[AstroNet] Planetarium: Planets and (possibly) shooting stars early Wednesday morning

Tue Apr 21 10:33:31 SAST 2009

Great Venus + Moon + Mars triangle in the early-morning sky
Get outside before dawn on election day (Wednesday 22 April) for a nice
sight: 
Over in the east (where the Sun rises) you'll see the old crescent Moon.
Below the Moon is the incredibly bright "morning star" - the planet
Venus.  To the right of Venus, Mars will be clearly visible.
High up in the sky, quite far above the Moon, the other very bright
"star" is Jupiter. 

Best time to see this is while the sky is still dark - from about 4:30am
to 5:45am if you're in Jhb; 5:15am to 6:30am for Cape Town.

Lyrid Meteors - early morning, 22 April
If you're out any time between 2am and dawn on Wednesday morning, you
may also see one or two "shooting stars" (meteors) from the annual Lyrid
meteor shower.  "Shooting stars" are grains of rock burning up as they
hit the Earth's atmosphere at high speed.  The Lyrids are due to the
Earth hitting the stream of dust from Comet Thatcher at about 180,000
km/hr.  The meteors are fast, and not much is know about the dust stream
- we could see one or two, or maybe more.  
To look for these meteors: just look roughly north, about half way up in
the sky.  Don't use binoculars or a telescope - they limit your view.

Election Day Special: look for Venus during the day!
Keep an eye on the Moon after sunrise, on the morning of April 22nd.  If
you look carefully on the sunward-side of the Moon (the lit-up side),
you should still see Venus.  During the course of the day, the Moon will
move slightly closer to Venus - in the early morning, it will be about
two finger-widths from Venus.  Later in the afternoon, the Moon will be
about one finger-width from Venus.

Things you need to know to watch this:
* the Moon, Venus and the Sun appear to move westwards as the Earth
spins eastwards - the Moon and Venus will be about one-and-a-half hands
ahead (to the west) of the Sun all day;
* be careful not to look directly at the Sun while trying this - it will
damage your eyes; best is to stand in the shade while looking;
* absolutely do not even think of using binoculars or a telescope to
look at Venus during the day - the danger of accidentally looking at the
Sun is too great.

Seeing Venus during the day
We would see Venus in daylight more often, except for two problems:
* it's very difficult to locate it in the huge empty bright blue sky
* it's difficult to get your eyes to focus on that distance
Having the Moon near Venus solves both these problems - find the Moon
and then look for Venus near it, and once you've spotted the Moon, your
eyes are focussed on the right distance.

Scopex - Saturday 30th May 
The Astronomical Society of Southern Africa (Jhb branch) holds its
annual Astronomy Fair at the Military History Museum (behind the Jhb
Zoo) on May 30th this year.  The event features talks and
telescope-making and rocket displays through the day, and a star party
in the evening.  More details at www.scopex.co.za
<http://www.scopex.co.za/> 

THE PLANETARIUM WILL BE CLOSED ON SATURDAY 30TH MAY

Sky Tonight at the Planetarium
The Southern Cross is visible all night at this time of the year, and
our regular Thursday (7pm) and Friday (8pm) "Sky Tonight" show now takes
a tour around this and some of the lesser known constellations of the
far southern sky.

"Shrouds of the Night" - a presentation by Prof David Block
At the Walter Sisulu National Botanical Garden - Fri 1st May.
More info at www.sanbi.org

Speak to the Scientist - featuring Dr Adrian Tiplady of the SA SKA
Office
Sci-Bono [Newtown, Jhb]   - Thu 23rd April
More info at www.sci-bono.co.za <http://www.sci-bono.co.za/> 

We know that we know (almost) nothing: Cosmology after 1995   [Bruce
Bassett, UCT]
Public lecture at the South African Astronomical Observatory (Cape Town)
- 25th April 
More info at www.saao.ac.za   under "Public Lecture Series 2009"

Claire Flanagan
Jhb Planetarium, Wits University
www.planetarium.co.za
011-717-1390
info.planet at wits.ac.za

<html><p><font face = "verdana" size = "0.8" color = "navy">This communication is intended for the addressee only. It is confidential. If you have received this communication in error, please notify us immediately and destroy the original message. You may not copy or disseminate this communication without the permission of the University. Only authorized signatories are competent to enter into agreements on behalf of the University and recipients are thus advised that the content of this message may not be legally binding on the University and may contain the personal views and opinions of the author, which are not necessarily the views and opinions of The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. All agreements between the University and outsiders are subject to South African Law unless the University agrees in writing to the contrary.</font></p></html>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mail.saasta.ac.za/pipermail/astronet/attachments/20090421/3ab7045b/attachment.html>