The total lunar eclipse I wrote about on Monday will occur tonight, after midnight and into the pre-dawn hours of Wednesday morning – you can find the original article here, with times and observing suggestions. The weather for the city of Winnipeg does not look great, but there looks to be clearer skies to the west. Visit Winnipeg’s Clear-Sky Clock for hour-by-hour cloud forecasts for astronomy. Good luck!
UPDATE – 7 October 2014: Remember, the eclipse occurs after midnight TONIGHT! Weather forecast is not looking great for Winnipeg, but viewers farther west may have a clear view.
Original article: The full moon in October is referred to as the Harvest Moon, since it rises as the sun sets and so would provide farmers an extra hour or so of light to finish bringing in their harvest. Full Moon is also the only time we can have a lunar eclipse, and this month we get both events occurring together.
A lunar eclipse occurs whenever the moon moves into the earth’s shadow. Many people don’t think about it, but the moon is just a big rock in space – it doesn’t give off any light of its own. The only reason we see the moon at all is that the sun is shining on it, and that light is reflected to us here on Earth. If you look at the moon when it is near First Quarter phase, this is easiest to see: the half of the moon facing the sun is lit up, and the half of the moon facing away from the sun is dark. (Of course, this is true for the earth as well – the side of Earth facing the sun is lit up and experiencing daylight, while the side of the earth facing away from the sun is dark and experiencing night.)
So, what can prevent sunlight from lighting up the moon? It turns out that there is only one thing big enough and close enough to do that – our planet, the Earth. If things line up just right, the moon will move into the shadow of the earth, and so sunlight will be blocked from lighting up the moon. This creates what we call a lunar eclipse. Lunar eclipses aren’t particularly rare; there is usually one or two a year visible somewhere in the world.
A Word about Safety
The word “eclipse” can conjure images of special safety glasses and people staying inside to avoid going blind, but those warnings refer to eclipses of the sun (which we will have in a couple of weeks, but that is the subject of another blog!) Viewing a lunar eclipse has absolutely NO risk of eye damage and does not require any special equipment (although a pair of binoculars or a telescope can enhance the view).
This week’s lunar eclipse early on Wednesday morning, between about 3 am and 7 am (details below). This means, of course, that for many folks it’s really a Tuesday night event, since once you wake up on Wednesday the event will be over. Make sure you set your alarm or stay up late on the correct date! On the plus side, the eclipse is a slow, stately event, and so you can peek out every few minutes or so and then warm up inside without missing too much.
Eclipse Timeline
All events are given in Central Daylight Time, the local time for Manitoba.
Tuesday, Oct 7 – evening – the eclipse starts in just a few hours, so make sure you have set your alarm and have all of your gear ready to go. A clear morning sky in October can be cold, so make sure you are dressed for winter, not fall. You will want a clear view of the southwest and west horizon, with as few trees or buildings in the way. Unlike most events, you don’t need to get away from city lights, although it helps.
Wednesday, Oct 8, 3:15 a.m. – the beginning of the eclipse is a very subtle thing. The Earth’s shadow is not hard-edged, but fuzzy, so the eclipse sort of “fades in” very slowly. Sharp-eyed viewers will start to notice that the left edge of the moon is getting dusky sometime before 4 a.m., but exactly when depends both on the observer and the atmospheric conditions around the world. It’s something not predictable in advance, so you just have to go out and see. Over the next hour, the moon will grow darker on the left edge, and probably start to take on an orange or red hue. As the eclipse begins, the moon is over in the southwestern sky, about a third of the way from the horizon to the point straight overhead. Over the next few hours, the moon will move down and to the right, so make sure you can see clear to the western horizon.
Wednesday, Oct 8, 4:14 a.m. – the moon begins to enter the darker central part of the Earth’s shadow (called the umbra). The moon is definitely getting darker from the left, and over the next while it will look as if the Earth’s curved shadow is creeping across the moon’s face. Actually, it is the moon which is moving towards the left into the shadow – if you are watching with binoculars, check the moon’s position against the background stars and you’ll see this slow motion. Over the next hour or so, the moon will get very dark as it moves completely into Earth’s Shadow. (Incidentally, observing this phase of the eclipse provides proof that the Earth is round – you can see that the Earth’s shadow is curved, not straight.)
