Visual Astronomy

Real-time Satellites in Google Earth

2010-09-13T10:57:00.002-04:00

Check out this video of real-time satellites in Google Earth!

Some feed readers may need to click through to view the video.

Sure are a lot of them up there!

Comet 103P Hartley

2010-08-22T12:23:00.000-04:00

In October 2010, keep your eyes open for comet 103P Hartley. This comet is a fairly short period comet with an orbital period of a little under 6.5 years. This year's apparition, though, could be a very interesting one.

The 2010 apparition of comet 103P Hartley is interesting because the comet's perihelion and closest approach to Earth are so close to each other. Shown in the image to the right is the comet's close approach to Earth on October 20^th, 2010. This close approach is only 8 days prior to the comet's perihelion, where it is closest to the sun. This combination could result in a 2010 apparition of 103P Hartley reaching up to magnitude 5. If we're very lucky, it may go even higher!

Where to Look

To see the comet, you will most probably need a telescope if it's not near the peak magnitude. During the comet's closest approach to Earth on the 20^th, it will be in the constellation Perseus. If the comet reaches its projected maximum magnitude, however, it should be a naked eye object under very dark skies. It will probably appear as a fuzzy patch in the sky. A lot of the pictures from the previous apparition don't show a very developed tail. Thus, binoculars or a telescope will definitely help in seeing the comet.

A very interesting conjunction will occur on October 8^th, 2010, when the comet will be very close to the double cluster in Perseus. This could make for a stunning display in very wide telescopic eyepieces or binoculars.

Shown below is a finder chart for the comet. Click the picture to go to see the finder chart and other information!

Clear skies!

Perseid Meteor Shower 2010

2010-08-09T11:20:00.001-04:00

Once every year, the Perseid meteor shower returns. Each year, the Perseids are an excellent meteor shower, and are possibly the most popular meteor shower (they're definitely my favorite). They are often very fast and bright, and can sometimes leave fiery trails in the sky.

The Perseids are called so because of their apparent origin, called the radiant, in Perseus. Each meteor you see is actually a piece of the comet Swift-Tuttle. This comet leaves behind a trail of dust and debris every time it orbits the sun, thus refreshing the source of the Perseid meteor shower. This year's Perseid meteor shower will be at its most active peak on the night of August 12th, 2010.

The Perseids can be viewed any time between now and the 24th, however, since their peak is so broad. Look to the North and Northeast to see the most meteors. This year's shower also has the benefit of having very little interference from the Moon. The best time to watch the meteor shower is after midnight, as the Earth is rotating into the shower in the predawn hours. This will increase the meteor rate considerably.

With good, dark skies (after the moon sets at about 10 PM), expect up to 100 meteors per hour. Of course, light pollution and moonlight may decrease your observed meteor count.

Clear skies!

Aurora Alert!

2010-08-03T08:59:00.000-04:00

Viewers and amateur astronomers in the northern US may be treated to a special event tonight and tomorrow night. The sun recently emitted a solar flare in the Earth's direction.

While this has been quite rare lately, this one is poised to put on quite a light show in the Earth's upper atmosphere. When the charged particles from this solar flare reach the Earth, their energy is turned into light by the Earth's upper atmosphere. We know these as the aurora borealis.

So tonight (August 3rd) and tomorrow (August 4th), look high in the sky at dusk and into the night to see a possible aurora display in your town! Current estimates are a 45% chance of activity with a 10% chance of significant geomagnetic activity. Pretty good odds considering!

Clear skies!

Solar Eclipse in South Pacific

2010-07-07T11:29:00.001-04:00

A total Solar eclipse will occur for viewers in the South Pacific and South America on July 11, 2010. Some of the locations that will have a good view of the eclipse include Easter Island, Chile, and Argentina.

