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Astronomical Events Observed Comet C/2006 P1 McNaught Date: 5th
January 2007 Time: 17.30UT Description
This is an unusual
comet sighting as it is visible in both the morning and evening sky. The comet is nearing
Perihelion (closest approach to the Sun) on 13th Jan. As it is viewed
in twilight an estimate of magnitude is difficult. It has a short tail about
0.5deg long. Update: 7th January 2007 It is being reported that the comet has brightened markedly as it nears the Sun and is visible to the naked eye. Update: 10th January 2007 16.40UT Our second view of the comet showed how much it had changed from barely visible to a relatively easy naked eye object. Again the magnitude is difficult to estimate, but must be in the order of –1 mag. Binos or small telescope show the broad bright tail to be almost 2 deg long. Click on image for enlarged view. Update: 14th January 2007 Yesterday,
the comet was observed naked-eye in broad daylight. To see it you need to
block the Sun with a building.
Please be very careful if looking close to the sun. It is very easy to
damage your eyes. If in doubt DON'T. The comet is
being described as the brightest in over 40 years. Mercury & Venus
Conjunction Date: 3rd, 4th
& 5th February 2007 Time: 18.30UT Description Separate by approx 6 deg Venus is
higher and brighter than the smaller Mercury. The magnitudes are -3.9 and –0.9.
Observed over several days Mercury reaches greatest elongation on 7th
February. Click on image for larger image taken on 5th Feb with
Nikon Coolpix775 digital camera. Triple Planet
Conjunction Date: 7th February
2007 Time: 19.00UT Description In addition to Mercury reaching
greatest eastern elongation and its conjunction with brighter Venus there was
a third much fainter planet (at only +5.9) involved making it a 3 planet conjunction. Uranus
appearing as a pale blue disc was only 40' north on Venus. The small
separation made locating the planet much easier in the twilight as both could be seen in the same field
of view. Venus continues its rapid move higher in the evening sky while Mercury will soon head back
towards the Sun. Mira Brightens Date: 17th February
2007 Time: 19.30UT Description This redgiant star can vary in
brightness between magnitude +10 to +2, but very usually it does not reach
more than +3 or +5. However, this time it has reach 2nd mag making
it the brightest star in its constellation Cetus (whale). Saturn Grazing Occultation Date: 2nd March
2007 Time: 22.30UT Description With a clear sky we had a perfect view
of the event. The eastern side of the UK saw the Moon completely cover
Saturn. From the Centre, we saw a grazing occultation i.e. the Moon limb
covered only the rings on one side and just touched the sphere of the planet
itself. Despite the closeness of a nearly full Moon it was still possible to
see the Casini division in the rings and some cloud banding. Total Lunar Eclpse Date: 2nd /3rd
March 2007 Time: 21.30UT Description Another event another clear night. Our
visitors were treated to an eclipse under perfect conditions. Watching the
Moon slowly darken as it moved into the Earth's shadow was quite a sight. The
deep red of a lunar eclipse is only fully visible once most of the Moon is in
the shadow. A nice end to the eclipse was the Moon occulting a 5th
mag star (59 Leo). To see our gallery of pictures click HERE Asteroid VV2 Flyby Date: 31st March
/ 1st April 2007 Time: 23.05UT Description Shortly after the 2km asteroid had passed
within 2 million miles of Earth we observed this 10th mag object
passing through the constellation Leo. Click on the image to see a short
video. It is an inverted image as seen in the telescope. Comet C2007 E2 LovejoyDate: 24th
April Time: 00.30UT
Description The comet was first observed on a hazy
night with thin bands on cloud passing over the comets location I was not
able to make out very much detail. A large very faint smudge barely
perceptible.
Update- 1st / 2nd
May 2007 22.30UT
The full Moon though low on the southern
horizon had some detrimental effect on observing. Still, regrettably, as
faint fuzzy objects go this one was virtually non-existent. Most comets, even
faint ones, usually have a star like nucleus. This has certainly not been the
case with Lovejoy; it is just the merest smudge – appearing much fainter than
the predicted +8.8 mag.
The comet continues to fade as a rising
higher heading towards Draco.
Update- 5th /
6th May 2007 22.50UT
With the Moon rising much later and the
sky being as dark as it gets in May tonight was the first good opportunity to
see the comet at its best. Much more distinct it was easily found SW of Iota Herculis near head of Draco. This time a faint tiny star
of a nucleus (+11 mag?) was seen surrounded by a small bright coma that was
itself surrounded by a large fainter coma seeming to be elongated to the
south east. The large diffuse
nature of the comet confirms earlier hints that it is a relatively large object.
