The 50 Best Sights in Astronomy and How to See Them , livre ebook

THE 50 BEST SIGHTS IN ASTRONOMY AND HOW TO SEE THEM
O BSERVING E CLIPSES , B RIGHT C OMETS , M ETEOR S HOWERS, AND O THER C ELESTIAL W ONDERS
Fred Schaaf
Dedicated with love and gratitude to my sisters, Pat and Joanne, and my brother, Bob.
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Copyright © 2007 by Fred Schaaf. All rights reserved
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey
Published simultaneously in Canada
Wiley Bicentennial Logo: Richard J. Pacifico
Credits appear on page 273 .
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:
Schaaf, Fred.
The 50 best sights in astronomy and how to see them : observing eclipses, bright comets, meteor showers, and other celestial wonders / Fred Schaaf.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-471-69657-5 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1.   Astronomy—Observer’s manual. 2.   Astronomy—Amateurs’ manual.   I. Title. II. Title: Fifty best sights in astronomy and how to see them.
QB63.S389 2007
520—dc22
2006036221
Printed in the United States of America
10   9   8   7   6   5   4   3   2   1
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Basic Information for Astronomical Observers
F IELD OF V IEW
180° (the Whole Sky) to 100° (Naked-Eye Scan)
Sight 1 The Starry Sky
Sight 2 Total Eclipse of the Sun
Sight 3 Meteor Shower or Storm
Sight 4 Fireball Meteor
Sight 5 The Northern Lights, or Aurora
Sight 6 Bright Satellite or Spacecraft
Sight 7 The Milky Way
F IELD OF V IEW
100° to 50° (the Widest Fixed Naked-Eye Field)
Sight 8 The Big Dipper and the North Star
Sight 9 The Orion Group of Constellations
Sight 10 The Summer Triangle Region
F IELD OF V IEW
50° to 15° (Moderately Wide Naked-Eye Field)
Sight 11 Venus and Mercury at Greatest Elongation
Sight 12 Venus, Jupiter, and Mars at Brightest
Sight 13 Bright Comet with Long Tail
Sight 14 Sirius, the Brightest Star
Sight 15 Other Bright Stars
Sight 16 Orion
Sight 17 Other Prominent Constellations
F IELD OF V IEW
15° to 1° (Narrow Naked-Eye Field, Binoculars Field, and Wide-Telescopic Field)
Sight 18 Total Eclipse of the Moon
Sight 19 Total Eclipse of the Sun Close-Up
Sight 20 The Moon at Full and Other Phases
Sight 21 Very Thin Crescent Moon
Sight 22 Lunar Conjunctions and Occultations
Sight 23 Planetary Conjunctions
Sight 24 Bright Comet Close-Up
Sight 25 The Hyades Star Cluster and Aldebaran
Sight 26 The Pleiades
Sight 27 Other Very Bright Large Open-Star Clusters
Sight 28 Orion’s Belt and Sword
Sight 29 Algol, Mira, and Other Dramatic Variable Stars
Sight 30 Novae, Supernovae, and Supernova Remnants
Sight 31 Starriest Fields
Sight 32 The Sagittarius Milky Way Region
Sight 33 The Great Andromeda Galaxy
Sight 34 The Realm of the Galaxies
F IELD OF V IEW
1° to 0.1° or Less (Medium to Narrow Telescopic Field)
Sight 35 Overall Telescopic Views of the Moon
Sight 36 Close-Up Views of Lunar Craters and Other Features of the Moon
Sight 37 Sunspots and Other Solar Features
Sight 38 Partial Eclipses of the Sun
Sight 39 Transits of Mercury and Venus
Sight 40 Venus Near Inferior Conjunction
Sight 41 Jupiter and Its Moons
Sight 42 Saturn and Its Rings and Moons
Sight 43 Mars at Closest in a Telescope
Sight 44 Uranus, Neptune, and Other Dim but Important Worlds
Sight 45 A Colorful or Otherwise Striking Double Star
Sight 46 The Great Orion Nebula
Sight 47 A Rich Open Cluster
Sight 48 A Bright Globular Cluster
Sight 49 A Bright Planetary Nebula
Sight 50 A Bright and Structured Galaxy
Appendix A Total Solar Eclipses, 2008–2024
Appendix B Major Meteor Showers
Appendix C Total and Partial Lunar Eclipses, 2007–2017
Appendix D The Brightest Stars
Appendix E Transits of Venus and Mercury
Glossary
Sources
Photo Credits
Index
A CKNOWLEDGMENTS
I n the late 1980s and early 1990s, Wiley published four of my books. Now this book marks a return for me to Wiley. Kate Bradford is the editor whom I worked with on several of the past books and the person who acquired this book and my next, The Brightest Stars (due out from Wiley next year). I wish to thank Kate so much for playing this role and for being continually supportive and helpful over the years.
