Terry's Astronomy Thread.

[Bluearrowll]

Re: Terry's Astronomy Thread.

Typically they come from the Source: that can be found underneath all pictures. If you click on the image in the source, you can see a much larger picture.

[Bluearrowll]

Re: Terry's Astronomy Thread.

What's in the sky tonight?
August 3, 2012

-As summer enters its second half, the Summer Triangle approaches its greatest height in the evening. Face east and look almost straight up after nightfall. The brightest star there is Vega. Toward the northeast from Vega (by two or three fist-widths at arm's length) is Deneb. Toward the southeast from Vega by a greater distance is Altair.

Astro Picture of the Day:
August 3, 2012

Source:
"Beautiful Nebula discovered between the Balance [Libra] & the Serpent [Serpens] ..." begins the description of the 5th entry in 18th century astronomer Charles Messier's famous catalog of nebulae and star clusters. Though it appeared to Messier to be fuzzy and round and without stars, Messier 5 (M5) is now known to be a globular star cluster, 100,000 stars or more, bound by gravity and packed into a region around 165 light-years in diameter. It lies some 25,000 light-years away. Roaming the halo of our galaxy, globular star clusters are ancient members of the Milky Way. M5 is one of the oldest globulars, its stars estimated to be nearly 13 billion years old. The beautiful star cluster is a popular target for earthbound telescopes. Even close to its dense core, the cluster's red and blue giant stars stand out with yellowish and blue hues in this sharp color image.

[Bluearrowll]

Re: Terry's Astronomy Thread.

Due to a bad case of food poisoning which forced me to be hospitalised, on top of being sick, I am placing this thread on temporary hiatus over the weekend, possibly for tomorrow as well. Hope to have it running again by Tuesday. Sorry for the inconvenience.

[Bluearrowll]

Re: Terry's Astronomy Thread.

As promised, I am feeling better and am back home now, so I am able to make up for lost time. In this post I will have all days that I missed + today! One of them will feature a video which I think is quite neat.

What's in the sky tonight?
August 4, 2012

-The waning gibbous Moon rises in the east as twilight fades away. Look well to the Moon's left or upper left for the Great Square of Pegasus, balancing on one corner.

Astro Picture of the Day:
August 4, 2012

Source:
Blown by the wind from a massive star, this interstellar apparition has a surprisingly familiar shape. Cataloged as NGC 7635, it is also known simply as The Bubble Nebula. Although it looks delicate, the 10 light-year diameter bubble offers evidence of violent processes at work. Above and right of the Bubble's center is a hot, O star, several hundred thousand times more luminous and around 45 times more massive than the Sun. A fierce stellar wind and intense radiation from that star has blasted out the structure of glowing gas against denser material in a surrounding molecular cloud. The intriguing Bubble Nebula lies a mere 11,000 light-years away toward the boastful constellation Cassiopeia. This view of the cosmic bubble is composed of narrowband and broadband image data, capturing details in the emission region while recording a natural looking field of stars.

What's in the sky tonight?
August 5, 2012

-Vega is near the zenith soon after nightfall (as seen from mid-northern latitudes), and this tells you that the rich Milky Way in Sagittarius and the tail of Scorpius is now at its best low in the south. The region is loaded with telescopic star clusters and nebulae. Catch it while you can.

-Mars and Saturn (magnitudes +1.1 and +0.8, respectively) are low in the west-southwest at dusk, forming a triangle with similarly bright (but twinklier) Spica. Saturn and Spica are 4½° apart, with Saturn on top. Mars, to Spica's right, is approaching closer to them every day. It will pass between them on August 13th and 14th.

Astro Picture of the Day:
August 5, 2012

Source:
Stunning emission nebula IC 1396 mixes glowing cosmic gas and dark dust clouds in the high and far off constellation of Cepheus. Energized by the bright, bluish central star seen here, this star forming region sprawls across hundreds of light-years -- spanning over three degrees on the sky while nearly 3,000 light-years from planet Earth. Among the intriguing dark shapes within IC 1396, the winding Elephant's Trunk nebula lies just below center. The gorgeous color view is a composition of digitized black and white photographic plates recorded through red and blue astronomical filters. The plates were taken using the Samuel Oschin Telescope, a wide-field survey instrument at Palomar Observatory, between 1989 and 1993.

What's in the sky tonight?
August 6, 2012

-By mid-evening this week, W-shaped Cassiopeia rises as high in the north-northeast as the bowl of the Big Dipper has sunk in the north-northwest.

