MONDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2018.

SCARBOROUGH, NORTH YORKSHIRE, U.K.

'When, as a child, I laughed and wept,

Time crept.

When, as a youth, I dreamt and talked,

Time walked.

When I became a full grown man,

Time ran.

When, older still, I daily grew,

Time flew.

Soon I shall find, on travelling on,

Time gone !'

Some lines from a clock in Chester Cathedral, U.K.

Illustrations of Saturn and its fascinating moon ENCELADUS, thought to be a possible abode of life, as is Jupiter's satellite Europa.

CONFIGURATION OF THE GALILEAN SATELLITES OF JUPITER Conjunction with SUN was on NOVEMBER 26. The planet is now reappearing in the south eastern morning twilight.

SKYNOTES are available. Use The MENU above for NOVEMBER, DECEMBER 2018 and JANUARY 2019 SKYNOTES.

ADDED : ASTRONOMICAL POEMS PAGE: Please use the MENU to find this new page.

ADDED also: A Theological and Astronomical Reflection upon the 'STAR OF BETHLEHEM'. Please use the MENU to find this page.

ASTEROIDAL OCCULTATIONS for NOVEMBER accessible via the Menu above (ASTEROIDAL EVENTS). Thanks or those Andrej !

PATH OF ASTEROID (DWARF PLANET) 3 - JUNO accessible via the Menu above (ASTEROIDAL EVENTS).

VENUS has reappeared as the "MORNING STAR" after its Inferior Conjunction with the Sun when the planet lay between Earth and the Sun. Look in the South East at dawn. the phase of the planet is shown below, on this page, and can be detected easily in binoculars during NOVEMBER.

INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION and IRIDIUM FLARE SATELLITES' VISIBILITY For information about suitable times to see the ISS, other satellites, and interesting objects, and to download the application if you wish, go to the following admirable site:  http://heavens-above.com

ISS - Visible passes from SCARBOROUGH: The international Space Station has the appearance of a bright star moving across the sky from west to east. it is often around the same brightness as Jupiter, (the fourth brightest celestial object in the sky after the Sun, Moon, and Venus). The TIMES HERE are UT. 

 
IRIDIUM FLARE SATELLITES: These are Communication Satellites with highly reflective solar panels. When the Sun catches one of these, there is a bright star-like burst, which lasts only a moment, but can be very noticeable and startling! The TIMES given are UT. 

 The presence of Iridium Flare Satellites in our skies is coming to an end soon!

Time	Brightness	Altitude	Azimuth	Satellite	Distance to flare centre	Brightness at flare centre	Sun altitude
Dec 18, 17:49:52	-4.5	52°	39° (NE)	Iridium 14	9 km (W)	-8.3	-18°
Dec 21, 17:36:32	0.8	58°	42° (NE)	Iridium 14	48 km (W)	-8.4	-16°

WELCOME to JONVRAN.CO.UK, John's simple astronomy site where you will find information about what is happening in the night sky from the point of view of SCARBOROUGH in the United Kingdom, Latitude 54 deg. 17 minutes NORTH, Longitude 00 deg. 25 minutes WEST,(Situated on the East Coast, midway between LONDON and EDINBURGH, and Mainland Britain); as well as what I hope are other interesting bits and pieces, of use to everyone. You can contact me using the form in the CONTACT area, should you wish to do so.

PLEASE FEEL FREE TO DOWNLOAD AND USE ANY OF THE MATERIAL FROM MY WEBSITE, WHICH YOU FIND USEFUL. THAT IS WHAT IT IS HERE FOR !

Historically these 'Skynotes' are a direct cyber-descendent, of the paper skynotes I prepared, for many years, by hand, for members, at each meeting of the Scarborough Astronomical Society from the moment the Society began in 1976. In those days, I produced all the illustrations including the star charts by hand, but now, with the advent of excellent Astronomy software programs, I am able to use much better graphics, for which I thank the many programmers who have produced these wonderful software gems. In the CREDITS section you will find a list of these amazing sources that allow me to continue to produce my 'Skynotes', for the benefit of all.

It does not seem that they have been produced continuously for 40 years, but as the latin inscription tells us: TEMPVS FVGIT ! (Time Flies!)

There are many 'pages' in this new version of 'SKYNOTES'. They are listed in the MENU at the top of the page. May you find within them something of interest, and may I, here, express my gratitude to the many people who have already visited, this, my small contribution towards the popularisation of Astronomy, which has been my lifelong aim. I would also like to thank the various presenters, past and present, of BBC Radio York, for letting me have regular night sky slots since the Radio Station began, many moons ago. A 'thank you' also to the other local radio stations, who put up with me, particularly when I forget what I was talking about, having gone off at a 'tangent' (= digression). These include: Yorkshire Coast Radio and Radio Scarborough, a good local Internet station, BBC Radio Leeds, Radio 5 Live, and Radio 4. A special thanks to Trish,the producer and Paul Hudson for giving me a seasonal 'slot' on Paul's Weather Show which is broadcast over a number of neighbouring local BBC radio stations. My thanks to you all!

