Most meteor showers vary from year to year, but the Leonids are particularly capricious. Many years they chug along producing just 5 or 10 meteors visible per hour. But at the Leonids' historical greatest, in 1833, meteors were seen to fall "like snowflakes in a blizzard," with estimated rates of several dozen per second!
This year is expected to be better than average. The "traditional," most reliable part of the shower should peak around 4 a.m. EST (1 a.m. PST) on the morning of Tuesday, November 17th. You might see 20 or 30 meteors per hour under ideal dark-sky conditions. (Remember, if you want to stay up late instead of getting up early, you'll be staying up Monday night. It's easy to get the date wrong for events that happen after midnight!)
A second, briefer, but very intense outburst is expected about 12 hours later — during the early-morning hours of November 18th in Asia. (See "Will the Leonids Roar Again?".) There's only an off-chance that some activity from that burst will still be going on by the time the Earth turns halfway around and the Leonids become visible in the Americas on the morning of the 18th.
But if the sky is clear, why not go out again that morning — and also before the predicted peak, on the morning of the 16th? The Leonids have surprised the theorists before, and they surely will again.
Wherever you are, no Leonids will be visible before the shower's radiant point (in Leo) rises around local midnight. And peaks and bursts aside, the number of visible meteors increases steadily from radiant-rise until Leo is highest, just as the sky is starting to get light.
Be sure to bundle up warmly; meteor-watching is always colder than you expect. Ideal meteor-watching equipment is a comfortable lounge chair, a warm sleeping bag, and a pillow. If you live in a city or suburb, consider traveling to a dark location far from city skyglow. In any case, find a spot where no lights glare directly into your eyes.
The direction to watch is wherever your sky is darkest. Notice the meteors' flight paths; only those streaking away from the direction to the constellation Leo are Leonids.
Another, less-known meteor shower is going on simultaneously — the Taurids. They're sparse but tend to be very bright. If you see a slow, bright meteor heading away from the direction to Taurus, that's a Taurid.
And you're bound to see a few sporadics that aren't associated with any major shower.
The longest solar eclipse was watched by hundreds of people including school students at ASTRO observatory Payyanur. Even though clouds cast shadows over crowd gathered here till 6.45 am. Then the sun came out of clouds to show the cosmic drama of eclipse. ASTRO coordinator K Gangadharan Master gave class and instructions for the people gathered
Novae explode without warning, and even recurrent novae are pretty unpredictable. (For instance, we've been waiting way too long for T Pyxidis to erupt again
But here's a prediction about a recurrent nova that should go off in a specific year: 2009. I've calculated that the recurrent nova U Scorpii, north of Antares and east of the head of Scorpius, should explode any month now. My "crystal ball" is based on old archival photographs and data from amateur astronomers. This brings a golden opportunity for amateurs and professionals to catch the early hours of a nova eruption and to prepare in advance for an intensive observing campaign.
"Recurrent novae" are those that have had more than one eruption observed within a century or so. Classical novae too are believed to repeat, but on timescales of perhaps 1,000 to 100,000 years; we just haven't been watching long enough to see them do it yet.
U Sco is one of the most famous recurrent novae. In quiescence it usually hovers around magnitude 17.6, but in outburst it briefly shoots up by about 8 or 9 magnitudes. In fact, U Sco is the all-time fastest nova known. Its brightening from minimum to maximum takes only about 5 hours, and its decline to two magnitudes below maximum takes about 38 hours. U Sco's last three eruptions, in 1979, 1987, and 1999, were all discovered by amateur astronomers.
This week's sky
Meteor activity remains low during March. The only shower is a minor one deep in the southern sky. Still, you might see fine meteor dust in the form of the zodiacal light. This faint glow shows up best from dark observing sites during the moonless evenings after mid-March. Well after the Sun sets, twilight's last gleaming will give way to a lingering cone-shaped glow - the zodiacal light. The glow extends up through Aries and into Taurus.
