• Observing With Webb

  • By: Rob Webb
  • Podcast
Observing With Webb By cover art

Observing With Webb

By: Rob Webb
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  • Summary

  • A monthly look at the night sky from your favorite Astronomy teacher at Pequea Valley High School
    Copyright © 2017 Rob Webb. All rights reserved.
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Episodes
  • June 2023

    June 2023
    Jun 2 2023
    WATCH this on YouTube LISTEN as a podcast on Podbean, Stitcher, or iTunes Social Media: @mrwebbpv on Twitter and Instagram @pvplanetarium on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram            Venus shines bright at sunset all month, with Mars nearby, while Saturn, Jupiter, and even Mercury shine in the mornings, and the Beehive Cluster gets two wandering guests, all in the solstice month of June.          Welcome to Observing With Webb, where a high school astronomy teacher tells you what you’re looking at, why it’s so cool, and what you should check out later this month…at night.    Naked-eye PLANETS Sunset Venus – Look W after sunset. It’ll be the brightest object and probably the first “star” you’ll see, about 30˚ above the horizon. Sets between midnight and 11pm.  Get your looks in now, because once August starts, your view of Venus in the evening will disappear, and return to the mornings of September.Mars – Look W and about 5 or 10˚ up and to the left of Venus, for a dull reddish dot in the sky, hanging out in Cancer, and slowing moving toward Leo. Sets between midnight and 11pm. Throughout the night - None Morning – (from left to right) Mercury, Jupiter, Saturn Saturn – Beginning of the month: Rises at 1:30am in the ESE, and is 30˚ above the SE horizon by dawn. End of the month: Rises at 11:30pm in the ESE, and is 40˚ above the S horizon at dawn.  About 60˚ to the right of Jupiter.Jupiter – Beginning of the month: Rises at 4am in the E, and is just 15˚ above the E horizon by dawn. End of the month: Rises at 2am in the E, and is 35˚ above the E horizon at dawn.  About 60˚ to the left of Saturn.Mercury – For the first 3 weeks of June, Mercury is less than 10˚ above the horizon, to the left of East. Hard to find, but not impossible.   EVENTS Full Moon – 3rd (Visible all night) Waning Gibbous (Mostly lit, rises later at night) Last Quarter Moon – 10th (Visible midnight into the morning) Morning Crescents (look East in the AM) New Moon – 17th (darkest skies) Evening Crescents (look West after Sunset) First Quarter Moon – 26th (Visible until midnight) Evening Gibbous (Mostly lit, after Sunset)   2nd – Mars, Beehive Cluster (M44) – Find that dull red dot in the sky which is Mars, then take some binoculars out, or a telescope, and witness Mars being directly in M44, the Beehive Cluster, so named because of its resemblance to a swarm of bees. The day before and after, Mars will be on either side of the cluster. Definitely worth at least a look, if not a picture. 9th + 10th – CLOSE ENCOUNTER - Moon, Saturn – Get up early, look SE, and find a gibbous Moon with Saturn about 8˚ above and to the left on the morning on the 9th.  On the 10th, the Moon will have moved to be 7˚ down and to the left of Saturn. 13th – Venus, Beehive Cluster (M44) – Find that bright brilliant dot in the sky which is Venus, then take some binoculars out, or a telescope, and witness Venus being ALMOST directly in M44, the Beehive Cluster. The day before and after, Venus will be on either side of the cluster. Definitely worth at least a look, if not a picture. 14th – CLOSE ENCOUNTER - Moon, Jupiter – Get up early, after 3am, look E, and find a very thin crescent Moon with bright Jupiter only 2˚ to right. 21st – Summer Solstice – This is the longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere.  There’s a bit of explanation as to why here. 20th – 22nd – CLOSE ENCOUNTER – Moon, Venus, Mars – Check this out right after sunset! Look West and you’ll easily see Venus being super bright. Each day, Mars will be about 5˚ (or three finger-widths) up and to the left of Venus.  The best part is the Moon traveling through.  On the 20th, a super-duper thin Moon will be about 13˚ down and to the right of Venus.  But on the 21st, the Moon moves to be just 3˚ to the right of Venus, and is a little bigger and easier to spot.  Then, on the 22nd, the Moon moves up and to the left again, forming a nice curved line with Mars and Venus.  Definitely worth a look, though pictures will prove to be difficult, given the relative brightness of each object.   CONSTELLATIONS... Use a sky map from www.skymaps.com to help you out. After Dinner, Before Bed: Spring Constellations: Big Dipper, Bootes, Virgo, Corona Borealis, Hercules – Gaze almost vertically as you face the NW, and you’ll easily find the Big Dipper: seven very bright stars that form a spoon shape. Now if you take the handle of the Dipper, follow its curve to the next bright star you see, about 20˚ away, which is Arcturus. “Follow the arc to Arcturus.” That’s the brightest star in Bootes, which looks like a kite. Take that same curve, and follow it about another 20˚ to “speed on to Spica”, the brightest star in Virgo, one of my favorite constellations, since it reminds me of the Dickinson Mermaid.  Now go back to Bootes, and just to the left of Bootes are seven stars that form the ...
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    20 mins
  • November 2022 - ECLIPSE TOMORROW!

