Events for the Week 7/17 to 7/25

Dawn has reaches Vesta! At around 1am this morning, Dawn is supposed to have gone into the protoplanet's orbit; more information will be posted about this soon.

Events for Sunday, July 17, 2011

Tonight, Saturn will be a spectacle for sky-watchers, when it is about one-quarter of the way to the zenith in the west-southwest sky during the night. Saturn will shine at magnitude 0.9 with Spica to its left, around 15 degrees. Saturn will always shine brighter than a star, so if you see an extremely bright object in the sky, it's Saturn! (If at night, and you know where to find it!) Triton, Saturn's largest moon will also be in view. View more!

Events for Monday, July 18, 2011

In the morning: Glowing at magnitude -2.3 all morning, Jupiter rises around 1 am and remains the "king of the planets," for Venus isn't up anymore. Jupiter now shines the brightest and dominates the morning sky; you can't miss it! If you would like to view the Galilean moons, (or others), try this chart from Sky&Telescope. Or Phenomena. Neptune will also conjunct the moon tonight.

At night: Beautifully orange Arcturus shines in the southwest these evenings, although far above from Saturn or Spica. You can also see Vega if you try, overhead which is equally bright. The Big Dipper is also prominet in the sky, as seen in the north-western sky. It's about the same height as Arcturus...

Akira Fujii

Events for Tuesday, July 19, 2011:

A rare occultation of a binary-asteroid and a star takes place tonight. This is an extremely rare event and you should be happy if you live on the Pacific coast. More details in post above. You can also see deep-sky objects tonight, if weather permits, like Messier 6, the Butterfly cluster.

Events for Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Mercury sits tonight at greatest elongation east this evening at twenty-seven degrees east of the Sun. This should be a great time to view it, because Mercury's at magnitude 0.3, and fairly easy to spot, low in the west-northwestern twilight. Delta-Aquarid Meteor Shower begins.

Events for Thursday, July 21, 2011

Tonight, Uranus conjuncts with the moon, the moon being at apogee at 6:46 pm EDT; 251,254 miles (404,355 kilometers) away and may look rather small because, it is at its farthest point. Also try viewing Vesta, with Dawn around it! Maybe you can look for Ceres while your at it as well.

Events for Friday, July 22, 2011

Tonight, Mars and Aldebaran will put on a show for you. Around four in the morning, you can see these two reddish objects after conjuncting last week, and  fairly pretty as the sun rises. Each object glows around 1.4 to 1 magnitude, so they should be easy to spot in the background of Taurus.  There will also be a close-to-earth asteroid flyby 2007 DD, but it won't be as close as MD 2011.

Events for Saturday, July 23, 2011

Tonight the moon shines at first quarter, occurring this morning at 1:02 am EDT, rising at midnight. The moon is in the southwestern constellation of Aries the Ram, about six degrees to Jupiter's upper-right.Jupiter conjuncts with the moon tonight.

Also, neat-earth-asteroid 2007 RQ17 passes by earth, but not as far as MD 2011, above.

Events for Sunday, July 24, 2011

Tonight, the summer triangle will be in full view; let the picture below express itself for you.

Events for Monday, July 15, 2011

Jupiter flies past the moon tonight (or the moon flies past Jupiter...) making a morning show. The Pleiades are involved as well.

Sorry I don't have time to do Solar System Calendar, but you can look it up on this page near bottom. They don't give in as much detail as I do, but nevertheless it still works!

Solar System Calendar

16 Jul 2011 18:43:18 Conjunction of Pallas with the Moon, 34.2°
17 Jul 2011 03:28:53 Conjunction of Vesta with the Moon, 9.1°
18 Jul 2011 05:39:57 Conjunction of Neptune with the Moon, 5.3°
20 Jul 2011 02:14:05 Max. South Latitude of the Moon, 5.1°
20 Jul 2011 04:59:20 Max. Eastern Elongation of Mercury, 26.8°
20 Jul 2011 17:46:31 Conjunction of Ceres with the Moon, 18.3°
21 Jul 2011 01:42:45 Conjunction of Uranus with the Moon, 5.8°
21 Jul 2011 22:45:53 Moon at Apogee, 404355 km from Earth
23 Jul 2011 05:01:57 Last Quarter
23 Jul 2011 21:57:42 Conjunction of Jupiter with the Moon, 4.9°

(This is definitely conjunction week!)

Have a great viewing this week!