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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.
Astro-Event: A Possible “Taurid Swarm?”
A Taurid meteor streaks through an All-Sky Cam. (Credit: NASA).
A relatively obscure meteor shower may be on the upswing in the coming month, starting this week. The Northern Taurids are usually a minor shower, of little note on most years. Generating a maximum zenithal hourly rate just a little above the background sporadic level of about 5 per hour, the Northern Taurids go unnoticed on most years. Active from October 20th through December 10th with a broad peak centered on November 12th, the radiant drifts across the border from the constellation Aries into northern Taurus just below The Pleiades (M45) open star cluster.
The path of the radiant of the Northern Taurids. (Photo & Graphic by Author).
Fred Whipple’s analysis of the radiant of the Northern Taurids in the early 1950’s revealed a path wandering from a Right Ascension of 3 Hours 00’ and a declination of +19° degrees in the constellation Aries in mid-October into Taurus very near the Pleiades at a R.A. of 4 Hours and 7.7’ and a declination of 24.5° degrees on December 1st.
In fact, researchers in the mid-20th century discovered that the two Taurid streams are tangled up with two other faint streams, known as the Autumn or Northern & Southern Arietids.
So, what’s so significant about a minor meteor shower? Well first off, the Northern Taurids are known to produce a disproportionate amount of bright fireballs. The Moon reaches Full phase on October 28th at 3:49PM EDT/7:49 PM UTC, but that shouldn’t be a hindrance for any bright fireball sightings. General meteor velocities for the Northern Taurids are about 29 kilometres per second, lending themselves to long, graceful meteor trails. This has also lent the nickname “The Halloween Fireballs” to the Northern Taurids over the years.
Both the Southern and Northern Taurids emanate from debris shed by that most famous of ultra-short period comets, Comet 2P/Encke. The Southern Taurids have a radiant that runs roughly parallel though the southern portion of the constellation Taurus with a ZHR=5 and are also currently active from September 10 – November 20th. In fact, it may be tough to disentangle the source radiant of the two, as they only lie about 10° degrees apart. Comet Encke has the shortest orbital period of any known comet at 3.3 years, and there’s some thought that the streams of all four showers converge on points 4,700 and 1,500 years ago, hinting at a large breakup and discharge of material around those times.
The Northern Taurids have seen a recent upswing in activity on the years 1995, 1998, 2005 and 2008. Current modeling suggests that we encounter a “swarm” of Taurid fireballs once every 61 years, as last occurred, you guessed it, 61 years ago in 1951. In fact, it was the “Taurid fireball swarm of 1951” that solidified the stream as a true meteor shower in the first place. Of course, this shower has only been monitored for less than a century, and it’s to be seen if the 61 year hypothesis holds true.
Just only this year, the International Astronomical Union raised the number of established meteor showers from 64 to 95. To be sure, there are lots more streams out there, and clumps of debris in known showers that we’ve yet to encounter. There’s already talk of a possible new mid-December radiant dubbed the “46/P-ids” that may becoming active, along with a return of the defunct Andromedids in early December and a possible meteor storm from Comet 209P/LINEAR in May of 2014. Incidentally, that last one will hail from the constellation Camelopardalis, perhaps giving birth to… wait for it… the Camelopardalids! That’ll be a fun one for the non-science media to explain!
Do keep a watch on the sky for Taurid fireball activity over the next few weeks. The radiant rises to the northeast just after sunset and will be high overheard by local midnite for mid-northern latitude observers through November. Watch those all-sky cameras for activity as well. Will we witness a “Great Taurid Swarm of 2012?” remember, you won’t see any if you don’t try!