What's in the sky tonight?
October 20, 2013
-This week, face southwest soon after dark and look high for Altair. It's the bright eye of Aquila, the Eagle, most of which now hangs down below it. Look to Altair's upper left, by about a fist and a half at arm's length, for little Delphinus, the Dolphin, leaping upward.
-Look almost as far to Altair's upper right for Sagitta, the Arrow, even fainter and smaller.
-Tonight a star will be occulted by a pair of asteroids, 617 Patroclus. The last time this occured was in 2011 where amateur astronomers combined their data to successfully form a picture of the asteroids based off when the star disappeared from their respective location. Read the news for more details of tonights event.
News Posted Today:
October 19, 2013
(Maybe) Watch a Binary Asteroid "Wink Out"
Astro Picture of the Day:
October 20, 2013
Source:
To the eye, this cosmic composition nicely balances the Bubble Nebula at the lower left with open star cluster M52 above it and to the right. The pair would be lopsided on other scales, though. Embedded in a complex of interstellar dust and gas and blown by the winds from a single, massive O-type star, the Bubble Nebula, also known as NGC 7635, is a mere 10 light-years wide. On the other hand, M52 is a rich open cluster of around a thousand stars. The cluster is about 25 light-years across. Seen toward the northern boundary of Cassiopeia, distance estimates for the Bubble Nebula and associated cloud complex are around 11,000 light-years, while star cluster M52 lies nearly 5,000 light-years away. The wide telescopic field of view spans about two degrees on the sky or four times the apparent size of the Full Moon.