NightWatch: A Practical Guide to Viewing the Universe

Third Edition: Revised and Expanded for Use Through 2010

by Terence Dickinson
Foreword by Timothy Ferris

Illustrations by Adolf Schaller, Victor Costanzo and Roberta Cooke
Principal photography by Terence Dickinson

Nightwatch Astronomy bookWith 250,000 copies in print since its initial publication in 1983, NightWatch has become a standard reference guide for stargazers throughout North America.

Now with a completely revised text updated through to 2010, NightWatch includes new star charts, tables, and diagrams, plus more than one hundred new color photographs and illustrations. Technological advances, including computerized telescopes, new telescope designs and accessories, and astronomy on the Internet are also included. Astrophotographers will appreciate an expanded chapter that lists the best modern films and cameras for shooting the night sky. In addition to writing the lively, informative text, Dickinson also contributed most of the stunning photos in the book.

The author’s primary goal is to provide a complete reference book for amateur astronomy. Dickinson writes clear, no-jargon text, and supports it with photos, diagrams and charts that increase understanding and provide a guide to what can be seen on a clear night. Here is just some of what this book includes:

* Instructions on how to find all the major stars and constellations using only the Big Dipper and Orion as pointers
* Three separate levels of “ultra-simplified” stargazing charts that gently guide the way to familiarity with the constellations
* An 11-step expanding perspective, each step one million times larger than the one before, that carries the reader from the Earth to the edge of the universe – dramatically revealing the immense scale of the cosmos
* Details of how to get started in stargazing using binoculars before buying a telescope
* How to use your 35mm camera to take pictures of the celestial phenomena
* The secret of the $25 observing chair that is more comfortable and practical than a lawn chair
* Tables with dates and times of meteor showers, solar and lunar eclipses, planet positions and conjunctions that are complete through the year 2010
* Moon maps showing dozens of prominent features as well as the location of the first moon landing
* Detailed information on how to observe auroras, comets, planets, galaxies – all the major classes of visible objects in the starry night
* Everything you need to know to select the right telescope for your needs and location
* An extensive resource section listing equipment suppliers, essential atlases, accessories, web sites, observatories, and much more

This beautiful, information-packed book is a comprehensive “must” for beginners and experienced backyard astronomers alike.

Dickinson is…both a skilled observer and a lucid writer. He knows what’s out there and how best to see it, and he shares his expertise in the spare, friendly voice of someone who has enducated not only himself but many others. His deep aesthetic appreciation of astronomy is reflected in the book’s splendid charts and illustrations. from the foreword by Timothy Ferris

* (1998), reprinted with revisions, 5th printing – June, 2001, 176 pages, 10.5″ x 10.5″
* full color photos and black & white illustrations

Burnham’s Celestial Handbook: An Observer’s Guide to the Universe Beyond the Solar System


Thorough guide to the stars beyond our solar system. Exhaustive treatment. Alphabetical by constellation. Index in Vol. 3 of the set.

  • Volume I: Andromeda through Cetus
  • Volume II: Chamaeleon to Orion
  • Volume III: Pavo to Vulpecula

Price: $19.95 each

August 2015 – Skies News

08/10/2015
August Skies – by Dick Cookman

Highlights: Comet Journal, Martian Landers, Meteor Showers, Pluto: Here it comes! Here it comes! There it goes–––Here is what we found…., Planet Plotting, August Moon

Focus Constellations: Cepheus, Cassiopeia, Camelopardalis, Ursa Major, Ursa Minor, Draco, Bootes, Hercules, Lyra, Aquila, Cygnus

Comet Journal

Comet C/2014 Q2 (Lovejoy) is currently at 9th magnitude will be between Draco, Bootes, and Hercules In August.

C/2013 US10 (Catalina) reached 8th magnitude in July and is on course to achieve naked eye status at the end of the year. It is currently deep in southern hemisphere skies and will not be visible for northern hemisphere observers until November and December.

