Latest news with #JoeRao
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Science
- Yahoo
See Venus, the moon and fiery star Aldebaran form a dawn triangle this weekend
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. One of the brightest and most colorful stars in the sky and the most brilliant planet are on stage in the early morning dawn sky this weekend and will be joined by the moon on Monday morning. The star in question is Aldebaran, a first-magnitude star that shines with a distinct orange hue and marks the right eye of Taurus, the Bull. The brilliant planet is, of course, Venus, which outshines Aldebaran by almost five magnitudes or a light ratio difference of almost 100-fold. At this particular moment in time, both star and planet can be seen roughly one-quarter of the way up from the eastern horizon, roughly 45 minutes before sunrise. Venus, a dazzling morning "star," rises about an hour prior to the first light of dawn and shines low in the east-northeast as dawn brightens. On Monday morning, you'll also see a delicately thin (14 percent illuminated) crescent moon hovering approximately 8 degrees above Venus. Your clenched fist held at arm's length measures roughly 10 degrees in width, so on Monday morning, the slender lunar sliver will appear almost "one fist" above Venus. In a telescope, Venus is a disappointment: just a tiny, gibbous blob, 72 percent illuminated by the sun. It has shrunk and become more nearly round in recent months as it has swung far around to the back side of the sun as seen from Earth. TOP TELESCOPE PICK Want to see Venus, the moon, and Aldebaran together? The Celestron NexStar 8SE is ideal for beginners wanting quality, reliable and quick views of celestial objects. For a more in-depth look at our Celestron NexStar 8SE review. And situated well to the right of both Venus and the moon will be Aldebaran. The trio will appear to form a broad isosceles triangle with Venus marking the vertex angle, while Aldebaran and the moon form the base of the triangle. It will not be a particularly "tight" array, but still should be attractive enough to catch the attention of early risers. With the reappearance of Aldebaran, it is also a gentle reminder that while we are not yet at the midpoint of summer, the colder nights of fall and winter will be looming in the months to come. Aldebaran is crossing the meridian at midnight around Thanksgiving ... and at around 9 p.m. in mid-January. Who knows? By then, some of you might be shoveling snow. So take advantage of this week's opportunity to see not only an out-of-season winter star, but Venus as well, while they both "flirt" with a waning crescent moon. Joe Rao serves as an instructor and guest lecturer at New York's Hayden Planetarium. He writes about astronomy for Natural History magazine, Sky and Telescope and other publications.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Science
- Yahoo
A vast shadow will sweep over Saturn's cloud tops early on July 18: Here's how to see it
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Early risers will get a rare opportunity to see something extraordinary in the early hours of July 18 — the dark shadow of Saturn's largest moon, Titan, sweeping across the planet's cloud tops. Once every 15 years, Saturn's tilted orbit brings its iconic rings — and Titan's orbital path — into an edge-on alignment with Earth. This event, known as a ring-plane crossing, heralds the onset of a season of dramatic 'shadow transits', as Titan's vast umbral silhouette periodically sweeps across the gas giant's surface. "Sighting a shadow transit of Titan for an amateur astronomer is somewhat the equivalent of a fisherman hooking and reeling in a particularly large or elusive fish," Hayden Planetarium instructor and lecturer Joe Rao told in an email. "It is so unusual a sight that doesn't happen very often, which is why even veteran skywatchers are excited at the possibility of making such a sighting." When is Titan's shadow transit? Titan's next shadow transit will get underway at 3 a.m. EDT (0700 GMT) on July 18, at which time the moon's dark outline will be visible slowly progressing across Saturn's cloudy disk, according to Sky and Telescope. Look for Saturn in the southeastern sky, just below the stars of the constellation Pisces shining like a bright star to the naked eye, with the moon in the east. Observers in the U.S. will have a good view of the first two hours of the shadow transit, but by the time Titan's shadow leaves Saturn's disk at 8:05 a.m. EDT (12:05 GMT), the brightening dawn will overpower the view. How powerful does a telescope need to be to spot Titan's shadow? At the time of the shadow transit, Titan and Saturn will be separated by approximately 846 million miles (1.36 billion kilometers) from Earth — far beyond the capabilities of the naked eye or binoculars, but well within reach of many amateur telescopes. We asked Rao for guidance on the kind of scope needed to view Titan's shadow transit. "An 8-inch telescope at 200-power or a 10-inch telescope at 250-power should provide a good view of Titan's shadow, especially on a night of good seeing," Rao explained. To