Asteroids are always causing interest, be it a discovery in New Zealand or a very small one occulting a very bright star along a narrow strip (so far either negative or clouded-out reports have been received). A more promising and scientifically important event is coming up on the morning of Nov. 21, however, when (234) Barbara hits at 7.5 mag. star - and this asteroid is double and has been measured by optical interferometry. Chords from the occultation - visible in Florida and Europe - would provide a crucial test of this method and could actually deliver higher resolution. Other than that only the Leonids (with a max. ZHR between 150 and 200 according to the latest models) and a Jupiter/Moon conjunction on Nov. 23 seem to be important in November; other previews here, hier, hier, hier and/und hier.
In other news three comets in one picture (one undiscovered at the time), two comets in one view and LINEAR. • Just for the record another impact hoax, this time in Latvia (more, more, more, more, more, more, more, more, more, more, more, more, more, more and more links, more or less enlightened). • Detailed analysis of an Antares occultation by the Moon. • Mars inside Messier 44 (a preview and Mars close-up) plus a Moon/Jupiter conjunction from the Philippines. • The largest sunspot in ages on Oct. 30, Oct. 28 (more) and Oct. 26 (more). • Nova Sgr 2009 #4 (more). • A Bright Star Monitor at work. • The Mellinger mosaic has now a press release, copied e.g. here and here. • What an almost blind astronomer can do. • An ISS/Moon transit from Germany. • And a fullmoon rainbow in the headlines.
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Saturday, October 24, 2009
An Orionids "peak" that never ends? ZHR ~40 for 3+ days now
Expectations were for a prolonged maximum of the Orionids meteor shower this year, but with a more or less distinct peak either early on Oct. 21 or Oct. 22. Instead the activity remains high at a level of roughly ZHR ~40 since early October 20 - for three full days now and with no drop-off in sight. Some pictures, a report on the long maximum (earlier, still earlier), some analysis and for the record further previews here, here, here (earlier), here and here. • Finally some consensus re. the Leonids this year is building: The "500 or more" modeller has come down to ~200 as the max. ZHR - and his main 'competitor' is up to ~175. So it'll be a shower a bit below the Perseids this year? But in any case with less lunar interference! • The Canadian September bolide has led to several meteorite discoveries! A press release, an earlier one and coverage here and here. • From the Dutch/N German bolide much better pictures and stories here, here, here, here, here, here, hier, hier, hier, hier, hier, hier, hier, hier (mehr), hier and/und hier.
In other minor body news such a body of 5 to 10 meters exploded over Indonesia on Oct. 8 (well studied thanks to infrasound recordings), while a rock of similar size safely passed Earth a week later - and the exact events around the case of 2008 TC3 and the political 'impact' are still debated. • Meanwhile the largest NEO discovery in over one year has been reported (and doubted!); with a H~16 the size is around 2 km. • And in Russia a meteorite. • Elsewhere in the solar system comet 217P/LINEAR suffered an outburst - while never exceeding 10th mag., the comet looked a bit like 17P/Holmes in good pictures initially. Here are some of Oct. 22, Oct. 18 (more), Oct. 17 (more, more, more, more), Oct. 16 (more), Oct. 15 (more, more), Oct. 14 (more, more) and Oct. 13, plus a visual report from Sep.; the Indian observer wasn't impressed.
In other news a Moon/Antares appulse (actual occultation missed) and the morning planet/Moon arrangements of Oct. 16 in Germany and Italy and on Oct. 15 (more), Oct. 14 in the U.S. and Germany (sequence 1 - 2 - 3 and more) and Oct. 13, plus several more pictures. • STEREO images of a big prominence (alt.; more). • As this blogger also confirmed visually this morning, Epsilon Aurigae is at 3.4 mag., half-way between max. and min. The eclipse may have been delayed a bit - and while visual estimates are easy, though some)(it's easy, they can be off by several tenths of a mag., depending on the eye). • Will R CrB ever become bright again? The current minimum lasts 2+ years already! • Another amateur exoplanet detection. • Stellar occultations by Minerva are worth observing. • predicted effects from unusual experiments (see 16:37 entry) during a rocket launch led to weird sky effects over South Africa and Europe; see also here! • Finally winners of an astrophoto competition and another near-space balloon flight just for fun.
In other minor body news such a body of 5 to 10 meters exploded over Indonesia on Oct. 8 (well studied thanks to infrasound recordings), while a rock of similar size safely passed Earth a week later - and the exact events around the case of 2008 TC3 and the political 'impact' are still debated. • Meanwhile the largest NEO discovery in over one year has been reported (and doubted!); with a H~16 the size is around 2 km. • And in Russia a meteorite. • Elsewhere in the solar system comet 217P/LINEAR suffered an outburst - while never exceeding 10th mag., the comet looked a bit like 17P/Holmes in good pictures initially. Here are some of Oct. 22, Oct. 18 (more), Oct. 17 (more, more, more, more), Oct. 16 (more), Oct. 15 (more, more), Oct. 14 (more, more) and Oct. 13, plus a visual report from Sep.; the Indian observer wasn't impressed.
In other news a Moon/Antares appulse (actual occultation missed) and the morning planet/Moon arrangements of Oct. 16 in Germany and Italy and on Oct. 15 (more), Oct. 14 in the U.S. and Germany (sequence 1 - 2 - 3 and more) and Oct. 13, plus several more pictures. • STEREO images of a big prominence (alt.; more). • As this blogger also confirmed visually this morning, Epsilon Aurigae is at 3.4 mag., half-way between max. and min. The eclipse may have been delayed a bit - and while visual estimates are easy, though some)(it's easy, they can be off by several tenths of a mag., depending on the eye). • Will R CrB ever become bright again? The current minimum lasts 2+ years already! • Another amateur exoplanet detection. • Stellar occultations by Minerva are worth observing. • predicted effects from unusual experiments (see 16:37 entry) during a rocket launch led to weird sky effects over South Africa and Europe; see also here! • Finally winners of an astrophoto competition and another near-space balloon flight just for fun.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Spectacular fireball over Netherlands this evening not the only one in recent days
It happened near 17:00 UTC today over the Netherlands but was also seen - low in the sky - from Northern Germany: a bright fireball at dusk of which also a dramatic photograph exists. Soon more reports came in, like here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here (the latter with great pics of the smoke trail dispersing): The bolide split in mid-flight into half a dozen fragments, and a trail in the sky remained for many minutes. • There were also bright fireballs over New Mexico on Oct. 9 and Canada on Sep. 25 (a possible meteorite-dropper, also mentioned last time and also here, here, here and here). • Also an update on the Pacific bolide and an unusual bolide report from a soccer fan forum! • An all-too-often quoted prediction for the 2009 Leonids had them peak at a max. ZHR of 500 - but this calculation (never supported by other dust trail theorists) has now been retracted, with a max. ZHR of 200 instead. Still impressive perhaps, but only on a par with e.g. this year's Perseids. • More insights about the asteroid-turned-bolide-turned-meteorites 2008 TC3 have been published (alt., alt., more, more and more). And the impact risk for Apophis is all but gone as discussed in detail here.
