Terry's Astronomy Thread.

[noname219]

Re: Terry's Astronomy Thread.

Can I add some pictures of aurora borealis that a group of co-workers took last week ? (thanks in advance)






If you're interested, there's the whole 48 picture set you check here : https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?...2819197&type=1

[Bluearrowll]

Re: Terry's Astronomy Thread.

@Noname219: Absolutely, feel free to share images in the future as well. Those are awesome! Where abouts were those taken?

What's in the sky tonight?
June 16, 2013

-First-quarter Moon (exact at 1:24 p.m. EDT). The Moon shines under the dim head of Virgo.

-Venus (magnitude – 3.8) is gaining altitude very gradually, low in evening twilight. Look for it in the west-northwest. Mercury has closed to just 2° or 3° from Venus, but Mercury is fading fast: from magnitude +0.6 on the 15th to +1.6 on the 22nd. Look for it to Venus's upper left (for mid-northern observers) early in the week, directly left around June 16th and 17th, and below Venus by the 20th.

Astro Picture of the Day:
June 16, 2013

Source:
Taken by Maximilian Teodorescu on June 15, 2013 @ Dumitrana (Ilfov), Romania, using a SW Mak 150mm (F/12), Canon 550D, ISO 800, 1/1250s. The Moon is waxing full this week, which means there's more bright territory for spaceships to cross. Yesterday, astrophotographer Maximilian Teodorescu of Dumitrana, Romania, caught the International Space Station passing in front of the Moon in broad daylight. "In the past I have captured the silhouette of the ISS in front of the Sun or Moon," says Teodorescu. But this time the ISS was not silhouetted. It was even more brightly lit than the Moon behind it. "I photographed them both in plain daylight, with the Sun still hanging at 26 degrees above the horizon."

Travelling at 17,000 mph, the ISS flits across the face of the Moon in only a fraction of a second. Teodorescu knew when to activate his Canon 550D digital camera using precise transit predictions from CalSky.

[noname219]

Re: Terry's Astronomy Thread.

Where abouts were those taken?

About 20 minutes from where I live, in Sept-Iles, Quebec.
I'm well placed to see these at nights. On the map you posted earlier this month, I'm between the Kp = 3 and Kp = 5 line.

[Bluearrowll]

Re: Terry's Astronomy Thread.

About 20 minutes from where I live, in Sept-Iles, Quebec.
I'm well placed to see these at nights. On the map you posted earlier this month, I'm between the Kp = 3 and Kp = 5 line.

Very nice, during geomagnetic storms it's very likely the auroras will be over you rather than in the North. The map that was posted is always visible under the "Aurora Tracker" tab in the OP, along with other helpful aurora tracking information.


What's in the sky tonight?
June 17, 2013

-The Moon this evening forms the end of a curving line with Spica and Saturn, counting to the Moon's left. Look below the Moon for the four-star figure of Corvus.

-Watch the gibbous Moon pass Spica and Saturn. The Moons here are plotted for the middle of North America. They are three times actual size.

Astro Picture of the Day:
June 17, 2013

Source:
What creates these long and nearly straight grooves on Mars? Dubbed linear gullies, they appear on the sides of some sandy slopes during Martian spring, have nearly constant width, extend for as long as two kilometers, and have raised banks along their sides. Unlike most water flows, they do not appear to have areas of dried debris at the downhill end. A leading hypothesis - actually being tested here on Earth - is that these linear gullies are caused by chunks of carbon dioxide ice (dry ice) breaking off and sliding down hills while sublimating into gas, eventually completely evaporating into thin air. The above recently-released image was taken in 2006 by the HiRISE camera on board the NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter currently orbiting Mars.

[Bluearrowll]

Re: Terry's Astronomy Thread.

What's in the sky tonight?
June 18, 2013

-The magnetic field of sunspot AR1775 is growing more complex, increasing the chance of an eruption. NOAA forecasters estimate a 20% chance of M-class solar flares on June 19th.

