Hello everyone, and welcome back for another exciting edition of Observatory Corner for Friday, October 24! Weather forecasts for next week look promising for Monday, Wednesday and Thursday, but Tuesday looks to be rainy, so plan accordingly. With the sun now setting before 7 p.m., we are fixed at an opening time of 7:30 p.m., giving you plenty of time to come on up and take a peek at the heavens!
At the moment, none of the planets are visible during observatory hours, so unfortunately you will have to cross them off your observing list for now. Jupiter and Venus won’t become visible during our hours until January, so be patient and stay tuned!
You can still catch an excellent view of the Summer Triangle and its beautifully bright stars (Altair, Deneb, and Vega). In addition, the open star cluster, the Pleiades (The Seven Sisters), is also now visible in the sky, as well as NGC 457, the ET Cluster, which bears a remarkable resemblance to Spielberg’s little sci-fi friend. M57, the Ring Nebula, is still beautifully visible in the sky, as is M20, the Trifid Nebula, which will only be visible until about 8:30. The constellation of Cygnus is also visible in the sky, and now is also an excellent time to catch a glimpse of the core of the Andromeda Galaxy.
Solar viewing times are still being finalized, but we hope to have them implemented in the next few weeks.
The featured Calvin astronomy picture of the week is of NGC 6992/5, the Eastern Veil supernova remnant, taken by Calvin alumni Neil Karsten in 2006. The Eastern veil is the remnants of a star that exploded 5,000-8,000 years ago some 1,470 light-years away in the region of the constellation of Cygnus. The pink color in the image is excited hydrogen, and the green is oxygen, which combine to make this beautiful display of nature. You can learn more about the Eastern Veil on Calvin’s website.
Editors Note: The lines “The pink color in the image is excited hydrogen, and the green is oxygen, which combine to make this beautiful display of nature” is not in the print article, since the image will not appear in colour there.
