Florida Atlantic University Astronomical Observatory
FAU Observatory -- Front Page

Welcome to the Observatory's Front Page. Included here are some of the latest news and articles that may be of interest to our visitors. General observatory information, such as location and maps, viewing schedules, Events Calendar, contact information, student class credits, directions, parking and other general information, can be found on the "About the Observatory" page.

We also have a growing coverage about the issue of light pollution, what it is, what it does to the environment, to ourselves, to our wallets and resources, to our security and safety, to the majestic wonders of the night sky and what YOU can do about it. This is a man made problem that is prepetuated by a lack of awareness and is something that we all can correct.

The Front Page

The Front Page currently covers: News of the Observatory: - General Sky Conditions What's Up in the Sky Jupiter's 2022 Perihelion Opposition to the Sun -- Sept. 2022 May 9th - Biggest Quake Ever Recorded on MARS! James Turrell Completed his Roden Crater Project! Circadian and Melatonin Disruption by Exposure to Light at Night Drives Intrinsic Resistance to Tamoxifen Therapy in Breast Cancer Melatonin May Lower Prostate Cancer Risk Urinary melatonin levels, sleep disruption, and risk of prostate cancer Electricity Cost of Wasted Outdoor Lighting, United States - 2012 Artificial light puts ecosystem services of frugivorous bats at risk. Can You Identify This Image?

Sevinç and Cub Scout seeking strange, new worlds!

Jupiter's Perihelion Opposition to the Sun -- Sept. 23^rd, 2022

On the evening of Friday the 23^rd of September, FAU's Astronomical Observatory will be celebrating Jupiter's Perihelion Opposition to the Sun. This is a FREE, public viewing, open dome event to come together and explore the king of the planets, JUPITER.

Date: Friday Sept. 23th - Saturday Sept. 24th 2022.   Time: 7:00 pm until 2:00 am. Activities: Presentations about Jupiter, its moons and Juno, the next planetary probe mission to Jupiter, plus observations of the Jupiter system! Details: On Sept. 26th at 1912 EDT, the Earth will have moved in its orbit to perfectly place the planet Jupiter at the sky's opposition to the Sun. This means that outer planet will appear to be in the directly opposite direction of the sky from as the Sun, hence the name of "opposition". This happens when the Earth gets directly in line between the outer planet and the Sun. Such perfect celestial alignments are called a syzygies. Not only is this a decent Scrabble word to have command of (worth 24 points) if you can pull it off, but it also means that we'll be as close as we can be to the planet for this orbital pass and providing us the best telescopic views of the planet for the year! I've already been getting inquiries and calls about how bright it appears in the sky.

Image Courtesy of the Juno mission, NASA/JPL-Caltech

BUT this year's opposition occurs in September, which lines up with the part of Jupiter's orbit when it reaches its "perihelion" or the closest position in its orbit to the Sun. Many people may still think that orbits are circular, but Kepler proved otherwise by learning that they orbit in ellipses back in 1609. (Perhaps they missed his memo.) Our normal approaches to Jupiter's perihelion oppositions happen every 12 years.

The views are already quite large now, even its moons look like little balls instead of just dots in the scope.

But the 26th is the start of the work and school week, and its moons will appear far to its sides and hard to take it all in. However on Friday the 23^rd (not much difference in distance then), its moon Io will cross in front of it over the course of the evening (so you can witness celestial mechanics for yourself!) AND we'll be treated to Jupiter's famous Great Red Spot, an anticyclonic storm bigger than the Earth that has swirled upon its surface for over 350 years now! How you may ask? Well, Jupiter has no state of Florida for the storm to collide into!

Presentations: The presentation that will talk about Jupiter and its moons, will lead into a discussion about the Formation of the Solar System and the problems with the formation theory, discuss some of the newer exciting theories coming around, including the new theorized planet nine that lurks far off in the solar system and almost in the Oort cloud and finally talk about NASA's Juno spacecraft, which may help not only answer some of these questions but even give us more clues about the formation of our own home planet.

So you are welcome to come to the Observatory to celebrate and observe the planet at its perihelion opposition with us, while pondering some of the astronomical mysteries, such as how did our planets come to exist, that are connected with the event. This invitation is open to anyone from FAU, the community, their friends and family to come and enjoy.