-During the early hours of June 18th, a long-duration flare from this active region hurled a coronal mass ejection (CME) over the sun's eastern limb. However, none of the rocky planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars) were in the line of fire.

-The Moon now shines just below the line between Spica and Saturn.

Astro Picture of the Day:
June 18, 2013

Source:
Consider it a solar eclipse ... of Jupiter. On June 19th the sun will pass directly in front of Jupiter, completely eclipsing the giant planet. Coronagraphs onboard the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory are monitoring the convergence. The CME in the movie was blasted into space by a farside active region described in today's lead news item. Jupiter appears to be in the line of fire, but it is not. The cloud is merely passing in front of the planet; even the CMEs are eclipsing Jupiter today. Updated images of the "eclipse" may be found at the SOHO Realtime Images web page. http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/data/...me-images.html

[Bluearrowll]

Re: Terry's Astronomy Thread.

What's in the sky tonight?
June 19, 2013

-Dim little Mercury is closest to bright Venus low in twilight this evening. Look for it 2° to Venus's lower left.

-Saturn glows to the upper right of the waxing gibbous Moon as night falls.

News Posted Today:
June 18, 2013
Winds on Venus: Getting Stronger


Astro Picture of the Day:
June 19, 2013

Source:
How many different astronomical phenomena have come together to create the above vista? Several. First, in the foreground, is Crater Lake - a caldera created by volcanism on planet Earth about 7,700 years ago. Next, inside the lake, is water. Although the origin of the water in the crater is melted snowfall, the origin of water on Earth more generally is unclear, but possibly related to ancient Earthly-impacts of icy bodies. Next, the green glow in the sky is airglow, light emitted by atoms high in the Earth's atmosphere as they recombine at night after being separated during the day by energetic sunlight. The many points of light in the sky are stars, glowing by nuclear fusion. They are far above the atmosphere but nearby to our Sun in the Milky Way Galaxy. Finally, the bright arch across the image is the central band of the Milky Way, much further away, on the average, than the nearby stars, and shaped mostly by gravity. Contrary to appearances, the Milky Way band glows by itself and is not illuminated by the airglow. The above image is a six-frame panorama taken during about two weeks ago in Oregon, USA.

[Bluearrowll]

Re: Terry's Astronomy Thread.

What's in the sky tonight?
June 20, 2013

-Look lower left of the Moon at dusk, by almost two fists at arm's lengths, for orange-red Antares. Between them is the three-star row of the Head of Scorpius, nearly vertical.

-This is Midsummer's Night, the shortest night of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. The solstice is at 1:04 a.m. on the 21st EDT; 10:04 p.m. on the 20th PDT.

News Posted Today:
June 19, 2013
A Billion Pixels of Mars-scape


Astro Picture of the Day:
June 20, 2013

Source:
Sharp telescopic views of magnificent edge-on spiral galaxy NGC 3628 show a puffy galactic disk divided by dark dust lanes. Of course, this deep galactic portrait puts some astronomers in mind of its popular moniker, The Hamburger Galaxy. The tantalizing island universe is about 100,000 light-years across and 35 million light-years away in the northern springtime constellation Leo. NGC 3628 shares its neighborhood in the local Universe with two other large spirals M65 and M66 in a grouping otherwise known as the Leo Triplet. Gravitational interactions with its cosmic neighbors are likely responsible for the extended flare and warp of this spiral's disk.

[Bluearrowll]

Re: Terry's Astronomy Thread.

What's in the sky tonight?
June 21, 2013

-As Mercury fades and descends below Venus day by day, how long can you keep it in view?

-After dark, look for fire-colored Antares to the lower right of the bright Moon.

