Astroblog

Map of the Occultation path of the Moon and Saturn. The occultaion is on the 3rd UT, which is the morning of the 4th in Australia after sunrise.	The Moon at 9:03 am AEST in Sydney on Saturday 4 May just as Saturn disappears behind the Moon. The insets shows the telescope view of Saturn going behind the Moon (left) and emerging from behind the Moon at 9:22 am AEST (right)

Labels: Daylight, Daytime, Occultation, Saturn

# posted by Ian Musgrave @ 10:02 pm 0 comments

People in the suburbs should see a meteor around once every 6 minutes, and in the country about once every 3-4 minutes. The radiant of the shower is about five hand-spans up from the eastern horizon, and three hand-spans to the left of due east at 4 am (see spotter chart at 5:00 am above). The radiant is close to Saturn, which makes a good reference point.

Weather prediction looks okay.

You may have read that this year the eta Aquariids have a predicted ZHR of 40 meteors. The figure ZHR is zenithal hourly rate. This is the number of meteors that a single observer would see per hour if the shower's "point of origin", or radiant, were at the zenith and the sky was dark enough for 6.5-magnitude stars to be visible to the naked eye.

In practice, you will never see this many meteors as the radiant will be some distance below the zenith. Also, unless you are out deep in the countryside, the darkness will be less than ideal. How many are you likely to see in reality? 

The table below gives predictions below for various towns, but they are only predictions and while based on average steam density there may be some differences year to year, but good rates were seen in previous years, and dark sky sites may possibly see one meteor every 3-4 minutes or so. There were many bright ones reported with persistent trains in 2014. People in the suburbs maybe will see less, but at least one every 6 minutes should be possible. 

Predicted meteor rates for selected towns (taken from NASA shower Flux estimator below). If your city is not on the list you can expect a meteor rate similar to the closest city to you in latitude.

Town	Morning May 6	Morning May 7	Morning May8
Adelaide	15 meteors/hr	19 meteors/hr	18 meteors/hr
Brisbane	16 meteors/hr	20 meteors/hr	20 meteors/hr
Darwin	16 meteors/hr	21 meteors/hr	21 meteors/hr
Perth	16 meteors/hr	19 meteors/hr	19 meteors/hr
Melbourne	15 meteors/hr	18 meteors/hr	18 meteors/hr
Hobart	14 meteors/hr	17 meteors/hr	17 meteors/hr
Sydney	15 meteors/hr	19 meteors/hr	19 meteors/hr

The radiant of the shower is about five hand-spans up from the eastern horizon and three hand-spans to the left of due east at 4 am (see above for a spotter chart at 5 am). When looking, be sure to let your eyes adjust for at least 5 minutes so your eyes can be properly adapted to the dark.

Don't look directly at the radiant site, because the meteors will often start their "burn" some distance from it, but around a hand-span up or to the side. The best way to watch the Eta Aquariids is to let your eye rove around the entire patch of the sky above the north-east horizon, between the only two obvious bright stars in the northeast, Altair and Fomalhaut, and Saturn as the center of your field (again, see the spotter chart at 5:00 am above).

Be patient, although you should see an average of a meteor every 6 to 8 minutes, a whole stretch of time can go by without a meteor, then a whole bunch turn up one after the other.

Make yourself comfortable, choose an observing site that has little to obstruct the eastern horizon, have a comfortable chair to sit in (a banana lounger is best), or blankets and pillows. Rug up against the cold.  A hot Thermos of something to drink and plenty of mosquito protection will complete your observing preparations. As well as meteors, keep an eye out for satellites (see Heavens Above for predictions from your site).  The Milky way will arch above you, with Saturn just next to the radiant.

Use the NASA  meteor shower flux estimator for an estimate of what the shower will be like from your location (you may need to enter your longitude and latitude, surprisingly, while Adelaide and Brisbane are hard-wired in, Sydney and Melbourne are not). See the image to the left for typical output. The peak is rather sharp.

