#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…

[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

[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.

[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

[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) 

[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)

[andromeda1023]

Last transit of Mercury until 2032.

Mercury – the innermost planet of our solar system – will transit the sun on November 11, 2019. In other words, Mercury will pass directly in front of the sun and be visible through telescopes with solar filters as a small black dot crossing the sun’s face. It’ll be visible in part from most of Earth’s globe. The entire transit is visible from South America, eastern North America, and far-western Africa.

The last transit of Mercury was in 2016. The next one won’t be until 2032. (For the Northern Hemisphere it won’t be until 2049)

Be aware that this is a morning event on November 11, according to U.S. clocks. Mercury will come into view on the sun’s face around 7:36 a.m. Eastern Standard Time (12:36 UTC; translate UTC to your time) on November 11. It’ll make a leisurely journey across the sun’s face, reaching greatest transit (closest to sun’s center) at approximately 10:20 a.m. EST (15:20 UTC) and finally exiting around 1:04 p.m. EST (18:04 UTC). The entire 5 1/2 hour path across the sun will be visible across the U.S. East – with magnification and proper solar filters – while those in the U.S. West can observe the transit already in progress after sunrise.

You need a telescope and solar filters to view the transit. Mercury’s diameter is only 1/194th of that of the sun, as seen from Earth. That’s why the eclipse master Fred Espenak recommends using a telescope with a magnification of 50 to 100 times for witnessing the event.

Unless you are well-versed with the telescope and how to properly use solar filters, we advise you to seek out a public program via a nearby observatory or astronomy club. Never look at the sun through a telescope.

What part of Earth will see the November 11 transit of Mercury? As shown on the worldwide chart above, the transit will be visible (at least in part) from most of the globe, with the exception of the shaded-out portion (Indonesia, most of Asia, and Australia). Mercury takes some 5 1/2 hours to cross the sun’s disk, and this transit of Mercury is entirely visible (given clear skies) from eastern North America, South America, the southern tip of Greenland, and far-western Africa.

For North America, the transit begins in the early morning hours on November 11. The eastern part of North America sees the start of the transit after sunrise November 11, whereas the western part sees the transit already in progress as the sun rises on November 11.

As for the world’s Eastern Hemisphere – Africa, Europe, and the Middle East  – the transit starts in the early afternoon November 11 in the westernmost parts of Africa and Europe, and in the late afternoon November 11 in eastern Europe and the Middle East. In New Zealand, the transit is in process as the sun rises on November 12.

We provide the geocentric (Earth-centered) contact times of the transit of Mercury in Universal Time (UTC). If you know how to convert Universal Time to your local time (here’s how to do it), you can get a good approximation of the contact times for the Mercury transit for your part of the world. NOTE: Because the transit is viewed from the Earth’s surface, instead of the Earth’s center, the contact times could differ from the geocentric contact times by up to a minute.

November 11 transit times in Universal Time

First contact (ingress, exterior): 12:35:27 UT Second contact (ingress, interior): 12:37:08 UT Greatest transit: 15:19:48 UT Third contact (egress, interior): 18:02:33 UT Fourth contact (egress, exterior): 18:04:14 UT

For further reading, more info, times in different time zones, video, pictures: https://earthsky.org/tonight/transit-of-mercury-on-november-11-2019

Photo at top: Mercury transit, May 9, 2016 via @altair_astro on Twitter.

The entire November 11, 2019, transit is visible from South America, eastern North America, and far-western Africa. Image via Eclipsewise.

[santoschristos]

Alpha Bootis - Arcturus 4th Brightest star and Nearest Giant star to us.

Arcturus, or α Bootis, lights northern spring skies with a soft orange light. At magnitude -0.05, it the brightest star in the northern hemisphere, and is the fourth brightest star in the night sky (following only Sirius, Canopus, and Alpha Centauri). Arcturus, whose name means "Bear Watcher," follows the Great Bear, Ursa Major, around the pole. The Greek word for bear is "arktos", from which our word "arctic" is also derived, in reference to the northern polar constellations of the Greater and Lesser Bears.

Wide-field view around Arcturus. (Fred Espenak)

Properties At 37 light-years away, Arcturus is the closest giant star to Earth. Its light was used to open the 1933 Chicago World's Fair, as that light had left the star during the previous Chicago World's Fair in 1893. Arcturus is a classic orange class K1 III giant star with a surface temperature of 4290 K. In visible light, its luminosity is 113 times the Sun's. Because of its lower temperature, however, it radiates considerable energy in the infrared, and when this is taken into account, Arcturus' total luminosity is 215 times the Sun's. From this, we find its diameter to be 26 times solar. Arcturus is large and close enough that its angular diameter can easily be measured, at 0.0210". This provides a direct determination of its diameter (25 times the Sun's), which nicely confirms the other parameters.

Evolution As a giant, containing about 1.5 times the Sun's mass, Arcturus has ceased fusing hydrogen in its core. Though it is somewhat brighter than we would expect for a stable helium-fusing star, helium fusion to carbon has probably already begun. Such stars are not expected to have magnetic activity like our Sun, but very weak X-ray emission suggests that Arcturus indeed is magnetically active and has a "buried corona" hard to observe.

Arcturus compared in size to the Sun (at bottom left) and to other well-known stars.

It is believed that the surface of Arcturus oscillates slightly, a common feature of red giant stars.

Proper Motion Arcturus has a relatively large proper motion, and its position in the sky changes significantly over the centuries. It has moved over 1/2 degree in the past thousand years. Compared with the surrounding stars, whose orbits around the galactic center are more-or-less circular, Arcturus falls behind by about 100 km/sec. So do several others of the "Arcturus Group". This lagging movement suggests that the star comes from an older galactic population. Consistently, it is somewhat deficient in metals, having only about 20% as much iron relative to hydrogen as does the Sun. A more intriguing suggestion is that the star actually comes to us from a small galaxy that merged with ours some 5 to 8 billion years ago.

[reflet-de-la-lune]

La Voie Lactée en Arizona

Photographie de Fred Espenak

[openwatches-blog]

Watch this amazing video here: https://goo.gl/Cuz2vv