The next meeting of the Astronomical Society will be at Pedro’s Castle starting at 7:30 PM onward on Wednesday 12th June 2013. All are welcome and there is no charge for occasional visitors. Ring or email if the weather looks bad and you are still intending on coming. Meetings are canceled if there is more than 50 percent cloud cover.
I would like to remind all who have been previous members to join us again this year. Please send cheques for 25 dollars to PO Box 1601 GT , or of course you can pay on the night!
12 MAY 2013 NEXT MEETING PEDROS CASTLE 7:30 PM
The next meeting of the Astronomical Society will be at Pedro’s Castle starting at 7:30 PM onwards on Sunday 12th May 2013. All are welcome and there is no charge for occasional visitors. Ring or email if the weather looks bad and you are still intending on coming. Meetings are canceled if there is more than 50 percent cloud cover.
There is also a repeat of the evening course 'An Introduction To Astronomy" which was run for 7 weeks earlier this year. The course starts on May 14th and costs 125 CI. There is a mixture of informal lectures and outside star viewing's including use of telescopes, a fun packed 2 hour evening in fact. A "critical mass" is required for the course to start . Enrollment has now started and people are signing up....
If Interested please enroll at the UCCI College as the course is held at the Observatory. The College requires cash and sight of your passport.
The Society Newsletter will be posted on-line in a few days time. Members and people who have expressed interest in the Scoeity within the last 6 months have recieved their newsletter today
Hopefully Clear skies everyone - though the rain does seem to have arrived
Chris 925 7657
There is also a repeat of the evening course 'An Introduction To Astronomy" which was run for 7 weeks earlier this year. The course starts on May 14th and costs 125 CI. There is a mixture of informal lectures and outside star viewing's including use of telescopes, a fun packed 2 hour evening in fact. A "critical mass" is required for the course to start . Enrollment has now started and people are signing up....
If Interested please enroll at the UCCI College as the course is held at the Observatory. The College requires cash and sight of your passport.
The Society Newsletter will be posted on-line in a few days time. Members and people who have expressed interest in the Scoeity within the last 6 months have recieved their newsletter today
Hopefully Clear skies everyone - though the rain does seem to have arrived
Chris 925 7657
News Letter April 2013
The next meeting of the Astronomical Society will be at Pedro’s Castle starting at 7:00 PM onwards on Saturday 13th April 2013. All are welcome and there is no charge for occasional visitors. Ring or email me if the weather looks bad and you are still intending on coming. Meetings are cancelled if there is more than 50 percent cloud cover.
Comet PanSTARRs (C/2011 L4) came and passed us by. Mike Whiteman took a great photo between the clouds after Sunset to capture the comet but its brightness was very disappointing. I know no one who saw it with the naked eye. Observers further north can take advantage of the fact that the comet – currently in the constellation of Andromeda will set a lot later after sunset than here. The comet has now a much more pronounced fan shape to the tail rather than that seen when it was closer to the Sun as in Mikes photo.
The Star Chart below is taken from Chris Peats excellent website Heaven’s Above –. http://www.heavens-above.com. The site enables the user to produce a chart for the exact latitude of the observer. Many of the charts in Astronomical magazines and books – although of high quality and very readable aim for the latitudes where most of their readers live, certainly not for the Tropics. Here in Cayman we are privileged to be able to see many of the Southern Hemisphere stars which cannot be seen at higher latitudes.
The chart is for 8:00 PM on Saturday 13th April as seen from George Town
On this evening the Moon is seen not far from Jupiter, and also the bright red star Aldebaran in the constellation of Taurus will be nearby too. This sort of alignment doesn’t really have a special significance but it’s interesting to look at!
There are two bright planets visible in the evening this month, we have the brilliant Jupiter now very much in the Western Sky and also in the East we now have the planet Saturn. Between the two planets – you should also be able to make out the two bright stars of the constellation of Gemini whose names I always enjoy – Castor and Pollux and moving further to the East the red star Regulus, which is in the constellation of Leo.
As the month progresses and if we watch at the same time each night Jupiter will set earlier into the West and Saturn will rise earlier in the East. To the ancients the planets appeared as bright “wandering stars”, the word planet comes from the ancient Greek meaning literally as wanderer. However the “wandering” of the planets is more about the planets moving against the background of the stars over several months rather than the measured changes we are seeing here this month. That background of stars was divided up by early mankind into constellations, and not necessarily the ones we call them today.
