#Fred Espenak

[richdadpoor]

What to Know About Wednesday’s ‘Super Blue Moon’

The second supermoon of the month will rise this Wednesday, August 30. It will be even closer to Earth than the first supermoon of the month, the so-called Sturgeon Moon that rose on August 1. Moon Knight Gives Us Hope Supermoons describe full Moons that occur within 90% of the Moon’s perigee, or its closest approach to Earth in its orbit. To the naked eye, supermoons make our lunar satellite…

[silvereyedowl]

[source]

Eclipse Over Acacia

Credits: Fred Espenak

[celestialdaily]

The celestial object of the day is Spica!

The brightest star in the constellation of Virgo is actually a binary system! And the closest to the sun. It's formed by a blue giant and a variable star, they orbit so close together that they've gained an ellipsodal shape, similar to that of an egg

[spacewonder19]

Solar Eclipse from a Ship on April 20, 2023 © Fred Espenak

[apod]

2023 April 29

Solar Eclipse from a Ship Image Credit: Fred Espenak

Explanation: Along a narrow path that mostly avoided landfall, the shadow of the New Moon raced across planet Earth's southern hemisphere on April 20 to create a rare annular-total or hybrid solar eclipse. From the Indian Ocean off the coast of western Australia, ship-borne eclipse chasers were able to witness 62 seconds of totality though while anchored near the centerline of the total eclipse track. This ship-borne image of the eclipse captures the active Sun's magnificent outer atmosphere or solar corona streaming into space. A composite of 11 exposures ranging from 1/2000 to 1/2 second, it records an extended range of brightness to follow details of the corona not quite visible to the eye during the total eclipse phase. Of course eclipses tend to come in pairs. On May 5, the next Full Moon will just miss the dark inner part of Earth's shadow in a penumbral lunar eclipse.

∞ Source: apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap230429.html

[merelygifted]

Rare 'blue supermoon' — the biggest and brightest full moon of the year — rises Aug. 30 | Live Science

The biggest and brightest full moon of 2023 will rise on Aug. 30, and its strange name deserves an explanation. Called a "blue supermoon," it is the result of three lunar phenomena happening at once.

The "blue" supermoon's name has nothing to do with the moon's color. In fact, it will actually be orange. The blue supermoon gets the first part of its name for a different reason: It's the second full moon in August.

There are two types of blue moon. The August blue supermoon falls into the first category: two full moons occurring in the same month. That's occasionally inevitable; a new full moon rises every  29.5 days. Given that the Sturgeon Moon occurred on Aug. 1, 2023, the Aug. 30 full moon will be a blue moon. Blue moons of this type, called "calendar blue moons," occur roughly every two or three years, with the next one occurring on May 31, 2026, according to timeanddate.

The second type of blue moon, called a "seasonal blue moon," describes the third full moon of four during one astronomical season. This occurs when a calendar year has 13 full moons instead of the typical 12. (A lunar year — 12 orbits of Earth by the moon — takes 354 days, while Earth's solar year is 365 days.) The next seasonal blue moon, which also happens every two or three years, will occur on Aug. 19, 2024, according to timeanddate.

So, where does the second part of the name come from? A supermoon occurs when the full moon is close to its nearest point to Earth in its orbit. The moon's orbit of Earth is elliptical, so every month, it reaches a closest point (perigee) and farthest point (apogee). Moons that come within 90% of perigee in a given month qualify as supermoons, according to Fred Espenak, an astronomer and former eclipse calculator for NASA.

August's second full moon is the third and closest of four supermoons in 2023. At 222,043 miles (357,344 kilometers) from Earth, it will be the biggest and brightest supermoon of 2023, though it will be only 20 miles (33 kilometers) closer than Aug. 1's full moon, which was 222,023 miles (357,311 km) away.

The next full moon will be the Harvest Moon, on Sept. 29. In addition to being one of the best-known full moons of the year, it's the last supermoon in 2023.

Find out the exact time of moonrise for your location, and prepare for the spectacular sight of the blue supermoon on the eastern horizon next week.  ...

[confused-alot]

Eclipse path maps for the next ~35 years

Eclipse Predictions by Fred Espenak, NASA/GSFC Emeritus

[santoschristos]

Cosmic Full Supermoon

Supermoon nights, where stars dance in delight.

Full supermoons in 2024

Fred Espenak’s full supermoon table gives us these values – dates and moon distances – for full supermoons in 2024. Contrast these moon distances to the average moon distance of 238,900 miles (384,472 km).

Note: Fred’s dates are based on UTC time, so some supermoons may fall on the previous date your local time.

Aug 19: 224,917 miles (361,969 kilometers)

Sep 18: 222,131 miles (357,485 kilometers)

Oct 17: 222,055 miles (357,363 kilometers)

Nov 15: 224,853 miles (361,866 kilometers)

Cosmic Full Supermoons artist: --Mahaboka

[wikiuntamed]

Top 5 @Wikipedia pages from yesterday: Saturday, 6th April 2024

Welcome, welkom, velkomin, bun venit 🤗 What were the top pages visited on @Wikipedia (6th April 2024) 🏆🌟🔥?

