And here's a picture of it, taken by putting my camera up to the lens (32mm) of my ETX-90. This was at at 3:52 pm. A power wire crosses the sun. Sunspot 1040 is faintly visible on close the left limb of the sun half way between the lunar limb and the wire.
A partial solar eclipse was visible in Beijing on January 15 as the sun set. I watched it in rhe ETX-90 with solar filter for 45 minutes or so before the sun disappeared behind a building. A while later, as the sun was about to disappear below the horizon, it occured to me that it might be possible to view it naked eye, protected by the city's perpetual haze. I found a good, building-free location and sure enough, as the sun hovered on the horizon, there it was with a big chunk blacked out, like a waxing crescent moon. I was careful to look only fleetingly. The next time a partial eclipse will visible in Beijing will be May 21, 2012 at dawn. The sketch is of sunspot 1040 which was also strikingly visible close to the solar equator as the moon began to cross. We have been having quite a run of sunspots after a long lull. The following, if it makes any sense, is NASA's readout of eclipses visible in Beijing in the coming years.
Calendar Date Eclipse Type Partial Eclipse Begins Sun Alt A or T Eclipse Begins Maximum Eclipse Sun Alt Sun Azi A or T Eclipse Ends Partial Eclipse Ends Sun Alt Eclipse Mag. Eclipse Obs. A or T Eclipse Duration
2010-Jan-15 P 15:32:47 15 - 16:52:27 03 239 - 17:09(s) 0(s) 0.822 0.742 -
2012-May-21 P 05:31:30 06 - 06:33:13 17 078 - 07:41:53 30 0.67 0.574 -
2018-Aug-11 P 18:12:19 11 - 18:51:05 04 287 - 19:14(s) 0(s) 0.341 0.23 -
2019-Jan-06 P 07:39(r) 0(r) - 08:34:32 08 129 - 09:41:13 17 0.316 0.197 -
2019-Dec-26 P 12:53:56 26 - 13:47:48 23 203 - 14:38:58 18 0.15 0.068 -
2020-Jun-21 P 14:33:26 57 - 15:50:18 42 266 - 16:58:44 29 0.589 0.49 -
2021-Jun-10 P 19:29:47 01 - 19:39(s) 0(s) 301 - 19:39(s) 0(s) 0.125(s) 0.051(s) -
2030-Jun-01 P 14:15:43 58 - 15:45:55 42 265 - 17:03:21 27 0.677 0.585 -
Here's a bizarre story from the Christian Science Monitor. Stories often are from North Korea, but the oddity of this one is compounded by the astronmoical impossibility of the event described. Venus is in superior conjunction right now, meaning it is nearly behind the sun from our perspective and invisible either in the morning or the evening sky. The last time it was well elevated in the dawn sky was the middle of last year. Besides, the mountain in question is on North Korea's northern border, so from the perspective of most people in North Korea it would be difficult to see Venus above it in the morning or evening sky. You would have to be standing in China to see it in that position at dawn.
N Korea throws birthday party for its rising star
NORTH KOREA
Jan 11, 2010
At least one of the planets appeared to be properly aligned - in the rhetoric from Pyongyang - when North Korea's heir apparent, Kim Jong-un, marked his 26th or 27th birthday on Friday.
Pyongyang's Korean Central News Agency reported several days ago that the "morning star" Venus "shed an unusually bright light" above the lake that fills the crater of sacred Mount Paektu on North Korea's border with China.
Considering that North Korean mythology holds that Kim Jong-un's father, Dear Leader Kim Jong-il, was born in a log cabin on a slope of Paektu, at 2,740 metres the highest peak on the Korean peninsula, observers take the report of Venus shimmering high above as a serious portent.
North Korea's party newspaper Rodong Sinmun evoked the image of Paektu again, calling on readers to "toast to the endlessly bright future of Chosun [the traditional name for Korea] that will resemble the shape of the sun and the holy land of Paektu."
The editorial, like the report on "the morning star Venus", did not mention Kim Jong-un by name, but analysts are confident of the connection. "They believe Venus symbolised Kim Jong-un," says Ryoo Kihl-jae, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul. "Many people who have visited North Korea say so."