In other news the La Sagra Sky Survey - just recently successful for the first time - has discovered its 2nd comet, with perihelion next January. • Recent studies deal with the rotation of the nuclei of comets Tempel 2 and Lulin (also discussed here). • Nice pictures of the tails of Garradd and 217P/LINEAR on Oct. 4. • Of the current morning sky show with various conjunctions of planets nice views of Oct. 13 (Saturn close to Venus) and Oct. 9 (Saturn close to Mercury), plus a Moon/M 45 conjunction on Oct. 7 (also a - controversial - composite attempt). • Meanwhile on Jupiter a dark spot on Sep. 19 (rotating), the surface of Callisto and a mutual event on Oct. 3 (another and yet another report). • Hi-res pics of the Moon. • An analysis and Oct. 3 report on Eps Aur's fade - and TT Ari is fading, too. • Finally Earth weather leaking into space, problems with Pan-STARRS, the sociology of Galaxy Zoo volunteers and a fine ISS in front of moon (not its shadow, of course).
In other news the La Sagra Sky Survey - just recently successful for the first time - has discovered its 2nd comet, with perihelion next January. • Recent studies deal with the rotation of the nuclei of comets Tempel 2 and Lulin (also discussed here). • Nice pictures of the tails of Garradd and 217P/LINEAR on Oct. 4. • Of the current morning sky show with various conjunctions of planets nice views of Oct. 13 (Saturn close to Venus) and Oct. 9 (Saturn close to Mercury), plus a Moon/M 45 conjunction on Oct. 7 (also a - controversial - composite attempt). • Meanwhile on Jupiter a dark spot on Sep. 19 (rotating), the surface of Callisto and a mutual event on Oct. 3 (another and yet another report). • Hi-res pics of the Moon. • An analysis and Oct. 3 report on Eps Aur's fade - and TT Ari is fading, too. • Finally Earth weather leaking into space, problems with Pan-STARRS, the sociology of Galaxy Zoo volunteers and a fine ISS in front of moon (not its shadow, of course).
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
The eclipse of Epsilon Aurigae has begun: 0.3 mag. drop evident
Go to the light curve generator of the AAVSO, enter "eps aur" as the object, 60 or 80 days as the interval and select only "V" magnitudes: out comes a light curve that monotonously falls from a level 3.0 mag. to 3.25 mag. right now over approximately the past month (using "visual" instead leaves a much noisier picture). Thus the long-awaited eclipse of mystery star Epsilon Aurigae has clearly begun, the first in 27 years - and this time the interest is higher than ever, esp. with the (much promoted) Citizen Sky campaign under way. Here the lightcurve is discussed in detail (earlier, still earlier, even earlier); using the last eclipse of the weird long-period system as a template, the brightness should drop to 3.8 mag. over the next two to three months and then hover there throughout 2010. • Meanwhile an outburst of Z And has been reported.
In other news there were two sunspot groups on the disk simultaneously, something not seen in a long time! A close-up of one of the groups on Sep. 26 (when also a big prominence was seen) and reports from Sep. 23 (more), Sep. 22 and Sep. 21. • Sun-related also a comparision of H-alpha telescopes (but is it fair?) and new insights about the solar cycle and a current surge of cosmic rays due to the low activity level (more, more and more). • In the comet world we have the first discovery by the La Sagra Sky Survey, comet 217P over M 42 (also an AAPOD) and one day later, Garradd with a long tail (by F. Kugel), the case of Pigott-LINEAR-Kowalski and Christensen. • Big bolides have been reported e.g. from Argentina, Canada and Namibia, numerous new weak meteor showers have been recognized; we have a new PHA - and the discoverer of 2008 TC3 has now a piece of "his" asteroid after it turned into a meteorite shower over Sudan! There will be a conference on the subject right there, in December - including further meteorite searching!
• Here is a long report about a possible detection of Io's atmosphere by an amateur during a mutual event; also "normal" event reports of Sep. 26 (also as a dramatic video!) and Sep. 9. Plus fine Jupiter images from September and also July - the latter taken at Pic du Midi with 1 meter. • There's now another Galaxy Zoom concentrating on the center region (also reported here) - plus a direct comparision of the two full-sky mosaics discussed 2 weeks ago: Mellinger's has higher resolution becuase Brunier's is actually oversampled. (There's also a another mosaic of only the Lagoon Nebula.) • A short-lived rocket experiment created a glowing cloud in the U.S. sky, causing some news coverage (see also here, here and here). • Also a remarkable amateur picture of the HTV (see also here and here) - and amateur satellite watchers found out what a secret satellite is probably good for. • Sky highlights in October 2009 mostly deal with constellations of the planets.
In other news there were two sunspot groups on the disk simultaneously, something not seen in a long time! A close-up of one of the groups on Sep. 26 (when also a big prominence was seen) and reports from Sep. 23 (more), Sep. 22 and Sep. 21. • Sun-related also a comparision of H-alpha telescopes (but is it fair?) and new insights about the solar cycle and a current surge of cosmic rays due to the low activity level (more, more and more). • In the comet world we have the first discovery by the La Sagra Sky Survey, comet 217P over M 42 (also an AAPOD) and one day later, Garradd with a long tail (by F. Kugel), the case of Pigott-LINEAR-Kowalski and Christensen. • Big bolides have been reported e.g. from Argentina, Canada and Namibia, numerous new weak meteor showers have been recognized; we have a new PHA - and the discoverer of 2008 TC3 has now a piece of "his" asteroid after it turned into a meteorite shower over Sudan! There will be a conference on the subject right there, in December - including further meteorite searching!
• Here is a long report about a possible detection of Io's atmosphere by an amateur during a mutual event; also "normal" event reports of Sep. 26 (also as a dramatic video!) and Sep. 9. Plus fine Jupiter images from September and also July - the latter taken at Pic du Midi with 1 meter. • There's now another Galaxy Zoom concentrating on the center region (also reported here) - plus a direct comparision of the two full-sky mosaics discussed 2 weeks ago: Mellinger's has higher resolution becuase Brunier's is actually oversampled. (There's also a another mosaic of only the Lagoon Nebula.) • A short-lived rocket experiment created a glowing cloud in the U.S. sky, causing some news coverage (see also here, here and here). • Also a remarkable amateur picture of the HTV (see also here and here) - and amateur satellite watchers found out what a secret satellite is probably good for. • Sky highlights in October 2009 mostly deal with constellations of the planets.
- Oct. 6 morning: Largest elongation of Mercury with 18° (best morning apparition of the year for the Northern hemisphere; best view should be from Oct. 6 to 15)
- Oct. 8 morning: Mercury just 0.3° SW of Saturn (which just emerges from the Sun's glare); Mercury 5 times brighter.