The eclipse will start at about 18:15 UTC and go until sunset at 20:52 UTC in Argentina, for a total duration of 2 hours and 40 minutes. For those of you that don't live in the South Pacific, the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid's Ciclope Group will broadcast live coverage from Easter Island on July 11, 2010, starting at 20:00 UTC.

Click the picture above for an animated map of the eclipse's path, courtesy of NASA.

SAFETY FIRST!

Although you will want to look at this eclipse, DO NOT LOOK AT A SOLAR ECLIPSE without proper safety equipment. Doing so can cause permanent and irreversible eye damage and possibly blindness.

In order to safely view this eclipse use a pinhole eclipse viewer. Here's how to make one for cheap.

Clear skies!

Comet 103P Hartley Coming this Fall

2010-07-04T21:16:00.000-04:00

It's still a little ways off, but comet 103P/Hartley will be lighting up the night sky in late October, this fall. The comet is predicted to attain magnitude 5, making it a naked-eye comet for those with dark skies, and a great telescopic object for anyone. I'll post with more details, including finder charts as it approaches.

Clear skies!

The Coolest Custom Scope Ever

2010-06-18T10:40:00.001-04:00

A while ago, I was browsing the Cloudy Nights forum's "post a picture of your 'scope" thread, and came across this amazing telescope. After seeing such an awesome custom scope, I had to send the poster a message so I could post some pics of the scope here.

The creater's name is Don, and he also makes some other cool stuff for astronomers, including the StarRocker and the StarRocker Locator. This was quite a while ago, I had misplaced the pictures for a while and just recently found them, so here they are! Enjoy!

Clear skies!

Juno Mission to Explore Jupiter

2010-04-06T11:13:00.003-04:00

NASA's next great exploratory mission will be known as Juno, and will be visiting the Jupiter system in 2016.

Juno is a mission to explore and understand the immense Jupiter system, comprised of the Sol system's largest planet and 63 moons. Jupiter is an interesting target for exploration because of the extremes it encompasses, both in size and atmospheric conditions. According to the NASA mission overview, Juno is such an interesting cause because:

"Juno will let us take a giant step forward in our understanding of how giant planets form and the role these titans played in putting together the rest of the solar system."

Juno will answer questions about Jupiter's formation and composition, by investigating the possibility of a solid core, and by observing the theorized metallic hydrogen layers deep inside Jupiter. It will also map Jupiter's immense magnetic fields, and observe its magnificent auroras.

Juno is scheduled for launch in August 2011, with Jupiter orbital insertion in July 2016. The mission is scheduled for deorbit in 2017, but with the past successes of NASA's great robotic probes such as the Cassini/Huygens probe, an extended mission time wouldn't surprise me.

Juno is part of NASA's New Frontiers Program, which also includes the New Horizons probe, destined to reach Pluto in 2015.

It should be a very interesting mission, and I can't wait to see the pictures!

NASA's Juno Mission Overview

Image credit: NASA/JPL

Cool Shockwaves from SDO Launch

2010-02-28T13:55:00.000-05:00

I have a feeling most of you have seen this already, but it's too cool to not post here! Its a view of NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) launch. You can see that the rocket leaves a rare visible shockwave in the clouds as it passes through them. Very cool stuff!

Some feed readers may have to click through to view the video.

Clear skies!

Citizen Science and You

2010-02-22T11:23:00.002-05:00

Citizen science needs you! Yes that's right, you! You might ask, what the heck could I do for science? The answer of course, is plenty! Thanks to the internet, there are literally dozens of 'citizen science' projects out there right now.

Citizen science enables people like our readers, who have a natural curiosity about the physical world around them, to make real contributions to real scientific projects! The reality is that often science requires massive samples of data, and you can help gather this data. Read on below for more information on which projects you might want to join.

Citizen Sky

Citizen Sky is a project that aims to understand a mysterious star, epsilon Aurigae. Every 27.1 years, epsilon Aurigae dims significantly for about 600 days. This mysterious process is not well understood, and more data is needed to figure it out. You can help by joining Citizen Sky and making your own observations!