Lunar Conjunction with Inner PlanetsDate: 17th
May to 21st May Time:
Description The Moon had close encounters with
both Venus and Mercury. On the 17th at 21.00UT Mercury and the
Moon were less than 3 degrees apart making it easy to spot this sometimes
hard to find planet in binoculars. Two days later on 19th The moon
passed even closer to Venus at about the time they set it was under 2
degrees. In the USA they were seen a little over one Moon diameter apart. Saturn OccultationDate: 22nd
May 2007 Time: 19.00UT
Description Saturn had its second encounter with
the Moon in 2007. The crescent Moon touched rings of Saturn and over the
period of an hour completely covered the planet. Bands of cloud slightly
spoilt our view. But typical for the region the planet reappeared in a cloudless
sky. Once a little way from the bright limb it was easily visible to the
unaided eye even in the bright twilight. ISS and Space ShuttleDate: 8th
June 2007 Time: 23.38UT
Description Spaceflight is not often put in our
Events Page, but STS117, the latest Shuttle launch, was a little unusual. The fact that the ISS is currently
visible in the evening sky – on 8th a high pass occurred at
22.59UT which meant that with a launch timing of 23.38UT the Shuttle would
follow a very similar path across the sky. Having watched the Shuttle launch
on NASA TV our guests went outside to keep watch. 20 minutes after its launch
the Shuttle was seen as an object at mag +3. The shuttle returned safely on 22
June. Occultation of VenusDate: 18
June 2007 Time: 12.55UT
Description The evening of 17th June
Venus was to the left of a crescent Moon. Within 12 hours the occultation
would occur. Just minutes before the event with the Moon clearly visible
clouds rolled in to stop us seeing the Moon pass in front of the half phase
Venus. Noctilucent Cloud (NCL)Date: 19th
/ 20th June 2007 Time: 22.00UT
Description The first
properly viewed NLC has arrived. The NLC stretch 150 deg along northern
horizon but only about 15 deg high all of it was very filamentary and
not as substantial as observed in 2006. An interesting observation I had not
noticed before is that a section of the NLC was much brighter than the rest
and seemed to move slowly from west to east, but I realised it was not the
NLC moving but the brightness actually corresponded to a position vertical
above the Sun which was of course below the horizon. Comet C2006 VZ13 LINEARDate: 17th
/ 18th July 2007 Time: 23.40UT
Description With better weather than most of the
country seems to be having our latest guest got a perfect view of this new
comet. Located to the east of Bootes it was much easier to locate than its
predicted brightness of 9.8 would suggest. Appearing as a bright round
nucleus with a very distinct slightly elliptical coma. I would estimate its brightness
to be nearer +7.8 mag. The green hue reported by others was not obvious. Now passed perihelion it will slowly
fade over the next few days as it moves due south passed Coma Berenices. Busy Night at GAC Date: 19th / 20th
July Time: 23.00UT
Description Comet VZ13 was observed again, the
comet maintains its shape, but seems to have faded by approx half a
magnitude. In addition to this the Veil Nebula in Cygnus was observed in its
entirety and several other planetary Nebulae – M57, M27, NGC6543. The
observing was punctuated by many bright and faint meteors. This time of year
it is possible to see meteors connected with Perseids, Capricornids and Delta
Aquarids showers. The low position of each of the radiants means many of the
meteors are Earth grazers making for very long trails, sometimes over 20 deg.
Just as we finished observing and returned to the cottage a final meteor with
a short trail exploded with a bright flash to the east of Cassiopeia. A nice
finish to a busy night. More NLC Date: 29th /30th
July Time: 03.15UT Description There was
an absolutely fantastic display of NLC last night 29th / 30th
July. Certainly the best we have seen all summer. After a night of observing with our guests I was working into
the early hours of the morning and happen to look at the sky until 3.15am.
Stretching from the north to east and approx 25 deg high was the beautiful
bright display of Noctilucent Cloud (NLC) that was glowing with an intense
iridescent blue sheen. Our guests had not seen NLC before and they loved it. There seemed to be a lot of different structure to the
NLC - the north had very low striations of cloud almost horizontal to the
horizon. Heading NE it spread higher into the sky and became numerous diagonal
bands stretching from upper right to lower right. Initially the east
end had four or five dense and curved Vs (almost like waves)
hanging below the banding, but these faded almost to nothing with 20 minutes. I took several
pictures as it faded with the coming of dawn. One
thing I did notice as it go lighter was that a few of the horizontal bands
seemed to have a dark edge against the pale orange sky as if casting shadows. Normally,
NLC is seen within a few hours of sunset this
is the first I have seen starting so late at night. The galaxy is mag +11.2
when the supernova is +13.4. Regrettably, the supernova occurred next to a
foreground star. Images to follow soon Summer Meteor Showers Date: July to Sept 2007 Time: --- Description Late July, all of August and beginning of Sept brought a
good displays of more meteor showers than any previous year. Meteors were observed from the
following showers - Delta
Aquarids, Perseids, Capricornids, Cygnids and Delphinids and just possibility
three late meteors of the one off Aurigids formed by particles from Comet
Kless 2000 years ago. Aurora # 1 Date: 6th / 7th
September 2007 Time: 22.30UT Description After no activity for a year solar activity has become
strong enough to allow an aurora to be seen from the Centre. Starting as a
very pale green glow 100 deg long and 10 deg deep, on the northern horizon, a
series of broad beams extended a further 5 deg above it for 10 minutes. It
then remained only a glow until 00.15UT, when it faded away. However, at
00.30UT a bright single beam rose 15 deg over the horizon. No more activity
was seen. Comet C2007 F1 Loneos Date: 9th / 10th
October 2007 Time: 19.28UT Description The comet
is 4 deg west of the Coma Berenices Cluster and at the time observing only 6
deg above our horizon. It appears as a small round fuzzy ball estimated at
magnitude +7.5 – reports are it is brightening quicker than predicted.
Through so much atmospheres an accurate estimate of brightness is difficult. Update 17th
October 2007 Comet F1
has been observed over several nights and is still brightening - it is now an
easy object in binoculars. In our 10 inch scope it shows a bright nucleus and
elongated coma. Current magnitude is estimated at+6.5. The comet is closing
on Eta Bootis (Muphrid). The comet can either be observed after 05.00UT in
the east or 19.00UT in the west. Orionid Meteors and Bright Planets Date: 19th / 20st October 2007 Time: 03.008UT Description |