Posts Made By: Curt Renz

John Meiners said:

Does someone have the web. site for info on the Nov. Trans? Will we see it (barring the rain clouds) up here in the Pacific Northwest? thank you, John Meiners, Astoria, OR.

If you will take a moment to scan the threads on this page, you will see that I have already created a thread on this subject including information and a graphic. Yes, the transit will be visible in Oregon. It will be visible anywhere in sunlight while the transit is taking place.

The positions you describe from NASA would be in equatorial coordinates (RA/Dec). Your actual view of the transit will be in horizontal coordinates (Azm/Alt). That will cause a clockwise rotation in the appearance of the Sun from your location (relative to equatorial coordinates) that will increase as the afternoon progresses.

If you would consult my initial post in my thread on this subject, you will learn how to download an image of the transit as it will be seen in horizontal coordinates from Chicago. The orientation from the east coast will be quite similar, but with a slight clockwise increase.

That being said, you should be able to transform the image to whatever reorientation is required for your particular telescope. More importantly, don't forget to pay attention to the pretty lady.

In addition to Chicago, I have now created Mercury transit previews for New York, Miami, Phoenix and San Francisco. To see them, go to http://www.curtrenz.com/astronomical.html

Great thanks to Dave Mitsky for reminding everyone of the upcoming planetary trio. He has provided fine data for the unusual event. Now I’ll expand upon the details of the grouping that I presented earlier in my Mercury thread, and notify folks of the availability of an animated graphic. The commentary that follows was prepared several weeks ago for publication after the Pleiades occultation, therefore my apologies are extended for any of it that may have duplicated some of Dave’s announcement.


My calculations reveal that the tightest trio of naked-eye planets between 1926 and 2052 will occur on 2006 DEC 10 at 11:20 UT. The longest side of the triangle formed by Mercury, Mars and Jupiter will measure only 58.7 arcminutes from a geocentric perspective.

The trio will be just 15° west of the Sun, but northern hemisphere observers should be able to spot them above the southeastern horizon in the constellation of Scorpius before dawn. On that morning of the 10th the Mag +2.6 binary star Beta Scorpii will appear about 12 arcminutes above Mercury.

Note: The apparent angular diameter of the Sun or Full Moon is about half a degree or 30 arcminutes.

2006 DEC 10 at 11:20 UT
Mercury-Mars: 58.7 arcminutes
Mercury-Jupiter: 20.2 arcminutes
Mars-Jupiter: 58.7 arcminutes

When considered as pairs, the minimum separations will be even less at slightly different times.

2006 DEC 10 at 06:43 UT
Mercury-Mars: 58.0 arcminutes

2006 DEC 10 at 17:12 UT
Mercury-Jupiter: 7.4 arcminutes

2006 DEC 11 at 15:24 UT
Mars-Jupiter: 47.6 arcminutes

Magnitudes
Mercury: -0.6
Mars: +1.5
Jupiter: -1.7

I’ve created an animated graphic demonstrating the dance of the trio as seen from Chicago 30 minutes before sunrise from December 3 through 17. It can be seen at http://www.curtrenz.com/astronomical.html .

In the upper left of the graphic is an inset that includes an enlarged depiction of the Moon. The Moon does not actually appear in the field of view for the planets. Although it will be seen elsewhere above the horizon during most of the period covered by the animation. The graphic may be removed soon after December 10.

Once again the public is quickly enthused by news that might fulfill some of their hopes and wishes with little scientific skepticism. Is that good science?

A Reuters article on the subject inserted the following paragraph:

The scientists conceded the images were only circumstantial evidence not proof. They cited a possible alternative explanation that those features were caused by the movement of dry dust down a slope.

I recall similar hoopla a decade ago when NASA had President Clinton announce that an Antarctic meteorite contained small spheres that were likely Martian fossilized bacteria. That was later debunked.

NASA officials know that much of their funding is dependent on the public believing they are searching for life, or at least water. They tend to make announcements that may be positive to this theme well before sufficient examination has been done. Actually, I'm all for such schemes that cause taxpayers to become willing to pay for the scientific exploration of the solar system. I only object when a significant portion of the funding is diverted to manned missions.

At the website uforesearcher.com a poster named Meg may have found the solution to the O'Hare UFO incident. She was apologizing to the forum Administrator for sounding like a naysayer. She provided an aerial photo of concourse C-17, and noted that local TV weatherman Tom Skilling reported in the Chicago Tribune that there would be a temperature inversion over the area at the time.

Below I’ve posted an even closer photo from Terraserver. C-17 is the vacant slot immediately to the right of the large oval object affixed to the roof of the concourse. Witnesses had referred to a gray elliptical object. As Meg suggested, it's entirely possible that the temperature inversion over the field reflected the image of this oval object in the manner of a mirage directly back to observers on the ground. This could explain why the witnesses were confined to such a small area, while those outside of it saw nothing at all. As the inversion fluctuated, so would the perceived altitude of the reflected image of the object.

The nighttime southern graze path for the January 20 occultation of Delta Capricorni will sweep across Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland and Delaware. Those located on the 2-3 km wide path will have a rare opportunity to observe a star winking on and off as hills and valleys of the lunar south polar region pass by.

I've developed formulae that will allow you to determine the geographic latitude of a point on the graze path that is associated with an input longitude value. Similarly, determinations can be made for the time of the graze, the star's altitude and its zenith angle on the lunar limb. Zenith angle is measured counter-clockwise from the zenith. All of the figures are decimal. Conversions may be required between decimal and sexagesimal. The time is UT. Six hours must be subtracted for CST and five hours for EST.

For observers located between western longitudes 75° and 83°

W = Western Longitude - 79 (subtract 79 from longitude for only input value)
Latitude = 37.057723 - 0.375583 W - 0.005401 W²
UT Hour = 23.59080 - 0.00517 W - 0.00027 W²
Zen Ang = 99.284 - 0.166 W + 0.001 W²
Altitude = 7.043 + 0.922 W + 0.009 W²

For observers located between western longitudes 83° and 91°

W = Western Longitude - 87 (subtract 87 from longitude for only input value)
Latitude = 33.686887 - 0.471610 W - 0.006655 W²
UT Hour = 23.53036 - 0.01035 W - 0.00038 W²
Zen Ang = 98.067 - 0.132 W + 0.003 W²
Altitude = 14.965 + 1.062 W + 0.009 W²

The equatorial coordinates of Delta Capricorni at the time of the occultation (not 2000.0) will be:

RA 21:47:25.0
Dec S 16°05’53”

Below are the times of immersion and emersion at Chicago and New York City on 2007 JAN 20. For New Yorkers the emersion will occur about the same time the star sets. ZA is the star’s Zenith Angle on the lunar limb, which is measured counter-clockwise from the zenith.

Chicago (Adler Planetarium)
17:04:47 CST – ZA 051.9°
17:56:23 CST – ZA 161.7°

New York (NY Stock Exchange)
18:22:56 EST – ZA 075.6°
18:49:07 EST – ZA 128.7°

The class will be based in room Z-128, which is in the science building near parking lots #2 & #3 off of Algonquin road. Although most of the class time is expected to be spent in the Henize Observatory which is between the pond and parking lot #8 off of Euclid Avenue.

The class will be based in room Z-128, which is in the science building near parking lots #2 & #3 off of Algonquin road. Although most of the class time is expected to be spent in the Henize Observatory which is between the pond and parking lot #8 off of Euclid Avenue.