Planet show continued: the Venus/Jupiter/Mercury trio

As they say: "The cosmic ballet goes on," with the morning planets moving into new shapes every day. Further impressions - now with a Venus/Jupiter/Mercury triangle - of May 15 from Australia (scroll down), of May 14 from South Africa, Malaysia and the Philippines, of May 13 from South Africa and Australia (more, more [details], more), of May 12 from the U.S. (more, more), Canada, Poland (at 50° North!), Israel, Iran and Australia (more, cloudy) and of May 11 from Uruguay, Canada, the U.S., the Canary Islands, Spain, Italy, Austria, Poland, Israel, Indonesia and Australia. • Plus a rare drawing of Saturn from May 12.

In other news new faint comets C/2011 J2 and C/2011 H1, plus the demise of the latest SOHO comet (also an animation [bottom]; more, more). • Dubious stories about a meteor bang w/o a meteor and a meteorite crater w/o a meteorite (more). • A paper on the high solar activity in Nov. 2003 and a new warning system from Germany. • Pictures of SN 2011by of May 12 (another close-up), May 7 and May 4 - while T Pyx is near its peak now. • The ISS on the Sun. • More coverage of the new big sky mosaic (final graf) here, here, here and here - and all three mosaics in direct comparision. • And how amateur astronomy has benefited from the unrelenting advance of technology.

Great morning planets show seen around the clock around the world

The line-ups & conjunctions of four naked-eye planets just west of the Sun - see also here, here, here, here, here, here and here plus an animation; a close Venus/Jupiter conjunction on May 11 & 12 is the next highlight - have been a great show in Southern and extremely tough to see in mid-Northern latitudes. Here are impressions of May 9 from Argentina, California and Australia, of May 8 from Austria, Jordan, Turkey and Australia (again), of May 7 from Chile, Italy, Austria (daytime close-ups!) and Tasmania, of May 6 from the U.S. and Austria, of May 5 from Argentina and Australia, of May 4 from Australia, of May 3 from Australia, of May 2 from Chile, of May 1 from Chile (cropped), the U.K., Australia (again and again) and the Philippines, of April 30 from Florida and Venezuela and of April 29 from New Zealand.

In small bodies news a big paper on how to get asteroid shapes from lightcurves and stellar occultations, the funny lightcurve of 2010 TU5, another 2005 YU55 press release (picked up here and here) and a long German story on NEO defense. • In Poland a meteorite hit a house (more, more and more) and a new mineral - named krotite - has been found in a meteorite. • There is a 3rd mag. Kreutz comet in this May 10 SOHO image at 7 o'clock (earlier today), comet Elenin on May 4, May 3 (more) and more dates, with absurdly high, optimistic and pessimistic predictions around, and new comet websites with hot visual estimates and Argentinian pictures.

In other news The H-Alpha Sun on May 3 and a geostorm on April 30. • T Pyxidis might be fading after brightening (another report). • SN 2011by has risen to 12.3 mag. as many confirm. • Eps Aurigae is now in egress with the eclipse soon over - and a lot of science results left behind. • Two more fine sky timelapse movies from the Canary Islands and Greece. • Close-ups of NanoSail D here and here, a Brasilian reentry video, explained here and here (more and more on the satellite), a Russian sky show after a launch, explained here and hier - and a close-up of USA 129, a U.S. spysat.

Four planets (and the Moon) in action in the May morning sky - and a nice supernova!

While the play of the planets - Mercury, Venus, Mars & Jupiter - is best seen from moderate Northern and esp. Southern latitudes, the supernova in the Big Dipper is ideally placed for Northerners. It was discovered very early, at 14th magnitude, and could rise to 12th - which would be pretty rare - during the coming week. Of all planets still only Saturn (a nice April 19 pic and several of the ongoing storm) is easily seen from everywhere, while the other four naked eye planets are so close to and west of the Sun that you need a either a steep ecliptic (like in this Australian view from April 26) or binoculars to see them and esp. the various conjunctions of between them, listed below. Some key dates:

• April 30 & May 1: The waning crescent Moon joins the morning planet line-up - simulated April 30 sky views for Australia and later California and the view on May 1 for Germany. On May 1 Mars is 21' north of Jupiter.
  