    November 2022 - ECLIPSE TOMORROW!
    Nov 7 2022
    LISTEN as a podcast on Podbean, Stitcher, or iTunes Social Media: @mrwebbpv on Twitter and Instagram @pvplanetarium on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram             Thanksgiving, 3 planets, a meteor shower (with the possibility of a storm), and a TOTAL LUNAR ECLIPSE.  November is going to be great!          Welcome to Observing With Webb, where a high school astronomy teacher tells you what you’re looking at, why it’s so cool, and what you should check out later this month…at night.     Naked-eye PLANETS Sunset Saturn – About 30˚ above the horizon in the S. Fairly dim, but still brighter than all the stars around it.Jupiter – SUPER bright in the SE after sunset. Just find the brightest point of light in that direction, and you’ve got it. Throughout the night Saturn & Jupiter – Starting off in the SE, with brightest Jupiter on the left and dimmer Saturn about 40˚ to the right, these two march westward through the night, with Saturn setting around 11pm and Jupiter setting around 2am.Mars – Rises at about 8:30pm in the beginning of the month, and just after sunset by the end. Look East early in the evening for a dull reddish dot in the sky, above Orion and between the tips of Taurus’s horns.  Morning Mars – By morning, Mars will have moved to the S or SW, still between Taurus’s horns above Orion, about 2/3 of the way up the sky.   EVENTS First Quarter Moon – 1st (Visible until midnight) Evening Gibbous (Mostly lit, after Sunset) Full Moon – 8th (Visible all night) Waning Gibbous (Mostly lit, rises later at night) Last Quarter Moon – 16th (Visible midnight into the morning) Morning Crescents (look East in the AM) New Moon – 23rd (darkest skies) Evening Crescents (look West after Sunset) First Quarter Moon – 30th (Visible until midnight)   4th – CLOSE ENCOUNTER – Moon, Jupiter – A waxing gibbous Moon is below Jupiter by just 3˚.  Visible all night. 6th – Daylight Savings Time Ends  8th – TOTAL LUNAR ECLIPSE – Only the West coast of the U.S. can pretty much see all of it, with the rest of the U.S. seeing only portions before sunrise.  Here’s the game plan:            4:09am EST – Partial Eclipse Begins – Just look West to find the Full Moon, and watch as the Earth’s shadow appears to nibble on the Moon from the top down, but a little off-center to the left. This phase will last about an hour, and the Moon will drop about 10˚ closer to the horizon. (You might hear that the penumbral portion of the eclipse starts before this.  While true, it is essentially undetectable with the naked eye.)            5:16am EST – Totality Begins – Now the umbra of the Earth’s shadow is completely engulfing the Moon, and only the light from all the sunrises and sunsets on Earth are illuminating our orbital partner’s surface, making it appear anywhere from dark yellow to orange to red to brown.  This phase will last almost an hour and a half, leading into dawn for those of us on the east coast.            6:42am EST – Totality ends, Partiality begins again – now the shadow leaves the Moon, starting to expose its surface from the top down.            7:49am EST – Partial Eclipse Ends, but the Sun is up and the Moon is setting.         Other things to notice during the eclipse As the Moon gets darker, more and more stars will be visible The Pleiades are above the Moon Taurus is up and to the left of the Moon Orion is off to the left of Taurus 10th – CLOSE ENCOUNTER – Moon, Mars – The Moon is 6˚ above and to the right of Mars.  Visible in the NE around 8:30pm, and high in the W by sunrise. 17th – 18th – Leonid Meteor Shower – This annual, weak (10-15 per hour), meteor shower can have some wonderful years.  Could this be one of those years? MAYBE.  Some predict we could get up to 250-300 meteors per hour after midnight on the 18th.  Am I banking on it? No. But am I going out anyway? Absolutely.  I wouldn’t want to miss it, and I don’t need to set anything up to witness a meteor storm. Some advice for watching:     Find a dark location and lie down in a reclining chair or hammock     Look around Leo’s head.  That is where the radiant is - where the meteors will appear to be coming from.     The strategy to observe this year is to get out there whenever you can, but the later you stay up, the more you’ll see, since the radiant will be higher and you’ll be closer to the peak.  Check the weather to see if the skies will be clear Adapt your eyes to the dark by staying away from light sources or using a red light if you need to look at a star chart or not trip over something.  If you’re feeling extra nerdy, do a scientific meteor count (S&T and IMO) That said, you never know when a nice meteor will burn up, to take a nice look at the sky in general, noting that the meteors will appear to go from the radiant in the head of Leo and outward. 25th – ...
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    18 mins
  • October 2022

