Right now it is a bit rare situation, because one can observe all seven planets during one night. Naturally it depends much on your location on planet, but for example here in Finland all planets can be seen on . This kind of phenomenon can be seen at least once a year in southern countries, but up here in north it does not happen every year. During this one night you can observe Jupiter at evening, Uranus and Neptune on midnight, and Venus and Mars on late night. Saturn and Mercury can be seen on early morning.

October 2009 planets

Jupiter is located in constellation Capricorn, and it can be observed about four hours after sun set.  Turn your telescope or binoculars towards South, and you should see Jupiter shining bright.

Uranus is the next planet to be observed, and it can be seen on early night. In the middle of October Uranus moves from Pisces to Aquarius. Most often you need a telescope or at least binoculars to observe Uranus, but if you happen to have good observing conditions, you might see it even by the naked eye.

Neptune is located in constellation Capricorn and it can also be seen on early night. Neptune is such a dim planet that you need a telescope or binoculars to see it.

Venus is a planet that most people must have noticed, because it can be seen shining very bright on Eastern morning sky. On early morning of October 13th Venus is located very close to Saturn.

Mars is located in constellation Gemini, and it can be seen climbing from North-East right before midnight. Best time to observe Mars is early morning when the planet moves to Eastern sky.

Mercury has not been visible before October, but currently it can be seen on Eastern sky on early morning. October 18th is a special day, because Mercury and Saturn are located very close to each other on early morning.

Saturn is located in constellation Virgo and it can be seen on Eastern sky on early morning. October 13th is a special day, because Saturn is located very close to Venus on early morning.

Photo: krisdecurtis

Astronomy season here in northern hemisphere is currently ongoing and the activity of astronomy bloggers is high. I just received the latest Finnish astronomy magazine and noticed that again they have published several awesome pictures shot by their readers. Winter is great time. Not just because of Christmas and snow, but also the darkness that provides possibilities of star gazing.

Which planets can be seen in December 2008?

December started just few days ago, and search engines send lots of readers to my blog. The reason for this is that they are looking for information of which planets can be seen in December 2008. Planets are very interesting, so let’s find out which ones can be seen in this month. December Nightsky is not much different from November, but some changes appear in relation to the planets.

Planet Mercury can be seen in South-West direction in late December. You can see Mercury already on dawn when the planets is located close to Jupiter.

Planet Venus can also be seen after sunset in South-West direction in December. Although Venus can be seen during the whole month, it is best viewed in late December. Venus is located close to Moon in the end of the month.

Planet Jupiter is located in constellation Sagittarius, and it can be seen low in South-West direction.

Planet Saturn cannot be seen on early night, but after midnight you can see it climbing from East. Saturn is located in constellation Leo, and it is best viewed in direction South on early morning. Saturn can be observed with binoculars, but with a small telescope you can see even Saturn’s moon Titan.

Planet Uranus is located in constellation Aquarius, and it can be observed with binoculars. Although some people see Uranus by the naked eye, with binoculars it is very much easier.

Planet Neptune can be seen in early night in constellation Capricornus, but is not possible to be viewed without binoculars or a telescope.

Which planets cannot be seen in December 2008?

Mars and Pluto cannot be seen in December 2008.

December is good time for observing planets, because almost all the planets can be seen at the same time. Biggest planets can be observed without any equipment, such as a telescope.

Picture: bluecharma

“This is the very first time we predicted an object before hitting the planet“, says Don Yeomans from NASA JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory). “We predict that this kind of object fall into our atmosphere every second month”, continues Don Yeomans.

Although it might sound not too staggering, this is an important moment in the history of asteroid collision prediction. As soon as the prediction robots get enhanced, we most probably will hear this kind of warnings more frequently.

Some newspapers have called this object a meteoroid, while others have named it an asteroid. Which one is the right name? One recommendation says that if the radius of an object is more than 10 meters, it should be called an asteroid. If it’s less than 10 meters, the object should be called as meteoroid.

Source [Nasa]

Shortly said, Uranus and Neptune can be seen during early night, while Jupiter can be seen already on twilight, and Saturn climbs to the sky on early morning.

What planets can be seen in October 2008 in northern hemisphere?

Next we’ll describe how you can find planets in October 2008, but before that you might ask, “which planets CANNOT be seen in October 2008″? Well, Mars, Mercury, Venus and Pluto cannot be seen in this month. So, let’s continue with those that can be observed.

October 2008 planets – Jupiter

Planet Jupiter is located in constellation Sagittarius in October 2008. You can see this huge planet already on late twilight, shining in South-West direction. Jupiter is located pretty low on sky, so make sure you don’t have obstacles such as trees between you and Jupiter. The best time to observe Jupiter depends on your location, but for example on 60 degrees of latitude Jupiter will disappear four after after sunset. This means you won’t have much time to observe Jupiter.

October 2008 Planets – Neptune

Planet Neptune can be seen in constellation Capricornus on early night. Because Neptune is a small planet and located far from us, it is not as bright as planet Jupiter, for example. Therefore you need binoculars or a telescope for observing planet Neptune. Neptune is not as fascinating planet such as Saturn, but observing planet Neptune provides some alternation with your astronomy hobby.