calculate the magnifcation of your telescope, you need only divide its focal length by the focal length of your chosen eyepiece. For example, a 1000 mm telescope with a 10 mm eyepiece yields 100-power magnification. Rao also emphasised that stable atmospheric conditions are crucial to obtaining a clear view. This becomes more important when using higher power with a smaller aperture scope. It's best to use one-half magnification/power when viewing distant objects to avoid them appearing to "boil", or "scintilate" when viewed through the eyepiece. "At least 200-power is necessary for getting a reasonably good view of the dark 'shadow dot' projected on Saturn's disk," continued Rao. "The general rule of thumb is to utilize 50-power for every inch of aperture of the telescope objective, or mirror. So, for a 4-inch telescope, the maximum magnification to be used is 200-power, which is considered the limit for a telescope of that size." When are the next Titan shadow transits? After the July 18 event, five more Titan shadow transits will be visible from Earth. Each occurs roughly16 days after the last — a result of Titan's 16-day orbital period — and starting progressively earlier in the night for viewers in the U.S. Date Start End Aug 3 2:25 a.m. 7:04 a.m. Aug 19 1:52 a.m. 6:00 a.m. Sept 4 1:25 a.m. 4:50 a.m. Sept 20 1:09 a.m. 3:34 a.m. Oct 6 1:32 a.m. The next transit after this week will begin at 2:25 a.m. (0625 GMT) on August 3, while the last chance to catch the moon's shadow fall on Saturn will take place on October 6. After the October event, stargazers will have to wait another 15 years before the next ring crossing brings Titan — and its shadow — into alignment once more! Titan's shadow through the eyes of the Cassini spacecraft Without question, the most spectacular views of a Titan shadow transit came courtesy of NASA's Cassini spacecraft, which witnessed the moon's dark outline fall over Saturn's cloud surface in November 2009, while it travelled a mere 1.3 million miles (2.1 million km) from the colossal gas giant. Cassini has long since found its resting place beneath the cloud surface of Saturn, but amateur astronomers will have an opportunity to follow in Cassini's steps later this week and witness the next Titan shadow transit for themselves when it takes place on July 18. "Though we, living in the 21st century, have grown accustomed to seeing the Saturnian system through the eyes of Cassini, there still remains the thrill of witnessing, with one's own eyes, a major celestial event in the life of another planet a billion miles away," Carolyn Porco, planetary scientists and imaging team leader for NASA's Cassini mission told in an email. Editor's Note: If you would like to share your images of the Titan shadow transit with readers, then please send your photo(s), comments, and your name and location to spacephotos@ Solve the daily Crossword
CNN
05-02-2025
- Science
- CNN
Light pollution is getting worse, but there is a movement to make our skies dark again
When a series of lightning strikes took down power across New York City on the night of July 13, 1977, streetlights, neon signs, and the bright lights of houses and skyscrapers went dark. And just like that, for the first time in decades, the Milky Way could be seen streaked across the black sky, speckled by thousands of shimmering stars. 'I saw a (starry) sky from my location in the Bronx,' said Joe Rao, a meteorologist and amateur astronomer who was living in New York City on the night of the blackout, 'which I had never seen before and have never seen again.' Barring a freak power outage, the light emanating from towns and cities due to unnatural light sources is so bright that it washes out the stars. Today one-third of all humans, including 80% of North Americans, cannot see the Milky Way. For a growing number of people, natural darkness has been lost. When the lights went out in 1977, New Yorkers could see how much they were missing. Light pollution, the term for the brightening of the night sky by unnatural lights, is increasing worldwide. On average, skies are getting 10% brighter each year globally, with the fastest rate of change in North America. Many species are suffering the consequences. Every year, up to one billion birds in the US are killed by colliding with buildings, a global crisis exacerbated by bright lights drawing them off their migratory paths at night. Unnatural lighting can disorient insects, and affect the leaf development of trees. A 2017 study found that light pollution poses a threat to 30% of vertebrates and more than 60% of invertebrates that are nocturnal. Nesting sea turtles, which rely on the reflection of light on the water from celestial bodies to guide them to the ocean, can be disoriented by unnatural lights around beaches, resulting in fatal dehydration or predation. 'We've found sea turtles in elevator shafts,' said Rachel Tighe, lighting project manager at Sea Turtle Conservancy, a Florida-based nonprofit funded by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. For the animals, she added, 'it's confusion and chaos.' And humans are affected, too. While the health implications of unnatural light are still being investigated, research has linked light pollution to obesity, depression, sleep disorders, diabetes, and cancer. 