Terry's Astronomy Thread.

[Bluearrowll]

Re: Terry's Astronomy Thread.

Glad you're enjoying the thread foilman! Expect a new feature coming up soon..

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

-Since Jupiter is just past opposition, the asteroids Ceres and Vesta in Jupiter's vicinity are near their oppositions too. Vesta's opposition is tonight. It's magnitude 6.4, and Ceres is 6.9. Spot them in binoculars this month using the page under the Upcoming Events Tab. They're near the horns of Taurus.

-Algol in Perseus, the prototype eclipsing binary star, should be in one of its periodic dimmings, magnitude 3.4 instead of its usual 2.1, for a couple hours centered on 12:29 a.m. Sunday morning EST; 9:29 p.m. Saturday evening PST. Algol takes several additional hours to fade and to rebrighten.

-Jupiter's moon Io reappears out of eclipse from Jupiter's shadow at 11:49 p.m. EST; 8:49 p.m. PST.

-For all of Jupiter's satellite events, as well as all of the Great Red Spot's transit times, Sky & Telescope has released this Jupiter'sMoons app. https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/jupi...577009038?mt=8

-During dawn Sunday morning the waning crescent Moon hangs close to Spica, as shown at right.

-At dawn, watch the waning crescent Moon step down past Spica, Saturn, Venus and Mercury from one morning to the next. As always, this scene is drawn for the middle of North America. European observers: move each Moon symbol a quarter of the way toward the one for the previous date. For clarity, the Moon is shown three times actual size.

Astro Picture of the Day:
December 8, 2012

Source:
This remarkably complete view of Earth at night is a composite of cloud-free, nighttime images. The images were collected during April and October 2012 by the Suomi-NPP satellite from polar orbit about 824 kilometers (512 miles) above the surface using its Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS). VIIRS offers greatly improved resolution and sensitivity compared to past global nightlight detecting instrumentation on DMSP satellites. It also has advantages compared to cameras on the International Space Station. While the space station passes over the same point on Earth every two or three days, Suomi-NPP passes over the same point twice a day at about 1:30am and 1:30pm local time. Easy to recognize here, city lights identify major population centers, tracking the effects of human activity and influence across the globe. That makes nighttime images of our fair planet among the most interesting and important views from space.

[Bluearrowll]

Re: Terry's Astronomy Thread.

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

-Jupiter's Great Red Spot should transit the planet's central meridian around 9:15 p.m. EST.

-At dawn Monday morning, look upper left of the Moon for Saturn, and lower left of the Moon for little Alpha Librae partway down to Venus and Mercury, as shown at right. If you catch Alpha Lib before dawn becomes too bright, binoculars will show it to be a wide double star.

Astro Picture of the Day:
December 9, 2012

Source:
In 1984, high above the Earth's surface, an astronaut captured a satellite. It was the second satellite captured that mission. Pictured above, astronaut Dale A. Gardner flies free using the Manned Maneuvering Unit and begins to attach a control device dubbed the Stinger to the rotating Westar 6 satellite. Communications satellite Westar 6 had suffered a rocket malfunction that left it unable to reach its intended high geosynchronous orbit. Both the previously caught Palapa B-2 satellite and the Westar 6 satellite were guided into the cargo bay of the Space Shuttle Discovery and returned to Earth. Westar 6 was subsequently refurbished and sold.

[Bluearrowll]

Re: Terry's Astronomy Thread.

New Feature added: the News spoiler tab will reveal interesting news articles that pop up recently relating to space or development leading to something space related.

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

-Low in the southeast in early dawn Tuesday morning, the waning crescent Moon is beautifully paired with Venus, as shown at right.

Astro Picture of the Day:
December 10, 2012

http://vimeo.com/53641212

Source:
Have you ever experienced a total eclipse of the Sun? The above time-lapse movie depicts such an eclipse in dramatic detail as visible from Australia last month. As the video begins, a slight dimming of the Sun and the surrounding Earth is barely perceptible. Suddenly, as the Moon moves to cover nearly the entire Sun, darkness sweeps in from the left - the fully blocked part of the Sun. At totality, only the bright solar corona extends past the edges of the Moon, and darkness surrounds you. Distant horizons are still bright, though, as they are not in the darkest part of the shadow. At mid-totality the darkness dips to the horizon below the eclipsed Sun, created by the shadow cone - a corridor of shadow that traces back to the Moon. As the total solar eclipse ends - usually after a few minutes - the process reverses and Moon's shadow moves off to the other side. Solar eclipses can frequently be experienced at gatherings organized along the narrow eclipse path as well as specialized cruises and plane flights.

