactly what we're showing in the table to the right: The Austin Planetarium Alamanac!

The data displayed is for right now and updates automatically. Of course the Sun and Moon rise and set times do not change during the course of a day, but the illumination changes continuously. That may surprise you, but in 28 days, the Moon goes from New (zero percent illumination), to Full (100%) and back to new again. So in 14 days, we cover 100%, or about 7% per day. Divided by 24 hours in the day, the illumination changes 0.30% each hour! Additionally we are also showing a picture of what the illumination actually looks like, and we're also displaying when the next Lunar event takes place.


Monthly Calendar

Calendar of July 2009



  • July 7: Full Moon
  • July 15: Last Quarter Moon
  • July 17-19: Venus, Mars, Moon, the Pleiades and Aldebaran are close together
  • July 20: 40 year anniversary of Moon Landing
  • July 21: New Moon
  • July 28: First Quarter Moon



  • Mercury: Mercury is pretty much a no-show for us in July. If you have a good horizon, look for him about 30 minutes after sunset in the West during the last week of July. If you look on the evening of July 23rd, Mercury is to the right and just slightly lower than the waxing crescent Moon.

  • Venus & Mars: This dynamic duo is still dazzling us in the morning twilight during July. Look East about an hour before sunrise. You will see Venus first, as she is about 100 times brighter than Mars at the present. Venus rises about three hours before the Sun, with Mars to the upper right of her. If you do get up early to see them, do it on a morning between the 17th and 20th. Venus and Mars will be close to both the Pleiades and the bright star Aldebaran (which marks the northern tip of the Hyades V cluster), as well as the waning crescent Moon passing through.

  • Jupiter: Jupiter rises a few hours after sunset and will be easy to spot, brightening even more this month as he nears opposition in mid-August. Look to the East-Southeast and if you have a telescope, try finding Neptune as well. As in June, they are still in the same patch of sky during July. The two will be at their closest on July 9th (Neptune is not visible without a telescope).

  • Saturn: Go out as early in the month of July as you can to see Saturn. He is getting lower in the West each night. By the end of the month, Saturn is only 10 degrees from the horizon as the sky darkens. Also, Saturn's rings are closing from our perspective more and more each day. They will be completely edgewise to the Earth in September.



In July we have no less then 14 good chances to see the International Space Station right from Austin! There are both early evening viewings, as well as for early in the morning. There is no need to find a dark location, your yard or balcony will do just fine, as long as you can see the proper area of the sky. The ISS will appear as a very bright star and will cross the sky in about 3 minutes. If you have never seen our largest artificial neighbor, be sure to check it out one night or morning; you won't be disappointed.

If you click on the dates you will get a pop-up with a small sky-chart: the path of the ISS is drawn as a line.

Date     Mag Starts Max. Altitude Ends
Time Alt. Az. Time Alt. Az. Time Alt. Az.
06 Jul -3.2 21:39:32 10 SSW 21:42:22 51 SE 21:45:16 10 NE
07 Jul -1.6 05:41:54 10 NNW 05:44:37 36 NE 05:47:19 10 ESE
07 Jul -1.2 22:04:45 10 WSW 22:07:25 30 NW 22:10:03 10 NNE
08 Jul -2.9 06:06:52 10 WNW 06:09:39 38 SW 06:12:18 10 SSE
08 Jul -3.3 20:54:20 10 SSW 20:57:12 58 SE 21:00:08 10 NE
09 Jul -2.0 04:56:44 10 NNW 04:59:28 40 NE 05:02:15 10 ESE
09 Jul -0.9 21:19:46 10 WSW 21:22:21 27 NW 21:24:57 10 NNE
10 Jul -2.8 05:24:41 34 SW 05:24:41 34 SW 05:27:14 10 SSE
23 Jul -0.7 22:38:01 10 NNW 22:39:12 18 N 22:39:12 18 N
25 Jul -1.9 21:54:41 10 NNW 21:57:20 28 NE 21:57:31 28 NE
26 Jul -1.9 22:20:32 10 NW 22:22:40 38 WNW 22:22:40 38 WNW
27 Jul -2.2 21:11:36 10 NNW 21:14:21 32 NE 21:16:21 15 ESE
28 Jul -2.5 21:37:40 10 WNW 21:40:31 45 SW 21:41:46 27 S
30 Jul -2.0 20:55:03 10 WNW 20:57:52 37 SW 21:00:39 10 SSE




Back to the Moon
Image courtesy NASA
This month marks the 40th anniversary of Buzz Aldrin’s and Neil Armstrong’s historic first steps on the Moon. After a heated space race with the Soviets, America finally achieved the dream to put a man on the Moon. Of course we all know the story by heart, but since Apollo 17, we have not put any more people on our celestial neighbor.

Even though NASA (or any other space agency) has not put any more people on the Lunar surface, we have sent a lot of spacecraft to the Moon for research purposes. With the imminent retirement of the Shuttle fleet, there is talk once again about sending people to the Moon. This time the idea is building a permanent presence.

The idea behind a Lunar base would be that the Moon has a much lower gravity, so it is much easier to launch something from the Moon then it is to launch from Earth. For example, if we want to build a space ship capable of flying people and cargo to Mars, we would save an enormous amount of energy, if we can build and launch this from the Moon.

Maybe in the next decade or two, we will finally reach the times that have been so long predicted in Science Fiction books and movies alike. Maybe one day, when I go on vacation I have the choice between Hawaii, Europe, or the Moon. I know what I would choose!




Even to this day, there are people that firmly believe we never visited the Moon. They claim that the entire Moon landing was faked, and that it was all staged somewhere in a Hollywood studio. This is commonly reffered to as the "Moon Hoax", and I am in the good company of the Bad Astronomer Phil Plait if I state that I am "Skeptical of Denialism"

Now, of course, some people will never be convinced of the truth no matter how much evidence is staring at them. There are still people that believe the Earth is flat, and that the Sun revolves around the Sun and not vice versa! But we do have a great opportunity to settle this issue, and maybe convince a denier or two.

Late last June, a new space craft arrived in orbit around the Moon. This is a mission launced by NASA and its name is LRO, which is short for the Lunar Reconneaissance Orbiter. This craft will do a lot of cool and spectular things (like crashing things into the Moon), but the main thing we want to talk about here is the camera that is on board, specifically the Narrow Angle Camera (NAC). This camera will be able to take very detailed images of the Moon. As a matter of fact the images will be so detailed, objects as small as half a meter (about 18 inches) can be spotted. This means that we should be able to see materials left behind by the Apollo Astronauts! Parts of the landers should easily be visible, as well as several Lunar rovers. And although this month is July, and we celebrate the founding of our nation on the 4th, there is a disappointment. The flag placed on the Moon by the astronauts, is too small to be seen.

For more information on:
  The Moon Hoax
  NASA, LRO Home page





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This page is maintained and developed by Torvald Hessel and Steve Rung.



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Last updated: 7/1/2009