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.