Comet in the Morning Sky

There’s a pretty bright comet in the morning sky right now, with the poetic name of NEOWISE C/2020 F3. The NEOWISE satellite is the Near Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, a NASA satellite that looks for comets and asteroids that come close to Earth. NEOWISE finds so many new objects that they just get a serial number instead of a proper name. For the purposes of this article, we’ll just call the comet “Neo”.

“Neo” is a ball of ice and rock orbiting the Sun. It passed closest to the Sun on July 3, and all of the heat has melted some of the ice and blown the material back into a nice tail. It seems like this is the comet’s first trip through the inner solar system, and so we don’t know exactly how it will behave – often, first-time comets like this either don’t survive their close approach to the Sun, or they do but don’t brighten as much as we expect. Several recent comets have turned out to be duds after some initial rosy predictions, so it’s nice when things go the other way.

We should characterize what we mean when we say, “a pretty bright comet”. “Pretty bright” in this context means you should be able to spot it in binoculars or take a picture of it if you have a decent camera on a tripod. Most comets are only visible in a telescope, and the public don’t even hear about them.

As of July 7, 2020, “Neo” is visible in binoculars and the unaided eye, and sports a short tail that shows up in amateur photographs. It’s definitely the nicest comet we’ve had in several years.

Photo credit: Dr. Jennifer West, Dunlap Institute for Astronomy, University of Toronto

Sky charts created with Stellarium, a free astronomy software package available at http://stellarium.sourceforge.net.

First thing to do is to set your alarm early. For the next week, this is a morning object, visible in the northeast just before sunrise. Find a spot with a good, clear view of the northeastern sky, without any trees, buildings, or city lights to obstruct the view. You should aim to be at your observing site by about 4:30 am. BY about 5:00 am, the sky will have brightened too much to be able to spot the comet. So, you have a narrow window of opportunity. (It goes without saying, you also need a sky free of clouds or haze.)

Looking northeast, the first thing you’ll spot is the brilliant planet Venus. Venus outshines everything else in the sky except the Sun and Moon, so it’s pretty unmistakable. Just below Venus is a star called Aldebaran. If you can see Aldebaran in your binoculars, you should be able to glimpse the comet, too.

The comet is about the same “height” as Venus is above the horizon, and off to the left. Use the charts below and the bright star Capella as a signpost to try and triangulate on where the comet is. It moves from night to night, so make sure you’re using the correct map!

With your binoculars, sweep the sky in the general area of the comet. You’re looking for a fuzzy patch of light – the tail might not be visible to the eye. Once you spot it in binoculars, see if you can see it unaided. It may be challenging, or it may be amazing, depending on whether the comet flares up in brightness or fades away.

If you have a camera and tripod, you can use it to try and capture an image, even if you can’t see the comet visually. Turn off autofocus and manually set your focus to infinity, and try exposures ranging from 1 second to 6 seconds. You will need a tripod to hold the camera steady enough to get a decent image. It’s doubtful that the camera on your mobile device will be able to image the comet, although you never know. There are apps that allow you to take star pictures with your camera that might be useful to try. If you’re artistically inclined, you can draw or sketch the comet using pencil, charcoal, or even watercolours. We’d love to see your images!

International Astronomy Day is Saturday, May 2, 2020, and we’re celebrating with online programming and a virtual telescope party. See the schedule below.

Astronomy Day was founded in the 1973 as a day when professional and amateur astronomers around the world would bring the wonder of the universe to the public. Astronomy clubs, planetaria, science centres, and universities have traditionally run public events during the day, and telescope viewing parties at night. This year, things are moving online, and the Manitoba Museum is joining our colleagues across the country to getting people “looking up”.

We’ll be doing Facebook live events at the following times (you don’t need a Facebook account to view the events, but you would if you want to join in the chat). We’ll also  make the recorded video available through the Museum’s YouTube channel after the fact.

1:00 pm – 1:20 pm – Astronomy Day Kick-Off! Join Senior Planetarium Producer Scott Young for an introduction to skywatching. Discover what Astronomy Day is all about, and learn how you can find the stars and planets in the night sky.

3:30 pm – 3:50 pm – Make a Sky Clock (Hands-On Activity): Make your own Sky Clock to tell time at night using the Big Dipper. Click here to download the instructions and materials list.

4:30 pm – 5:00 pm – Q&A/Live Telescope Viewing of the Sun: See the sun live through the planetarium’s solar telescope, and ask all of your astronomy-related questions!