October 2008 Planets – Saturn

Probably the most interesting planet for most of us is Saturn. This awesome planet with beautiful disks is probably the most photographed planet. You can see the magnificent planet Saturn on Eastern sky in constellation Leo. Saturn can be seen on early night during October 2008. Remember to observe Saturn with your binoculars, because you cannot see the disks naked-eye.

October 2008 Planets – Uranus

Fourth planet we can observe in northern hemisphere in October 2008 is Uranus. This rather distant planet can be seen on early night in constellation Aquarium. Usually you need binoculars for watching planet Uranus, but sometimes you can see it even naked-eye.

By the way, did you notice that the planets you can see in October 2008 are actually the same planets you can see in September 2008?

Other interesting phenomena with planets in October 2008

Notice that there are also few other interesting phenomena with the planets in October 2008. The moon will be located close to Jupiter on October 7th. on late evening. The moon will also be located close to Saturn on October 25th. on early morning. Planet Mercury will be in low conjunction on October 6th. On October 22 nd. the planet Mercury will be in its highest western elongation.

Photo: jeffrey beal

The exoplanet (left corner) was photographed with the adaptive Gemini telescope of Hawaii. The big bright star in the middle is the one exoplanet is orbiting. Scientists call this star as a “mother star”. So far scientists have managed to photograph only wandering exoplanets, not those who orbit a star. In this picture the star is about the size of our own Sun, but this star is much younger.

The first photographed exoplanet is simply huge

The mass of the photographed exoplanet is staggering. This distant Earth-like planet is about eight times bigger than Jupiter, which is already very big. The exoplanet is located pretty far from its mother star. The distance from the exoplanet to the mother star is 330 AU (Astronomical Units), which is 330 times the distance from Earth to the Sun. The exoplanet is located 500 light years away from the Earth.

Scientists are not sure yet if the exoplanet is orbiting the star. It might be a wandering planet, just passing by the star, but the probability for this is very small. Future measurements will confirm this, but most likely this exoplanet orbits the mother star.

This recently photographed exoplanet would not be suitable for human beings, because the temperature on the planet is estimated to be 1500 centigrades.

Source [Gemini]

Before going through the planets we can be seen in northern hemisphere in September 2008,let’s narrow the scope by stating which planets CANNOT be seen in September 2008. Those are

- Mercury

- Pluto

- Mars

- Venus

So, we have four planets left we can observe in September. Let’s go them through next.

Planets in northern hemisphere in September 2008

Jupiter can be seen in early night in constellation Sagittarius. Direction is South-West, low above the horizon. If you wish to observe Jupiter, start immediately after the sunset, because Jupiter fades away around midnight.

For those who wake up early, I recommend observing Saturn which rises up on eastern sky early morning. Saturn is a very interesting planet to observe because of its awesome disks, so check out the weather forecast, and if it looks good, wake up early and go out to observe Saturn.

Neptune can also be seen in northern hemisphere in September 2008. Turn your telescope towards constellation Capricornus on early night. Neptune is pretty dim, so you really need a telescope or at least binoculars to see it.

Uranus is the fourth planet one can observe in northern hemisphere in September 2008. Uranus is located in constellation Aquarius, and it was in opposition just two days ago (13.9. in Helsinki). This means that Uranus was located directly in South at midnight. Uranus is also a dim planet, so you should use at least binoculars. Sometimes Uranus can be seen with the naked eye.

So, these four planets you can observe in northern hemisphere in September 2008. Additionally I would like to remind you that Saturn will be located close to the Moon on 27.9. Planets and stars are not going to meet during September 2008.

Notice also that few days ago I wrote about the stars in northern hemisphere in September 2008.

CERN’s LHC collider is a huge system used by researchers. The new LHC collider will help researchers studying the first moments of the universe. How the universe was born and how it will develop? May be we will get answers later to these difficult questions.

So, what can we see right now up on the sky? Which stars can be seen in northern hemisphere in September 2008? Let’s spend a moment and find out. This article provides you few skywatching tips for September 2008.

Before we go to my stargazing tips of September 2008, I would like to remind you that Homeboy’s Astronomy Blog will again write articles more frequently as the skywatching season has began. So, stay tuned and read our articles almost daily from now on. Notice also out RSS feed and automatic email updates.

Stars in northern hemisphere in September 2008

September is great time to observe the Milky Way. Try to find as dark place as possible, and watch directly upwards. Recognizing the Milky Way is not easy, but if you are lucky, you can see it in the direction of constellations Deneb and Cassiopeia.

In September you can also observe the stars of so called Summer Triangle, which can be seen shining bright on southern sky. On right side you can see Vega, while Deneb is located on left side. In between those two is Altair. Although this picture is from July, the sky looks much like this.

One very interesting star you can watch in September is pretty bright Arcturus. You can see Arcturus in West, while another interesting star Capella is located in North-East.

Moon and stars in northern hemisphere in September 2008

Moon and stars have few interesting “meetings” in September 2008. See the dates below.