[Spoiled_Milk]

Re: Terry's Astronomy Thread.

Interesting. I've always taken a great liking to Astronomy, never knew this thread existed until now, lol. I'll be checking it frequently.

[Bluearrowll]

Re: Terry's Astronomy Thread.

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

-Flyby of Toutatis. The small Earth-crossing asteroid 4179 Toutatis is performing one of its close approaches to Earth tonight, as it does every four years. Locate it creeping across the stars of Cetus and Pisces using at least a 3- or 4-inch telescope tonight through Friday night. It's magnitude 10.9 tonight and peaks at 10.5 on Friday. Use the finder charts for each of these four nights here: http://www.skyandtelescope.com/obser...-Flies-By.html

Algol should be at its minimum light for a couple hours centered on 9:18 p.m. EST. Here's a comparison-star chart giving the magnitudes of three stars near Algol; use them to judge its changing brightness.

News Posted today:
December 7, 2012
Spacetime Ripples on the Horizon?


Astro Picture of the Day:
December 11, 2012

Source:
Stars are sometimes born in the midst of chaos. About 3 million years ago in the nearby galaxy M33, a large cloud of gas spawned dense internal knots which gravitationally collapsed to form stars. NGC 604 was so large, however, it could form enough stars to make a globular cluster. Many young stars from this cloud are visible in the above image from the Hubble Space Telescope, along with what is left of the initial gas cloud. Some stars were so massive they have already evolved and exploded in a supernova. The brightest stars that are left emit light so energetic that they create one of the largest cloud of ionized hydrogen gas known, comparable to the Tarantula Nebula in our Milky Way's close neighbor, the Large Magellanic Cloud.

[Bluearrowll]

Re: Terry's Astronomy Thread.

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

[b]-As the stars come out in late twilight, the flattened W of Cassiopeia is still standing on one end high in the northeast. By as early as 8 p.m. it turns around to be a horizontal M, even higher in the north.

-Mercury, Venus, and Saturn form a diagonal line in the southeast as dawn begins to brighten. Venus is by far the brightest, at magnitude –3.9. Look well to its upper right for Saturn, magnitude +0.7, and farther on for Spica, magnitude +1.0. Look lower left of Venus for Mercury, magnitude –0.5. Mercury is having its best morning apparition of 2012. This line of four points is lengthening: it grows from 33° to 42° long this week.

Astro Picture of the Day:
December 12, 2012

Source:
In front of a famous background of stars and galaxies lies some of Earth's more unusual trees. Known as quiver trees, they are actually succulent aloe plants that can grow to tree-like proportions. The quiver tree name is derived from the historical usefulness of their hollowed branches as dart holders. Occurring primarily in southern Africa, the trees pictured in the above 16-exposure composite are in Quiver Tree Forest located in southern Namibia. Some of the tallest quiver trees in the park are estimated to be about 300 years old. Behind the trees is light from the small town of Keetmanshoop, Namibia. Far in the distance, arching across the background, is the majestic central band of our Milky Way Galaxy. Even further in the distance, visible on the image left, are the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, smaller satellite galaxies of the Milky Way that are prominent in the skies of Earth's southern hemisphere.

[Spoiled_Milk]

Re: Terry's Astronomy Thread.

Wow, that picture is PHENOMENAL!

[Bluearrowll]

Re: Terry's Astronomy Thread.

What's in the sky tonight?
December 13, 2012

-The Geminid meteor shower, often the best in the annual meteor calendar, should be at its maximum late tonight. And there's no Moon. Expect a count of 120 per hour tonight at its peak!

-On the same dates, a new shower may also be making its appearance. Debris streams from Comet Wirtanen, crossing our orbit for the first time, could produce a couple dozen meteors visible per hour from December 10th to 14th from a radiant just south of the Great Square of Pegasus, according to computer models by Russian meteor scientist Mikhail Maslov. The "Piscids" would be unusually slow moving.