- Oct. 10 morning: Venus, Saturn and Mercury close together
- Oct. 12 morning: Moon close to Mars
- Oct. 13 morning: Venus 0.6° W of Saturn (and 100 times brighter) - and the opposition loop of Jupiter ends
- Oct. 16 morning: Mars, Saturn, Venus, Mercury and the Moon form a nice constellation
- Oct. 21 late afternoon: The Moon occults Antares for Europe
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Who's got the best mega-mosaic of the whole sky in visible light?
What an amazing coincidence: Practically simultaneously two color mosaics of the whole sky with more than half a billion pixels each have been published, one by a physicist, the other by a science writer, but both did their work as tireless amateur astronomers over many months. One is by Axel Mellinger who also describes his work in a scientific paper: Great care was taken to achieve photometric calibration and foreground subtraction. This amazing achievement went unnoticed in an ESO Press Release a few weeks later presenting another mosaic by Serge Brunier which has even more pixels but less photometric precision it would seem (the images were taken with a DSLR cameras and stitched with commercial software). Still ESO is incorporating the latter mosaic into its "Giga-Galaxy Zoom" project - let's see which mosaic will become the new gold standard (as Mellinger's original mosaic made from chemical pictures in 2000 might be called).
In other news we have a rare outburst of the suspected UGWZ star VX For (a sensation for some), the 125th supernova discovery by an individual amateur, the Catalina Real-Time Transient Survey (where everyone can help) and the Hyper-Velocity Stars Project utilizing the SDSS Galaxy-Zoo-style. • From the 22 July Total Solar Eclipse we have a hi-res corona composite and a 3rd contact by Druckmüller & al., the official word and a 21-min. video about the Indian commercial eclipse flight, pictures and a slide show from Wuhan, a report from Hangzhou, a narrated slide-show from Wuzhen (featuring yours truly; incl. Wuhan) and a report from Shanghai. There are also a very detailled report on the 1 Aug. 2008 TSE, a speculative "eclipsology" blog - and, vastly more on the fringe, the TSE/UFO madness of 2009 ... • Talking about the Sun, there are speculations about its fading B field (summarized here and discussed here) and facts about the - minuscule - climate impact of solar events. And it was 150 years ago that the most powerful flare ever struck.
• Many more mutual events of Jovian moons have been observed, e.g. on Sep. 12, Sep. 8/9 (more), Sep. 1, Aug. 24/25 (more, more), Aug. 19 (more), Aug. 15 and other dates. • Pictures of the Wesley impact spot on Aug. 18 and various dates; it's pretty much gone now. • There is yet another comet McNaught with a moderately promising outlook; we had unusual activity in 217P (earlier, more), the recovery of P/2003 A1 (LINEAR), a new Hill, the unusual asteroid 2009 QY6, indications on 17P/Holmes splintering in connection with its 2007 outburst, the 2009 Wilson Awards and the 50th comet discovery by R. McNaught. • There were lots of reports about an Irish bolide on Sep. 3 while more has been reported about the Belgian case - and fine composite images of the 2009 Perseids have been published. • A fine "Etruscan Vase" Moon (more here), other recent "Vases" of Sun & Moon and various atmospherical optics in Ireland, plus a visit to Tacande Obs. on La Palma. • Finally some highlights of September 2009 -
In other news we have a rare outburst of the suspected UGWZ star VX For (a sensation for some), the 125th supernova discovery by an individual amateur, the Catalina Real-Time Transient Survey (where everyone can help) and the Hyper-Velocity Stars Project utilizing the SDSS Galaxy-Zoo-style. • From the 22 July Total Solar Eclipse we have a hi-res corona composite and a 3rd contact by Druckmüller & al., the official word and a 21-min. video about the Indian commercial eclipse flight, pictures and a slide show from Wuhan, a report from Hangzhou, a narrated slide-show from Wuzhen (featuring yours truly; incl. Wuhan) and a report from Shanghai. There are also a very detailled report on the 1 Aug. 2008 TSE, a speculative "eclipsology" blog - and, vastly more on the fringe, the TSE/UFO madness of 2009 ... • Talking about the Sun, there are speculations about its fading B field (summarized here and discussed here) and facts about the - minuscule - climate impact of solar events. And it was 150 years ago that the most powerful flare ever struck.
• Many more mutual events of Jovian moons have been observed, e.g. on Sep. 12, Sep. 8/9 (more), Sep. 1, Aug. 24/25 (more, more), Aug. 19 (more), Aug. 15 and other dates. • Pictures of the Wesley impact spot on Aug. 18 and various dates; it's pretty much gone now. • There is yet another comet McNaught with a moderately promising outlook; we had unusual activity in 217P (earlier, more), the recovery of P/2003 A1 (LINEAR), a new Hill, the unusual asteroid 2009 QY6, indications on 17P/Holmes splintering in connection with its 2007 outburst, the 2009 Wilson Awards and the 50th comet discovery by R. McNaught. • There were lots of reports about an Irish bolide on Sep. 3 while more has been reported about the Belgian case - and fine composite images of the 2009 Perseids have been published. • A fine "Etruscan Vase" Moon (more here), other recent "Vases" of Sun & Moon and various atmospherical optics in Ireland, plus a visit to Tacande Obs. on La Palma. • Finally some highlights of September 2009 -
- Sep. 16: Uranus in Opposition at 5.7 mag. (try it with the naked eye).
- Sep. 17: Saturn in Conjunction with the Sun, spoiling attempts to follow the ring plane crossing events from Earth.
- Sep. 29: The Moon visits Jupiter, still a great sight (and the main target of the Galilean Nights a month later).
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Spectacular mutual event movies from Jupiter, complicated Perseids, a tough penumbral eclipse and more
Hard to define the highlight of astronomical events observed in the past two weeks - but a hi-res video of a mutual event of two Jovian satellites on Aug. 16 from the Philippines may well be it; it's also discussed here, here, here and here while someone else measured a nice lightcurve. A few hours earlier another mutual event movie with resolved satellites was shot in Germany while this this video from France of Aug. 4 led to a fine lightcurve, too. • Io covering its own shadow near opposition. • About the occultation of 45 Cap a long report with some analysis and an article with few insights but pretty pictures.
• While at Jupiter, here is a detection of its moon Thebe by an amateur with a scope < 1 m - probably two firsts for this moon discovered by Voyager 1! • About the fading impact spot we have brief updates from Aug. 18 and Aug. 16, a longer report and an update of Aug. 13, a polar animation, a drawing of Aug. 18, pictures of Aug. 7 and Aug. 6 (another one, also an animation and a smooth-morphed version, and yet another picture), several current pictures with & without the spot, a video from July, a long summary of events, a podcast in which H. Hammel discusses the HST observations - and yet another podcast.