Mars Landers

Opportunity is on the western rim of Endeavour Crater at Marathon Valley near Spirit of St. Louis Crater. The rover is operating on RAM memory as the Flash memory is still being bypassed due to the frequent amnesia events experienced over the last few months. Further investigation of the problem is being conducted in hopes of eventual correction.

From Sol 4072 (July 8, 2015) through Sol 4079 (July 15, 2015), the rover conducted contact science investigation of a Red Zone target along the edge of the Spirit of St. Louis crater. It first collected a Microscopic Imager (MI) mosaic, then placed the APXS on the target for a multi-hour integration. Opportunity then headed around the crater to the east with a 90-foot (27.5-meter) drive. Post-drive Navcam panoramas were collected from that new vantage point. On Sol 4078 (July 14, 2015), the rover departed and headed northeast towards Swan Hill with a 120-foot (36.7-meter) drive, collecting post-drive Navcam panoramas. On the next sol, Opportunity first collected some pre-drive targeted Navcam and Pancam images, then drove almost 62 feet (19 meters) heading into Marathon Valley. Following the drive, a 360-degree Navcam panorama was collected.

Opportunity has now traversed 26.38 miles (42.45 kilometers) over the Martian surface. Solar energy in the last month ranged from 450 to 500 watt hours per day.

In July, Curiosity continued its examination of the contact zone between the younger Washboard Unit which overlies the older Murray Formation, the basal formation at Mt. Sharp. The light colored mudstones of the Murray Formation underlie the finely bedded dark sandstones of the Stimson Unit (the basal part of the Washboard Unit) in Marias Pass.

A thin bed of coarser grained rock between the two formations contains larger grains of mixed shapes and colors, some of which are highly rounded and others quite angular. The mixture of textures and mineralogy of this unconformable boundary layer implies that the distant and surrounding landforms were subjected to an extensive period of erosion following deposition of the finer grained quiet water lake deposits of the Murray Formation. The coarser grains in the sandstones of the overlying Stimson Unit indicate more active erosion, transportation, and deposition processes followed the erosional activity.

A high silica area discovered at Elk during the climb to the contact led mission scientists to back up the rover for 46 feet so as to examine a similar target called Lamoose. These rocks are unlike any others found so far on Mars. Silicate minerals on Earth are composed of silicon, oxygen, and other elements. They make up Earths’ crust and mantle. Quartz is a silicate mineral composed of pure silicon and oxygen and is found primarily in the continental crust and its erosional products. Abundant silica poor basalt and absence of quartz in previously examined Martian rocks is more representative of basaltic ocean crust on Earth making the quartz rich rocks at Elk and Lamoose quite surprising

Meteor Showers.

The long awaited Perseid Meteor Shower culminates on the 12th and 13th under almost Moonless skies when a very thin waning crescent Moon rises just before dawn. Viewing conditions will be almost ideal for observers favored with light pollution free skies and clear weather. The radiant between Perseus and Cassiopeia from which the meteors appear to emanate is close to the zenith at the peak of the shower in the predawn hours. Observers viewing the radiant will peer into the shower center as Earth plunges headlong into a river of debris left in the wake of previous passages of Comet 109/P Swift-Tuttle. The Comet visits the inner Solar System every 130 years and last passed through in 1992. Sky and Telescope magazine reports that Earth will pass through a particularly dense part of the debris which was shed by the Comet in 1862. In 2013 the Perseids produced meteor counts of over 100 per hour in dark skies for a period spanning 12 hours at the peak and attained a level of over 40 per hour for a period of 72 hours.

The Perseids are among the most dependable and oldest showers as there are historical records of passages as far back as 36 AD in China and 811 AD in Europe.

Pluto: Here it comes! Here it comes! There it goes ––– here is what we found……

NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft made its closest approach 7750 miles from Pluto on Tuesday July 14th and flew by at 31,000 miles per hour. In the brief 2 day interval during which cameras collected some pretty interesting information about the dwarf planet, dark equatorial regions and a large white heart shaped area dotted by water ice mountains were photographed on Pluto’s surface. Methane ice caps were found near the poles and snow appears in other areas. The absence of craters in the areas first examined in high resolution indicates that the surface is young, probably less than 100 million years old. Charon, Pluto’s large Moon, displays gigantic chasms, cliffs, and troughs probably produced by surface fracturing due to internal processes.

