Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Planet conjunction of the year now - and another 'Lovejoy' approaching?

The moderately close (3°) conjunction of Venus & Jupiter in the evening sky can't have escaped anyone's attention by now, given the number of advance reports like here (more), here, here, here, here, here, hier, hier and hier: views - sometimes with Mercury - of March 12 from Germany (more, from this page), Romania and Australia, March 11 from a plane, the Canary Islands, France, Germany, the U.K. (also with aurora; more), India and the Philippines, March 10 from the U.S. (more), the U.K. (more), Austria and Australia, March 9 from the U.S. (more) and India, March 8 from India, March 7 from the U.S., March 6 from Germany (more), March 5 from Ireland, the U.K. and Australia, March 4 from the U.K. (also Mercury & Uranus close-up; more), March 3 from Austria, March 2 from the U.K., March 1 from Australia and late February from various places. Also close-ups of Venus on March 10 (morphed cloud animation!) and March 1 (plus planned observations for the ToV), a movie from Jupiter drawings and Mars - in opposition on March 10 (many clouds; more), March 6 and Feb. 29 (also individual colors; more & more)

A strange comet is approaching the Sun: it was discovered in SWAN images and could be 'another Lovejoy'. For further developments see this live-blog; Lovejoy himself couldn't find it, by the way, nor anyone else. Also Garradd on March 10 with a disconnection event (more March Garrads under the SWAN link). • There are now over a million meteors in the IMO video database! • A bolide impressed Britain: more links and a call for data. Also a possible Georgia dropper: images. • A meteorite hit a house in Norway (more), and the Dryas impact claim is back. • Asteroid (68) Leto crosses the Pleiades in mid-March, the Catalina Sky Survey gets $$, NASA counters scare stories about 2011 AG5 (see also here, here, here, here, here and here ...), from the other non-impactor 2012 DA14 - also debunked by the MPC - some clone animations and a fun animation, and a proposal to tamper with Apophis - please ...

There was a lot of action on the Sun as reported - with tons of links - in March 7, March 9 and March 11 postings. Auroral consequences stayed moderate, though, except at high latitudes such as Australia and Canada on March 12 or Scotland and Finland on March 11. Also a nice eruptive prominence & CME at the limb, the AR 1429 responsible for everything and new ISS aurora views. • Finally a new Eps Aur paper clarifying the dust disk (background), a new Nova Car 2012, an interview with T. Legault, ISS imager (part 2), a Moon non-illusion (it can really be bigger; more), amateur astronomers in Texas flashing the ISS (more and more) and night views from the ISS.

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