Astronomical Events of 2011

As we are fast approaching the calendar year 2011, let us have a look at the Astronomical Events that will take place this year.

1. Quadrantids Meteor Shower 2011

- Active Start Date = 1st January

- Active End Date = 10th January

- Peak Date = 4th January

- Peak Rate = 60-120 per hour

2. January 4 - New Moon

3. Partial Solar Eclipse

- Date = January 4, 2011

- Visibility = Most parts of Europe, the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa and Western Asia and Northern India.

Animated Path of the Eclipse. Credit - A.T Sincalir and NASA

4. January 19 - Full Moon

5. February 3 - New Moon

6. February 17 - Neptune in Conjunction with Earth. A conjunction occurs when two celestial bodies appear one near another in the sky.

7. February 18 - Full Moon

8. March 4 - New Moon

9. March 19 - Full Moon

10. March 20 - The Vernal Equinox. This means that there will be equal hours of day and night. This is also the beginning of Spring.

11. April 3 - Saturn closest to Earth at 8,61 AU. This is the best time to view Saturn.

12. April 3 - New Moon

13. April 6 - Jupiter in conjunction with Earth.

14. April 8 - Jupiter at its furthest from Earth at 5,95 AU.

15. April 9 - Mercury in lower conjunction with Earth.

16. April 18 - Full Moon

17. Lyrids Meteor Shower 2011

- Active Start Date = April 16

- Active End Date = April 25

- Peak Date = April 22

- Peak Rate = 20 per hour

18. May 3 - New Moon

19. Eta Aquarids Meteor Shower 2011

- Active Start Date = May 4

- Active End Date = May 7
- Peak Date = May 6

- Peak Rate = 12 per hour

20. May 17 - Full Moon

21. Partial Solar Eclipse

- Date = June 1, 2011

- Visibility = Eastern Asia, Alaska, Northern Canada, and Greenland.

Animated Path of the Eclipse. Credit - A.T Sincalir and NASA

22. June 1 - New Moon

23. June 12 - Mercury in upper conjunction with Earth.

24. Total Lunar Eclipse

- Date = June 15, 2011

- Visibility = South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia. Visible throughout India.

Map of the Eclipse. Credit - NASA

25. June 15 - Full Moon

26. June 21 - The Summer Solstice. This occurs when Sun is at its highest point in the sky. This day is the longest day of the year and also the first day of summer.

27. June 26 - Pluto at its closest to Earth at 31,04 AU.

28. Partial Solar Eclipse

- Date = July 1, 2011

- Visibility = Only visible off the coast of Antarctica.

Animated Path of the Eclipse. Credit - A.T Sincalir and NASA

29. July 1 - New Moon

30. July 4 - Sun at its furthest from Earth at 1,02 AU.

31. July 15 - Full Moon

32. Southern Delta Aquarids Meteor Shower 2011

- Active Start Date = July 18

- Active End Date = August 18

- Peak Date = July 29

- Peak Rate = 20 per hour

33. July 30 - New Moon. This is the second new moon of the month, this is also referred to as the Black Moon.

34. Perseids Meteor Shower 2011

- Active Start Date = July 23

- Active End Date = August 22

- Peak Date = August 13

- Peak Rate = 60 per hour

35. August 13 - Full Moon

36. August 13 - Venus at its furthest from Earth at 1,73 AU and Mercury at its closest to Earth at 0,61 AU.

37. August 22 - Neptune at its closest to Earth at 29,00 AU. This is the best time to view the planet.

38. August 29 - New Moon

39. September 12 - Full Moon

40. September 23 - The Autumnal Equinox. This means that there will be equal amounts of day and night. This is also the beginning of Fall.