The icy moons of the giant planets are heated by gravitational interactions with larger planetary bodies which don’t exist near Pluto and Charon so other processes must be generating the puzzling landscapes of each world, forcing scientists to rethink what powers the geological activity which produced these landforms.

Planet Plotting

Jupiter and Saturn are evening planets in August. Right after sunset at the beginning of the month Venus (-4.4) is on the western horizon below Regulus and Jupiter (-1.7) in Leo. All three set soon after the Sun and disappear from evening skies as August progresses. Jupiter reaches solar conjunction and is on the other side of the Sun on the 26th. Saturn is visible after sunset in Libra in the southwestern sky and sets after midnight. Uranus and Neptune rise before midnight and Mercury is hidden in the glare of the Sun throughout the month.

Mars (+1.7 to +1.8) moves from Gemini into Cancer in August and rises before dawn. Uranus (5.8) in Pisces, and Neptune (7.8) in Aquarius are dim morning planets in the southwestern sky.

Venus (-4.4 to -4.7) reaches inferior conjunction with the Sun on the 15th and reappears in the eastern predawn sky in Cancer during the last week of August. Venus and Mars will be 9° apart on the 29th.

Saturn in Libra decreases slightly in brightness in August from magnitude +0.4 to +0.5 as Earth orbits away from the ringed planet. Saturn appears to dim and grow smaller but the tilted wide open rings remain a magnificent sight in the southern sky after sunset.

Planet……Constellation……Magnitude……Planet Passages

Sun………Leo………..-26.8………………….New Moon, ………………………………………………………..8/14, 10:53AM EDT Mercury…Leo………-1.2 to +1.0………….Jupiter, 0.6°S, ………………………………………………………..8/6, Midnight EDT Venus……Leo…….-4.4 to -4.1 to -4.5….Inferior Conjunction ………………………………………………………..8/15, 3:00PM EDT ……………………………………………………….Mars, 9.0°N, ………………………………………………………..8/29, 1:00AM EDT Mars…Gemini, Cancer…+1.7 to +1.8…….Venus, 9.0°S, ………………………………………………………..8/29, 1:00AM EDT Jupiter…..Leo…………………-1.7…………….Mercury, 0.6°N, ………………………………………………………..8/6, Midnight EDT ………………………………………………………..Solar Conjunction ………………………………………………………..8/26, 6:00PM EDT Saturn…..Libra………….+0.4 to +0.5 Uranus….Pisces……………..+5.8
Neptune..Aquarius…………+7.8

August Moon

Lunation 1146 begins with the New Moon of August 14th at 10:53AM EDT. It ends 29.54 days later with the New Moon of September 13th at 2:41AM EDT.

The Full Moon for August is in Capricornus at 2:35 PM EDT on the 29th. This Full Moon is called the “Grain or Green Corn Moon”. The Full Moon is the 9th Moon of the year and is designated by the Anishinaabe (Odawa and Ojibwe) of the northern Great Lakes as “Waatebagaa-giizis” (Leaves Turning Moon). Celts called the August Full Moon the “Dispute Moon” and Medieval English referred to it as the “Corn Moon.” It is the “Harvest Moon” for the Chinese. Colonial Americans called it the “Dog Days Moon”. The “Dog Days” are named after Sirius, the “Dog Star” which rose with the Sun (heliacal rising of Sirius) in 3000 BC, preceding the flooding of the Nile which occurred around June 25th, near the summer solstice, marking the Egyptian New Year. Today it occurs within a few weeks of August 15th, owing to precession of Earths’ Axis.