'We know that if you start to shift temperatures you have really profound impacts on organisms across ecosystems, so you would imagine that if we start to mess with light cycles, we might have similarly profound impacts,' said Professor Kevin Gaston, a light pollution expert at the University of Exeter, in the UK. 'We're all ultimately dependent on this stuff for our very existence.' There is hope. Unlike other environmental issues like climate change and deforestation, the problem of light pollution could be curbed overnight — by turning off the lights. In 2020, the small town of Crestone, Colorado, switched off its streetlights when it ran out of money to pay the electricity bill. At night, the streets were dark, but the sky above was bright with stars. 'At the next meeting (of the Board of Trustees), someone said, 'You know, we kind of like it dark,'' recalled Kairina Danforth, mayor of Crestone at the time. Inspired to preserve natural darkness, the town decided to leave the streetlights off. Soon, Crestone became one of a growing number of towns around the world officially recognized as a Dark Sky community by DarkSky International, an organization that promotes the battle against light pollution. 'We are probably the only Dark Sky community in the world that has no residential lights because they couldn't afford to pay the bill,' said Danforth. 'Now there's a strong communal support for our dark sky.' As Crestone, and the residents of New York City in 1977, can attest, a total blackout will bring back the stars instantaneously. But efforts to tackle light pollution need not be so extreme to make a big difference, said Ruskin Hartley, CEO of DarkSky International. 'The solutions are simple,' he said, 'and they don't involve giving up anything apart from bad quality lighting.' Light pollution experts abide by the mantra: 'keep it low, keep it shielded, keep it long.' In other words, ensure that lighting is low to the ground, that it is targeted to avoid light leaking in all directions, and, if possible, that it has a long wavelength, typically observed as amber colored. Finally, turn lights off when they're not needed. Some communities are following DarkSky's recommendations by retrofitting their lighting fixtures to reduce light pollution, or simply turning off more lights. DarkSky International has worked with communities and nature reserves in 22 countries to provide support and give official accreditation to areas that have made positive changes. Nearly 300 areas are now accredited. In 2022, DarkSky, in collaboration with the Czech Republic, developed a European policy brief on reducing light pollution, recommending that 'all light should have a clear purpose,' that it 'should be directed only to where needed,' and that it 'should be no brighter than necessary.' The brief suggests using current EU legislative frameworks — on biodiversity, climate change, and energy efficiency — to push for light pollution mitigation measures. As of October 2022, 20 pieces of nationwide legislation that concern the mitigation of light pollution had been introduced in nine member states of the European Union since 2000, according to the Czech Republic's Ministry of the Environment. Countries are further incentivized by potential economic advantages. Electric-powered indoor and outdoor lights consume 17% to 20% of global electricity production, according to the European policy brief, and cutting usage means cutting costs. Areas with dark skies are also benefitting from astrotourism, a growing trend in which tourists travel to stargaze in locations with lower levels of light pollution. '(Under) the stars are the places we told our first stories,' said Hartley. 'For many communities, these have been erased and lost because of the scourge of light pollution. But more and more are starting to recover and rediscover this.' Wildlife is benefitting, too. The Sea Turtle Conservancy has changed over 30,000 lights and estimates it has darkened over 45 miles of nesting beach in Florida since 2010, possibly saving as many as tens of thousands of hatchlings. 'It's really cool to be able to see such a change so quickly,' Tighe said. Despite positive changes, stemming light pollution is an uphill battle. Even in some parts of Chile's Atacama Desert, one of the darkest places on Earth, you can now see a distant glow emanating from nearby La Serena, one of the country's fastest-growing cities, said Hartley. 'You can't escape it anymore, and it is just a product of waste and ignorance,' he added. 'How can we get more people to care about this?' For Rao, who was 21 on the night that the Milky Way appeared above his house in the Bronx, and is now 68, optimism for the fate of our skies is at an all-time low. 'I'm beginning to wonder whether anybody is going to be able to see a good dark sky anymore, 30, 40 years from now,' he said. 'It's very, very sad.' But as the movement to save the dark grows, there is still a faint hope that a star-studded future is possible.