Saturn's rings at equinox with the Sun exactly from the side have been hard to observe as the planet is very close to the Sun now - but there are pictures of Aug. 10, Aug. 14 and Aug. 15 (a daytime image!) and visual reports of Aug. 14 and Aug. 15. • On Uranus an amateur detection of Miranda (there is still some interest in these moons). • And Venus on Aug. 8.
The penumbral eclipse of the Moon on Aug. 6 was invisible to the eye, regardless of optical equipment (incl. none at all) - but the effect could be brought out photographically: by image subtraction like here, here, here, here (more), here, here or here or by blinking like here, here, here (more) or here. • The Moon vs. the Pleiades on Aug. 14, the thin waning lunar crescent on Aug. 19 very close to new moon, very hi-res Moon pics and the ISS crossing the Sun with many details.
10 years after the big solar eclipse in Europe some look back here, here, here, here or here. • And more pics/vids/reports from the big eclipse of 2009 from Varanasi (contact animation), the Indian flight, Chongqing, Wuhan (plus a picture), Tianhuangping (more, other expedition), Hangzhou, Yangshan, Japan and the Costa Classica (a report and more pics & data). Plus a highly processed corona from Enewetak!
The Perseids - more previews here, here and here - reached three separate maxima! From the night Aug. 12/13 a video (someone else had 1000 meteors on his camera), fine Mintron stills, a report from Europe and a composite image, from the outburst on Aug. 12 one locations's data, a report and notes about the brightness of the meteors, from the night Aug. 11/12 a composite, someone thinking these were the best Perseids in years, a review, another one, a gallery, more pictures, another composite, a nice picture, radio experiments, the alleged success of a hyped Twitter event which made not everyone happy (including amateur astronomers because of the extremely low signal/noise) - and a Perseids satire.
A fireball over central Europe on Aug. 15 at 20:00 UTC has considerable 'impact' such as here, here, here, here (video during a music festival!) and here. • Meet the SALSA meteor camera. • The new comet Garradd might reach 8th mag. in 2011 while a new Boattini isn't promising. • There are a new Nova Oph (Aug. 17 pig, report) and Nova Sgr #3 (report) - while a bizarre video tried to explain Eps Aur. • Finally impressions from Stellafane 2009.
• While at Jupiter, here is a detection of its moon Thebe by an amateur with a scope < 1 m - probably two firsts for this moon discovered by Voyager 1! • About the fading impact spot we have brief updates from Aug. 18 and Aug. 16, a longer report and an update of Aug. 13, a polar animation, a drawing of Aug. 18, pictures of Aug. 7 and Aug. 6 (another one, also an animation and a smooth-morphed version, and yet another picture), several current pictures with & without the spot, a video from July, a long summary of events, a podcast in which H. Hammel discusses the HST observations - and yet another podcast.
Saturn's rings at equinox with the Sun exactly from the side have been hard to observe as the planet is very close to the Sun now - but there are pictures of Aug. 10, Aug. 14 and Aug. 15 (a daytime image!) and visual reports of Aug. 14 and Aug. 15. • On Uranus an amateur detection of Miranda (there is still some interest in these moons). • And Venus on Aug. 8.
The penumbral eclipse of the Moon on Aug. 6 was invisible to the eye, regardless of optical equipment (incl. none at all) - but the effect could be brought out photographically: by image subtraction like here, here, here, here (more), here, here or here or by blinking like here, here, here (more) or here. • The Moon vs. the Pleiades on Aug. 14, the thin waning lunar crescent on Aug. 19 very close to new moon, very hi-res Moon pics and the ISS crossing the Sun with many details.
10 years after the big solar eclipse in Europe some look back here, here, here, here or here. • And more pics/vids/reports from the big eclipse of 2009 from Varanasi (contact animation), the Indian flight, Chongqing, Wuhan (plus a picture), Tianhuangping (more, other expedition), Hangzhou, Yangshan, Japan and the Costa Classica (a report and more pics & data). Plus a highly processed corona from Enewetak!
The Perseids - more previews here, here and here - reached three separate maxima! From the night Aug. 12/13 a video (someone else had 1000 meteors on his camera), fine Mintron stills, a report from Europe and a composite image, from the outburst on Aug. 12 one locations's data, a report and notes about the brightness of the meteors, from the night Aug. 11/12 a composite, someone thinking these were the best Perseids in years, a review, another one, a gallery, more pictures, another composite, a nice picture, radio experiments, the alleged success of a hyped Twitter event which made not everyone happy (including amateur astronomers because of the extremely low signal/noise) - and a Perseids satire.
A fireball over central Europe on Aug. 15 at 20:00 UTC has considerable 'impact' such as here, here, here, here (video during a music festival!) and here. • Meet the SALSA meteor camera. • The new comet Garradd might reach 8th mag. in 2011 while a new Boattini isn't promising. • There are a new Nova Oph (Aug. 17 pig, report) and Nova Sgr #3 (report) - while a bizarre video tried to explain Eps Aur. • Finally impressions from Stellafane 2009.
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Penumbral eclipse, Perseid peak, Jupiter opposition likely highlights in August
The first highlight of the month is already history: the occultation of the relatively bright star 45 Cap by Jupiter, well visible from Europe. A few observers in the visible saw the star brighten just when it made contact with the planet's atmosphere, and there is even a video of this (rather typical, it seems) phenomenon. There are also an image sequence, pictures here and here and reports here and here (as well as an earlier hi-res pic of star & moons, a report of these "5 satellites" and more) - but the most important results are expected to come from big(ger) observatories working in the infrared where Jupiter is suppressed a great deal. Early reports indicate, for example, that light from the star - blinking strongly - could still be detected many minutes after ingress in the K band: Expect some exciting papers in the future! Meanwhile the next event of August (see also here and here) is imminent:
A lot more links about the solar eclipse of July 22nd have turned up (or finally been found by yours truly; see also this meta-list). Science-wise we now have a nice flash spectrum and many weather data (both from Wuhan). From India reports, pics & videos from Surat, Varanasi, Sarasam (crappy video with hilarious soundtrack!), Taregna (also a TV story) and Patna. From Bangladesh a report, preparations and an event at the Indian border, also hailed here. From Bhutan a video and another one. From Chengdu a report, from Chongqing a report (with a Tibetan prelude), pictures and a processed one, and from Wuhan a report and another one - and CCTV coverage.
From Wuzhen more pictures, a report (and related news story), another and another one. From Hangzhou a report in parts 1 and 2, another one and pictures, and from Tianhuangping a report. From Jiaxing a TV story, a report and another one, from Jinshan a report, another and another one, and from Shanghai a video and a news story. From Japan the NHK live TV report, with a hi-res corona/chromosphere/prominences video & horizon pans (and another one from a ship), from the Costa Allegra no eclipse, from the Costa Classica the best eclipse (more pictures and a video from the same observer and still more pictures) and from the Paul Gauguin a report.
- July 6, 0:39 UTC: Maximum of a penumbral eclipse of the Moon; also an animation and an article. It should be seen as a moderate darkening of one part of the disk.
