The Night Sky Guy

Look for Zodiacal Lights

For the next two weeks keen skywatchers in the Northern Hemisphere can hunt down one of the most elusive astronomical phenomena visible in the sky – the Zodiacal Light. This pyramid-shaped beam of light is easily mistaken for lights of a far-off city just over the dark horizon in the countryside and has also been called the ‘false dawn’. But this light is more ethereal; it is caused by sunlight reflecting off cosmic dust between the planets.

Zodiacal Light as seen in Quebec. Credit Dominic Cantin

The next two weeks in September will be the best time to track down this ghostly light in the eastern sky before morning twilight. But you will have to head out of the city into a dark location to spot it because it can be easily lost in light pollution. Look towards the eastern horizon, where the sun rises, about an hour before it comes up.

Ancient Romans thought this ghostly glow was due to far-off camp fires below the horizon, while the ancient Greeks speculated that it must be caused by distant volcanic explosions. Centuries later, by the mid sixteenth-century people thought that the Zodiacal Light was the outstretched atmosphere of our Sun.

Much of the dust spread out it in the solar system was left behind whent he planets formed but new research says that the dust is getting constantly replenished by asteroid impacts. Credit: NASA

Zodiacal Light results from sunlight reflecting off a vast field of meteoric dust that lies in the plane of the solar system and stretches out far beyond Earth. It actually formed when the solar system was first evovling . Billions of dust-sized particles that were left behind, after the planets formed about 5 billion years ago. It’s amazing to think that about 40% of the overall light in the night sky can be attributed to this Zodiacal dust cloud.

Bookmark

Tonight: Moon Meets Mars’ Rival

Check out a real pretty celestial get together in the evening sky tonight, Tuesday, about a half hour after sunset. By that time the sky will start to become dark enough to reveal the orange-hued star Antares next to the crescent Moon . Lying more than 600 light years from Earth, Antares is the lead star in the constellation Scorpius and it’s name literally means – Anti-Mars – given to it by ancient Greek astronomers because it reminded them of the Red Planet in the sky. Check out this spectacular pairing for yourself int he southern sky tonight.

Bookmark

New Night Sky Episode

This week we talk about the Perseid meteor shower performance and weekend outlook for more shooting stars and a pretty planet, moon lineup.

Bookmark

August Sky Highlights

Check out this great video put together by the folks at JPL NASA on the Perseids and planets this week.

Bookmark

Sky Show: Planetary Triangle

If you have clear skies after sunset anytime over the next week,  don’t miss a great opportunity to catch sight of a great meeting of three planet superstars in the sky.   Mars, Saturn and Venus will form a tight triangle in the western sky at dusk .  Called a conjunction- when planets get close to each other in the sky – this is one sky how you don’t need binoculars or telescopes to enjoy. Venus will be the first planet to pop into view as it is the brightest of the trio.

Venus is affectionately called the evening star because it appears soon after sunset as the first star like object.  A few minutes later as the sky darkens orange hued Mars and creamy coloured Saturn will become visible too. The three worlds will make a spectacular triangular configuration that will look quite spectacular to the naked eye – even from light polluted suburbs. Remember that while they may look close together they are in fact separated by hundreds of millions of kms.  The three planets will appear separated by only 5 degrees – that is about 10 full moon disks.

Don’t  forget you can always get late-breaking stargazing news anytime by joining my fanpage on Facebook, or get  email alerts sent directly to your inbox

Bookmark

Aurora Time-Lapse Video

Skywatcher in Denmark created this beautiful video from 100 separate photos he took of the Northern Lights last night. check it out. Note; click on the # 2 at the lower left to see the video.

Forecasters are calling for35% chance of a second round of Auroras  to appear sometime late tonight (Aug.4)  into early morning hours.  A second Coronal Mass  Ejection that was launched by the Sun on Sunday will arrive at Earth within the next few hours, possibly sparking  more colourful displays. no guarantees what will happen but worth a peek through your window tonight!

Bookmark

Update: Auroras Spotted Over Europe

Reports are coming in from Denmark and Norway that the Northern Lights show has started to appear there – where it is already late night. Check out the latest photo from Denmark skywatcher here.  Thanks to spaceweather.com from the heads up.

Here is the Aurora Oval as it appear LIVE to a satellite now over Northern America. The darker and bigger the red blob. the more intense and widespread the displays. Check to see if your area is under the aurora area.

Bookmark

Aurora Alert Tonight

On Sunday morning the Sun’s entire Earth facing side erupted in activity which resulted in it belching out a supercharged cloud of particles called a coronal mass ejection (CME) that has Earth in  its crosshairs. Tip of the hat to Spaceweather.com for breaking this story. The CME will be in two parts with the first section already having slammed into Earth’s magnetic field around 1:30 pm EDT today. It doesn’t look like it was a big eruption on the solar flare ‘richter’ scale – C class - but forecasters are calling on  45% chance of geomagnetic activity int  overnight hours tonight.

Snapshot from NASA satellite of August 1st solar blast

Best chance to spot the northern lights is to look towards your local northern horizon late night – usually around midnight. Those living in high latitude have a better chance of  seeing something than those living closer to the equator- this usually means that folks living in Canada and bordering states are better placed for even fainter, more commonly occuring auroras.  The display may be faint so if you are out in the dark countryside you have a better chance of catching it . What will it look like? Most likely it will appear as a green or pinkish glow with shimmering curtains of light that spread across the lower sky.  Of course clear skies help!

Bookmark

Worlds Align in Sky Show

Planets and Moon align in the West Tonight; credit: Earthsky.org

Both Thursday and Friday nights will see a stunning sky show with four planets – Saturn, Mars, Venus and Mercury – lined up in a diagonal row in the western sky at dusk. As an added bonus the crescent Moon will be joining the show for these two nights only.

No need to get away from the bright lights of the city to see these points of light. They will appear easily to the unaided eye from just about anywhere you have clear skies and a clear line of sight towards the low western horizon.

Don’t  forget you can always get late-breaking stargazing news anytime by joining my fanpage on Facebook, or get  email alerts sent directly to your inbox

Bookmark

Today: Watch Solar Eclipse LIVE

The new moon will glide in front of the sun’s disk beginning at 2:40 p.m. EDT, casting a  shadow on the Earth. The only land it will cross are  the Cook Islands, Easter Island, a few scattered atolls, and the western side of southern Chile and Argentina.

Check out the LIVE video of the eclipse from Easter Island (broadcast starts at about 4 pm about 5 minutes before totality….

Bookmark