On the First Day of Christmas, My Hubble Gave to Me...

These photos are well worth the minute or two of your perusal:

Online Hubble Space Telescope Advent Calendar




(Hat tip: Bob Rubendust, Champaign-Urbana Astronomical Society.)

The Planets Are Aligning... (Go Outside December 1st!)

"Conjunction" is a technical term for when several planetary objects line up, as seen from our Earthly perspective.

It's been a while since I've paid any attention to a conjunction, largely because I've been quick to dismiss them as no big deal: Is it rare for two planets to be in the same general vicinity in the sky? Not really. In our sky, the planets are confined to wander through the band of stars that make up the twelve Zodiac constellations (Leo, Sagittarius, Cancer, Libra, etc.) Like racecars, they're all on the same racetrack, so to speak, so it's not surprising that occasionally they pass one another up.

Nonetheless, when Venus, Mercury, and Jupiter formed a triangle in the evening skies in early summer of 1991, I was mesmerized. Maybe it was because I was ten years old and easily impressed. More likely, however, is the fact that here was an easy, sure-fire way for me to distinguish planets from stars in the night sky. (I see that Wikipedia doesn't even list it as a "notable conjuction" of recent times, which suggests it probably occurs fairly often.)

I hadn't actually thought about that conjunction of 1991 until tonight, when I looked at the conjunction happening now. Right now, Venus and Jupiter are paired nicely together in the western sky after sunset. Something about their brilliant light makes them especially eye-catching. And best of all, on the evening of Monday, December 1st, for that night only, the Moon will sit beside them. This will be the best evening of all to witness the conjunction.

Is it rare? Not exceedingly so. (The Moon more or less follows the band of the Zodiac as well.) But it really is a pretty sight, and a grand opportunity to easily pick out the planets Venus and Jupiter. Venus is the brighter of the two.

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Addenda:

(1) You don't need binoculars or a telescope to appreciate this. But if you have either, bring them along! A good pair of binoculars will allow you to resolve some small "stars" around Jupiter, which are in fact some of Jupiter's moons. A small telescope will reveal Venus to have a phase, just as the Moon does... only tomorrow night, Venus will be a little more than half full; whereas the Moon will be a crescent.

(2) For all this talk of mine that conjunctions aren't rare, there are some rare conjunctions that have been especially worth viewing. In 2002, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus, and Mercury (the five planets visible to the naked eye) lined up in April, visible shortly after sundown. This won't happen again until 2060--and will only be visible before dawn (which poses no problem for those of us who will be old fogies by then, already awake for an hour).

(3) In case you're thinking about it, but too afraid to ask: Do planetary alignments have any adverse effects on the Earth? Earthquakes? Tidal waves? I direct you to Phil Plait:
http://www.badastronomy.com/bad/misc/planets.html

Fireball!

I witnessed a probable fireball streaking low on the horizon at 6:58pm this evening, seen in the northwest sky while waiting at a stoplight at the intersection of Trabuco & Lake Forest Blvd., in Lake Forest, CA.

In order for me to have noticed this from inside my vehicle facing the glare of bright street lights and traffic signals, I would guess it was a pretty bright object.

Did any others see this?

(posted earlier by me earlier this evening to OCastronomers) So far I have received one response: "I did not see your fireball, but I saw a bright bolide last night during the Orionids meteor shower. Good stuff!"

Launch Alert! (Southern California Observers)

A Delta II rocket is scheduled for lift-off this Friday evening from Vandenberg Air Force Base at 7:28:21 pm Pacific Time.

According to "Launch Alert", this rocket will appear to rise vertically for a few seconds and then slowly head south. It will deliver Italy's COSMO-3 satellite into orbit, which will provide high-resolution radar images of Earth.

The launch should be visible for at least 200 miles (weather permitting).

Go check out http://www.spacearchive.info/ for more info.

Green Rain

This is the coolest aurora borealis photo I have seen yet.

From the October 6th edition of "SpaceWeather.com":

Saturday night, Oct. 4th, in Russia's Kolyskia peninsula, storm clouds gathered over Mt. Khibiny and the rain began to fall. Lo and behold, it was green:

[Click to see]

Northern Lights posing as rain are a common occurance in this arctic part of Russia, where photographer Aleksander Chernucho keeps his Nikon D200 close at hand for midnight photo-ops. On this night, the clouds pulled back revealing a bank of auroras so bright they turned the harbor waters as green as the sky: photo. "Good storm!"

Asteroid Will Hit Earth... Right Now!

Don't believe it? It's true. Even better: the asteroid was only discovered earlier today, by astronomers using the Mt. Lemmon telescope in Arizona.

Reports SpaceWeather.com, "If predictions were correct, asteroid 2008 TC3 has hit our planet, exploding in the atmosphere over northern Sudan like a kiloton of TNT and creating a fireball as bright as a full Moon, Most of the 3-meter-wide asteroid should have been vaporized in the atmosphere with only small pieces reaching the ground as meteorites."

SpaceWeather.com is the place to stay tuned for confirming reports and photos, not to mention the full fascinating story.

Most Wow Astro Pic of the Day Ever?

Very often, the most stunning celestial photographs are either digitally composited (i.e. multiple exposures) or false-colored. Not that there's anything demeaning about that--the image data still refers to real photons, and arguably allows us to observe that which would not otherwise be observable to us.

Nevertheless, such images require qualification to the layperson, something that rarely if ever occurs. (See my post, "Is There Evidence from Space of Man on Earth?".)

Orange County Astronomers member and veteran astrophotographer Wally Pacholka has taken one of the most stunningly spectacular and single exposure images I have ever seen. That means that it requires little qualification for the layperson, other than to say that it is a long exposure.