- Aug. 10: The Sun crosses the ring plane of Saturn, causing exciting shadow effects (which only Cassini can watch well); the Earth then crosses the ring plane on Sep. 4 but this is very close to conjunction.
- Aug. 11/12: Peak of the Perseids - their activity profile is already ramping up slowly and could reach 200 briefly this year because of several factors. Unfortunately the show will be bathed in moonlight - and accompanied by a Twitter event and various parties.
- Aug. 14: Jupiter in opposition at -2.9 mag. - and still decorated by the now very elongated impact cloud (for which we also have a Wikipedia entry, transit forecasts, pics of Aug. 5 and Aug. 3 [another one], a movie of July 30 [incl. a morphed version], a comparision of different dates and coverage from Aug. 5 and Aug. 3).
- Aug. 17: Neptune in opposition at +7.8 mag., still in the vicinity of Jupiter.
A lot more links about the solar eclipse of July 22nd have turned up (or finally been found by yours truly; see also this meta-list). Science-wise we now have a nice flash spectrum and many weather data (both from Wuhan). From India reports, pics & videos from Surat, Varanasi, Sarasam (crappy video with hilarious soundtrack!), Taregna (also a TV story) and Patna. From Bangladesh a report, preparations and an event at the Indian border, also hailed here. From Bhutan a video and another one. From Chengdu a report, from Chongqing a report (with a Tibetan prelude), pictures and a processed one, and from Wuhan a report and another one - and CCTV coverage.
From Wuzhen more pictures, a report (and related news story), another and another one. From Hangzhou a report in parts 1 and 2, another one and pictures, and from Tianhuangping a report. From Jiaxing a TV story, a report and another one, from Jinshan a report, another and another one, and from Shanghai a video and a news story. From Japan the NHK live TV report, with a hi-res corona/chromosphere/prominences video & horizon pans (and another one from a ship), from the Costa Allegra no eclipse, from the Costa Classica the best eclipse (more pictures and a video from the same observer and still more pictures) and from the Paul Gauguin a report.
Saturday, August 1, 2009
Three eclipses in the news: Eps Aur, Jup vs. 45 Cap and another TSE round-up
Eclipses - of three very different kinds - are the top stories right now or should be: in once a mystery object is about to move in front of the star Epsilon Aurigae, in another Jupiter will occult a bright star, and there is a lot more to tell (or rather link) about the longest total eclipse of the Sun of the 21st century. The big story of the past two week, the surprise impact on Jupiter, is being treated in a box in the current Cosmic Mirror, however, while strong noctilucent cloud activity will be covered further down.
The eclipse of Epsilon Aurigae - already discussed a year ago and introduced also here and here has actually begun - kind of. A spectroscopic precursor was first seen on 20 July when a new absorption feature appeared, belonging to the mystery occulting object. The brightness of the star in the visible seems to hold at 3.0 mag., though, but could begin its 0.75 mag. decline any day now. • Meanwhile the Moon occulted Antares on 31 July and the Plejades on 18 July. And the mutual events of the Jovian satellites continue, as videos here and here show (plus Jupiter on 5 July with spots and Saturn w/o rings, almost, on 16 July).
The eclipse of 45 Capricorni by Jupiter (technically an occultation) takes place in the night of 3/4 August for Europe, and the IOTA-ES has put a lot of information here; more accounts can be found here and here. Many experienced observers are already preparing for the difficult observation (best done with a large scope and a methane filter to suppress Jupiter's glare). Here are a paper and another one on two previous stellar occultations by Jupiter and what could be learned from them - and this paper shows how much science occultation lightcurves can contain, in the case of Pluto.
The eclipse of the century has led to many more web pages than mentioned 5 days ago, some new, some only found now. From Space we have images from Chandrayaan of the shadow on Earth as seen from lunar orbit (also discussed here) and the view from Terra and MTSAT. We also have the final prediction - made July 19 - of the corona shape. Observing reports and pictures: From Emei Shan clouds. From Chengdu clouds. From Chongqing pictures, more and more pictures (series). From Wuhan a slide show and corona composite, a report, pictures (more from that trip and some processing attempts, another report, also here) and more pictures 1, 2 and 3. From Anji a report.
From Wuzhen the picture report by yours truly is now complete with chemical pictures (and there is a trip timeline with more picture pages linked) while here a nice corona from the same location is seen. From the western water town come this, this and this report. From Jinshan a report and another one, from Hangzhou a report, from Ningbo pictures and from Shanghai a report and another one. From the Costa Classica (which had the clearest skies of all) pictures here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here, from the Gauguin a report and also some partial impressions, general thoughts (more and mehr), a TV report and a cartoon, very true ... :-)
In other news the night of 14/15 July seems to have been a major one for noctilucent clouds around the globe as reports here, here (by yours truly - from a plane over Russia), here, here, here, here, here and here, the picture pages here, here and here and stories here and here indicate. Almost every night something happens, however: Here are also reports of NLCs in the night 13/14 July (more), 12/13 July (the view from Hersel) and June (more from 18 June). Plus we have occasional volcanic effects.
• Currently there is a meteorite hunt in the U.S. locations underway, with the "Mason-Dixon fireball over Maryland - early reports, video, more, more - the newer case, also involving a strange photo through a telescope. Another fresh meteorite discovery in April apparently led to some controversy as reports here, here and here indicate - meteorites can be big business ... • Finally a story on a Japanese SN hunter, advice on a clever sun viewer (if there only was something to view on it!), a cool ISS in front of the Sun picture, an ISS/Progress sighting and more Galaxy Zoo successes.
The eclipse of Epsilon Aurigae - already discussed a year ago and introduced also here and here has actually begun - kind of. A spectroscopic precursor was first seen on 20 July when a new absorption feature appeared, belonging to the mystery occulting object. The brightness of the star in the visible seems to hold at 3.0 mag., though, but could begin its 0.75 mag. decline any day now. • Meanwhile the Moon occulted Antares on 31 July and the Plejades on 18 July. And the mutual events of the Jovian satellites continue, as videos here and here show (plus Jupiter on 5 July with spots and Saturn w/o rings, almost, on 16 July).
The eclipse of 45 Capricorni by Jupiter (technically an occultation) takes place in the night of 3/4 August for Europe, and the IOTA-ES has put a lot of information here; more accounts can be found here and here. Many experienced observers are already preparing for the difficult observation (best done with a large scope and a methane filter to suppress Jupiter's glare). Here are a paper and another one on two previous stellar occultations by Jupiter and what could be learned from them - and this paper shows how much science occultation lightcurves can contain, in the case of Pluto.