Jupiter and Saturn are called outer planets because they orbit the Sun in their respective orbits at greater distances than the Earths path around the Sun. Because of this, we see their movements against the constellations on average as a rather slow change in position in an eastward direction. So Jupiter is in fact moving slowly towards the constellation of Gemini – and will be seen in this constellation next year (2014). Saturn is even more distant than Jupiter so its movement is correspondingly slower but nonetheless it still moves. It is currently in the constellation of Scorpius
There is another small change to the planet position in their slow moves to the east – which I think probably went even further to their name of “wanderers” and that is an effect called retrograde motion. Here an outer planet for example Jupiter will be seen to start moving “backwards” for a short while and then change direction again back to the east. This effect, easily explained in text books (and avoided here for brevity) is due to the Earths own motion around the Sun. Jupiter will be heading “backwards” later this year in November and December before resuming again in an easterly direction in January.
Finally for the early risers the elusive planet Mercury can be found close to a waning crescent moon on April 8th. Venus and Mars are too close to the Sun at the moment to be seen
Society News can happen quickly so also check http://caymanastronews.blogspot.com/
We are planning a second “Introduction to Astronomy” course, which will start in the summer term in early May. If you are interested in attending watch out for news in the press or of course contact us if you haven’t heard anything. Cost is around 125 CI and the advertisements will be coming out in the next few weeks
Finally a number of people have suggested different ideas on meetings in the future and Im more than happy to take them on board, but not single handed! Also with Nick out of action, the 10 inch Dobsonian has an interesting position in the Cookes’ sitting room at the moment. So Ill be organizing an “extraordinary” meeting (late April?). Meantime any ideas and how many hours you can offer the Society please let me know .Clear Skies Everyone
Chris Cooke
cpcooke@aol.com 925 7657
Comet PanSTARRs (C/2011 L4) came and passed us by. Mike Whiteman took a great photo between the clouds after Sunset to capture the comet but its brightness was very disappointing. I know no one who saw it with the naked eye. Observers further north can take advantage of the fact that the comet – currently in the constellation of Andromeda will set a lot later after sunset than here. The comet has now a much more pronounced fan shape to the tail rather than that seen when it was closer to the Sun as in Mikes photo.
Don’t forget we can still look forward to Comet ISON in November
The Star Chart below is taken from Chris Peats excellent website Heaven’s Above –. http://www.heavens-above.com. The site enables the user to produce a chart for the exact latitude of the observer. Many of the charts in Astronomical magazines and books – although of high quality and very readable aim for the latitudes where most of their readers live, certainly not for the Tropics. Here in Cayman we are privileged to be able to see many of the Southern Hemisphere stars which cannot be seen at higher latitudes.
On this evening the Moon is seen not far from Jupiter, and also the bright red star Aldebaran in the constellation of Taurus will be nearby too. This sort of alignment doesn’t really have a special significance but it’s interesting to look at!
There are two bright planets visible in the evening this month, we have the brilliant Jupiter now very much in the Western Sky and also in the East we now have the planet Saturn. Between the two planets – you should also be able to make out the two bright stars of the constellation of Gemini whose names I always enjoy – Castor and Pollux and moving further to the East the red star Regulus, which is in the constellation of Leo.
As the month progresses and if we watch at the same time each night Jupiter will set earlier into the West and Saturn will rise earlier in the East. To the ancients the planets appeared as bright “wandering stars”, the word planet comes from the ancient Greek meaning literally as wanderer. However the “wandering” of the planets is more about the planets moving against the background of the stars over several months rather than the measured changes we are seeing here this month. That background of stars was divided up by early mankind into constellations, and not necessarily the ones we call them today.
Jupiter and Saturn are called outer planets because they orbit the Sun in their respective orbits at greater distances than the Earths path around the Sun. Because of this, we see their movements against the constellations on average as a rather slow change in position in an eastward direction. So Jupiter is in fact moving slowly towards the constellation of Gemini – and will be seen in this constellation next year (2014). Saturn is even more distant than Jupiter so its movement is correspondingly slower but nonetheless it still moves. It is currently in the constellation of Scorpius
There is another small change to the planet position in their slow moves to the east – which I think probably went even further to their name of “wanderers” and that is an effect called retrograde motion. Here an outer planet for example Jupiter will be seen to start moving “backwards” for a short while and then change direction again back to the east. This effect, easily explained in text books (and avoided here for brevity) is due to the Earths own motion around the Sun. Jupiter will be heading “backwards” later this year in November and December before resuming again in an easterly direction in January.