1️⃣: Indian Premier League "The Indian Premier League (IPL), also known as the TATA IPL for sponsorship reasons, is a men's Twenty20 (T20) cricket league held annually in India. Founded by the BCCI in 2007, the league features ten city-based franchise teams. The IPL usually takes place during the summer, between March and May..."

2️⃣: WrestleMania XL "WrestleMania XL is an ongoing 2024 professional wrestling event produced by WWE. It is the 40th annual WrestleMania and takes place as a two-night event on April 6 and 7, 2024, at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The event is airing via pay-per-view (PPV) and livestreaming and..."

3️⃣: 2024 Indian Premier League "The 2024 Indian Premier League (also known as IPL 17 and branded as TATA IPL 2024) is the 17th edition of the Indian Premier League, a franchise Twenty20 cricket league in India, organized by the Board of Control for Cricket in India. The tournament features ten teams and is being held from 22..."

4️⃣: Caitlin Clark "Caitlin Clark (born January 22, 2002) is an American college basketball player for the Iowa Hawkeyes of the Big Ten Conference. She is the NCAA Division I all-time leading scorer and is regarded as one of the greatest players in college basketball history. Clark attended Dowling Catholic High School..."

Image licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0? by John Mac

5️⃣: Solar eclipse of April 8, 2024 "A total solar eclipse will take place on Monday, April 8, 2024, visible across North America and dubbed the Great North American Eclipse by some media. A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby obscuring the image of the Sun for a viewer on Earth. A total solar..."

Image by Attribution: Eclipse Predictions by Fred Espenak, NASA's GSFC

[oupacademic]

New Books in New York. With the record-breaking temperatures here in New York City today, perhaps a total eclipse of the sun will cool us off a bit.

Images and GIF by Nicole Piendel for Oxford University Press.

[lovedumbandbroke]

Polaris by Fred Espenak / Polaris Through the Clouds by Dubblederp / Matt Molly / unknown

Dear Polaris, guide me home.

I've been alone,

for too long, I've forgotten

the touch of

another. I wonder where you'll

lead me 'cause

there's no shelter for miles,

And I can't

remember what home was like.

Please, don't leave.

I'll follow you where you

shine the brightest

Even if it means running

from the dawn.

I'll navigate this life with

my eyes on

you, take me around the

world, dear Polaris.

[wonders-of-the-cosmos]

Venus and the Sisters (pleiades)

Image Credit: Fred Espenak (Bifrost Astronomical Observatory) 

[silvereyedowl]

[source]

Venus and the Sisters

Credits: Fred Espenak, BifrostAstronomical Observatory

[kuiperkat]

A Wolf Moon Eclipse is upon us. But can you see it in the US?

The short answer is: no.

On January 10, Africa, Asia, Australia and Europe will be able to witness the first penumbral lunar eclipse of the decade. A penumbral lunar eclipse isn't the same as a total eclipse. During a penumbral eclipse, the moon is caught in Earth's outer (penumbral) shadow, rather than fully darkened.

Observant moon-gazers may notice a slight darkening of the moon, almost similar to looking at it through a tinted lens.

While we can’t observe this celestial event in person, there are ways to observe online. Slooh.com, TimeandDate.com, and VirtualTelescope.eu will have streaming parties the day of. Check their sites for details 🌘 (📷 credit: Fred Espenak)

[thefirststarr]

During a total lunar eclipse, the Earth aligns perfectly between the sun and the moon. The moon, which normally appears “lit” due to its ability to reflect sunlight, get completely blocked and no light reaches it. Some light though, gets refracted by the Earth’s atmosphere and makes the moon appear red.

This picture above is from a lunar eclipse almost 1 year ago in Arizona, USA. On the night of January 20/21 (tonight) there will be another total lunar eclipse! There, all 62 minutes of the total phase, when the Moon is completely immersed in Earth's dark umbral shadow, will take place with the Moon above the horizon. Watch it if you can!

The next total lunar eclipse visible from anywhere on planet Earth won't take place until May 26, 2021.

Image Credit & Copyright: Fred Espenak (MrEclipse.com, TWAN)

[apod]

2020 April 4

Venus and the Sisters Image Credit & Copyright: Fred Espenak (Bifrost Astronomical Observatory)

Explanation: After wandering about as far from the Sun on the sky as Venus can get, the brilliant evening star is crossing paths with the sister stars of the Pleiades cluster. Look west after sunset and you can share the ongoing conjunction with skygazers around the world. Taken on April 2, this celestial group photo captures the view from Portal, Arizona, USA. Even bright naked-eye Pleiades stars prove to be much fainter than Venus though. Apparent in deeper telescopic images, the cluster's dusty surroundings and familiar bluish reflection nebulae aren't quite visible, while brighter Venus itself is almost overwhelming in the single exposure. And while Venus and the Sisters do look a little star-crossed, their spiky appearance is the diffraction pattern caused by multiple leaves in the aperture of the telephoto lens. The last similar conjunction of Venus and Pleiades occurred nearly 8 years ago.

∞ Source: apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap200404.html