Galaxy Zoo

Galaxy Zoo is an attempt to categorize galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Of course, this is far too monumental of a task to undertake by one's self, because there are almost a quarter of a million galaxies on the list.

This is where Galaxy Zoo needs you. Once you register and sign in to their website, you can start classifying galaxies by their characteristics. It works almost like a game, where they show you a galaxy and you click several buttons answering questions about the galaxy's shape and properties.

Solar Stormwatch

Solar Stormwatch is a cool project where you look at some videos from NASA's STEREO solar observatory spacecraft, and classify solar storms in these videos. When you sign up, you do a quick training session. After this, you can watch some truly mesmerizing videos of solar storms, and use their intuitive web interface to classify these storms. I could do this for hours.

Distributed Computing

This one doesn't really require any work from you, but helps science immensely. To participate, you install a software on your computer, called BOINC (Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing), which downloads work units from various projects for your computer to work on while you're not using it.

Some scientific projects, like SETI, create massive loads of data, which need analyzing. The trouble is, there isn't a computer in the world fast enough to handle all the data in a reasonable time. So instead of using one computer, BOINC splits up the work and gives it out to millions of computers, much like your own computer.

There are BOINC projects for just about any subject you could think about, from SETI, to searching for gravitational waves, to medical and mathematical research. Just make sure that you keep your computer clean and dust free, as BOINC can generate some serious heat while running.

CoCoRaHS and Skywarn

On a different note, CoCoRaHS (Community Collaborative Rain, Hail, and Snow) is a project to log weather patterns all across the US. Using a qualified rain gauge, you simply report how much rain or snow you received to CoCoRaHS. This helps refine weather prediction and validate forecasts. They also have a hail pad project, which I find very interesting.

Along the same lines, you could also get Skywarn certified and keep an eye on local storm systems, reporting them to the National Weather Service. You could save lives with this one, and help validate forecasts. I personally am a Skywarn member for two regional NWS offices in Ohio.

GLOBE at Night

GLOBE at Night is an annual project to characterize light pollution. This year, GLOBE runs from March 3-16, 2010. Basically, you download a star chart of a constellation visible in your area, and compare it to various charts of levels of light pollution. You then submit these results to GLOBE. Data from GLOBE goes to understanding the extent of light pollution, and raising awareness on this issue.

So check out one (or more) of these citizen science projects and make a real contribution today (or tonight, whichever)!

Clear skies!

Project Icarus, A Study of Interstellar Flight

2010-01-11T11:25:00.000-05:00

Project Icarus, sponsored by the Tau Zero Foundation and the British Interplanetary Society, is a study of the possibility of interstellar flight. That is, can it be done? If so, how would one go about designing such a craft, and what are the implications of building such a craft?

Project Icarus aims to answer these questions, and to re-evaluate the findings of the previous Project Daedalus, which took place in 1973-1978. Have we come any closer to being able to realize an interstellar probe? From the Project Icarus blog:

"Project Icarus is a theoretical design study with the aim of designing a credible interstellar probe that will serve as a concept design for a potential unmanned mission that could be launched before the end of the 21^st century. Icarus will utilise fusion based engine technology which would accelerate the spacecraft to approximately 10% to 20% the speed of light."

So check out the Project Icarus blog, and subscribe, as I've already done.

Clear skies!

The Total Perspective Vortex

2009-12-18T11:24:00.000-05:00

This video from the American Museum of Natural History shows the known universe, starting in the Himalayas, and moving out through the horizon of the known universe! It really is a great perspective on how humble our planet is...

Some feed readers may need to click through to view the video.

For those Hitchhiker's Guide fans out there, the title needs no explanation. If you haven't read the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, however, the wikipedia page can explain it.

Clear skies!

Astronomy Calendar, Dec. 2009

2009-12-04T11:06:00.000-05:00

The following is a list of celestial events occuring in the month of December 2009.

