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By Claire Thoma, Evaluation Research Coordinator—and astronomy enthusiast!
I have a very fond memory of waking up in the middle of the night to watch a meteor shower with my dad when I was 8 years old. It was really cold, so we huddled inside sleeping bags in the yard. We only saw a few meteors, but we had so much fun together, and the experience deepened my love of science. If you’d like to introduce your family to some of the more exotic celestial sights, mark your calendar for these events (no special equipment needed)!
Double the Planets, Double the Fun: Conjunction of Venus and Jupiter: JUNE 30 (and OCT 26)
Shortly after sunset, in the west-southwest sky, two bright planets, Venus and Jupiter, will be strikingly close together. They will appear to be separated by only about half the apparent width of the moon, making for a very eye-catching sight. Then, on October 26, Venus and Jupiter will engage in another close conjunction, this time separated by about twice the width of the moon. Venus will pass to the southwest (lower right) of Jupiter and shine more than 10 times brighter than the huge gas giant.
Observing Tips:
- Don’t despair if it's cloudy on these dates! Venus and Jupiter will still appear close together for many days before and after. It would be a cool project to chart their positions at the same time every night over a week or two to see how they move closer and then apart again!
- This is a good event for binoculars. Even fairly small binoculars should be able to show the two planets as discs, rather than points of light, and you will probably notice a difference in color between them.
Perseid Meteor Shower (AUGUST 12)
The Perseid meteor shower is usually considered to be among the best of the annual meteor displays thanks to its high number of shooting stars. Lucky observers can sometimes see up to 90 meteors an hour during the shower. Last summer, the moon was waning gibbous (more than half full) and presented a major nuisance for those who wanted a dark sky to watch the shower. But in 2015, the moon will not rise until just before daybreak, leaving most of the night dark for prospective observers.
Observing Tips:
- You should plan to spend an hour watching the skies, so bring blankets and pillows and make yourself comfortable on the ground. A fun game is to make up your own constellations or stories while waiting for the shooting stars. You will be able to see the brightest meteors even with streetlights around, but you will be able to see many more if you can get to a darker spot.
- Binoculars are not helpful during meteor showers because they restrict your field of view to a small amount of the sky. You’re more likely to miss a shooting star than see it through binoculars!
Now You See It, Now You Don’t: Aldebaran disappears behind the Moon (SEPTEMBER 4–5)
The last-quarter moon will pass in front of one of the brightest stars in the sky, Aldebaran (pronounced al-deb-or-on), the orange “eye” of Taurus the Bull. This occultation will be visible over Indiana around 1:00 am, but there will be another visible early on Nov. 26—Thanksgiving morning.
Observing Tip:
- The most striking moment of this event will be when the star disappears behind the moon’s edge, so plan to get outside to locate the moon and star a few minutes before the actual occultation. Aldebaran is the bright reddish star in the constellation that looks like a sideways “V” near Orion. If you have binoculars, check out the moon’s craters and see if you can locate the nearby Pleiades star cluster. Because the moon and Aldebaran are both so bright, you don’t have to worry about streetlights for this event.
Lunar Eclipse (SEPTEMBER 27-28)
Eclipse watchers in Indiana will see the entire lunar eclipse from start to finish. Totality (the time during which the moon is completely in the Earth’s shadow) will last 72 minutes. The Earth’s shadow begins moving across the moon about 9:10 pm, and the moon will be in total eclipse at about 10:10 pm.
It's helpful to have detailed information on the timing of the different eclipse phases for Indiana.
Observing Tip:
- The entire lunar eclipse process, from the time the Earth’s shadow first starts creeping over the moon until the moon is completely out of the shadow, lasts almost 3.5 hours. I like to check periodically as the moon goes into eclipse and then make sure to see it fully in shadow (when it looks reddish). No binoculars or dark sky needed, although it is fun to look at the moon’s craters with binoculars!
BONUS EVENT: International Observe the Moon Night (SEPTEMBER 19)
If the timing of the lunar eclipse doesn’t work for you family, or you would like to check out the moon through a telescope with other sky-gazers, looks for an event near you during this international event!
Geminid Meteor Shower (DECEMBER 13-14)
If there is one meteor display guaranteed to put on an entertaining show, it is the Geminids. Most meteor experts now put it at the top of the list, surpassing even the August Perseids in brilliance and reliability. The moon will be a narrow crescent and will set early in the evening, leaving the sky dark all through the rest of the night — perfect conditions for watching shooting stars. This will be your chance to see an average of as many as two meteor sightings every minute, or 120 per hour in a dark location!
Observing Tips:
- You should plan to spend an hour watching the skies, so bring blankets and pillows and make yourself comfortable on the ground. Sleeping bags, hats, and gloves would be a good idea since Indiana is cold in December! A fun game is to make up your own constellations or stories while waiting for the shooting stars. You will be able to see the brightest meteors even with streetlights around, but you will be able to see many more if you can get to a darker spot.
- Binoculars are not helpful during meteor showers because they restrict your field of view to a small amount of the sky. You’re more likely to miss a shooting star than see it through binoculars!
