Astronomy Israel

Tuesday, January 6, 2015

Comet Lovejoy is Looking Very Good!

We were out with a group tonight and saw Comet Lovejoy/Q2 2014 for the first time. And Boy! is it looking good. Despite the full moon and winter haze in the sky is bright and easy to see. Once identified with binoculars I could just make it out with the naked eye! That probably makes it a 4th magnitude object, much brighter than I had expected. In fact Lovejoy is the best comet I have seen in over 10 years! In the binoculars it looked like a faint, fuzzy, greenish glow. In my telescope I could see the solid nucleus surrounded by the coma and just a hint of tail in the bright, moonlit sky.

It will continue to brighten throughout January, and once the full moon is out of the sky by January 9 it should be dazzling. Here, again, is a star chart with Comet Lovejoy's position marked for each night of January 2015. Be sure to go out an look for it. It is well placed in the night sky a few hours after sunset and for the rest of the night. Let us know if you see it and your impressions of it.

Comet Lovejoy should be an excellent sight in the Israeli sky once the moon is gone after January 9. Use this finder chart to see it. This is the sky in the Southeast and South a few hours after sunset. It is an easy binocular object now and may brighten to easy naked eye visibility as January progresses.

Monday, January 5, 2015

Who is the Starman of Mitzpe Ramon?

A Stunning Time Lapse Video of Comet Lovejoy

Comet Lovejoy screen grab from this video

Comet Lovejoy 2014 Q2

What is a Star Tour?

Everyone wants to know - what are these star tours that the Starman of Mitzpe Ramon is famous for?

Well, this blog is full of information about what we do on our star tours, but in brief:

WHAT WE DO

Thanks for your interest in my star tours. My tours last about two hours, usually starting at 9:30pm or sometimes 6:00pm/6:30pm in the winter. The first half we do naked eye observing of the sky, identifying constellations, learning star lore, understanding how the sky works; the second half we go to the telescopes to view the best sights of the night. I set up my "portable observatory" in the desert behind Mitzpe Ramon, meet people at their hotels and guide them up to my observing location. We provide chairs and blankets for everyone, and No, no walking is required. The planets and stars are too far away! We let our eyes do the walking. I can usually take people in my own car up to my observing location. But if my car is full I may ask you to follow me in yours the short distance to my observing location (about 3 kilometers) behind town. No four-wheel drive required.

WHEN DO WE DO IT?

We go out every clear night, except Shabbat (Friday night) and Jewish holidays.

WHEN IS THE BEST TIME FOR A STAR TOUR?

Mitzpe Ramon has some of the darkest, most easily accessible skies in Israel. There is some light pollution here, but on a dark night the Milky Way is bright and easily visible, and the sky is star studded. The best nights to come if you want to see the sky that way is when there is no moon in the sky. See the Moon Phase Calendar on this site for dates of the dark of the moon. Of course, if your schedule does not allow this, we still go out every clear, non-holiday night and have a star adventure non pareil.

COST

The cost is 150nis/adult, 75nis/child 6-12, no cost for children under 6yo, max charge of 750nis/nuclear family. Please pay in shekels or Israeli checks, but if you have Greenbacks, Euros, or Pounds, I can take those in a pinch. Ask about special prices for larger groups.

WEATHER

It is cold in the desert at night, even in the summer, so I recommend people dress warmly year round, very warmly in winter. I also bring blankets for people. My star tours are group activities.

SIZE OF THE GROUP

I do not do exclusive tours. Size of the group is highly variable. Could be only you; could be as many as 20 people. Holidays are usually the busiest time of year. Whatever the size, the sky is large so everyone gets a front row seat.

EXPERIMENTS

I sometimes experiment using different equipment and different modes of observation. When something works, it becomes a permanent part of the tour. For large groups I sometimes use my astrovideo camera which displays what the telescope is viewing on a TV monitor.

To make a reservation call or email with the following information --

Name:
Size of group with ages of children:
Date(s) of desired star tour:
Your email address:
Hotel where you will be staying:
Mobile number where you can be reached in Israel:
Will you have your own transportation:

Looking forward to seeing you under the starry skies of Mitzpe Ramon!

Ira "The Starman of Mitzpe Ramon" Machefsky

We make the mysteries of the Cosmos easier to understand than this!

Sunday, January 4, 2015

Don't Miss Comet Lovejoy in Israeli Skies this January!

Comets are fickle creatures. They seem to know when we are hyping them and deliberately put on a disappointing show. Comet ISON of November 2013 was one such beast. Sometimes hyped as a "Comet of the Century" it flew too close to the sun and disintegrated into a cometary dust heap, leaving sky watchers around the world disappointed. On the other hand, more modest and unheralded comets can surprise with a bright display. Comet Lovejoy, now visible in Israeli skies, is an example of one such modest, surprising comet that is putting on a good show. (It can actually be seen well from most places on earth but since this is "Astronomy Israel" I will focus my remarks for Israeli sky watchers.)

