vv oct nov2213sept

Clear Skies
Welcome to Clear Skies, a quick summary of
night sky items for the month that you can
look for from your garden or a suitable
window.
to Saturn, which is about the same
brightness. Remember, If your moving object
has flashing lights, it’s a high altitude plane
and if it crosses the sky in about 1 second or
less, it’s a meteor (shooting star)!
Someone mentioned to me that when they
were looking for the ISS (see photo) in midsummer,
they also saw a few other objects
moving amongst the stars, although they are
fainter than the ISS. There are in fact many
satellites orbiting the earth, although 2/3 of
them are actually space craft debris and junk.
Once something is launched into orbit, it
tends to stay there for many years. Since
October is another poor month to see any
reasonable ISS passes, let me introduce you
to “Tiangong”. This is a small Chinese space
station, launched last year. Passes that are
worth looking out for, are on Oct 12 at
6.50pm and 8.25pm, then 13 th at 7.25pm,
14 th at 8pm and 15 th at 7pm. All passes are
fairly low in the south and they move close
Regarding the ISS itself, it can be seen
towards the end of November in the
evening, specifically 18 th and 20 th at 6.30pm,
then 5.45pm and 7.20pm on the 19 th .
Jupiter and Saturn are now visible in the
south, after sunset. The moon passes Saturn
on the evening of 5 th Oct and 1 st Nov, then
Jupiter a couple of nights later on 8 th Oct and
4 th Nov.
There is a local astronomical society in the
area and they operate the observatory on
the top of Toothill in Rownhams. The next
public evening viewings are on 21 st and 22 nd
Oct. For November the dates are the 18 th
and 19 th . For more information about
opening times and updates due to the
weather, look at https://
www.facebook.com/
goups/906124436125287/?
ref=share.
Stephen McCann –
Solent Amateur
Astronomers
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