Half-Moon Makes Dramatic Pass at Uranus Tonight

Sunday, December 28, 2014

Half-Moon Makes Dramatic Pass at Uranus Tonight

Half-Moon Makes Dramatic Pass at Uranus Tonight:

The half-moon creeps up on the planet Uranus this evening. The two will be near each other all night in the constellation Pisces, but closest - less than one-third of a moon diameter apart - just before midnight (CST). The views are what you'll see in a pair of binoculars. The 4th magnitude star Delta Piscium is at top in the field. Source: Stellarium

The half-moon creeps up on the planet Uranus this evening. The two will be near one other all night in the constellation Pisces but closest – less than one-third of a Moon diameter apart – around 11:45 p.m. (CST). The views are what you’ll see in a pair of binoculars. The 4th magnitude star Delta Piscium is at top. Source: Stellarium

Sunlight. Moonlight. Starlight. I saw all three for the first time in weeks yesterday. Filled with photons, I feel lighter today, less burdened. Have you been under the clouds too? Let’s hope it’s clear tonight because there’s a nice event you’ll want to see if only because it’s so effortless.

The half-moon will pass very close to the planet Uranus for skywatchers across North America. Pop the rubber lens caps off those binoculars and point them at the Moon. If you look a short distance to the left you’ll notice a star-like object. That’s the planet!

Seattle, two time zones west of the Midwest, will see the two closest around 9:30 p.m. local time. Source: Stellarium

You can do this anytime it’s dark, but the later you look the better because the Moon moves eastward and closer to the planet as the hours tick by. Early in the evening, the two will be separated by a couple degrees, but around 11:30 p.m. (CST) when the moon reclines in the western sky, the planet will dangle like an solitary diamond less than a third of a lunar diameter away.

The farther north you live, the closer the twain will be. Skywatchers in Japan, the northeastern portion of Russia, northern Canada and Alaska will see the Moon completely hide Uranus for a time. The farther west you are, the higher the Moon will be when they conjoin. West Coast states see the pair highest when they’re closest, but everyone will get a good view.

Binocular view from the desert city of Tucson around 10:45 p.m. local time tonight. Source: Stellarium

Binocular view from the desert city of Tucson around 10:45 p.m. local time tonight. You can see that the Moon is a little farther north of the planet compared to the view from Seattle. The 1,500 miles between the two cities is enough to cause our satellite, which is relatively close to the Earth, to shift position against the background stars. Source: Stellarium

When closest, the radically different character of each world can best be appreciated in a telescope. Pump the magnification up to 150x and slide both planet and Moon into the same field of view. Uranus, a pale blue dot, wears a permanent cover of methane-laced clouds where temperatures hover around -350°F (-212°C).

Though the moon will be lower in the sky, observers in the eastern U.S. and Canada will still see planet and moon only about 1/2 degree apart before moonset. Source: Stellarium

Though the Moon will be lower in the sky in the eastern U.S. and Canada when it’s closest to Uranus, observers there will still see planet and Moon only 1/2 degree apart shortly before moonset. Source: Stellarium

The fantastically large-appearing Moon in contrast has precious little atmosphere and its sunny terrain bakes at 250°F (121°C). And just look at those craters! First-quarter phase is one of the best times for Moon viewing. The terminator or shadow-line that divides lunar day from night slices right across the middle of the lunar landscape.

Shadows cast by mountain peaks and crater rims are longest and most dramatic around this time because we look squarely down upon them. At crescent and gibbous phases, the terminator is off to one side and craters and their shadows appear scrunched and foreshortened.

The day-night line or terminator cuts across a magnificent landscape rich with craters and mountain ranges emerging from the lunar night. Several prominent lunar “seas” or maria and prominent craters are shown. Credit: Christian Legrand and Patrick Chevalley / Virtual Moon Atlas

Enjoy the tonight’s conjunction and consider the depth of space your view encompasses. Uranus is 1.85 billion miles (2.9 billion km) from Earth today, some 7,700 times farther away than the half-moon.

About Bob King

I'm a long-time amateur astronomer and member of the American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO). My observing passions include everything from auroras to Z Cam stars. Every day the universe offers up something both beautiful and thought-provoking. I also write a daily astronomy blog called Astro Bob.

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The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is the United States government agency responsible for the civilian space program as well as aeronautics and aerospace research. President Dwight D. Eisenhower established the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in 1958 with a distinctly civilian (rather than military) orientation encouraging peaceful applications in space science. The National Aeronautics and Space Act was passed on July 29, 1958, disestablishing NASA's predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). The new agency became operational on October 1, 1958.

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The Oxford English Dictionary defines a UFO as "An unidentified flying object; a 'flying saucer'." The first published book to use the word was authored by Donald E. Keyhoe. The acronym "UFO" was coined by Captain Edward J. Ruppelt, who headed Project Blue Book, then the USAF's official investigation of UFOs. He wrote, "Obviously the term 'flying saucer' is misleading when applied to objects of every conceivable shape and performance. For this reason the military prefers the more general, if less colorful, name: unidentified flying objects. UFO (pronounced Yoo-foe) for short." Other phrases that were used officially and that predate the UFO acronym include "flying flapjack", "flying disc", "unexplained flying discs", "unidentifiable object", and "flying saucer". The phrase "flying saucer" had gained widespread attention after the summer of 1947. On June 24, a civilian pilot named Kenneth Arnold reported seeing nine objects flying in formation near Mount Rainier. Arnold timed the sighting and estimated the speed of discs to be over 1,200 mph (1,931 km/h). At the time, he described the objects' shape as being somewhat disc-like or saucer-like, leading to newspaper accounts of "flying saucers" and "flying discs". In popular usage the term UFO came to be used to refer to claims of alien spacecraft. and because of the public and media ridicule associated with the topic, some investigators prefer to use such terms as unidentified aerial phenomenon (or UAP) or anomalous phenomena, as in the title of the National Aviation Reporting Center on Anomalous Phenomena (NARCAP).

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Sunday, December 28, 2014