Comet Lovejoy is now a naked eye object in the southern night sky, but at around magnitude 6 just barely. Magnitude 6 is the dimmest visible with the naked eye, and not even Mitzpe Ramon has magnitude 6 skies. However, with the aid of a modest pair of binoculars it should be easy to see. It should continue to brighten throughout the month of January, although it is difficult to say exactly how bright it will become.

The word "comet" means "hair" in Latin, because comets look like "hairy stars" or fuzzy stars. Only really bright comets have long, easily visible tails. Astronomers call comets "dirty snowballs", primitive aggregations of ices, dust and rocks left over from the earliest days of the creation of the solar system. Most are 4 1/2 plus billion years old. As they orbit the sun and approach closer to it they begin to melt, emitting a gas and dust tail that we see as the "hair" of the comet.

Comet Lovejoy as seen at the end of November 2014. This is a time lapse photo through a large telescope. You will not see this in your binoculars or even a backyard telescope. But this is what the beast looked like at the end on November.

Comet Lovejoy will be in the south/southeast sky after sunset and into the evening near the easily found constellations of Orion and Taurus the Bull. This is a close approximation of what it might look like in your binoculars.

Comet Lovejoy as it is likely to look through your binoculars on a dark, moonless night.

One of my favorite photos of Comet Lovejoy is this one taken from Shanghai.

Comet Lovejoy as seen over Shanghai skies in early January. This is a three-photo mosaic.

The moon is full in early January, and Israeli skies are full of clouds and predicted sand storms through the week of January 4-10. When the full moon is out of the sky and skies clear we should have our best opportunities to spot the comet. Below is a sky chart with the position of the comet for each day in January.

Position of Comet Lovejoy each night through the month of January

The constellations Orion and Taurus are bright and easily seen, rising in the east/south east and culminating in the south around midnight. The 5-sided constellation Auriga will be nearly overhead when Orion crosses the meridian around midnight.

Let us know if you see Lovejoy and share any photos!

Thursday, December 11, 2014

Geminids Meteor Shower Peaks on the Night of December 13, Morning of December 14

The Geminids meteor shower peaks this Saturday night and early Sunday morning. You can expect to see 60-80 meteors per hour under dark skies after midnight on Saturday night. However, the last quarter moon also rises then, and its light will block out the dimmer members of the shower. The Geminids, however, are known for many bright meteors so the show will go on despite the moon. (By the way, did you now that the full moon is 9 times brighter than the quarter moon? Well, now you do!)

The best way to view the shower is lying on the ground, looking straight up, with your naked eyes. Meteor showers are whole sky phenomena, so optical aids are not called for. You don't even need to know where the "radiant" is, although it helps in understanding meteor showers.

Meteor showers occur when the earth crossesthe orbit of an old comet or asteroid. Parts of the comet or asteroid are left behind as it orbits the sun, kind of like a messy family throwing garbage out of their car. When the earth encounters this debris as it orbits the sun, the bits of the comet or orbit fall to earth at great speed and burn up from friction, creating the light of the meteorite (also called a "falling star" or a "shooting star", since that's what they look like). Due to a perspective effect the meteors all appear to originate at a single location in the sky, if you draw a line back along their path. That location is callled the "radiant" the point from which the meteors appear to originate. In the case of the Geminids, they appear to originate near the bright star Castor in the constellation Gemini, hence the name of this shower. But you need not look directly at the radiant to get a good view of the shower. The Geminids originate from a small asteroid, 3200 Phaeton, which is the named asteroid with the closest approach to the sun.

The radiant of the Geminids meteor shower lies near the bright star Castor, one of the Twins in the constellation Gemini. Pollux is the other.

If you are down Mitzpe Ramon way, I will be having a free star party and star tour on Saturday night, starting at 9:30pm. No charge, come one come all. I will be at an observing location behind Mitzpe Ramon on the road to the Alpaca Farm and the Wise Observatory. It's the continuation of the main entrance to town, Ben Gurion Blvd., which begins at the traffic circle entrance to Mitzpe on Route 40.

The red "X" marks the spot of the star party on Saturday night, December 13.

I usually drive around to the hotels to pick people up for my star tours but will not be able to do so for this open star party. If you get lost call me at 052-544-9789. If I don't answer, I'm in the middle of doing part of my star tour

To find the star party: The location is marked by the red "X" in the above map. Drive up Ben Gurion Blvd., the main street in Mitzpe Ramon. Keep following it into the dark behind town toward the Alpaca Farm and Field School. In about 1 mile there is an intersection for the Alpaca Farm and Field School. Do not turn off. Drive through the intersection. In about 3/4 of a mile you will come to a small forest of pine trees on the left, easy to see in daylight, hard to see at night. You will probably see campfires on the left as there are likely to be people camping there to see the meteor shower. Drive to the end of forest and turn left on the unmarked, unpaved dirt road. Go around the forest to the far side. You will see me set up there. If you come to a dead end at the observatory you went too far on the paved road.

Happy Meteor hunting!!