Best Times to See Milky Way Galaxy from India

The Milky Way is one of the brightest and famous arms of our galaxy. This is in the region of Scorpius and Sagittarius constellations, this region is also the center of our galaxy. It is a magnificent view when seen under dark skies away from the city light pollution. The Milky Way will appear as a hazy band in the sky, rich with stars, with the brightest region at Sagittarius and dimmer toward north. Many people mistake it for clouds, if you get the doubt, wait for some time and the Milky Way will move along with the stars.

The band of the Milky Way extends from constellations Sagittarius, Sagitta, Cygnus, Cassiopeia to Perseus in the north. To enjoy the full Milky Way band, a place with an unobstructed view of the horizons is essential.        

The Milky Way will be in opposition in the middle of June, that means as the Sun is setting in the west, the Milky Way will be rising in the east. June and July are the best months to enjoy the Milky Way all through the night. I thought making this list of rise, meridian transit and set times of the Milky Way would be useful, so I made one.

Here are the Times for viewing the Milky Way.  

June 15: The Milky Way will rise at 7pm, it will reach meridian, highest altitude in the sky, at midnight and the Milky Way  will set at 5:30am. The Milky Way will be visible all night. 

July 15: The Milky Way will rise at 5pm, reach meridian, highest altitude in the sky at 10:30pm and the Milky Way will set at 3:45pm.

August 15: Milky way will be at meridian, highest altitude in the sky at 8:30pm and the Milky Way will set at 2am.

September 15: By the time the Sun sets, the Milky Way will be at meridian, highest altitude in the sky and it will set at midnight.

October 15: Milky Way will set at 9:30pm.

November 15: Milky Way will set at 7:30pm.

The Sun will be in Sagittarius in December so the Milky Way is not visible. 

Jan 15: The Milky Way will rise at 5am, in twilight.

Feb 15: The Milky Way will rise at 3am.

March 15: The Milky Way will rise at 1am.

April 15: The Milky Way will rise at 11pm and will reach meridian, highest altitude at 4:30am.

May15: The Milky Way will rise at 9pm and it will reach meridian, highest altitude at 2:30am.

As the best months to view the Milky Way galaxy are in the months of June and July, this will make it difficult for south India due to the arrival of Monsoon. To see the band full night or to photograph the band, it is better to move to places where the monsoon has not yet reached. 

You can use the list when going on a trek in a remote place. Check the times during the month and enjoy the view of the Milky Way. 

     

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How to find Largest Asteroid passing closest to earth?

 

How to find Largest Asteroid passing closest to earth? Is a good question. The asteroid 2001 FO32 will pass very close to earth and it will be visible in moderate sized backyard telescopes, 8inch aperture and above with dark skies. The asteroid in the eyepiece or in the photograph will appear as a tiny star indistinguishable from the surrounding stars. This makes it a challenging object to spot and confirm. Keeping this in mind I have prepared a star chart and also provided the co ordinate systems of the object so that you can enter this in your GOTO telescope and spot the asteroid.

The apparent motion of the asteroid is fast enough for the motion to be detected with respect to background stars. Only way to confirm that you were successful in spotting the asteroid it so make observations at regular intervals and check for the movement. Taking photos of the region at regular intervals and blinking the photos will help to confirm the asteroid.

Here are the details of the asteroid 2001 FO32 path from 20^th of March to 21^st of March, this includes chart with hourly movement of the asteroid. The Time and Chart is for Indian Subcontinent. 

Asteroid 2001 FO32 will rise in the constellation of Lupus at 10:50pm IST on 20th March, Moon will be in the sky at the time of asteroid rising but moon will set at midnight giving lot of time to track the Asteroid 2001 FO32.

Above are the co-ordinates for GOTO telescopes to spot Asteroid 2001 FO32. The Asteroid will rise at 4am on 22nd morning making it difficult to spot in low horizon.

Happy hunting.

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SPOTTING THE LANDING SITE OF CHANDRAYAAN 2

As the landing date for the Chandrayaan 2 approaches which is on 7th September  it is curious on where it is going to land. Amateur Astronomers who keep observing the celestial objects are more curious and would love to know the position of landing so that they can spot the landing area on the moon with their telescopes. Most of the craters are visible with small telescopes and there are lot of maps that are available online to spot the craters.

