Is this the night, with the Moon vs. Jupiter, some aurora and NLCs?

If Nature conspires the coming night could bring a double or even triple treat to Europe, weather permitting, of course: guaranteed is an occultation of Jupiter by the Moon in the wee hours, but there could also be some mid-latitude aurora following a solar X flare & CME - and the season for noctilucent clouds is also still in full swing, with several good displays recently. The Jupiter occultation early on July 15 has spawned countless previews, e.g. in English (more, more, more and more), German (more, more, more, more and more) and Romanian; animated simulation for various places can be downloaded here. The lead-up to the show was the Venus/Hyades/Jupiter/Pleiades/Moon line-up in the morning sky, as imaged today (dito) and on July 13, July 12, July 11, July 10, July 9, July 8 (dito), July 7 (dito), July 5, July 3 and July 1. Regarding Jupiter also an unusual call for satellite photometry and the NEB action.

A CME should hit the Earth in the coming hours, following an X flare on July 12 (more plus videos here, here and here) from the big activity region (1)1520 (more, more and more): as so often confusion abounds about what's gonna happen as does the usual hype (also in Germany; more). Rather monitor what the the ACE satellite feels and follow this discussion thread, in German and full of data. Meanwhile pictures of AR 1520, AR 1515 - which flared a lot - and the full disk from today (at sunrise) and July 13, July 12 (more and at sunset), July 11 (more, more and more), July 10 (more, more and more), July 9 (more and more), July 8, July 7 (more and more, also an X flare in AR (1)1515, more), July 6, July 5, July 4, July 2 (also a SID) and June 30. Plus explosive solar activity, the Sun's interior motion and the H-IC and Sumi rocket flights.

In other news the 4th nova of the year has broken out in Sagittarius and reached 8th mag.: details here, here, here, here, here and here, also on Nova #3. • Comet 96P/Machholz is again in SOHO's FOV (more and more), PanSTARRS is doing well, the Siding Spring NEO hunt is in trouble (video and more) and dwarf planet Pluto has a fifth moon (more, more, more, more, more, more, more, more, more, more, more, more and more). • Amateur astronomers and exoplanets - and supporting Lowell Obs. • Aurora sound has been recorded (more - and other links here, here, here and here), plus South Pole pics. • A sprite imaged from the ISS (more and more). • NLCs on July 11/12 (more) and July 1/2 (more, more and more) - and from Calar Alto (German). • And another mistaken contrail (more).

Amazing changes on Jupiter - and its occultation by the Moon for Europe - sky highlights of July

This month - which began one second late because the length of day had changed too much (more, more and more) has little to offer except planetwise right at dawn: on the one hand Venus is still in the Hyades for a good week (a great view of June 28), and Jupiter is a bit higher. Where it will be occulted by the Moon in the wee hours of July 15 for central and southern Europe, ahead of a triple conjunction with Aldebaran. (Also recent pictures of Jupiter & Venus on June 27, Moon & Venus on June 18, the crescent Venus on June 2-4, Saturn on June 18 and a rotating Mars from March images.) The most interesting news about Jupiter, however, are dramatic changes in the NEB (earlier), seen best in this montage and pictures from June 30 (more), June 26, June 24, June 19 (NIR; other wavelenghts), June 17, June 13 and June 4-9.

More pictures, reports & videos about recent rare events that merit being linked to: from the Transit of Venus here, here, here, here (more), here, here, here, here, here, here, here (page 95 = PDF pg. 5), here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here (more), here and here - and a 1-hour talk (2012 results from 0:29; context). • From the lunar eclipse a timelapse. • And from the solar eclipse pictures from Texas and Nevada, videos from Xiamen (with the chromosphere), Bryce Canyon and Mt. Fuji, a professional video from Arizona - and a commercial using a weird fake eclipse. • Also from the Sun the disk today, prominences on June 29, nothing on June 22, the disk on June 19 with departing AR 1504 and May pictures (more). • Plus another possible mechanism for corona heating (more, more and more), Earth B field FX and a solar science rocket launch.

Elsewhere in the Universe comet PanSTARRS on June 26, 500 pics of 6000 comets (so far), collected amateur discovery stories, TNO Salacia, a movie of NEO 2012 KT42 (more and more), Arecibo observations to size NEO 2012 LZ1 (more and more), the AG45 story again and rapid response ideas. • An old crater in Greenland (more and more) and new meteor showers. • Another Nova in Sgr faded quickly (more, more and more) as did Nova Oph, one of many novae around. • Also a call for observing an unusual occultation and a paper on amateurs & variable stars.

The noctilucent clouds have been active recently, see both from the ground and from orbit: a "real-time" gallery and selected pictures & reports from the nights June 26/27 (more, more and more), June 25/26 (more), June 24/25 (more, more, more, more, more, more, more, more, more, more and more), June 19/20, June 18 and June 17. • There have also been some aurorae after a flare while a U.S. show on June 25 was more difficult to explain. Pictures of June 19, June 18 (more and more) and June 17 (more); also from Scandinavia last winter and from the last 3 years.

And finally a very cool night sky picture (at -70°C) taken by Alex Kumar at Dome C in Antarctica. • A neat solstice demonstration from India and overly crazy star trails. • The Herschel project. • And the ISS & Tiangong in one shot (more), Tiangong 1 & Shenzhou 9 transiting the Sun, ~30 satellites in one image and things rockets put in the sky ...

