Moments worth marking
AS always, as the year draws to a close, I pause to think about the coming events in the sky and space exploration for the coming year. I am pleased to report that 2018 will be a good one!
First is one that is very meaningful to me: the 50th anniversary of the Launceston Planetarium, which is housed within the Queen Victoria Museum.
The first shows ran on January 30, 1968, and in the last week of January we will have lunchtime guest speakers, some guided tours of the Space Gallery and other events. Keep an eye on QVMAG’s website www.qvmag.tas.gov.au for details.
The night after our anniversary — January 31 — will be an exciting one, with a fine total eclipse of the moon visible from all over Australia. It’s rather late in the evening, with totality lasting from 11.52pm to 1.03am. I’ll have more details in an article closer to the time; let’s hope for clear skies that night!
There are two other noteworthy night sky events during the year. On the morning of July 28, we will witness another total eclipse of the moon, this time with the moon low in the western sky. The twilight will interfere as we approach sunrise, but it will be worth watching.
July has another fine sight in our evening sky: in the second half of the month, all five planets that are visible to the unaided eye will be in the sky at the same time. From west to east, they will be Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn and Mars. Mars, in particular, will be of interest: in late July and early August, it will be closer to Earth than at any time since 2003, and will be a quite prominent reddish object in our eastern evening sky.
We hope to see two important spacecraft launched during 2018.
The launch of NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite — called TESS for short — is planned for March. This spacecraft will orbit the Earth at a distance of 240,000km every 13.7 days, and will continue the search for planets orbiting other stars.
The other major launch I should mention is NASA’s InSight mission to Mars, which is planned for May 5.
InSight is a lander, and once on the Martian surface it will make measurements that will hopefully tell us more about the Martian interior. Its instruments include an allimportant seismometer.
The results of this mission will go together with measurements and observations made by quite a number of craft, all helping us to build up a better picture of the planet and its history.
I have already mentioned one anniversary coming up in 2018, but there are a few others of great note.
February will be the 50th anniversary of the announcement of the discovery of pulsars, the first of which was noticed on the output of a radio telescope in 1967.
Then in August, we will have the 150th anniversary of the total solar eclipse of August 18, 1868. Although there is a total solar eclipse every year and a half on average, visible from a narrow path across the Earth, it was at this eclipse that key observations were made that contributed to the discovery of helium.
December has yet another important anniversary: it will be 50 years since the first crewed trip to the moon. This was the mission called Apollo 8. It was not a landing mission, but took Frank Borman, James Lovell and Bill Anders into lunar orbit.
I shall have plenty more to say about these events as the anniversaries approach!
Meanwhile, best wishes for a safe and enjoyable New Year — and enjoy your sky watching.
... all five planets that are visible to the unaided eye will be in the sky at the same time.