RASC Hamilton

Bright Moon Points to Uranus
2024-12-12 00:00 (America/Toronto)
On Thursday night, December 12, the bright, nearly full moon will shine near the planet Uranus. Use binoculars (orange circle) to look for the medium-bright star Botein (Delta Arietis) shining below the moon. If you place Botein just at the upper edge of the binoculars’ field of view, Uranus will appear as a dull, blue-green “star” near the bottom of the field of view. Uranus is far easier to see without a bright moon nearby, so take note of Botein’s location with respect to the nearby bright Pleiades star cluster and return to Uranus on another night. In a dark sky, you can see the magnitude 5.7 planet without optical aid. A backyard telescope will reveal its tiny disk.

Mare Imbrium’s Golden Handle
2024-12-10 00:00
On Tuesday night, December 10, the terminator on the waxing gibbous moon will cross Sinus Iridum, the Bay of Rainbows. The circular 155 mile (249 km) diameter feature is a large impact crater that was flooded by the same basalts that filled the much larger Mare Imbrium to its east – forming a round bay encircled on the north and west by the prominent Montes Jura mountain range. The “Golden Handle” effect, produced when sunlight strikes the mountain peaks while the floor of the bay remains dark, will appear for observers in the Americas. With each passing hour, more of the mountains will become illuminated, brightening the handle.

First Quarter Moon
2024-12-08 15:27
The moon will complete the first quarter of its 29.53-day trip around Earth on Sunday, December 8 at 10:27 a.m. EST, 7:27 a.m. PST, and 15:27 GMT. At first quarter, the moon’s 90-degree angle from the sun causes us to see it half-illuminated on its eastern side. First quarter moons always rise around mid-day and set around midnight, so they are also visible in the afternoon daytime sky. The evenings surrounding first quarter are the best ones for seeing the lunar terrain when it is dramatically lit by low-angled sunlight, especially along the terminator, the pole-to-pole boundary that separates the moon’s lit and dark hemispheres.

Mars Enters Retrograde
2024-12-07 00:00
On Saturday, December 7, Mars’ easterly orbital motion through the stars of Cancer will slow to a stop in order for it to begin a westerly retrograde loop that will last through its mid-January opposition and into late February. Tonight the bright, reddish dot of Mars will be positioned in the eastern evening sky in Cancer, just above the large Beehive Cluster and below the bright “twin” stars of Gemini, Castor and Pollux. Over the coming weeks, you can watch Mars travel upwards (celestial west) towards those stars. Retrograde loops occur when Earth, on a faster orbit closer to the sun, passes more distant solar system objects “on the inside track”, making them appear to move backwards across the stars for a while. Mars’ loop will cover almost two fist widths, or 19 degrees of the celestial sphere.

Jupiter at Opposition
2024-12-07 00:00
On Saturday, December 7, Jupiter will reach opposition while it gleams brightly between the horns of Taurus and a palm’s width to the left (or 7.5 degrees to the celestial northeast) of the bright star Aldebaran. At opposition, planets rise in the east at sunset and cross the sky all night long before setting in the west at sunrise. Jupiter will be at its minimum distance from Earth for this year of 380.1 million miles (611.8 million km) or 34 light-minutes, boosting its brilliance to magnitude -2.8. Viewed in a telescope, the planet will display a generous, 48.2 arc-seconds-wide disk striped with brown equatorial bands. Around opposition, Jupiter and its four large Galilean satellites frequently eclipse and occult one another, and cast their round, black shadows on the planet – singly and in pairs. The Great Red Spot will cross the planet’s disk for a few hours on every second or third night.

Moon Moves Past Saturn
2024-12-07 00:00
On Saturday evening, December 7 in the Americas, the waxing crescent moon will shine a palm’s width to the lower right (or celestial west) of Saturn. The pair will be due south after dusk and then set in the west around 11 p.m. local time. On Sunday night, the half-illuminated first quarter moon will hop east to shine to Saturn’s upper left. In the interim, observers located in a zone extending from eastern Indonesia and the Philippines, and northeast across most of Japan to the Aleutian Islands can see the moon occult Saturn on Sunday evening. Use an app like Starry Night or Sky Safari to look up the occultation timings for a specific location.

Hamilton Center Social
2024-12-05 20:00 - 22:00
Hamilton RASC will be hosting an open-to-all in-person meeting at the Waterdown Legion.

The highlight of the evening is typically a guest speaker, sometimes a professor or grad student and other times a Centre member. Topics range from serious science to fun and quirky topics, along with DIY demos.
Most meetings also include other presentations such as:

– What’s Up (in the sky) This Month – Highlights of the best objects to observe during the coming month.– Equipment Tips and Tricks – Equipment recommendations, do-it-yourself projects, show & tell.– Loan Library – borrow books and equipment from the club for up to a month!– Constellation of the Month.. history, interesting facts, objects that can be seen in that part of the sky with a telescope or binoculars.

You can also join via Zoom:https://us06web.zoom.us/j/83472980505

If you are coming in person – some members also head to one of the restaurants close by to socialize afterwards. Come join us!