 

Labels: eta aquarid, Meteors, unaided eye

# posted by Ian Musgrave @ 1:18 am 0 comments

Printable Black and White chart for locating Comet 12P 27April-27 May. Click to embiggen and print. Use with a red light torch (or a standard torch with red cellophane over it) to preserve your night vision.	Printable Black and White Binocular chart for locating Comet 12P from 27 April to 6 May. The circle represents the approximate field of view of 10x50 binoculars. The comet is within binocular range of nu Taurii until around 2 May. Click to embiggen and print. Use with a red light torch (or a standard torch with red cellophane over it) to preserve your night vision.
Printable Black and White Binocular chart for locating Comet 12P from 6 May to 18 May. The circle represents the approximate field of view of 10x50 binoculars. The comet is within binocular range of nu Eriandus until around 13 May. Click to embiggen and print. Use with a red light torch (or a standard torch with red cellophane over it) to preserve your night vision.	Printable Black and White Binocular chart for locating Comet 12P from 18 May to 27 May. The circle represents the approximate field of view of 10x50 binoculars. The comet is within binocular range of Rigel until around 24 May. Click to embiggen and print. Use with a red light torch (or a standard torch with red cellophane over it) to preserve your night vision.
Photo realistic view of the evening sky simulated in Stellarium for Satday, April 27 as seen from Adelaide at 18:33 ACST (60 minutes after sunset, click to embiggen). Comet 12 P is within binocular range of nu Taurii.	Photo realistic view of the evening sky on Sunday, May 19 as seen from Adelaide at 18:45 ACST (90 minutes after sunset, click to embiggen). Comet 12P is close to the bright star Rigel in Orion (the inset is the approximate binocular view of the trio).

While the comet is still reasonably bright magnitude at 4.5, it remains low to the horizon over the next week or so. While it is slowly climbing above the horizon into darker skies, it is also slowly fading. You will definitely need binoculars, unless you are in a dark sky location, and then it will look like a fuzzy dot.

From the 27th April to the 3rd May  the comet will be within binocular distance of star nu Taurii (see charts, sweep west of Aldebaran for around two binocular widths). Although the comet is magnitude 4.5 -  4.6  at this time and theoretically dimly visible to the unaided eye, atmospheric extinction will mean it is more like magnitude 5. The comet will still look like a faint fuzzy dot.

At nautical twilight (and hour after sunset) on the 27th, it is almost 2 hand-spans above the horizon and the darkening twilight skies should help you spot it.  At astronomical twilight (an hour and a half after sunset) it will be a hand-span above the horizon (and you will need a level, unobstructed horizon to see it.

Using an ordinary camera, try zooming in around 3x and using multiple 1 second ISO 3200 exposures, but nothing below ISO 1600. (I was success full with 1 second 3200 ISO, I have also done 2 and 4 second exposures, but I have an S24, so that’s cheating). I have yet to try stacking, there may be too few stars visible to stack reliably until later in the week.

There there are no good guide stars until 9-12 May when it is close to nu Eridanus (sweep west from Bellatrix), when it is around magnitude 5, and then it passes by Orion, and is with binocular distance of bright Rigel from the 18th-24th. Although 12P will be approaching magnitude 6, this should be an excellent opportunity for wide field astrophotography with the comet almost 3 hand-spans from the horizon at astronomical twilight, when the sky is fully dark, near the iconic Orion constellation, with the first quarter Moon not interfering too much.

