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Amateur Astonomers: Alert for April 13 to Mid-May
« on: 2002-04-08 07:25:15 » |
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Stargazers prepare for the lineup
Source: Globe and Mail
Authors: Wallace Immen
Dated: 2002-04-07
A rare heavenly event will be seen over Canada this month. It is the first time in more than 60 years that the five planets visible to the naked eye have been in such a close formation in the sky.
"All of the visible objects in the solar system will be lined up in the same part of the sky. This should be high on your life list of personal experiences," said Terence Dickinson, editor of SkyNews magazine in Ottawa.
"We're not talking Star Wars ," Mr. Dickinson cautioned. "But we are talking about a majestic view of the planets."
The prime viewing time will be about an hour after sunset between April 13 and mid-May.
The key to seeing the full show is to find a location far from sources of light that gives you a clear view of the horizon. For someone in a big city such as Toronto, that might mean having to drive well out into the country, beyond the glow of urban areas, Mr. Dickinson said.
You will be looking in the northwest for a line of objects that are considerably brighter than the stars behind them. The line runs at about a 60-degree angle from the horizon across the constellation Taurus.
The lowest dot in the string is the planet Mercury, which is so close to the horizon that it may be difficult to see.
Above Mercury and to its left is Venus, then Mars and Saturn. Quite a bit higher in the sky, but on the same line, will be Jupiter.
The evening of April 17 will have a particularly straight formation. With the moon halfway between Saturn and Jupiter, the string will look like a necklace of evenly spaced pearls.
And from April 30 into the second week of May, Venus, Mars and Saturn will be clustered so tightly together that all three will be visible in the field of a standard pair of binoculars.
Any kind of celestial alignment always increases interest in stargazing, said Bob Garrison, an astronomer at the University of Toronto and president of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada.
The society is planning viewing events in cities across Canada in conjunction with International Astronomy Day on April 20. With the help of small telescopes, the moons and bands of Jupiter and the rings of Saturn should be truly stunning, said Scott Young, co-ordinator of the viewing events. Details are on the Web site www.rasc.ca in the activies section.
Mr. Garrison said professional astronomers are not planning any special observations of the planets, because their motions and interactions have been well known for hundreds of years.
And astrologers are not attributing great significance to the lineup because it is only an apparent pattern to viewers on Earth, and does not mean the planets are in conjunction in relation to the sun.
The differing lengths of the planets' orbits around the sun mean they are arrayed together in the same part of the sky about once every 20 years. But because we are observing them from the Earth, which is also orbiting the sun, they have not appeared in such a narrow band as they are now since February, 1940, Mr. Dickinson said.
The celestial dance will see the next similar planetary lineup happen in April 2036. That one will not be nearly as tight a formation as the one happening now.
However, only four years later, in September 2040, a similar five planet formation will be the tightest in a century.
Those who look closely in the next few days at about 8:30 p.m. may get a bonus. The comet Ikeya-Zhang continues to appear as a dagger-shaped smudge of light in the northwest sky, although it has already passed its peak of brightness.
That is something you surely will never see again, because it is estimated it will be another 341 years before its orbit again brings it near Earth.
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