The Moon is nearest (perigee) in its orbit (225,023 miles or 56.78 Earth radii) on August 2nd at 6:03AM EDT and again (222,631 miles or 56.18 Earth radii) on the 30th at 11:21AM EDT. Apogee distance (maximum distance) is 252,182 miles (63.63 Earth radii) from Earth on the 17th at 10:33PM EDT.

Planet..Constellation..Magnitude..Moon Passage..Moon ………………………………………………………………….Phase/Age

Sun………..Leo……..-26.8………9:24PM EDT, 7/15 ………………………………………………………………New ~ 0 days Mercury…..Leo………-0.2…………..2.0°S, 11AM EDT, 8/16 …………………………………………Waxing Crescent ~ 2.03 days Venus……..Leo……….-4.1…………4.5°NNE, 2PM EDT, 8/14 …………………………………………Waxing Crescent ~ 0.69 days Mars…….Gemini…….+1.7…………6.0°S, 1AM EDT, 8/13 …………………………………………Waning Crescent ~ 28.15 days Jupiter….Leo………….-1.7………….3.5°SSW, 6AM EDT, 8/15 …………………………………………Waxing Crescent ~ 1.44 days Saturn….Libra………..+0.5………….3.0°N, 1PM EDT, 8/22 …………………………………………Waxing Crescent ~ 8.11 days Uranus….Pisces……..+5.8………….1.0°S, 5AM EDT, 8/5 …………………………………………Waning Gibbous ~ 20.32 days Neptune..Aquarius….+7.8…………3.0°N, 11AM EDT, 8/2 …………………………………………Waning Gibbous ~ 17.57 days
Neptune..Aquarius….+7.8…………3.0°N, 8PM EDT, 8/29 …………………………………………Waning Gibbous ~ 16.40 days 

September 2015 – Skies News

09/6/2015
September Skies – by Dick Cookman

Highlights: Comet Journal, Martian Landers, Meteor Showers, Autumnal Equinox, September Moon

Focus Constellations: Cepheus, Cassiopeia, Perseus, Camelopardalis, Ursa Major, Ursa Minor, Draco, Bootes, Hercules, Lyra, Aquila, Cygnus, Pegasus, Andromeda

Comet Journal

Comets in September and October are few, dim, and far between. There are no northern hemisphere comets brighter than 10th magnitude. We will have to wait until early November when C/2013 US10 (Catalina) may burst into predawn skies between Libra and Virgo at magnitude 4 and be visible to the naked eye. It is now at 6th magnitude but is still buried deeply in southern hemisphere skies. It will peak in the latter part of November and remain bright in December and January.

Comet C/2014 Q2 (Lovejoy), currently at 10th magnitude, is between northern Bootes and Hercules in September. It’s orbit is almost perpendicular to Earth’s and the comet is rapidly receding northward in space toward the Oort Belt.

Mars Landers

The currently inoperative status of Opportunity’s flash memory system requires that any data collected and placed in ram memory storage on a given day must be transmitted that day. This requires the rover to remain awake until the Ultra-High Frequency (UHF) relay passes above on each sol. With Mars Odyssey now in a later orbit, relay passes come much later in the day. With winter coming and less sunlight for energy production, these late relay passes cause the rover to consume more energy from the batteries. Other than the flash, Opportunity is in good health and is still capable of science activities and data collection but is restricted to the conditions described above.

On Sol 4081 (July 17, 2015), the rover drove 96.7 feet (29.47 meters) to the northeast to enter Marathon Valley and collected spectacular imagery on the western rim of Endeavour Crater near Spirit of St. Louis Crater. The mission in Marathon Valley is to search for the phyllosilicate clay minerals which were discovered via satellite spectral studies.

On Sols 4095 and 4097 (Aug. 1 and Aug. 3, 2015) the rover had limited science activities and shorter relay passes to save energy for a drive on Sol 4096 (Aug. 2, 2015). The drive was successfully completed, moving the rover over 65.6 feet (20 meters) towards an exposed rock outcrop in a new geologic unit within the valley.