41. September 25 - Uranus at its closest to Earth at 19,08 AU. This is the best time to view the planet.

42. September 27 - New Moon

43. October 6 - Mercury at its furthest from Earth at 1,42 AU.

44. October 12 - Full Moon

45. October 13 - Saturn in conjunction with Earth. Also, at this point Saturn is at its furthest from Earth at 10,67 AU.

46. Orionids Meteor Shower 2011

- Active Start Date = October 17

- Active End Date = October 25

- Peak Date = October 21

- Peak Rate = 20 per hour

47. October 26 - New Moon

48. October 29 - Jupiter at its closest to Earth at 3,97 AU. This is the best time to view the planet.

49. November 10 - Full Moon

50. Leonids Meteor Shower 2011

- Active Start Date = November 13

- Active End Date = November 20

- Peak Date = November 18

- Peak Rate = 40 per hour

51. Partial Solar Eclipse

- Date = November 25, 2011

- Visibility = Over Antarctica and parts of South Africa and Tasmania.

Animated Path of the Eclipse. Credit - A.T Sincalir and NASA

52. November 25 - New Moon

53. December 4 - Mercury at its closest to Earth at 0,68 AU.

54. Total Lunar Eclipse

- Date = December 10, 2011

- Visibility = Europe, Eastern Africa, Asia, Australia, the Pacific Ocean, and North America. Visible throughout India at Moonrise.

Map of the Eclipse. Credit - NASA

55. Geminids Meteor Shower 2011

- Active Start Date = December 6

- Active End Date = December 19

- Peak Date = December 14

- Peak Rate = 60 per hour

56. December 21 - The Winter Solstice. This occurs when the Sun is at its lowest point in the sky. It will also be the shortest day of the year and the first day of winter.

57. December 24 - New Moon

58. December 31 - Pluto at its furthest from Earth at 33,13 AU.

That's all from 2011. Happy viewing!

Copyright AFA (Goa), this calendar is an original work of the Association of Friends of Astronomy, Goa.

Into the Blue - Planet Uranus!

Guess who dropped in to visit Panjim on December 19th, Sunday? If you were there at the Public Astronomical Observatory in Panjim from 7 to 9 pm that day, you would have been witness to a unique public observation programme of Planet Uranus. Yes, Planet Uranus - The very Blue Planet, the 7th in our Solar System.

The sky cleared itself, some 40-odd people came in early and the air was hot, all in the prospect of getting a peek of Uranus. This was facilitated by the Celestron C-14 Schmidt-Cassegrain Telescope, the observatory's newest and famous member. Close to a 100 people attended the observation cum film screening, a number not quite expected (we never ever mind the huge publicity, though) but they say, the word of mouth is the fastest. And so it was.

The sky was so clear that the people got a rare glimpse of the elusive rings of the planet, along with its round blue body. Then 8 inch and 5 inch Reflecting Telescopes were pointed towards Jupiter and Moon, somewhat regular these winter days. After a brief presentation on Uranus by member Raj Kunkolienkar, there was also a film screening done. The program concluded at 9 pm.

Another activity of the AFA Observer's club was complete. Perhaps the upcoming Quadrantids will be a treat. The Americans will be treated to a shadow play by the moon. Well, they say Sky Is The Limit!

Showering Delight–Geminids 2010

A first hand account of the Geminid Meteor Shower observation conducted on the 14th of December 2010  by Raj Kunkolienkar.
  
   14th December 2010 would have passed of in my life as an another rather ordinary day, had it not been for some bouts of craziness that only astronomy can instil in oneself. Since a few years that I have been involved in amateur astronomy, this was one of the most fulfilling moments that I had. I was on duty at the observatory, a cold winter night promised me some of the usual delights of the sky including the awesome nebula in Orion and the Andromeda galaxy, along with a dazzling display by the Moon and Jupiter to brighten my day up. Little did I know, that there was a big thing waiting in line, down the horizon!
  As me and my colleague and friend Anmol Naik let the visitors peep through the universe through the 5” telescope, we managed to catch a glimpse of a few meteors here and there, which aroused our interests. As an amateur, I am not supposed to forget stuff like prominent meteor showers, but that is what I did!! Realising that we had a good sky in hand, one of the best of the season, we decided to have a meteor watch the very next day after checking out the fine details of the event. But, confusion with time zones prevailed and this led to the chaos!
   After resuming my usual internet browsing session at home that very night, I found to my horror that the shower was meant to peak at midnight. The very same night! Realizing that I had just a hour or two in hand, I pressed the panic button and started making frantic calls to my seniors and fellow observers to hatch a plan for observation. This started to look seemingly difficult to materialize as our seniors were just returning from a programme at Bondla. But after a few swings from one end to the other, we finally got the nod for the night!!!
  
