Future events

Thinking back to my schooldays in the 1980s, I remember reading astronomy
books and looking forward to the very distant (UK) total solar eclipse and
expected Leonid meteor outburst in 1999, just before the 2000 millennium.
Now that these things have passed and we're into a new century, does anybody
know of any especially rare/ interesting events (expected bright comets/
planetary conjunctions/occultations etc) that are predicted for the next few
decades? I can only think of the Venus transit in June 2012 and Halley's
Comet in 2061. A vague (and possibly wrong) memory of reading somewhere that
Mars will occult Jupiter around 2040, though as with Halley, this is quite a
wait.

JRS: In article , dated Wed,
19 Apr 2006 20:46:20 remote, seen in news:uk.sci.astronomy, Nightshift
posted :
Thinking back to my schooldays in the 1980s, I remember reading astronomy
books and looking forward to the very distant (UK) total solar eclipse and
expected Leonid meteor outburst in 1999, just before the 2000 millennium.
Now that these things have passed and we're into a new century, does anybody
know of any especially rare/ interesting events (expected bright comets/
planetary conjunctions/occultations etc) that are predicted for the next few
decades? I can only think of the Venus transit in June 2012 and Halley's
Comet in 2061. A vague (and possibly wrong) memory of reading somewhere that
Mars will occult Jupiter around 2040, though as with Halley, this is quite a
wait.

A few are at URL:http://www.merlyn.demon.co.uk/astron-1.htm#RCFE

2006-04-05 Wed - 05:11:36 UTC : Moon's limb nearly visible in the North from
northernmost UK land, see Astronomy / Astronautics Page 2
2006-11-08 Wed - Transit of Mercury
2006-11-12 Sun - Cruithne nearest Earth, 0.37 AU
2007-03-02 Fri - Moon occults Saturn, UK, morning
2008-08-01 Fri - Total Eclipse : N Russia?
2009-??-?? ??? - Earth crosses Saturn ring-plane
2009-07-22 Wed - Total Eclipse : W Pacific?
2010-07-11 Sun - Total Eclipse : S Pacific?
2012-06-06/7 . - Solar Transit of Venus
2012-07-15 Sun - Moon occults Jupiter, SE UK
2029-04-13 Fri - NEA 2004 MN4 visible Earth encounter, was briefly Torino 4
2030-09-21 Sat - NEA 2000 SG344 (possibly Apollo or Luna 16 relic), had 1 in 500
chance of Earth impact, as first assessed in Autumn 2000; now expected to miss by
5 Gm on 23rd; next visit 2071-09-16, 1 in 1000.
2034-11-21 Tue - Moon occults Jupiter, UK, late evening
2036-04-13 Sun - NEA (2004 MN4) Apophis, Torino 1, 1:5000, 300 m 100 Tg.
2061-??-?? ??? - Halley's Comet next perihelion
2084-11-10 Fri - Solar Transit of Earth, visible from Mars
2081-09-03 Wed - Solar Eclipse, Channel Islands
2090-09-23 Sat - Total Eclipse, SW England
2102-??-?? ??? - Polaris closest to Pole for ~25570 years
2102-05-04 Thu - NEA 2004 VD17, Torino 2, 1:1000, 500 m 1000 Tg.
2135-10-07 Fri - Total Eclipse, UK

Eclipses will be on the Espenak site.

Hoe often does Cruithne come near, and at what magnitude?

--
© John Stockton, Surrey, UK. Turnpike v4.00 MIME. ©
Web URL:http://www.merlyn.demon.co.uk/ - FAQqish topics, acronyms & links;
Astro stuff via astron-1.htm, gravity0.htm ; quotings.htm, pascal.htm, etc.
No Encoding. Quotes before replies. Snip well. Write clearly. Don't Mail News.

2029-04-13 Fri - NEA 2004 MN4 visible Earth encounter, was briefly Torino 4
2030-09-21 Sat - NEA 2000 SG344 (possibly Apollo or Luna 16 relic), had
1 in 500
chance of Earth impact, as first assessed in Autumn 2000; now expected
to miss by
5 Gm on 23rd; next visit 2071-09-16, 1 in 1000.
2034-11-21 Tue - Moon occults Jupiter, UK, late evening
2036-04-13 Sun - NEA (2004 MN4) Apophis, Torino 1, 1:5000, 300 m 100
Tg.
2061-??-?? ??? - Halley's Comet next perihelion
2084-11-10 Fri - Solar Transit of Earth, visible from Mars
2081-09-03 Wed - Solar Eclipse, Channel Islands
2090-09-23 Sat - Total Eclipse, SW England
2102-??-?? ??? - Polaris closest to Pole for ~25570 years
2102-05-04 Thu - NEA 2004 VD17, Torino 2, 1:1000, 500 m 1000 Tg.
2135-10-07 Fri - Total Eclipse, UK

I'm definitely counting on a good dose of elixir of youth to observe
those. If not, I won't have to crank my neck upwards to witness them
but, don't ask for an observing report unless the communication
channels for the 'beyond' are discovered!!