Labels: 12P, astrophotography, binocular, comet

# posted by Ian Musgrave @ 2:08 pm 0 comments

North-west morning sky on Saturday, April 27 as seen from Adelaide at 02:01 ACST. The Moon is just about to cover (occult) the bright star Sigma Scorpii. The inset shows the moon at 3:32 ACST as the moon moves off Sigma Scorpii. Click to embiggen	North-west morning sky on Saturday, April 27 as seen from Melbourne at 02:48 AEST. The Moon is just about to cover (occult) the bright star Sigma Scorpii.The inset shows the moon at 4:15 AEST as the moon moves off Sigma Scorpii. Click to embiggen	North-east evening sky on Friday, April 26 as seen from Perth at 23:49 AWST. The Moon is just about to cover (occult) the bright star Sigma Scorpii. The inset shows the moon at 1:06 AWST on the 27th as the moon moves off Sigma Scorpii. Click to embiggen

On the morning of Saturday,  April 27, the bright star Sigma Scorpii (Alniyat) in the head of the Scorpion is occulted by the Moon. Sigma Scorpii is one of the two bright stars flanking the bright red star Antares.

The occultation occurs with the Moon high above the north-western horizon at the start for the eastern and central states. Perth sees the occultation start just before midnight above the north eastern horizon. Darwin misses out although Sigma Scorpii will be seen very near to the Moon. Disappearance and appearance times are given in the table below. Other locations will see the occultation at a similar time for cities at a similar latitude.

While the occultation is visible to the unaided eye, the sight will be better in binoculars or a small telescope. Set up ahead of time so that you can be sure everything is working well and you can watch the entire event comfortably. Sigma Scorpii will be clearly visible to the unaided eye near the Moon.

To the east, Saturn will rise while the occultation is ongoing, followed by Mars. Around dawn the lineup Of Saturn, Mars and Mercury will be seen.

Labels: binocular, Moon, Occultation, star, unaided eye

# posted by Ian Musgrave @ 11:40 pm 1 comments

The Last Quarter Moon is Wednesday, May 1. Jupiter is lost in the western twilight sky. Comet 12P Pons-Brooks is visible in binoculars and will progressively climb higher over the week. In the morning Mars and Saturn are high in the morning sky with Mercury and Venus below. Venus is barely visible low in the morning twilight below the line up. Occultation of sigma Scorpii in the morning of the 27th. 

The Last Quarter Moon is Wednesday, May 1.

Evening sky on Saturday, April 27 as seen from Adelaide at 18:33 ACST (60 minutes after sunset, click to embiggen).   Jupiter is lost in the twilight. Comet 12P is close to the stars nu and lambda Tau.

While the comet is a reasonable bright magnitude 4.5, it is still not far from the horizon. You will definitely need binoculars. Over the week the comet will climb higher above the horizon and into darker skies, but becomes dimmer as it rises. Spotters charts are here.

Similar views will be seen from the rest of Australia at the equivalent local time (60 minutes after sunset).

Evening sky on Monday, April 29 as seen from Adelaide at 18:31 ACST (60 minutes after sunset, click to embiggen).   Comet 12P is close to the star nu Tau (the inset is the approximate binocular view of them).

While the comet is a reasonable bright magnitude 4.5, it is still not far from the horizon. You will definitely need binoculars. Over the week the comet will climb higher into darker skies and. Spotters charts are here.

Similar views will be seen from the rest of Australia at the equivalent local time (60 minutes after sunset).

Morning sky on Saturday, April 27 as seen from Adelaide at 06:08 ACST, (45 minutes before sunrise, click to embiggen). Mars and Saturn are pulling apart as Saturn climbs higher. Mercury heads higher in the morning and is now visible to the unaided eye. Venus is now very low on the horizon and difficult to see.

 

 

Similar views will be seen from the rest of Australia at the equivalent local time (45 minutes before sunrise).

 

North-west morning sky on Saturday, April 27 as seen from Adelaide at 02:02 ACST. The Moon is just about to cover (occult) the bright star Sigma Scorpii.

 

The inset shows the moon at 3:32 ACST as the moon moves off Sigma Scorpii.

 

 

Similar views will be seen from the rest of Australia at the equivalent local time.

Whole sky on Saturday, Saturday, April 27 as seen from Adelaide at 19:03 ACST, 90 minutes after sunset (click to embiggen).