And there we were, the three of us, me, Anmol and Omkar Borkar who had decided to brave the cold nights of December to catch a glimpse of this amazing annual display called Geminds!
Getting a little technical, the Geminids have a radiant lying just besides Castor, one of the heads of the twins in the constellation Gemini. This shower is said to be the 2nd most consistent meteor shower annually, after the Persids and has garnered a lot of attraction from astronomy fanatics this decade due to the rise in its activity which is caused due to the remains of comet 3200 Phaethon in the the orbit of the Earth around the sun. The expected peak rates for India ranged from a 60-140 ZHR. But, as we were to observe form a location affected by light pollution, we expected much less of a show. The last time I had stayed back for a shower, I had seen only 15 meteors through-out the whole course of observation throughout the night, that being the 2009 Quadrantid shower.
  As I was leaving home, I just managed to message a schoolmate of mine, Riya Borkar that there was shower happening tonight as I knew she was very much interested in astronomy and incidentally one can see her window from the Observatory, and thus ensued a round of crazy gesturing to her to communicate to her the general direction to look up to. I was really glad to see people getting interested in such events, by looking at the number of updates posted about the shower on Facebook. But now, was the time for the show to begin!

  After a quick tour through a few Messiers,  we settled down, our heads making an angle of 120° with each other. As the show began, we realized that we would get much more than expected!!!
  Our main motive being to enjoy the shower, we didn’t give much strain on carrying out a detailed observation nor photography due to the lack of manpower, but did not forget to make a mention of every meteor that we observed, with respect to its path and magnitude. For an hour or so, we had to face the extreme. From a period of a few meteors in a minute to a dry spell of about five minutes, we had to face it all! But, with the true spirit and patience of an amateur, we sang and talked our way, perhaps just to make sure that we do not doze off!

  After a short break and a tally, we concluded that the plan was a success and truly worth all the hassle taken! Most of the brighter meteors ended up in the constellations of Orion, Canis Major, Canis Minor and Auriga, with Gemini not far behind. During the next spell, the mercury dropped even lower, making way for the chilly winds. Although the magnitudes of the meteors ranged from -3 to 4, we did no distinct fireballs or Bolides were observed, but that is very much typical of the Geminds. By that time we had a tally of 121 meteors, and that number would be good enough to last me for a few lifetimes, to put it straight! This was our first major shower observation, and the number of ‘WOW’s would have made our mood very clear to you, if you had graced your presence!

  Unfortunately, at about 2:25 am, due to the wind-speed, we had clouds moving in slowly and thus forcing us to cut short our observation, almost half-way!! Although, this very news was disheartening, it could not overshadow the joy of seeing all those bright wonders, streaks of light that made my day! We wrapped up in a matter of minutes and despite being prepared to stay awake the whole night, we found more sense in sleeping under the table (employed some science in here) in the observatory room besides the terrace, thus ending another one of our crazy endeavours with an equally funny thing. Besides that, we also conducted observation of Venus and Saturn in the morning before leaving for our respected houses.

 A time-lapse video of the Geminids sourced from YouTube

(Please note that we are planning to stay up for the Quadrantids on Jan 3^rd or 4^th, having the same rate as Geminids are expected, with the bonus addition of a new moon)