Pierre MK-UK

"Dr John Stockton" ha scritto nel messaggio
...

snip
2084-11-10 Fri - Solar Transit of Earth, visible from Mars

Booking is open for amateur astronomer willing to observe and image it.
Apply to NASA/ESA...:-)

---
Beta Persei
45° 35' N
08° 51' E

remove "_nospam" to reply

In message , Dr John Stockton
writes
JRS: In article , dated Wed,
19 Apr 2006 20:46:20 remote, seen in news:uk.sci.astronomy, Nightshift
posted :
Thinking back to my schooldays in the 1980s, I remember reading astronomy
books and looking forward to the very distant (UK) total solar eclipse and
expected Leonid meteor outburst in 1999, just before the 2000 millennium.
Now that these things have passed and we're into a new century, does anybody
know of any especially rare/ interesting events (expected bright comets/
planetary conjunctions/occultations etc) that are predicted for the next few
decades? I can only think of the Venus transit in June 2012 and Halley's
Comet in 2061. A vague (and possibly wrong) memory of reading somewhere that
Mars will occult Jupiter around 2040, though as with Halley, this is quite a
wait.

A few are at URL:http://www.merlyn.demon.co.uk/astron-1.htm#RCFE

2006-04-05 Wed - 05:11:36 UTC : Moon's limb nearly visible in the North from
northernmost UK land, see Astronomy / Astronautics Page 2
2006-11-08 Wed - Transit of Mercury

Is anyone planning a trip to Hawaii to see it? :-)

2006-11-12 Sun - Cruithne nearest Earth, 0.37 AU
2007-03-02 Fri - Moon occults Saturn, UK, morning
2008-08-01 Fri - Total Eclipse : N Russia?

My birthday! I hear the Gobi desert has the best prospect of seeing it.

JRS: In article , dated
Sun, 7 May 2006 14:25:36 remote, seen in news:uk.sci.astronomy, Peter
Munn posted :
Leafing through uk.sci.astronomy, I read Dr John Stockton's message of
Thu, 20 Apr 2006:

A few are at URL:http://www.merlyn.demon.co.uk/astron-1.htm#RCFE

2006-11-12 Sun - Cruithne nearest Earth, 0.37 AU
[...]
2061-??-?? ??? - Halley's Comet next perihelion
[...]

Are there any other comets due by then of similar of greater brightness
to Halley (assessed by greatest absolute magnitude they are expected to
reach)?

I only include such as have come to my attention; I've not searched
comet sites.


Hoe often does Cruithne come near, and at what magnitude?

According to the post I've extracted from below, it gets as close as 0.1
AU every 385 years.

[...]
Cruithne is such an object. Discovered in 1997, it is a 5-km diameter
asteroid that takes 770 years to complete its horseshoe orbit. Thus
every 385 years it comes to its closest point to Earth, some 15 million
kilometres. Last time was in 1900, next -- if you can wait -- will be in
2285.

But, for this year, Ron Baalke http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/calendar/ has
Nov 12 - Asteroid 3753 Cruithne Closest Approach To Earth (0.372 AU)

Are they the same object?


2285 is an unusual year; Gregorian Easter is as early as possible, March
22nd. The change to Summer Time (on present EU rules) in 2008 2160 and
2285 is after Easter Sunday.

2285 is also the last year in which seconds-count-since-1970 has the
present number of decimal digits - remember 2001-09-09, the last change?

--
© John Stockton, Surrey, UK. Turnpike v4.00 MIME. ©
Web URL:http://www.merlyn.demon.co.uk/ - FAQqish topics, acronyms & links;
Astro stuff via astron-1.htm, gravity0.htm ; quotings.htm, pascal.htm, etc.
No Encoding. Quotes before replies. Snip well. Write clearly. Don't Mail News.

JRS: In article , dated Sun, 7 May
2006 20:29:33 remote, seen in news:uk.sci.astronomy, Dr John Stockton
posted :


Hoe often does Cruithne come near, and at what magnitude?

According to the post I've extracted from below, it gets as close as 0.1
AU every 385 years.

[...]
Cruithne is such an object. Discovered in 1997, it is a 5-km diameter
asteroid that takes 770 years to complete its horseshoe orbit. Thus
every 385 years it comes to its closest point to Earth, some 15 million
kilometres. Last time was in 1900, next -- if you can wait -- will be in
2285.

But, for this year, Ron Baalke http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/calendar/ has
Nov 12 - Asteroid 3753 Cruithne Closest Approach To Earth (0.372 AU)

Are they the same object?


They are; but it turns out that it has by no means a horseshoe-like
orbit, if the horse be sober.


Janus and Epimetheus share a common circular orbit band round Saturn,
swapping between inner and outer positions when they meet. In Newtonian
space, the orbits are a pair of circles, one per body, with crossover at
encounter; in co-ordinates rotating with the average of the bodies, the
orbits resemble horseshoes but ISTM with negative gaps.


Cruithne basically is in an elliptical earth-crossing orbit round the
Sun, with a one-year period (so making a nearest approach to Earth
annually), but the orientation of the orbit is perturbed by Earth on a
770 year cycle, with nearest-nearest approaches each 385 years.

In co-ordinates rotating with the Earth, its path may be something like
that of one tip of the blade of an ordinary helicopter flying a rather
small open horseshoe, as seen from a point above and ahead of the
helicopter.

All approximately, E&OE, etc.

See the links at Ron Baalke's entry cited above.


A ROUGH estimate (astron-2.htm) of its visual magnitude from Earth gives
about +10 in 2285 and more like +13 in November. Doubtless proper
estimates are available somewhere.

--
© John Stockton, Surrey, UK. Turnpike v4.00 MIME. ©
Web URL:http://www.merlyn.demon.co.uk/ - FAQqish topics, acronyms & links;
Astro stuff via astron-1.htm, gravity0.htm ; quotings.htm, pascal.htm, etc.
No Encoding. Quotes before replies. Snip well. Write clearly. Don't Mail News.