Comet Catalina ‘The Christmas Comet’: Where to see it

On 1st December comet Catalina lies in the SE sky before sunrise and may first be glimpsed on 9 December when it lies a little to the left of Iota Virginis with a magnitude of +4.8. Iota is also of the 4^th magnitude. ‘the Christmas comet’ continues to grow brighter as it moves up through Virgo into Bootes (the herdsman) during the month The best photo-opportunity will be on New Year’s Eve when comet Catalina will be very close to Arcturus, the brightest star in Bootes. Its magnitude will be 4.8 so it will be visible to the unaided-eye at this stage.

Catalina continues to climb higher into the northern sky, and reaches its second photo opportunity on 15 January 2016 when the 5 mag comet will be a little left of the bright star Benetnash, the bottom star of the ‘Plough’ in Ursa Major the great bear. On the evening of the 31 January Catalina will be to the right of Polaris in the zenith. The comet’s brightness will then have faded to +6 below naked-eye visibility.

Small telescopes will now be need to show the comet well. Catalina passes down through the fainter constellation Camalopardalis, fading all the time, and moves into Perseus when its magnitude will be +9.

The Birth of Monsters: VISTA pinpoints earliest giant galaxies

ESO’s VISTA survey telescope has spied a horde of previously hidden massive galaxies that existed when the Universe was in its infancy. By discovering and studying more of these galaxies than ever before, astronomers have, for the first time, found out exactly when such monster galaxies first appeared.

Just counting the number of galaxies in a patch of sky provides a way to test astronomers’ theories of galaxy formation and evolution. However, such a simple task becomes increasingly hard as astronomers attempt to count the more distant and fainter galaxies. It is further complicated by the fact that the brightest and easiest galaxies to observe — the most massive galaxies in the Universe — are rarer the further astronomers peer into the Universe’s past, whilst the more numerous less bright galaxies are even more difficult to find.

A team of astronomers, led by Karina Caputi of the Kapteyn Astronomical Institute at the University of Groningen, has now unearthed many distant galaxies that had escaped earlier scrutiny. They used images from the UltraVISTA survey, one of six projects using VISTA to survey the sky at near-infrared wavelengths, and made a census of faint galaxies when the age of the Universe was between just 0.75 and 2.1 billion years old.

UltraVISTA has been imaging the same patch of sky, nearly four times the size of a full Moon, since December 2009. This is the largest patch of sky ever imaged to these depths at infrared wavelengths. The team combined these UltraVISTA observations with those from the NASA Spitzer Space Telescope, which probes the cosmos at even longer, mid-infrared wavelengths.

LUNAR PHENOMENA 2016

The Crescent Moon & the bright morning planets

Some astronomical events can be quite spectacular, and make great photo opportunities for Astro photographers if they get to know about them in advance. Planning is important so all of the elements fall nicely into place to make that truly assume photo.

Clear skies permitting over the next two mornings, the crescent Moon will be seen close to all three bright planets, a prelude of what's to come in December. 

The lovely image was taken by David Blanchflower (Newcastle Upon-Tyne. UK) : Venus, Jupiter, and the Moon (through clouds). 06:04 UT 6 November 2015. Canon 1200D. 55mm zoom. Handheld.

PLANETARY CONJUNCTIONS:

On the morning of 6th November the crescent Moon will be 2ºN of Jupiter, and on the morning of 7th November the Moon is 2ºN of Mars and 1.2º N of Venus, for some amateur astronomers it will be a trial run for next month's double occultation event.

PLANETARY OCCULTATIONS:

At 03am on 6 December the Moon will pass in front of Mars – the Red planet-- hiding it from view, an event known as an occultation. This rare event is visible from Central & East Africa, South Arabian Peninsula, the Southern tip of India, Indonesia and Australia.

Then at 07am on 7 December the Moon will occult the brilliant planet Venus. This event is visible from North & Central America, and the Caribbean.

Sadly in other area of the Earth the Moon is below the horizon when the occultations take place. Nevertheless there are going to be some great photos of these events in face book groups, something for you to look forwards to. Clear skies. R.P.

December 2015 Visibility of the bright planets

At the beginning of December Venus lies about 5 degrees above and to the left of Spica, the brightest star in Virgo (The Virgin). Shining at mag -4.2 it cannot be mistaken as it is so brilliant.

Venus is the second planet in order of distance from the Sun, inside the Earth's orbit, so that it shows a series of phases just like our moon. Even a small telescope will show the the phases of Venus.

The time of Dichotomy (half phase) occurred on 26 November 2015, so that the planet is now moving away from the Earth towards Superior Conjunction (Full phase) which will be on 6 January 2016.

The angular size of Venus during this period changes from 17 arc seconds at the beginning of December 2015, to 15 arc seconds at Superior conjunction when the planet is at the far side of it's orbital path around the Sun.

Venus is therefore getting lower & lower in the SE sky, moving into the adjacent constellation of Libra (The scales) on 11 December 2015 towards invisibility in the daytime sky.

Venus is 0.6ºS of the Moon on 12 December, and 0.1ºS of Saturn on 9 January 2016.

November: ‘LUNAR OCCULTATIONS’

There are 11 lunar occultations – Photo opportunities -- to look forward to during the remainder of this month, four visible from Greenwich (London), one from Edinburgh (UK), and five from Sydney & Melbourne Australia. All times are GMT (Universal time).

The PA Is the ‘position angle’ of the star, measured to the celestial East (anticlockwise) from the northernmost point of the Moon’s limb.

GREENWICH E 0.0° N 51.5°

18 Nov 18 Aqr            Mag +5.5 DD Time 18h 43.3m PA 131°
19 Nov HIP 110009   Mag +5.8 DD Time 17h 28.6m PA 45°
27 Nov 111 Tau         Mag +5.0 RD Time 06h 51.4m PA 249°
28 Nov HIP 29616     Mag +5.9 RD Time 02h 21.7m PA 289°

EDINBURGH W 3.2° N 56.0°

29 Nov Gem        Mag +3.6 DB Time 04h 57.8m PA 171°
29 Nov Gem        Mag +3.6 RD Time 05h 20.9m PA 209°

SYDNEY E 151.2° S 33.9°

13 Nov φ Oph         Mag +4.3 DD Time 09h 28.4m PA 98°
23 Nov ο Psc          Mag +4.3 DD Time 12h 41.5m PA 50°
23 Nov ο Psc          Mag +4.3 DD Time 13h 54.9m PA 266°
21 Nov XZ Psc       Mag +5.8 DD Time 14h 4.9m PA 107°
29 Nov 74 Gem      Mag +5.0 RD Time 13h 0.3m PA 304°

MELBOURNE E 145.1° S 37.9°

13 Nov φ Oph        Mag +4.3 DD Time 09h 25.3m PA 104°
23 Nov ο Psc         Mag +4.3 DD Time 12h 25.7m PA 52°
23 Nov ο Psc         Mag +4.3 DD Time 13h 40.6m PA 262°
21 Nov XZ Psc      Mag +5.8 DD Time 13h 56.3m PA 114°
29 Nov 74 Gem     Mag +5.0 RD Time 13h 1.8m PA 298