Astro Picture of the Day:
August 6, 2012
Noctournal:
Have you ever seen the night sky change? It does -- sometimes in beautiful and unexpected ways. To see it, though, usually requires patience. The above award winning video shows several of the possible changes in dramatic fashion with a time lapse video. Visible are sunset-illuminated clouds moving, stars of vivid colors rising, the long tail of a Comet Lovejoy rising, bright satellites crossing, a meteor exploding, a distant lightning storm approaching, skyscapes including the Magellanic Clouds rotating, and a fisheye sky rotating while the foreground becomes illuminated by moonlight. Frequently featuring an artistic human sculpture in the foreground and the southern sky in the background, the video closes with a time lapse clip of a total lunar eclipse.

What's in the sky tonight?
August 7, 2012

-The waning gibbous Moon rises in the east as twilight fades away. Look well to the Moon's left or upper left for the Great Square of Pegasus, balancing on one corner.

Astro Picture of the Day:
August 7, 2012

Source:
A wheel attached to NASA's Curiosity rover is firmly on the martian surface in this early picture from the Mars Science Laboratory mission, captured after a successful landing on August 5, 2012 at 10:32pm (PDT). Seen at the lower right of a Hazard Avoidance Camera fisheye wide-angle image, the rover's left rear wheel is 50 centimeters (about 20 inches) in diameter. Part of a spring hinge for the camera's dust cover is just visible in the right corner, while at the upper left is part of the rover's RTG power source. Looking into the Sun across the rock stewn surface of Mars, distant hills on the right are the rim of Gale Crater, about 20 kilometers from the compact car-sized rover's current resting place. Larger color images are expected later in the week when the rover's mast, carrying high-resolution cameras, is deployed.

[Nu0n]

Re: Terry's Astronomy Thread.

loving all of this :3

[Nullifidian]

Re: Terry's Astronomy Thread.

welcome back terry!

[Bluearrowll]

Re: Terry's Astronomy Thread.

What's in the sky tonight?
August 8, 2012

-The two brightest stars of summer are Vega, nearly overhead after dark (for skywatchers at mid-northern latitudes), and Arcturus in the west. Look a third of the way from Arcturus to Vega for the dim semicircle of Corona Borealis, the Northern Crown. Look two thirds of the way for the dim Keystone of Hercules, about the same size.

-Have any plans for the weekend? The Perseids peak on Saturday.

Astro Picture of the Day:
August 8, 2012

Source:
Just as it captured the Phoenix lander parachuting to Mars in 2008, the HiRise camera onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) snapped this picture of the Curiosity rover's spectacular descent toward its landing site on August 5 (PDT). The nearly 16 meter (51 foot) wide parachute and its payload are caught dropping through the thin martian atmosphere above plains just north of the sand dune field that that borders the 5 kilometer high Mt. Sharp in Gale Crater. The MRO spacecraft was about 340 kilometers away when the image was made. From MRO's perspective the parachute is flying at an angle to the surface so the landing site itself does not appear below it. Dangling from tethers and still about 3 kilometers above Mars, Curiosity and its rocket powered sky crane have not yet been deployed.

[Bluearrowll]

Re: Terry's Astronomy Thread.

What's in the sky tonight?
August 9, 2012

-Last-quarter Moon (exact at 2:55 p.m. EDT). The lopsided-looking Moon rises around midnight with the Pleiades to its left.

-Mars is about to cross Saturn in Spica after sundown in the coming days. It has moved much closer now to form a tight triangle.

-Have any plans for the weekend? The Perseids peak on Saturday.

Astro Picture of the Day:
August 9, 2012

Source:
Is there a monster in IC 1396? Known to some as the Elephant's Trunk Nebula, parts of the glowing gas and dust clouds of this star formation region may appear to take on foreboding forms, some nearly human. The entire nebula might even look like a face of a monster. The only real monster here, however, is a bright young star too far from Earth to be dangerous. Energetic light from this star is eating away the dust of the dark cometary globule at the top right of the image. Jets and winds of particles emitted from this star are also pushing away ambient gas and dust. Nearly 3,000 light-years distant, the IC 1396 complex is relatively faint and covers a region on the sky with an apparent width of more than 10 full moons. Recently, over 100 young stars have been discovered forming in the nebula.

[Ksl33zy24]

Re: Terry's Astronomy Thread.

def, gonna look at this daily, if i remember (:

[darklordsarumon9]

Re: Terry's Astronomy Thread.

Bubble Nebula - beautiful

[Bluearrowll]

Re: Terry's Astronomy Thread.

