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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: Prospects for the 2012 Leonids.
Looking northeast at 2AM local.
(Created by the Author in Starry Night).
There’s one yearly meteor shower that’s always worth watching out for. This weekend, the Leonid meteors are set to peak on November 17th. The bad news is: this is a bad year for this shower; although the Leonids can reach storm levels of +1,000 per hour as last happened in 1998 & 1999, this year the Zenithal Hourly Rate (ZHR) isn’t expected to top 15.
Now the good news; the Leonids are projected to peak Saturday morning at 5AM EST/ 10AM GMT, which centers the peak of activity on the U.S. Eastern Seaboard. Second, the recently-eclipsed Moon will only be 3 days past New and safely out of view during morning observing. In 2011, the Leonids displayed a slightly above average peak with a ZHR of 22+/-5 per hour. Years previous were even higher, with a brief ZHR ~ 30-35 for 2010 & rates briefly topping 80 per hour for 2009.
The Leonids always deserve scrutiny, and for good reason; we’ve told the tale of our adventures in Kuwait in November of 1998 (before you comment, yes, it was ‘98! We’ve got our pre-Operation: Desert Fox orders to prove it!) and how the Leonids topped over a ZHR of +600 per hour from our dark sky site behind tent city in Al Jaber, Kuwait. When you approach a ZHR of 1,000 or more, meteors start coming once every few seconds, an awesome spectacle. I think that outbursts from various meteor showers are occasionally missed simply because folks from key longitudes fail to report them. We were seeing fireballs so frequently that morning in 98’ that the ground in front of us would light up even as fireballs occurred behind us… a Major in our squadron walked up to me back at Eielson AFB when we were back in Alaska about a year later and told me that the 1998 Leonids was the coolest thing he ever saw!
But even that was a mere inkling of what this shower can do… associated with comet Tempel-Tuttle, the Leonids peak every 33 years (as may happen again in 2032-33) in which time, the Earth witnesses a mighty outburst. Some of the greatest spectacles in history were the 1966 and 1833 showers, when residents of the U.S. East Coast awoke to fireballs raining like snowflakes from the sky. Those who witnessed said spectacle spoke of an apocalypse that would surely proceed the coming dawn… really, it was that intense!
Despite the rumblings we’re seeing around the web of high rates for this year, we’re thinking that the Leonids will be rather subdued, although we’d love to be proven wrong… as of this writing, the International Meteor Organization doesn’t have a live quick look chart running, although one will probably go up this weekend… make sure to stand vigil for this wildcard meteor shower, and tweet those sightings to #Meteorwatch!
Also, in the Strange Astronomy Dept: Mercury also reaches inferior conjunction this weekend on Saturday, November 17th at 11AM EST/16UT. That’s not all that unusual, except that it misses the solar limb by less than 8’ minutes! Could it “transit a solar flare” in hydrogen-alpha if it’s positioned juuuuuust right? You can currently watch Mercury “take the plunge” on SOHO’s LASCO C3 camera. Otherwise, the next solar transit of the fleeting world isn’t until May 9th, 2016!