Category Archives: 32 inch Cassegrain Project

32 inch Cassegrain Project

Planets of the Month: December 2021

By Erich Karkoschka

Starting on the 22nd, Mercury joins the other three planets at dusk. First, it is below Venus. Then on the 29th to the left of Venus, and then further left and higher than Venus.
Venus is at its brightest during early December. On the 6th, the moon will be close to it. You may be able to find Venus well before sunset about 3 degrees above the moon. Later in December, it rapidly approaches the sun and thus gets low during dusk. By the end of the year, its diameter exceeds one arc-minute, the largest it can get. Its slim crescent is a beautiful sight in telescopes and also visible in binoculars.
From the 5th to the 8th, the lunar crescent passes the three bright planets at dusk. On the last morning of the year, it is close to Mars and Antares.
Mars is the lonely planet at dawn, but faint and low, fare below Spica.
Ceres is still 7th magnitude in Taurus, but fading. On the other hand, Iris is brightening at 8th magnitude in Cancer.
Jupiter is about 15 degrees higher then Saturn and still well positioned for telescopic observations.
Saturn is about 15 degrees above Venus and 15 degrees below Jupiter. It will become invisible in January.
Uranus and Neptune are high in the evening sky. Jupiter will be catching up with Neptune and pass it in April, invisible behind the Sun.
Comet Leonard is in the morning sky near the limit of naked eye visibility until it gets too close to the sun on the 12th. On the 3rd, it is close to globular cluster M3. On the 6th, it is 5 degrees to the left of Arcturus. On the 10th, it is 5 degrees to the left of Alpha Serpentis.
A Total solar eclipse occurs on the 4th, but is far away in Antarctica.
32 inch Cassegrain Project

Stargazing for the Holiday’s

Do you have friends or family visiting over the Holiday’s? Interested in a private stargazing adventure? We can provide a detailed tour of the universe at our astronomy site ~100 miles southeast of Tucson or at a location of your choosing in Tucson or Southern Arizona. To request a reservation and check availability and pricing, visit our Tucson Stargazing Adventures webpage at: https://tucsonastronomy.org/community-services/tucson-stargazing-adventures/

32 inch Cassegrain Project

Planets of the Month: November 2021

By Erich Karkoschka

Mercury is an easy dawn object in the east-southeast, but only until the 10th since it is moving fast toward the sun. At the beginning of the month it passes Spica but their distance increases to 14 degrees by the 10th. The best morning is the 3rd when the moon joins both of them.
Venus is at its best this month. It reaches its brightest possible magnitude of -4.9 at the end of the month. This is so bright that it can be found in daylight, such as 3:20 pm 30 degrees hight straight south. It is brilliant after sunset. It is so far south that just past 8 pm it sets further left than the sun can ever set. Its phase can be seen in binoculars, going form half illuminated at the beginning of the month to a thick, large crescent by the end.
The Moon has a great eclipse on the 18th-19th, although not at the best time of the night. It probably is the greatest partial eclipse of your life since 97 percent of its diameter will be inside the umbra at maximum, or 99 percent of its disk area. Maximum is at 2:03 am. Partial phase lasts from 12:18 am to 3:47 am. The interesting phase around maximum lasts for quite a while this time, but only a couple of minutes during most total lunar eclipses. It is interesting because of the contrast between the dark red moon in the umbra and the very bright and very narrow part of the moon getting direct sunlight. At maximum phase, the moon might be dark enough that shadows disappear. Its location only 5 degrees from the Pleiades should be beautiful. The moon transits at the beginning of the eclipse 77 degrees high.
Mars has been behind the sun for a while. At the end of the month, it slowly becomes visible again during dawn.
Jupiter and Saturn transit during the early evening, separated by 15 degrees. In a telescope it is a good time to watch their satellites. This month, the orbits of Jupiter’s satellite are almost edge-on. This means that they appear perfectly in a line and pass each other very closely. On the 23rd, a rare event happens. The two largest satellites, Ganymede and Callisto, cast their shadows onto the planet simultaneously. This happens about once every 5 years, but most of these events happen during daylight or when Jupiter is below the horizon. At sunset, both shadows are close to each other on the eastside of the disk. Ganymede’s shadow is faster and exits 7:39 pm, Callisto’s shadows leaves at 9:03 pm.
Uranus comes into opposition in Aries. So, it is up all night and 73 degrees high at midnight. It is visible naked eye in principle, and no other star of 6th magnitude is currently nearby.

Neptune can be found in binoculars 50 degrees further west of Uranus.

