Archive for March, 2011

Record the Light Pollution Levels Where You Live!

Thursday, March 31st, 2011 at 2:51 pm  
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Light pollution is the bane of amateur astronomers everywhere. The Globe at Night program is an international citizen-science campaign to raise public awareness of the impact of light pollution by encouraging everyone everywhere to measure local levels of night sky brightness and contribute observations online to a world map. So …

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AAVSO Alert Notice 434: Outburst of NSV 1436

Wednesday, March 30th, 2011 at 11:34 pm  
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AAVSO Alert Notice 434
Outburst of NSV 1436
March 30, 2011

The cataclysmic variable NSV 1436 has been discovered in outburst. This is the first bright outburst of this star observed since 1948, and followup observations are strongly encouraged. Little is known about the nature of NSV 1436, and observations …

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Is Vesta Really an Asteroid?

Tuesday, March 29th, 2011 at 9:22 pm  
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On March 29, 1807, German astronomer Heinrich Wilhelm Olbers spotted Vesta as a pinprick of light in the sky. Two hundred and four years later, as NASA’s Dawn spacecraft prepares to begin orbiting this intriguing world, scientists now know how special this world is, even if there has been some …

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NASA TV Program Available on Hulu

Friday, March 25th, 2011 at 6:13 pm  
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An award-winning NASA-produced television program, “NASA 360,” is available at the online video service hulu.com at: http://www.hulu.com/nasa-360

The site features four 30-minute episodes that show how composite materials are changing our world, how NASA has tested space technologies on Earth and what NASA researchers are doing to improve aviation. More …

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AAVSO Alert Notice 433: Request for Observations of GW Lib in Support of HST Observations

Monday, March 21st, 2011 at 12:08 pm  
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AAVSO Alert Notice 433
Request for observations of GW Lib in support of HST observations
March 20, 2011

Dr. Paula Szkody, University of Washington, has requested our help
in monitoring the cataclysmic variable GW Lib for upcoming Hubble Space Telescope observations, scheduled to be made during the week of 2011 …

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Cassini Probe Spots Seasonal Rains Transforming Titan’s Surface

Saturday, March 19th, 2011 at 1:34 am  
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NASA’s Cassini spacecraft chronicles the change of seasons as it captures clouds concentrated near the equator of Saturn’s largest moon, Titan. Image credit: NASA/JPL/SSI

As spring continues to unfold at Saturn, April showers on the planet’s largest moon, Titan, have brought methane rain to its equatorial deserts, as revealed in …

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The ESA Remembers the Night of the Comet

Friday, March 11th, 2011 at 5:44 pm  
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Comet Halley’s nucleus as seen by Giotto

Twenty-five years ago, ESA made its mark in deep space. A small spacecraft swept to within 600 km of Halley’s comet. The Giotto probe was nearly destroyed by the encounter but what it saw changed our picture of comets forever.

As debuts go, …

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NASA Dawn Mission Gets Vesta Target Practice

Friday, March 11th, 2011 at 11:19 am  
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There is an old chestnut about a pedestrian who once asked a virtuoso violinist near Carnegie Hall how to get to the famed concert venue. The virtuoso’s answer: practice!

This video shows the scientists’ best guess to date of what the surface of the protoplanet Vesta might look like. It …

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NASA’s Glory Satellite Fails to Reach Orbit

Friday, March 4th, 2011 at 12:21 pm  
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NASA’s Glory mission launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California Friday at 5:09:45 a.m. EST failed to reach orbit.

Telemetry indicated the fairing, the protective shell atop the Taurus XL rocket, did not separate as expected about three minutes after launch.

A press briefing to discuss the Glory launch …

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NASA’s Glory Spacecraft Scheduled for March 4 Launch

Thursday, March 3rd, 2011 at 1:42 pm  
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NASA’s Glory spacecraft is scheduled for launch on Friday, March 4. Technical issues with ground support equipment for the Taurus XL launch vehicle led to the scrub of the original Feb. 23 launch attempt. Those issues have been resolved.

The March 4 liftoff from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., is …

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