For anyone heading down to Kerry next week, below is a small guide for what will hopefully be visible:
Skellig Star Party Mini Guide (All Times are Approximate and ST)
Sunset will be at 20:45, with Astro twilight ending at 23:05 and not starting again until 04:05. Sunrise will be at 06:25.
In terms of the planets on view - Jupiter will set first at 22:20. Saturn is visible until around 01:00. Neptune rises at 21:20 in Aquarius, with Uranus joining the party at 22:35 in Pisces. The excellently named star Torcularis Septentrionalis “The Northern Press” or Omicron (ο) Piscium (mag +4.3) can be used to locate Uranus. The more sedately named star Lambda (λ) Aquarii (mag +3.7) can be used to locate Neptune.
The dedicated astronomers/insomniacs can see Venus rising at 03:30. On the morning of the 19th, it is joined by the waning crescent moon. Should be a spectacular sight.
The Kappa Cygnids – a minor meteor shower with a ZHR of 3 peaks on the evening of the 18th. The moon does not rise till the wee hours of the 19th (see above), so good conditions to spot a few meteors.
Comet C/2015 ER61 PanSTARRS will lie just South of M45 – The Pleiades. It should be visible around 02:00 and is predicted to be around mag +11. There is also the newly discovered comet C/2017 O1 (ASAS-SN) which should be around mag +10. It will be in Cetus and visible around 01:00. It should lie South of Menkar (Alpha (α) Ceti, mag +2.5).
Custom finder charts can be developed for the planets and the C/2015 ER61 at -
in-the-sky.org/findercharts.php
For C/2017 O1 the link is -
theskylive.com/c2017o1-info
On the 21st, there is of course the Total Solar Eclipse in the USA. The approx. details for the star party are that the eclipse will start at 19:38 and end at 20:33. At its peak 13% of the sun's disk will be covered by the moon. As it is a partial eclipse, IF YOU WISH TO OBSERVE IT YOU MUST USE PROPER SOLAR ECLIPSE GLASSES or ASTRO GEAR WHICH IS SPECIFICALLY DESIGNED FOR VIEWING THE SUN SAFELY.
The dark skies of Kerry are a perfect place to observe Sagittarius and its numerous deep sky targets.
Details of predicted Iridium Flares and Tiangong 1 & 2 passes are below. ISS not visible.
Iridium Flares
Aug 19, 00:31:19 -2.7 27° 243° (WSW)
Aug 19, 05:04:34 -2.3 60° 257° (WSW)
Aug 19, 21:54:28 0.6 25° 350° (N)
Aug 20, 00:25:16 -3.2 27° 245° (WSW)
Aug 20, 03:19:38 -0.9 39° 147° (SSE)
Aug 20, 04:58:27 0.6 61° 258° (WSW)
Aug 21, 00:19:14 0.7 28° 245° (WSW)
Aug 21, 00:28:15 -1.7 23° 247° (WSW)
Aug 21, 21:37:05 -0.8 30° 351° (N)
Aug 22, 00:22:13 -3.4 25° 248° (WSW)
Aug 22, 00:31:14 0.9 20° 250° (WSW)
Aug 22, 04:55:27 -2.1 54° 263° (W)
Tiangong 1
18 Aug 3.3 22:35:36 10° SSW 22:36:09 11° SSW 22:36:09 11° SSW
20 Aug 3.2 21:33:16 10° SSW 21:34:18 11° S 21:35:19 10° S
Tiangong 2
22 Aug 3.6 05:31:29 10° S 05:32:44 12° SSE 05:33:58 10° SE