Enjoy, and be sure to read the description at the bottom.

Space Visionaries Prove Naysayers Wrong--Again

That's the title of this write-up over at Wired.com's Science blog, which begins:

"SpaceX's Falcon 1 became the first privately built liquid rocket to orbit the Earth tonight, following in the footsteps of SpaceShipOne which became the first privately built crewed spaceship to fly suborbitally in October 2004."

Read the whole thing!

http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/09/space-visionari.html

(Hat tip: Keith S.)

The Story of Two-Meter Mike

I really like this story about "One-Meter Mike", a colorful and obsessive amateur astronomer from Utah.

http://www.kutvfreshair.com/plastic/?articleID=43809

Hat tip: Bob Rubendunst, Champaign-Urbana Astronomical Society

Or Maybe Not...

ADDENDUM: One of my fellow Orange County Astronomers brought my attention to the fact that the Minuteman launches are not usually visible, due to the fact that they use a liquid fuel and do not leave a contrail. Contrails are seen only from solid rocket boosters (which the Minuteman is not one). : (

Rocket Launch Could Be Visible from Southern California

From the OC Register:

"The U.S. military will test launch an unarmed Minuteman III missile before dawn on Thursday from Vandenberg Air Force Base..."

Read more here.

It's mighty tempting to watch, but I wish they could provide a more specific time. There's no way I can stay up from 3am for six hours in wait!

Is There Evidence from Space of Man on Earth?

There is an image of "Earth at Night" that circulates widely--perhaps you've seen it. If you think there is something unrealistic about this image, you're not alone. The reason for its perceived unrealistic quality is the fact that it is a digital composite. Composites combine and vertically "stack" multiple images, a process which enhances the detail of the phenomena or object being viewed.

When I was home at Christmas, my father and I had a spirited debate about the extent of lighting revealed realistically in that image. He pointed out that even small cities are distinguishable as dots of light in the image, something that he regarded as certainly impossible to detect from space.

Is that impossible? And is the "Earth at Night" composite realistic? Or is the composite process in effect a form of doctoring a photo?

To get to the bottom of this, I think it's necessary to specify what attributes we mean by "realistic" as opposed to "doctored". To that end, I'll offer this opinion: we can say that the "Earth at Night" image is unrealistic insofar as it does not represent what a human being could see with the unaided eye at a single time and single field of view.

However it is realistic insofar as those little dots of light are not simply "colored in" by some person playing around with Adobe Photoshop--they are the recorded photons captured by cameras using time-exposure photography and other techniques. (These other techniques include creating a 'mosaic' of the entire Earth from smaller photographs, each one cloudless and night-fallen).

That leaves us to wonder, though: what would the Earth actually look like to the unaided human eye from Earth-orbit? Finally it's easy to find out, thanks to astronaut Don Pettit, a member of Expedition 6 to the International Space Station. He presents this video: Cities At Night, an Orbital Tour Around the World. It's about 10 minutes in entirety; if you don't watch the entire thing, it's worth at least checking out the first minute or two!

February's Lunar Eclipse: Report

The next lunar eclipse visible from North America won't occur until December 2010, so hopefully you got a chance to see this last one in February.

Sadly, here in Orange County, California, it was cloudy for most of the event. However, at one point just before the Moon completely entered the centermost, reddish portion of the Earth's shadow, the clouds broke at my location and I was able to watch the eclipse for about five minutes. So I was reasonably happy with that.

Apparently the northern part of the county, as well as Los Angeles County, had somewhat better conditions. Here are some images taken by members of the Orange County Astronomers in those locations:

Lunar eclipse in Fullerton, taken by Cor Simons.

Lunar eclipse and the Queen Mary, in Long Beach (L.A. County), taken by Wally Pacholka.

Lunar eclipse mosaic, very nice! Taken from Cerritos (L.A. County), by Dave Kodama.

Astronomy Picture of the Day can usually be counted on to post some of the very best images from around the world of each astronomical event. I liked this one, which demonstrates the snowflake principle in effect: no two eclipses are exactly alike! And this photo, although a composite, in my opinion does justice in capturing the effect of a darkened moon and the resulting stars that become visible around it. (To appreciate this, you have to be an observant enough skywatcher who's familiar with the view we normally have of a (non-eclipsed) full Moon: it's so bright that it completely drowns out the majority of stars around it).

Wednesday's Lunar Eclipse

(NOTE: I will link to images of Wednesday's eclipse in my next post.)

For info on when to view Wednesday's lunar eclipse, see the following chart. (Note that times listed are for the Pacific Time Zone).

A lunar eclipse is not an event that requires a telescope or even binoculars to be appreciated—it can be observed just fine with bare eyes! However, if you have access to a pair of binoculars or a telescope, these can enhance the experience.

If you would like a telescopic view of the eclipse, I will have a telescope set up, possibly along with other amateur astronomers from the Orange County Astronomers. Tentatively I am planning to set up at Crucero Park in Mission Viejo. Everyone is welcome! Please note that the local weather forecast is currently calling for cloudy skies on Wednesday evening. In the event of clouds, observing will be canceled. UPDATES WILL BE POSTED HERE.

UPDATE, 4pm: The forecast calls for more clouds and occasional showers tonight. I'm pessimistic we'll be able to see anything from Orange County! : ( I will make a judgment call and post in about an hour.

FINAL UPDATE: 5:10pm: The satellite images from Weather.com show that there was a brief break in the clouds, but now even more clouds are rolling in off the Pacific. Therefore the observing session is canceled--I will not be at Crucero Park. : (

Remember, a lunar eclipse can be appreciated without the aid of telescopes or binoculars--so it's still worth poking your head outside periodically in the next few hours to see if the cloud cover might have diminished!