Dec 7 - Earliest sunset of 2009 for mid latitudes.
Dec 14 - Geminid meteor shower peaks (100 meteors per hour) at 05:00 UTC. Check out my article on Universe Today for tips on viewing the Geminid meteor shower.
Dec 21 - Double Galilean shadow transit (Callisto and Io) begins at 01:34 UTC. The winter solstice also occurs today.
Dec 22 - Ursid meteor shower peak (only 10 meteors per hour).
Dec 29 - Moon-M45 conjunction occurs at 01:00 UTC.
Dec 31 - Moon-M35 conjunction occurs at 06:00 UTC. Also, a partial lunar eclipse will be visible in the Eastern Hemisphere from 18:52 to 19:54 UTC.

Clear skies!

The Best Sunset Picture Ever

2009-11-26T09:00:00.005-05:00

This picture has to be one of the best sunset pictures ever taken. It shows a sunset on Mars.

This image was taken on May 19, 2005, by NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit at the edge of Gusev Crater. Click the image to enlarge it to high-resolution. The included picture is large enough to use as a desktop on most monitors.

Clear skies!

Image Courtesy of NASA/JPL/Texas A&M/Cornell.

Now with Facebook Fan Page!

2009-11-25T14:59:00.004-05:00

Visual Astronomy has a new fan page on Facebook!

Visual Astronomy on Facebook

Geminid Meteor Shower 2009

2009-11-25T12:51:00.004-05:00

The 2009 Geminid meteor shower is coming up pretty soon. Are you ready for it?

Occurring every year in mid-December, the Geminid meteor shower is commonly referred to as the most reliable meteor shower of the year. That is, it almost always puts on a great show! This year the peak is on the night of December 13-14, 2009. The illustration at right shows the shower's radiant position and where to look for meteors. This year should be an excellent year to view the Geminids, since the Moon will not be visible at night. I also posted an article on Universe Today (where I am now a writer, by the way) with tips for viewing the Geminid meteor shower. Below is some quick information on how to view the 2009 Geminid meteor shower.

When?

The Geminid meteor shower has a very broad maximum peak. The night of December 13th, 2009 will most likely be the best night to observe the meteor shower. The best time to view a meteor shower is in the late night to early morning hours. This is because as the Earth rotates, we are moving away from the meteors during dusk and moving toward them during dawn. Therefore, a viewing time of 2 AM local time can often be the best time to view meteor showers. If this is inconvenient, however (we all have to sleep sometime), the meteors will be visible starting at dusk.

Where?

So to see these meteors, just go outside after 10 PM local time or so, and sit in a reclining lawn chair or other comfortable seat. Bring nice, warm clothes and dress in layers, because its going to be cold. Face your chair to the East and look about half-way to overhead to see the most meteors. If you can see enough meteors, try and find the shower's radiant (trace each meteor backwards to find the radiant). The Geminids are also one of the few meteor showers that regularly display colored meteors, also, with colors ranging from green to blue, and sometimes even yellowish.

Clear skies!

Microbial Martian Debate Heats Up

2009-11-25T11:21:00.000-05:00

The debate over whether microbial life existed in Mars' distant past seems to be heating up again. It seems there's some new evidence that may support this hypothesis.

The first of two new developments is that Craig Covault of spaceflightnow.com claims that new findings on the Martian meteorite ALH84001 may support the fossilized microbe hypothesis. From SpaceflightNow,

"...The new data are expected to be addressed publicly within days by NASA Headquarters in Washington, where they could become part of the political debate on future NASA mission directions..."

I'll keep you posted if anything interesting comes of this.

This news comes on the heels of the discovery of methane in Mars' atmosphere. This is a significant find, because methane is a relatively short-lived molecule in Mars' oxidizing atmosphere. Thus, something is currently (or in the very near past) emitting methane on the surface of Mars. Now, we can't jump to conclusions, but the two possible causes of this phenomenon are geological and biological. I'm personally hoping for the latter.

