• Sept 21st – 28th The 4th National Astronomy Week – major events up and down the country, details of Liverpool Events Here. (link removed as URL is invalid)
• Sept 21st – First NAW open night at LAS Observatory at Pex Hill a great success, with clear skies, some 40 members of the public came to view the Moon, Jupiter, Saturn, Comet Hale-Bopp, and Neptune.
• Sept 22nd – Autumn Equniox at 18:00h.
• Sept 25th – Major Meteorite fall in Fermo, central Itay at 15:30UT.
• Sept 26th – Saturn at opposition.
• Sept 26th – Space Shuutle Atlantis returns home with Shannon Lucid who has been in space for 6 months, a record for a women.
• Sept 27th – Total Lunar Eclipse. (Begins at 02:12 BST). Click Here.
• Sept 30th – NASA’s International Ultraviolet Explorer (IUE) spacecraft is switched off to save money, after 19 years of astronomical studies from Earth orbit.

THE NIGHT SKY DURING THE MONTH OF SEPTEMBER 1996

Will it be cloudy to-night?, ask the The British Met Office
To make you own star chart for your location at any time, Click Here for your Map

The SUN and MOON

All times are in (British Summer Time) B.S.T. For Observer in the Liverpool Region, Merseyside – England, U.K.

Latitude 53 degs 24 mins North
Longitude +3.O degs West

                2nd       7th       12th      17th       22nd     27th      Oct 1st
   SUNRISE        06:23     06:32     06:40     06:49      06:58     07:06     07:15   
SUNSET         19:59     19:47     19:35     19:23      19:11     19:58     18:46

The Sun reaches it Autumnal Equinox on the 22nd when, for the second time this year, the Sun crosses the Celestal Equator, this time moving Southwards on it’s journey along the ecliptic towards its Winter Solstice.

MOONPHASES

New Moon on 12th at 23h:08m
1st Quarter on 20th at 11h:23m
Full Moon on 27th at 02h:51m
Last Quarter on 4th at 19h:07m

Total Lunar Eclipse This Month

In the early morning hours of September 27th there will be a total Eclipse of the Moon, when the Moon enters the shadow cast into space by the Earth. The Moon will lie in the constellation ofPisces and first contact with Umbral is at 02:12BST as seen from Liverpool. Totality starts at 03:19mBST, when the Moon appears a Copper red colour,( the darkness of which will indicate how polluted the earth’s atmosphere is).Totality will end at 04:29BST and the Moon will appear whole again at 05:36mBST.

TIMES FOR THE TOTAL LUNAR ECLIPSE AS SEEN FROM LIVERPOOL – September 27th.

                                                     B.S.T.
      Sept 27th     First Penumbral Contact        01h:12m:24s        alt 39 degs       Az 183 degs

      Sept 27th     First Umbral Contact           02h:12m:18s        alt 37 degs       Az 202 degs  P.A 92 degs

      Sept 27th     Totality Begins                03h:19m:18s        alt 32 degs       Az 221 degs

      Sept 27th     Maximum Eclipse                03h:54m:24s        alt 28 degs       Az 230 degs      Mag 1.245

      Sept 27th     Totality Ends                  04h:29m:24s        alt 24 degs       Az 239 degs

      Sept 27th     Last Umbral Contact            05h:36m:18s        alt 14 degs       Az 254 degs      P.A.233 degs

      Sept 27th     Last Penumbral Contact         06h:36m:24s        alt 06 degs       Az 266 degs

THE PLANETS.

MERCURY

After reaching inferior Conjunction on the 17th Mercury starts off an excellent morning apparition at the end of the month, lying almost 9 degs above the horizon at the start of Civil Twilight on the 30th.

VENUS

Lies almost directly above Mercury but 20 degs further up from the horizon. Venus is slowly fading in brightness although the difference will be impossible to detect through casual observation. More discernable are the changes in the planets phase and apparent diameter. From a cresent phase of 49′ of arc across in June, when the planet was starting its Morning apparition, it is now only 18″ arc arcoss and is showing a gibbous phase. On the 4th Venus is 3 degs South of Mars.

MARS

Together with Venus Mars is heading for a close conjuction with the “Beehive” M44 star cluster in Cancer the crab. Binoculars offer the best wide-field view but a telescope will show Mars and M44 in the same field on the 21st. Venus will pass just 2.5 degs South on the 14th. Mars will be a mere 30″ arc secs from M44 on the 21st. The Moon will join in on the nights of 7th, 8th and 9th.

JUPITER

Crosses the meriden at 21:00h on the 1st, (20h:10m on 30th) and its large apparent diameter of 40″ arc secs makes it a far more satisfying sight than either Venus at 18 arc secs or Mars only 4.5″ arc secs. Having resumed normal West-East motion, Jupiter passes by M22 again, this time on the 21st with the lst quarter Moon lying 5.5 degs to the North.