Lunar Crater Piccolomini
2024-12-05 00:00
On Thursday evening, December 5, the curved terminator on the moon will fall just to the left (or lunar west) of ancient Mare Nectaris, the dark and roughly circular patch located just south of the moon’s equator. A prominent crater named Piccolomini is located in the lunar highlands a small distance to the lower left of Nectaris. The 55 miles (88 km) wide crater has a sharp rim and a tall central mountain peak. A backyard telescope will show that the central peak is complex and that the crater’s inner walls have collapsed to form terraces. Watch for the curved escarpment named Rupes Altai extending to the upper left (or lunar northwest) from Piccolomini. Piccolomini and Nectaris are highlighted every lunar month when the waxing moon is about 5 days past new and again when the waning moon is approaching third quarter.

Crescent Moon Shines near Venus
2024-12-04 00:00
As the sky is darkening after sunset on Wednesday, December 4, look low in the western sky to see the pretty, waxing crescent moon shining several finger widths below (or several degrees to the celestial south of) the brilliant planet Venus. The pair will share the view in binoculars and will make a pretty photo until they drop into the trees around 6:30 p.m. local time.

The Double Cluster
2024-12-03 00:00
The northeastern sky on December evenings hosts the bright constellations of Perseus and W-shaped Cassiopeia, with the very bright yellowish star Capella gleaming below them. The sky between Perseus and Cassiopeia hosts the Double Cluster, a pair of bright open star clusters that together cover a finger’s width of the sky. They make a spectacular sight in binoculars or through a telescope at low magnification. The higher (more westerly) cluster, designated NGC 869, is dense and contains more than 200 white and blue-white stars. The lower (easterly) cluster NGC 884 is looser and includes a handful of 8th magnitude golden stars surrounded by many fainter ones. The clusters, which formed in the same part of the Perseus Arm of the Milky Way galaxy, are about 7,300 light-years away from us. They would be even brighter if they weren’t being dimmed by opaque dust in the galactic plane.

Mars Buzzes the Beehive
2024-12-02 00:00
As December begins, the bright reddish planet Mars will be shining just above (or celestial north of) the large open star cluster in Cancer known as the Beehive, Praesepe, and Messier 44. Mars and the stellar “bees”, which will be scattered across an area more than twice the size of a full moon, will fit into the field of view in binoculars for several weeks. The planet will be closest to the cluster from Sunday to Friday and then increasingly farther above the cluster on the subsequent nights.

New Moon
2024-12-01 06:21
The moon will reach its new phase on Sunday, December 1 at 1:21 a.m. EST or 06:21 GMT, which converts to 10:21 p.m. PST on Saturday. At that time our natural satellite will be located within Scorpius and 4.5 degrees south of the sun. While it’s new, the moon is travelling between Earth and the sun. Since sunlight can only reach the far side of the moon, and the moon is in the same region of the sky as the sun, the moon becomes unobservable from anywhere on Earth for about a day (except during a solar eclipse). On the evenings following the new moon phase, Earth’s planetary partner will return to shine in the western sky after sunset.

Crescent Moon Covers Spica (pre-dawn)
2024-11-27 05:00 - 07:00
For observers located in a zone covering most of the eastern continental USA and Canada, the old, waning crescent moon will pass in front of (or occult) Virgo’s brightest star, Spica shortly after it has cleared the trees in the east on Wednesday morning, November 27 before sunrise. Use an app like Starry Night to look up the times for the occultation. In New York City, Spica will disappear behind the moon’s lit crescent at about 5:35 a.m. EST. The star will pop into view from behind the dark limb of the moon in a brightening sky around 6:50 a.m. EST. Lunar occultations are safe to view you’re your unaided eyes. Binoculars or any size of telescope will show it best. Start watching a few minutes before each stage of the event.

The Double Cluster (all night)
2024-11-22 18:00 - 2024-11-23 05:00
The northeastern sky on November evenings hosts the bright constellations of Perseus and W-shaped Cassiopeia, with the very bright star Capella positioned well below them. The sky between Perseus and Cassiopeia hosts the Double Cluster, a pair of bright open star clusters that together cover a finger’s width of the sky. They make a spectacular sight in binoculars (orange circle) or a telescope at low magnification. The higher (more westerly) cluster, designated NGC 869, is dense and contains more than 200 white and blue-white stars. The lower (easterly) cluster NGC 884 is looser and includes a handful of 8th magnitude golden stars. The clusters, which both formed in the same part of the Perseus Arm of the Milky Way galaxy, are about 7,300 light-years away from us. The clusters would be even brighter if they weren’t being dimmed by opaque dust in the galactic plane.

Moonlight Tolerant Stars (evening)
2024-11-21 18:00 - 2024-11-22 00:00
Only the brightest stars are visible to our unaided eyes on moonlight-flooded nights. Early on Thursday evening, November 21, the very bright star Vega in the constellation of Lyra the Harp will be descending the western sky. At magnitude 0.0, it’s the 5th brightest star in the entire sky (not counting our sun). The star Altair in Aquila the Eagle shining several fist diameters to Vega’s left has a magnitude value of 0.75, making it the 13th brightest star. Deneb in Cygnus the Swan will be located above and between the other two, rounding out the trio of hot white stars that form the Summer Triangle asterism. At magnitude 1.25, Deneb ranks 20th in brightness. Observers with a very low southwestern horizon might be able to see Fomalhaut, ranked 18th, in Piscis Austrinus the Southern Fish. Over in the east, very bright yellowish Capella (ranked 6th) in Auriga will be shining to the upper left of reddish Aldebaran (ranked 14th), marking the eye of Taurus the Bull.
