[Friends_of_SSASTROS] A Couple of Potential Pre-Meeting Observing Opportunities.

[Mike McCabe]

Greetings Astronomy Enthusiasts,
Before I issue our formal meeting invitation for the Feb 1 meeting, I thought I'd share a couple of potential observing opportunities while it is timely to do so.
First up of course is the comet, technically known as C/2022 e3 ZTF but affectionately known as 'Edgar' to us. Seeing this comet is merely a matter of knowing where to look, when to look there, and having a pair of binoculars handy. We've issued multiple charts and observing alerts over the past week, so we don't need to repeat those. if you lost them you can find them the same way we did...just Google it. With the comet now moving southward and the Moon's presence becoming more prominent in the sky, it's perhaps more important to understand the best times for viewing it to negate the impact of the Moon's bright light, because moonlight significantly affects comet viewing. For that, we have Bob King to the rescue! Use his chart below to plan your observing sessions of Edgar.


Speaking of the Moon, on the evening of the 30th/31st of January it will be sidling up to Mars again for another close encounter similar to the one we had back in December. Here's what to look for;
Back on December 30th I took a picture of the Haydes/Mars/Pleiades arrangement in the sky. Interestingly, the position of Mars hasn't changed very much due to it stopping its retrograde motion and sitting apparently still for a bit since. This is the scene you'll want to be looking for just after midnight on the 30th:


The big difference between the 30th of December and the 30th of January will be the insertion of the Moon in the scene. The Moon and Mars will pass close enough to be able to fit both celestial bodies in a low-power telescopic view, like shown below:


Thanks to Matt Schricker's awesome lunar imaging and my shameless commandeering of any picture I desire to manipulate, I've crafted a hypothetical image of the encounter at closest approach. Don't be fooled by it though, that Moon's big bad light will snuff out most of those star's light to your eyes, but it sure looks good on paper;


Finally, if it's clear on the evening of our meeting, be outside just before we get started to see a very bright ISS pass stream out of the NW and fade out while still rather high towards the S/SW. It's always fun to watch that light slowly dim its way to dark as Earth's shadow engulfs it, and if we can see it it will be a great way to get our club night started.



Keep Looking Up!
Mike McCabe
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://ssastros.org/pipermail/friends_of_ssastros_ssastros.org/attachments/20230129/a562429a/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: 1675012286514blob.jpg
Type: image/png
Size: 52044 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://ssastros.org/pipermail/friends_of_ssastros_ssastros.org/attachments/20230129/a562429a/attachment.png>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: 1675012552032blob.jpg
Type: image/png
Size: 2326025 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://ssastros.org/pipermail/friends_of_ssastros_ssastros.org/attachments/20230129/a562429a/attachment-0001.png>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: 1675012672845blob.jpg
Type: image/png
Size: 94308 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://ssastros.org/pipermail/friends_of_ssastros_ssastros.org/attachments/20230129/a562429a/attachment-0002.png>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: 1675012868230blob.jpg
Type: image/png
Size: 2586659 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://ssastros.org/pipermail/friends_of_ssastros_ssastros.org/attachments/20230129/a562429a/attachment-0003.png>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: 1675013062069blob.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 256176 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://ssastros.org/pipermail/friends_of_ssastros_ssastros.org/attachments/20230129/a562429a/attachment.jpg>