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C/2020 F3 Neowise is now an Evening comet

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Comet Neowise is now a evening comet. Now you can get your entire family to see it because nobody apart from you wanted to get up early at 3 am!

The comet is visible at dusk, after sundown from 8:30 ish looking North by North-West. So all you need is unobstructed view looking North, clear skies and low light pollution.

If you live in Delhi, good luck with that.

skyhound.com published a nice star chart that shows the daily progression of Comet Neowise through the night sky. The chart shows the comet’s path from July 2nd 2020 to July 31st 2020

https://cometchasing.skyhound.com/comets/2020_F3.pdf

Clear Skies

V

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Comet neowise C/2020 F3

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Comet neowise is the latest attraction of the night sky. Rather it is the latest attraction of the morning sky.

To watch it, wake up around 4 am look east/north-east just before daybreak, the comet is currently just outside the constellation Auriga. Its easily visible to the naked eye at an outstanding magnitude of 3.

But you must hurry, because its hurling towards the sun at a very high speed and may not be visible in a few days when its completely overwhelmed by the sun

Comet Neowise C/2020 F3, image taken by V. Parkash, Minnesota, USA
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Discussion on Messier objects

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On Sunday March 15th 2020, a discussion will be carried out in the sky theatre of Nehru Planetarium, New Delhi about Messier objects. Please find the details in the poster below.

Messier objects are the most sought after objects for amateur astronomers and form a list called Messier’s Object List. The list was created by French Astronomer and comet hunter Charles Messier during the mid 1700s. The objects are widely observed and every year in March, the amateur astronomers participate in an event known as Messier Marathon which is a fun night of locating all 110 objects in one night using a manual telescope.

The list consists of all kind of objects, from double stars to Supernova remnant. Different kind of star clusters, nebulae and galaxies comprise this list. It is fun and exciting to see the objects in one night and there is plenty to learn about them.

The session will start from 10:00 AM and will continue till about 11:20 in the sky theatre. Following this, a small interaction will be carried out to discuss further. Attendance is “Free of cost” and it is “Open to all”. For any queries, kindly drop a message at +91-9560338860 for Sneh.

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Sky theater session at nehru Planetarium, 16.01.2020

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Greetings! Nehru Planetarium, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, is providing an opportunity for students to attend a sky theater Astronomy session at the planetarium, on Thursday, the 16th of January 2020, at 5 PM. The session will have discussions “under the stars” inside the sky theater, and would cover basic positional Astronomy onwards to glimpses of cutting edge multiwavelength/multimessenger Astronomy where we are now poised in our understanding of the Universe. The discussions will be for basic awareness. We request you to bring this to the notice of students. They can send a mail to nehruplanetarium@gmail.com and be there at the planetarium by 5 PM on the 16th.

Interested students are also urged to see the website http://vigyansamagam.in/ to know about some of the cutting edge mega projects in Astronomy. Students can register as volunteers at https://bit.ly/2ufCViz . Some students may have already registered as a potential volunteer in an exciting exhibition in this connection, which will be at the National Science Center, Delhi from the 21st of January to the 18th of March 2020. This will be a tremendous learning opportunity to the students, if selected for volunteering for any of the megaprojects.

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Universe in the Dome Sunday, 12.01.2020

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Dear Astro Enthusiast,

Nehru Planetarium, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, invites you to a half day sky theatre Astronomy session at the planetarium, on Sunday, the 12th of January 2020, from 9:30 – 11:30 AM. The session will have discussions “Under the Stars” inside the sky theatre, and would cover basic positional Astronomy onwards to glimpses of cutting edge multi-wavelength/multi-messenger astronomy where we are now poised in our understanding of the Universe. The discussions will be for basic awareness. Please send a mail to nehruplanetarium@gmail.com and be there at the planetarium by 9:15 AM on the 12th.

Interested students and visitors are urged to see the website http://vigyansamagam.in/ to know about some of the cutting edge mega projects in Astronomy. Students should also register on the site (if not done already), if they wish to be a volunteer in an exciting exhibition in this connection, which will be at the National Science Center, Delhi from the 21st of January to the 18th of March 2020. This will be a tremendous learning opportunity to the students, if selected for volunteering for any of the megaprojects.

