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| For education orders please call 1-877-290-8256. Welcome to our June Newsletter! Coming Events Here is a rundown of events coming soon to a sky near you!Saturday June 22, 2013 - SuperMoon This year the largest Full Moon of the year will occur on June 22. The Moon's elliptical orbit brings it close to the Earth at some point every month, called perigee. When perigee falls close to Full Moon, as it does on June 23 at 7 a.m. EDT, we get what someone recently christened a "SuperMoon". To the naked eye it looks no different, but it's nice to know it's only 356,991 km. away. Expect higher tides than usual as a result.  Monday August 12, 2013 - Perseid Meteor Shower The Perseids can always be relied on to put on a good performance. At their best just after midnight on the night of August 11/12, they will not have any interference from a bright Moon this year, as they had last year. Dress warmly, lie back on a deck chair, and enjoy the show.  Friday October 11, 2013 - Triple Shadow Play on Jupiter A rare opportunity to see three moons of Jupiter cast their shadows on the planet at the same time. It's hard to picture how they are arrayed in three dimensions. Io and Europa appear close together, but this is an accident of perspective. Io is casting its shadow on the far left, just above the Great Red Spot, while Europa's shadow is right in the center of the disk. Callisto's shadow falls below and to the right. Where's Ganymede? Way over to the right, far from the other three. This is a neat example of the synchronization of Jupiter's satellites, where all four can never be on the same side of the planet. The event begins with Callisto's shadow entering the disk at 11:12 p.m. EDT. It is joined by Europa's shadow at 11:24 and Io's shadow at 12:32 a.m. The shadows depart at 1:37 (Callisto), 2:01 (Europa), and 2:44 (Io). In the meantime, Io itself will have begun to cross in front of Jupiter at 1:48, as will Europa at 2:02. Depending on where you are located, you may miss some of these events because Jupiter will be below your horizon.  Friday October 18, 2013 - Penumbral Eclipse of the Moon The Moon will pass deep enough into the Earth's penumbra (outer shadow) that its shading will be visible. This eclipse will be best in the Europe and Africa, but will be visible at moonrise in eastern North and South America.  Sunday November 3, 2013 - Hybrid Solar Eclipse A hybrid solar eclipse is a very rare event which shifts from a total to an annular eclipse as its path traverses the Earth. Where the Sun is nearly overhead, the Moon's umbral shadow touches the Earth to cause a total eclipse. Where the Sun is rising or setting, the umbral shadow doesnŐt quite reach the Earth, and the eclipse appears to be an annular eclipse, a "ring of fire" like we saw earlier this year in Australia and the Pacific. Maximum eclipse occurs in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Liberia. When the eclipse makes landfall in Gabon in central Africa it is still total, but the eclipse path shrinks to nothing by the time it reaches Somalia, close to the east coast of Africa. This eclipse will be visible as a partial eclipse over a large area, including large parts of eastern North America. Here the eclipse will occur at or shortly after sunrise, so find a location with a good eastern horizon.  Viewers along the line of totality should get good views of Venus, Saturn, and Mercury during the total phase. Sunday December 1, 2013 - Comet C/2012 S1 (ISON) Comet watchers are playing it cagey about this one. Some have proclaimed it (in advance) to be "the comet of the century", which seems to others a bit premature, when the century is still so young, and we really have no idea how this comet will ultimately appear. The problem with this comet is that it is a "sungrazer". On November 28, it will pass within 1,100,000 km. of the surface of the Sun, far closer than Mercury's orbit. No one can predict in advance what will happen at that time. The next day it may appear in our sunsets as a comet brighter than any that have been seen for over a century. Or it may have completely evaporated away, and we may see nothing. The image below shows what we may see on December 1 if it survives its baptism of fire, but until then, all bets are off.  Friday December 6, 2013 - Venus at Greatest Brilliancy All fall Venus has been building up to this moment when it reaches its greatest brilliancy, magnitude -4.9. By this time it will be a narrow crescent 26% illuminated, its disk will be a gigantic 41 arc seconds in diameter, easily visible as a tiny crescent in binoculars.  Saturday December 14, 2013 - Geminid Meteors Shower The other reliable meteor shower of the year will suffer a bit of interference from a bright waxing gibbous Moon, which sets around 5 a.m., but some meteors will still be visible in the pre-dawn sky.  All in all, many events to look forward to during the rest of this year! The Comet is Coming! "Comet of the Century!" and "Comet Will Be Brighter than the Full Moon" were some of the headlines after two Russian astronomers announced their discovery of Comet 2012 S1 in September 2012. Since the telescopes used to take the CCD images are part of the International Scientific Optical Network, the comet became known as Comet ISON.What prompted the above headlines was the fact that while it was discovered beyond the orbit of Jupiter, Comet ISON was already relatively bright suggesting that the feeble sunlight even at that distance was able to coax dust and gas from the comet's nucleus. In addition, orbital calculations indicated that on November 28, 2013 the comet will swing around the Sun a mere million kilometers from its fiery surface. Observations of the comet in early May suggest a nucleus about 5 km in diameter with a coma of dust a thousand times larger. It seems that the comet is shedding a lot of dust, creating a tail that is already approaching 100,000 km in length. And all of this at a distance well beyond the orbit of Mars. No wonder everyone is excited about the possible display when ISON makes its hairpin turn around the Sun!  Portrait of Comet ISON April 10/11, 2013 (HST)  Position of Comet ISON on April 10, 2013 (Starry Night Pro) But let's not get too excited yet. Some "Comets of the Century" have not lived up to their hype. Are there any reasons why Comet ISON could be a tremendous disappointment? As a matter of fact there are several, but one obvious concern comes to mind. Can the comet survive this extremely close solar encounter or will it be torn into many fragments by the Sun's gravity or destroyed by the extreme heat? Only time will tell, but assuming Comet ISON survives its perihelion passage in late November, we may be treated to a spectacular display as suggested by the simulation below. (Starry Night Pro) 
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