The eclipse of the century has led to many more web pages than mentioned 5 days ago, some new, some only found now. From Space we have images from Chandrayaan of the shadow on Earth as seen from lunar orbit (also discussed here) and the view from Terra and MTSAT. We also have the final prediction - made July 19 - of the corona shape. Observing reports and pictures: From Emei Shan clouds. From Chengdu clouds. From Chongqing pictures, more and more pictures (series). From Wuhan a slide show and corona composite, a report, pictures (more from that trip and some processing attempts, another report, also here) and more pictures 1, 2 and 3. From Anji a report.
From Wuzhen the picture report by yours truly is now complete with chemical pictures (and there is a trip timeline with more picture pages linked) while here a nice corona from the same location is seen. From the western water town come this, this and this report. From Jinshan a report and another one, from Hangzhou a report, from Ningbo pictures and from Shanghai a report and another one. From the Costa Classica (which had the clearest skies of all) pictures here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here, from the Gauguin a report and also some partial impressions, general thoughts (more and mehr), a TV report and a cartoon, very true ... :-)
In other news the night of 14/15 July seems to have been a major one for noctilucent clouds around the globe as reports here, here (by yours truly - from a plane over Russia), here, here, here, here, here and here, the picture pages here, here and here and stories here and here indicate. Almost every night something happens, however: Here are also reports of NLCs in the night 13/14 July (more), 12/13 July (the view from Hersel) and June (more from 18 June). Plus we have occasional volcanic effects.
• Currently there is a meteorite hunt in the U.S. locations underway, with the "Mason-Dixon fireball over Maryland - early reports, video, more, more - the newer case, also involving a strange photo through a telescope. Another fresh meteorite discovery in April apparently led to some controversy as reports here, here and here indicate - meteorites can be big business ... • Finally a story on a Japanese SN hunter, advice on a clever sun viewer (if there only was something to view on it!), a cool ISS in front of the Sun picture, an ISS/Progress sighting and more Galaxy Zoo successes.
Monday, July 27, 2009
Longest total eclipse of the century - seen by some, missed by many
As had been widely expected, due to the southernness of the totality track and Asia's monsoon, only a fraction of the hundreds of millions living in the zone (or of the tens of thousands who came to visit) actually saw the total solar eclipse on 22 July 2009, though all got to experience often over five minutes of darkness. The deluge of pre-event stories can be found here - here is a first round-up of links five days after the event that won't be topped in length until 2132. As will be seen, clear views were abundant especially around Varanasi in India and between Chongqing and Wuhan in China, though isolated spots in Eastern China also had good views - with the notable exception of the mega-city of Shanghai where it rained during totality. Out in the Pacific there were also successes. Particularly recommended links in the following collection are in italics!
Picture collections in different styles were prepared e.g. by the Boston Globe and the Sacramento Bee (both extra large!), SpaceWeather, Flickr (more), Nat'l Geographic, the BBC, Novosti, the New York Times, the Economic Times (India), the Telegraph, German.china.org, MSN, IMAM, MSNBC and Discovery (Flash slide-show) - and there were some thoughts on eclipse photographs as such plus a sampling of Flickr goodies (more). Much more material, though, can be found in individual reports & pictures:
From Varanasi (where the clouds cleared just in time) we have a stunning multi sequence, the corona, a picture sequence, another and another one as well as an AFP pic (another and another one), a news story and early and later and detailled reports. From other Indian places come reports from Surat and from Bihar (also a long article and a picture). Also a news story from an eclipse flight (another, another, another, a report, a blog report and a press release) and another scientific two. And more coverage of the eclipse in India in general here, here, here, here.
From Nepal we have a a blog report, from Bhutan another a blog report and a totality pic and from Tibet some pictures & links. From Chongquing or nearby come a report w/pics, the diamond ring at 2nd contact, a wide-angle view during totality and a Xinhua pic. From or near Yichang we have a long story w/pics in Spanish, a report in English and a quoted tweet, while from Changsha a Reuters pic came.
From Wuhan we have a striking wide-angle view (another and another one), corona composite (another one) and more pics, a picture series, a Flickr Stream, another picture series (100 km SW of Wuhan) and more pictures of Baily's Beads at 2nd contact, a hazy and a pretty clear corona, a wide-angle and a fish-eye view during totality and the inner corona & prominences close to 3rd contact. Plus a 9-min video and CCTV on public reax. From Huangzhou come a blog report, from Anqing a picture series w/prominence detail and a report and from Huangshan a blog report and a corona.
From Tianhuangping - site of a major scientific expedition from the U.S. - we have a Williams College Press Release, a NYT blog (note the earlier posts linked there; also this and this one) and fine corona pictures. From Anji come a corona pic, more pics and a wire report on successful Indian experiments there, and from Hangzhou we have a nice contact picture and another picture plus a German radio report.
From Wuzhen - where yours truly was located - we have my pictures and reports and more from the same site by B. Brinkmann and K. Schulze-Frerichs as well as a video clip of 2nd contact. There are also some impressions from Water town west with a video clip, an i-report and a TwitPic. From Jiaxing come an Austrian media story, from Suzhou pictures and a German blog entry and from Sheshan a U.S. magazine's report (by a Shanghai blogger).
From rainy Shanghai little of substance was found other than a wide-angle view of the dreadful sky, a German newspaper's account and a confused blogger's (another one). From cloudy Yangshan a report. From large unsuccessful Jinshan on the coast we have a long, a short, another short and a German blog report, some some pictures without and some with the corona and a long slide show. From over the Hangzhou bridge come a report, from Ningbo a Univ. of Nottingham Press Release, a blog report and another one with a video and from Putuoshan island a picture series.
From Japan we have a blog report from Tanegashima and a picture collection. From the ill-fated Costa Allegra ship comes a blog report (and there's a comment on that cruise). From the Marshall Islands we have a report w/pics from Enewetak and a Radio NZ story, from the Northern Cook Islands a great picture of the low Sun (also see the others in the stream) and from Kiribati a report w/pics and another one.
From space come to us a dramatic shadow movie from MTSAT-1R at slow pace as well as pretty hectic, plus two still images of the shadow (also here, here, hier und hier). We also have a deep partial eclipse by Hinode in X-rays (more) and effects of the eclipse on the Koronas-Foton and Fermi satellites. From outside totality on Earth there are a video from Badaling on the Great Wall and reports from Shenzhen, Beijing (more), Xinjiang, Taiwan, Brunei, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Hawaii, Kagoshima and Tokyo. And from outside even partiality online impressions from Germany (earlier).
Further news coverage can be found in a China Daily package as well as here (more), here, here (with links to many other stories like this or this one), here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, hier, hier, hier, hier, hier and hier (mehr, mehr und mehr). Specific articles deal with zoo animals in China (more, also from India; more and more), tidal effects, improvised filters, a magnet storm, the eclipse in a movie, the usual speculations from a certain magazine and an old eclipse inscription claim. And then there were a commentary and a satire ...