Stay tuned for more updates!

Removed

2009-11-23T18:51:00.003-05:00

Redacted, story is no longer relevant.

Book Review: Backyard Guide to the Night Sky

2009-11-21T19:24:00.002-05:00

Every once in a while, you'll find those books that make you think "Man, I wish I had that book when I started this hobby..." This book, National Geographic's Backyard Guide to the Night Sky, is one of those books. In fact, I'd rank it right up there with Turn Left at Orion.

Backyard Guide to the Night Sky distinguishes itself from most beginner's books with one thing, though: information, and lots of it! This book boasts 287 pages of full-color illustrations, charts, and star maps! More than just a quick introduction, Backyard Guide will take you through everything you'll need to know to understand the night sky.

Backyard Guide contains information on stars, planets, and deep sky objects. It doesn't stop at the basics though, and goes on to show such interesting ideas as the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram, the history of most of the objects, and tips on viewing them. For example, regarding Saturn's moons, the book reads:

"The structure of Saturn's rings has provided a massive laboratory for studying the intricacies of gravity. For example, scientists view some of Saturn's moons as critical in keeping order among the millions of ice particles that the rings comprise. The so-called shepherd moons - Pan, Atlas, Pandora, and Prometheus - straddle two of the rings and act like herders to keep them intact."

While the book contains a lot of information, it doesn't get wallowed down in technical terms, either. All the concepts are laid out in easy to understand ways. Therefore, I would recommend this book to anyone that wants to get into astronomy or is just starting out. The book is reasonably sized, so it can be carried around to the field, and used as a reference, too. It would also make a great Christmas gift for any science-y type you may know!

National Geographic's Backyard Guide to the Night Sky is available at Amazon.

Clear skies!

SETI Institute Radio Show on 2012

2009-11-18T11:05:00.007-05:00

The SETI Institue has an internet radio show called "Are We Alone?" The Nov. 9, 2009 episode is titled, "Skeptic Check: Doomsday at the Movies", and features such big names as Dave Morrison, Phil Plait, Lynn Rothschild, and Ken Caldeira. This episode deals with the many problems with 2012 hype.

While many people will quickly dismiss the 2012 hype as a mere joke, there are some rather serious problems caused by panicking the public over such a false prophecy. One of the biggest problems with the 2012 hype is the website set up for the 2012 movie. I will not link it here, because it's that bad... The problem is that they're promoting this movie as if it were actually going to happen, and some people are actually believing it!

So take a listen to this episode of "Are We Alone?". If you're one of the 2012 zealots finding this from Google, you could learn a lot from this radio show. If not, well you'll still enjoy it any ways!

Listen to "Skeptic Check: Doomsday at the Movies"

Clear skies!

HD Shuttle Launch Video

2009-11-17T12:30:00.005-05:00

Check out this video of the launch of shuttle Atlantis! It is available in HD on youtube, just click on the video to go to the YouTube page, or click the HD button and then the fullscreen button to view in HD!

This is the SD version of the video. Click HD, then fullscreen to view in HD.
(Some feed readers may need to click through to view the video)

The shuttle Atlantis is carrying with it equipment that NASA wants on board the ISS before they retire the shuttles. They have to send these items up now, since when the shuttle retires, there will be no current launch vehicle capable of carrying some of these items up to the station. The shuttle is also carrying an experiment on some worms that will help scientists understand the causes and effects of weightlessness on the body.

Clear skies!

Leonid Meteor Shower 2009

2009-11-16T23:48:00.005-05:00

Sorry for the kind of short notice, but the Leonid meteor shower will be peaking November 17th through the 18th! By the time you read this, that is probably tonight! Anyways, a quick bit of info on the shower:

The Leonid meteor shower is one of the annual favorites of astronomers. While not as big a show as the Geminids or Perseids, the Leonid meteor shower has a habit of performing better one year than the previous. Refreshed every 33 years by the comet 55P Tempel/Tuttle, the Leonids are expected to put on a good show this year (although Tempel/Tuttle hasn't come around since '96). WHile the shower may be very impressive, it could do so for only a short time. The peak is predicted to occur around 21:30 UTC, with the best action occuring within an hour or two of this peak. Rates are expected to reach up to 300 meteors per hour! So don't miss this meteor shower!

