Posts Made By: Curt Renz

Summertime scud clouds were sweeping across the western sky this evening as seen from Arlington Heights, Illinois. Momentarily the veil got thin enough for me to get the shot seen below. It was taken on 2008 JUN 04 at 21:02 CDT when the Moon was aged 30:39 hrs. That was 38 minutes after sunset and 60 minutes before moonset.

I hope you didn’t attempt to observe the occultation with naked-eyes, Dan. It’s been four years since the last Venusian transit and four years until the next one. The occultation of Venus by the Sun on the 8th was midway between the transits in Venus’s 8-year cycle of events repeating near the same date. The transits and occultations occur at opposite nodes of Venus’s orbital plane relative to the ecliptic.

Due to the first six months of the upcoming evening apparition of Venus occurring between the summer and winter solstices, the brilliant planet will be making a long slow climb above the western horizon during twilight each evening for northern hemisphere observers as the ecliptic tilts over. Spotting it may not be easy until much later in the year. I plan to initiate a thread with more details in July. In the meantime, below is my panoramic graphic of the apparition.

I captured the 1.3% illuminated crescent Moon aged 23:49 hrs on 2008 JUL 03 at 21:08 CDT. That was 37 minutes after sunset and 18 minutes before moonset at Arlington Heights, Illinois. Below is the photo with the Moon toward the right and just above the clouds.

I’m getting reports on other message boards from people who have been looking southeast in the evening and thinking they are seeing Venus. They were actually observing Jupiter, normally the next brightest celestial object after Venus. Venus in the evening is in the opposite direction and still very low and hard to spot. Jupiter is very obvious and will be in opposition to the Sun on July 9. Around that date it rises in the southeast at sunset, transits low above due south at local midnight, and sets in the southwest around sunrise.

Edgar Mitchell has been well known as a woo before, during and after his experience as an astronaut. He has long been a leader in the new age, spiritualism, mysticism, ufology, and remote healing movement. During his Moon trip he conducted private ESP experiments with friends. In 1973 he founded the Institute of Noetic Sciences which focuses on the paranormal.

Mitchell needs to present evidence, not hearsay regarding extraterrestrial visitations. Even when presenting hearsay, he should at least name his sources. Someone with a doctorate should know better. Having been an astronaut does not make him an authority. Science respects evidence tied to rational explanations, not the pronouncements of alleged authorities. Courts and congressional committees also require high levels of proof, although not quite to the level of science. Unfortunately, credulous members of the public will automatically accept many unfounded claims that simply sound cool, comforting or even scary.

Mitchell needs to explain how and why all governments (he did use the plural) and private research facilities have conspired to keep extraterrestrial visitations a secret for over sixty years. His claim that there is a “cabal of insiders” within the US government that has kept their findings secret from every president after Kennedy is ludicrous. To whom do they report? Who hires them? How are they paid? How has this cabal maintained itself for generations? And if Mitchell knows so much about them, he should tell us who they are.

It is not incumbent upon NASA or anyone else to prove that UFOs are not ET spacecraft. Negatives cannot be proven. No one can prove that fairies, ghosts or leprechauns do not exist. Mitchell and the ET spacecraft believers with which he has been long associated need to present solid evidence, and not the kind of stuff that members of his fraternity will quickly cheer and say they knew it all along. He says he is not afraid of government retribution, so let’s see him develop a proper argument in the manner of a grownup with academic credentials.

I’ve created a similar graphic for southern hemisphere observers. It shows the positions of Venus in the western sky during its current evening apparition as viewed from Sydney, Australia, although it should well serve most of you south of the equator. It can be found on the same webpage as my northern hemisphere graphic: http://www.curtrenz.com/astronomical.html

Tom Skilling of WGN-TV in Chicago displayed the photo during his weathercast last evening. It’s also on his weather blog along with another one I took four minutes earlier when the Moon was deeper in the clouds: http://blogs.trb.com/news/weather/weblog/wgnweather/

Some folks have requested a larger version for their computer’s desktop background wallpaper. I now have one at my astronomical webpage: http://www.curtrenz.com/astronomical.html

Tim Abbott said:

I was up at 6 this morning getting an early season look at Saturn. The rings are edge on so no chance of any detail within the rings. Does anyone know is this what we can expect all winter/spring or will the view shift so we get a look at the rings this year?

The tilt of Saturn’s ring plane from our perspective is currently -2.3°, and will decrease in absolute value for the rest of this year until it becomes -0.8° on December 31st when Saturn goes into apparent retrograde motion and the tilt then increases for a few months. Opposition from the Sun will be achieved on March 8th of next year when the ring tilt will be -2.6°. The tilt will continue to increase in absolute value to -4.1° on May 17th when the planet resumes apparent direct motion. On August 10th the Sun will pass through the ring plane, and the Earth will do so on September 4th when the ring tilt will appear to be zero. Between those last two dates we will be viewing the dark side of the rings, which will make them virtually invisible. After September 4th the tilt will increase in the positive sense and we will again be viewing the sunlit side of the rings. Saturn will conjunct with the Sun on September 17th.

Due to the short time interval between zero ring tilt and conjunction, along with the sharp angle with which the ecliptic strikes the horizon at sunset during that time of the year, it will be nearly impossible for observers north of the tropics to see Saturn when we pass throught the ring plane.

The ring plane is not actually wobbling. Our viewing perspective changes as Saturn and the Earth orbit the Sun. The primary cycle for the ring tilt coincides with Saturn’s 29.46-year orbital period around the Sun. A secondary cycle matches the 1.035-year synodic period in which the Earth laps Saturn in their race around the Sun. The next occurrence of a maximum tilt will be on 2017 OCT 16 at +27.0°.

Below are two graphics that I’ve created to illustrate the situation. The first shows our view of the rings at ten-day intervals from November 28th of this year through September 14th of next year. The second shows our view at every opposition of Saturn from 1995 through 2025.

Peter Glus said:

I have Cartes and stellarium, but I was wondering if there was a moon-only software or freeware thing that allowed you to easily predict phase and position of the moon at night.

My monthly astronomical calendar shows the phase, orientation of terminator, and relative apparent size of the Moon for each night. Many people download it as their computer’s desktop background wallpaper. It can be seen by clicking: http://www.curtrenz.com/astronomical.html

From Sydney only the immersion at 21:07:44 UT+11 will be visible. Emersion will occur after the pair has set. However, from Melbourne the entire event should be visible, although immersion will occur only 20 minutes after sunset and emersion just 11 minutes before Jupiter sets. Below is my Melbourne graphic.