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Astronomy Night observation for the coming weekend Sept. 2018

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Dear All,

The monsoon the receding and the season for stargazing is about to start. I would like to propose a night observation on the upcoming weekend Sept 15 (Saturday) at a campsite near Tijara. Rajasthan. We have conducted three such observations here in the past and the sky has been very supportive combined with rural skies which gives a limiting magnitude of 5.5 visually. You are welcome to bring your family and friends to enjoy the fist stargazing of the season.

The place is located about 75 KM from gurgaon and 110 KM from delhi. It is located 10KM off the Delhi – Alwar highway which makes it an optimum place within the driving distance from Delhi NCR. In last 3 observations organised, there have been 25-30 members participating each time. Age group of participants have been between 13 and 85 years.

The weekend of September 15 will show Moon, 4 planets, summer milky way along with plenty of DSOs in the evening whereas late in the night, winter constellations will show up making it a perfect setting for stargazers. We may also get to see the fading comet 21P/Giacobini–Zinner as it will be at its closest and brightest tonight.

The venue, a campsite used by my company for astronomy observations for school kids is absolutely safe with boundary wall, dark skies, tented accommodations, evening and mid night snacks along with dinner and breakfast. Tea coffee shall be provided in the evening and near mid night for us to keep going. Tents are provided for people driving their own vehicle to snooze for a couple of hours so that they are well rested and can hit the road in the morning. All you need to do is to pay Rs 1,850/- per person to avail the facilities and enjoy the night sky.

The weather seems promising with clear skies over the weekend. Temperature is expected to be between 22 and 34 degrees. Warm clothes are advised to be carried for the night. Carry your telescopes, cameras, star maps and any other thing you may require to explore the night sky.

Those of you interested in joining me can contact me at +91-9560338860 or simply reply to this email with your confirmation.

Hope to see many of you next weekend.

Clear skies
Sneh Kesari

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Amazing Picture of the Day 6/6/2016

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courtesy: Wikimedia Commons
volcanic euruption on Io seen from NASA’s New Horizons probe

Check out Tvashtar volcano on Io seen spewing molten material into space, as seen from New Horizons probe in 2007. Io experiences massive tidal forces from Jupiter’s gravity and this kind of volcanic eruption is not uncommon for Jovian moons. For a sense of scale, the volcanic plume is about 330 Km in altitude. New Horizon was built by John Hopkins Applied Phyisics Lab for a mission to Pluto. This photo was taken when it flew past Jupiter for a slingshot course correction towards Pluto.

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Gear Up for Perseids Meteor Shower

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Mark your calendar

The perseids meteor shower peaks on Aug 13th 2015 this year. The best part is there is no moon this time to spoil the show. But wait we live in Delhi, there is always the rains .. which might get the gold medal for this year’s spoilsport, followed by smog which might manage to get a silver. Pfooey!!. Forget what I said. Good things happen to optimistic people. Get out there and enjoy nature’s finest light show.

For the un-initiated, the Perseid meteor shower originates from the debris field of Comet 109P/Swift Tuttle, which visited us in 1992 and will do so again in 2125 when it may potentially slam into us. Nah I am not losing sleep over it. I leave the worrying to the next generation.

Its expected that you might to get see 80 meteor per hr ( ZHR ), which is pretty good. Perseids are called so because they seem to radiate from the constellation Perseus. Hence the name. The radiant ( the imaginary point where the meteors shoot out from ) of the Perseid meteor shower is at around right ascension 02h20m, declination +58°, All of the meteors will appear to be traveling directly outward from this point. The best place to look to see as many meteors as possible is not at the radiant itself, but at any dark patch of sky which is around 90° away from it, since it is at a distance of around 90° from the radiant that meteors will typically appear at their brightest.

courtesy: sky and telescope
courtesy: sky and telescope

Observing Tips

1- Keep warm clothes and waterproofed clothing with you, it does get somewhat cold and damp at night
2- Keep company. Showers can sometimes not be too active as predicted. Its nice to have someone around to chat to till then
3- Contribute. You can time meteors and report them to IMO.
4- Observe from a safe and rural location if possible. City lights almost ruin everything.