Astronomy-Leelanau
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May 2008 Night Sky
Star chart below...easy to use...click on, set hour of day, adding 12 if past noon, check "lines" and "names" and increase size to 1000...but remember you are under the dome that you see on the chart. By all means, use the star chart to plot where Mars and Saturn are relative to the sky's constellations. Be sure to set the time to when you will be viewing. If you want accurate predictions for how the weather will be each hour in the Lake Leelanau area, go to this website:
http://www.cleardarksky.com/c/4WndsObMIkey.html?1
Star chart below...easy to use...click on, set hour of day, adding 12 if past noon, check "lines" and "names" and increase size to 1000...but remember you are under the dome that you see on the chart. By all means, use the star chart to plot where Mars and Saturn are relative to the sky's constellations. Be sure to set the time to when you will be viewing. If you want accurate predictions for how the weather will be each hour in the Lake Leelanau area, go to this website:
http://www.cleardarksky.com/c/4WndsObMIkey.html?1
Mars and Saturn continue to dominate the May night sky. One has to be out later each evening during May to see the planets in the dark night sky. However, temperatures should be more comfortable as spring kicks in. If you are viewing with a telescope, a dew shield is a must. It prevents the scope from fogging up. However, problems of moisture formation can plague the eyepiece. These difficulties occur often at their worst as one approaches daylight.
Saturns rings are changing positions to become more of a flat plane. Notice the gradual progression in the series of pictures taken by Herb Bubert from Derry, New Hampshire.
During the pre-dawn hours, you will be able to see Jupiter and Venus (the bright morning star) rising in the east. Just before the sun comes up, if you have a scope, Mercury and Neptune are visible as well.
New moon occurs on May 5th; first quarter on the 12th; full on the 20th, and last quarter on the 28th. Image below taken at our observatory. No one was able to identify the crater with the two mountain peaks. Tycho is its name. It was named after the Danish astronomer and scientist Tycho Brahe (1546-1601) who created a remarkable star catalogue of over 1000 stars. This was not the biggest catalogue in the number of stars, but it was quite accurate. His improvement of methods in observations was very significant. He proved that comets are not objects in the atmosphere. He showed irregularities in the moon's orbit. His wall quadrant and other instrument became widely copied and lead to improved stellar instruments. Kepler used Tycho Brahe's observations when he constructed his famous laws of planetary movement.
Tycho is one of the most impressive craters on the moon. Tycho is a (relatively) very young crater, with an estimated age of 108 million years, based on analysis of samples of the crater rays recovered during the Apollo 17 mission.
The rim of this crater was chosen as the target of the Surveyor 7 mission. The robotic spacecraft safely touched down north of the crater in January 1968. The craft performed chemical measurements of the surface, finding a composition different from the maria. From this one of the main components of the highlands was theorized to be an aluminum-rich mineral. The inside of the crater was also imaged in great detail by the Orbiter V. (See the Home Page for a detailed picture Orbiter took of the rocky plain inside Tycho.)