-The new shower doesn't have a name yet. Before naming it, astronomers will wait to see if it is real. If any meteors do materialize, they might be called "Piscids." The shower's radiant is located in the constellation Pisces, according to Maslov's dynamical models of the debris stream. Maslov also predicts that the meteors will be very slow moving, which should help novice sky watchers distinguish them from the faster Geminids. More Information here about this new meteor shower.

-New Moon (exact at 3:42 a.m. on the 13th EST).

Astro Picture of the Day:
December 13, 2012

Source:
Get out your red/blue glasses and check out this awesome stereo view of another world. The scene was recorded by Apollo 17 mission commander Eugene Cernan on December 11, 1972, one orbit before descending to land on the Moon. The stereo anaglyph was assembled from two photographs (AS17-147-22465, AS17-147-22466) captured from his vantage point on board the Lunar Module Challenger as he and Dr. Harrison Schmitt flew over Apollo 17's landing site in the Taurus-Littrow Valley. The broad, sunlit face of the mountain dubbed South Massif, rises near the center of the frame, above the dark floor of Taurus-Littrow to its left. Beyond the mountains, toward the lunar limb, lies the Moon's Mare Serenitatis. Piloted by Ron Evans, the Command Module America is visible in orbit in the foreground against the South Massif's peak. To see all of Apollo 17's photos, you can go here.

[Spoiled_Milk]

Re: Terry's Astronomy Thread.

Man, I've been fortunate enough to see this ALL WEEK this week. Absolutely amazing!

[Bluearrowll]

Re: Terry's Astronomy Thread.

What's in the sky tonight?
December 14, 2012

-Orion stands centered between two bright lights this year. High above it during evening shines bright Jupiter (with its orange sidekick Aldebaran). A similar distance below Jupiter, Sirius rises around 8 p.m. (the time depends on your location) — with its white sidekick Mirzam.

-Sirius, just 8.6 light-years away, is the brightest star in the night sky. It's also the closest that's ever visible to the unaided eye from mid-northern latitudes.

-Algol should be at minimum light for a couple hours centered on 6:07 p.m. EST. Watch it rebrighten for much of the rest of the night.

-Jupiter's Great Red Spot should cross Jupiter's central meridian around 8:22 p.m. EST.

Astro Picture of the Day:
December 14, 2012

Source:
On the morning of November 14, sky gazers from around the world gathered on this little planet to stand in the dark umbral shadow of the Moon. Of course, the Moon cast the shadow during last month's total solar eclipse, and the little planet is actually a beach on Green Island off the coast of Queensland, Australia. The picture itself, the first little planet projection of a total solar eclipse, is a digitally warped and stitched wrap-around of 8 images covering 360x180 degrees. To make it, the intrepid photographer had to remember to shoot both toward and away(!) from the eclipse during the excitement of totality. Near this little planet's horizon, the eclipsed Sun is just above center, surrounded by the glowing solar corona. Venus can be spotted toward the top of the frame. At bottom right, bright star Sirius shines at the tip of an alarmingly tall tree.

[Bluearrowll]

Re: Terry's Astronomy Thread.

What's in the sky tonight?
December 15, 2012

-In early evening, the "Summer Star" Vega is still the brightest thing in the northwestern sky, though it's moving ever lower. The brightest above it is Deneb. Vega is 25 light-years away; supergiant Deneb is about 1,400.

-Mercury, Venus, and Saturn form a long diagonal line in the southeast as dawn begins to brighten. Venus is by far the brightest, at magnitude –3.9. Look far to its upper right for Saturn, magnitude +0.7, and farther on for Spica, magnitude +1.0. Look lower left of Venus for Mercury, magnitude –0.5, now moving a little lower each day. The whole line of four points is now about 45° long.

Astro Picture of the Day:
December 15, 2012

Source:
From a radiant point in the constellation of the Twins, the annual Geminid meteor shower rained down on planet Earth this week. Recorded near the shower's peak in the early hours of December 14, this skyscape captures Gemini's lovely shooting stars in a careful composite of 30 exposures, each 20 seconds long, from the dark of the Chilean Atacama Desert over ESO's Paranal Observatory. In the foreground Paranal's four Very Large Telescopes, four Auxillary Telescopes, and the VLT Survey telescope are all open and observing. The skies above are shared with bright Jupiter (left), Orion, (top left), and the faint light of the Milky Way. Dust swept up from the orbit of active asteroid 3200 Phaethon, Gemini's meteors enter the atmosphere traveling at about 22 kilometers per second.

