A Comet for Halloween

Last week a surprising visitor showed up unannounced in the skies – a comet. Now, this comet, called 17P/Holmes, has been around a while, and is usually an extremely dim object, needing large telescopes to see. But early last week the comet underwent a “super outburst” and became over 600,000 times brighter! In the space of a few hours, it went from a really dim object to one that you could see without a telescope.

Over the past week it has gotten bigger and brighter, and is easily seen in the northeast sky in the constellation Perseus (click here for graphic).

An image of comet 17P/Holmes taken at the James C. Veen Observatory

Veen Observatory Visitors’ Night for October 27th

 

With clearing skies tonight (Saturday night) the James C. Veen Observatory – located south of Lowell, MI – will be open for public tours and telescopic observations. This is the final public night of the 2007 season.

Here are the particulars:

Time: 7.30pm – 10.30pm (Note the earlier start and end times!)
Admission: $3 – Adults, $2 – kids 17 and under, under 5 free

Full information on Visitors’ Nights can be found on the Grand Rapids Amateur Astronomical Association website – graaa.org. Just click on the Visitors’ Night link in the menu.

There you will find a map showing directions to the observatory, and a FAQ about visitors’ nights. On the main page of the site, click on the OPEN sign, and you will be taken to a page with particulars about the specific night detailing what objects will be featured through the telescopes.

Tonight’s featured objects will be the planets Uranus and Neptune, the farthest planets from the sun. In addition, we will be looking at some of the finest objects of deep space as well, including galaxies, nebulas and star clusters. And who knows what else. After all, we’ve got the whole night sky to choose from.

If you go out to the observatory, we’d love to hear your thoughts about the experience. You can leave comments here, or drop an email to graaa @ graaa.org.

October’s “Extra Full” Moon

This Friday morning, at 12.51am EDT, the moon will reach its “full” phase, shining down brightly on the landscape below. Does it look a little brighter to you? Perhaps a little bigger? Well, you are correct.

This month’s full moon has the advantage of taking place only six hours before the moon’s closest approach to the earth, or perigee. October’s full moon is 14% larger and 30% brighter than other full moons this year.

This month the moon is only 356,754 km (221,676 miles) from the earth, which is the closest of the year 2007. Conversely, on November 9th the moon will be at its furthest point (apogee) from the earth, at 406670 km (252693 miles). The “smallest” full moon of 2007 was in April, when the full moon was 406326 km (252479 miles) from the earth.

The moon orbits the earth in an ellipse (see diagram), with an average distance of 384,400 km (238,855 miles). This distance changes within about 48,280 km (30,000 miles) between apogee and perigee.

This month’s moon is also the Hunter’s Moon, which is always the full moon next after the Harvest Moon.

So if it’s clear Thursday night, go on out and check out the full moon. Do you feel a little closer to it? Is it brightening your evening? Relax and bathe in the soft glow of our celestial neighbor.

(Click here for an image of the perigee full moon and apogee full moon)