TRAC Action Plan: July 2024

Astronomy in the Summer

It still doesn't get properly dark until around midnight. By the end of July, you'll notice it starting to get darker earlier in the evening. In July, we'll hopefully get the chance to see the Moon, dwarf planet Ceres, and the main summer constellations.

Summer Constellations

If we get clear skies, we can look out for these constellations:

• Hercules – named after the brave Roman mythological hero.
• Lyra – an eagle carrying a lyre. Brightest star: Vega.
• Cygnus – a regal swan. Brightest star: Deneb.
• Scorpius – shaped like a scorpion's tail. Brightest star: Antares.
• Cassiopeia – named after a beautiful but vain queen by the Greeks.

Solar Observations

If anyone hasn't yet seen the Sun through the solar glasses and solar filter, come and see me on a bright, sunny afternoon. We'll look out for sun spots on the Sun's photosphere (the upper atmosphere of the Sun).

On the afternoon of Sat 11 May, Andrei and I were able to see the huge cluster of sunspots that were the origin of the solar flare that caused the aurora the previous evening.

There's a good chance that it'll be possible to see more sunspots this year, as solar activity is predicted to peak between now and next summer.

Latitude Locator

Let's Build a Measuring Device

Matey's had a flick through the Outdoor Maker Lab activity book and he's found an interesting astronomy-themed project for us to have a go it: building a handheld device to measure our latitude.

All we'll need is paper, card, string, electrical tape, double-sided sticky tape, and a metal washer to use as a weight.

Latitude and Longitude

Every position on Earth can be specified by two numbers called latitude and longitude.

Your latitude tells you now far north or south you are from the equator, an imaginary line that runs around the middle of the Earth.

Your longitude tells you how far east or west you are from another imaginary line called the Prime Meridian, which passes close to Greenwich, London.

How Far North Are We?

The UK is in the northern hemisphere, so when we use our latitude locators, they'll be measuring how many degrees north we are from the equator.

On a clear night, you'll point your latitude locator at Polaris (The North Star) to take a measurement. If you did this at the north pole, you'd be looking straight up, and the reading would be 90°. If you did this at the equator, you'd be looking at the horizon, and the reading would be 0°. Rainham is between the equator and the north pole, so our reading will be somewhere in the middle.

I wonder what level of accuracy we'll be able to achieve? Let's find out!

Latitude in Astronomy

Latitude is an important concept in astronomy. For example, a location's latitude determines how many hours of sunlight it gets each day and what will be visible in the night sky.

Lunar Observations

July 2024 Lunar Calendar

• New Moon Fri 05
• First Quarter Sat 13
• Full Moon Sun 21
• Last Quarter Sun 28

The Moon will be due south in the early evening around the middle of the month. We'll aim to see it on the second weekend in July. It may be possible to see the full moon low in the sky the following weekend.

The start of the month will be best chance for some stargazing, a few days either side of the new moon on 05 Jul.

Minor Planet Ceres

Dwarf planet Ceres will reach opposition on 06 Jul. It will be quite low down in the south-eastern sky and will lie slightly above the bright star Ascella in the constellation of Sagittarius, home of the famous "Teapot" asterism.

Ceres orbits the Sun in the middle of the main asteroid belt, which is located between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.

It will be quite faint, at magnitude +7.3. It has an average diameter of under 1,000 km, so finding it with the telescope will be very challenging!

Planets

We won't be able to see any planets in July.

A few planets are starting to move into more favourable positions. For example, at the start of the month, Mars rises at 02:00 and will be visible from 03:00. That's a bit too late for us, but it rises roughly one hour earlier per month, so by November, it will be ideally placed in the sky at 21:00.

We can expect excellent views of Saturn from September onwards, and Jupiter will be exceptionally bright in the final three months of 2024.

We need to hope for many clear nights towards the end of the year!

Admin Tasks

Please refer to the June Action Plan! At some point this summer, we need to design a leaflet to distribute to our neighbours whose houses back onto the park, just to let them know that there's a new astronomy group in town!

The website is now a top priority, too! The notice on the home page says, "Website launching in summer 2024!" Seeing as we're now in the middle of "summer 2024", we've got to get a move on (or change the notice to "Website launching in autumn 2024!").

Summary

We haven't seen an asteroid (minor planet) so far this year. The thick clouds made it impossible for us to see Juno back in March.

If we can see Ceres, it will be an astronomy club first! Finding it with the telecope will be tricky, but it's the best chance we'll get this year to see an asteroid. The two other possible candidates are Iris (mag. +8.1) in August and Eunomia (mag. +8.0) in December, but they'll both be slightly fainter than Ceres.

Building a latitude locator will be a fun activity to do when we get one of those clouds evenings again. Of course, we'll need to wait for the clouds to part when we come to test them out!

James M
TRAC Team Leader
04 Jul 2024 – Rainham, Kent