[Friends_of_SSASTROS] Something You Can Definitely See...

[Mike McCabe]

...and something you can't, at least not yet.
I was on my way home last night from running an errand when I saw a rather ho-hum sunset along the western horizon. Knowing there was more to it than that, I pulled over and snapped a pic.

See that bright dot just above the distant treeline and between the foreground trees? That's Venus, the mythical Goddess of Love and the second planet from the Sun in our solar system.
Venus is having what we astronomy types refer to as an 'eastern elongation', meaning that its to the east of the Sun in the sky from our perspective. It can also be called an 'evening apparition', and that's because it will only be visible in the evenings until it passes in front of the Sun from our perspective, at which point it will then switch over to a 'western elongation' and have a 'morning apparition'.
Due to the timing of this particular evening apparition in conjunction with Earth's travels around the Sun, Venus will appear to essentially slide southward at about the same altitude after sunset each night, this apparent sideways motion continuing until December. Come the Christmas month, Venus will then dart higher and higher upward each night, culminating at its highest in the western sky around mid-February.
One of the more attractive parts of any Venus apparition is the numerous conjunctions that are sure to occur with any number of other objects in the sky. There are a number of sources that can help to keep you apprised of the travels of the Goddess of Love, and the SSAS membership roster boasts one of the best in the business...Vernon, watchugotforus?  
So while Venus is easy to pick out in the sky, the impending nova T Crb is not. That's because it hasn't happened yet, but you should be looking anyway. Nobody knows exactly when - or if - this event will occur, but it's easy to check in on to find out.

This was my sky last night at just past 9pm. For those of us that look at the sky frequently, we can just scan the area and declare whether or not something is happening. For the uninitiated, a little help might go a long way towards understanding the scene.

The brightest and easiest stars to see with the naked eye are Arcturus, Izar and Alphecca. Most of the stars seen in this picture show up well with just a 2x teleconverter held up to the eye. The advantage of 2x is that the field of view is very wide, allowing entire constellations to be seen in the same field of view.
But you won't really need anything to determine whether the nova has gone into outburst or not. Supposedly it will brighten to the level of Alphecca, so if you just look at the western sky in the coming evenings and can see Arcturus, Izar and Alphecca, but no dot where T CrB will shine, then you've successfully determined that the nova hasn't happened yet, but if you do see a dot in the designated spot, it has. Now isn't that exciting?  
Keep Looking Up!
Mike McCabe
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