Ceres comes into opposition at 7th magnitude. It moves very close to Aldebaran on the 3rd and 4th, crosses the Hyades for the following two weeks, and then takes aim at the Pleiades.
32 inch Cassegrain Project

Planets of the Month: October, 2021

By Erich Karkoschka

Mercury has its best morning apparition starting on the 17th. During the last week of October it will be easily visible just before 6 am looking east.
Venus is finally becoming a brilliant evening “star”. All month it sets at 8:10 pm. It speeds past Antares on the 16th at 1 1/2 degrees distance. On the 29th, it is in greatest elongation from the sun at 47 degrees. It moves far south and thus sets further south of west than the sun does in December.
The Moon will be a thin crescent at dusk on the 7th. Two days later it will make a beautiful pair with Venus.
Jupiter and Saturn transit halfway up mid evening. They stop their retrograde motion and move prograde again in Capricornus. They reach their closest separation of 15 degrees at the end of the month. The next time they will be that close will be in 2040. Mondays will be the days to look for Ganymede’s shadow on Jupiter’s disk, on the 11th until 7:30 pm, on the 18th from 8-11:30 pm, just after Io’s shadow entered at 11:15 pm, and on the 25th starting just before midnight. A double transit will occur on the 20th until 8 pm with Io’s shadow and Callisto itself.
Uranus and Neptune are up most of the night in Aries and Aquarius, respectively.
32 inch Cassegrain Project

Planets of the Month: September 2021

By Erich Karkoschka

Mercury is visible about 15 degrees to the lower right of Venus until September 21st. It is so low that it remains close to the limit of visibility (use extreme caution to avoid looking at the Sun). It passes Spica on the 21st. However, Spica definitely requires binoculars since it is one magnitude fainter than Mercury.
Venus is the obvious evening star until it sets after 8 pm. It passes Spica on the 5th. Venus is slowly brightening towards its best in December.
The two giant gas planets shine in the southeast during dusk. Their distance slowly decreases from 18 degrees at the beginning of September to 15 degrees at the end. They transit around 10 pm, perfect for telescope or binocular viewing.
The Galilean satellites’ orbits are very close to edge-on this month, so that conjunctions of two satellites become very close. The best shadow transit occurs on the 5th starting at 7:45 pm when the dark disk of Ganymede is already close to the center of Jupiter’s disk, so that two dark spots will be visible. The same occurs 7 days later, although Ganymede’s transit does not start until 9:20 pm with its shadow joining at 11:47 pm. Also, on the 17th, Callisto’s shadow can be seen until 8:13 pm.
Neptune comes into opposition in the constellation Pisces on September 14th. Uranus is one constellation further east in Aries.
The Moon might be just barely visible on September 7th (one day past New Moon), 10 degrees to the right of Mercury. Even if Mercury is difficult to spot, you will see it before you see the Moon. The three day old Moon has a beautiful pairing with Venus on September 9th. Three days later it passes Antares.
32 inch Cassegrain Project, Astronomical Events, General Astronomy, Solar System

Planets of the Month: AUGUST

By Erich Karkoschka

Mercury will start its visibility at dusk, but will never get very obvious. It remains close to the Sun.

Venus is the evening star during dusk. It passes Beta Virginis on the 13th at only 7 arc minutes in distance, similar to the distance between Jupiter and Saturn during the last winter solstice. But the faintness of the star will probably require binoculars to see it.

Saturn comes to opposition on August 2nd, when it rises at sunset. Around that time, its rings are very bright as compared to the planet.

Jupiter also comes to opposition this month on August 22nd. The evening before, the Full Moon will be right next to Jupiter.

On the evening of August 18th, the Moon occults Nunki, the second brightest star of the teapot asterism in Sagittarius. In Nogales, it will last from 7:47 to 8:01 pm, but in Tucson the Moon will not quite make it, although it will get very close to the star. In between there is a grazing occupation which is rare for such a bright star to get so close to us.
August is meteor month. The Perseids will peak on the night of August 11-12 when the Moon is next to Venus which sets early. It cannot be much better than that!! Look toward the east late evening or early morning toward the constellation Perseus.
32 inch Cassegrain Project

Planets of the Month: JUNE

By Erich Karkoschka

Venus is slowly increasing its visibility at dusk, starting to get visible at 20 degrees altitude. At the summer solstice it passes by Pollux at 5 degrees distance.
Mars is also visible in the evening but setting much later than Venus. The distance between both planets decreases from 25 to 8 degrees during June. On July 12, Venus will pass Mars quite closely.
Jupiter and Saturn rise just before midnight and are transiting during dawn almost 45 degrees high. They remain separated by 20 degrees.

At the end of June, Mercury starts its morning apparition.

Vesta is still an easy binocular object in Leo during the early evening.

On July 10, there is an annular Solar Eclipse visible in eastern Canada moving over the North Pole. The next day, the thin crescent Moon will be visible at dusk just below Venus.
32 inch Cassegrain Project

Notes from the President

The messages from the TAAAA president have appeared in various forms over the years. They have appeared in the Desert Skies publications, in the TAAA Monthly Bulletin, and now appear in the revamped monthly Desert Skies TAAA Bulletin. For a period of TAAA history, the Notes were send as a stand alone message to members from 2018 to 2021. Those communications with summaries of the work of the TAAA board and important monthly accomplishments by the organization are listed below.

2021 April Notes

2021 March Notes

2021 February Notes

2021 January Notes

2020 December Notes

2021-03 Notes from the PresidentDownload