Whether or not Kim Jong-un is openly declared as heir to his father's power, reports of birthday observances across North Korea leave little doubt of his rising stature.
Daily NK, one of several organisations in Seoul that write about North Korea, reported on Friday on a "central conference" in Pyongyang and elsewhere featuring "commemorative events" for officials and "lectures for residents". Such a conference is normally a grand affair, similar to those staged annually for Kim Jong-il's birthday, which falls next month, or the birthdays of Kim Jong-il's father, Great Leader Kim Il-sung, who died in 1994, and mother, Kim Jong-suk, who died in 1949.
The commemorations parallel meetings going on around the country to rev up support for a revaluation of North Korea's currency that has stripped a small but rising mercantile middle class of much of the money hoarded from often illicit black-market dealings. The currency reform is widely viewed as having failed since while the newly valued money goes down markedly in value, hunger persists, and markets flounder.
For all the signs of Kim Jong-un's growing stature, however, his exact age remains uncertain. Presumably, North Korea's ageing leadership may well see him as far too young and inexperienced while his father hastily grooms him for power by giving him more responsibility and escorting him on visits to military units and factories. The North Korean media has reported that Kim Jong-un was born in 1982, one year earlier than previously believed. His mother, Ko Young-hee, born in Japan, once a dancer in one of the troupes performing for North Korea's ruling elite as well as foreign visitors, reportedly died in 2004, likely from breast cancer.
Kim Jong-un is believed to be serving on the national defence commission while also serving an apprenticeship in the department of organisation and guidance, a nebulous agency with tentacles throughout the armed forces, the government, and the Workers' Party, the three pillars of the North Korean power ruling structure. A position for Kim Jong-un on the defence commission could well serve as a springboard to succeed his father, the commission chairman, who took over the post well before the death in 1994 of his own father.
The Daily NK report adds credibility to a report by the rival NK Open Radio, which said that about 7,000 people attended the "central conference" in Pyongyang on Thursday and that North Koreans on Friday and Saturday observed a two-day holiday.
"Of course the observances symbolise to their people the North Korean regime power shift," says Ha Tae-keung, president of NK Open Radio. "They make official the power inheritance."
Yet another sign of the shift is a New Year's editorial published in all North Korean newspapers on the rising power of youth.
The editorial described the youth as "a shock brigade in the great revolutionary upsurge" - and called on young people to "become heroes, who add lustre to the era of the great upsurge with undying labour feats and talented persons".
Those lines, toward the end of a lengthy message on rebuilding the economy, seem to be a reference to Kim Jong-un's ascent, while uncertainty prevails regarding the health of his father, said to be suffering from diabetes and a possible stroke.
Kim Jong-un "becomes more powerful as time goes on", Ryoo says. "Some people argue that he now has a position on the national defence commission", the centre of power in North Korea.
Kim Jong-un seems to have secured the nod ahead of two older brothers. It is assumed that he is basically is front person for a coterie of elderly leaders, including his uncle, Jang Sung-taek, brother of his late mother.
The Christian Science Monitor
Minus 15C. Poor seeing, but clear sky before dawn. This crude sketch is of Sinus Iridum, with its southern walls washed away by Mare Imbrium. It fails to convey the subtle shading of the smooth-looking floor of Iridum as it disappears into the twilight and darkness of the terminator. To the right of the mirror image is the outline of Montes Jura. The crater to the upper left is Maupertuis, with its eastern wall in sunshine. The rough shape of Bianchini lies on the northwestern edge of Iridum's rim. The three craters off to the right are Sharp, Sharp A and Sharp B. Up and up and to the right are Harpalus and Foucault, last sketched in greater detail in May when the moon was waxing. This time I used a 20mm Super Plossl with 2x Barlow. The sketch was drawn around 0615 local time on Jan 10.
In parts of southwest and northern China an annular solar eclipse will occur on Jan 15, 2010, in the afternoon. In Beijing it will be only partial, beginning at 3:32pm, when the sun will already be low in the sky at 14 degrees. Maximum eclipse in Beijing will be at 4:52 pm, when the sun is virtually on the horizon. It will set still partially eclipsed. None of this, even in the path of totality, should be viewed with the naked eye . At maximum in Beijing three quarters of the sun will be covered. Attached is NASA's map of the path through China.