Finally for the early risers the elusive planet Mercury can be found close to a waning crescent moon on April 8th. Venus and Mars are too close to the Sun at the moment to be seen
Society News can happen quickly so also check http://caymanastronews.blogspot.com/
We are planning a second “Introduction to Astronomy” course, which will start in the summer term in early May. If you are interested in attending watch out for news in the press or of course contact us if you haven’t heard anything. Cost is around 125 CI and the advertisements will be coming out in the next few weeks
Finally a number of people have suggested different ideas on meetings in the future and Im more than happy to take them on board, but not single handed! Also with Nick out of action, the 10 inch Dobsonian has an interesting position in the Cookes’ sitting room at the moment. So Ill be organizing an “extraordinary” meeting (late April?). Meantime any ideas and how many hours you can offer the Society please let me know .Clear Skies Everyone
Chris Cooke
cpcooke@aol.com 925 7657
News Letter March 2013
The next meeting will be at Pedro’s Castle starting at 7:15
PM onwards on Thursday 14th March. All are welcome and there is no
charge for occasional visitors. Ring or email me if the weather looks bad and
you are still intending on coming. Meetings are cancelled if there is more than
50 percent cloud cover.
“Red Sky at Night” on Saturday 23 February was a huge
success, we estimated over 500 people visited “Astronomical Avenue” and it
looks like we are back for next year too,
At the UCCI Observatory the telescope making course run by
Bill finished with some good publicity.
Two of the scopes attended “Red Sky at Night” and performed really well
The “Introduction to Astronomy” course on Tuesday Evenings has
one more week to go I write this newsletter .A follow up course at Easter has
been promised, but again dependant on numbers. Last night (5th March)
whilst outside observing we were all surprised to see a bright meteor-like
object cross the sky at around 8:45 PM. The object was very bright and lasted
3-4 seconds. Was this a man-made flare? It was difficult to say – If anyone
else saw this object - other than the 15 people attending the course (!) let me
know
So let’s move on to what’s going on this month –. Comet Pan-STARRS
has been putting on a show south of the Equator but now its orbit takes it into
the Northern Hemisphere. The first easy
chance to see the comet will be on March 12th when the comet will be
close by a near-new moon or why not come to the Society meeting on the 14th?
Look to the West after sunset- it will not a bright object
but with luck will be visible as a smudge in the evening twilight. Binoculars
will help but please ensure the sun has safely set.
Those with Internet access go to http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/ataglance
for a very simplified chart showing its visibility after sunset. The comet
should be visible next month too but will be very much fainter.
The name of the comet is interesting. Only a few years ago,
comets were discovered by keen amateur astronomers with no more than a pair of
good binoculars. More recently – unless the discovery has been a lone
non-professional astronomer, the discovery has been named after the telescope,
or even more recently by networks of robotic telescopes. Pann-STARRS is such an
array based in Hawaii designed to detect near-Earth objects, its funding is
mainly from the US Air Force but also includes academic institutions world-wide
including the UK and Germany.
Interestingly we have
another bright comet later this year – Comet ISON is named after another
International network of telescopes – this one is predominantly Russian
Federation (is there such a thing?) in funding but with input from other
countries such as Switzerland and Spain (ok ,ESA) . Comet ISON will either be
spectacle or a damp squib, who remembers Kohoutek?!!
Meanwhile there’s now a third comet which may reach naked
eye visibly in April – although much less bright compared to the two already mentioned,
it is photographically a very pretty (green) comet. Needless to say comet Lemmon
is named after a telescope rather than a person. However as traditionally comets were the bringers’
of doom and bad news, we should expect some media fall-out soon. For me I’ll
quote the old bard Shakespeare himself
“When beggars die there are no comets seen;
the heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes."
the heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes."
Fingers crossed everybody.
Meanwhile let’s have a quick look at the night sky for
around 15th February 8 PM EST as seen from Spotts Beach, Grand Cayman.
The chart below comes with the permission of Chris Peat who runs the excellent
Heavens’ Above website (http://www.heavens-above.com)
it’s also very good for predicting satellite crossings.