In the first phase of working on The 50 Best Sights in Astronomy , my editor was the congenial Teryn Johnson. In the next stage, my editor was Christel Winkler, who was patient and understanding under trying circumstances. I wish to give my deepest thanks to her for her tremendous and conscientious efforts to keep this book on schedule. Another person I want to thank for her hard and vital work on this book is editorial assistant Juliet Grames.
The photographers and artists who have contributed to this book are many, and their additions have been crucial.
The largest number of diagrams and maps were supplied by two old friends of mine: Guy Ottewell and Doug Myers. Their work is always unique and brilliant.
Vital maps were also provided by Robert C. Victor and D. David Batch, who produce the Abrams Planetarium Sky Calendar. The Sky Calendar is a wonderful resource for all knowledge levels of skywatchers as well as for teachers. It is available from the Abrams Planetarium, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan 48824. You can also check out the associated Skywatcher’s Diary at www.pa.msu.edu/abrams/diary.html .
The largest number of photographs by far were provided by Johnny Horne. I’ve enjoyed the originality of Johnny’s amazing work for many years and relied on him for some comet images a decade ago. But it was this current book—and the 2004 transit of Venus—that got me back in touch with him.
An old friend who provided both photos and sketches was Ray Maher. Other good friends who were photo contributors include Steve Albers, Nelson J. Biggs Sr., and Chuck Fuller. Akira Fujii, Richard Yandrick, and Shahriar Davoodian supplied several of this book’s most stunning images, for which I thank them.
I NTRODUCTION
T he idea of this book is really quite simple. I’ve chosen the fifty best sights based on my own lifetime of passionately seeking astronomical wonders. I try to present them here through vivid detail and concise observing instructions.
Nothing could be more clear and simple, nor, if you wish to seek the very heart of astronomy, any more desirable. This book offers to those seeking the thrills of the heavens the most instant and immediately powerful gratification of that desire possible from pages. It is, after all, astronomy honed down to the most exciting experiences. Armchair astronomers will find all they need to enjoy the heavens. Most people, however, will be motivated to action. They will, I hope, be inspired, more electrifyingly than would otherwise be possible, to get out and experience these wonders for themselves.
A remarkable thing about The 50 Best Sights in Astronomy is that no one seems to have ever had this idea for a book before. Why did I stumble on the idea when other people didn’t? I’ll offer my explanation in a moment.
First, I’d like to mention something else about this book that I think is original and that you may find interesting. I’m talking about the criterion I’ve used for determining the order in which the sights should be discussed. My criterion is the width of the field of view necessary to enjoy the sight best.
The order is from the widest to the narrowest view. The first sight is that of the entire starry sky on a clear night, preferably with no interfering moonlight or city light pollution. This is a scene at least 180° wide—the angular span of the entire dome of the sky. Of course, it’s not really possible to be so precise as to determine that a slightly larger field of view is needed for enjoying a bright star in its stellar setting as compared to a bright planet in its own setting. So the book is divided into sections by