Comets in 2008 this year so far and upcoming ones: Comet 17/P Holmes was good one to see at the beginning of 2008 and into the new year but was fading into the background sky after its cataclysmic outburst in late 2007 a good comet overall and well placed for Northern observers to see even in small Binoculars the nebulous round expanding shape that made the constellation of Perseus look out of shape for a short while-a good one although it has now faded into the background of the sky as it has spread out so much although the B.A.A Comet section page on the website still puts it at magnitude 6 but its trend is to fade, It is now in the Constellation of cancer close to M44 Praesepe.
Since then the skies have been pretty much devoid of Comets with 8/P Tuttle only being around for a few nights before fading rapidly and moving quickly across the sky-only got about one glimpse of it overall for a short time-other Comets around were for the professional observers to glance at between magnitudes 10 to 14 which were a little beyond the boundaries of observing for us amature astronomers to see.
COMET BOATTINI 2007 W1 was seen in the late evening twilight in may but was sharply lost in the Western Evening twilight and until the Summer Solstice had past to appear in the early morning skies of July at magnitude 6 to 7 although now august has past and Autumn is almost upon us now this one is also fading from view now attaining a good magnitude of around 7.5 to 8 and into September fading to 9 or 10th Magnitude
COMET LULIN (2007 N3) should become a Binocular visible object during late December at magnitude 7 and into January of the new year but this is mainly a Comet for the early part of 2009 during late February when it should attain a good Magnitude 4 so that will certainly be one to look out for next year and I will keep you all informed about this one.
Astronomical Events in 2008 and upcoming events: No more Eclipses are scheduled for the rest of 2008 although there is the Orionids around the 20th October and the Taurid and Geminid Meteor showers to look out for in November and December, there is also an Occultation of Venus with the Moon during the early evening on December 1st.
The Planets for the rest of 2008: Mercury: will be best seen in the Western Evening skies during December as it will reach magnitude -0.7
Venus: will also be best seen in the December evening and morning skies at magnitude 4.1
Mars: will be lost to the Evening skies and won't appear in the morning skies until December but will mainly stay in the twilight of the suns glare.
Jupiter: will gradually edge to the South West during the rest of the year and set during December.
Saturn: will return to the morning skies to be a winter object and into 2009.
Uranus and Neptune: will be on view for most of this period.
Future NASA Missions including the I.S.S and Hubble Space Telescope upgrade Mission: At this time of writing the space shuttle has been held back from being rolled out onto the launch pad due to storm warnings-it will be blasting off for a HST upgrade service mission and this will be one of the last 10 Space Shuttle missions-1 more shuttle flight is planned for this year during November, Five in 2009 and the final Three Missions during 2010 to bring the space shuttle program to a close-over 20 rocket launches worldwide are planned before the end of 2008
Lighting up times for the rest of 2008:
September 1st 20.15 BST
September 15th 19.43 BST
October 1st 19.07 BST
October 15th 18.36 BST
Clocks back one hour on October 26th at 02.00 Hours
November 1st 17.02 G.M.A.T
November 15th 16.40 G.M.A.T
December 1st 16.25 G.M.A.T
December 31st 16.31 G.M.A.T
Looking forward to 2009: 5 space shuttle launches are scheduled for this year and also sees the return of several Comets to observe and 3 that may become within Binocular range-N3 Lulin may reach 4 to 6 Magnitude during February-the best one predicted so far for 2009, P/Christensen (2003 K2) may reach Magnitude 9 or less, 22P/Kopff may reach around Magnitude 9, 88P/Howell to reach around Magnitude 9 during the year although unpredictable, so there are some good ones to look out for in 2009.
2009 will also be the International year of Astronomy so perhaps people can think of something to do for the Society as I am planning to do something and moreover perhaps during Moon week which will be 20th to 26th July to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Apollo Moon landings.
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