The chart shows Jupiter still high in the sky close to
Aldebaran in Taurus the Bull. Orion is still easily visible too. Look out for Leo (The Lion) rising in the
East. Some three hours later at around 11 PM Leo will now be nearly overhead,
and at this time it will be majestic Saturn rising in the East.
Society News can happen quickly so also check http://caymanastronews.blogspot.com/
and our Facebook page – although I’ve been so busy writing up the course notes
for the Astronomy Class I’ve been neglecting things of late
Clear Skies Everyone Chris (925 7657) or cpcooke@aol.com
News Letter February 2013
The next meeting of the Astronomical Society will be at Pedro’s Castle starting at 7:00 PM onwards on Friday 15th February. All are welcome and there is no charge for occasional visitors. Ring or email me if the weather looks bad and you are still intending on coming. Meetings are cancelled if there is more than 50 percent cloud cover.
The Society has also been invited to a special event at this years’ Cay Fest called “Red Sky at Night” on Saturday 23 February. This is a paid event but there is free entry for anyone who wants to help the Society out. First come first served. We have a good dark spot and will be there from 8 PM till 10 PM, Let’s hope for clear skies!!
At The UCCI Observatory the Telescope making course run by Bill Hrudey on Monday Evenings is progressing well – in a month or so there could be seven 6 inch Dobsonian Telescopes ready for action. After much arm twisting (mine) the Introduction to Astronomy course on Tuesday Evening is proving to be a huge hit and was heavily oversubscribed. A follow up course at Easter has been promised.
The big news that will be in the press this month is of the close approach of an asteroid called 2012 DA14, at 2 PM EST on Feb 15th. This lump of rock is about 150 ft wide and about 130,000 metric tons in weight. At its closest approach will only be 17,000 miles from the Earth’s surface. If that seems along way “up” to you then consider that geostationary satellites that provide our satellite TV orbit at a height of 22,200 miles – so this takes the record for the closest known approach, for an object this size, though we are told by NASA we are quite safe (!) and that the chances of an object like this hitting the Earth are on average a mere once every 1,200 years.
The Star Chart below is taken from Chris Peats excellent website Heaven’s Above –. http://www.heavens-above.com. The site enables the user to produce a chart for the exact latitude of the observer. Many of the charts in Astronomical magazines and books – although of high quality and very readable aim for the latitudes where most of their readers live, certainly not for the Tropics. Here in Cayman we are privileged to be able to see many of the Southern Hemisphere stars which cannot be seen at higher latitudes.
The chart is for 8:30 PM on Friday 15th February as seen from George Town
Overhead along with a 5 day old moon there will also be seen a very bright “star” which is in fact the planet Jupiter. The imaginary line shown on the chart is called the ecliptic and the Sun, Moon and all the planets with the exception of Pluto follow this path. As is now well known Pluto was demoted few years ago to a “dwarf planet”. One of the several reasons for this is simply because it does not orbit the Sun in the same plane as the other planets.
When observing the sky at our latitude of 19 degrees North there are occasions when the ecliptic – and hence the planets are almost overhead. In other countries – for example those in Northern Europe the ecliptic can be so low in the sky the planets can only be glimpsed between buildings and trees.
The planets Mars and Mercury are hard to find in our evening sky just after sun set- although on February 12th the Moon will not be too far away. Look at the horizon below the Moon and in the darkening sky between you should if lucky just see two star-like objects. The higher of the two will be Mercury.
Wishing You Clear Skies
The Society has also been invited to a special event at this years’ Cay Fest called “Red Sky at Night” on Saturday 23 February. This is a paid event but there is free entry for anyone who wants to help the Society out. First come first served. We have a good dark spot and will be there from 8 PM till 10 PM, Let’s hope for clear skies!!
At The UCCI Observatory the Telescope making course run by Bill Hrudey on Monday Evenings is progressing well – in a month or so there could be seven 6 inch Dobsonian Telescopes ready for action. After much arm twisting (mine) the Introduction to Astronomy course on Tuesday Evening is proving to be a huge hit and was heavily oversubscribed. A follow up course at Easter has been promised.
The big news that will be in the press this month is of the close approach of an asteroid called 2012 DA14, at 2 PM EST on Feb 15th. This lump of rock is about 150 ft wide and about 130,000 metric tons in weight. At its closest approach will only be 17,000 miles from the Earth’s surface. If that seems along way “up” to you then consider that geostationary satellites that provide our satellite TV orbit at a height of 22,200 miles – so this takes the record for the closest known approach, for an object this size, though we are told by NASA we are quite safe (!) and that the chances of an object like this hitting the Earth are on average a mere once every 1,200 years.