Orion is low in the north-west. Bright Sirius is still dominant in  the north-western sky. Between the bright star Canopus and the Southern Cross are a wealth of binocular objects to discover. As the Moon wanes , the fainter clusters will be visible again.

 

 

   

 Elsewhere in Australia will see a similar view at the equivalent time (90 minutes after sunset).

 

 

Mercury climbs higher into the twilight.

Venus is very low in the morning twilight, and is difficult to see.

Mars is rising in the morning twilight. 

Jupiter is lost in the twilight sky.

Saturn climbs higher in the morning twilight.

Printable PDF maps of the Eastern sky at 10 pm AEST, Western sky at 10 pm AEST. For further details and more information on what's up in the sky, see Southern Skywatch.


 

Star Map via Virtual sky. Use your mouse to scroll around and press 8 when your pointer is in the map to set to the current time.

Cloud cover predictions can be found at SkippySky.

Here is the near-real time satellite view of the clouds (day and night) http://satview.bom.gov.au/

Labels: weekly sky

# posted by Ian Musgrave @ 7:19 am 0 comments

The First Quarter Moon is Tuesday, April 16. Jupiter is very low in the north-western twilight sky. Comet 12P Pons-Brooks may be visible above Jupiter at the beginning of the week and will progressively climb higher over the week. In the morning Mars and Saturn are high.Venus is barely visible low in the morning twilight below the pair. Mercury joins Venus late in the week and is closest on the 20th.

The First Quarter Moon is Tuesday, April 16.  The Moon is at apogee, when it is furthest from the Earth, on the 20th.

Morning sky on Saturday, April 20 as seen from Adelaide at 06:03 ACST, (45 minutes before sunrise, click to embiggen). Mars and Saturn are pulling apart as Saturn climbs higher. Venus is now very low on the horizon and difficult to see. Mercury joins the lineup and is close to Venus on the 20th. You will need binoculars to see mercury. 

The inset is the binocular view of Venus and Mercury at this time.

 

 

Similar views will be seen from the rest of Australia at the equivalent local time (45 minutes before sunrise).

Whole sky on Saturday, Saturday, April 20 as seen from Adelaide at 19:10 ACST, 90 minutes after sunset (click to embiggen).

Orion is now in the north-west. Bright Sirius is dominant in  the north-western sky. Between the bright star Canopus and the Southern Cross are a wealth of binocular objects to discover. As the Moon waxes , the fainter clusters will begin to dim.

 

 

   

 Elsewhere in Australia will see a similar view at the equivalent time (90 minutes after sunset).

 

 

Mercury emerges into the twilight and is close to Venus on the 20th.

Venus is very low in the morning twilight, it is sinking towards the horizon and will be lost in the twilight by the end of the Month. Mars and Saturn draw away from Venus. Mercury is close to Venus on the 20th.

Mars is rising in the morning twilight and moving away from Venus. 

Jupiter is visible very low in the early evening twilight sky.

Saturn climbs higher in the morning twilight. Saturn draws away from Mars rising higher in the morning sly.

Printable PDF maps of the Eastern sky at 10 pm AEST, Western sky at 10 pm AEST. For further details and more information on what's up in the sky, see Southern Skywatch.


 

Star Map via Virtual sky. Use your mouse to scroll around and press 8 when your pointer is in the map to set to the current time.

Cloud cover predictions can be found at SkippySky.

Here is the near-real time satellite view of the clouds (day and night) http://satview.bom.gov.au/