Jupiter was the centre of attention on December 7th 1995 after the NASA Galileo Spacecraft entered orbit around Jupiter. The orbiter will encounter Jupiter’s Moon Ganymeade on the 6th. The Galileo Homepage should keep you up-to-date with news and images returned.

SATURN

Is at opposition on the 26th, its disk is half the diameter of Jupiter’s and its markings are nowhere near as pronouned. Steady seing conditions and very patient observing will enable the observer to see the subtle banding and transient markings such as white spots. If favourable placed Titan – Saturn’s largest Moon, may be viewed even with smallish telescopes. Large amateur telescopes will show more of Saturn’s system of moons. On the 27th Saturn is 3 degs South of the Moon.

URANUS and NEPTUNE.

Both are now disappering into evening twilight, but can be found low in South West sky between Capricornus and Sagittarius. Neptune will be celebrating its 150 year since its discovery this month.

PLUTO

Is Badly placed for observations at the moment.

METEORS

15th                            Aplha Aurigids               10 per hour      Favourable (Moon New on 14th)

Click Here.

9th & 21st                      Piscids                       8 per hour      Fairly Favourable.

Click Here.

 COMETS

• Comet C/1995 o1 (Hale-Bopp) With be on the Serpens Cauda & Ophichus border by mid month high in the SouthWest sky after sunset. For more imformation of what maybe? a bright comet in British Skies later this year and early 1997. The Comet Hale-Bopp Home Page should be able to help.
  Plus these pages will give daily and weekly reports of these and many more Comets.
• BAA Comet Section Home Page
• Comet Web Sites
• NASA/JPL Comet Observation Home Page
• The Astronomer Comet Page
  

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OCCULTATIONS

2nd Sept at 02h:13m Reappearance of E Arietis .
25th ” at 03h:01m Disappearance of P Aquarii .

27th Sept at 03h:30m Disappearance of star SAO 109078 takes place during Total Lunar Eclipse.
27th Sept at 03h:45m Disappearance of star SAO 109084 ” ” ” ” ” ”
27th Sept at 04h:28m Disappearance of star SAO 109078 ” ” ” ” ” ”
27th Sept at 04h:49m Disappearance of star SAO 109084 ” ” ” ” ” “

Society News Headlines

• Feb 28th -New Type of Astronomical Object discovered in our Galaxy.
• March 3rd – BBC1 Sky at Night – Results from recent space probes” Repeated Thurs March 7th BBC2.
• March 6th – Did cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin have a close brush with death in April 1961?
• March 7th – Hubble Space Telescope images of distant Pluto released Click Here.
• March 9th – 11th satellite FSW-1 is due to fall to Earth. (March 12th?)
• March 13th – 215th anniversary of the Discovery of the Planet URANUS in 1781 by William Herschel.
• March 13th – 10th anniversary of the fly-by of Comet Halley by the probe Giotto, (1986).
• March 15th – LAS Monthly meeting at NMGM Liverpool Museum 7-9pm.
• March 16th – LAS North Wales trip to view Comet Hyakutake.
• March 15th – 24th March SET’96 Week. Science events up and down the U.K.
• March 21st – Planned launch of the Space Shuttle AtlantisSTS-76 on the 3rd Shuttle/MIR Docking mission.
• March 22nd – Space Shuttle Atlantis was successful LAUNCHED at 08:13am GMT. However fluid leak may cut short flight.
• March 20th – Spring Equinox 08:00am
• March 20th – 2nd Anniversary of the opening of the LAS Pex Hill Observatory, by Patrick Moore (1994).
• March 22nd – Public open night at the LAS Pex Hill observatory as part of Science Week’96, starts at 7:00pm.
• March 22nd – Former shuttle astronaut Robert Overmyer killed in Plane crash.
• March 24th – Comet Hyakutake Sky at Night special with Patrick Moore BBC 1. (time TBC).
• March 24th – NEAR Spacecraft to image Comet Hyakutake at approx 15:00UT from 16.7 million km distant.
• March 25th – Naked eye Comet Hyakutake now overhead at Liverpool, shining at Mag 0/-1 with a 15-20 deg tail.
• March 25th – Hubble Space Telescope Images of the Great Comet of 1996! Click Here for results.
• March 26th – First clear observations of Comet Hyakutake from Liverpool U.K.
• March 26th – Reports & observations of fragment from the Comet nucleus of Hyakutake seen in comet tail.
• March 27th – Internet Comet pages cramed full of wonderful images, see below in Comet section of this page.
• March 29th – LAS Council Meeting, 7pm at NMGM Liverpool Museum.
• March 31st – BBC1 Sky at Night – Classical Novae” Repeated Thurs April 4th BBC2.
• March 31st – British Summer Time (BST) begins to-day.

THE NIGHT SKY DURING THE MONTH OF MARCH 1996

What will the weather be like to-night? – Click Here to find out.
To make your own star chart for your location at any time,click here.
Constellation of the week- Click Here. Maintained by Mr Richard Dibon-Smith.

The Sun and Moon

All times are in Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).