The Star Chart below is taken from Chris Peats excellent website Heaven’s Above –. http://www.heavens-above.com. The site enables the user to produce a chart for the exact latitude of the observer. Many of the charts in Astronomical magazines and books – although of high quality and very readable aim for the latitudes where most of their readers live, certainly not for the Tropics. Here in Cayman we are privileged to be able to see many of the Southern Hemisphere stars which cannot be seen at higher latitudes.
The chart is for 8:30 PM on Friday 15th February as seen from George Town
When observing the sky at our latitude of 19 degrees North there are occasions when the ecliptic – and hence the planets are almost overhead. In other countries – for example those in Northern Europe the ecliptic can be so low in the sky the planets can only be glimpsed between buildings and trees.
The planets Mars and Mercury are hard to find in our evening sky just after sun set- although on February 12th the Moon will not be too far away. Look at the horizon below the Moon and in the darkening sky between you should if lucky just see two star-like objects. The higher of the two will be Mercury.
Wishing You Clear Skies
January News
I’m sure some of you have been thinking what happened to our January meeting at Pedro’s Castle and Nick’s monthly newsletter
Unfortunately 2013 brings changes to the Astronomical Society as Nick has taken a back seat in the Society for the time being due to Ill health
So apart from calling for volunteers’ and a current respite from collecting membership fees we will hopefully have our next meeting at Pedro’s Castle in mid February, I’ll try to avoid the 14!
Remember are meetings at Pedros are free of charge
Other Events
==========
We have been planing for sometime to offer to the General Public an Introductory course on Astronomy. This will be held at the UCCI Observatory and will cover both classroom and practical sessions. The course is non technical and open to all . The course will be taught by myself, Bill Hrudey and Richard McCloud and is an offical course offrred by the UCCI. Because of this The cost of the course is CI $125 (plus an addition registration fee – either $10 or $25)
The course is for 7 weeks and will be held on Tuesday Evenings at 7:30 PM, starting 29th Jan
Registration for the course should be made by Friday 18th at the Admin Office on campus. However as this is a bit short notice and how to register at the college is somewhat of a grey area if you are unfamiliar with the procedure we have organized a free evening to sign up .
This will be held at the UCCI Observatory on Tuesday 22nd at 7:30 PM.
If enough people have registered then the course will commence the following Wednesday 27th January at 7:30 PM
For those wishing to register directly with the UCCI Admin Office by Friday – it is best located by asking the security guard on entering the campus.
Best Wishes to All in 2013 , and Clear Skies
Unfortunately 2013 brings changes to the Astronomical Society as Nick has taken a back seat in the Society for the time being due to Ill health
So apart from calling for volunteers’ and a current respite from collecting membership fees we will hopefully have our next meeting at Pedro’s Castle in mid February, I’ll try to avoid the 14!
Remember are meetings at Pedros are free of charge
Other Events
==========
We have been planing for sometime to offer to the General Public an Introductory course on Astronomy. This will be held at the UCCI Observatory and will cover both classroom and practical sessions. The course is non technical and open to all . The course will be taught by myself, Bill Hrudey and Richard McCloud and is an offical course offrred by the UCCI. Because of this The cost of the course is CI $125 (plus an addition registration fee – either $10 or $25)
The course is for 7 weeks and will be held on Tuesday Evenings at 7:30 PM, starting 29th Jan
Registration for the course should be made by Friday 18th at the Admin Office on campus. However as this is a bit short notice and how to register at the college is somewhat of a grey area if you are unfamiliar with the procedure we have organized a free evening to sign up .
This will be held at the UCCI Observatory on Tuesday 22nd at 7:30 PM.
If enough people have registered then the course will commence the following Wednesday 27th January at 7:30 PM
For those wishing to register directly with the UCCI Admin Office by Friday – it is best located by asking the security guard on entering the campus.
Best Wishes to All in 2013 , and Clear Skies
Pedro Castle, December 16, 2012, 6.30
In last months newsletter I noted that the bright star Alpheratz, shown above, is shared between the constellations Pegasus and Andromeda.
Andromeda is famous for containing the Andromeda galaxy, shown as the red oval marked M31 above, within its boundaries.
