The bright, long-period, eclipsing binary star epsilon Aurigae is predicted to begin its next eclipse late July or early August of 2009. The AAVSO is participating in a global campaign to record this eclipse as part of the International Year of Astronomy 2009 celebrations, organized by the Citizen Sky … Read the rest of this article
Thanks for stopping by! I’ve been running the Night Sky Observer site since 1997 but this sub-blog is intended primarily to document my progress in getting back into astrophotography after a number of years’ absence. I’ll also be posting about other astronomy-related stuff that’s better suited to a blog than the main site. If you want to know more about … Read the rest of this article
NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO, has transmitted its first images since reaching lunar orbit June 23. The spacecraft has two cameras — a low resolution Wide Angle Camera and a high resolution Narrow Angle Camera. Collectively known as the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera, or LROC, they were activated June 30. The cameras are working well and have returned images … Read the rest of this article
With NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, astronomers now are getting their best look at those whirling stellar cinders known as pulsars. In two studies published in the July 2, 2009 edition of Science Express, international teams have analyzed gamma-rays from two dozen pulsars, including 16 discovered by Fermi. Fermi is the first spacecraft able to identify pulsars by their gamma-ray … Read the rest of this article
A penumbral lunar eclipse will take place on July 7, 2009, the second of four lunar eclipses in 2009. This eclipse will only enter the southern most tip of the penumbral shadow and thus will be very difficult to observe visually.
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Penumbral eclipse details from LunarPhase Pro [click to enlarge image]. The light-grey ring shows the penumbral shadow. The moon’s …
Dr. Jerome Orosz (SDSU) has requested the assistance of southern bright star observers in observing the high-mass X-ray binary star V884 Sco (== 4U 1700-377). Orosz and collaborators are attempting to measure the mass of the compact object to clarify … Read the rest of this article
On the eve of the 40th anniversary of the historic first moon landing, NASA is seeking ideas from the public, academia, and industry about how to analyze and catalog notes from spaceflight pioneer Wernher von Braun into an electronic, searchable database or other system.
Von Braun was the first director of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., and … Read the rest of this article
The Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, or LCROSS, successfully completed its most significant early mission milestone Tuesday with a lunar swingby and calibration of its science instruments. The satellite will search for water ice in a permanently shadowed crater at the moon’s south pole.
With the assist of the moon’s gravity, LCROSS and its attached Centaur booster rocket successfully … Read the rest of this article
Herschel opened its ‘eyes’ on 14 June and the Photoconductor Array Camera and Spectrometer obtained images of M51, ‘the whirlpool galaxy’ for a first test observation. Scientists obtained images in three colours which clearly demonstrate the superiority of Herschel, the largest infrared space telescope ever flown.
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Red, green and blue correspond to |
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The Sun Now (Visible light)
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The Sun Now (H-Alpha light)
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Aurora Oval
(Northern Hemisphere) |
Aurora Oval
(Southern Hemisphere) |
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