On Sol 4100 (August 6, 2015) the robotic arm was used to conduct contact science on a surface target. The Microscopic Imager (MI) collected a mosaic and then the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) was placed for a multi-hour integration. Navcam panoramas are also being collected from this site. Additional investigations in the area continued for the next two weeks including grinding of surface targets to expose fresh surfaces. On Sol 4114 (Aug. 20, 2015), Opportunity ground about 2.5 millimeters into the surface of a target called “Pvt. Robert Frazer” using the Rock Abrasion Tool (RAT) on the end of the robotic arm

Opportunity has now traversed 26.41 miles (42.51 kilometers) over the Martian surface. Solar energy in the last month ranged from 400 to 435 watt hours per day.

Curiosity ascended another 433 feet up Mt. Sharp in Gale Crater in August. On July 30th, the rover drilled at a site called “Buckskin” near the contact zone below the younger Washboard Unit which overlies the older Murray Formation, the basal formation at Mt. Sharp. Light colored mudstones of the Murray Formation underlie finely bedded dark sandstones of the Stimson Unit (base of the Washboard Unit) in Marias Pass.

The target is a high silica area called Lamoose. These rocks are unlike any others found so far on Mars. Silicate minerals on Earth are composed of silicon, oxygen, and other elements. They make up Earth’s crust and mantle. Quartz is a silicate mineral composed of pure silicon and oxygen and is found primarily in the continental crust and its erosional products. Abundant silica poor basalt and absence of quartz in previously examined Martian rocks is more representative of basaltic ocean crust on Earth making the quartz rich rocks quite surprising. The drilling revealed the additional presence of hydrogen indicating that there is water or hydroxyl chemically bonded to the silica minerals.

Meteor Showers

The Aurigid and Epsilon Perseid Meteor Showers occur on September 1st and 9th respectively and are both minor showers averaging up to 5 meteors per hour in dark skies, although the 2008 Epsilon Perseids produced 5 times as many. The Aurigids are lost in the glow of the waning gibbous Moon while the Perseids receive very little competition with the waning crescent Moon. The Aurigids are composed of debris from Comet C/1911 N1 (Kiess) and the origin of the Epsilon Perseids has not yet been determined.

Autumnal Equinox

The Autumnal Equinox occurs on September 23rd at 4:21AM EDT in 2015. Earth’s axis will lean toward the direction of travel in our orbit, positioning it so that it is perpendicular to a line connecting Earth and the Sun. In this orientation, all places on Earth have almost 12 hours of sunlight and 12 hours of darkness (equi – nox, Nox was the Roman Goddess of the Night).

The slight inequality of night and day is not because Nox was a rather unpredictable Goddess, rather it is due to the timing of sunrise and sunset which is influenced by latitude, the period of time required for the entire Sun to appear or disappear, and atmospheric light refraction. The latter two generally delay sunset and cause earlier sunrises, lengthening daytime hours. Lower latitudes experience the equinox later than high latitudes, the fall equinox is delayed until October in equatorial regions.

At the equator the Sun is at the zenith (90° above the south point on the horizon) at solar noon, at 45° North latitude it is 45° above the south point, and at the north pole it is on the horizon (solar altitude above south = 90° – observers latitude).

Planet Plotting

Saturn (+0.5 to +0.6) in Libra is an evening planet throughout September. It is well above the southwestern horizon after sunset and does not set until almost 11PM EDT on Sept. 1st and 9PM on the 30th. Right after sunset at the beginning of the month Mercury (+0.1) is 3 degrees above the western horizon in Virgo. It tracks northward along the horizon during the first half of the month and will get quite difficult to distinguish in the glow of sunset. Neptune (+7.8) in Aquarius rises before sunset followed by Uranus (+5.8) in Pisces two hours later. Both are visible most of the night.

Jupiter (-1.7) was in conjunction with the Sun on August 26th and will reappear in the eastern predawn sky below Leo in early September. A much brighter Venus (-4.5) and a dimmer Mars (+1.8) in Cancer will be be above Jupiter and will close in on the giant planet during September and early October.

