Clark Planetarium » new moon http://www.clarkplanetarium.com/blog Clark Planetarium Wed, 01 Feb 2012 19:25:13 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 en hourly 1 Smallest Moon of the Year http://www.clarkplanetarium.com/blog/smallest-moon-of-the-year http://www.clarkplanetarium.com/blog/smallest-moon-of-the-year#comments Tue, 29 Mar 2011 17:33:32 +0000 Richard http://www.clarkplanetarium.com/blog/?p=3274 Remember a couple weeks ago, March 19th, 2011, and all the hype about a big Full Moon? If you paid attention to the science, you learned (or already knew) that the Moon orbits Earth in a slightly elliptical orbit. This means that during every lunar cycle (slightly less than a month in length) the Moon will at some point experience a perigee (closest approach to the Earth), and at some point the Moon will experience an apogee (farthest distance from the Earth). Lunar perigee for March just happened to coincide with the Full Moon, giving a a slightly larger appearing Full Moon than usual.

Unfortunately, few people in Utah saw that ‘giant’ Moon due to cloudy skies. Well, this coming weekend is another chance to…not see the Moon during a once-a-year event. The farthest lunar apogee, when the Moon will appear its smallest for the year, occurs on Saturday, April 2nd, 2011.

farthest apogee of 2011

farthest apogee of 2011

Why won’t we be able to see it? This apogee happens to coincide with the New Moon (April 3rd, 2011, 4:32 am MDT), meaning that Moon on the 2nd will be rising and setting with the Sun.
Moonrise is about 6 am; Sunrise is about 6:45 am.
Moonset is about 6:50 pm; Sunset is about 7:25 pm.

new moon

new moon

Oh well, with no Moon in the night sky, it will be a good evening to look for Saturn. Saturn rises a few minutes before 8 pm almost due east, is due south shortly after 1:30 am, and sets about 7:30 am due west. Saturn is a bright magnitude +0, and will be 10 degrees west of the bright +1 magnitude star Spica, in the constellation Virgo, along the ecliptic.

Saturn

Saturn

]]> http://www.clarkplanetarium.com/blog/smallest-moon-of-the-year/feed 0 The longest solar eclipse of the 21st century http://www.clarkplanetarium.com/blog/the-longest-solar-eclipse-of-the-21st-century http://www.clarkplanetarium.com/blog/the-longest-solar-eclipse-of-the-21st-century#comments Tue, 14 Jul 2009 15:28:28 +0000 Richard http://www.clarkplanetarium.com/blog/?p=488 The longest total solar eclipse of the 21st century occurs on July 22nd, 2009…in the eastern hemisphere. The eclipse totality path passes through India, Tibet, China and some of the southern small islands of Japan; but misses Hong Kong and the Korean peninsula. Greatest eclipse is in the Pacific Ocean and lasts 6 minutes, 39 seconds. Partial eclipses will be visible across India, Asia, Micronesia and the Pacific Islands. Hawaii will experience a minimal partial eclipse in the late afternoon on the 21st.

Solar eclipses occur when the Moon passes between Sun and Earth. The Moon must be at New Moon phase, which occurs on the 21st at 8:35 pm, MDT. Because of time zone changes, New Moon will be on the 22nd in the eastern hemisphere, hence the eclipse on the 22nd. Since Hawaii is east of the International Date Line, it will still be the 21st in Hawaii at the time of the eclipse.

The next solar eclipses to cross the continental US will be an annular eclipse in May of 2012, a partial eclipse in October of 2014 and a total eclipse in August of 2017.

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