The Ward Beecher Planetarium

Tomorrow morning, the waning gibbous moon will lie close to the bright planet Jupiter. The 3rd quarter moon will pass the Pleiades. Plus the fiery red star Aldebaran, the Eye of Ta**us the Bull, will shine nearby. They’ll rise before midnight and be visible through dawn.

For more sky events, visit EarthSky’s night sky guide and watch a video at: https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/visible-planets-tonight-mars-jupiter-venus-saturn-mercury/

Did you know? The September equinox will fall on September 22. While it’s not true that day and night are precisely equal on the day of an equinox, here’s an equinox fact that is true. The sun rises due east and sets due west at the equinox. It’s true no matter where you live on Earth (except at the North and South Poles). 🌎

Read why the sun rises due east and sets due west:
https://earthsky.org/tonight/equinox-sun-rises-due-east-and-sets-due-west/

📸 Image via NASA.

On Wednesdays we wear pink.

Arp 107, an interacting galaxy pair, was captured by Webb in both the near and mid-infrared. What does each infrared wavelength tell us? Webb’s mid-infrared observations (highlighted here in pinkish hues show star-forming regions and dust, as well as the large spiral galaxy’s bright nucleus. Near-infrared data showcases the stars within the colliding galaxies, as well as the translucent bridge of stars being pulled from them both. Read more about these colliding galaxies in the link in the first comment.

Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI

Update: Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS Might Outshine Predictions A new brightness forecast for Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS whets our hopes for a fine appearance in late September and early October.

https://www.wfmj.com/clip/15486375/planetarium-update

Planetarium update Planetarium update

Ringed Ice Giant Neptune (APOD: 2024 Sep 06)
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, NIRCam
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap240906.html

Explanation: Ringed ice giant Neptune lies near the center of this sharp near-infrared image from the James Webb Space Telescope. The dim and distant world is the farthest planet from the Sun, about 30 times farther away than planet Earth. But in the stunning Webb view, the planet's dark and ghostly appearance is due to atmospheric methane that absorbs infrared light. High altitude clouds that reach above most of Neptune's absorbing methane easily stand out in the image though. Coated with frozen nitrogen, Neptune's largest moon Triton is brighter than Neptune in reflected sunlight, seen at the upper left sporting the Webb telescope's characteristic diffraction spikes. Including Triton, seven of Neptune's 14 known moons can be identified in the field of view. Neptune's faint rings are striking in this space-based planetary portrait. Details of the complex ring system are seen here for the first time since Neptune was visited by the Voyager 2 spacecraft in August 1989.

https://www.nasa.gov
https://www.esa.int/
https://www.asc-csa.gc.ca/eng/
https://www.stsci.edu/
https://webbtelescope.org/contents/media/images/01FA0SZSEW1TZ51BHG0EGW2EZP

Starship Asterisk* • APOD Discussion Page
https://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=240906

Mercury is ready for its closeup! 📸

The BepiColombo spacecraft took this black-and-white selfie 🤳 on Wednesday as it made a flyby of Mercury. BepiColombo is getting into position to orbit Mercury for its observations that begin in November 2026.

📷 ESA

Planetarium segment starts at 25:18:

Valley Spotlight #160 - September 1, 2024 Thanks to our friends from Steelite International we host from Zenobia in Canfield, Ohio! Izdihar Mansour and her daughter Rama Chamoun showcase their beaut...

The Moon Dressed Like Saturn (APOD: 2024 Sep 01)
Image Credit & Copyright: Francisco Sojuel
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap240901.html

Explanation: Why does Saturn appear so big? It doesn't -- what is pictured are foreground clouds on Earth crossing in front of the Moon. The Moon shows a slight crescent phase with most of its surface visible by reflected Earthlight, known as Da Vinci glow. The Sun directly illuminates the brightly lit lunar crescent from the bottom, which means that the Sun must be below the horizon and so the image was taken before sunrise. This double take-inducing picture was captured on 2019 December 24, two days before the Moon slid in front of the Sun to create a solar eclipse. In the foreground, lights from small Guatemalan towns are visible behind the huge volcano Pacaya.

https://www.instagram.com/francisco_sojuel/

Starship Asterisk* • APOD Discussion Page
https://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=240901

The final steps: SSIA is here reinstalling our 4K video and 5.1 surround sound! Welcome back, Sony 4K projector!

https://youtu.be/k-qQSeAUfp0?si=GPQR1UihIeHfamYa

Tonight's Sky: September About this VideoIn September, Pegasus becomes increasingly prominent in the southeastern sky, allowing stargazers to locate globular star clusters and a near...

