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Meta
Category Archives: Astronomy
Moon Venus Conjunction
Did you see how close the planet Venus was to the moon last night? Suspended in the night sky, the pair was strikingly beautiful. It took my mind off the fact I couldn’t locate Comet Lulin, which was probably lost in the light pollution of the city lights.
spaceweather.com posted some great pictures of last night’s conjunction between Venus and the crescent moon. The site also has a stunning photo of the green comet streaking by the blue star Regulus in the constellation Leo.
Comet Lulin
Comet Lulin
http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/highlights/35992534.html
http://blogs.usatoday.com/sciencefair/2009/02/where-to-look-f.html
2009 International Year of Astronomy
2009 is the International Year of Astronomy, with many exciting events planned, including the 400th anniversary of Galileo’s telescope.
Witness other amazing scientific discoveries, download podcasts, take part in contests, and see a new high-tech documentary “400 years of the Telescope!”
There’s hundreds of exciting events planned already, with many more being organized. Participate in this worldwide outreach program and learn more about our incredible universe.
More info at www.astronomy2009.org
Posted in Astronomy
Tagged 2009, Astronomy, Galileo, International Year of Astronomy, IYA2009, Telescope
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Venus & the Moon Ring in 2009
Planet Venus was brilliant last night as it hung just below the crescent moon. You could briefly seen this jeweled pairing in the early evening sky as New Year’s Eve drew to a close. If you had a clear horizon right after sunset, you might have seen Jupiter shining brightly right next to Mercury, much smaller and dimmer, but those planets were side by side last night too. More info at earthsky.org/skywatching
A really beautiful celestial show to ring in the New Year. Happy 2009, and Thanks for reading this blog!
Mike @ ThisCrazyCosmos
Posted in Astronomy
Tagged 2008, 2009, Jupiter, Mercury, moon, New Year's Eve, Venus
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Geminids a washout
The Geminid meteor shower is usually the best show of the year as far as meteor showers go. But a full moon will pretty much wash out most of this year’s meteors during the peak of the Geminids show.
However, you should still be able to see the two bright stars not too far from tonight’s full moon. Castor and Pollux belong to the constellation Gemini, which is the radiant of the Geminid shower.
Read more about the Geminid meteors…
www.space.com
www.earthsky.org
www.astronomy.com
www.skyandtelescope.com
Posted in Astronomy
Tagged astronomy.com, Castor, earthsky.org, Full Moon, Gemini, Geminids, Meteor Shower, Pollux, skyandtelescope.com, space.com
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Milky Way Galaxy
CyberCoder just sent me a link to this great new blog editor called ScribeFire. It only works with the Firefox browser, but it’s a snap(in) to install and use. This is my first post with it.
Now that I’m in south Texas, the night skies are amazingly dark. The trick to great stargazing is clear skies though. Thankfully we get a fair amount of clear skies. Last night was a good example. It was so clear I could see the dust cloud of the great Milky Way galaxy. It’s tilted edge on [...]
Posted in Astronomy, Blogging
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WorldWide Telescope
WorldWide Telescope is now available from Microsoft Research!
What is WorldWide Telescope? It’s software you can download from Microsoft Research that enables your computer to function as a virtual telescope.
Explore the universe; view deep space images from such observatories as NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, Spitzer Space Telescope, and Chandra X-ray Observatory; zoom into all-sky surveys, and browse through visible, infrared, and x-ray views of the cosmos.
Follow multimedia guided tours created by scientists, plus you can create your own to share with others.
The WorldWide Telescope is available at www.worldwidetelescope.org
A pretty cool tool. It reminds me of Google’s Earth & Sky, which [...]
NASA news release on asteroid Apophis
It’s amazing how inaccurate stories can be circulated so fast on the web as valid news or buzz. The asteroid Apophis was originally reported on about three years ago, but just yesterday there were online rumors about the odds changing about it impacting the earth. I just got this emailed news statement from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
NEWS RELEASE #2008-063 dated April 16, 2008:
NASA Statement on Student Asteroid Calculations
PASADENA, Calif. — The Near-Earth Object Program Office at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., has not changed its current estimates for the very low probability (1 in 45,000) of [...]
Posted in Astronomy, NASA
Tagged Apophis, Asteroid, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA, Near Earth Object Program, Spacceguard
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Earth & Sky
Earth and Sky shows Tonight’s Sky at http://www.earthsky.org/skywatching/
You can see Mars in the night sky, as it passes by the constellation Orion and the Pleiades star cluster, which is also called the Seven Sisters because only seven major magnitude stars can be seen with the naked eye. There’s actually hundreds of stars in the cluster, that can be seen with a telescope and time exposure images.
Also of interest, I’ve updated my blogroll to include this great site, along with a few others that share this blog’s focus on astronomy and space exploration.
Astronomy Magazine: www.astronomy.com
Earth & Sky: www.earthsky.org
NASA: [...]
Posted in Astronomy, Blogging, NASA
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Total Lunar Eclipse February 20
Look for an upcoming total lunar eclipse on Wednesday evening, February 20th, with maximum eclipse times at 10:26 pm EST, 9:26 pm CST, 8:26 pm MST, and 7:26 pm PST. The partial phase starts a couple of hours earlier, so plan ahead to find a good spot to watch from.
The moon will turn red at totality and will easily be visible from across the United States, Europe and Western Africa. Start and finish times can be found at science.nasa.gov/
Posted in Astronomy
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