Labels: weekly sky

# posted by Ian Musgrave @ 12:08 am 0 comments

Printable Black and White chart for locating Comet 12P 10April-10 May. Click to embiggen and print. Use with a red light torch (or a standard torch with red cellophane over it) to preserve your night vision.	Printable Black and White Binocular chart for locating Comet 12P. The circle represents the approximate field of view of 10x50 binoculars.Click to embiggen and print. Use with a red light torch (or a standard torch with red cellophane over it) to preserve your night vision.
Photo realistic view of the evening sky simulated in Stellarium for Sunday, April 14 as seen from Adelaide at 18:48 ACST (60 minutes after sunset, click to embiggen). Jupiter is very low above the north-western horizon and within binocular distance of Uranus and the comet 12P (the inset is the approximate binocular view of the trio).	Photo realistic view of the evening sky on Sunday, April 21 as seen from Adelaide at 18:39 ACST (60 minutes after sunset, click to embiggen). Jupiter is almost lost above the north-western horizon. Comet 12P is close to the pair of Xi and omicron Tau (the inset is the approximate binocular view of the trio).

While the comet is a reasonably bright magnitude 4.5, about as bright as the star Taygeta (19 Tau) in the Pleiades, it is so low to the horizon that you will be difficult to see it through the horizon murk over the next week or so. You will definitely need binoculars, even if you can see the brighter stars of the nearby Pleiades clearly. While the comet is much brighter than Vesta in the Vesta challenge, it is lower in the horizon murk and a more extended object, making it more of a challenge.

On the 14th  the comet will be within binocular distance of Jupiter. Although the comet is magnitude 4.5 at this time and theoretically dimly visible to the unaided eye, atmospheric extinction will mean it is more like magnitude 6. The comet will look like a faint fuzzy dot.

At nautical twilight (an hour after sunset) it will be around three finger-widths above the horizon (and you will need a level, unobstructed horizon to see it). You may have better success looking a bit earlier, when it will be higher despite the brighter twilight sky. Terry Lovejoy was successful in capturing the comet with 7x 1 second exposures at 100 ASA using a Sony A7iii.

Using a more ordinary camera, try zooming in around 3x and using mutiple1 second 100 ISO imaging (you WILL need a tripod for this). Higher ISO (ASA) values will make the sky brighter as well as the comet, so will not be as effective. You may wish to play around with the settings if you have time before the comet sets. 

UPDATE: forget everything I said about imaging. I have been able to get it with 1 second ISO 3200 and 3x zoom, but nothing below ISO 1600. (I have also done 2 and 4 second exposures, but I have an S24, so that’s cheating). I have yet to try stacking, there may be too few stars visible to stack reliably. 

12P Pons-Brooks will climb higher and brighten as it rises (not much though). It should be more or less easily located in binoculars by sweeping up from Jupiter (see printable charts and maps above).

On the 21st the comet will be at it's brightest (unless it undergoes another outburst, it has had nights where it was substantially brighter) at magnitude 4.4 (although atmospheric extinction means it is more like magnitude 5.3 at astronomical twilight, an hour after sunset). At this time it will be nearly two hand-spans above the horizon, almost on top of the two stars Xi and omicron Tau (both around magnitude 3 and readily visible, see charts above). If you can't readily see the pair locate the rather obvious Aldebaran (and the Hyades) and sweep down an to the west by about three binocular widths and the pair should be obvious.

Again, you may wish to look earlier when the comet is higher, and the twilight brighter. While the comet will still look like a fuzzy dot in binoculars, you may be able to see a short tail. 

For imaging try zooming in so the pair of Xi and omicron Tau take up a decent proportion of the field of view (not too  much as the resolution of most point and click cameras and mobile phones degrade severely on zoom) and take multiple 1 second images (I use between 10-20 images), you may try higher ISOs to try and capture more comet detail. Stack the images with an appropriate stacking software. Free Stacking software includes Deep Sky Stacker and Autostakkert for Windows,  and StarStaX for macOS. 

After this 12P Pons-Brooks begins to fade, but still remains "bright", sweeping your binoculars up from Xi and omicron Tau should pick it up. on the 29th it is within binocular distance of nu Tau (see charts, sweep west of Aldebaran for around two binocular widths). At this time, at nautical twilight is over two hand-spans from the horizon and magnitude 4.5 and another good opportunity for imaging.