CNN
05-02-2025
- Science
- CNN
Light pollution is getting worse, but there is a movement to make our skies dark again
When a series of lightning strikes took down power across New York City on the night of July 13, 1977, streetlights, neon signs, and the bright lights of houses and skyscrapers went dark. And just like that, for the first time in decades, the Milky Way could be seen streaked across the black sky, speckled by thousands of shimmering stars. 'I saw a (starry) sky from my location in the Bronx,' said Joe Rao, a meteorologist and amateur astronomer who was living in New York City on the night of the blackout, 'which I had never seen before and have never seen again.' Barring a freak power outage, the light emanating from towns and cities due to unnatural light sources is so bright that it washes out the stars. Today one-third of all humans, including 80% of North Americans, cannot see the Milky Way. For a growing number of people, natural darkness has been lost. When the lights went out in 1977, New Yorkers could see how much they were missing. Light pollution, the term for the brightening of the night sky by unnatural lights, is increasing worldwide. On average, skies are getting 10% brighter each year globally, with the fastest rate of change in North America. Many species are suffering the consequences. Every year, up to one billion birds in the US are killed by colliding with buildings, a global crisis exacerbated by bright lights drawing them off their migratory paths at night. Unnatural lighting can disorient insects, and affect the leaf development of trees. A 2017 study found that light pollution poses a threat to 30% of vertebrates and more than 60% of invertebrates that are nocturnal. Nesting sea turtles, which rely on the reflection of light on the water from celestial bodies to guide them to the ocean, can be disoriented by unnatural lights around beaches, resulting in fatal dehydration or predation. 'We've found sea turtles in elevator shafts,' said Rachel Tighe, lighting project manager at Sea Turtle Conservancy, a Florida-based nonprofit funded by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. For the animals, she added, 'it's confusion and chaos.' And humans are affected, too. While the health implications of unnatural light are still being investigated, research has linked light pollution to obesity, depression, sleep disorders, diabetes, and cancer. 'We know that if you start to shift temperatures you have really profound impacts on organisms across ecosystems, so you would imagine that if we start to mess with light cycles, we might have similarly profound impacts,' said Professor Kevin Gaston, a light pollution expert at the University of Exeter, in the UK. 'We're all ultimately dependent on this stuff for our very existence.' There is hope. Unlike other environmental issues like climate change and deforestation, the problem of light pollution could be curbed overnight — by turning off the lights. In 2020, the small town of Crestone, Colorado, switched off its streetlights when it ran out of money to pay the electricity bill. At night, the streets were dark, but the sky above was bright with stars. 'At the next meeting (of the Board of Trustees), someone said, 'You know, we kind of like it dark,'' recalled Kairina Danforth, mayor of Crestone at the time. Inspired to preserve natural darkness, the town decided to leave the streetlights off. Soon, Crestone became one of a growing number of towns around the world officially recognized as a Dark Sky community by DarkSky International, an organization that promotes the battle against light pollution. 'We are probably the only Dark Sky community in the world that has no residential lights because they couldn't afford to pay the bill,' said Danforth. 'Now there's a strong communal support for our dark sky.' As Crestone, and the residents of New York City in 1977, can attest, a total blackout will bring back the stars instantaneously. But efforts to tackle light pollution need not be so extreme to make a big difference, said Ruskin Hartley, CEO of DarkSky International. 'The solutions are simple,' he said, 'and they don't involve giving up anything apart from bad quality lighting.' Light pollution experts abide by the mantra: 'keep it low, keep it shielded, keep it long.' In other words, ensure that lighting is low to the ground, that it is targeted to avoid light leaking in all directions, and, if possible, that it has a long wavelength, typically observed as amber colored. Finally, turn lights off when they're not needed. Some communities are following DarkSky's recommendations by retrofitting their lighting fixtures to reduce light pollution, or simply turning off more lights. DarkSky International has worked with communities and nature reserves in 22 countries to provide support and give official accreditation to areas that have made positive changes. Nearly 300 areas are now accredited. In 2022, DarkSky, in collaboration with the Czech Republic, developed a European policy brief on reducing light