Planet……Constellation……Magnitude……Planet Passages

Sun……….Leo, Virgo……….-26.8………………….New Moon, ………………………………………………………..9/13, 2:41AM EDT Mercury…..Virgo…………+0.1 to +1.5…….Inferior Conjunction ………………………………………………………..9/30,11:00AM EDT Venus……Cancer, Leo….-4.5 to -4.8
Mars……..Cancer, Leo……..+1.8
Jupiter…..Leo…………………-1.7
Saturn…..Libra………….+0.5 to +0.6 Uranus….Pisces……………..+5.8
Neptune..Aquarius…………+7.8

September Moon

Lunation 1147 begins with the New Moon of September 13th at 2:41AM EDT which coincides with a partial solar eclipse. It ends 29.68 days later with the New Moon of October 12th at 8:06PM EDT. The partial solar eclipse occurs in southern Africa, the southern Indian Ocean, and Antarctica.

The Full (Supermoon) Moon for September in Aquarius at 10:50 PM EDT on the 27th coincides with a total Lunar Eclipse. Observers in eastern United States can view it in its entirety, from the first appearance of the penumbra (dim Moon) at 8:40PM EDT to the start of the partial eclipse at 9:07PM, then the total eclipse beginning at 10:11PM and ending at 11:23PM.

This Full Moon is the “Harvest Moon” because it is the closest Full Moon to the Autumnal Equinox. The Full Moon is the 10th Moon of the year due to two Full Moons in July and is designated by the Anishinaabe (Odawa and Ojibwe) of the northern Great Lakes as “Binaakwe-giizis” (Falling Leaves Moon). Celts called the September Full Moon the “Singing Moon” and Medieval English referred to it as the “Barley Moon.” It is the “Chrysanthemum Moon” for the Chinese and celebrates the most “romantic” day of the year. Colonial Americans called it the “Harvest Moon” because its light allowed farmers to harvest crops.

At this time of year the path of the Moon, like that of the Sun, makes it’s smallest angle to the horizon. This causes the evening to evening progression of moonrise to be limited to a minimum of 20 minutes in the northern United States as opposed to the average of 50 minutes.

Apogee distance (maximum orbital distance) is 252,565 miles (63.73 Earth radii) from Earth on the 14th at 7:27AM EDT. The “Supermoon” designation is due to the Moon’s proximity slightly more than 12 hours before Full Moon when it is at its closest approach to Earth (perigee) for 2015 of 221,753 miles or 55.95 Earth radii on September 27th at 9:46AM EDT.

Planet..Constellation..Magnitude..Moon Passage..Moon ………………………………………………………………….Phase/Age

Sun………..Leo……..-26.8……………………2:41AM EDT, 9/13 ………………………………………………………………New ~ 0 days Mercury…Virgo…….+0.8…………..5.0°N, 2AM EDT, 9/15 …………………………………………Waxing Crescent ~ 1.97 days Venus…..Cancer…..-4.7…………..3.0°N, 2AM EDT, 9/10 …………………………………………Waning Crescent ~ 27.36 days Mars……..Leo……….+1.8…………5.0°S, 7PM EDT, 9/10 …………………………………………Waning Crescent ~ 26.65 days Jupiter……Leo………-1.7…………3.0°SSW, Midnight EDT, 9/12 …………………………………………Waning Crescent ~ 28.57 days Saturn….Libra………+0.6………….3.0°N, 11PM EDT, 9/18 …………………………………………Waxing Crescent ~ 5.85 days Uranus….Pisces…….+5.8………….1.1°S, Noon EDT, 9/1 …………………………………………Waning Gibbous ~ 18.07 days Uranus….Pisces…….+5.8………….1.0°N, 9PM EDT, 9/28 …………………………………………Waning Gibbous ~ 15.75 days
Neptune..Aquarius…+7.8…………3.0°N, 6AM EDT, 9/26 …………………………………………Waxing Gibbous ~ 13.14 days