Labels: 12P, Astrophiz, astrophotography, comet

# posted by Ian Musgrave @ 5:42 pm 0 comments

The First Quarter Moon is Tuesday, April 16. Jupiter is very low in the north-western twilight sky and is near the crescent Moon on the 11th. Comet 12P Pons-Brooks may be visible near Jupiter on the 14 and willl progressively climb higher over the week. In the morning Mars and Saturn spectacularly close on the 11th.Venus is barely visible low in the morning twilight below the pair. 

The First Quarter Moon is Tuesday, April 16. 

Evening sky on Thursday, April 11 as seen from Adelaide at 18:51 ACST (60 minutes after sunset, click to embiggen). Jupiter is low above the north-western horizon and within binocular distance of  Uranus. Jupiter will also be not far from the thin crescent Moon and the comet 12P.

While the comet is a reasonable bright magnitude 4, it is so low to the horizon that you will be unlikely to see it through the horizon murk. You will have to wait for next week for the chance of a decent view. 

Similar views will be seen from the rest of Australia at the equivalent local time (60 minutes after sunset).

Evening sky on Sunday, April 14 as seen from Adelaide at 18:48 ACST (60 minutes after sunset, click to embiggen). Jupiter is very low above the north-western horizon and within binocular distance of Uranus and the comet 12P (the inset is the approximate binocular view of the trio).

While the comet is a reasonable bright magnitude 4, it is so low to the horizon that you will be difficult to see it through the horizon murk. You will definitely need binoculars. Over the week the comet will climb higher above the horizon murk and should be early located in binoculars by sweeping up from Jupiter.

Similar views will be seen from the rest of Australia at the equivalent local time (60 minutes after sunset).

 

Similar views will be seen from the rest of Australia at the equivalent local time. 

 

Morning sky on Thursday, April 11 as seen from Adelaide at 05:41 ACST, (60 minutes before sunrise, click to embiggen). Mars and Saturn are at their closest and can be seen in a medium power telescope eyepiece. Venus is below Mars and Saturn. You may need a low level horizon to see Venus at its best. 

 

The inset is the medium powers telescopic view of Mars and Saturn at this time.

 

Similar views will be seen from the rest of Australia at the equivalent local time (60 minutes before sunrise). 

Morning sky on Saturday, April 13 as seen from Adelaide at 05:43 ACST, (60 minutes before sunrise, click to embiggen). Mars and Saturn are pulling apart as Saturn climbs higher. Venus is now very low on the horizon and difficult to see.

 

 

Similar views will be seen from the rest of Australia at the equivalent local time.

Whole sky on Saturday, Saturday, April 13 as seen from Adelaide at 20:27 ACST, 90 minutes after sunset (click to embiggen).

Orion is now in the north-west. Bright Sirius is high in  the north-western sky. Between the bright star Canopus and the Southern Cross are a wealth of binocular objects to discover. As the Moon waxes , the fainter clusters will begin to dim.

 

 

   

 Elsewhere in Australia will see a similar view at the equivalent time (90 minutes after sunset).

 

 

Mercury is lost in the twilight.

Venus is very low in the morning twilight, it is sinking towards the horizon and will be lost in the twilight by the end of the Month. Mars and Saturn draw away from Venus.

Mars is rising in the morning twilight and moving away from Venus.  Mars and Saturn  come closer to each other being closest on the 11th.

Jupiter is visible very low in the early evening twilight sky. It is coming closer to Uranus and is within binocular distance of Uranus. On the 14th it will be close to comet 12P Pons-Brooks.

Saturn climbs higher in the morning twilight. Mars and Saturn  are  closest on the 11th. Then Saturn draws away from Mars.

Printable PDF maps of the Eastern sky at 10 pm AEST, Western sky at 10 pm AEST. For further details and more information on what's up in the sky, see Southern Skywatch.


 

Star Map via Virtual sky. Use your mouse to scroll around and press 8 when your pointer is in the map to set to the current time.

Cloud cover predictions can be found at SkippySky.