8:30 pm – 10:00 pm Live Telescope Party (Weather Permitting): Join us for close-up views of the sun, moon, and planet Venus. We’ll have live video views through a variety of telescopes, tour the visible constellations, and also watch for satellites and northern lights. (Note: this event requires clear skies; check the Facebook event page on Saturday morning for a forecast update!)

Stay up-to-date by joining the Manitoba Museum on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.

See you on Astronomy Day!

By Science Communicator Claire Woodbury

Welcome to spring! Or at least it’s supposed to be… astronomers tell us that spring in the northern hemisphere began on March 19, but with all this snow, it looks more like Winter 2.0. Why do seasons on the calendar not quite match up with seasons in the weather and why are we colder in winter anyway?

You probably know that the earth’s revolution around the sun causes the seasons. So here’s a question for everyone, when it’s winter in Manitoba, where is the earth in relation to the sun? Is it closer to the sun or farther away?

During a Manitoba winter, the earth is actually closer to the sun then in summer! Whaaaaat!? It is a common misconception that the earth is farther away from the sun in winter and closer to the sun in summer.

How does it work then? Well, it’s not about whether a planet is closer or farther from the sun, but whether it is tilted away or towards the sun.

This brings us back to our question, when does winter stop and start anyway?

The calendar says winter starts around December 21, the winter solstice. The winter solstice is when we have the least amount of daylight and therefore the shortest “day”. We get a short day because we are angled the farthest from the sun and the sun appears very low in the sky for only a few hours.

Here in Manitoba it feels like winter starts in October and goes through to March (or even to May!) Depending on where you live, the coldest part of the year doesn’t always fall directly when astronomical “winter” falls on the calendar. That’s because the calendars we use today are based on ones made in ancient Rome, which is surrounded by water. Water absorbs a lot of heat and releases it slowly, keeping temperatures very mild. In ancient Rome, the coldest part of the year really didn’t start until the Winter Solstice. Here in Manitoba we don’t have the moderating effect of the Mediterranean Sea, so we usually have more extreme differences between summer and winter.

For more fun with seasons see “Why Seasons Make No Sense” from PBS on YouTube:

To see what stars and planets are up in the sky during each season see the Astronomy blog for monthly Manitoba Skies updates.

Winnipeg residents have been reporting some unusual sightings in the night sky over the past few days. Bright star-like objects have been seen moving across the sky, following each other in a train. Sometimes half a dozen or more of them are visible at the same time. What are these?

Unfortunately, they won’t be “unusual” for very long. These are the StarLink satellites, launched by Elon Musk’s Space-X to deliver internet to remote corners of the globe. 60 satellites at a time are put up by the company’s Falcon-9 rocket, and they slowly spread out in a circle around the earth. For the first couple of weeks after launch, they are relatively close together, and all appear to travel in the same path across the sky. As of today, there are 362 of these satellites, but the plan is for 12,000 of them. As in, twice as many satellites as the number of stars you could see from a perfectly dark location.

And did we mention that each one is one of the brightest objects in the sky? They shine at about magnitude 1 or brighter, which means they’re brighter than the stars of the Big Dipper and as bright as the brighter stars. Only the planets and the moon, and maybe a few stars, will outshine a StarLink satellite.

It’s pretty easy to spot these satellites when they happen to be going over your town. Visit www.heavens-above.com and set it to your location, and you’ll get a list of all of the satellites visible that night. StarLink will make up a big chunk of that list. For example, from Winnipeg between 9:25 pm and 9:45 pm on Monday night, March 30, there will be 44 StarLink satellites visible (plus a few other satellites). The sky is getting to be a busy place!

StarLink has brought criticism from astronomers, who are already finding interference with the satellites getting into their field-of-view while trying to do science. Those concerned with the amount of space junk in orbit are also concerned, as none of these satellites has a re-entry plan and will just stay up there, cluttering orbit and posing a risk to any other satellites launched, including any attempts to send robots or humans to the other planets. We’re basically building a cage around the Earth, with StarLink satellites as the bars.

This month brings skywatchers a rare sight: a total eclipse of the red planet Mars by our Moon. The event is visible across much of North America, and is the only event of its kind all year.

