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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.
21.10.09:IBEX: The Unsung Hero.
Amidst the recent water on the Moon hoopla, one key player was largely missed by the media; IBEX, NASA’s Interstellar Boundary Explorer. Launched in October 19th, 2008, IBEX travels in a highly eccentric Earth orbit that takes it from a perigee of 4,000 miles to an apogee of 150,000 miles in 3 days. This enables IBEX to dip in and out of Earth’s magnetosphere and bow shock, panning its 7 degree field of view camera in an all sky survey to map the heliopause, the boundary of our solar system with interstellar space. The cameras, dubbed IBEX Hi & Lo respectively, are the most sensitive neutron detectors ever flown, and span the sky looking for particles moving in access of 161,000 miles per hour. When it was first turned on & checked out earlier this year, engineers got a start; a nearby, large source of neutral atoms nearly filling the field of view. That was none other than our own Moon, reflecting the solar wind off of the lunar soil. The Earth’s magnetic field protects us from this onslaught, which hits the daytime side of the Moon unimpeded. The signature and percentage of particles seen lends credence to the water mixed in with the lunar soil theory, embedded mostly as hydroxyl compounds. In fact, the heliopause itself has shown signs of shrinking as of late due to the ongoing solar minimum… the just released image above released by the IBEX team sheds light on the overall structure of the heliopause as our solar system moves through the interstellar medium. Most interestingly, it shows that a large ribbon of Energetic Neutral Atoms (ENA’s) flowing between Voyager 1 & 2, our farthest soon-to-be intergalactic outposts. Just what would life in the interstellar medium be like, should it be pressed down or swept back interior to Earth’s orbit, as has been hypothesized in the distant past? Watch for more news on IBEX to come!