pollution, recommending that 'all light should have a clear purpose,' that it 'should be directed only to where needed,' and that it 'should be no brighter than necessary.' The brief suggests using current EU legislative frameworks — on biodiversity, climate change, and energy efficiency — to push for light pollution mitigation measures. As of October 2022, 20 pieces of nationwide legislation that concern the mitigation of light pollution had been introduced in nine member states of the European Union since 2000, according to the Czech Republic's Ministry of the Environment. Countries are further incentivized by potential economic advantages. Electric-powered indoor and outdoor lights consume 17% to 20% of global electricity production, according to the European policy brief, and cutting usage means cutting costs. Areas with dark skies are also benefitting from astrotourism, a growing trend in which tourists travel to stargaze in locations with lower levels of light pollution. '(Under) the stars are the places we told our first stories,' said Hartley. 'For many communities, these have been erased and lost because of the scourge of light pollution. But more and more are starting to recover and rediscover this.' Wildlife is benefitting, too. The Sea Turtle Conservancy has changed over 30,000 lights and estimates it has darkened over 45 miles of nesting beach in Florida since 2010, possibly saving as many as tens of thousands of hatchlings. 'It's really cool to be able to see such a change so quickly,' Tighe said. Despite positive changes, stemming light pollution is an uphill battle. Even in some parts of Chile's Atacama Desert, one of the darkest places on Earth, you can now see a distant glow emanating from nearby La Serena, one of the country's fastest-growing cities, said Hartley. 'You can't escape it anymore, and it is just a product of waste and ignorance,' he added. 'How can we get more people to care about this?' For Rao, who was 21 on the night that the Milky Way appeared above his house in the Bronx, and is now 68, optimism for the fate of our skies is at an all-time low. 'I'm beginning to wonder whether anybody is going to be able to see a good dark sky anymore, 30, 40 years from now,' he said. 'It's very, very sad.' But as the movement to save the dark grows, there is still a faint hope that a star-studded future is possible.
Yahoo
05-02-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Light pollution is getting worse, but there is a movement to make our skies dark again
Editor's Note: Call to Earth is a CNN editorial series committed to reporting on the environmental challenges facing our planet, together with the solutions. Rolex's Perpetual Planet Initiative has partnered with CNN to drive awareness and education around key sustainability issues and to inspire positive action. When a series of lightning strikes took down power across New York City on the night of July 13, 1977, streetlights, neon signs, and the bright lights of houses and skyscrapers went dark. And just like that, for the first time in decades, the Milky Way could be seen streaked across the black sky, speckled by thousands of shimmering stars. 'I saw a (starry) sky from my location in the Bronx,' said Joe Rao, a meteorologist and amateur astronomer who was living in New York City on the night of the blackout, 'which I had never seen before and have never seen again.' Barring a freak power outage, the light emanating from towns and cities due to unnatural light sources is so bright that it washes out the stars. Today one-third of all humans, including 80% of North Americans, cannot see the Milky Way. For a growing number of people, natural darkness has been lost. When the lights went out in 1977, New Yorkers could see how much they were missing. Light pollution, the term for the brightening of the night sky by unnatural lights, is increasing worldwide. On average, skies are getting 10% brighter each year globally, with the fastest rate of change in North America. Many species are suffering the consequences. Every year, up to one billion birds in the US are killed by colliding with buildings, a global crisis exacerbated by bright lights drawing them off their migratory paths at night. Unnatural lighting can disorient insects, and affect the leaf development of trees. A 2017 study found that light pollution poses a threat to 30% of vertebrates and more than 60% of invertebrates that are nocturnal. Nesting sea turtles, which rely on the reflection of light on the water from celestial bodies to guide them to the ocean, can be disoriented by unnatural lights around beaches, resulting in fatal dehydration or predation. 'We've found sea turtles in elevator shafts,' said Rachel Tighe, lighting project manager at Sea Turtle Conservancy, a Florida-based nonprofit funded by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. For the animals, she added, 'it's confusion and chaos.' And humans are affected, too. While the health implications of unnatural light are still being investigated, research has linked light pollution to obesity, depression, sleep disorders, diabetes, and cancer. 