This Wednesday will be our last chance to see Venus during the meeting--with the days getting steadily longer, we haven't seen stars lately, and with the beginning of daylight savings time we won't see sunset at St. Andrew's at all. I do hope the full moon is high enough in the sky to see before we leave tomorrow, also. At the end of the week, Venus and Jupiter will be side-by-side in the early evening sky. (Does this mean these planets are close together? Ask you St Andrew's After School student!)
Computer resources: Stellarium and Heavens Above
I will take this opportunity to pass on some cool web resources related to the night sky. First, you can download a very nice night sky simulator called Stellarium here:
http://www.stellarium.org/
Once you have it downloaded and up and running, you have to give it a latitude and longitude so you will be simulating the sky from your location. Bring up the left-hand menu by bringing your mouse cursor to the left hand edge of the screen. Then click on the compass rose at the top of the menu. For the church (which is plenty close enough no matter where you live in New Bedford), those numbers are: N 41 degrees 40' 7.78" W 70 degrees 55' 46.80" Change the latitude and longitude bly clicking on a number (degrees, minutes ', seconds " are all separate) and using the arrow buttons. Then give this location a name (St. Andrew's, New Bedford), add it to the list, and check the default box.
Whenever the program is started, it shows you the sky at that time of day. If you want to change that time (including date), move your cursor to the bottom of the screen to pull up the bottom menu, and click on the clock face. Once you get it to an appropriate time, it's interesting to change the date one day at a time to see how the positions of moon and planets change. Play around with the other things on these two menus! Have fun! AND DON'T FORGET TO GET OUTSIDE AND LOOK AT THE REAL THING!
Another good web resource is "Heavens Above" (http://www.heavens-above.com/)run by a dedicated sky enthusiast, which enables you to find a lot of things in the sky. My favorite is to find out when the International Space Station will be visible as it orbits a few hundred miles up over our heads. Although the station is the biggest man-made object ever orbited, it is still impossible to see at that distance UNLESS it passes overhead when it is dark on the ground, but the sun is still shining on the Station. Most days the Station is looping over some other location, but on days it happens to pass over eastern Massachusetts, it might be visible once or twice. To use this feature you have to set up an account and log in to the site. (This is easy and quick, and has no down side that I've ever noticed.) Then you can set your latitude and longitude (use those above). Then under :Satellites, 10-day predictions for:" click on ISS. the table tells you what dates to look for it, how bright it will appear, what direction it will first appear in, will reach its highest point at, and will disappear at (including brightness for all of these).
Understanding the details: Brightness is a number in which the more negative it is, the brighter it is. In the city where outside lights make it hard to see the night sky, I don't usually even look for the ISS if it doesn't get brighter than -2 (of course, -3 is even brighter). The azimuth is the compass direction. You don't need a compass for this; just remember the sun sets in the west. Altitude is how high above the horizon to look. (0 is the horizon, 90 would be straight up.) Again, I don't bother to look unless the altitude is at least 30 degrees. Since a minute one way or the other means you might miss it, check to make sure your clock is accurate before you go looking.
What will you see? The appearance of the ISS makes me think of a slow, high-flying airplane, except it shines steadily, with no flashing or colored lights. Good luck! If you see it, write a comment here!
Computer resources: Stellarium and Heavens Above
I will take this opportunity to pass on some cool web resources related to the night sky. First, you can download a very nice night sky simulator called Stellarium here:
http://www.stellarium.org/
Once you have it downloaded and up and running, you have to give it a latitude and longitude so you will be simulating the sky from your location. Bring up the left-hand menu by bringing your mouse cursor to the left hand edge of the screen. Then click on the compass rose at the top of the menu. For the church (which is plenty close enough no matter where you live in New Bedford), those numbers are: N 41 degrees 40' 7.78" W 70 degrees 55' 46.80" Change the latitude and longitude bly clicking on a number (degrees, minutes ', seconds " are all separate) and using the arrow buttons. Then give this location a name (St. Andrew's, New Bedford), add it to the list, and check the default box.
Whenever the program is started, it shows you the sky at that time of day. If you want to change that time (including date), move your cursor to the bottom of the screen to pull up the bottom menu, and click on the clock face. Once you get it to an appropriate time, it's interesting to change the date one day at a time to see how the positions of moon and planets change. Play around with the other things on these two menus! Have fun! AND DON'T FORGET TO GET OUTSIDE AND LOOK AT THE REAL THING!
Another good web resource is "Heavens Above" (http://www.heavens-above.com/)run by a dedicated sky enthusiast, which enables you to find a lot of things in the sky. My favorite is to find out when the International Space Station will be visible as it orbits a few hundred miles up over our heads. Although the station is the biggest man-made object ever orbited, it is still impossible to see at that distance UNLESS it passes overhead when it is dark on the ground, but the sun is still shining on the Station. Most days the Station is looping over some other location, but on days it happens to pass over eastern Massachusetts, it might be visible once or twice. To use this feature you have to set up an account and log in to the site. (This is easy and quick, and has no down side that I've ever noticed.) Then you can set your latitude and longitude (use those above). Then under :Satellites, 10-day predictions for:" click on ISS. the table tells you what dates to look for it, how bright it will appear, what direction it will first appear in, will reach its highest point at, and will disappear at (including brightness for all of these).
Understanding the details: Brightness is a number in which the more negative it is, the brighter it is. In the city where outside lights make it hard to see the night sky, I don't usually even look for the ISS if it doesn't get brighter than -2 (of course, -3 is even brighter). The azimuth is the compass direction. You don't need a compass for this; just remember the sun sets in the west. Altitude is how high above the horizon to look. (0 is the horizon, 90 would be straight up.) Again, I don't bother to look unless the altitude is at least 30 degrees. Since a minute one way or the other means you might miss it, check to make sure your clock is accurate before you go looking.
What will you see? The appearance of the ISS makes me think of a slow, high-flying airplane, except it shines steadily, with no flashing or colored lights. Good luck! If you see it, write a comment here!
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