Picture collections in different styles were prepared e.g. by the Boston Globe and the Sacramento Bee (both extra large!), SpaceWeather, Flickr (more), Nat'l Geographic, the BBC, Novosti, the New York Times, the Economic Times (India), the Telegraph, German.china.org, MSN, IMAM, MSNBC and Discovery (Flash slide-show) - and there were some thoughts on eclipse photographs as such plus a sampling of Flickr goodies (more). Much more material, though, can be found in individual reports & pictures:
From Varanasi (where the clouds cleared just in time) we have a stunning multi sequence, the corona, a picture sequence, another and another one as well as an AFP pic (another and another one), a news story and early and later and detailled reports. From other Indian places come reports from Surat and from Bihar (also a long article and a picture). Also a news story from an eclipse flight (another, another, another, a report, a blog report and a press release) and another scientific two. And more coverage of the eclipse in India in general here, here, here, here.
From Nepal we have a a blog report, from Bhutan another a blog report and a totality pic and from Tibet some pictures & links. From Chongquing or nearby come a report w/pics, the diamond ring at 2nd contact, a wide-angle view during totality and a Xinhua pic. From or near Yichang we have a long story w/pics in Spanish, a report in English and a quoted tweet, while from Changsha a Reuters pic came.
From Wuhan we have a striking wide-angle view (another and another one), corona composite (another one) and more pics, a picture series, a Flickr Stream, another picture series (100 km SW of Wuhan) and more pictures of Baily's Beads at 2nd contact, a hazy and a pretty clear corona, a wide-angle and a fish-eye view during totality and the inner corona & prominences close to 3rd contact. Plus a 9-min video and CCTV on public reax. From Huangzhou come a blog report, from Anqing a picture series w/prominence detail and a report and from Huangshan a blog report and a corona.
From Tianhuangping - site of a major scientific expedition from the U.S. - we have a Williams College Press Release, a NYT blog (note the earlier posts linked there; also this and this one) and fine corona pictures. From Anji come a corona pic, more pics and a wire report on successful Indian experiments there, and from Hangzhou we have a nice contact picture and another picture plus a German radio report.
From Wuzhen - where yours truly was located - we have my pictures and reports and more from the same site by B. Brinkmann and K. Schulze-Frerichs as well as a video clip of 2nd contact. There are also some impressions from Water town west with a video clip, an i-report and a TwitPic. From Jiaxing come an Austrian media story, from Suzhou pictures and a German blog entry and from Sheshan a U.S. magazine's report (by a Shanghai blogger).
From rainy Shanghai little of substance was found other than a wide-angle view of the dreadful sky, a German newspaper's account and a confused blogger's (another one). From cloudy Yangshan a report. From large unsuccessful Jinshan on the coast we have a long, a short, another short and a German blog report, some some pictures without and some with the corona and a long slide show. From over the Hangzhou bridge come a report, from Ningbo a Univ. of Nottingham Press Release, a blog report and another one with a video and from Putuoshan island a picture series.
From Japan we have a blog report from Tanegashima and a picture collection. From the ill-fated Costa Allegra ship comes a blog report (and there's a comment on that cruise). From the Marshall Islands we have a report w/pics from Enewetak and a Radio NZ story, from the Northern Cook Islands a great picture of the low Sun (also see the others in the stream) and from Kiribati a report w/pics and another one.
From space come to us a dramatic shadow movie from MTSAT-1R at slow pace as well as pretty hectic, plus two still images of the shadow (also here, here, hier und hier). We also have a deep partial eclipse by Hinode in X-rays (more) and effects of the eclipse on the Koronas-Foton and Fermi satellites. From outside totality on Earth there are a video from Badaling on the Great Wall and reports from Shenzhen, Beijing (more), Xinjiang, Taiwan, Brunei, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Hawaii, Kagoshima and Tokyo. And from outside even partiality online impressions from Germany (earlier).
Further news coverage can be found in a China Daily package as well as here (more), here, here (with links to many other stories like this or this one), here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, hier, hier, hier, hier, hier and hier (mehr, mehr und mehr). Specific articles deal with zoo animals in China (more, also from India; more and more), tidal effects, improvised filters, a magnet storm, the eclipse in a movie, the usual speculations from a certain magazine and an old eclipse inscription claim. And then there were a commentary and a satire ...
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Best sunspot in years opens month with record-long solar eclipse
Just weeks after a detailled model predicted the return of sunspots the best one since about two years actually appeared and evolved for a few days before starting to decay: Here are pictures of AR 11024 from July 7 (more), July 6 (more), July 5 (more, more and many more) and July 4 (more, more, more and more); already in early June some activity was seen. Fittingly the Sun "idiots" book has recently become available online for free (also here). The pick-up in solar activity is a good start for a month that also featured the smallest full Moon today that came combined with a very partial lunar eclipse which probably went largely unobserved - but will be followed by the longest total solar eclipse of the 21st century. Previews of July 2009's sky events can be found here, hier and here, with the most notable being
In other news the first meteorites from the Arizona fireball have been found! There are also updates about the bolide itself - what it looked and sounded like, plus video & pics - from June 29, 27 and 25 and another newspaper story. • New analysis has become available about the Steinheimer Becken impact crater in Germany, which was apparently an iron body and unrelated to the Ries impactor (another story) and the Vitim impact from 2002. • Nice comet pictures show C/2005 L3 (McNaught) very close to a galaxy (the scene 2 days earlier), 22P/Kopff with a long tail, C/2008 Q3 (Garradd) and C/2006 W3 (Christensen).
• Planet-wise the NEB action on Jupiter (this blog quoted!) as an animation, another "ad" for the mutual events of Jupiter's moons and the darkening of Saturn's rings documented while the Sun moves into the ring plane. • Three personal stories involving Alan Hale and a young SN discoverer and a weird "solargraph" picture. • Finally many have imaged the LCROSS spacecraft as results here, here, here and here show - the old Apollo missions, by the way, were also observed by telescopes on Earth.
- July 10: Jupiter and Neptune only 1/2 degree apart (with Jupiter 12,000 times brighter), an event that will be watched as Galilei once saw the same!
- July 18: Another Pleiades occultation by the Moon, visible from Europe.
- July 22: Total eclipse of the Sun, visible from India, China and the Pacific - this page has all the links you could possibly want about it! On the occasion of this extra-long eclipse we also have the winners of a logo contest, a big and a shorter review of science at eclipses, a portrait of an eclipse scientist and her adventures and the IAU eclipse dictionary.
- July 28: The Southern Delta-Aquarid meteors peak, should reach 10...20 meteors/hour. Alpha-Capricornids and early Perseids can also be seen.
- July 31: The Moon occults Antares in parts of the world.
In other news the first meteorites from the Arizona fireball have been found! There are also updates about the bolide itself - what it looked and sounded like, plus video & pics - from June 29, 27 and 25 and another newspaper story. • New analysis has become available about the Steinheimer Becken impact crater in Germany, which was apparently an iron body and unrelated to the Ries impactor (another story) and the Vitim impact from 2002. • Nice comet pictures show C/2005 L3 (McNaught) very close to a galaxy (the scene 2 days earlier), 22P/Kopff with a long tail, C/2008 Q3 (Garradd) and C/2006 W3 (Christensen).