News Posted Today:
June 20, 2013
The Myth of the Supermoon


Astro Picture of the Day:
June 21, 2013

Source:
Today, the solstice is at 05:04 Universal Time, the Sun reaching the northernmost declination in its yearly journey through planet Earth's sky. A June solstice marks the astronomical beginning of summer in the northern hemisphere and winter in the south. It also brings the north's longest day, the longest period between sunrise and sunset. This composite image follows the Sun's path toward the end of the June solstice day of 2012 as it approaches the western horizon in a colorful, clear sky. The scene looks north and west along the Tyrrhenian Sea coast from Santa Severa, Italy. Appearing in the well-timed sequence, the small figure of the photographer himself is illuminated against the wall of the town's medieval castle.

[top]

Re: Terry's Astronomy Thread.

this thread is so awesome, keep it up blue

[Riotpolice]

Re: Terry's Astronomy Thread.

Thanks blue for an awesome thread!

[Bluearrowll]

Re: Terry's Astronomy Thread.

Thanks for the complements guys! The thread will be run as long as there are enough people who wish to see it. Feel free to throw in suggestions that could improve the current thread as well.

What's in the sky tonight?
June 22, 2013

-The largest full Moon of 2013 rises around sunset and shines all night. Tomorrow night it's almost as full and almost as large (for the longitudes of the Americas, since the Moon is exactly full at 7:32 a.m. Sunday morning EDT.) On both nights, though, this "supermoon" is only a trace larger than an average Moon: 7% wider.

-On June 21st at 03:16 UT, the sun itself marked the solstice with an M2-class solar flare from sunspot AR1777. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory photographed the extreme ultraviolet flash and a plume of material flying out of the blast site. As sunspots go, AR1777 is neither large nor apparently menacing, yet it has been crackling with flares for days. Before it rotated over the sun's eastern limb on June 20th, it unleashed a series of farside flares and CMEs. Today's explosion was not Earth directed, but future explosions could be as the sun's rotation continues to turn AR1777 toward our planet. NOAA forecasters estimate a 30% chance of M-flares and a 5% chance of X-flares during the next 24 hours.

Astro Picture of the Day:
June 22, 2013

Source:
As of today, our Sun begins its southern movement as a result we will experience shorter days. In the Netherlands, the duration of the day is now 16 hours and 45 minutes. With an empty beercan, many visitors of the Philippus Lansbergen Observatory in Middelburg, the Netherlands, captured the movement of the Sun with a single six month long exposure. The first solargraphs have been revealed, and this is the result of the sun's movement over the course of six months. This photo was taken by Jan Koeman. Missing sections represent cloudy ovvercast days. The general view that the Netherlands is often cloudy seems to be incorrect in the past six months as there is a large amount of sunlight present in the photo.

[Bluearrowll]

Re: Terry's Astronomy Thread.

What's in the sky tonight?
June 23, 2013

-This is the time of year when the two brightest stars of summer, Arcturus and Vega, are about equally high overhead shortly after dark. Arcturus is toward the southwest, Vega toward the east.

-Arcturus and Vega are 37 and 25 light-years away, respectively, and represent the two commonest types of naked-eye stars: a yellow-orange K giant and a white A main-sequence star. They're 150 and 50 times brighter than the Sun — which, combined with their nearness, is why they dominate the evening sky.

-Mercury is becoming a real challenge, rapidly fading and dropping below Venus very low in bright twilight. Bring binoculars. What's the last day you can keep it in view?

Astro Picture of the Day:
June 23, 2013

Source:
If you could look across Venus with radar eyes, what might you see? This computer reconstruction of the surface of Venus was created from data from the Magellan spacecraft. Magellan orbited Venus and used radar to map our neighboring planet's surface between 1990 and 1994. Magellan found many interesting surface features, including the large circular domes, typically 25-kilometers across, that are depicted above. Volcanism is thought to have created the domes, although the precise mechanism remains unknown. Venus' surface is so hot and hostile that no surface probe has lasted more than a few minutes.

[Bluearrowll]

Re: Terry's Astronomy Thread.