What's in the sky tonight?
August 10, 2012

-The waning Moon forms a tight triangle with Jupiter and fainter Aldebaran after they rise about 1 or 2 a.m. Saturday morning. Bright Venus rises far to their lower left around 3 a.m. (depending on where you live).

-Have any plans for the weekend? The Perseids peak on Saturday night at approximately midnight EST.

Astro Picture of the Day:
August 10, 2012

Source:
Denizens of planet Earth watched last year's Perseid meteor shower by looking up into the bright moonlit night sky. But this remarkable view captured on August 13, 2011 by astronaut Ron Garan looks down on a Perseid meteor. From Garan's perspective onboard the International Space Station orbiting at an altitude of about 380 kilometers, the Perseid meteors streak below, swept up dust left from comet Swift-Tuttle heated to incandescence. The glowing comet dust grains are traveling at about 60 kilometers per second through the denser atmosphere around 100 kilometers above Earth's surface. In this case, the foreshortened meteor flash is right of frame center, below the curving limb of the Earth and a layer of greenish airglow, just below bright star Arcturus. Want to look up at this year's Perseid meteor shower? You're in luck. This weekend the shower should be near its peak, with less interference from a waning crescent Moon rising a few hours before the Sun. The best time to view the showers will be around midnight tomorrow EST.

[Choofers]

Re: Terry's Astronomy Thread.

i'm expecting jesus christ to be in the sky for my birthday tomorrow

[Bluearrowll]

Re: Terry's Astronomy Thread.

What's in the sky tonight?
August 11, 2012

-The Perseid meteor shower should be at its best late tonight. Find a dark spot with a wide-open view of the sky overhead, bundle up against the late-night chill, lie back in a lounge chair, watch the sky, and be patient. After 11 or midnight you may see a meteor a minute on average; fewer earlier.

-The thick waning crescent Moon rises by 1 or 2 a.m. (with Jupiter above it). But its modest light, notes the International Meteor Organization, "should be considered more of a nuisance than a deterrent."

-You're also likely to see occasional Perseids for many nights before and after. Click here for more information about the Perseids.

Astro Picture of the Day:
August 11, 2012

Source:
You've just landed on Mars and opened your eyes - what do you see? If you're the Curiosity rover, you see a strange gravelly place with a large mountain in the distance. You've landed on target near the edge of 150-km wide Gale Crater, with Mount Sharp on the horizon being the rise in the crater's center. As a car-sized rover with six wheels and a laser, you prepare yourself to go on a two-year mission of exploration, climbing Mt. Sharp, and looking for signs that Mars once harbored life. Currently you sit motionless, check yourself over, and receive a detailed briefing from Earth on things you will need to know while rolling around, trying to avoid flipping over or getting your wheels stuck in sand. Your rolling explorations will likely start in a few days. What will you find? What's out there?

[hi19hi19]

Re: Terry's Astronomy Thread.

holy shit man

it's fuccen MARS

[Bluearrowll]

Re: Terry's Astronomy Thread.

What's in the sky tonight?
August 12, 2012

-Venus hangs below the waning crescent Moon before and during dawn Monday morning, as shown below.

-Mars, Saturn, and Spica (very similar at magnitudes 1.1, 0.8, and 1.0 respectively) are bunched low in the west-southwest at dusk, far below bright Arcturus. They form a triangle 4½° tall that changes every day. Mars passes between Saturn and Spica on Monday and Tuesday, August 13th and 14th — turning the triangle into a slightly curved, nearly vertical line.

Astro Picture of the Day:
August 12, 2012

Source:
This galaxy is having a bad millennium. In fact, the past 100 million years haven't been so good, and probably the next billion or so will be quite tumultuous. Visible on the upper left, NGC 4038 used to be a normal spiral galaxy, minding its own business, until NGC 4039, toward its right, crashed into it. The evolving wreckage, known famously as the Antennae, is pictured above. As gravity restructures each galaxy, clouds of gas slam into each other, bright blue knots of stars form, massive stars form and explode, and brown filaments of dust are strewn about. Eventually the two galaxies will converge into one larger spiral galaxy. Such collisions are not unusual, and even our own Milky Way Galaxy has undergone several in the past and is predicted to collide with our neighboring Andromeda Galaxy in a few billion years. The frames that compose this image were taken by the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope by professional astronomers to better understand galaxy collisions. These frames -- and many other deep space images from Hubble -- have since been made public, allowing an interested amateur to download and process them into this visually stunning composite.