• Planet-wise the NEB action on Jupiter (this blog quoted!) as an animation, another "ad" for the mutual events of Jupiter's moons and the darkening of Saturn's rings documented while the Sun moves into the ring plane. • Three personal stories involving Alan Hale and a young SN discoverer and a weird "solargraph" picture. • Finally many have imaged the LCROSS spacecraft as results here, here, here and here show - the old Apollo missions, by the way, were also observed by telescopes on Earth.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
A lot of noctilucent cloud activity over Europe in recent days
The top story for the past three weeks is not entirely cosmic but nearly so: it's noctilucent clouds (NLCs) at over 80 km altitude, just where space is about to begin. This phenomenon (also good for a headline :-) has made news and even today's APOD and is filling up numerous picture galleries. Here are some selected reports and pictures from the evening of June 23 in Germany (also see the following pages; more), June 20 onwards, the morning of June 18 in the UK (more), the evening of June 17 in the UK (more and more), the evening of June 16 in Germany (more, more and more), Austria and the UK (more) and the morning of June 16 in the UK (more).
In planetary news there is a possible new red spot on Jupiter (seen also on June 23), we have a hi-res pic of Ganymede in front of it and further mutual event observations of June 10 (video and lightcurve) and June 2. Meanwhile the rings of Saturn have faded quite dramatically. • Constellation-wise here are on June 21 the Moon on June 21 from the U.S., the Moon and Mercury from Oz and the Moon and Pleiades from NZ, on June 20 up to three planets and the Moon from the U.S., from Germany (more), India (more and more) and Oz and June 19 the view from Canada (great pic!) and Oz. Also a Moon/Antares conjunction and an occultation - though in 2005.
Meteor-, small-body- and impact-wise news came about a fireball in Arizona on June 23, one in New Mexico on June 19 (more) and probably another one over the UK on June 15 (though initial reports were rather confusing). Also a fine fireball picture - and a vague prediction of a meteor superstorm in 2022, caused by comet SW3 which is to be found on this site. • The UK will get a telescope to hunt for NEOs while early-warning satellite data of bolides are no longer available to astronomers (who not all say it's a major blow, by the way).
• Some real meteorite stories regarding Camp Verde and Barringer - and then there was an obvious hoax story about a German boy being hit by a meteorite which then caused a crater in a road: The newspaper responsible for breaking (pun intended) the story has since quietly deleted it from its website but it lives on here (as does a sidebar), but by then it was big international news. Some individual stories here (from a German tabloid), here, here, here and here and online discussion here, here, here, here and here. Staying on the fringe, here, here, here and here we have a discussion of the likelyhood that a meteorite hits a plane in mid-air.
• A new comet named P/2009 L2 (Yang-Gao) is another Chinese amateur discovery: Here are a great pic of June 17 with a DSO and pics of June 21 and June 23. Just as in Feb. 2008 (see here and the preceding posts) the Chinese made the discovery public even before the comet was official - and the response from around the world was swift: Within hours picture after picture after picture after picture after picture after picture came in. • Other interesting current comets: Borrelly on June 12, Garradd on June 22 and June 16 and with a DSO and Christensen on June 21, June 20 (also an animation), June 18, June 15, June 14 and June 13.
In other news it has come out that Spica is an eclipsing binary, the Epsilon Aurigae campaign is making news here, here, here and here, the proper motion of Barnard's Star has been imaged over just 3 years, and we have amateur photometry of exoplanets TrES-3b (more) and CoRoT-2b. • There are now two spots on the Sun (also a prominence on June 13 and more June Sun pics), here are 30 great aurora pics, the aurora from space, an amazing picture of a sprite and a nice green flash. • The AMA has (see p. 52-3) accepted light pollution as a medical problem! • And finally a record-size lunar mosaic, an interview with D. Malin the astrophoto genius, 5 great telescopes for amateurs, an amateur's journey of 5 years, observing with a 30" telescope - and how astronomy is like sailing ...
In planetary news there is a possible new red spot on Jupiter (seen also on June 23), we have a hi-res pic of Ganymede in front of it and further mutual event observations of June 10 (video and lightcurve) and June 2. Meanwhile the rings of Saturn have faded quite dramatically. • Constellation-wise here are on June 21 the Moon on June 21 from the U.S., the Moon and Mercury from Oz and the Moon and Pleiades from NZ, on June 20 up to three planets and the Moon from the U.S., from Germany (more), India (more and more) and Oz and June 19 the view from Canada (great pic!) and Oz. Also a Moon/Antares conjunction and an occultation - though in 2005.
Meteor-, small-body- and impact-wise news came about a fireball in Arizona on June 23, one in New Mexico on June 19 (more) and probably another one over the UK on June 15 (though initial reports were rather confusing). Also a fine fireball picture - and a vague prediction of a meteor superstorm in 2022, caused by comet SW3 which is to be found on this site. • The UK will get a telescope to hunt for NEOs while early-warning satellite data of bolides are no longer available to astronomers (who not all say it's a major blow, by the way).
• Some real meteorite stories regarding Camp Verde and Barringer - and then there was an obvious hoax story about a German boy being hit by a meteorite which then caused a crater in a road: The newspaper responsible for breaking (pun intended) the story has since quietly deleted it from its website but it lives on here (as does a sidebar), but by then it was big international news. Some individual stories here (from a German tabloid), here, here, here and here and online discussion here, here, here, here and here. Staying on the fringe, here, here, here and here we have a discussion of the likelyhood that a meteorite hits a plane in mid-air.
• A new comet named P/2009 L2 (Yang-Gao) is another Chinese amateur discovery: Here are a great pic of June 17 with a DSO and pics of June 21 and June 23. Just as in Feb. 2008 (see here and the preceding posts) the Chinese made the discovery public even before the comet was official - and the response from around the world was swift: Within hours picture after picture after picture after picture after picture after picture came in. • Other interesting current comets: Borrelly on June 12, Garradd on June 22 and June 16 and with a DSO and Christensen on June 21, June 20 (also an animation), June 18, June 15, June 14 and June 13.
In other news it has come out that Spica is an eclipsing binary, the Epsilon Aurigae campaign is making news here, here, here and here, the proper motion of Barnard's Star has been imaged over just 3 years, and we have amateur photometry of exoplanets TrES-3b (more) and CoRoT-2b. • There are now two spots on the Sun (also a prominence on June 13 and more June Sun pics), here are 30 great aurora pics, the aurora from space, an amazing picture of a sprite and a nice green flash. • The AMA has (see p. 52-3) accepted light pollution as a medical problem! • And finally a record-size lunar mosaic, an interview with D. Malin the astrophoto genius, 5 great telescopes for amateurs, an amateur's journey of 5 years, observing with a 30" telescope - and how astronomy is like sailing ...
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