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Today (November 11, 2019) is the last time you will be able to watch Mercury transit across the face of the sun until 2032. From sunrise EST until about 1:04 PM EST, people who are equipped with special super shades and giant weird specialty telescopes will be able to watch the tiny black dot of Mercury move across the face of the sun. Mercury is slightly larger than Earth’s moon (although it much more dense) but it is also much farther away from Earth. As the innermost planet moves between the sun and Earth, viewers here at home can watch…provided they have lots of weird specialty equipment (whatever you do, don’t stare directly at the sun or point any unfiltered lenses at it). If you are like me, you certainly don’t have these sorts of optical tools lying around. But never fear: NASA is there for you, and you can watch the show with their fancy equipment via their site (or you can check out pictures after the event, in case you didn’t look at this post until it was too late). Enjoy this transit! We can talk about the larger implications and about future plans for Mercury during the next transit in 2032…
I am fascinated by Jupiter! Even though I have no plans for it (unlike, say Venus), Jupiter is so dazzling, beautiful, and huge that it is impossible not to be impressed. Also it is so colossally enormous that it is quite difficult to even conceive of it: Jupiter has a mass one-thousandth that of the Sun! Indeed Jupiter is a sort of miniature solar system in itself with several rings, a magnetosphere, and 79 known moons. Ferrebeekeeper has touched on Jupiter’s moons, its poles, its great spot, and on our robot missions out to the planet.
However today is something more mundane, yet also more accessible: tonight Jupiter is in opposition to Earth. This means that On June 10, 2019, Earth is directly between the sun and planet Jupiter. You should run out into the night and look at it! Tonight you can see the largest moons of Jupiter with a small scope (or, if you are very lucky and have eagle vision, with your bare eyes).
Of course it won’t have all the details you see on pictures back from our probes, but it has something else which is special–it won’t be on some glowing screen. It is real and you can see it for yourself with your own eyes. So, go out and enjoy the June night and the sight of our biggest planetary neighbor. There is a lot to talk about and do, but maybe it is worth taking a little astronomy break right now. And if it is raining or you don’t see this post until tomorrow, don’t worry! There will be a few days when Jupiter dominates the heavens (although you can always check out Fourmilab, if you are having trouble locating it).
The Minotaur I rocket launches from Wallops on November 19, 2013
Last night, the United States simultaneously fired 29 satellites into orbit at one time from a Minotaur I rocket which lifted up from Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia at approximately 8:15 PM EST. The launch was visible to viewers hundreds of miles from the launching site. The main payload of the rocket was the U.S. Air Force’s STPSat-3, which measures various aspects of the launch and monitors the nature of outer space in an attempt to improve future satellite launches. The 28 other satellites were “microsatellites” designed by various companies, universities, and other entities to be as small and inexpensive as possible. One of the small “cubesats” was even put together by a magnet high school from Northern Virginia. Since the rocket launched from Wallops, it was visible across the Northeast as it streaked into orbit (although not by me since I was at a poetry reading at Dumbo—even if I had been outside there were bridges, skyscrapers, and looming edifices in every direction).
Dangit! Launch another one, Air Force, I swear I’ll pay better attention!
Cinereous Bunting (Emberiza cineracea) Photo copyright Mark S Jobling.
In Latin, ashes are called cinis and , similarly, the Latin word for ashy gray or ash-like is cinereous. English borrowed this word in the 17th century and it has long been used to describe the color which is dark gray tinged with brown shininess. As with many Latin color names (like fulvous and icterine) the word cinereous is often used in the scientific name of birds which are very prone to be this drab color.
Cinereous Vulture (Aegypius monachus)–photo by Esquire Magazine(really?)
However, the concept of color is not quite as simple as it first seems. Different items produce ocular sensations as a result of the way they reflect or emit light, yet different wavelengths of light are visible to different eyes. Humans are trichromats. We have photoreceptor cells capable of seeing blue, green, and red. Most birds are tetrachromats and can apprehend electromagnetic wavelengths in the ultraviolet spectrum as well. Many of the dull cinereous birds we witness may glow and sparkle with colors unknown to the human eye and unnamed by the human tongue.
The wing of an owl to us
The wing of an owl to ultraviolet film
ferrebeekeeper 