Wednesday, Oct 8, 5:25 a.m. – the moon is totally eclipsed, completely within the shadow of the Earth. Despite this, the moon likely won’t disappear completely. The Earth blocks direct sunlight from striking the moon, but the Earth’s atmosphere acts like a lense and bends light from around the edges of the Earth. Because of the geometry, the only light that can hit the moon is the light from all of the sunrises and sunsets all around the world at that particular moment – those glorious reds, oranges, and pinks that we can see as the curtain goes up on a clear night. During the total phase, the moon can take on a red or orange colour, depending on the conditions around the world at that time. Because of this, every lunar eclipse is different – some are very bright, others almost black. The forecast for this year is for a brighter-than-average eclipse, based on the amount of volcanic dust and so on in the atmosphere, but this isn’t definitive.
Wednesday, Oct 8, 5:54 a.m. – Mid-eclipse, with the moon at its darkest. By this point, the moon is low on the western horizon, making for a dramatic photo-opportunity for those who have a building or other landmark to your west on eclipse night.
Wednesday, Oct 8, 6:24 a.m. – the total phase of the eclipse ends, as the moon starts to move out of the Earth’s umbral shadow. At this point, the moon is low in the west and the sky is already beginning to brighten in the east. Depending on how dark the eclipse is, it may be tough to spot the moon without looking carefully.
Wednesday, Oct 8, 7:30 a.m. – the moon has exited the earth’s umbral shadow, ending the partial phase of the eclipse. While there is still some eclipse shadow going on with the fainter outer shadow of the Earth (the penumbra), it likely will be lost in the growing twilight and the moon’s proximity to the horizon.
Wednesday, Oct 8, 7:40 a.m. – the sun rises, and the moon sets 11 minutes later, with the penumbral eclipse still in progress.
Enjoy the view – because of the late hour, there is no public viewing planned for this eclipse, but you can enjoy it with the unaided eye, or a pair of ordinary household binoculars or a small telescope if you have one.
Update -Friday, Sep 12, 2014: Some minor aurora was visible last night over Manitoba in between patchy clouds, and dim glows were seen as far south as Arizona (but only from dark skies away from city lights). Tonight is likely to be the better view, though. The second and larger of two blobs of stuff from the sun (called coronal mass ejections, or CMEs) is arriving today, which can cause a spike in the visibility of northern lights. The evening sky looks clear tonight for Manitoba, so keep your eyes on the sky!
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Due to yesterday’s solar flare, tonight (Thursday, Sept. 11, 2014) is a good time to watch for the northern lights. (For a quick summary of the northern lights, visit this link.) The best views are always from outside the city, since any nearby light pollution can wash out the sky and ruin the show. Spaceweather.com is forecasting an 80% chance of strong aurora activity over the next 48 hours, so hopefully the surge in activity will occur while it is dark over Manitoba.
If you have a digital camera, you can take pictures of the northern lights! You need to set your camera manually, though, so go dig out or download the manual. You want to be able to set the camera so that it takes a time exposure of several seconds or more. Usually this is accomplished by setting the camera to “M”, and then adjusting the buttons to change the exposure time (also called shutter speed). Numbers like “1/60” and “1/2” are fractions of a second, so adjust the number until you get numbers like “1.2”, “5”, etc. Those are exposures of 1.2 and 5 seconds, respectively. Ideally, you want to take even longer exposures – my camera can do 15-second exposures without a problem.
Image: A still from the planetarium show “Experience the Aurora”.
Next, you need either a tripod, or another way to keep your camera steady for those 15 seconds. Any movement will blur your picture. Best is a tripod, but if you don’t have one, then zoom your camera out to its widest view, and set the timer that you would use to take a picture of yourself. You can press the button, and then quickly lay the camera on its back so the lens is pointing straight up at the sky, and the shutter won’t go until the timer goes off. Be careful to lay the camera on something soft so you don’t scratch the screen! Some other hints: turn the flash off – it won’t help, and you will blind yourself every time it goes off. (Although, it can light up any foreground objects, such as trees or you, and give you a neat picture.) Try different exposure settings and see what works – every aurora is different, so there is no “right” way to do it. Just take a lot of pictures, and some will turn out. I’d love to see your pictures, and I will share mine as well through the Museum’s Facebook page and on this blog.