  
• Around May 3: Possible 12 mag. peak of Supernova 2011by in NGC 3972 in UMa; here are the Chinese discovery picture and a color view.
  
  
• May 6: Peak of the Eta Aquarids, like the planet show something great only for Southern observers.
  
  
• May 8: Mercury 1.5° south of Venus.
  
  
• May 11: Mercury 2° south of Jupiter and Venus 34' south of Jupiter (thus a planet trio).
  
  
• May 18: Mercury 1.3° south of Venus.
  
  
• May 21: Mercury 2° south of Mars.
  
  
• May 23: Venus 1° south of Mars (another planet trio, with Mercury).
  
  
• May 31: The Moon is once more close to the morning planets.

In other news comet Hale-Bopp has been seen at 30.7 AU from the Sun, a new distance record, there is a 2nd paper on the Scheila outburst (discussed here, here, here and here together with the first), and the outburst of comet 240P is ongoing, in different phases. • Asteroid 2011 HS showed a wild lightcurve (pics one, two and three) and is probably tumbling while features on Lutetia has been named. • A meteorite shower helped finance a school, while meteorite collectors claim they are good guys. • A report on a reference observation for (not) understanding a 1963 TLE, the Sun's AR 1195 on April 23, yet another huge sky mosaic (discussed here; two from 2009 were compared here), a sunset movie with several green segments - and the ISS in recent days, in high resolution, also animated and as trails.

Solar activity up sharply - and spots so big you can see them on simple sunset pictures!

Solar activity is now really taking off, and the monthly sunspot number values are up sharply in the NOAA diagram here - but since cycle #24 took off so late (as did important precursor events) the prognosis is still for a rather shallow maximum around 2013. There was a lot to see in recent days (and this forum alone is overflowing with images): On April 23 AR 1195 was so big that it appears inadvertendly in this simple sunset picture by yours truly! Also various hi-res H-Alpha scenes and AR 1193 in hi-res on April 20, the white light Sun on April 17, more sunset spots on April 15, a great prominence animation of April 10 and R.A.S. press releases on a coronal mass ejection on March 20, the big solar flare of Feb. 15 (also discussed here and here), the birth of a sunspot, analysis of SDO data and the solar eruption process (also discussed here); at the meeting where these came from the chance of a new Maunder minimum was also discussed. There is also a weird paper on how bacteria in India enjoyed the 2010 annular eclipse, while the webzine TOTALITY! #10 has some 40 pages on the 2010 total eclipse, including a report by yours truly.

In other solar system news here's Saturn on April 17 and April 16 and the - again very big - full moon of April 17 rising and setting. The tables here are helpful in finding future perigee and apogee full moons. • A paper and another one on carbon monoxide in Pluto's atmosphere, also discussed here, here, here, here, hier, hier and hier. • Of the 2011 GP95 NEA fly-by a newer and an older video - and another interesting case coming up on June 2! • Regarding comets, a mini-video of 249P in STEREO's FOV, ideas on Main Belt Comets and the poor show so far by comet Elenin (which also got an article and a FAQ debunking related BS). This blogger also became aware of this 2007 report from the ISS where sensational comet McNaught was apparently only seen "by chance": This is a scandal, plain and simple!

Beyond the solar system recurrent nova T Pyxidis has now settled around 7th mag. after brightening steadily and may yet reach 6th mag.! There are also some spectra - and IR photometry of Eps Aurigae. • The STEREO spacecraft has found a lot of new variable stars, also hailed in this and this press release. • Back on Earth three more great timelapse videos: from Tenerife (mentioned here; the light pollution is quite obvious), Mauna Kea (night of April 23 - great mountain shadow triangle and lens flares, also hailed here) and the continental U.S. (with a moving dolly). • What the AIM satellite found out about noctilucent clouds. • The ISS, imaged from Witten passing high on April 24 (parallel shot from Bonn) and rising vertically on April 23 by yours truly. • The NanoSail D is still up and seen occasionally (see also the Cosmic Mirror #341 header), sometimes pretty bright - and the reentry may not come before July. • And a long table of Easter dates: While having E Sunday on the 2nd-latest date (April 24 as this year) is twice is frequent as hitting the very last day, the two 24 Apr dates framing 2011 are in 2095 and were in 1859, the two 25 Apr dates are in 2038 and 1943, resp. - small number statistics.