After all, it is all of our universe, too!

General Sky Conditions

Solar conditions, atmospheric phenomena and news are reported by www.SpaceWeather.com.

The current sky conditions of Boca Raton are found via the Clear Sky Clock:
And some details as to what this means is mentioned in the Visiting Tips section of the About the Observatory page.

Basic weather conditions for our area are at www.wunderground.com forecast for Boca Raton, while our astronomically important current cloud cover conditions can be found at www.wunderground.com for Boca Raton.

Check out: the Space Telescope Science Institute's Sky Tonight movie at Amazing Space or to Sky & Telescope's This Week's Sky at a Glance page.

The Sun Today:

The Sun currently appears south of Leo the lion. It become a bauble for Virgo the maiden to play with on Sept. 17^th. It shall stay with the maiden until it moves on to the Libra's hall of justice on Oct. 31^st.

Visual Sun is provided by SDO/MDI of ESA & NASA

Link to current images of the Sun in Hα light goes to those provided by the National Solar Observatory/AURA/NSF www.nso.edu

Solar X-rays: Geomag. Field:   From www.n3kl.org To NOAA's Space Weather Scales for Geomagnetic Storms

Lunar Phases:

moon info

New Moon Aug. 27th 1st Qtr. Moon Sep. 3rd Full Moon Sep. 10th Last Qtr. Moon Sep. 17th New Moon Sep. 25th 1st Qtr. Moon Oct. 3rd Full Moon Oct. 10th Last Qtr. Moon Oct. 17st New Moon Oct. 25th Part. Sol. Eclipse, for Europe, ne Africa, Mid East, w Asia

Note: compare shower dates with Moon for favorable viewing conditions; the fuller the Moon, the harder it will be to see the meteors!

Viewing Tips: Find a decent location away from obstructive lights in night, especially avoid bluish-white lights that so impact your nightvision capabilities which you'll need to see the fainter meteors! The meteors are generally heaviest in the wee hours of the morning as then we'll be in front of the Earth as it plows it way through the debris trail. You'll want a clear and unobstructed view of the sky as you can find as the meteors will appear to travel across the entire sky. It is this is reason that an observatory, like FAU's, is a poor choice to go to observe a meteor shower. An even worse place to go would be a cave! In South Florida, I often advise folks to try the beach, though please be VERY careful during sea turtle season! Egg nests or little hatchlings can be easily crushed by clumsy feet. Use only red LED flashlights if you go to the beach to not only avoid stepping on these reptiles, but the color also protects your night vision (and of course your night time circadian rhythm, too) so that you can see the show. Bring a blanket, use bug spray, get comfortable and enjoy the view!

Additional details about meteors, showers or to REPORT your own fireball observations should be done via http://amsmeteors.org.

Little Mercury is found in Taurus the bull just east of the Pleiades and west of the Hyades in its direct motion. On July 6th, Mercury will finally exit Taurus and go travel through the playground of the Gemini twins. If you can get up on June 26th, you'll see it, Venus and a very thin cresent Moon all together that morning. Mercury will hide beyond the Sun at its superior conjunction on the 16th of July. After that, it flips back to the western twilight sky.

Venus will soon enter the pasture of Taurus the bull on June 17th. A month later, it will enter into the Twins's playground and then on to the tide pool of Cancer the crab on Aug. 10th. It will slowly get lower and lower as the year progresses as it will be on the far side of the solar system at 1.59 au away and appear closer to the eastern horizon. And get lower still by Aug. 27th, as it enters the realm of Leo the lion and be 1.64e au away. While it may become harder to see depending on how clear your eastern horizon is, it is worth a try.

For as Venus will be on the far side of the Sun, what observers will see of it through a telescope will be a "full phase", like a full Moon, of its surface. It was this type of observation that Galileo made years ago that was the crucial piece of evidence he needed to prove that the Earth was NOT the center of the universe. Because the only way we can clearly see such a phase of Venus is if it was beyond the Sun and not orbiting only some midpoint between the Earth and the Sun, like how Ptolemy had once declared. Galileo pointed out that if Ptolemy was correct, and not Copernicus, then all we could ever see through a telescope would be a crescent phase of Venus, as we would always be looking mostly at its nightside as Ptolemy thought it could only exist between us and the Sun.

