Archive for October, 2010

Asteroid 2003 UV11 Flyby

Asteroid 2003 UV11 will fly past Earth on Oct. 29th and 30th (2010) at a distance of only 1.2 million miles. Its minimum (closest) approach to Earth happens at 02:24:00 Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) on October 30th.

Experienced amateur astronomers should have little trouble photographing the 600-meter wide space rock …

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Dead Spacecraft Not So Dead After All

A pair of NASA spacecraft that were supposed to be dead a year ago are instead flying to the Moon for a breakthrough mission in lunar orbit.

“Their real names are THEMIS P1 and P2, but I call them ‘dead spacecraft walking,’” says Vassilis Angelopoulos of UCLA, principal investigator of …

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The SLOOH Robotic Telescope

The SLOOH Interface

SLOOH is a robotic observatory on the Canary Islands. Every Monday, whenever conditions permit viewing, you can participate in multiple SLOOH “missions” over the course of an hour-long session.

What does SLOOH stand for? Apparently it’s about putting the OOH into SLEW!

High atop Mount Teide, on …

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This month, Comet Hartley 2 has put on a good show for backyard astronomers. The comet’s vivid green atmosphere and auburn tail of dust look great through small telescopes, and NASA’s Deep Impact/EPOXI probe is about to return even more dramatic pictures when it flies past the comet’s nucleus …

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A few weeks back, I did a test run with the LVI Smartguider. I mounted the LVI in the eyepiece holder of the 80mm refractor that I’m using a guide scope. This is mounted on my Vixen 8″ reflector and the whole setup is driven by an EQ6 mount. …

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LCROSS Lunar Impact Uncovered More Than Just Moon Water

Nearly a year after announcing the discovery of water molecules on the moon, scientists have revealed new data uncovered by NASA’s Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite, or LCROSS, and Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO—and it’s more than just water.

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An artist’s concept of LCROSS approaching the moon in

Asteroid 30558 Jamesoconnor Named for Irish Astronomer

Asteroid 30558 Jamesoconnor

By John Flannery, South Dublin Astronomy Society (SDAS)

It is with great pleasure that we can officially tell everyone that another Irish amateur astronomer has been honoured by having an asteroid named after them.

John McConnell, Maire O’Connor, James O’Connor and John O’Neill at the presentation for …

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Seeing Comet 103P/Hartley 2 at Its Best

For backyard stargazers, the next few nights are the best time to see green Comet 103P/Hartley 2 as it approaches Earth for an 11-million-mile close encounter on Oct. 20th.

The dark hours before dawn are the best so set your alarm clock, go outside, and look straight up. Comet Hartley …

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Volcanic cones along lava path

Scientists are crediting satellite imagery with helping to predict where volcanic eruptions could strike. It is well known that earthquakes can stress Earth’s crust and trigger subsequent quakes, but there has been no proof of this for volcanoes until now.

In September 2005, a volcanic …

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NASA’S Hubble Captures First Images Of Aftermath Of Possible Asteroid Collision


These four Hubble Space Telescope images, taken over a five-month period, show the odd-shaped debris that likely came from a collision between two asteroids.

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has captured the first snapshots of a suspected asteroid collision. The …

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