50-meter asteroid close to Earth now - with 2 mag. brightness changes

As this posting goes online, 50-meter NEA 2011 GP59 is closest to Earth at 530,000 km, one week after its discovery by an amateur-run sky survey in Spain. This is (or rather was; the optimal visibility was yesterday, with 13 mag. as compared to 14 mag. now) the best NEA Earth visit in several years, and the object has been observed a lot in the past days: Of particular interest were strong brightness fluctuations every four minutes, due to the - probably non-trivial - rotation of the elongated body.

• This is a NEA visit worth of some headlines, but most aren't as small ones come close all the time. The November visit of big 2005 YU55 is a different case, of course. • An asteroid on a long-lived horseshoe orbit 'around' Earth has been identified (another and another press release; some coverage here, here, here and hier. • A story on shady meteorite deals [alt.] has been attacked. • And yet another U.S. fireball that may have dropped.

Comet C/2011 C1 (McNaught) looks like a tiny Hartley 2, making it interesting for photographers: April 10 [alt.], April 5 and April 3 pictures. • The expectations for comet C/2010 X1 (Elenin) are still not clear (another and another story, a light curve with Russian debate - and it won't destroy Earth ...). • New comet C/2011 G1 (McNaught), more on the funny Holmes paper (more and more), a page with light curves and a paper on main-belt comets.

Tonight from 19 to 21 UTC photograph the Moon and the Aristarchus region in particular which was the location of a famous Transient Lunar Phenomenon in Oct. 1963. (And if you check the ground-to-air of Apollo 11 at 076:57:07 and 077:12:51 you see that an alleged Aristarchus TLP even played a little role in the famous mission and also featured in sect. 7:17 of the astronauts' debriefing.)

Great - literally! - Moon mosaics of April 10 (also 2 details by someone else), April 9 and April 8, the young crescent of April 4 from Germany (more) and Portugal, plus the waning crescent of March 3 from Cairns. • The Jovian moons in SOHO's view (animated; STEREO had a better view in the past). • And Saturn on April 3 and - hold your breath! - March 28!

More action on the Sun on April 11/12 (CME video), April 11 (H-Alpha edge), April 10 (hi-res mosaic; also a detail; the fish was gone soon :-), April 6 (prominence video); also various April prominences, a March SDO timelapse movie and March 21 H-Alpha hi-res views. Plus the general rise in solar activity, and the little ice age. • Lots of solar eclipse stories in the Feb. 2011 Practical Astronomy, a great totality earthshine from 2008 - and total eclipses of the next 50 years in one map.

T Pyxidis is in outburst, the first time since 1966 (more, more and mehr). • The brightness of Eps Aur is rising steeply now (also the 8th newsletter). • Also stories on SN 2011az and the Z Cam campaign by the AAVSO. • And an article on a Deep Sky meeting in Linz.

A collection of great aurora pictures from the AuroraMAX camera system (discussed here), an aurora timelapse from an airplane (discussed here) and yet another aurora video. • Without aurorae night timelapse clips from India and South Dakota. • And the analysis of the Iceland volcano ash [Deutsch] over Europe a year ago.

Saturn reaches opposition, brightness of rings may surge

About 24 hours from now - around 0:00 UTC on April 4 - Saturn reaches the opposition point to the Sun: several effects conspire now to brighten the rings, and some observers claim the phenomenon is already detectable. Some recent amateur observations of March 30, 25, 23, 22, 21/22 (with spokes), 21 and 20, plus a mid-March Hubble image with more storm detail. • Other sky sky highlights in April include Uranus' crossing of the celestial equator - but this is purely academic as the planet cannot be observed right now. And the visibility of all planets except Saturn is very poor to non-existent this month. There is another opportunity to observe a pretty young lunar crescent on April 4 for Northern hemispherians, however.

A look back at Mercury (and Jupiter) low at dusk on March 23 (Germany), March 22 (AZ and Austria), March 19 (Germany: Cologne and herten and March 16 (Sweden), plus a note on Jupiter's SEB return. • Lots of fine pictures of the March 19 perigee full moon are linked here, some collections included.

In small bodies news an analysis of Elenin (still mildly optimistic for fall) and a March 25 picture, some jets of 29P in outburst, new comet C/2011 F1 (LINEAR), a funny paper on the Holmes outburst, a serious paper on the Scheila outburst, a bolide on March 23 (more), a claim of more fireballs in Northern spring and a call for observations regarding a possible Southern stream.

