THE SOLAR SYSTEM

in Animation

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SUN
MOON
PLANETS
AURORAE

Saturn

Our view of Saturn's rings changes

as Saturn goes around the Sun every 30 years. The animation above shows the full cycle. In 2005 the rings are fairly wide open.

Jupiter

Using an 8 inch telescope and a digital web camera, Sander Klieverik of Holland

captured this video of Jupiter's moon Io passing in front of the giant planet. The moving black dot is Io's shadow on Jupiter's cloudtops.

Dust Devil on Mars

Dust devils whirl across the Martian plains of Gusev Crater while NASA's red planet rover Spirit looks on.
This animated view shows the dust devil’s progress from Spirit’s hillside vantage point on April 18, 2005. The rover used its navigation cameras to track the dust devil – as well as earlier one on April 15 – by snapping images about 20 seconds apart. (NASA/JPL)

Sun

Daily photographs of sunspots reveal the rotation of the sun.

This is a repeating loop.

This sequence of images was taken in the red light of hydrogen. The large dark markings are NOT sunspots. They are shadows produced by clouds of cooler gas that have been lifted up by the sun's magnetic field. If you look carefully you will see them shining against the dark sky at the edge of the sun. (Images made at the Big Bear Solar Observatory, California)

Finding images of the sun, sunspots, and aurorae. You can guess when more displays are expected by looking for sunpots near the center of the solar image. (See below.)
- For today's images of the sun from Big Bear Observatory click here.
- For x-ray movies of the sun click here.
- For news on the progress of the current sunspot maximum click here.
- For predictions and the latest words, check out NASA's great aurora website.
- You can watch the progress of the spot cycle on today's image of the sun from NASA's SOHO Extreme UV Imaging telescope in space.
- Click for background Information from NASA on sunspots and the sunspot cycle.
- For more info on aurorae click here.
The Seasons in 2007 and changes of Sun's position. The seasons are produced by the apparent north and south motion of the sun, due to the tilt of the Earth's spin axis. The Earth is actually closest to the Sun in the first week of January, when it is a few percent closer than average.

Moon

2007 PHASES
NEW: Jan. 19d04h; Feb. 17d16h; Mar. 19d03h; Apr. 17d11h; May 16d19h; Jun 15d03h; Jul 14d12h Aug. 12d23h; Sep. 11d13h; Oct. 11d05h; Nov. 9d23h; Dec. 9d18h.

FULL: Jan 3d14h; Feb. 2d06h; Mar. 3d23h; Apr. 2d17; May 2d10h; Jun. 1d01h; Jun. 30d14h.; Jul. 30d00h; Aug. 28d11h; Sep. 26d20h; Oct. 26d05h; Nov. 24d14d; Dec. 24d01h.

FINDING THE MOON

New moon is lost in the glare of the sun for about two days before and after new.
First quarter (one week old) rises at noon and sets at midnight.
Full moon (two weeks old) is directly opposite the sun, rising at sunset and setting at sunrise.
Third quarter (three weeks old) rises at midnight and sets at noon.

As a general rule, the moon rises and sets about 45 minutes later each day.

Times of Sunrise, Sunset, Phase of the moon.

Click Here.

Planet Visibilities in 2007:

Evening sky:

MERCURY Seen low in the west after sunset between following dates Jan 21-Feb 17; May 11-June 19; Aug 25-Oct 18..
VENUS Jan 1- Aug 13.
MARS Dec 24 -Dec 31.
JUPITER Jun 5 (Opposite the sun)- Dec 10..
SATURN Feb 10 (Opposite the sun) - Aug. 4.

Morning sky:

MERCURY Seen low in the east before sunrise between following dates:Mar 2- Apr 25; Jul 8-Aug 8; Oct 30-Dec 1.
VENUS Aug 22 - Dec 31.
MARS Jan 1- Dec 24.
JUPITER Jan. 1 - Jun 5.
SATURN .Jan 1- Feb 10; Sep 9 - Dec 31.

Chart of Planet Positions in 2007

Here is a chart of the positions of the planets relative to the sun in 2007. It is valid for anywhere on Earth. See below for an explanation.

Explanation On this chart, dates increase upward. This charts shows when each planet is due south (crosses the meridian.) The time of day (Local Standard Time, wherever you are) increases to the LEFT. Noon is in the middle; midnight is on the RIGHT and then moving left comes morning and noon and then afternoon, and evening. Midnight is also at the LEFT.
For example, Venus crosses your local meridian due south at 14 20 (= 2 20 pm) at the end of March.

Diagonal lines show the meridian passage of lines of equal Right Ascension, measured in hours and labelled along the bottom. For example, 0h Right Ascension crosses the meridian at noon on March 21, the time of vernal equinox.

The gray band in the middle is the daylight zone near the sun, where planets and stars are invisible. For example, Mercury emerges from the evening twilight on about Jan 23, 2007. It is visible in the morning twilight from Mar 1 to Apr 21, 2007.

Copied from the American Ephemeris, US Govt. Printing Office

Aurorae: Northern and Southern Lights

Time lapse movie of Alaskan aurora.

Forecasts and Sightings

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