    October 2022
    Oct 3 2022
    WATCH this on YouTube LISTEN as a podcast on Podbean, Stitcher, or iTunes Social Media: @mrwebbpv on Twitter and Instagram @pvplanetarium on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram   Halloween month brings us some spooooooooky astronomy.  Saturn and Jupiter soar ominously above, Mars creeps in, and rocks fall from the sky.          Welcome to Observing With Webb, where a high school astronomy teacher tells you what you’re looking at, why it’s so cool, and what you should check out later this month…at night.    Naked-eye PLANETS Sunset Saturn – About 30˚ above the horizon in the SSE. Fairly dim, but still brighter than all the stars around it.Jupiter – SUPER bright in the East after sunset. Just find the brightest point of light in that direction, and you’ve got it. Throughout the night Saturn & Jupiter – Starting off in the SE, with brightest Jupiter on the left and dimmer Saturn about 45˚ to the right, these two march westward through the night, with Saturn setting around 2am and Jupiter setting around 5:30am.Mars – Rises at about 10pm in the beginning of the month, and 8:30pm by Halloween. Look East early in the evening for a dull reddish dot in the sky, above Orion and between the tips of Taurus’s horns. Morning Mars – By morning, Mars will have moved to the S or SW, still between Taurus’s horns above Orion.   EVENTS Evening Crescents (look West after Sunset) First Quarter Moon – 2nd (Visible until midnight) Evening Gibbous (Mostly lit, after Sunset) Full Moon – 9th (Visible all night) Waning Gibbous (Mostly lit, rises later at night) Last Quarter Moon – 17th (Visible midnight into the morning) Morning Crescents (look East in the AM) New Moon – 25th (darkest skies)   5th – CLOSE ENCOUNTER – Moon, Saturn – The Waxing Gibbous Moon is just 6˚ below and to the left of Saturn. Visible after sunset in the SSE, and past midnight.   8th – CLOSE ENCOUNTER – Moon, Jupiter – The essentially Full Moon is below Jupiter by just 4˚.  Visible all night.   14th – CLOSE ENCOUNTER – Moon, Mars – The Moon is just 3˚ above Mars.  Visible in the NE around 9:30pm, and high in the SSW by sunrise.   20th – 22nd – Orionid Meteor Shower – Usually a decent meteor shower, producing around 15 meteors per hour.  This year we don’t have to worry about the Moon, since it won’t rise until very early morning as a crescent.  Get out there whenever you can, let your eyes get dark adapted (don’t look at your phone), find a nice spot to lie down away from light pollution, be patient, and look at the whole sky, with an understanding that they will be coming from a spot in Orion’s club. Some advice for watching:     Find a dark location and lie down in a reclining chair or hammock     Look above Orion’s head, near his club.  That is where the radiant is - where the meteors will appear to be coming from.     The strategy to observe this year is to get out there whenever you can, but the later you stay up, the more you’ll see, since the radiant will be higher and you’ll be closer to the peak.  Check the weather to see if the skies will be clear Adapt your eyes to the dark by staying away from light sources or using a red light if you need to look at a star chart or not trip over something.  If you’re feeling extra nerdy, do a scientific meteor count (S&T and IMO)   31st – Halloween – Halloween will have three great telescopic objects to find: a thick crescent Moon in the South, a super bright Jupiter toward the SE, and Saturn in between the two.  If you have a telescope, this would be a FANTASTIC year for getting the scope out for some sidewalk astronomy.   CONSTELLATIONS... Use a sky map from www.skymaps.com to help you out. After Dinner: The Summer Triangle: Lyra, Cygnus, Aquila, Delphinus - Look straight up before 8pm and you’ll be able to see Lyra (the Harp), Cygnus (the Swan), Aquila (the Eagle), (and Delphinus the Dolphin.)  These three constellations have the three brightest stars of the summer constellations (Vega, Deneb, Altair – respectively.)  Those bright stars create the summer triangle.  Off to the east of this is the small but beautiful constellation of Delphinus. If you’re under dark skies (away from city lights) you may just catch a glimpse of the Milky Way passing through Cygnus and Aquila.  Before Bed: Fall Constellations: Pegasus & Andromeda - Look pretty much straight up before 10pm and you’ll be able to see the Great Square of Pegasus, with Andromeda curving off of one corner. If your skies are decently dark, you might catch the faint fuzz that is the Andromeda Galaxy. Before Work: Orion – Look south to find the vertical bow-tie that is Orion the Hunter.   Don’t forget this podcast is found on my Podbean page, Stitcher, and iTunes.  There’s also a video version on my YouTube Channel and I can be found on Twitter and Instagram as @mrwebbpv. The Pequea Valley Planetarium and its events and ...
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    12 mins
Natural History
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