Mercury is visible around 8 pm in the west until August 16th.
Mars is about 5 degrees to the upper left during this time, just a little dimmer, but still visible since it is higher up. By the end of the month it becomes hard to find. It will reappear in March 2024. During the first week of August, both planets are best visible. Around the 13th, they are closest together.
Saturn in Aquarius is visible all night since it is at opposition on the 27th. Its rings are narrow, 43″ x 6″ in extent.
Jupiter in Aries rises now before midnight, outshining all stars and other planets.
Venus rises up to become visible starting on the 18th during dawn. It is obvious by the 31st, when a 10 percent illuminated crescent shows up in binoculars. Venus is near the head of Hydra, where other planets do not go.
The moon occults Antares on the 24th between 7:03 and 7:58 pm AZ Time in Tucson. The disappearance is a few minutes after sunset, when it is easily visible in binoculars and impressive in a telescope near the half moon. It occurs at the dark side of the moon which is not visible during bright twilight. The reappearance is at the bright limb, when the sky is dark.
The Perseids are active until mid-month, visible without moonlight. The maximum is the night of the 12th, morning of the 13th. Best viewed under dark skies at the peak after midnight on the morning of the 13th. Look toward the east. The meteors will appear to emanate from the constellation Perseus. The parent comet is Swift-Tuttle (16 miles/26 kilometers across).
TAAA Telescope retrieval team with the donors in Colorado.
Bob Reynolds’ initial statement regarding TAAA 32 inch Telescope Project “I’m pleased to announce that TAAA is in active discussions with a donor offering us a professional grade 32” cassegrain telescope, mount, and Ash Dome! As a result, a team composed of TAAA members along with manufacturer and donor representatives will be in Colorado in late June to disassemble, pack and transport the donation to storage sites in and around the CAC.“
In May 2023, TAAA was given the generous gift of a 32 inch research grade Cassegrain telescope, with the proviso we retrieve it from the donor in Colorado before the end of June. The company was moving to a new location and could not take this telescope with them. They had purchased the telescope in 2019. It had not been permanently installed and was unused except for a few demonstrations they had staged. A team of 11 TAAA volunteers, at their own expense, worked to receive the telescope from the donor in Longmont, CO, disassemble the telescope, load over 4100 lbs. into trucks, drive it to Cochise County AZ, unload it and place it into safe storage in a member’s barn.
DFM 32 inch Cassegrain safely in storage in Cochise Co. AZ awaiting installation at its new home at TAAA dark site.
After analysis of the donation with respect to our members and how we might also use it serving the community, it was decided to move forward with the telescope installation. The first steps will be to reassemble the telescope in a newly constructed roll-off roof observatory east of the Mooney Classroom building at TAAA’s CAC dark site.
A TAAA construction team headed by Bob Reynolds and Ed Foley has been formed to attend to the details necessary to complete observatory design, construction and telescope installation. The team will be drawing on the talent and enthusiasm of TAAA to make that happen. The 32 inch Project team now includes Larry Stepp for design and safety, Bob Rose for construction, Doug Summers for optics and Tom Melscheimer for building design and instrument assembly. An Advisory Panel of astronomy professionals and TAAA members was convened in August to consider the current plans and review long term possibilities for this special telescope.
Phase 1 – Install the telescope in a roll off roof observatory in the state we received it. Train members in its use and get to know its capabilities. Employ the telescope in TAAA outreach programs including the Astronomy Camp program.
Phase 2 – Consider best use of the instrument for TAAA including potential optical configuration changes.
Phase 3 – Upgrade the observatory and telescope controls to include remote operations
We have already had many members step up to donate their time to retrieve the telescope and offer to assistance constructing the observatory and installing the telescope. The construction of the observatory and installation of the the instrument is estimated to cost $75,000 in 2024. Anyone who is unable to donate their time but wishing to help with the effort can donate to the effort by noting “32 inch Project” on their check to TAAA, or by clicking the Donate Now button top right of this page.
They story of the telescope to date was reviewed in the September 2023 member meeting:
This month marks the end of the evening visibility of Venus. It perhaps is visible until August 3. This is the greatest time for telescopic observations since it shows a large crescent. By the 31at, it is only illuminated by 6%.
Mars is 3 degrees east of Venus but the separation increases since Venus is stationary on the 21st while Mars keeps on going. Mars passes 1 degree north of Regulus on the 9th and 10th.
Mercury appears in the evening sky on the 12th, passing Regulus on the 28th.
The moon passes those three planets including Regulus on the 18th to 20th. On the 18th it is still very difficult to find. On the 19th it is right in the middle of them. On the 20th it is close to Mars.
Saturn rises during the late evening. Its rings are almost edge-on.
Neptune follows an hour later.
Jupiter rises after midnight and is very high by dawn.
Uranus is 10 degrees east of Jupiter in the morning sky.
Venus is at its greatest western elongation on the 4th, showing a half phase in a telescope. It is 40 degrees high at sunset and sets after 10 pm.
Mars is close to Venus, only 3 degrees ahead of it by the end of the month.