UPDATE – 14 Jul 2014: We have received enough reports to tell that the fireball was well north of Winnipeg – the final burnout/explosion likely occurred near the Poplar River area of the eastern shore of Lake Winnipeg. Any surviving fragments of the meteor would have continued north or northeast of this location. Given the difficulty of finding anything in this terrain, we are no longer planning a search and recovery effort.
UPDATE – 10 Jul 2014: We’ve received more than a dozen reports from around southern Manitoba of this rare daytime fireball. Most observers saw it due north, heading almost straight down. This means it was likely quite far north and heading even farther north, although without more observations the details are still hard to pin down. We’re now interested in hearing from anyone who spotted this thing from north of Gimli or anywhere in Westman, or from spots along Lake Winnipeg and into the north. Email skyinfo@manitobamsueum.ca with your report as outlined below.
Original post – 9 Jul 2014: Details are still coming in, but we have multiple reports of an extremely rare daytime fireball seen in central Manitoba about 11 am Central Time today (Wednesday, 9 July 2014). We are actively seeking reports from people who saw this event, and once we get enough data we will organize a search for pieces.
If you witnessed this object, please email a report to skyinfo@manitobamuseum.ca and include the following information:
You should also report your sighting to the American Meteor Society at http://www.amsmeteors.org/members/fireball/report-a-fireball and the International meteor Organization at http://www.imo.net.fireball/report
It is suspected that the parent object was a small asteroid or comet which burned up in the earth’s atmosphere, high enough to do no damage but low enough the pieces may have survived the fall to earth. Any such pieces are not dangerous, will not start fires or scorch the earth, and will not have bubbles or crystals in them.
Further details will be released as they become available.
UPDATE – 21 May 2014: Sky and Telescope magazine has an article on the event on their website. LINK
UPDATE 2 – 21 May 2014: Even if it’s cloudy, you can listen in on the meteors via radio! (Thanks to Don Trueman for the LINK)
UPDATE 3 – 22 May 2014: Spaceweather.com also has a great article about the shower, and also the possibility of observing meteor impacts on the Moon through a telescope!
On the early morning of Saturday, May 24, we may see a brand-new meteor shower. A comet called P/209 LINEAR orbits the sun in a path that leaves a trail of dust and debris in the Earth’s orbit. When the earth moves through that trail of dust, the dust will slam into the Earth’s atmosphere and burn up in a flash of light called a meteor. This happens all the time, but this weekend the Earth will go through a big “dust bunny” in space, and so we could see many more meteors than usual. The forecast for this new shower is very uncertain, but it is possible that there will be dozens or even hundreds of meteors per hour visible from a dark site.
First, a warning: THIS MAY NOT HAPPEN! It is impossible to predict the movement of every piece of dust in the solar system. However, the current science suggests that the streams of dust from this comet will pass very close to earth. If we go right through the middle of this interplanetary dust bunny, we could get an amazing meteor storm. If we just skim the edge, we could get a bump in activity but nothing special. And of course, we could miss it entirely. So, if you do decide to go out and watch for this, understand that you’re taking a chance. Don’t blame me for the lost sleep!
If you decide to try your luck, you should head to a dark location, as far from city light as is practical, on Friday evening. The peak of the shower is forecast for 2 a.m. Winnipeg time, but we really don’t know whether it will start early or not. Bring a reclining lawn chair, a blanket, and whatever other creature comforts you will need – astronomy is not an aerobic activity, and you will get cold quickly in the night air. You do NOT need a telescope, since the meteors will be visible to the unaided eye. Besides, you don’t know exactly where each meteor will appear, and so you want as wide a field of view as you can get – your eyes are already perfect meteor observing gear. Set up facing away from the closest glow of lights near you, and just lean back and look up. The meteors should appear to be coming roughly from the north, in the region below the North Star and to the right of the Big Dipper, but they will arc all around the sky.
If you do observe, a simple count of meteors can help scientists understand this meteor shower and its parent comet better. Just record the time you start watching and the time you stop, and the number of meteors seen. Don’t pool your counts with other observers – each person should record their own count. Reports can be sent to the International Meteor Organization, who are collecting worldwide data on this new meteor shower.
If you have a digital camera, you can try taking pictures of the meteors as well. You’ll need to set your camera on “Manual” and adjust the exposure time to as long as you can – usually 15 or 30 seconds (consult your camera’s manual for details on how to do this). Ideally, you would put your camera on a tripod, but I’ve also just placed it on the grass facing upwards (be careful not to scratch the screen!). Make sure you turn the flash off, since it won’t help the picture and will spoil your night vision. Press the button, and wait. You will take a lot of pictures without meteors in them, but eventually there will be a meteor visible while your camera is exposing. It’s that simple!