What's in the sky tonight?
June 24, 2013

-Look a third of the way from Arcturus to Vega for dim Corona Borealis, the semicircular Northern Crown. It has one moderately bright star, Alphecca (magnitude 2.2). Look two thirds of the way for the dim Keystone of Hercules, whose brightest star is magnitude 2.8.

Astro Picture of the Day:
June 24, 2013

Source:
What's happening to this spiral galaxy? Just a few hundred million years ago, NGC 2936, the upper of the two large galaxies shown, was likely a normal spiral galaxy - spinning, creating stars - and minding its own business. But then it got too close to the massive elliptical galaxy NGC 2937 below and took a dive. Dubbed the Porpoise Galaxy for its iconic shape, NGC 2936 is not only being deflected but also being distorted by the close gravitational interaction. A burst of young blue stars forms the nose of the porpoise toward the left of the upper galaxy, while the center of the spiral appears as an eye. Alternatively, the galaxy pair, together known as Arp 142, look to some like a penguin protecting an egg. Either way, intricate dark dust lanes and bright blue star streams trail the troubled galaxy to the lower right. The above recently-released image showing Arp 142 in unprecedented detail was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope last year. Arp 142 lies about 300 million light years away toward the constellation, coincidently, of the Water Snake (Hydra). In a billion years or so the two galaxies will likely merge into one larger galaxy.

[Bluearrowll]

Re: Terry's Astronomy Thread.

What's in the sky tonight?
June 25, 2013

-10,000 near-Earth asteroids and comets have now been discovered. The 10,000th object, asteroid 2013 MZ5, was detected on June 18th by the Pan-STARRS-1 telescope in Maui. Sobering estimate: NASA says there may be 10 times this number yet to find.

-During bright twilight today and tomorrow, Venus forms an almost straight line with Pollux and Castor low in the west-northwest. Bring binoculars, and look for them to Venus's right. And can you still detect Mercury below Venus? It's nearly as far below Venus (6°) as Pollux is to the right.

Astro Picture of the Day:
June 25, 2013

Source:
This is Mars - have a look around. More specifically, this is one area picked for its promise of holding clues to the habitability of Mars to ancient life. To better search for telling leads, the robotic Curiosity rover took a series of detailed images from a location called Rock Nest. Over 900 of these images were then composed into one of the highest resolution images ever created of the red planet - a composite containing over one billion pixels. Shown above, toward the middle of this image mosaic, is Mt. Sharp, the central peak of the large crater where the Curiosity rover landed and is currently exploring. An interactive and zoomable version of this image is available here. Over the next few years, Curiosity is scheduled to roll toward the peak of ancient Mt. Sharp, all the while keeping a lookout for distinguishing geological and chemical markers.

[Bluearrowll]

Re: Terry's Astronomy Thread.

What's in the sky tonight?
June 26, 2013

-Now that it's summer, the Summer Triangle stands high in full glory after dusk. Its top star is bright Vega high in the east. Deneb is the brightest star to Vega's lower left. Farther to Vega's lower right is Altair. The Summer Triangle is big: 35° long. Where the sky is dark, you can see that the Milky Way runs through it.

-Solar activity is low. None of the sunspots on the Earthside of the sun has the kind of complex magnetic field that harbors energy for strong flares. NOAA forecasters put the odds of an M-class solar flare at 20% on June 26th, waning to 10% on June 27th.

Astro Picture of the Day:
June 26, 2013

Source:
Andromeda is the nearest major galaxy to our own Milky Way Galaxy. Our Galaxy is thought to look much like Andromeda. Together these two galaxies dominate the Local Group of galaxies. The diffuse light from Andromeda is caused by the hundreds of billions of stars that compose it. The several distinct stars that surround Andromeda's image are actually stars in our Galaxy that are well in front of the background object. Andromeda is frequently referred to as M31 since it is the 31st object on Messier's list of diffuse sky objects. M31 is so distant it takes about two million years for light to reach us from there. Although visible without aid, the above image of M31 was taken with a small telescope. Much about M31 remains unknown, including how it acquired its unusual double-peaked center.