About the craters Manzinus C and Simpelius N

ISRO sources say that the landing site will be between craters Manzinus C and Simpelius N on the high lands between them. As amateurs will know the letters next to the crater names says that these are smaller craters around the big crater. Here Manzinus is a big crater with a diameter close to 100 km diameter and smaller craters near its vicinity are given capital letters for example Manzinus crater has Manzinus C, Manzinus D, Manzinus G, Manzinus E etc,. This is same with all craters, so Simpelius N is a small crater close to Simpelius crater which is close to 70km in diameter.

Locating the Landing site of Chandrayaan 2

To find the crater its good to start with the best known bright crater on the south side of the moon, the Tycho crater. After finding Tycho, the next hop is to near by crater Magnius, this is also easy to find because of the size of the crater, the Magnius crater is close to 160km in diameter. Next hop is to Crater Zach which is also easy to find due its appearance. Continuing in the same line to almost limb of the moon the landing sites of Chandarayaan 2 can be found, the craters Manzinus C and Simpelius N. Crater Manzinus C is easy to find because of the diameter it has, close to 20km, but the Simpelius N is little challenging at 8km diameter.

Location of Chandrayaan 2 Landing Site

Best time to Spot the Landing site of Chandrayaan 2

To attempt to spot the craters Sun has to light it up, as I am writing this article on 21st of August the craters are in the dark, the next chance will come on 6th September, when moon is half lit and the craters will be easy to spot until 17th of September. For future reference the craters are best seen from half moon after new moon to 3 days after full moon. Happy Spotting.

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July Total Lunar Eclipse

There are very few astronomical events for which we need not leave our house, or have telescopes, filters or worry about light pollution. One such event is Lunar eclipse, an astronomical event that can be seen from where we live and without any optical aid or equipment.  

This time on 27th July the eclipse happens when moon is high in the sky so no worries of buildings and trees blocking the view.  

Here are the times of the eclipse. Moon will enter Penumbral shadow at 10:45pm on 27th July this is hard to notice as the change in brightness is very less. Moon will start entering the Umbral shadow at 11:55pm, partial eclipse phase, from here we easily see the change in brightness. Moon will be completely inside Umbral shadow from 1:00am, here we say Moon is in total eclipse phase.

 The totality will end at 2:44am when Moon will start becoming brighter. As moon comes out of totality we can see partial eclipse phase as some portion of Moon will be in dark and other will be in brightness. Moon will come out of Partial phase at 3:45am. The Moon will come out of Penumbral shadow at 4:48am.

We urge you watch this amazing celestial show which is viable from all our India

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Omicron Leonis occultation

On 20th, Thursday 2010, Constellation Leo will be good area to observe.

Planet Mars is in the constellation of Leo and on 20th, the planet is 6 degrees to the north of the Moon.

Moon will occult the 3.5 magnitude star omicron leonis, Subra, on 20th May 2010. The Moon will be at half phase and Subra is occulted from dark side of the Moon.

Here is a list of timings of occultation for few places in India.

Location	Disappears	Reappears
IST = UT + 5:30	UT	UT
Agra	14h 36m 16s	15h 29m 49s
Amritsar	14h 26m 56s	15h 15m 40s
Bangaluru	14h 49m 56s	16h 3m 0s
Hyderabad	14h 45m 13s	15h 55m 9s
Jaipur	14h 30m 43s	15h 30m 12s
Kolkata	15h 3m 1s	15h 43m 30s
Lucknow	14h 44m 8s	15h 30m 47s
New Delhi	14h 33m 45s	15h 25m 13s
Srinagar	14h 27m 27s	15h 6m 41s
Location	Disappears	Reappears

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Annular Solar Eclipse January 15, 2010 [Partial Solar Eclipse in Bangalore and all parts of Karnataka]

After waiting for more than three decades, this month we have a chance to observe the Annular Eclipse. On January 15th, 2010 we will be able to watch the ASE from many cities in South India. Karnataka will witness the Eclipse as Partial Solar Eclipse, ABAA members will be visiting Rameshwaram which is very close to the central line to observe the event and photograph the Annular Solar Eclipse.