The 20th of March marks the date of the Spring Equinox when the Sun crosses the Celestial Equator, and day and night are of equal length anywhere in the world. March is also the month when the clocks are traditionally advanced by ONE HOUR to take us into BRITISH SUMMER TIME (BST). All times on this page will be given in GMT so please add one hour to the time given to obtain the (BST) after the 20th.

For Observer in the Liverpool Region, Merseyside – England, U.K.
Latitude 53degs 24 mins North
Longitude +3.0 degs West

            1st      6th     11th    16th    21st    26th    31st
SUNRISE    06:59    06:48   06:36   06:24   06:12   06:00   05:48
SUNSET     17:50    18:00   18:09   18:18   18:27   18:37   18:46

MOONPHASES

New Moon on 19th – 10h:46m
1st Quarter on 27th – 01h:32m
Full Moon on 5th – 09h:24m
Last Quarter on 12th – 17h:55m

THE PLANETS

MERCURY

Is at Superior Conjunction in the 28th.

VENUS

Is now a spectacular sight high up in the South-Western sky shortly after Sunset, unmistakeable even in bright twilight. On the 23rd it can be seen 5.5degs North of the Moon,and over the next few weeks will being to track towards a close conjunction with the Pleiades star cluster in Taurus. So any of you with a suitable camera and telephoto lens this grouping should not be missed. Venus reaches Perihelion in its orbit on March 22nd, and greatest elongation from the Sun on March 31st, (46degs)

MARS

Is at Solar Conjunction on the 4th.

JUPITER

Is the only bright planet on view in the morning sky, lying low down in the South-East in the constellation of Sagittarius. On the 14th Jupiter is 5 degs South of the Moon and on the 23rd is is only 43′ arc secs from the naked eye sky Omicron Sagittari.

News on the Galileo Probe Playback information Click Here. Have a look at theNASA/JPL Comet Shoemaker-Levy Home Page

SATURN

Is at Solar Conjunction on the 17th.

Check out theSaturn Ring Plan Crossing Home page for more information

URANUS and NEPTUNE

Both are not suitable placed for observations at this time.

PLUTO

This is so very faint it is out of the reach of all but the largest of amateur owned telescopes.

METEORS

THERE ARE NO MAJOR SHOWERS THIS MONTH BUT ALWAYS BE ON THE LOOK OUT FOR BRIGHT FIREBALLS.

COMETS

On the morning of July 23rd 1995, two amateurs discovered a new comet near the globular cluster M70, just South of the “Teapot” in Sagittarius. Alan Hale in New Mexico, and Thomas Bopp in Arizona were independantly using 16/17 inch reflectors Comet 1995 01 Hale-Bopp may? get to naked eye brightness by the end of next this year/early 1997 as seen from Britain
Click HERE for news from the JPL COMET HALE-BOPP HOME PAGE.

• Comet (Hyakataki) C/1996 B2 is predicted to be very bright and circumpolar from the latitude of Liverpool.
  For most of March will remain in the constellation of Libra, best seen between 04-05:50am. It keeps to an almost vertical line, in terms of RA as it heads North. The Comet will be close to Alpha Librae – Zubenelgenubi on March 12th and near to M5 on March 20th/21st.
  Click HERE for more Liverpool information. (updated 22/3/96).
  Click HEREfor C/1996 B2 (Hyakutake) HomePage.
• Comet (Szczepanski) C/1996 B1 is starting to faded, but can be seen in the constellation of LEO for most of March, heading for Southern horizon.
• Comet (Hyakataki) C/1995 Y1 is still with us but will be a dim Mag 10 by months end.
  For more information of these comets and many more check out the following pages:-The Sky Online Comet Page 

The BAA COMET SECTION HOME PAGE
The NASA JPL COMET OBSERVATION HOME PAGE
The JPL COMET HALE-BOPP HOME PAGE
The THE ASTRONOMER (TA) COMET PAGE

 OCCULTATIONS

March 1st at 02h:06m Disappearance of SAO 97012 a star in Gemini Mag 6.7
March 1st at 02h:07m Disappearance of 68 Geminorum Mag 5.1.

March 6th at 23h:44m Reappearance of the wide double star Struve1627 in Virgo Mags 6.7 and 7.0

Component B is Reappears at 23h:44m:13s
Component A is Reappears at 23h:44m:36s

These two stars are 19′ arc secs apart but within reach of most amateur telescopes.
March 30th at 19h:53m Disappearance of 6 Leonis another wide double star.Mag 5.3 and 9.6, 37′ arc secs apart.

NOVA CASSIOPEIAE

On August 24th a 9th mag Nova was discovered by Minoru Yamamoto. Its precise position obtained on August 26th is:-

            R.A. 1h 05m 05s.37
            Decl +54deg 00` 40".5 (equinox 2000.0 GSC)

            R.A. 1h 02m 6s.56
            Decl +53deg 00`44'36".6 (equinox 1950.0)

At the end of 1995 there were reports of this nova brighting to mag 7.

Click HERE for more information from the TA page.