What’s in the Sky in May

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May

  • 6th  Peak 07:00hrs AEST  eta Aquariids (ETA) Active from April 19th to May 28th, 2024  but high numbers can be seen either side of this date. The Eta Aquariids are a strong shower when viewed from the southern tropics. From the equator northward, they usually only produce medium rates of 10-30 per hour just before dawn. Activity is good for a week centered the night of maximum activity. These are swift meteors that produce a high percentage of persistent trains, but few fireballs. Parent body is Comet 1P/Halley
    Shower details – Radiant: 22:32 -1° – ZHR: 50 can very from 40-85)  in a darksky – Velocity: 42 miles/sec (swift – 66.9km/sec) – Parent Object: 1P/HalleyOn this night, the moon is a waning crescent 28.03 days old and will be 6% full.The meteors are only visible in the hours before dawn essentially from our southern hemisphere sites and is one of the best showers for southern observers.
    This year there is no moonlight interference around the maximum period (New Moon on May 8). IMO analyses of visual data collected since 1984 have shown that ZHRs are generally above 30
    in the period May 3–10. An often claimed variability of the peak rates associated with Jupiter’s orbital period close to 12 years has not been confirmed in a recent study (Egal et al., 2020)
    using optical and radar data. However, there might be enhanced activity (Egal, 2020) related to the 1:6 mean motion resonance in 2023 and 2024 – hence observers should try to monitor the
    activity of the near-peak period which extends from May 4 to 6.
  • Recent peak ZHRs were:
    2008 2009 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023
    ≈ 85  ≈ 70       75      60    50     50      45      42     40 (preliminary)
    Mikhail Maslov’s calculations reveal that in 2024 the Earth comes close to meteoroids ejected from the comet in −985. Meteoroids of the trail had ejection velocities of ≥ 10 m/s. Observers
    might see some activity increase on May 3 between 05h and 08h UT. The ejection velocity range suggests that the trail is composed of comparatively large particles so that there might be a
    larger portion of bright meteors.
  • 6th Moon at Perigee closest to Earth for the month, 08:05hrs AEST, 363,164.5km.
  • 18th Moon at Apogee furthest from Earth for the month 04:58hrs AEST, 404,639.0 km.

What’s in the Sky in March

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March

  • 18th Luna lowest altitude 28 degrees North.
  • 12th The Large Magellanic Cloud  (LMC) reaches highest altitude about 9.00pm AEDT at magnitude 0.28. The LMC is a spiral galaxy in Dorado at a distance of 160kly and a diameter of 29.7kly in diameter.  The Tarantula Nebula, NGC 2070 is located in this area and is magnitude 5. it is 1,833ly in diameter. The Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) located nearby is a spiral Galaxy in Tucana and 200kly in distance and 17.5kly in diameter. visual magnitude is 2.29. These two irregular dwarf are members of our local group and are orbiting the Milky Way Galaxy.
  • Kourtchin (Boorong) refer to the Magellanic Clouds as the male (LMC) and female (SMC), Brolgas. Each cloud resembles the colour and pitted shell of the Brolga egg. Brolgas breed from October to April , when the clouds are at their highest, extending into nearby stars the larger one is trumpeting and the smaller one displaying, but dancing as a pair towards each other.

 

  • 20th Northward Equinox, 14:07hrs AEDT. The Sun crosses the Celestial Equator and moves into the Northern Hemisphere Sky.

 

  • A healthy 100-foot-tall tree has about 200,000 leaves. A tree this size can take 11,000 gallons of water from the soil and release it into the air again as oxygen and water vapor in a single growing season.
    * Native tree species support natural ecosystems by providing habitat and food for birds, mammals, and insects.
    * The planting of trees improves water quality. Tree’s complex root network reduces runoff and erosion. This allows more recharging of the ground water supply. Wooded areas help prevent the transport of sediment and chemicals into streams. Studies show up to 88 percent of nitrate and 76 percent of phosphorus is reduced after agricultural runoff passes through a forested streamside buffer.
    * In addition to all these things, forested streamside buffers also filter sediment from streams, stabilize streambanks, shade and modify stream temperatures, sequester carbon to help mitigate greenhouse gas emissions, and reduce downstream flooding. And the presence of mature trees in a buffer makes the stream wider.
    * A mature tree absorbs carbon dioxide at a rate of 48 pounds per year. In one year, an acre of forest can absorb twice the CO2 produced by the average car’s annual mileage.
    NONE of THE ABOVE OCCURS ON MARS OR ANY OTHER PLANET WE KNOW OF.
  • 24th Luna Apogee, 2nd for this month, furthest distance from Earth for the month 02:43hr AEDT 406,259.2km.
  • 25th Partial Eclipse of the Moon Image is at 7.55pm AEDT.

 

What’s in the Sky in April

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April

  • 1st Moon at highest altitude 29 degrees South.
  • 6th  Comet 12/P Pons -Brooks is now setting just after the Sun sets. It may be visible depending on your location and altitude for a short time later in April but start looking when it is closer to Jupiter. By the 27th April it maybe more visible in telescopes as it moves away from perihelion, it’s closest approach to the Sun.
  • Image April 11th positions.
  • 8th  Luna Perigee, closest distance from Earth for the month 04:50hr AEST 358,851.2km. The moon will be a Super Moon, which is when the Moon is closer than 360,000km to the Earth.
  • 9th AEST time,  8th over America a total Eclipse of the Sun will occur across Mexico America and Canada. A live NASA link for the event;
  • 20th Luna Apogee, furthest distance from Earth for the month 13:09hr AEST 405,623,1km.
  • 14th Luna lowest altitude 29 degrees Nth.
  • The Emu, which contains the area of the Centre of our Milky Way Galaxy, is now rising in the East just after 9.00pm AEST. The Emu is formed by the dust lanes of the Milky Way with the head of the Emu just below the Southern Cross, the dark area also called the Coal Sack, as it it so dark except for BZ Crucis. BZ Crucis forms the eye of the Emu and is a 5th Magnitude Variable Star 1217 light years from our solar system.

 

 

  • 22nd Earth Day – marks the anniversary of the birth of the modern environmental movement in 1970.
  • 29th Moon at highest altitude 29 degrees South.