This spiral galaxy is the nearest to our Milky Way galaxy, but not the closest galaxy overall. At an apparent magnitude of 3.4, the Andromeda Galaxy is notable for being one of the brightest Messier objects, making it visible to the naked eye on moonless nights even when viewed from areas with moderate light pollution, approximately 2.5 million light-years (2.4×1019 km) from Earth
The Andromeda Galaxy is the largest galaxy of the Local Group, which also contains the Milky Way, the Triangulum Galaxy, and about 30 other smaller galaxies. Although the largest, the Andromeda Galaxy may not be the most massive, as recent findings suggest that the Milky Way contains more dark matter and could be the most massive in the grouping. The 2006 observations by the Spitzer Space Telescope revealed that M31 contains one trillion (1012) stars: at least twice the number of stars in the Milky Way galaxy, which is estimated to be 200–400 billion.
The Andromeda Galaxy is approaching the Milky Way at about 100 to 140 kilometres per second (62 to 87 mi/s) which is about 1.96 billion to 2.74 billion miles per year, making it one of the few blueshifted galaxies. The Andromeda Galaxy and the Milky Way are thus expected to collide in about 4.5 billion years, although the details are uncertain since Andromeda's tangential velocity with respect to the Milky Way is known to only within about a factor of two.
Two scientists with the Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics stated that when, and even whether, the two galaxies collide will depend on Andromeda's transverse velocity. Based on current calculations they predict a 50% chance that in a merged galaxy the solar system will be swept out three times farther from the galactic core than it is currently located. They also predict a 12% chance that the Solar System will be ejected from the new galaxy some time during the collision. Such an event would have no adverse effect on the system and chances of any sort of disturbance to the Sun or planets themselves may be remote.
Without intervention, by the time that the two galaxies collide, the surface of the Earth will have already become far too hot for liquid water to exist, ending all terrestrial life, which is currently estimated to occur in about 1.4 billion years due to gradually increasing luminosity of the Sun.
Jupiter is bright in the eastern sky at viewing time, close to the bright star Aldebaran, Alpha Tauri, in the ascending constellation of Taurus.
Andromeda is famous for containing the Andromeda galaxy, shown as the red oval marked M31 above, within its boundaries.
This spiral galaxy is the nearest to our Milky Way galaxy, but not the closest galaxy overall. At an apparent magnitude of 3.4, the Andromeda Galaxy is notable for being one of the brightest Messier objects, making it visible to the naked eye on moonless nights even when viewed from areas with moderate light pollution, approximately 2.5 million light-years (2.4×1019 km) from Earth
The Andromeda Galaxy is the largest galaxy of the Local Group, which also contains the Milky Way, the Triangulum Galaxy, and about 30 other smaller galaxies. Although the largest, the Andromeda Galaxy may not be the most massive, as recent findings suggest that the Milky Way contains more dark matter and could be the most massive in the grouping. The 2006 observations by the Spitzer Space Telescope revealed that M31 contains one trillion (1012) stars: at least twice the number of stars in the Milky Way galaxy, which is estimated to be 200–400 billion.
The Andromeda Galaxy is approaching the Milky Way at about 100 to 140 kilometres per second (62 to 87 mi/s) which is about 1.96 billion to 2.74 billion miles per year, making it one of the few blueshifted galaxies. The Andromeda Galaxy and the Milky Way are thus expected to collide in about 4.5 billion years, although the details are uncertain since Andromeda's tangential velocity with respect to the Milky Way is known to only within about a factor of two.
Two scientists with the Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics stated that when, and even whether, the two galaxies collide will depend on Andromeda's transverse velocity. Based on current calculations they predict a 50% chance that in a merged galaxy the solar system will be swept out three times farther from the galactic core than it is currently located. They also predict a 12% chance that the Solar System will be ejected from the new galaxy some time during the collision. Such an event would have no adverse effect on the system and chances of any sort of disturbance to the Sun or planets themselves may be remote.
Without intervention, by the time that the two galaxies collide, the surface of the Earth will have already become far too hot for liquid water to exist, ending all terrestrial life, which is currently estimated to occur in about 1.4 billion years due to gradually increasing luminosity of the Sun.
Jupiter is bright in the eastern sky at viewing time, close to the bright star Aldebaran, Alpha Tauri, in the ascending constellation of Taurus.
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