'We know that if you start to shift temperatures you have really profound impacts on organisms across ecosystems, so you would imagine that if we start to mess with light cycles, we might have similarly profound impacts,' said Professor Kevin Gaston, a light pollution expert at the University of Exeter, in the UK. 'We're all ultimately dependent on this stuff for our very existence.' There is hope. Unlike other environmental issues like climate change and deforestation, the problem of light pollution could be curbed overnight — by turning off the lights. In 2020, the small town of Crestone, Colorado, switched off its streetlights when it ran out of money to pay the electricity bill. At night, the streets were dark, but the sky above was bright with stars. 'At the next meeting (of the Board of Trustees), someone said, 'You know, we kind of like it dark,'' recalled Kairina Danforth, mayor of Crestone at the time. Inspired to preserve natural darkness, the town decided to leave the streetlights off. Soon, Crestone became one of a growing number of towns around the world officially recognized as a Dark Sky community by DarkSky International, an organization that promotes the battle against light pollution. 'We are probably the only Dark Sky community in the world that has no residential lights because they couldn't afford to pay the bill,' said Danforth. 'Now there's a strong communal support for our dark sky.' As Crestone, and the residents of New York City in 1977, can attest, a total blackout will bring back the stars instantaneously. But efforts to tackle light pollution need not be so extreme to make a big difference, said Ruskin Hartley, CEO of DarkSky International. 'The solutions are simple,' he said, 'and they don't involve giving up anything apart from bad quality lighting.' Light pollution experts abide by the mantra: 'keep it low, keep it shielded, keep it long.' In other words, ensure that lighting is low to the ground, that it is targeted to avoid light leaking in all directions, and, if possible, that it has a long wavelength, typically observed as amber colored. Finally, turn lights off when they're not needed. Some communities are following DarkSky's recommendations by retrofitting their lighting fixtures to reduce light pollution, or simply turning off more lights. DarkSky International has worked with communities and nature reserves in 22 countries to provide support and give official accreditation to areas that have made positive changes. Nearly 300 areas are now accredited. In 2022, DarkSky, in collaboration with the Czech Republic, developed a European policy brief on reducing light pollution, recommending that 'all light should have a clear purpose,' that it 'should be directed only to where needed,' and that it 'should be no brighter than necessary.' The brief suggests using current EU legislative frameworks — on biodiversity, climate change, and energy efficiency — to push for light pollution mitigation measures. As of October 2022, 20 pieces of nationwide legislation that concern the mitigation of light pollution had been introduced in nine member states of the European Union since 2000, according to the Czech Republic's Ministry of the Environment. Countries are further incentivized by potential economic advantages. Electric-powered indoor and outdoor lights consume 17% to 20% of global electricity production, according to the European policy brief, and cutting usage means cutting costs. Areas with dark skies are also benefitting from astrotourism, a growing trend in which tourists travel to stargaze in locations with lower levels of light pollution. '(Under) the stars are the places we told our first stories,' said Hartley. 'For many communities, these have been erased and lost because of the scourge of light pollution. But more and more are starting to recover and rediscover this.' Wildlife is benefitting, too. The Sea Turtle Conservancy has changed over 30,000 lights and estimates it has darkened over 45 miles of nesting beach in Florida since 2010, possibly saving as many as tens of thousands of hatchlings. 'It's really cool to be able to see such a change so quickly,' Tighe said. Despite positive changes, stemming light pollution is an uphill battle. Even in some parts of Chile's Atacama Desert, one of the darkest places on Earth, you can now see a distant glow emanating from nearby La Serena, one of the country's fastest-growing cities, said Hartley. 'You can't escape it anymore, and it is just a product of waste and ignorance,' he added. 'How can we get more people to care about this?' For Rao, who was 21 on the night that the Milky Way appeared above his house in the Bronx, and is now 68, optimism for the fate of our skies is at an all-time low. 'I'm beginning to wonder whether anybody is going to be able to see a good dark sky anymore, 30, 40 years from now,' he said. 'It's very, very sad.' But as the movement to save the dark grows, there is still a faint hope that a star-studded future is possible.