From the Sun a nice March 27 H-Alpha mosaic, SDO action on March 24, various March pics, a claim that maxima are always double and a good solar April fools joke (more space-related jokes of note here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, hier, here and here :-). • Some light intensity data from the 2009 TSE in India and a contemporary documentary (part 2 with the actual event) about TSE expeditions in 1973.

Elsewhere in the Universe the brightening of Epsilon Aurigae has begun. • A deeep image of the Virgo cluster. • Excellent aurora videos from Norway have turned up on Vimeo here, here (background) and here, also great stills from Norway again and Finland (another trip report, a big panorama and an allsky series). • A fine green flash and another one through a tree. • And finally the ISS in front of the Sun in new images here (with spots), here and here.

If you know your full moon you will note it is bigger than often on March 19!

As about everyone will have heard by now, the full moon of March 19 coincides with perigee and has thus the largest angular diameter in years. So will you note that fact by looking at it without optical help? Many bloggers, stories and even a NASA video tell you that you cannot and will notice a particular size of the March 19 full moon only because you either knew about it or because the moon illusion close to the horizon helps. But this is simply not true! Obviously these people have never tried for themselves - but this blogger did, inadvertendly and without knowing anything about its distance, when he watched the Feb. 17 full moon high in the sky and noted its unusual angular size. Then checking the ephemeris, the reason was obvious: perigee was close and the (topocentric) distance only 359,000 km! The full moon of March 19 will look exactly like that to the eye, so prepare for a beautiful show - and use it to e.g. try to see as much surface detail as possible with the naked eye. And if weather is bad, don't worry: The April full moon will be as close again as in February. So enjoy the show and forget about ridiculous articles like this or this, claiming links to natural distasters: even NASA responded; more rebuttals are here, here, here and here.

The Sun made more headlines in the past 10 days, e.g. with a fine Aurora on March 10 in Northern areas following a flare late on March 9 (more, more, more and more), lots of sunspots in white light on March 8 and action also on March 7 (wavelength crossfade animation, fast CME, lotta flares). There were again general articles on solar activity and even an OpEd by science advisors - with the strange claim that "the severity of future [solar] storms could be much greater than those experienced in recent decades". And the SDO saw a partial eclipse by the Earth; the fuzzy limb is caused by the latter's atmosphere. • Planet-wise some amateur pictures of the continuing huge storm on Saturn of March 14, March 12 and Feb. 23 (also animated) and Cassini close-ups of March 13 and Feb. 25/26. The return of Jupiter's SEB continues, and the planet met the Moon on March 7 (more and more) - when an amazing mosaic of the crescent was obtained by a Russian astrophotography wizard. The evening visibility of Mercury (close to Jupiter), seen on March 16, March 15 (more, more and more), March 14 (more, more), March 13 (more and more), March 11 and March 7/8; many more and still more pictures.

In other news excitement is building for a large asteroid's Earth visit in November while harmless Apophis is observed again after a gap, themes for features on Lutetia have been approved and the spectra of the meteorites from asteroid 2008 TC3 resemble certain dust around stars. Also a fireball in Canada and a distant picture of Hartley 2. • The long eclipse of Epsilon Aurigae should end now! • A cool video & picture series of green flash of the setting Sun. • And finally the space shuttle Discovery crossing the Sun on March 7 (more) and the ISS and Discovery crossing the Moon the same day. Plus an impressive (this blogger saw it in binoculars: like a little comet dust tail!) water dump by Discovery on March 8 as an animation and still (more plus story); the phenomenon can also be seen in this wide-field animation and this still; it may also cause the fuzziness of the trail here. And finally some ISS/Discovery trail pairs and a very long exposure, some hi-res views and many more linked from this article by yours truly.

