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NAKED EYE ADVENTURES IN OCTOBER
Measurement Guide
Hold your pinky up by itself = One degree
Hold up your middle three fingers = Five degrees
Hold up your fist = Ten degrees
Hold up only your pinky and forefinger = Fifteen degrees
Always hold your hand at arms length for best results.
ASTEROID SULAMITIS TO OCCULT MU GEMINORUM
On Monday morning, NOVEMBER 20th, observers in a narrow path across the United
States may be able to see the naked-eye star Mu Geminorum briefly snuffed out
by the asteroid 752 Sulamitis. Only once before in the history of astronomy
has anyone knowingly witnessed a star this bright being occulted by an
asteroid.
In early October of this year, both Martin Federspiel (Freiburg Planetarium,
Germany) and Edwin Goffin (Agfa-Gevaert, Belgium) recomputed the path with the
help of new positions obtained by Ron Stone (U.S. Naval Observatory) after the
asteroid emerged from the Sun's glare late last summer. Surprisingly, these
new calculations show the path to be very close to that originally obtained by
Goffin.
The occultation is expected to occur in a 10-minute window centered on 11:45
Universal Time (6:45 a.m. EST). The path runs from North Carolina, across
Canada, to Alaska.
Look for the elusive planet Mercury almost directly below the thin crescent moon!
Have you been keeping track of Jupiter and Saturns movements? Most of the time planets move eastward through the stars
But right now both planets are moving "backwards throught the constellations. This movement is known as retrograde. Soon Jupiter
will be in pleisades and Saturn will be closer to the Tauris-Aries border.
Here's an easy one. Though it is not a constellation, it is a helpful star pattern.
The SUMMER TRIANGLE contains 3 distinct stars and each star belongs to it's own constellation.
Look in the south eastern sky at sunset. Only the brightest stars show at first. This brillaint triangle stands out like a sore thumb!
Think big it's pretty good size-staring at mid horizon and rising high into the sky. The point of the triangle points down.
"VEGA" is the brightest and the highest.
"ALTAIR" is to the east and "DENEB" is the brightest star to Vega's lower left.
Vega is home to "LYRA" the harp.
You'll find CYGNUS the swan in DENEB. One of the brightest portions of the Milky Way lies in Cygnus
a little to the right of Deneb.
THE STAR Algol (Beta Persei) was the first eclipsing variable star ever discovered, and it's still the most famous one. If you know where the constellation Perieus is.
Algol fades and rebrightens every 2.87 days. Its changes are very plain to the naked eye. In the middle of an eclipse it shines dimly at magnitude 3.4 instead of its usual 2.1.
ALGOL ECLIPSE DATES
| DATE | U-TIME | EST | CST | MST | PST | ALASKA | HAWAII |
| Nov23 | 16:37 | --- | --- | --- | --- | 7:37am | 6:37am |
| Nov26 | 13:26 | 8:26am | 7:26am | 6:26am | 5:26am | 4:26am |
| Nov29 | 10:15 | 5:15am | 4:15am | 3:15am | 2:15am | 1:15am | 12:15am |
| Dec2 | 7:04 | 2:04am | 1:04am | 12:04am | 11:04pm | 10:04pm | 9:04pm |
| Dec5 | 3:53 | 10:53pm | 9:53pm | 8:53pm | 7:53pm | 6:53pm | 5:53pm |
Don't forget to report it to starnotes
Find out about 11 more naked eye varible stars from the website of Sky and telescope
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Webmaster: T. Monson-Revised Nov 12 2000 [TM]
