The blue-green planet will be at its closest approach to Earth and its face will be fully illuminated by the Sun. It will be brighter than any other time of the year and will be visible all night long. This is the best time to view Uranus. Due to its distance, it will only appear as a tiny blue-green dot in all but the most powerful telescopes.
The Orionids is an average shower producing up to 20 meteors per hour at its peak. It is produced by dust grains left behind by comet Halley, which has been known and observed since ancient times. The shower runs annually from October 2 to November 7. It peaks this year on the night of October 21 and the morning of October 22.
The planet Mercury reaches greatest eastern elongation of 24.6 degrees from the Sun. This is the best time to view Mercury since it will be at its highest point above the horizon in the evening sky. Look for the planet low in the western sky just after sunset.
The Moon will be located on the opposite side of the Earth as the Sun and its face will be will be fully illuminated. This phase occurs at 21:09 UTC. This full moon was known by early Native American tribes as the Full Hunters Moon because at this time of year the leaves are falling and the game is fat and ready to hunt. This moon has also been known as the Travel Moon and the Blood Moon.
Everything that we’ve covered thus far has been about how to create an automated, in-the-can, movie-style, Sky Tonight show. We, of course, also do Live Sky Tonight shows as well. Both the Live and Auto versions of the Sky Tonight show are two very different beasts, requiring different methods of production.
If you’re in space and a huge chunk of rock zips right past you, would it make a sound? No, because there’s nothing in space to carry those sound waves. However, for years, sound designers have taken many liberties with outer space audio effects. I have to admit, I take the same liberties from time to time.
The Draconids is a minor meteor shower producing only about 10 meteors per hour. It is produced by dust grains left behind by comet 21P Giacobini-Zinner, which was first discovered in 1900. The Draconids is an unusual shower in that the best viewing is in the early evening instead of early morning like most other showers. The shower runs annually from October 6-10 and peaks this year on the the night of the 8th.
Ten computers, four projectors, and one 4K master frame sequence. How do we get all of this to play together?
At this point I have an audio track (usually still without music) and all of my scenes and photography stuff rendered and ready to be compiled within After Effects. It’s within AE that I can crossfade scenes, add any additional video or image elements, warp text or images, create complementary transitions between scenes or pictures, create a dome mask, title sequences, etc.
One thing I like doing is adding a local segment to a Sky Tonight show. What better way to do that than to show the audience an actual image or timelapse from a well-known location that they can actually go to.
Irene W. Pennington Planetarium 