Stargazers in Taiwan can look forward to a month of celestial events visible to the naked eye, including a super blue moon and a meteor shower this month, the Taipei Astronomical Museum said on Wednesday.
People who missed the relatively close full moon known as a supermoon, which are about 27,000km closer than a regular full moon, on Tuesday can expect to see a blue moon, the second full moon in a month, which only happens once every two or three years, on Aug. 31, the museum said.
A blue supermoon, or a supermoon that is the second full moon in a month, would be the largest full moon of the year on the last day of this month, it said in a statement on Friday last week.
.Photo: CNA
Compared with this year’s smallest full moon on Feb. 6, the super blue moon would be 13.6 percent larger in apparent diameter at 33.43 arc minutes, and 29 percent greater in apparent area, it said.
The best time to view the super blue moon is at about 7:30pm on Aug. 31, when it rises in the east, as that is when it will be closest to Earth, the museum said.
A super blue moon is quite rare, with the previous one in 2010 and the next one in 2029, the statement said.
In addition, Mercury’s greatest eastern elongation — when the planet is farthermost from the sun — is to occur on Aug. 10, when the distance allows the planet to be seen at low altitudes in the western sky after sunset, the museum said.
A Perseid meteor shower is expected to produce nearly 100 shooting stars an hour, with the best viewing conditions occurring on the night of Aug. 13, it said.
Saturn is to reach its brightest of the year on Aug. 27, when it lines up with the sun, at a time when the Earth is in between the two celestial bodies in a position called “opposition,” it said.
The museum is to allow public access to its telescope to view Saturn from 7pm to 9pm on Aug. 26 and 27, the statement said.
Furthermore, the Mid-Autumn Festival three-day holiday starts on Sept. 29, when stargazers can also to enjoy the full moon, it said.
Theaters and institutions in Taiwan have received 28 threatening e-mails, including bomb threats, since a documentary critical of China began being screened across the nation last month, the National Security Bureau said yesterday. The actions are part of China’s attempts to undermine Taiwan’s sovereignty, it said. State Organs (國有器官) documents allegations that Chinese government officials engage in organ harvesting and other illegal activities. From last month to Friday last week, 28 incidents have been reported of theaters or institutions receiving threats, including bomb and shooting threats, if they did not stop showing the documentary, the bureau said. Although the threats were not carried out,
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Friday condemned Chinese and Russian authorities for escalating regional tensions, citing Chinese warplanes crossing the Taiwan Strait’s median line and joint China-Russia military activities breaching South Korea’s air defense identification zone (KADIZ) over the past two days. A total of 30 Chinese warplanes crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait on Thursday and Friday, entering Taiwan’s northern and southwestern airspace in coordination with 15 naval vessels and three high-altitude balloons, the MAC said in a statement. The Chinese military also carried out another “joint combat readiness patrol” targeting Taiwan on Thursday evening, the MAC said. On
‘GRAY ZONE’ TACTICS: China continues to build up its military capacity while regularly deploying jets and warships around Taiwan, with the latest balloon spotted on Sunday The US is drawing up contingency plans for military deployments in Japan and the Philippines in case of a Taiwan emergency, Japan’s Kyodo news agency reported. They would be incorporated in a first joint operation plan to be formulated in December, Kyodo reported late on Sunday, citing sources familiar with Japan-US relations. A US Marine Corps regiment that possesses High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems — a light multiple rocket launcher — would be deployed along the Nansei Island chain stretching from Kyushu to Yonaguni near Taiwan, Kyodo said. According to US military guidelines for dispatching marines in small formations to several locations,
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday confirmed that Chinese students visiting Taiwan at the invitation of the Ma Ying-jeou Foundation were almost all affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). During yesterday’s meeting convened by the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) asked whether the visit was a way to spread China’s so-called “united front” rhetoric, to which MAC Deputy Ministry Shen You-chung (沈有忠) responded with the CCP comment. The MAC noticed that the Chinese individuals visiting Taiwan, including those in sports, education, or religion, have had increasingly impressive backgrounds, demonstrating that the
RSS