Mercury evening show - aided by Jupiter - sky highlight in March

The best evening visibility of Mercury - for the Northern hemisphere, in 2011 - has just begun: The planet is still very close to the Sun but also very bright. In the coming days it'll fade but increase its elongation from the Sun (until the 23rd) - and on March 15 it will be only 2° from Jupiter which will help locate the elusive planet (which will receive its first artificial orbiter with MESSENGER on the 18th, by the way). This is clearly the main event of March 2011; for more see this, this and this story. • There were already nice constellations in recent days: the Moon & Jupiter on March 7 (Germany; U.K., Moon close-up)and March 6 (U.K.; more, Moon close-up, Austria, Moon close-up, Germany, Moon close-up, more), Jupiter close-up on March 5 and Moon & Venus on March 1 from the Philippines, India (more), Germany, the Canary Islands (daytime), the U.S. plus more. Also Saturn on Feb. 23 (movie).

In other news Comet Hartley 2 is still around but tiny, Elenin is still there, as are many other comets. • A meteor network, yet another obit for the Dryas impact claim, 19 NEAs in one night with PanSTARRS and more NEA studies. • The Sun in white light on March 7 and March 5, in Calcium light with a plane on Feb. 27, and a huge prominence on Feb. 24 (more, more, more). • Also a quick paper on the 1st X flare of the cycle, some ideas about weak cycle 23 (more, more, more, more, more, more, more, more, more, more, more and mehr) and numerous space weather stories here, here, here, here, here, hier and hier. And this is just what's flooding the net after a little action on the Sun ...

• Talking about the Sun, the SDO saw a funny partial eclipse on March 4 (more, more, more and more), there is a story on a little known Japanese eclipse flight during the last total eclipse in July 2010 in an Air Tahiti Nui magazine on PDF pages 33-34, and the weather analysis for the next total eclipse in Nov. 2012 in Oz has been updated. • The last flight of Discovery STS-133 has been amply documented by astrophotographers like Legault; other work is linked from this article. Also hot pics of Discovery and the ISS after undocking this evening from Germany (more and more) and one orbit later from the U.K. • Only sporadic observations of NanoSail are being reported, such as occasional flare pics and vids. • The AAVSO has received observation # 20 mio. (more). • And Leif Robinson has died (more).

Mighty flares, few aurorae (yet) - and lots of media confusion

It had to happen, after this long solar minimum: The moment activity picks up - with several M flares and even one with X-class in mid-February - the media go overboard with excitement, science institutions jump on the wagon to tout their related work, and it's up to sober bloggers to put it all into perspective ... Events in reverse oder: • There was an M flare on Feb. 18, and the sunspot groups 1161 and 1162 are causing waves of ionization in our ionosphere and should be watched carefully.

• The X-class flare on Feb. 15 (more and more) from AR 1158 was first thought to be capable of causing great effects (like in this report ...), but it didn't happen and predictions remain difficult, as e.g. this analysis points out (earlier) - more coverage here, here, here, here (earlier), here, here, here (earlier), here, here, here, hier and hier. • The M flare on Feb. 13 was covered e.g. here, here and here - and at the time was not the biggest of cycle. • Regarding solar activity also stories on the worldwide CALLISTO network and the role of IBEX as a monitor.

In other news a movie of a lunar flash (more details) recorded on Feb. 11, a pessimistic Elenin analysis (recent observations point to only +6 mag. at max.) and fireballs in Philadelphia (more) and Chicago (more). • Amateur analysis of Haumea and its lightcurve. • And a speculative paper on "a jovian mass solar companion in the Oort cloud" makes headlines (more, more, many more, mehr and mehr), so that eventually NASA had to comment on the (non-)issue ...

Closest non-impacting object in our asteroid catalog came by, changed direction by 60°

Asteroid 2011 CQ1 made a record close Earth approach on February 4th, 14 hours after its discovery. It passed to within 0.85 Earth radii (5480 km) of the Earth's surface: This 'flying sofa', only about one meter in diameter, is the closest non-impacting object in our asteroid catalog to date. Prior to the Earth close approach, this object was in a so-called Apollo-class orbit that was mostly outside the Earth's orbit. Following the close approach, the Earth's gravitational attraction modified the object's orbit to an Aten-class orbit where the asteroid spends almost all of its time inside the Earth's orbit. The close Earth approach changed the asteroid's flight path by about 60°. There are nearly a billion objects of this size and larger in near-Earth space and one would expect one to strike Earth's atmosphere every few weeks on average where they airburst; only rarely do even a few small fragments reach the ground.