As the Moon orbits our planet, it gets in the way of all sorts of other celestial objects that are farther away. When the moon blocks out the sun, we call it a solar eclipse, but a more general term is occultation. (“Occult” means “hidden”, so it makes sense. One object is hiding another.) The moon occults dozens of stars every month, but it’s fairly rare that things line up just right so that the Moon occults a planet. This month, we’ll see the thin crescent Moon occult Mars, early on the morning of Tuesday, February 18th. Here’s how to spot it yourself.

If you have a telescope, crank up the magnification as high as you can and you will be able to see Mars as a tiny disk, almost fully illuminated. At high power, you can watch the edge of the moon actually move across Mars over those 14 seconds. Eclipse should happen about 6:02 am Manitoba time, plus or minus a minute or so depending on where you are in the province.

Then it’s time to wait around for an hour or so, as the Moon continues its orbital motion and the earth continues its rotation. The moon will rise higher into the southern sky; the sky will brighten, and sunrise twilight will approach. But, about 7:19 am Manitoba time, Mars will begin to reappear from behind the dark edge of the moon, slowly fading in over the 14 seconds or so of the occultation.

If you have a telescope, you can probably take pictures of the event with your phone held up to the eyepiece. Post your images to the Manitoba Museum’s Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram accounts – we’d love to see them!

Thursday, November 20, 2019 may provide a rare meteor outburst – but only for a few minutes.

The annual Monocerotid meteor shower normally produces about 1 or 2 meteors per hour – and that’s if the sky is dark with no moon. It’s not something some skywatchers would even bother to put on the calendar. In the last couple of decades, however, astronomers have begun to understand meteor showers in more detail, and can predict when activity may pick up. This year, an outburst is predicted to occur at 10:50 p.m. Central Standard Time, and southern Manitoba is predicted to be cloud-free. So what’s going on?

A meteor (or shooting star, or falling star – they all mean the same thing) is caused when the Earth slams into a piece of interplanetary dust about the size of a grain of sand. Space isn’t totally empty – besides planets, and asteroids, and comets, there’s also smaller stuff, down to the size of microscopic dust particles. These tiny particles burn up when they hit the earth because they’re travelling at 40,000 km/h. Just the friction of passing through the air heats them up so much that they vaporize and create a trail of light that we can see from the ground. On a given night, you might see a half-dozen of these per hour if you watch the sky carefully from a dark location. Most of the time, we don’t notice these because we’re not watching the sky carefully, or nearby lights interfere and make it hard to see them.

So, one piece of dust = one meteor. It doesn’t take much of a logical leap to see that more dust means more meteors. If the earth goes through a big cloud of dust, a whole bunch of meteors will happen all on the same night. That is a meteor shower. Each year on the same night, Earth is in the same spot, and goes through the same dust bunny, creating an annual meteor shower.

Through careful analysis, astronomers have determined that the Moncerotid meteor shower has a very dense clump in it, that usually the earth just skims the edge of. But, as gravity adjusts the particles each time the Earth goes by, things change, and so this year we’re expected to hit the dense clump head-on.

For the best view, you want to dress up warm, and head out of the city to a dark location. Bring a reclining lawn chair or something so you can lean back and look at at the whole sky at once. (Try to stay off the ground, which will suck heat out of you and make you cold very quickly.) Point your feet generally southeast (towards Orion the hunter, if you know your constellations) and look straight up. Don’t look at your phone, because even a quick peek will kill your night vision and maybe make you miss the whole thing.

The time is somewhat uncertain, so be prepared to stay outside in Manitoba November night temperatures for a couple of hours. I’m going to start watching about 10pm and watch until midnight (or until t happens).

Short answer: we won’t know for sure until it happens. But, if the prediction is correct, you’ll see the stars at first. Orion will be visible in the south, and other constellations of the winter sky as well. The brightest star in the sky, Sirius, will be just rising below Orion.  Farther left (almost due east) is another bright star, Procyon. Occasionally, you will see a shooting star flash through your field of view. As the time gets closer, you’ll see meteors more often, and the interval between them will shrink. One every 5 minutes, then 1 every couple of minutes… then two or three a minute. If you trace them backwards, they all seem to radiate from a point near Procyon. If the prediction pans out, at the peak you might be seeing 5-10 meteors per minute for several minutes around 10:50 p.m. Then, the rate will subside, back to a couple a minute, and then one every few minuets, and then back to one every 10 minutes or so.

Or, maybe nothing will happen – the Earth might miss the dust bunny completely.

Or… maybe the dust bunny is even denser than we thought, and we’ll see even more meteors than predicted. Who knows?

For more information on this shower, visit the International Meteor Organization’s page. You can also find info there on how to count meteors and contribute to the science of understanding these rare and unpredictable natural spectacles.

by Claire Woodbury, Science Communicator

“Once upon a time there was a beautiful and talented weaver, the daughter of the Sky King. She met and fell in love with a handsome and skilled herdsman. They were so devoted to each other that they neglected all else. The weaver stopped weaving and the herdsmen let his animals wander all over the place. The Sky King didn’t approve of this behaviour, and separated the lovers on either side of the heavenly river. His daughter was heartbroken and despondent so the Sky King relented and allowed the couple to meet, but only once a year. Every year, on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month, a flock of magpies would fly into the sky and create a bridge, allowing the lovers to cross the heavenly river and be together.”

This classic tale of “boy meets girl, Dad doesn’t approve”, has been told since the 2nd century B.C.E. and celebrated in summer festivals in China, Japan, and Korea. You can read this story every night in the summer sky. The “heavenly” river that separates the young couple is the Milky Way.  The lovers are represented by the stars Vega and Altair, two points in the asterism known as the Summer Triangle. The triangle shape is actually made up of the three brightest stars from three different constellations, Cygnus the Swan, Lyra the Harp,  and Aquila the Eagle. In the city, it is often difficult to see all of the very faint stars of these patterns but the brightest from each are visible on clear nights. The brightest is Vega, the dimmest Deneb, and Altair makes up the point of the triangle.  You can find the Summer Triangle higher overhead, across the sky from the Big Dipper all summer long and even into autumn.

by Claire Woodbury, Science Communicator

The highlight of August sky observing is the Perseid meteor shower. A meteor shower is a high occurrence of shooting stars over several days. Of course, “shooting stars” aren’t really stars at all, but dust-sized bits of rock or metal (meteoroids) that collide with the earth and burn up in our atmosphere. As they vaporize, they cause a brief streak of light in the sky (a meteor) which can be seen from the ground. Rarely, a larger version of a meteoroid survives its time as a meteor and makes it to the ground intact; we call these meteorites. Confused with the similar-sounding names? The long and short of it is that dust from space burn up in our atmosphere, making brilliant flashes of light that result in a spectacular cosmic show.

But where do these specks of dust come from and why do they sometimes come down all at once in a shower? The answer lies in the earth’s yearly path around the sun. The earth orbits the sun and acts as a cosmic broom to any smaller objects in its path. It just so happens that between mid July and mid August every year, Earth is travelling through the trail of dust left behind by a comet. Comets are balls of ice and dust that orbit the sun. Small chunks can break off as the comet travels through space. When we pass into the path left over from its travels, those chunks collide with the  earth. The Perseids are caused from dust and debris left over from Comet Swift-Tuttle (109P).

It depends. The maximum number of meteors you could see depends on how dark your sky is, what time you observe, and how long you watch. It’s best to get away from city lights, since the fainter meteors are easy to miss when there are bright lights around. Although we are moving through the densest part of the dust trail on the evening of the 12th, meteor showers are always better after local midnight due to the orbital geometry. Your best bet will be between 11 pm and 4 am on the night of August 12-13, with rates increasing towards dawn. You might see upwards of 50 meteors an hour.

Don’t expect to see a constant stream of meteors; you might see one then nothing for twenty minutes then a whole bunch. Don’t give up if you haven’t seen any, best practice is to observe for at least an hour.

The best thing about meteor showers is that you don’t need any specials tools to see them! Just relax, grab a lawn chair or a blanket (and maybe some bug spray, let’s face it, this is Manitoba after all), lean back and look at the sky! Your ability to see the streaks of light can be hampered by clouds, high buildings, or light pollution. Even a particularly bright moon can obscure your view. Luckily for us, the moon will be very new on the evening of the 12, allowing for near perfect viewing conditions. August 12^th between midnight and dawn (morning of the 13^th) is the night you will see the most meteors but you can actually start to see the Perseids every night as early as July 17^rd and as late as August 24^th as we move in and out of Swift-Tuttle’s path. If you’re worried about missing the big show, you can start to practice by doing a little meteor gazing every night.

WARNING: It is never safe to look at the sun directly with unprotected eyes!

This is not just true during an eclipse, but any time. (However, most people don’t bother looking at the Sun except during an eclipse, so the warning is often associated with eclipses in the public’s imagination.)