I reserve a special thanks for the late Senior English Master, at Normanton Grammar School, Mr T Hewson, who made me stand up in class during English on Tuesday afternoons, and read aloud several pages of Gulliver's Travels, despite the difficulties I had in reading words. Thanks to him, I can now read properly and he taught me confidence to share my love of Astronomy with all to whom I am invited to speak and teach.

It is my hope that you will enjoy these pages, and return here often to take what you will from this site, as the months change, the result of Earth's journey around the sun. May you too, always follow safe paths, and have clear and unclouded skies

John Harper. F.R.A.S.

ABOUT ME:

"'MOON MAGIC' --- A poem by Pamela Tennant (I learned this, as a junior school child, at the Church of England Primary School in Normanton, West Yorkshire, England.

'One day when father and I had been
To sell our sheep at Berwick Green;
We reached the farmhouse late at night,
A great Moon rising round and bright.
Her strange beams shed on all around,
Bewitched the trees and streams and ground;
Changing the Willows beyond the stacks,
To Little old men with crouching backs.
Today the Sun was shining plain,
Theu all were Pollard willows again;
But at night, do you believe they're trees?
They're little old men with twisted knees!'

My interest in Astronomy began as a child, when I saw the feature called 'The Man in the Moon', for the first time (so I am told!). Several years later my father bought me a book called 'The Starry Heavens' by Ellison Hawks F.R.A.S., followed a Christmas later by another book, 'Introducing Astronomy' by J.B Sidgewick F.R.A.S.. With this book and a torch, I went out at night and looked at the starry skies to identify the constellations, and learned, with delight, the stories of these 'Star Patterns'. Then on Tuesday nights, around 7.30pm , after rushing through my Normanton Grammar School homework, I listened with great excitement to the serial dramatisation of Charles Chilton's novel ' 'Journey Into Space --Operation Luna!', Around the same time, on BBC's Children's Hour, there was the dramatisation of 'The Lost Planet' series of books, written by Angus McVicar, which told of an expedition to Hesikos, the peaceful planet,where the flowers known as 'Charity', bloomed in profusion. these two launched me, well and truly, to the stars! My journey had begun!

After being a member of the Batley and Spenborough Astronomical Society for a number of years, during the time I had my first teaching post at The Cathedral City High School in Wakefield (West Yorkshire), I started the school's astronomical society. Ten years later in 1975, I came to Scarborough, as Head of Religious Studies at Scalby School and founded SCARBOROUGH ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY, because I discovered that there wasn't one; although later, I found that in the past, the Scarborough Philosophical Society had an astronomy 'branch' for a while.

I am a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, a member the British Astronomical Association and the Society for Popular Astronomy. These are the three main national astronomical societies. As a member of the Society for Popular Astronomy, I became the Director of the Occultation Observing Section, and introduced the observing and timing of asteroidal occultations. When I gave up that post, because of optical problems, I was honoured by the S.P.A. who made me a honorary life member. Now, as one of Pamela Tennant's 'little old men with twisted knees' I do my best to observe from my observatory in the 'back yard'. I try to give opportunities for people to look at the night sky when special events take place up there, beyond our atmosphere; and, of course, to produce these 'Skynotes' in the hope that they are of some use to those who like me, a long time ago,.... go out on clear nights to discover, as I did, the wonders of our night skies. In these ways I am able to say 'thank you' to my life long hobby of Astronomy, which, in my opinion, is the noblest of all the sciences!

REMEMBER ------- NEVER LOOK DIRECTLY AT THE SUN unless you have the proper astronomical filters for the purpose, NOT the one often provided by the telescope manufacturer. IT IS SAFER TO PROJECT THE SUN'S IMAGE ONTO A SCREEN. Never look through view finders at the sun. instead look at the shadow of the instrument on a card. When the shadow is as small as it can be, it is pointing towards the sun, and you will see the safe image of the Sun on the card. NEVER LOOK DIRECTLY AT THE SUN------ IT CAN BLIND YOU !

THINGS TO LOOK FOR:

The times when ALGOL (Beta Persei), the famous eclipsing variable star reaches its MINIMUM brightness may be found in the monthly SKYNOTES summary for each month. The star has a page dedicated to itself also, accessible via the MENU above

JUPITER'S GALILEAN SATELLITES. Their daily changing configuration in relation to Jupiter. The daily configuration graphic may be seen below.

JUPITER IS TOO NEAR THE SUN TO OBSERVE FROM UK AT THIS TIME

SUN RISE/SET TIMES FOR SCARBOROUGH, UK (LOCAL TIME). DECEMBER 17.

RISE: 08h 17    SET: 15h 37 (Earliest Sunsets of the year!)

LENGTH OF DAY: 7 h : 20 m : 29 s

MOON RISE/SET TIMES FOR SCARBOROUGH. UK (LOCAL TIME)

RISE: 13h 21    SET: 01h 14

TIDE TIMES FOR SCARBOROUGH, UK (LOCAL TIME). DECEMBER 17.

HIGH:  22h 37 (SUN 16.) 

LOW:   05h 17 

HIGH:  11h 40

LOW:   17h 52 

HIGH:  23h 48    

The images on either side of these tables are of SCARBOROUGH, taken by residents of the town. They have kindly given me permission to show their work, for which I give them grateful thanks. They all are justifiably proud of their town!