[Bluearrowll]

Re: Terry's Astronomy Thread.

What's in the sky tonight?
December 16, 2012

-Jupiter's moon Io crosses Jupiter's face from 8:19 to 10:29 p.m. EST, closely followed by its tiny black shadow (much plainer to see in a telescope) from 8:41 to 10:52 p.m. EST. Meanwhile, the Great Red Spot should cross Jupiter's central meridian around 10:00 p.m. EST.

-Jupiter (magnitude –2.8, in Taurus) is already glaring in the east as twilight fades. It climbs to dominate the eastern and high southeastern sky into the evening, with orange Aldebaran 5° below it and the Pleiades about twice as far to its upper right. Jupiter is highest in the south around 10 or 11 p.m. In a telescope it's still a big 48 arcseconds wide, essentially as large as it ever appears.

News Posted Today:
December 15, 2012
Toutatis Revealed by Chinese Spacecraft

Astro Picture of the Day:
December 16, 2012

Source:
Is this coat hanger a star cluster or an asterism? This cosmic hang-up has been debated over much of last century, as astronomers wondered whether this binocular-visible object is really a physically associated open cluster or a chance projection. Chance star projections are known as asterisms, an example of which is the popular Big Dipper. Recent precise measurements from different vantage points in the Earth's orbit around the Sun have uncovered discrepant angular shifts indicating that the Coat Hanger is better described as an asterism. Known more formally as Collinder 399, this bright stellar grouping is wider than the full moon and lies in the constellation of the Fox (Vulpecula). On the far right of the image is the open cluster of stars NGC 6802. Individually the stars range between magnitudes 5 and 7, but combined the coat hanger is magnitude 3.6. The coat hanger can be found just south of Cygnus.

[igotrhythm]

Re: Terry's Astronomy Thread.

Seemed relevant.

[Bluearrowll]

Re: Terry's Astronomy Thread.

What's in the sky tonight?
December 17, 2012

-The first-discovered asteroid, 1 Ceres, is at opposition tonight. It's not far from 4 Vesta, which is also in Taurus along with Jupiter. Ceres and Vesta are now magnitudes 6.7 and 6.5, respectively.

-Mars (magnitude +1.2, in Sagittarius) still remains low in the southwest in evening twilight. In a telescope it's just a tiny blob 4.3 arcseconds in diameter — hardly larger than Uranus!

Astro Picture of the Day:
December 17, 2012

Source:
Why does this galaxy have so many big black holes? No one is sure. What is sure is that NGC 922 is a ring galaxy created by the collision of a large and small galaxy about 300 million years ago. Like a rock thrown into a pond, the ancient collision sent ripples of high density gas out from the impact point near the center that partly condensed into stars. Pictured above is NGC 922 with its beautifully complex ring along the left side, as imaged recently by the Hubble Space Telescope. Observations of NGC 922 with the Chandra X-ray Observatory, however, show several glowing X-ray knots that are likely large black holes. The high number of massive black holes was somewhat surprising as the gas composition in NGC 922 - rich in heavy elements - should have discouraged almost anything so massive from forming. Research is sure to continue. NGC 922 spans about 75,000 light years, lies about 150 million light years away, and can be seen with a small telescope toward the constellation of the furnace (Fornax).

[Bluearrowll]

Re: Terry's Astronomy Thread.

What's in the sky tonight?
December 18, 2012

-After dinnertime this week, Cassiopeia stands at its very highest in the north like a flattened M (for skywatchers at mid-northern latitudes). The Milky Way runs through it, stretching all the way down to the east horizon on one side and the west horizon on the other. Given the quality of your sky, how much of the Milky Way (if any) can you trace out?

Astro Picture of the Day:
December 18, 2012

Source:
Have you ever seen a sun pillar? When the air is cold and the Sun is rising or setting, falling ice crystals can reflect sunlight and create an unusual column of light. Ice sometimes forms flat, six-sided shaped crystals as it falls from high-level clouds. Air resistance causes these crystals to lie nearly flat much of the time as they flutter to the ground. Sunlight reflects off crystals that are properly aligned, creating the sun-pillar effect. In the above picture taken last week, a sun-pillar reflects light from a Sun setting over Östersund, Sweden.