Venus will reach superior conjuction with the Sun on Oct. 17th, then be 1.71 au away from us and beyond the Sun as it will later appear on the flip side of the night and begin appearing in the western twilight sky by November.

Planets of the Eastern morning sky 2022 May 10.

How do you know what you are looking at is a planet? Well a simple check is to see if it twinkles. Stars twinkle, planets don't. Stars higher in the sky twinkle less, however, the closer they are to the horizon, the more twinkle they appear to do. While planets, like Venus, will appear to be a steady light source. As of May 2022, Venus is moving to the far side of the solar system, so through a telescope, expect it to show a waxing gibbous phase (more than half of it appears lit to us and shaped like an oval). Though it is getting further away, its high albedo (much like white paper, it has a high ratio of reflected light to what it receives) is why it appears so brightly.

NASA reported the biggest quake ever recorded on another planet, the planet MARS! It registered 5.0 on the Richter scale and was recorded with its Insight seismometer on May 4th. Which luckily came to it before it will have to shut down the monitoring station due to the amount of dust collecting on its solar panels, depriving it of the necessary light energy needed to run its instruments. Still, the station and its seismometer lasts twice as long as they were engineered to do! So well done there! Jump from here to read more about it on NASA's JPL pages.

If you are looking for Mars, the active old warrior appears in the early morning skies marching eastwards in the constellation of Pisces the fish. On June 22nd, the waning crescent Moon will pass it by. Mars will march on through Aries the ram's pastures on July 9th, and will get passed by the waning crescent Moon again, but mostly in the daylight hourse. Mars will then confront Taurus the bull on Aug. the 10th and try to dash across his pasture! . But by Oct. 31st, Mars will begin traveling westward in his retrograde retreat. As he does so, the planet will appear brighter and brighter until it reaches its opposition to the Sun on Dec. 7th.

Jupiter, the jovial king of the sky is retrograding in the constellation Pisces. This will be particularly interesting retrograde to watch for on Sept. 26th, Jupiter will reach opposition to the Sun. This will NOT be an ordinary opposition, though, because it will occur when Jupiter is near its perihelion. Meaning that Jupiter will be only 3.9525 au away from us that night and so be closer to us than it will be again for the next 12 years!! Views of it through the telescope will be great to see and we will be holding an event for it then. On the 26th, Jupiter's moons will be far to its side and be hard to appreciate in the telescope. However, at least on the 23rd, Io will pass in front of the giant planet, this will help show its celestial motions AND we'll get to spy its Great Red Spot too then. More details above.

Saturn appears in Capricorn, prograding through the sea goat. It will stay with the goat for the rest of the year. On Aug. 15th, it will be at opposition and only 8.8569 au away from us and have an apparent magnitude of 0.28, almost rivaling of what we see of the star Vega.

Uranus is currently in Aries the Ram's meadow, north of what I consider to be the fluke of Cetus. Traditionally, that part was seen as the "sea monster's head" and the southern part, its body. Yet, if you turn around the thinking, the constellation of Cetus actually looks like its name. For "Cetus" is where we get the word "Cetacea", which is the order of marine mammals, such as whales. To me, the northern part is like the fluke, while the southern part is body, head and mouth of the whale, just like a humpback or blue whale. Uranus will be with Aries until near the end of May 2024.

Neptune is in his element straddling between the border of Aqurius and Pisces and will stay around that area for the rest of the year.

Dwarf planet Pluto appears in the northeastern corner of Sagittarius, not near any bright star. Its opposition is July the 17^th. Pluto will stay in Sagittarius the archer's range until March 2023.

Can You Identify This Image?

The image at the right shows locations of: southeast U.S. cities seen at night from space. inefficiently used energy resources and tax dollars continuously squandered by local city planners. local populations who are losing their humbling sense of wonder and awe of the night sky's majesty. increased, widespread disruptions to the local natural environment. projected increases of health problems in the local populations. all of the above.

Image Credit: NASA, ISS Expedition 26, Dec. 2010.