The zodiacal light represents sunlight reflecting off dust particles concentrated along the ecliptic, the plane of our solar system. Because the dust lies in the ecliptic plane, the glow follows the constellations of the zodiac (hence the name). The glow shows up best when the ecliptic makes a steep angle to the horizon. In the Northern Hemisphere, this happens on evenings in early spring.
If you have a telescope, mark April 2–5, 2009, on your calendar. The world is coming your way.
An unprecedented string of public skywatching events will be packed into this brief period, all designed to engage people and bring them out for a worldwide star party that will cap the program on Saturday evening, April 4th.
Collectively, the period is called “100 Hours of Astronomy.” It’s a Cornerstone Project of the International Year of Astronomy 2009, tailor-made for amateurs who’d like to try some outreach. During the final 24 hours a global star party will sweep around the world, with local gatherings beginning as darkness descends. Even city street corners will come alive, with the third annual International Sidewalk Astronomy Night happening the first weekend in April. Thus many sidewalk astronomy regulars will already be at their stations.
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Saturn lies opposite the Sun in our sky March 8, which keeps it visible all night. Opposition also brings Saturn closest to Earth, so it shines brightest and appears biggest through a telescope. Saturn peaks at magnitude 0.5, making it the brightest object in its host constellation, Leo the Lion. The planet lies in southern Leo, beneath the Lion's hindquarters.
Comet Lulin this week is at its brightest and closest to Earth — right when the sky is conveniently moonless. Use binoculars or a telescope to look for it once it's well up in late evening. The comet is glowing at about magnitude 5.6 as it moves rapidly westward across Virgo.
In recent days the comet's dust-spike antitail has grown longer and stronger, completely outclassing its "true" tail, which points properly away from the Sun like a comet's tail should.
On Monday night, February 23rd, the comet passes 2° south-southwest of Saturn.
Lulin’s closest approach to Earth, 0.41 a.u. (61 million km), occurs on February 24th.
On the night of February 25th the comet goes through opposition, nearly 180° from the Sun in our sky. Will there be an "opposition effect" brightening of its dusty coma and dust tail? 
TAKE BACK THE NIGHT!
JOIN THE GLOBE AT NIGHT CAMPAIGN, 16-28 MARCH!
At least 2 out of 5 Americans, 1 out of 6 Europeans and 1 out of 10
people worldwide have never seen 90% of the stars in our night sky.
With half the world's population now living in cities, this problem is
only getting worse. Yet you can easily be part of a local solution to
a global problem.
Take back the night! Take a few minutes to monitor your local night
sky brightness, place your measurement on-line noting your location,
date and time and within a few weeks see a map of light pollution
levels worldwide.
Be part of the "GLOBE at Night" citizen-science campaign and make a
world of difference! The GLOBE at Night campaign runs March 16-28,
2009. Help preserve our natural heritage for generations to come. Find
out more information at www.globe.gov/globeatnight . GLOBE at Night is
an official International Year of Astronomy Dark Skies Awareness
cornerstone project.
100 hours of Astronomy is a 100-hour (from the 2nd to the 5th of April 2009), round-the-clock, round-the-globe event inside the International Year of Astronomy.
It consists of a wide range of public outreach activities, live science center, research observatory webcasts and sidewalk astronomy events. Events are mainly focused on the wonders of the starry night, but there are also events all around the world to observe the crescent Moon for early observer, and of course daytime observations of the Sun.
This Solar TG collaborates with 100 Hours, supporting any activity related to the Sun, and providing instructions, ideas and recommendations for safe solar observations.
And Sunday might perfectly be the best day for a solar event. Star parties on Sunday are difficult since everyone has to get up early for school or work. Let´s enjoy the Sunday, when everyone has free time and kids and adults can all enjoy the near but forgotten Sun and its wonders. Either get up early to start with a nice sunrise, go for a walk on the afternoon or enjoy a wonderful sunset. On the meantime you can participate on a 100 hours solar event. Ask your local astronomy center for more information. If you are an astronomy center, let´s organize one event!. There is no need to restrict it to the Sun, you can event start at sunset and continue with some star gazing…
Let the last day of 100 Hours be the Sun day, not just a Sunday.
