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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.
July 2013-Life in the AstroBlogosphere: Who’s Who in the AstroTwitterverse
Astrophoto-shoot take 2;
note inclusion of AstroLab!
Recently, we wrote up an article on The New Social Face of Astronomy for the August 2013 issue of Sky &Telescope. Among the many cyber-corners and crannies of ye ole Internet that we explored was the world of Twitter. Twitter is a great source of fast breaking information, tailor made for certain aspects of astronomy such as meteorite falls, satellite reentries, new comet discoveries and nova flare-ups.
We included a list at the end of the article entitled “who’s who in astronomy.” Our thinking was to include those “must-follows” who are a primary source of information that we can’t do without. The final published list was edited down to 14 out of 25 that we submitted, all of them tough calls.
We tried hard to make it a good mix of working class astro-joes, along with the predictable astro-celebs. The bent was towards observational astronomy, by hey, if you cover a wide variety of space news, we tried to include you as well.
We never mind if folks tweet about their cats, as the human (or feline) factor is what social media is all about. But if you tweet mostly about your cat… well, it’s tough to include you on a list about amateur astronomy.
So here it is by popular demand; our original “Desert Island List” of whom we would follow for astronomical info if we had to restrict our feed down to a scant 25:
@NASA: The flagship account of the US space agency.
@AGeekMom: A great follow for space and NASASocial related info.
@SkyandTelescope: The account of Sky & Telescope magazine.
@AAVSO: A great source for notifications on novae and variable stars.
@IMOMeteors: Account of the International Meteor Observers.
@VirtualAstro: UK observer and the creator of Meteorwatch.
@BadAstronomer: Account of the Bad Astronomer himself, Phil Plait.
@NeilTyson: Neil DeGrasse Tyson’s informative twitter account.
@UniverseToday: The news outlet for the Universe Today website.
@NickAstronomer: Professional Astronomer in the UK… if there’s a new comet or asteroid discovery, he’s on the case!
@AstroPHYPapers: A good source of the latest papers out from arxiv.org. (Though not affiliated with arvix)
@EclipseMaps: Twitter account of eclipse expert Michael Zeiler.
@NASASocial: A good follow for the latest news on upcoming NASASocial events.
@SungrazerComets: Part of the sungrazer mission to discover comets in the SOHO and NASA STEREO data.
@ESA: The Twitter account of the European Space Agency.
@SpaceX: The Twitter account of the SpaceX Corporation.
@TalkingSpace: The Twitter account for the outstanding podcast on space exploration by the same name.
@SpaceFlightNow: Timely updates on space missions worldwide.
@SpaceFlight101: Another space travel exploration site with daily updates on missions.
@Twisst: An automated program that will tweet ISS passes prior to their occurrence for your location based on GPS data if enabled.
@PlutoKiller: The Twitter account of astronomer Mike Brown.
@RASC: The Royal Astronomical Society of Canada.
@nextlaunch: Tweets space launches worldwide that are broadcast via the web.
@SciFri: The official account of the radio show NPR Science Friday. Takes twitter comments live during the show.
@AstronomyFM: The account of the webcast AstronomyFM.
That’s our desert island list… we’ve also made a handy essential list of Vital Astronomy Follows for one stop shopping. Also, be sure to check out our recent talk with the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada in a Google+ Hangout on using astronomy in social media.
But if nothing else, perhaps social media gives us a “cyber-watering hole” to meet around on cloudy nights… A great place to hang out while we’re “waiting on the sky!”