For education orders please call 1-877-290-8256. Happy Holidays! Welcome to our Holiday Newsletter! Astronomical Events in 2013 We are coming off one of the best astronomical years in recent history, with the transit of Venus, a widely observed annular eclipse of the Sun, and a total eclipse of the Sun as highlights. What can we expect in 2013?
The other occultations are by Venus. The first, on the evening of October 11, is of a 9th magnitude star, and will be visible from Mexico and the southwestern United States, seen here from Tucson AZ. Finally, Venus will occult a 7th magnitude star just before sunset on November 21 in southeastern Ontario, shown here from Toronto ON. The two stars to the left will also be occulted, but are probably to be too faint to be visible. But 2013 may become best known as the "Year of the Comets." Thanks to the detailed surveys now being undertaken of potentially hazardous asteroids and comets, we have detected early a couple of potentially very bright comets. Having been burned in the past by predicting bright comets which turned out to be fiascos, astronomers have become very cautious about predicting major comets in advance, but both of these look very promising.
The second comet, discovered by the ISON project in 2012, promises to be even brighter in late November. It will be a sun-grazer, with its perihelion very close to the Sun, which is often disastrous for the later history of a comet. It is seen here as it may appear from Toronto on the evening of November 29. Even if these comets are not as spectacular as predicted, 2013 is still looking like an interesting year astronomically. Clear skies! Geoff GahertyI Was Wrong! For the past three years, whenever I've been asked by members of the public whether anything was going to happen on December 21 2012, I've been answering "Nothing of astronomical interest, except for the winter solstice, which happens every year on that date."
Geoff Gaherty |
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