What can you expect to see at the Community Observatory this weekend?
We are hoping to be able to meet this weekend but, as of now, the prediction is for heavy cloud cover. This is also the full moon weekend so deep sky viewing won’t be great either. If you are considering joining us this weekend, be sure to check our website or Facebook after 3 PM on the day you want to visit. If we are going to close, we will announce it by then.
This full moon is called the “Wolf Moon.” It is called that because Native American and early Colonial traditions noted that wolves were heard howling more often in mid winter. It isn’t a Super-Moon but it will be slightly bigger and brighter than the average Moon.
We still have Jupiter and Saturn prominently displayed. Both are well above the horizon during our public viewings. Do you remember last year’s “Planetary Parade?” There was a bunch of media hype about it. You probably saw illustrations of bright planets in a line. You would have read that this is a rare occurrence. Sadly, it didn’t live up to its grandiose billing. The term “alignment” is deceptive. All of the planets, the Moon, and the Sun follow the same path called the “ecliptic” across the sky. The planets are always aligned. What was special about last year’s alignment was that all the planets were on approximately the same side of the Sun and therefore they were all visible in the evening sky. They were, however, arrayed all across the sky from east to west. “Planetary Parade” would be a better description. Unfortunately, several of them were very close to the western horizon. That means that they were only up for a few minutes after sunset and were difficult to spot in the Sun’s glow. The two outer planets, Uranus and Neptune, are never visible to the naked eye. That left us with only Jupiter, Saturn, and Mars to view. They were, of course, spectacular but they hardly lived up to the hype.
Well, guess what? We will have it again in the next few months and it will, of course, be highly hyped by social media. This spring will give us nice views of most of the planets. February through April should be a great time to see them. The media seems to be focusing on February 28th but any time during those months should give you a good view of Jupiter and Saturn. Mercury should be best in mid-February and Venus will have moved into the evening sky in mid-March. Expect to see Mars in March through fall. An “Orrery” is a model of the solar system showing the relative positions of the planets. Here is a link to one created by NASA: https://eyes.nasa.gov/apps/orrery/#/home
There are several deep-sky objects that will give us good views this weekend. The Orion, Horsehead, and Flame Nebulae are great targets. The “Leo Trio” is a group of three galaxies that are “only” a relatively close 35 million light years away. They easily fit in our East Scope’s field of view. We were able to see a supernova in one of them in 2023.
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