When and Where Should I Look?

As usual, the best time to observe a meteor shower is during the early morning hours, around 2-5 AM. This is because as the Earth rotates into the sunlight, we are moving into the meteor field. This increases the number of meteors entering our atmosphere over any given location. Of course, not everone wants to stay up that late, so if you don't plan on doing so, start watching for the meteors at local dusk, and they'll really start to pick up towards 11 PM or midnight.

To find the direction you should look, simply find the constellation Leo. The easiest way to find Leo is to look for the "sickle" shaped asterism in the Eastern sky around dusk. This will be the direction that the meteors will appear to come from. Below is a picture of the constellation Leo.

View of Leo at approximately 2:15 AM local time. Note that at times much before 2 AM, you may not be able to see Leo. In this case, look for surrounding constellations.

Clear skies!

Trying A New Blog Feature

2009-11-15T15:38:00.000-05:00

Starting today, I'm trying out a new feature on the blog that should help readers find relevant posts to the one they're viewing. It shows up as a toolbar on the bottom of the page, and in testing, has worked pretty well so far. Therefore, I've decided to release the new feature and see how it does!

Basically, it aggregates keywords into the toolbar, and lets you search for them on VisualAstronomy.

Don't worry, it isn't installed on your computer, it runs in javascript in your browser, and it won't affect any other sites you visit. I'm looking for feedback on the new toolbar. What do you think? Since this toolbar has integrated facebook and Twitter buttons, I've done away with the links under each post. I think this cleans the site up a bit and it seems to load faster now without multiple javascripts doing essentially the same thing.

So drop a comment below or shoot me an e-mail at sean@visualastronomy.com and let me know what you think!

A List of Galaxies

2009-11-13T22:13:00.003-05:00

A while ago, I posed this question to the members of the Cloudy Nights forum: "What are some good face-on spirals?" Among some of the responses I received was this list. This list compiles the 200 brightest galaxies in the night sky. It also gives RA/Dec coordinates for each, along with their magnitude, type, and orientation as viewed from Earth. I'm going to be using it to plan observing sessions. For quite some time I had made this list available as an Excel file, but it was hosted on a cheapo file share. Finally, though, I've found a much more reliable service and now the file is available again! It should be available permanently now! ;)

Download the List of galaxies in Excel Spreadsheet format! (45 kb)

Clear skies!

Visual Astronomy

Real-time Satellites in Google Earth

Comet 103P Hartley

Where to Look

Perseid Meteor Shower 2010

Aurora Alert!

Solar Eclipse in South Pacific

SAFETY FIRST!

Comet 103P Hartley Coming this Fall

The Coolest Custom Scope Ever

Juno Mission to Explore Jupiter

Cool Shockwaves from SDO Launch

Citizen Science and You

Citizen Sky

Galaxy Zoo

Solar Stormwatch

Distributed Computing

CoCoRaHS and Skywarn

GLOBE at Night

Project Icarus, A Study of Interstellar Flight

The Total Perspective Vortex

Top 10 Space News Stories of the 2000's

Astronomy Calendar, Dec. 2009

The Best Sunset Picture Ever

Now with Facebook Fan Page!

Geminid Meteor Shower 2009

When?

Where?

Microbial Martian Debate Heats Up

Removed

Book Review: Backyard Guide to the Night Sky

SETI Institute Radio Show on 2012

HD Shuttle Launch Video

Leonid Meteor Shower 2009

When and Where Should I Look?

Trying A New Blog Feature

A List of Galaxies