For that reason, this page, and on the 100 hours website, we will be encouraging and helping everyone to organize their solar events this day. Here you can find, ideas, resources, experiments. Leave us our comments or ask us any question you might have.
Create your event! The perfect venue is outside, sunshine permitting.
* Always when observing the Sun, follow and educate everyone with safety instructions.
* Set up a telescope with a Solar filter, withe white light of H-Alpha.
* Create a pinhole camera to image the Sun, or better make a workshop to build your own pinhole camera.
* Talk, talk, talk. There are many many topics to talk about our Sun. Speaking about any of them, keeping the live shining reference above us, greatly helps to put closer the wonders and distant worlds of Astronomy. See below for a tentative lists of topics.
* There are many experiments to carry on, like
Measuring the Sun size, and others.
* Make a solar system play with kids (to talk about distances, speeds, sizes, space missions, …
* Construct an spectrometer with a CD.
* Show the photoelectric effect, use sun panels, talk about Solar energy.
* Make coordinated pairs of observations around the world to measure the Sun-Earth distance, or the Earth radius.
Take a look on our resources sections, there you can find links th more activities and experiments, as well as links with even more activities.
Indoors or outdoors, a thematic talk can be a very instructive idea. You can decide to do it just with your voice, or use media materials, like photos or videos (see below for references)
Thematics ( Brainstorming )
* Scales of the Sun, its dimensions, distances, inner parts, …
* Safety and the Sun. Observing the Sun, UV light, …
* Living on the Sun´s atmosphere, influences and safety and dangers due to the heliosphere.
* Space Weather: How the Sun can greatly influence the Earth. Magnetic storms, effects on technology, past solar maxima, dangers and protecting of the Earth´s magnetosphere.
* Current research efforts, satellites observing and serving live image of the Sun from many viewpoints.
* Current biggest misteries of the Sun, like the coronal heat.
* Use the Sun to talk about the life of a star.
* Talk about anecdotes related to the Sun, like the Carringtongs flare, the nuclear false positive, the little-ice age, Vancouver black out, telegraphy on the Sun batteries, proof of Einstein theories during an eclipse, the discovery of the Helium, …
* The Sun in history (from nature, life, to mythology, astrology, … )
* What if? cases: How would humans look like, or exists, if the Sun, were a bit bigger, closer, fainter, more active, calm, emitting more in X-rays or infrareds than on “Visible”, had a companion, Jupiter as a Sun…
* The brother Sun: The Sun and us, we all come from the same dust of a previous father Star.
* Ask an astronomer: Open tables to talk about the skies
Play some on the zillion on movies or documentals about the Sun, eclipses, …
Show the Live view from the Sun, like from Stereo, Hinode, Soho. Use videos of the Sun (Best of Soho, Hinode, Stereo, Trace), from the National Geographic, … (take a look to the resources pages for more links or send us your links!)
Ask your planetarium or science museum to prepare an astronomical event on that day.
Asteroid Ceres approaches Earth
February is a special occasion for the solar system's biggest asteroid. Not only is 1 Ceres making its closest approach to Earth since 1857, but it also will not get this close again for at least another millennium.
The long-term gravitational tugs of the planets conspire to modify Ceres' orbit just enough for this month's record-breaking event. Still, the difference between the asteroid's appearance now and at other favorable oppositions isn't huge. In 9 years, Ceres will be only 1.2 percent farther away.
You can follow Ceres through binoculars from your backyard. It sails through northern Leo during February, in a region without a lot of bright stars. Simply use the finder chart to pick out the pattern of nearby stars, then look for the interloper.
You may think this close approach will give you a chance to see Ceres without optical aid. You'd be right -- although not by much. At opposition, Ceres glows at magnitude 6.9 in a sparse starfield. Sharp-eyed observers under the darkest skies have seen objects this faint before. However, you'll have a better chance just 3 years from now. Ceres will then brighten to magnitude 6.7 thanks to the "opposition effect." The Sun-Earth-asteroid angle then will be closer to a straight line than during this month's slightly crooked arrangement. The better alignment in 2012 will increase Ceres' brightness more than the greater distance will decrease it.