We’d love to hear your reports and see your pictures here – email them to me at skyinfo@manitobamuseum.ca or post them on our Facebook page!
Tonight, most of North America will be treated to an uncommon and beautiful celestial event. The Full Moon will rise tonight at sunset, with the bright planet Mars nearby. As they rise, you’ll be able to notice that the Moon is actually moving relative to more distant Mars – the Moon is orbiting the Earth, from right to left from our point of view. You can see this motion as soon as the moon rises tonight, but that’s not the rare or beautiful part. The real treat is reserved for those who can stay up past midnight – those night owls will see a total lunar eclipse, the first visible from North America since 2011.
(In this article, all times given are Central Daylight Time (CDT), the current clock time for Manitoba.)
Starting about 12:20 a.m. CDT early on the morning of Tuesday, April 15th, the left edge of the moon will start to look a little… shady. Over the next hour or so, the moon will darken noticeably, beginning with the left edge and spreading across the face of the moon. This is the effect of the moon passing through the outer edge of Earth’s shadow, called the penumbra. The penumbra isn’t very dark, so it doesn’t block out all of the moon’s light, but it does dim it considerably.
Then, about 12:58 a.m. CDT, you’ll start to see a much darker and more defined notch taken out of the moon’s left edge. This notch will also spread from left to right, covering the moon’s surface in an arc of darkness. The moon is now passing through the darker central part of the Earth’s shadow, called the umbra. This shadow will slowly creep across the moon’s face for the next hour or so, dimming the moon’s brightness considerably. You’ll be able to see more stars in the sky as the light from the moon dims, especially if you are also away from local light pollution like city streetlights.
At 2:07 a.m. Central Daylight Time, the moon will be completely immersed in the darkest part of the earth’s shadow. Up until now, the bright parts of the moon have washed out any faint details, but now the earth’s shadow shows us its true colours. The only light that is reaching the moon during the total phase of the eclipse has a very special character. It is the light from all of the sunrises and sunsets all around the world at that time. A lunar eclipse is sometimes called a “blood moon” because the moon turns a deep red colour. (Actually, the colour can vary a lot – depending on the clouds, smog, and pollution in the atmosphere, the eclipsed moon can range from deep red to orange to copper, with brighter or darker patches.)
Mid-eclipse occurs at 2:46 a.m. CDT – that’s when the moon should be at its darkest and most colourful. From that point on, the event unwinds itself, with the moon brightening first on the left edge, leaving the Earth’s shadow behind. The total eclipse ends at 3:25 a.m. CDT, and by 5 a.m. the whole thing is mostly over. (See the chart below for times across North America.)
Because of the early-morning timing, no public events are planned, but you can view this eclipse with your unaided eyes. A pair of ordinary binoculars can provide a close-up view. Make sure you look for the red planet Mars, shining just above the moon at its brightest and closest to our planet for this year!
The weather forecast for southern Manitoba is clear and cold, so if you do head out to view the eclipse, make sure you have a way to stay warm! If you opt for an inside view, both NASA and the SLOOH telescope will be live-streaming views of the eclipse. Everyone sees the eclipse at the same physical time no matter where they are, but because of time zones, the clock time it occurs depends on where you live. Whether you’re watching live or online, the ties given above are the milestones to look for.
This eclipse is also a bit unusual because it is the first of a series of four consecutive lunar eclipses. Often, things don’t’ line up exactly, and the moon only skims the edge of the earth’s shadow, providing a partial eclipse – you miss out on the red colour and just see the dark “notch” effect. However, we can see another total lunar eclipse this coming October, and two more next year as well.
For more details on how and why eclipses occur, check out this great article at Sky and Telescope magazine. Good luck and clear skies!
The phone woke me up early on a Sunday. My sister calling. She’s not an early riser; something must be wrong.
“I was listening to the news – the space shuttle was supposed to land, but didn’t.” Silence, as I try to process the information.
What?
In 30 seconds I am in the living room, putting on my glasses with one hand and fumbling with the TV remote in the other. I don’t have to switch to NASA-TV. The story is everywhere. The Space Shuttle Columbia, with its crew of seven astronauts, is missing.
Two minutes later, I’m in the car, heading to the Planetarium. We have better resources there, NASA TV direct from satellite and several computers for streaming and searching. I don’t know why I’m going; it’s not like NASA needs me, but I just have to go, to know, to do SOMETHING. I arrive, breathless, to find other co-workers streaming in. Some have tears in their eyes. The reports come slowly: all contact lost during re-entry; no landing; some kind of warning indicators in the left wing; and then the first video of a fireball breaking up in the sky over Texas.
My recollections of the rest of the day are a blur. For the first few minutes, I had held out hope that the crew might have escaped, but that hope quickly dwindles. Columbia is gone.
They were only sixteen minutes from home.
The phones start to ring. Local media, other staff, the public. We watch the news, check forums, watch and re-watch the footage of the launch that we had taped nearly two weeks before. Anderson Cooper, one of CNN’s “new guys” at the time, is at the desk when it happens, and he becomes the face of the tragedy until veteran space reporter Miles O’Brien gets there. All of the talking heads on every network are asking the same question: What had happened?
In the aftermath, it turned out that Columbia was doomed from the time it launched. A piece of insulating foam broke free of the shuttle’s big orange external tank during the launch, damaging the heat shield on the front of the left wing. When the shuttle re-entered the atmosphere, the frictional heating burned through the heat shield, tearing off the wing and causing the shuttle to break apart at 400,000 km/h. NASA had screwed up, and people had died.
Historically, the end of January has been a bad time for space exploration. On January 27, 1967, the first Apollo moon rocket caught fire during routine testing on the launch pad, and three astronauts perished. On January 28, 1986 the shuttle Challenger exploded during launch, killing all seven astronauts aboard. And now a second shuttle and its crew of seven was gone.
In every case, NASA rallied, found, faced and fixed the problems, and moved on. There were words about the cost of exploration, the necessity of risk-taking, the benefits of curiosity and passion. Today, more than a decade after the loss of Columbia, there are people living full-time in space. The International Space Station and the Chinese Tiangong 1 space station orbit overhead, the frontier outposts of our exploration into the universe. But is it worth it? Is it worth seeing crying families every decade or so, immersed in a disaster that grips the world?
There is no right answer, but I can tell you what every member of the crews of Apollo 1, Challenger, and Columbia would tell you: it is not only worth the cost, it is essential. Humanity must explore. The practical reasons are obvious: growing population and dwindling resources on our home planet; knowledge and technology to be gained; searching for other habitable worlds to colonize and explore; the possibility of life elsewhere. But the main reason humanity must explore is this: exploration is one of the defining characteristics of the human species. We have always looked at the horizon and wondered what is out there. It has defined our modern world, and driven the development of technologies that today are essential to our civilization. Exploration built the world we live in, and without it, humanity is doomed to a slow, stagnant decay into extinction.
Today I remember those who have given their lives while exploring space. Thank you for reaching for the stars.
Apollo 1 (January 27, 1967)
Virgil “Gus” Grissom, Command Pilot (United States)
Edward White, Senior Pilot (United States)
Roger Chaffee, Pilot (United States)
Soyuz 1 (April 23, 1967)
Vladimir Kamarov, Commander (Soviet Union)
Soyuz 11 (June 30, 1971)
Georgi Dobrovolski, Commander (Soviet Union)
Vladislav Volkov, Flight Engineer (Soviet Union)
Viktor Patsayev, Flight Engineer (Soviet Union)
Challenger Mission 51-L (January 28, 1986)
Francis R. Scobee, Commander (United States)
Michael J. Smith, Pilot (United States)
Ronald McNair, Mission Specialist (United States)
Ellison Onizuka, Mission Specialist (United States)
Judith Resnik, Mission Specialist (United States)
Greg Jarvis, Payload Specialist (United States)
Christa McAuliffe, Payload Specialist/Teacher in Space (United States)
Columbia, Mission STS-107 (February 1, 2003)
Rick D. Husband, Commander (United States)
William C. McCool, Pilot (United States)
Michael P. Anderson, Mission Specialist (United States)
Kalpana Chawla, Mission Specialist (United States)
David M. Brown, Mission Specialist (United States)
Laurel Clark, Mission Specialist (United States)
Ilan Ramon, Mission Specialist (Israel)
