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Bright Planet Notes for July 2010:
Mercury: May become possible after sunset by mid-July and through
to the end of July.
Venus: Visible most of the time, even during the day, but will
brighten as it becomes more and more crescent-shaped. Seems non-intuitive,
but remember: it's coming closer to Earth when it wanes crescent,
so it appears larger, even though the amount of sunlit surface
is diminishing.
Mars:
Still visible in the west, but is slowly approaching the Sun and
will be lost to it by the end of the month.
Jupiter:
Rises in the east during the wee hours and won't be easily available
in the evening until mid-October.
Saturn:
Same as Mars.
Uranus: Same as Jupiter.
Neptune:
Same as Jupiter.
New
Moons for 2010: 1/15, 2/14, 3/15, 4/14, 5/14, 6/12, 7/11, 8/10,
9/8, 10/7, 11/6, 12/5.
Meteor
showers for 2010 (green text is good)
| Morning of Max |
Name |
ZHR |
Radiant & Direction |
Lunar
Brightness |
| Apr 3-4 |
Quadrantids |
40 |
Draco (NE) |
high |
| Apr 21-22 |
Lyrids |
20 |
Lyra (E) |
medium |
| May 5-6 |
Eta Aquarids |
60 |
Aquarius (E) |
medium |
| Jun 14-16 |
Lyrids |
10 |
Lyra (E) |
low |
| Jul 28-29 |
Delta Aquarids |
20 |
Aquarius (S) |
high |
| Jul 29-30 |
Capricornids |
15 |
Capricornus (E) |
high |
| Aug 12-13 |
Perseids |
60 |
Perseid (NE) |
low |
| Oct 8-9 |
Draconids |
10 |
Draco (NE) |
low |
| Oct 21-22 |
Orionids |
20 |
Orion (SE) |
high |
| Nov 17-18 |
Leonids |
15 |
Leo (E) |
high |
| Dec 13-14 |
Geminids |
120 |
Gemini (S) |
medium |
Three of this year's showers (green
text) are favorably absent most or all of the Moon, and
offer the best viewing opportunities. Note that the best time
to view meteor showers is usually between 2am and astronomical
dawn. Also, the showers themselves occur for days before and after
their peaks, and can still be worth watching, off-peak.
Clear
Sky Clock for Chabot Space & Science Center This
handy utility predicts what the skies are likely to be like within
the next two days. It may take a minute to figure out, but after
that, it's quite simple, and very useful.
Direct link for the weekend
viewing prospects at Chabot Observatory (usually posted
around 5pm on Friday and Saturday evening).
The lunar phase calendar (above)
was created with a very cool program called Quick Phase, which
generates all kinds of info on the phases of the moon. If you're
interested in getting it yourself, click
here.
*transit - to cross from the eastern
half of the sky to the western half, or vice-versa. When an object
transits in an east-to-west direction, it's at its highest elevation
above the horizon. This is the best time to view any object, because
the higher it is in the sky, the fewer layers of Earth's atmosphere
will interfere with, and distort, the image.
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