Saturday Nights’ Full moon will be a “Perigee Moon” the closest full moon since March 1993.

Moon Rise will be at approximately 19:53 EDT. At a distance of 222,375 miles.

In the southern Ontario area the moon will rise at 97.8 degrees (East)

The next “Perigee Moon” will not occur till 2029.

Full moons look different because of the elliptical shape of the moon’s orbit.

When it’s at perigee, the moon is about 31,000 miles (50,000 km) closer to Earth than when it’s at the farthest point of its orbit, also known as apogee.

Definitely worth a look.

The Clear Sky Clock for Hamilton area show the possibility of 20% cloud cover from 18:00 – 21:00

Joseph McArdle

MCSA, MCSE
CompTIA A+, Network+, Server+, Security+
Member of H.A.A. Council

I am putting some links into the ‘comments’ for this post. Putting them there causes the machine to count the number of views, (which i am curious about).

There you will find references to Messier Objects,
and other surprises.

Steve

This is an image of the ISS and Discovery passing over Polaris from Burlington on March 7 at about 6:56 pm. Discovery is at right, leading the way; the ISS is at left. Canon Digital Rebel 300D with 50mm lens set at f/4; ISO 400; 2 second exposure. — Bob Christmas

ISS and Space Shuttle Discovery on March 7, 2011 over Burlington

We watched the space shuttle, Discovery, and the International Space Station pass overhead this evening from our driveway. They were very bright and about 30 seconds apart, moving in tandem across the sky. It was a lovely sight and the best naked eye view of a shuttle we’ve ever had. I took some photos and share one here. Because they followed the same path in the sky, both Discovery and the ISS form a single, thin, white line in the photo. (The circles of light are internal reflections from the camera lens caused by a streetlight just out of the frame.)

Discovery and the ISS passing over Hamilton

Most of Southern Ontario will be witness to a rare Double Flyby tonight.

As of 8:37am EST Shuttle Discovery undocked from the International Space Station, on her final flight and is returning home for the last time.

This evening starting at approx. 6:55 pm EST a rare double Flyby will be visible as the Shuttle and the ISS will seem to be chasing each other across the Northern sky.

The Shuttle will rise above the horizon at 18:56:00 EST (look to the NW).
It will head east across the sky rising to a height of 47 Deg in the NE.

The ISS will rise above the horizon approx. 30 seconds behind the Shuttle and follow an
almost identical track across the sky rising to a height of 48 Deg in the NE.

Below is the link to the NASA satelite sighting page for Canada.
Select your province, then select the closest city to where you live.

http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/cities/skywatch.cgi?country=Canada

Here is a link to Mario Carr’s latest astronomy column in the local paper. I’m sure you’ll enjoy reading his article as much as I did. Well done, Mario!

http://www.hamiltonmountainnews.com/arts_and_entertainment/article/230670

Check out this excellent video presentation by some university students who are trying to make a difference. Vote for their video to help in the fight against light pollution.

http://www.tdgogreenchallenge.com/video/id/149/playid/149

Request for archival data: V1647 Ori and McNeil’s Nebula

February 15, 2011: Dr. Colin Aspin (U. Hawaii) has requested archival images and other observations of the FU Orionis variable V1647 Ori and the surrounding field over the previous 10 years in support of a study of this star. Aspin writes that he is hoping to obtain more data with which to create a multi-year light curve of this star to put present-day observations in context of its past behavior.

The AAVSO international database contains fewer than 50 observations of this star over the past ten years; however, V1647 Ori lies near the bright reflection nebula M78 (central coordinates: RA: 05 46 46.7, Dec +00 00 50), and is believed to be the illumination source of the recently erupted object McNeil’s Nebula, first discovered in 2003. Observers with deep-sky images of the M78 field and/or of McNeil’s Nebula may have images in which V1647 Ori/McNeil’s Nebula are visible. AAVSO observers with sufficient experience in image reduction are asked to photometer their images to obtain magnitudes of V1647 Ori and to submit these data to the AAVSO; Aspin also requests that you contact him for copies of your images as well. All observers are invited to contact Dr. Aspin directly (caspin@mac.com) with questions and for further information and assistance; he notes that any observers who provide useful data on V1647 Ori and/or McNeil’s Nebula will be acknowledged by name in the forthcoming publication to be submitted to the Astronomical Journal.

V1647 Ori is located at the following (J2000) coordinates:

RA: 05 46 13.14 , Dec: -00 06 04.8

Charts for the V1647 Ori field are available via VSP:

http://www.aavso.org/vsp

We note that due to the presence of nebulosity in this region, observers should consider plotting DSS charts rather than using the default plotting option.

Please submit all observations to the AAVSO using the name “V1647 Ori”.

This AAVSO Special Notice was prepared by M. Templeton.

—————————————————
SUBMIT OBSERVATIONS TO THE AAVSO

Information on submitting observations to the AAVSO may be found at:
http://www.aavso.org/webobs

SPECIAL NOTICE ARCHIVE AND SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION

A Special Notice archive is available at the following URL:
http://www.aavso.org/special-notice-archive

Subscribing and Unsubscribing may be done at the following URL:
http://www.aavso.org/observation-notification
Page Editor: Matthew Templeton
Last Updated: February 15, 2011 – 4:23pm
Keywords:

* archival data
* deep-sky
* front page news
* Observing campaigns
* Special Notices
* young stellar object
* YSO

NASA’s Stardust spacecraft closes in for a Valentine’s Day rendezvous with Comet Tempel 1

Some 340 million kilometers away, out beyond the orbit of Mars, the Stardust spacecraft is getting ready for a big Valentine’s Day date. On February 14 the NASA craft will fly past Comet Tempel 1 at a planned distance of only 200 kilometers, getting a good look at the s…econd comet it has investigated at close range since the probe’s 1999 launch….

Source:Scientific American – Space
Published:2011-02-11 22:56:00 GMT

Here’s a link to the Aurora Cam in Yellowknife

Click here to get to the Canadian Space Agency’s aurora cam page

Here’s a link to the chart of 100 excellent double stars

Click here to be taken to the Astronomical League list of 100 great double stars

A few other things were mentioned:
here’s the link to the observer’s certificate. Please print one off, and check off your targets you have already done, or do once you have printed it. Turn it in to me at the meeting and i will get back to you with a duly crafted ‘real’ one!

Click here to download a pdf version of the certificate. No framing it until i re-make it for you though!