We all know that Annular eclipse takes place when the angular diameter of the Moon is less than that of the Sun.

We will examine the conditions of the Sun and Moon for this Eclipse.

On January 3rd Sun will be closest to Earth with approximate distance of 14,71,01,455 km and on 15th of January the Sun will have a distance of 14,71,53,269.484 km. Using the distance and diameter we can find out the angular size of the object. Distance of Sun we already know and the diameter of Sun is 1,392,000km, dividing diameter by distance and multiplying the result with 57.3 we get angular size of the Sun.

Angular size = (diameter / distance ) * 57.3

on 15th Sun will be at 14,71,53,269.484 km

the Angular size of Sun = (1,392,000/ 14,71,53,269.484) * 57.3

= 0.542 degrees

Applying the same for Moon

Diameter of Moon is 3474km and distance of Moon on 15th is 4,04,714km. Moon will be farthest from Earth on January 17th.

Angular size = (diameter / distance ) * 57.3

= (3474 / 4,04,714) * 57.3

= 0.4918 degrees

As we can see Moon's angular diameter is much smaller than that of the Sun, this results in Annular Eclipse.

Details for Bangalore(January 15, 2010 the Annular Solar Eclipse will be visible as a Partial Solar Eclipse in Bangalore, Karnataka and rest of India):

Start time : 11:17 51° 35' 47" East

Maximum : 13:17 53° 56' 21" West

End Time : 15:10 37° 50' 9" West

Sun coverage at maximum will be around 84% from Bangalore

As stated above, in all parts of Karnataka the the Eclipse will be a Partial Solar Eclipse. Below a list is given as a reference for start, maximum and end times[approximate] on January 15th 2010 for places in Karnataka.

Times in IST

Location	Start Time	Maximum	End Time
Bidar	11:31	13:26	15:13
Gulbarga	11:27	13:27	15:11
Bijapur	11:20	13:20	15:09
Belguam	11:14	13:14	15:06
Raichur	11:24	13:24	15:12
Bagalkot	11:19	13:19	15:09
Koppal	11:18	13:18	15:10
Gadag	11:17	13:17	15:09
Dharwad	11:14	13:20	15:08
Udupi	11:08	13:15	15:06
Shimoga	11:12	13:19	15:08
Bellary	11:19	13:24	15:11
Davangere	11:14	13:21	15:09
Chitradurga	11:15	13:22	15:10
Chikmagalur	11:11	13:18	15:08
Mangalore	11:07	13:15	15:06
Hassan	11:11	13:19	15:08
Tumkur	11:15	13:22	15:10
Mercara	11:09	13:17	15:07
Mysore	11:12	13:19	15:09
Chamarajanagar	11:12	13:20	15:09
Kolar	11:18	13:25	15:12

Here are details for few cities in India

INDIA( all Times in UT)