Here is the near-real time satellite view of the clouds (day and night) http://satview.bom.gov.au/

Labels: weekly sky

# posted by Ian Musgrave @ 6:14 pm 0 comments

Total Solar Eclipse as seen from Dallas, Texas on 8 April (US time 9April in Australia). Simulated in Stellarium.	Chart of the path of the solar eclipse from Fred Espenak's eclipse site

 Sadly, none of the 2024 total solar eclipse is visible from Australia. However, there are several live streams of the event we Southern Hemispherians can log into. Again, sadly, the eclipse is starting at 16:38 UT on the 8th, and is greatest at 18:17 UT. This translates to around 2 am and 4 am on the 9th (Tuesday) in Eastern Australia, so you have to be up very, very early. If you are a diehard eclipse fan, here are some live streams for you (many may be oversubscribed or choked for band width, so you may have to hop around to find one that works).

Time and date: Live-stream starts 2 am AEST on the 9th.  https://www.timeanddate.com/live/eclipse-solar-2024-april-8

Virtual Telescope Project: Live-stream starts around 3 am AEST on the 9th. https://www.virtualtelescope.eu/webtv/

NASA TV. Live-stream starts around 3 am AEST on the 9th. https://science.nasa.gov/eclipses/future-eclipses/eclipse-2024/live/

Exploratorium. https://www.exploratorium.edu/eclipse

Space.com. Live-stream stars around 3 am AEST on the 9th. https://www.space.com/watch-total-solar-eclipse-april-8-online-free-livestreams

Labels: eclipse, live-stream, solar eclipse, webcast

# posted by Ian Musgrave @ 5:38 pm 0 comments

ISS as seen from Brisbane on the evening of  Saturday 7 April at 4:27 AEST. Simulated in Stellarium,  the ISS is passing directly over the Moon. Click to embiggen.	ISS  as seen from Adelaide on the evening of  Friday 5 April at 6:59 ACDST. Simulated in Stellarium (the ISS will actually be a bright dot). Click to embiggen.	ISS as seen from Perth on the evening of  Friday 5 April at 6:03 AWST. Simulated in Stellarium (the ISS will actually be a bright dot). Click to embiggen.
All sky chart showing local times from Heavens Above for Saturday 7 April for Brisbane.	All sky chart showing local  times from Heavens Above for Friday 5 April for Adelaide.	All sky chart showing local times from Heavens Above for Friday 5 April for Perth.

I normally don't bother with morning passes of the ISS, as geeing up is a pain. However, this time the ISS passes coincide with a very nice lineup of the Crescent Moon, Mars, Saturn, and Venus. In some cases the ISS passes through the lineup, and for Brisbane on the 7th, the ISS passes over the Moon! Well worth getting up for.

Also in this time frame there are a series of  bright Tiangong passes in the late evening twilight/early evening and the early morning. See Heavens Above for details.

 
The following tables are from data provided from Heavens Above. Particularly impressive passes are highlighted in yellow. Daylight savings ends on Sunday April 7.
   

Passes from Adelaide (ACDST/ACST) 

Passes from Brisbane (AEST) 

Passes from Darwin (ACST) 

Passes from Hobart (AEDST/AEST)  

Passes from Melbourne (AEDST/AEST)

Passes from Perth (AWST) 

Passes from Sydney (AEDST/AEST) 

When and what you will see is VERY location dependent, so you need to use  Heavens Above  to get site specific predictions for your location, a small difference in location can mean the difference between ISS passing over the Moon or a planet or missing it completely. 

As always, start looking several minutes before the pass is going to start to get yourself oriented and your eyes dark adapted. Be patient, there may be slight differences in the time of the ISS/Tiangong appearing due to orbit changes not picked up by the predictions. Use the most recent prediction for your site.

Labels: ISS, Mars, Moon, Satellite, Saturn, tiangong, unaided eye, Venus

# posted by Ian Musgrave @ 11:23 pm 0 comments