20/21.9. – Moon close to Aldebaran
23/24.9. – Moon close to Castor ja Pollux
26.9. – Moon close to Regulus (almost morning)
20.9. – Pleiades covered by the Moon (almost morning)

Andromeda’s galaxy in September 2008

Probably the most interesting target for skywatching in September 2008 is the distant and beautiful galaxy of Andromeda. Although it is not easy to observe Andromeda, it is a fascinating target. If you are new to skywatching, please notice that Andromeda is not as visual target as planets, for example. Andromeda is very far from us, so we cannot see it that well. As you watch Andromeda, think about how far it is from us. The light you see when watching Andromeda, has started its journey 3 million years ago. In those days the very first humans watched the night sky somewhere deep in Africa. Isn’t it amazing? This is one of the reasons why I am so interested in astronomy. It’s awesome.

Perseids meteor shower has now reached its maximum

Perseids meteor shower is active between July 17th and August 24th. The maximum of Perseids meteor shower is today, August 12th at 2:30pm – 17pm EET. This is right now! Unfortunately it is daytime here in Finland, so we cannot see the predicted maximum. Anyhow, Perseids meteor shower will not fade away quickly, so you should keep on watching the night sky for few days from now on. I believe the following couple of nights will provide us a good meteor show, because during the maximum of Perseids meteor shower one can see even 100 meteors in one hour. Right now the weather here in Finland is pretty lousy, so I hope it gets better for the night.

So what is Perseids meteor shower anyway? Let’s see what Wikipedia says about it.

“The Perseids is a prolific meteor shower associated with the comet Swift-Tuttle. The Perseids are so called because the point they appear to come from, called the radiant, lies in the constellation Perseus. Meteor showers occur when Earth moves through a meteor stream. The stream in this case is called the Perseid cloud and it stretches along the orbit of the Comet Swift-Tuttle. The cloud consists of particles ejected by the comet as it passed by the Sun. Most of the dust in the cloud today is approximately a thousand years old”.

Probably the first notes of Perseids are dated back to year 36 when the Chinese wrote “over 100 meteors flew this morning”. Many other markings of Perseids can be found from Chinese, Japanese and Korean archives. From those days August has been known as a “meteor rich” month.

Who was the first one researching the Perseids?

It was probably Eduard Heis (Münster) who saw 160 meteors in one hour back in 1839. Together with other observers Eduard continued his research almost yearly, and they calculated that in 1858 the maximum of Perseids meteor shower was 37-88 meteors in one hour. The interesting thing is that four other observers calculated noticed that the maximum of Perseids climbed up to 78-102 in 1861, and in 1863 it was 109-215 meteros in one hour.

Why Perseids meteor shower had so high maximum between 1861 and 1863? Giovanni Virginio Schiaparelli (1835-1910) performed calculations related to Perseids and found out that the track of Perseids was strongly related to comet Swift-Tuttle (1862 III). The reason for the higher maximum of Perseids in 1861-1863 was that the comet Swift-Tuttle was moving inside our solar system.

What is expected from Perseids meteor shower this year?

After the maximum of 1983 the amount of Perseids went down to 60 meteors in one hour. In 1985 and 1986 the maximum of Perseids was about 40-60 meteors. In 1992 scientists announced that comet Swift-Tuttle is coming closer to Earth again. This triggered Perseids fans who expected a higher maximum in 1993. People all over the world travelled to Europe to see Perseids because it was expected to be seen best in Europe. Their trips were worth because many observers registered staggering maximums of 200-500 Perseids meteors in one hour.

So, how this year looks like? There are no Perseids related comets coming near to Earth, so tonight’s Perseids meteor shower is expected to provide us 40-70 meteors in one hour. Let’s see it tonight. If you are going to observe Perseids tonight, please leave a comment and tell us how many meteors you recognized.

How to find Perseids meteor shower?

So you would like to observe Perseids tonight, but you don’t know how to locate it? Finding Perseids meteor shower is pretty easy. Take a look at the picture above. Just click it to see it bigger. This picture is a screen capture of my night sky simulation program. The picture shows tonight’s sky when observed from Helsinki, Finland at 11 pm. Notice that your night sky might look different, depending on your position on planet Earth. Your night sky might not look similar to the picture, especially if you are located in southern hemisphere. If your location is near latitude 60, your sky should look much like the one in the picture. Some cities near latitude 60 are Helsinki (Finland), Aberdeen (Scotland), Glasgow (Scotland), Moscow (Russia), Oslo (Norway), Reykjavík (Iceland), St. Petersburg (Russia) and Stockholm (Sweden).

In order to locate Perseids meteor shower, look at between East and South directions. You should be able to locate constellations Perseus and Cassiopeia. If this is your first time watching constellations, it might not be easy to locate those two constellations. Try to find Cassiopeia first because it’s W-shape is easier to recognize than Perseus. After that, try to find Perseus by using the picture above.

After you have located Perseus and Cassiopeia, observe the area  between and around them, just like showed in the picture with red circle. You should see the meteors of Perseids in this area. If you see nothing, you are probably looking at wrong direction.

I hope you will see Perseids meteor shower. Please leave a comment later on and tell us what you saw. It would be very interesting to hear your story and see even pictures of your night sky and Perseids meteor shower.