In other small bodies news a paper describes the outcome of NEOWISE, the (full) mission of the WISE observatory. • Asteroid transits over planet disks are more frequent than one might think. • Rob McNaught's 58th comet has been discovered, also pics of a small comet near a galaxy and of Hartley 2 near M 50 (more). • A paper on human perception may be of relevance for visual meteor observers. • A nice fireball over Italy, also discussed here. • Debate over the first impact crater in China and the meaning of the Kamil structure for impact physics. • Regarding larger bodies, the storm on Saturn on Feb. 6 and Feb. 5 (plus a progress report, rather old Keck pics of the SEB revival on Jupiter and Jupiter & the Moon on Feb. 6.

In solar research we celebrate one year of the SDO in orbit. • Results on CME ripple structures and particle acceleration near Earth. • The two STEREO s/c are now seeing the entire Sun, als also hailed here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and hier. • How LOFAR saw the solar eclipse on Jan. 4 in radio. • A new sequence for SN 2011B. • A bright outburst of star (with a crazy name) and an outburst of Z Cam. • New insights into Eps Aur. • Amateur imaging of a z=6 object. • Some images of NanoSail D (also here and here), plus the flare geometry. • And finally, returning to SDO's launch a year ago, a new kind of halo effect triggered by its rocket.

The hunt is on for NanoSail D: some sightings, no major flares yet

The initial report of little solar sail NanoSail D's release from the FASTSAT were wrong ("Keinerlei Kontakt ..."), but a month later the nanosatellite spontaneously ejected after all and deployed its sail as planned, with the battery draining a few hours later ("Dem Nanosail ...), also as planned. Now an inert satellite experiment it's up to amateur astronomers to track its behavior and there are even prizes waiting ("Fotowettbewerb ...") for the best images submitted here. Links to successful sightings & pictures can already be found here (in the header): some trail images with no obvious large flares from Iridium-style specular reflections (although this one from Finland seems flaring) and visual reports, usually between +6 and +7 mag. It's all a question of attitude, and future surprises are possible. The satellite should reenter between late March and May; visibility predictions are offered e.g. by Heavens Above; hit "Next" repeatedly for future viewing windows. • Observing the ISS transit the Sun in the Philippines. • NLC space image sequence and brightening trend claim. • A nice solar Omega (more), the Moon in 3D and on 5 subsequent days.

A supernova of 12.9 mag. can be seen right now in NGC 2655: photometry, images, visual impression! • There is a Nova Sgr 2011 at 11 mag. • FS Aur had a little outburst: alert, observations, context. • A poster with new CHARA pics of Eps Aur from the 217th AAS Meeting, a long human interest story on the lead observer, a paper on the campaign and the star's status. • On Feb. 6 we will see the whole Sun as the STEREO s/c span a 180° angle, a coronal hole may cause aurorae in early Feb., new insights from THEMIS, a double eruption on Jan. 28, a kinky CME on Jan. 13, better TSI measurements (alt., more) and nice Big Bear images. • From the Partial Solar Eclipse a hot MeteoSat movie, more fine images here, here, here, here (bottom), here and here, another gallery, an animation, a video, TV reports from WDR (w/yours truly), SWR and Rosenheim24 and a summary. Also the 2010 TSE as a partial from Tahiti and the Dec. TLE from Scotland and in another collection.

A fireball over Southern Germany was nicely imaged and led to a meteorite hunt; reports from other fireballs here and here (more). • Details on the Draconids this year. • Comet 29P is in outburst again: pictures here, here and here. • Elenin is still faint (more). • A new comet C/2011 A3 (Gibbs) (more). • Pics of Hartley 2 (and DS objects) from Jan. 30, Jan. 28, Jan. 26 and other dates, the SOHO 'comet storm' (over) and the 30th BAA comet magazine (PDF). • The Scheila outburst seems over, many observed a star occultation by (144) Vibilia and will try to see one by TNO Quaoar early on Feb. 2. • Hi-res images of Mercury 2008-10. • Venus & the Moon on Jan. 30 (more). • Jupiter in mid-January - and the 2009 impact explained (more, more, more). • Saturn (and its mighty storm) in amateur pics of Jan. 31, Jan. 29, Jan. 28, Jan. 26 (more), Jan. 17 and earlier and on Cassini pics of Jan. 21, Jan. 15 and Dec. 24 - Saturn's march towards opposition in April is also the lonely highlight of February (mehr, mehr und mehr).