The is a few degrees lower left of the . Once time passes and it rises good and high it shines above much else. While waning down away from first quarter, it steps over **us's array of objects in the early-morning sky.

University Electric enters a new galaxy at YSU planetarium rebuild Celestial views are returning to the YSU planetarium at Ward Beecher Hall. Renovations have wrapped up following a fire that severely damaged the building’s roof in January 2023. University Electric realized very quickly that it was going to be a challenging and unique project. “There was so muc...

It's official: the planetarium was granted occupancy by the state inspector today!

shines very close to the just-past-full Moon this evening. Their background is dim . Arcturus is the brightest star high in the west on late-summer evenings. may be best known for its cosmic history: It's an orange giant older than the solar system, racing by our part of space on a trajectory that indicates it was born in another galaxy.

The flag ... is up!

You can see both Jupiter and Mars high in the east before sunup in August, 2024. This week, they passed less than a full moon’s width apart. Watch this wonderful video, made possible by EarthSky community photographers around the globe, who captured this magnificent moment:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzuvtydJcq4

📸 Jeremy Likness from Oregon on August 13.

Animation: Perseid Meteor Shower (APOD: 2024 Aug 11)
Visualization Credit: Ian Webster; Data: NASA, CAMS, Peter Jenniskens (SETI Institute)
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap240811.html

Explanation: Where do Perseid meteors come from? Mostly small bits of stony grit, Perseid meteoroids were once expelled from Comet Swift-Tuttle and continue to follow this comet's orbit as they slowly disperse. The featured animation (here as a freeze-frame) depicts the entire meteoroid stream (in white) as it orbits our Sun. When the Earth nears this stream, as it does every year, the Perseid Meteor Shower occurs. Highlighted as bright in the animation, comet debris this size is usually so dim it is practically undetectable. Only a small fraction of this debris will enter the Earth's atmosphere, heat up and disintegrate brightly. Tonight and the next few nights promise some of the better skies to view the Perseid shower as well as other active showers because the first quarter moon will be absent from the sky from midnight onward.

http://www.ianww.com/
https://www.nasa.gov/
http://cams.seti.org/
https://www.seti.org/our-scientists/peter-jenniskens
https://www.seti.org/

Starship Asterisk* • APOD Discussion Page
https://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=240811

Mars may host oceans’ worth of water deep underground The tentative discovery hints at an habitat where life could potentially thrive.

Mars and Jupiter are now close enough to spot together in binoculars. Focus your binoculars on bright Jupiter in the eastern sky before dawn, and you’ll easily spot the slightly dimmer but much redder Mars in the same field of view. You can also enjoy the neighboring bright star Aldebaran, plus the Pleiades and Hyades star clusters.

Learn more at earthsky.org/tonight/jupiter-and-mars-conjunction-uranus-july-august-14-2024/

The 2024 Perseid meteor shower is set to peak Monday morning! This shower is perhaps the most beloved of the year for Northern Hemisphere skywatchers. It comes when the weather is warm, making it a great family event. The only trick is … the kids have to stay up late! Or you have to get them up early. The shower will be best between midnight and dawn on Monday morning. You can expect to see perhaps 60 to 90 meteors per hour.

Read here for meteor-watching tips for the Perseids: https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/everything-you-need-to-know-perseid-meteor-shower/

📸 Guy Ottewell

Join our The Ward Beecher Planetarium director, Dr. Patrick Durrell this Tuesday in Columbiana!

THIS TUESDAY! 7PM! PAY WHAT YOU CAN!