This month sees a penumbral eclipse of the Moon. It is the first of four eclipse this year (penumbral eclipses also occur in July and August, and there’s a Partial eclipse in December). The eclipse details are shown below. Times are in UT. The diagram (slightly reduced in size) was created with LunarPhase Pro.

In a Penumbral Eclipse the …

Read the rest of this article

The International Year of Astronomy 2009 is a global effort initiated by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) and UNESCO to help the citizens of the world rediscover their place in the Universe through the day and night-time sky, and thereby engage a personal sense of wonder and discovery.

This year-long celebration of astronomy, takes place in 2009 to coincide with …

Read the rest of this article

[phpbay]astronomy, 100, “378”, “”[/phpbay]

Astronomy Videos:

[tubepress mode=”tag” tagValue=”amateur Astronomy”]

[phpostock]astronomy,1[/phpostock]

Read the rest of this article

A NASA-funded study describes how extreme solar eruptions could have severe consequences for communications, power grids and other technology on Earth.

The National Academy of Sciences in Washington conducted the study. The resulting report provides some of the first clear economic data that effectively quantifies today’s risk of extreme conditions in space driven by magnetic activity on the sun and …

Read the rest of this article

For the first time, astronomers have clearly seen the effects of “dark energy” on the most massive collapsed objects in the universe using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. By tracking how dark energy has stifled the growth of galaxy clusters and combining this with previous studies, scientists have obtained the best clues yet about what dark energy is and what the …

Read the rest of this article

NASA

NASA landed on Mars, photographed distant worlds, added to the International Space Station, took part in a lunar science mission with India and made major progress toward returning astronauts to the moon as the agency celebrated its 50th birthday in 2008. Here on Earth, NASA researchers recorded the continued decline of Arctic sea ice, won awards for aviation breakthroughs, discovered …

Read the rest of this article

On Dec. 6th, 2008 at 1:06 a.m. MST, a meteor of stunning brightness lit up the skies over Colorado, USA. Astronomer Chris Peterson photographed the event using a dedicated all-sky meteor camera in the town of Guffey, near Colorado Springs:

“In seven years of operation, this is the brightest fireball I’ve ever recorded,” says Peterson. “I estimate the terminal explosion …

Read the rest of this article

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has discovered carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of a planet orbiting another star. This breakthrough is an important step toward finding chemical biotracers of extraterrestrial life.

The Jupiter-sized planet, called HD 189733b, is too hot for life. But the Hubble observations are a proof-of-concept demonstration that the basic chemistry for life can be measured on planets …

Read the rest of this article

AAVSO AAVSO Alert Notice 392:
Supernova 2008hy in IC 334
December 8, 2008

Further to CBETs #1608 (Puckett and Langoussis; Daniel W.E. Green, editor) and #1610 (Dennefeld et al., and Yamanaka et al.) the supernova SN 2008hy has been identified as a Type Ia supernova, and is believed to be near maximum light (V=14.3 on 2008 Dec 07.13, JD 2454807.63; T. …

Read the rest of this article

When the sun goes down tonight, step outside and look south. Beaming through the twilight is one of the prettiest things you’ll ever see – a tight three-way conjunction of Venus, Jupiter and the crescent Moon. The event is visible from all parts of the world, even from light-polluted cities.

People in New York and Hong Kong will …

Read the rest of this article