To make sure we are providing accurate information, the Museum went to the experts. Your optometrist are the gatekeepers when it comes to eye health, so we contacted Dr. Laureen Goodridge, President of the Manitoba Association of Optometrists (MAO), who provided the following information on eye safety and the eclipse:

• It is never safe to look at the sun without protective eyewear
• Never look directly at the sun or partially eclipsed sun without protective eclipse shades – Sunglasses do not protect your eyes adequately when looking directly at the sun.
• The Manitoba Association of Optometrists encourages Manitobans to take care of their eyes, through regular eye examinations and by protecting their eyes from the sun and other dangers. For regular wear, sunglasses that provide 100% UVA and UBV protection are recommended. Ask your optometrist for recommendations.

The Museum and the Manitoba Association of Optometrists have partnered to bring in safe eclipse glasses, which are available at the Museum Shop and through your optometrist. (For more information on eye health and the eclipse, visit mb-opto.ca.)

Eclipse glasses are great, but what if you have binoculars or a telescope, and want a closer view of the action? There are several ways to view the sun safely, but it is also something you want to be very careful with. Even a small telescope can focus enough light at its eyepiece to instantly blind you and set fire to flammables. (Think about Robinson Crusoe using a magnifying glass to star a fire using the sun’s light… same thing.)

There is no way to safely filter a telescope at the eyepiece end – any filter that is placed where the light is already focused to a point will crack or melt and blind you. You can buy solar filters that fit over the front opening of your telescope, which do the same thing as eclipse glasses: they reduce the intensity of light to safe levels. However, these filters cost upwards of a hundred dollars, and it’s already becoming hard to order them since we are so close to the eclipse. If you’re just starting to plan your eclipse-watching, you have a few other options.

You can use your telescope to project an image of the sun onto a nearby wall or piece of cardboard. This is completely safe, and also allows a whole group of people to see the sun’s image at once. You can do it with binoculars or a telescope by following the instructions here.

You can also come by the Planetarium on Eclipse Day. If it’s clear, we will have safely-filtered telescopes set up around the Planetarium dome to view the eclipse. We’ll also have a live video feed from the path of totality, where several of the Planetarium staff will witness the event and provide live commentary.

Below are the various times of the eclipse for selected locations around Manitoba and Nunavut. For other locations, visit Heavens-above.com and select your location, and then click on “Solar Eclipses” on the front page.

Eclipse programming is supported in part by Manitoba Association of Optometrists (MAO).

Although summer may feel like it’s a long time from now, it’s not too early to start planning for at least one summer blockbuster event. On Monday, August 21, 2017, the moon will pass in front of the sun, causing a solar eclipse which will be seen all across North America. For a narrow line which runs across the central United States, the eclipse will be total: the moon will completely cover the bright part of the sun, providing a couple of minutes of the most amazing sight nature has to offer on this planet. For the rest of the continent, the eclipse is partial: the moon covers up only a part of the sun – still interesting and amazing, but not the show-stopper that a total eclipse is.

If you want to travel to the center line to see totality, you’d better plan on doing some driving. The path is about 10 hours south of Winnipeg at its nearest,  assuming you drive. Flying cuts this time somewhat, but you’ll still need a vehicle the day of the eclipse, because all of the hotels along the path of totality have been booked for several years. This is the first total solar eclipse that has crossed North America since 1991, so folks have been planning for quite a while for this event. At this point you’re looking at staying a few hours away and then driving to the center line the morning of the event. Although this might seem inconvenient, it does provide you with the flexibility to travel based on the weather. Clear skies = beautiful view of total eclipse; cloudy skies = nothing to see.

Over the coming months, we’ll provide more details on the eclipse event itself, including what local viewing options there are and how you can see the eclipse safely yourself. The Planetarium is not running a tour for this event, but we will be hosting programming and viewing of the eclipse from Winnipeg, where the sun will be 70% eclipsed. The Planetarium and Science Gallery will be running eclipse programming starting in July, so by eclipse day you’ll be well-prepared no matter where you choose to observe from.

The view of a total solar eclipse is well worth some travel. I saw the last one visible from Manitoba, on February 26th, 1979, and it was so inspiring that it set the course of my life in astronomy and science education. If you do decide to include the eclipse in this summer’s travel plans, check out eclipsophile.com’s great page on the event. Put together by veteran eclipse chaser and meteorologist Jay Anderson and astronomer (and former Winnipegger) Jennifer West, this site is full of the details you need to decide where to observe the Great North American Eclipse.