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Pictured is a Delta IV rocket launch from Cape Canaveral on November 21st, 2010. The image is a 20 second exposure taken at dusk, shot from about 100 miles west of the launch site. The launch placed a classified payload in orbit for the United States Air Force.
Difficult but not impossible to catch against the dawn or dusk sky, spotting an extreme crescent moon can be a challenge. The slender crescent pictured was shot 30 minutes before sunrise when the Moon was less than 20 hours away from New. A true feat of visual athletics to catch, a good pair of binoculars or a well aimed wide field telescopic view can help with the hunt.
The Sun is our nearest star, and goes through an 11-year cycle of activity. This image was taken via a properly filtered telescope, and shows the Sun as it appeared during its last maximum peak in 2003. This was during solar cycle #23, a period during which the Sun hurled several large flares Earthward. The next solar cycle is due to peak around 2013-14.
Located in the belt of the constellation Orion, Messier 42, also known as the Orion Nebula is one of the finest deep sky objects in the northern hemisphere sky. Just visible as a faint smudge to the naked eye on a clear dark night, the Orion Nebula is a sure star party favorite, as it shows tendrils of gas contrasted with bright stars. M42 is a large stellar nursery, a star forming region about 1,000 light years distant.
Orbiting the planet in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) every 90 minutes, many people fail to realize that you can see the International Space Station (ISS) from most of the planet on a near-weekly basis. In fact, the ISS has been known to make up to four visible passes over the same location in one night. The image pictured is from the Fourth of July, 2011 and is a 20 second exposure of a bright ISS pass.
Next to the Sun, the two brightest objects in the sky are the Moon and the planet Venus. In fact, when Venus is favorably placed next to the Moon, it might just be possible to spot the two in the daytime. Another intriguing effect known as earthshine or ashen light is also seen in the image on the night side of the Moon; this is caused by sunlight reflected back off of the Earth towards our only satellite.
A mosaic of three images taken during the total lunar eclipse of December 21st, 2010. The eclipse occurred the same day as the winter solstice. The curve and size of the Earth’s shadow is apparent in the image.
The Algonquin Indians had names for each of the seasonal Full Moons, many of which survive today. The Full Snow Moon pictured occurs in the month of December, when the first large winter storms coat the ground with snow. This Full Moon also tends to fall near the Winter Solstice, and thus rides high in the nightly sky opposite to the Sun on long winter nights.
Every rocket launch is unique, but twilight shuttle launches where by far the most impressive. The image pictured was of the April 5th, 2010 launch of Space Shuttle Discovery from the Kennedy Space Center at dawn. The exhaust plume caught the rising Sun overhead just right, and numerous noctilucent clouds persisted right up until sunrise. Unfortunately, space shuttle launches are now relegated to the pages of history.
Review: The Sun’s Heartbeat by Bob Berman.
Out from Little-Brown!
Think you know our nearest star? Think again… no other astronomical object influences our often mundane daily lives like our Sun. Think about it; the fuel in our cars, the energy in that Twinkie you had for “breakfast” (admit it) and the very power in the electrons that propel this blog can all be traced back the fusion force coming from our nearest star. As Bob Berman points out in his latest book, The Sun’s Heartbeat, and Other Stories from the Life of the Star that Powers out Planet, all Earthbound energy with the exception of nuclear fission can be traced back to our Sun. Fans of Astronomy magazine (which JUST finally joined the ranks of the digital, winning back at least one more subscriber!) will be familiar with Mr. Berman’s Dave Barry-meets-Carl Sagan style of writing from his monthly column. In The Sun’s Heartbeat, Mr. Berman takes an in-depth look at the history of solar astronomy and drops in copious factoids and little known slices of history and solar physics along the way. For example, did YOU know that iron fusion will only sustain our future Sun for ONE day, or that ye’ ole astronomers used belladonna root to enhance their night vision? Or how ‘bout the fact that sunspots and aurora where so rare during the 17th century that many astronomers considered them myth? Neither did we, and we go looking for such astronomical tidbits for fun.
Mr. Berman is also an accomplished eclipse and aurora chaser and devotes a chapter to each of these, as well as near-sky atmospheric phenomena. OK, we’ve never seen a circum-zenithal arc either, but will now put it on our daily list of things to look out for…
But there is also some practical, if not frightening, info contained in The Sun’s Heartbeat; the first is the role that the Sun plays in the production of Vitamin D, and the discovery that our modern hide-from-the-Sun lifestyle, plus an over-blown fear of skin cancer may have swung us to far in a vitamin deficient direction. The evolutionary adaption that skin production infers by producing Vitamin D utilizing solar UV is more efficient that absorbing it by any other means. The role that vitamin D plays as an anti-cancer agent is just becoming understood, and there are studies that suggest that there may be a link to autism and vitamin D deficiency as well. Its rather telling that the medical sources interviewed by Mr. Berman face staunch opposition from the anti-vax crowd… I guess there’s no money in suing the Sun…
But the most troubling studies are the effect that the Sun plays in the riddle of the Earth’s climate. Yes, as any Tea-Party advocate will tell you, there ARE natural rhythms aka Milankovitch Cycles that govern our climate; the trouble is, the current lull in the solar cycle suggests that we’re should be in a cooling phase, and that anthropogenic climate forcing is now the dominant decider in global trends… could it just be our bad luck that our true impact on global warming is now just becoming apparent?
Do read Mr. Berman’s excellent book for a glimpse of all things solar and sun related. As solar cycle #24 gets into high gear, our civilization is posed with a flotilla of spacecraft to study our Sun as never before. Conversely, there has been talk of the Sun’s 11-year cycle shutting down, the likes of which hasn’t been seen since the 17th century Maunder Minimum… our nearest star definitely has more surprises in store!