Location	Start Time	End Time	Maximum	Totality Duration
Ahmadabad	05:57:16.2	09:33:32.6	07:52:21.6
Ambasamudram	05:37:05.7	09:36:28.8	07:46:08.7	08m23s
Aruppukkottai	05:40:53.1	09:38:26.1	07:49:18.8	06m58s
Bangalore	05:46:31.4	09:41:07.4	07:53:29.7
Bombay	05:46:43.5	09:34:30.4	07:48:10.7
Calcutta	06:37:15.5	09:59:05.9	08:27:34.8
Delhi	06:23:15.8	09:40:59.6	08:09:10.3
Hyderabad	05:59:24.0	09:45:17.8	08:02:00.3
Jaipur	06:15:42.8	09:39:11.3	08:04:37.8
Kanpur	06:25:18.6	09:48:12.2	08:14:56.1
Karaikkudi	05:44:19.1	09:40:04.7	07:52:05.5	07m06s
Kumbakonam	05:48:10.5	09:41:55.6	07:55:08.5	04m02s
Lucknow	06:27:28.0	09:48:58.7	08:16:22.5
Madras	05:55:32.4	09:45:13.9	08:00:40.5
Madurai	05:41:47.0	09:38:56.7	07:50:03.5	03m18s
Nagappattinam	05:49:17.7	09:42:19.8	07:55:59.5	08m00s
Nagercoil	05:35:56.2	09:35:44.9	07:45:07.1	09m51s
Nagpur	06:09:58.8	09:47:09.6	08:07:46.4
New Delhi	06:23:04.2	09:41:00.7	08:09:06.0
Palayankottai	05:38:02.4	09:36:54.5	07:46:55.5	09m05s
Patna	06:34:42.2	09:55:27.8	08:23:51.9
Pudukkottai	05:45:04.3	09:40:29.0	07:52:42.1	05m03s
Pune	05:48:34.2	09:36:47.1	07:50:44.5
Quilon	05:34:31.1	09:35:19.6	07:43:58.5
Rajapalaiyam	05:38:56.2	09:37:32.6	07:47:42.9	03m34s
Sivakasi	05:39:47.2	09:37:55.7	07:48:24.9	05m47s
Thanjavur	05:47:02.9	09:41:25.1	07:54:15.8	03m36s
Tirunelveli	05:37:57.5	09:36:52.7	07:46:51.6	08m57s
Trivandrum	05:34:47.5	09:35:20.7	07:44:11.6	07m16s
Tuticorin	05:39:32.6	09:37:35.4	07:48:09.3	09m44s
Virudunagar	05:40:35.9	09:38:20.0	07:49:05.1	05m36s
Vishakhapatnam	06:14:29.9	09:52:15.1	08:13:35.9

Here is a list of Past and Future dates of Annular Eclipse that were and will be visible from India.

1025 Nov 23rd South India

1087 Aug 01 South India

1093 Sep 23rd South India

1107 Dec 16th Middle India

1119 May 11 Middle India

1130 Oct 4th South India

1147 Oct 26th Middle India

1148 Oct 20th Middle India

1162 Jan 17th North India

1174 Nov 26th North India

1184 Nov 05th South India

1189 Feb 17th Middle India

1191 Jun 23rd Middle India

1206 Mar 11th North India

1217 Aug 04th North India

1290 Sep 05 North India

1292 Jan 21st North India

1344 Oct 7th North India

1376 Jul 17th South India

1483 May 18th North India

1474 Oct 11th North India

1517 Jun 19th South India

1528 Nov 12th Middle India

1556 Nov 02 South India

1561 Feb 14th North India

1590 Jul 31 North India

1610 Dec 15th South India

1615 March 29 South India

1644 Sep 01 North India

1665 Jan 16th Middle India

1676 Jun 11th South India

1692 Feb 17th North India

1719 Feb 19th North India

1720 Aug 4th North India

1746 Mar 22nd North India

1758 Dec 30 Middle India

1763 Apr 13th North India

1774 Mar 12th Middle India

1793 Sep 05th North India

1840 Mar 04th South India

1847 Oct 09th Middle India

1857 Sep 18th North India

1872 Jun 06th South India

1890 Jun 17th North India

1901 Nov 11th South India

1933 Aug 21st North India

1944 Jul 20th Middle India

1965 Nov 23rd North India

1976 Apr 29th North India

2010 Jan 15th Sout India

2019 Dec 26 South India

2020 Jun 21st North India

2031 May 21 South India

2074 Jan 27 South to North

2085 Jun 22nd South India

Happy Observing and Clear skies

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Partial Lunar Eclipse

We begin this new year with Partial Lunar Eclipse, good 'omen' for us amateur astronomers. On January 1st, 2010 the Moon will be partly covered by Earth's shadow, but, the coverage will be very less. The Eclipse will start at 00:26am and ends at 1:18am. The maximum shadow coverage will be about 1'47”. Hope the skies will be clear by then. The Lunar Eclipse will be visible from Bangalore and also from all parts of India.

Moon will enter the Penumbral shadow at 10:46 pm, 31st December 2009.

Moon will enter the Umbral shadow at 00:26 , 1st January 2010.

Moon will leave the Umbral shadow at 1:18am, 1st January 2010.

Moon will leave the Penumbral shadow at 2:56am 1st January 2010.

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