Saturn rises around midnight. Its rings are tilted by 8 degrees.
Jupiter follows Saturn 3 hours later.
Mercury has a poor visibility around 4:30 am.
The Moon is only 3 degrees from Venus on the evening of the 21st (summer solstice), a spectacular sight. Mars is also nearby. Venus might be seen naked eye long before sunset just to the upper right of the Moon.
Venus is at its best, 40 degrees high at sunset and not setting until 10:45 pm. The Moon is 4 degrees below Venus on the evening of the 22nd, a great sight. Good eyes can see the pair during the daytime, such as around 3:30 pm when Venus is 84 degrees high. On the 22nd, the Moon is 7 degrees to the west, on the 23rd, 6 degrees to the east.
Mars is in the vicinity of Pollux and Castor all month. On the 15th, they form an 11-degree long line of “stars” of similar brightness.
Saturn rises around 2 am.
Jupiter follow Saturn around 4 am during dawn.
Mercury is barely visible after the 24th when it rises at 4:15 am.
On the morning of the 7th, the Moon occults Jupiter from 4:18 to 5:11 am. It takes a minute each to cover or uncover Jupiter’s large disk. The disappearance is difficult to observe since the pair is only 2 degrees above the horizon, 10 minutes after they rise. The reappearance is difficult to watch naked eye because of bright twilight, just 14 minutes before sunrise. However it should look great in binoculars or a telescope. Interestingly, the shadows of Io and Europa will remain on the disk until well past sunrise but the air may be too turbulent to pick them out.
Mercury is visible well at dusk until the 19th. It even sets past the end of astronomical twilight around the 11th, when it is at greatest elongation from the sun. Afterwards, it shows a small crescent in a telescope.
Venus is high up at sunset and sets more than three hours later. On the 10th, it is only 2 degrees from Pleiades, a nice sight in binoculars.
Mars is very hight at sunset. On the 14th it passes only 9 arc-minutes from third-magnitude star Mebsuta in Gemini. Then it aims for Pollux, the brightest star in Gemini.
Saturn is visible just before dawn in the southeast.
The first minor planet (1) Ceres is an easy binocular object near the tail of Leo.
The moon is close to bright Venus on the 22nd and 23rd and then even closer to Mars on the 25th. It causes a hybrid (total/annular) solar eclipse on the 20th, visible in and near Australia. The same evening it can be spotted with binoculars in Tucson in bright twilight, with Mercury nearby. The moon follows with an almost partial lunar eclipse at noon on May 5th. We are only one year away from the total solar eclipse of April 8, 2024 with more than 4 minutes of totality going from Mazatlan in Mexico through Texas to the Great Lakes.
Venus becomes brilliant at dusk. Venus passes Jupiter at 1/2 degree distance on March 1st. This should be a great sight
Jupiter is getting lower in the western sky and will be visible at dusk until March 29th.
Mars transits 83 degrees high, going from Taurus to Gemini. It still has an 11 arc-second diameter, great for observing its features in a telescope. But, by the end of March, it only will be 6 arc-seconds. Its magnitude decreases from 0 to 1.
Mercury finishes its morning visibility on February 18th and starts its evening visibility on March 26th.
Uranus can still be viewed at more then 70 degrees altitude in Aries, but it sets earlier and earlier as the month progresses.
Ceres has its opposition on March 21st at magnitude 7 in the Virgo Galaxy Cluster.
Pallas moves 50 degrees south of the ecliptic in Canis Major at Magnitude 8.
Comet ZTF is fast moving at 6 degrees/day from Auriga to Orion at Magnitude 6. Best on February 6th. It will fade to Magnitude 11 by the end of March.
Arizona Illustrated, a local PBS award winning program on Arizona events and sights of interest, did a segment on our Chiricahua Astronomy Complex (CAC) that aired January 22, 2023. It was recorded at our semi-annual Evening Under the Stars on October 29, 2022. The YouTube link to the segment is:
Venus is becoming a more obvious evening “star” since it sets past dusk by mid-month.
Saturn is higher in the southwest at dusk, but then gets passed by Venus on the 22nd at less than 0.4 degrees separation, the closest planet pair this year. The brightness difference of four magnitudes makes Saturn look unusually faint.
Jupiter follows higher with a transit (highest in the sky) just before sunset. On the 28th, Ganymede’s shadow is visible from sunset to 8:30 pm.
Uranus and Neptune are in the vicinity of Jupiter. Neptune is 8 degrees to the west of Jupiter, which is the current minimum. Uranus is 45 degrees to the east of Jupiter, but will get close to it this summer.
The month after a great occultation of Mars by the moon, we get another one with the same planet and very conveniently high in the evening sky. Mars will be occulted on the 30th from 9:44 to 10:51 pm, with the disappearance occurring at the dark limb so that the event is easy to watch naked eye. Disappearance and reappearance occurs gradually over some 15 seconds each time due to the 11 arc-second diameter of Mars. The reappearance is interesting to watch in a telescope.
Comet ZTF will get circumpolar at the end of the month and move at 6 degrees per day. Its brightness may peak at magnitude 5 at the last day of the month.