On Friday Jan 30, 09 we are presented with a nice opportunity to catch Venus in broad day light.
On this day the Moon and Venus would be rising almost together. At about 10:00 a.m. if the sky is clear it should not be difficult to see the brightening lunar crescent well above the eastern horizon. Venus would be about two and quarter degrees south of the Moon. If one uses a small pair of binoculars one should be able to see these in the same field of view.
The best opportunity, however, comes when they will be crossing the meridian, an imaginary arc that passes through the north pole, the point right overhead and then the south pole. Close to the time is crosses the meridian (called transit time) time face due south and look strait up and then bend your neck down slightly southwards. You should be able to spot the Moon and then continue further down a bit and you can spot Venus.
Venus Rise, Transit and set times (in IST) for some cities in India are
rise transit set
Chennai 9h 01m 15h 12m 21h 26m
Bangalore 9h 25m 15h 27m 21h 28m
Jaipur 9h 32m 15h 34m 21h 36m
Kolkata 8h 42m 14h 44m 20h 46m
Mumbai 9h 44m 15h 46m 21h 47m
New Delhi 9h 26m 15h 28m 21h 30m
Pune 9h 39m 15h 41m 21h 43m
If you missed the event, never mind. Wait till it gets dark. It would be a magnificent view of the Moon and Venus next to each other above the western horizon.
Annular Solar Eclipse of January 26
The first solar eclipse of 2009 occurs at the Moon's ascending node in western Capricornus. An annular eclipse will be visible from a wide track that traverses the Indian Ocean and western Indonesia. A partial eclipse will be seen within the much larger path of the Moon's penumbral shadow, which includes the southern third of Africa, Madagascar, Australia except Tasmania, southeast India, Southeast Asia and Indonesia. (Figure 1).
The annular path begins in the South Atlantic at 06:06 UT when the Moon's antumbral shadow meets Earth and forms a 363 kilometre wide corridor. Traveling eastward, the shadow quickly sweeps south of the African continent, missing it by approximately 900 kilometres. Slowly curving to the northeast the path crosses the southern Indian Ocean. Greatest eclipse[1] takes place at 07:58:39 UT when the eclipse magnitude[2] will reach 0.9282. At this instant, the annular duration is 7 minutes 54 seconds, the path width is 280 kilometres and the Sun is 73° above the flat horizon formed by the open ocean. The central track continues northeast where it finally encounters land in the form of the Cocos Islands and onward to southern Sumatra and western Java (Figure 2). At 09:40 UT, the central line duration is 6 minutes 18 seconds and the Sun's altitude at 25°. In its final minutes, the antumbral shadow cuts across central Borneo and clips the northwestern edge of Celebes before ending just short of Mindanao, Philippines at 09:52 UT. During a 3 hour 46 minute trajectory across our planet, the Moon's antumbra travels approximately 14,500 kilometres and covers 0.9% of Earth's surface area. Path coordinates and central line circumstances are presented in Table 1.
Partial phases of the eclipse are visible primarily from southern Africa, Australia, Southeast Asia and Indonesia. Local circumstances for a number of cities are listed in Table 2. All times are given in Universal Time. The Sun's altitude and azimuth, the eclipse magnitude and obscuration[3] are all given at the instant of maximum eclipse.
This is the 50th eclipse of Saros 131. The family began with an unusually long series of 22 partial eclipses starting on 1125 Aug 01. The first central eclipse was total in the Northern Hemisphere on 1522 Mar 27. It was followed by 5 more total eclipses before the series produce 5 hybrid eclipses from 1630 to 1702. The first annular eclipse of Saros 131 occurred on 1720 Aug 04. The series will produce 29 more annular eclipses the last of which is 2243 Jun 18. Saros 131 terminates on 2369 Sep 02 after a string of 7 partial eclipses. Complete details for 70 eclipses in the series may be found at:
