Astronomical Observatory FAU Observatory ![]() ![]() |
![]() Florida Atlantic University Astronomical Observatory
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![]() 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 23rd (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!
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.
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Check out: the Space Telescope Science Institute's Sky Tonightmovie at Amazing Space or to Sky & Telescope's This Week's Sky at a Glancepage. |
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What's Up in the Sky! |
Section updated: Sept. 1st, 2022 |
The Sun currently appears south of Leo the lion. It become a bauble for Virgo the maiden to play with on Sept. 17th. It shall stay with the maiden until it moves on to the Libra's hall of justice on Oct. 31st.
![]() Visual Sun |
![]() Link to current images of the Sun in Hα light goes to those provided by the |
From www.n3kl.org |
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Meteor Showers: |
Section updated: Sept. 1st, 2022. |
Note: compare shower dates with Moon for favorable viewing conditions; the fuller the Moon, the harder it will be to see the meteors!
Peak Night | Name | Radiant's Location | Source | Zero Hour Rate | Meteors' Velocity | Description | Conditions |
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Aug. 12-13th | Perseids | Perseus | comet 109P Swift-Tuttle | 100 | 59 km/s | fast, bright colorful meteors, may be double peaked | Full Moon will challenge |
~Sep. 1st | Aurigids | Auriga | C/1911 Kiess? | 6 | 66 km/s | fast, some bright meteors | Worth trying. |
~Sep. 9th | Epsilon Perseids | ε Perseus | ? | 5 | 64 km/s | fast, some bright meteors | Full Moon will challenge |
~Oct. 8 | Draconids | Draconis | comet 21P Giacobini-Zinner | var., 0-storm | 20 km/s | very slow, somewhat bright meteors | For the most patient. |
~Oct. 10 | Southern Taurids | Cetus-Pisces border, north of Riga | comet 2P Encke | 5 | 27 km/s | slow, brighter than average meteors | Ditto. |
Oct. 21-22 | Orionids | Orion, north of Betelguese | comet 1P Halley | 20 | 66 km/s | fast, brighter than average meteors | Go for it! |
Oct. 23-24 | Southern Taurids | southern Taurus | comet 2P Encke | 5 | 29 km/s | slowish, brighter than average meteors | Go for it! |
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.
Solar System Planets: |
Section updated: June 15th, 2022. |
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 17th. Pluto will stay in Sagittarius the archer's range until March 2023.
The image at the right shows locations of:
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FAU telescope astronomy space stars planets asteroids comets constellations star clusters nebula nova supernova Milky Way Andromeda Whirlpool galaxies Florida Atlantic University Public Observatory news college sky conditions light pollution Florida Palm Beach County Broward County Miami Dade County