Lots more fine pictures, videos, image collections of the trio & conjunction - and a related detective story ...

have appeared since the first summary appeared here - it was actually linked to in this summary. Picture collections include big ones here, here and here and smaller ones like this and this. Individual pictures published or found since are from Dec. 3 from India and Australia, from Dec. 2 from Germany (scroll down) and Australia and from Dec. 1 from the U.S. (where others just saw it or didn't), Europe (more) with videos from the Netherlands and Austria and pictures from Austria (more, more, more, more and more), Germany (where many saw nothing, though), N. Ireland, Scotland and England, from Morocco and India, namely Mumbai and the Old Fort in Delhi (incl. the next two elements and a multi-day-picture).

And then there was this picture of Nov. 30 from Edwards AFB with the trio over Endeavour (just as it was seen that evening over LA). Originally NASA named this picture "The Setting Sun," and the caption claimed: "The setting sun casts long shadows over space shuttle Endeavour as technicians prepare to move the orbiter from the runway at Edwards Air Force Base where it landed Sunday, Nov. 30" - but how could one unmanipulated shot capture both the Sun and Venus and Jupiter? A big debate ensued on the German amateur astronomy mailing lists Astro and Planetenbeobachter where this blogger had raised questions about the image: First some claimed prematurely that such a picture would easily be possible "if you understood your camera" but the pictures they posted were in fact taken after sunset or poorly documented.

Then others found out that the bright light in the NASA picture could not be the Sun after all: it was in a wrong angle w.r.t. Endeavour's runway, the diverging shadow was evidence for close light source and the "Sun" was too close to the Moon & planets (as someone actually measured from the image). This blogger had already sent a request for details to the Dryden PAO and got a quick response from the actual NASA photographer which included the time the picture was taken: 5:09 PST. It was then easy to calculate that the Sun was 6° below the horizon: The bright light was thus a nearby floodlight and the visibility of Venus and Jupiter was what one would expect at dusk. "Sir, You are indeed correct! Thank you for pointing out that error," the Dryden PAO replied when told of the 'research' result: "I will work to get it corrected." Which has been done - the caption now says: "Floodlights cast long shadows, like a setting sun" ...

In other news here are many more pictures of the fresh Canadian meteorites which include a really big one. • The prognosis of 500 Leonids/hour in 2009 has now also reached NASA where it was apparently confirmed. • There is a Nova Sgr of perhaps 7th magnitude. • The NASA Circular on the two eclipses of 2010 is out as are the individual data for the ASE and the TSE - the weather statistics esp. for the ASE had already caused some debate in October. • Omega Centauri with really many pixels from an 2.2 m groundbased scope (also hailed here and here) - and M 13 from Hubble, also a new release without new science. • Finally another light pollution story in a normal paper - and a kind of sonification of the Arecibo message ...