Society News and Night Sky Notes – July 1999 | Liverpool Astronomical Society

Society News Headlines

July 1st – Neptune 0.6° South of Moon.
July 2nd – Uranus 0.4° South of Moon.
July 6th – Earth at Aphelion at 23h:00m.(1.016719 AU).
July 7th – Jupiter 4° North of Moon.
July 8th – Saturn 3° North of Moon.
July 10th – Aldebaran 0.8° South of Moon.
July 10th – Lunar Occultation of Aldebaran (link removed as URL is invalid) from Liverpool. Disappearance at 09:15:51 (Bright Daylight).
July 11th – Only one month to go too the BIG EVENT!.
July 11th – Comet C/1999H1 (Lee) at Perihelion (0.709AU).
July 11th – 20th Anniversary (1979) Skylab re-enters into Earth’s Atmosphere.
July 12th – Mercury Stationary.
July 13th – Venus 1.5° South of Regulus.
July 14th – Mercury 3° South of Moon.
July 14th – Venus at Greatest brlliancy.
July 15th – Regulus 1.1° South of Moon.
July 15th – Venus 3° South of Moon.
July 16th – 30th Anniversary (1969) of the launch of Apollo 11.
July 20th – Mars 7° South of Moon.
July 20th – 30th Anniversary (1969) of the Apollo 11 Moonlanding.
July 20th – STS-93 launch, space shuttle Columbia, Payload- Chandra X-Ray Observatory.(AXAF)
July 24th – Comet C/1999 K6 (LINEAR) at Perihelion (2.251AU).
July 24th – Ceres: conjunction with Sun.
July 25th – Juno stationary.
July 26th – Neptune at opposition.
July 26th – Mercury: Inferior conjunction.
July 27th – Venus stationary.
July 28th – Partial Lunar Eclipse (link removed as URL is invalid), (Not seen from UK).
July 28th – Special LAS summer Lecture – “Chasing the Moon’s Shadow” (link removed as URL is invalid), Liverpool University at 7pm.
July 28th – Neptune 0.6° South of Moon.
July 29th – Uranus 0.5° South of Moon.
July 31st – Lunar Prospector spacecraft to crash on Moon to-day.

THE NIGHT SKY DURING THE MONTH OF JULY 1999

Will it be cloudy to-night?, ask the The U.K. Goverment Met Office Weather service. To make your own star chart fo your location at any time, Click Here.

The Sun and Moon

All times are in BRITISH SUMMER TIME (BST). Times For Observer in Liverpool, Merseyside, England, U.K.
Latitude 53 degs 24 mins North.
Longitude +3.0 degs West.

           June 30th    July 5th    10th       15th       20th        25th          30th
SUNRISE    04:47        05:51       04:56      05:02      05:09       05:16         05:24
SUNSET     21:44        21:42       21:38      21:33      21:27       21:20         21:12

PHASES OF THE MOON DURING JULY 1999
FIRST QUARTER on 20th at 19h:14m	FULL MOON on 28th at 12h:26m	LAST QUARTER on 6th at 12h:58m	NEW MOON on 13th at 03h:25m

THE PLANETS THIS MONTH.

MERCURY.

Mercury is at inferior conjunction on the 26th and is unobservable.

VENUS.

Venus, which has been so bright and obvious during the first half of the year in the Western evening sky, heads straight down towards the horizon for an August inferior conjunction. Venus’ apparent size in the middle of the month is 30″ abd displays a 30% Sunlit disk.

MARS.

Mars sets in the early hours of the morning and this, coupled with long daylight hours, a small (10″) disk and decreasing brightness makes it a poor telescopic object unless very high powers are used in excellent seeing conditions. For the third time this year Mars encounters the stars Kappa and Lambda Virginis. 4° South of Kappa on the 16th, and 2° North of Lambda on the 22nd. On the 20th Mars lies 6° South of the Moon.

MARSWATCH – latest observations of the red planet.

ASTEROIDS.

63 Ausonia is at opposition on 26th in Capricornus Mag 10
16 Psyche is at opposition next month also in Capricornus at Mag 10.0
Juno is well placed this month at Mag 10.

For More information on Asteroids Click Here.

JUPITER.

Jupiter now rises at around midnight in the middle of the month, lying due South at around 07:30. On the 7th at 18h:00m Jupiter is 4°.5 North of the moon. Look for Jupiter and Saturn. Launched in October 1989, the Galileo Jupiter Probe entered orbit around the great planet on December 7th 1995. The Project Galileo Homepage will give you up-to-date information and the very latest images returned.

SATURN.

Saturn can also be found in the pre-dawn South Eastern sky along with Jupiter. Saturn will be the fainter of the two objects.

URANUS and NEPTUNE.

Uranus is at its brightest now and at magnitude 5.7 is just visible to the unaided eye provided you know where to look. With binoculars you should have no problem.

Neptune, like Uranus, lies in the constellation of Capricornus. A five minute exposure of the area using even a 50mm lens will record these two outer planets when the print or slide is compared with a star atlas.

Uranus Positions for the 1st July:

                          R.A.                   DEC                    TRANSIT TIME           MAG
                      21h:15m:26s           -16°:39':15"                   03h:53m             5.7

Neptune Positions for the 1st July:

                          R.A.                   DEC                    TRANSIT TIME           MAG
                      20h:23m:31s           -19°:33':04"                   03h:01m             7.9

PLUTO.

Pluto can be found in Ophiuchus, above and to the right of the mag 2.6 star Zeta Ophiuchi. The best time to look for the planet is around New Moon. The dates below will be a guide for planning observations.

Positions for July are when pluto's elongation angle is greater than 90°.

DATE                      R.A.                   DEC                   TRANSIT TIME
July 10th              16h:33m:15s            -09°:57':19"                 00h:32m
July 20th              16h:32m:13s            -09°:56':54"                 23h:52m
July 30th              16h:31m:14s            -09°:57':17"                 23h:12m

Pluto is best seen between July 6th – 20th.

METEORS.

Alpha-Cygnids on July 21st (6 per hour) Fairly Favourable Moon 8 days old.
Capricornids on July 8th/15th and 26th Multiple radiant- (6 per hour):
- 8th – Fairly favourable/MOON 23 days old.
- 15th – Fairly favourable/MOON 2 days old.
- 26th – Unfavourable/MOON 13 days old.
Delta-Aquarids on July 28th and Aug 7th. Double radiant:
- (20 per hour on 28th) Unfavourable/MOON 14 days old. (From South)
- (10 per hour on Aug 7th) Fairly Favourable/MOON 24 days old.(From North – Broad peak)

COMETS.

Comet (1999 H1) Lee can be found in the Morning sky at the end of July at Mag 7. Perihelion on July 11th at (0.707AU)
Comet 10P/Tempel 2 is brighting, but will only reach 10th Mag.

Plus these pages will give daily and weekly reports of this and other Comets progress.

OCCULTATIONS.

July 3rd at 03h:51m Reappearance of lota Aquarii(In a bright sky).
July 15th at 22h:22m Disappearance of Alpha leonis – Regulus. (In a bright sky).
July 25th at 21h:52m Disappearance of Mu Sagittarii. (In a bright sky).
July 26th at 23h:54m Disappearnace of Pi Sagittarii. (In a bright sky).