A dip in the vast pool of Transit of Venus results on the web

Will there ever be a master list with links to all reports, pictures and videos on the World Wide Web about the Transit of Venus of 2012? After frantically covering all hot material coming in until the end of June 7 in this long live-blog, here's (some of) the stuff that was found - or has found me - in following ten days! • The weather in the various observing regions is nicely summarized here. • Some early scientific results include hi-res images of the aureole which my team obtained in Greece (more and cited here) as well as other photographers (more, more, more, more and more) - a series of drawings. A wonderful demonstration of the parallax over 14,000 km (more). And observations by ALMA, Hinode (more), Venus Express and various NSO telescope plus what was planned.

• Full reports and picture sequences come from Peenemünde, Fehmarn (more), Usedom, Travemünde, Norddeich, Lausitz, Erzgebirge, Unstrut, Bavaria, Brandenburg, Bad Lippspringe, Lichterfeld-Schacksdorf, Bielefeld and Munich in Germany, Austria (more, more, more, more, more and more), Greece (more, more, more and more), Italy (more and more), Denmark (more), Norway (more), Sweden (more, more, more and a slideshow; Venus only at 5:06), Finland, Hungary, Russia, Abu Dhabi, Chennai (pics), SPACE activities (pics and more), Delhi, Kutch and Bangalore in India, China, Bali (more and more), Australia (more, more, more, more and more), Timor Leste, Rapa Nui (more), Hawaii (more, Canada) and the states of California (more, more, more, more, more and more), Oregon, Wisconsin, Texas, Alabama, New Jersey and New York (more) of the U.S.

• Picture collections of the transit have also turned up here (incl. particularly scenic Baltic sunrises), here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here while interesing • pictures are here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here. • Videos showing a working pinhole camera (good to know for future eclipses), the Mount Wilson webcast (in pt. 5 an interesting aureole interview; background) and from Svalbard, Bora Bora, Amrum, Waikiki, Hyderabad (43 mins) and Sydney, plus clips from a movie project and a wild animated cartoon of Le Gentil's problems ... • Stories about the transit are here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here (from someone who just didn't get it). • Finally TV reports from Austria,Russia, Hawaii, NBC (earlier) and ZDF - and a long Indian preview talk.

Imaging Venus veeery close to the Sun before and after the transit was a popular sport: successes from June 9 (more and more), June 8 (more), June 7 (more), June 5, June 4 (earlier; more, more, more, more, more, more, more and more), June 3 (more), June 2 and June 1 (with Mercury; more); more pictures are linked from the various Rhodes pages. • Pictures of the partial lunar eclipse just before the transit are linked from this Rhodes report and can also be found here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here, with stories here and here and many videos here. • And yet more images, videos and reports from the May annular eclipse have appeared here (just amazing), here (Lytro ...), here (weird balloon thing), here, here, here, here and here.

Once more a big sunspot crossed the disk: views of June 16 (AR 1504 in detail), June 15 (more), June 14 (movie until June 14, with flares, more, more and more), June 13 (more), a movie til June 12 and prominences on June 4, plus science on ultrafine corona loops and Fermi flare observations (more). • Amazing fresh Keck IR pictures of Neptune and Uranus, Saturn on May 28, Jupiter's smallest moon (more) and the planet and the Moon today and Mars on May 25.

The big NEA 2012 LZ1 - preview (more, more, more and more) - came moderately close to Earth: video clips, pictures and reports here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here. Plus studies on NEA 2011 AG5 (deemed mostly harmless), 2008 TC3 & its meteorites and general risk communication - and comet Garradd on June 9, meteorite science in Canada and more Dryas claims (uncritical report and mammoth complications).

Elsewhere in the Universe the APASS is delivering photometry of 40+ million bright stars. • Nova Sco 2012 discovery (more and more) and amateur spectroscopy. • Amateur-discovered planetary nebulae (more). • The noctilucent clouds are already going strong: some observations from the nights June 16/17, June 14/15 (more), June 13/14 (more and more, also from Scandinavia and Canada), June 10, June 4 and June 2. • There has also been some aurora activity, this morning (more and more) and on June 11 (more). • And finally a total recall from Meade ...

First the annular eclipse, now a partial lunar one - and then the Transit of Venus!

We are in a 17-day interval of an unusual massing of rare celestial events, culminating in the rarest of all, the last Transit of Venus until 2117 on June 5/6: numerous links about it can be found in this still growing collection, some videos here and various science plans here. It is preceded by a partial lunar eclipse on June 4 that coincides with another big Moon (appearing as big as the one in early May; see below) - more details here and esp. here. And right now on June 1 there is a conjunction of Venus and Mercury, obviously - 4 days before the solar transit of the former - very close to the Sun and dangerous to observe, but it can be done. And here they are, in the same FOV, a few hours ago (and a bit earlier), with Venus as a crescent and Mercury fully lit! And both planets are already in the LASCO C3 FOV as well. For other lesser June sky events - including a mediocre Mercury evening apparition following the Venus conjunction - see here and here.

Venus as an ultra-thin and huge crescent was the sky show in the final weeks of May: tons of pictures, the changes January to May and selected views of May 30 (also cusp extensions; more and more, an Indian video, the changes May 26 ... 30 and again), May 29 (more and more), May 28 (more, more, more and more plus scenic), May 27 (more, more and more), May 26 (more, more, more and more), May 25, May 24 (also with the Moon), May 23 (more, more, with the Moon, more and more), May 22 (with links; more, more and more), May 21 (more), May 20, May 19, May 18, May 17 (more), May 15 (also veery long but no ashen light; more), May 14, May 12 (more) and May 10 with simple means. Also how not to film Venus, new amateur Venus cartography at 1 µm. • And Mars on May 13, May 6, April 4 and April 1, Saturn on May 23 (more) and May 13 and Jupiter & Mercury close to the Sun on May 22 and May 21.

The annular solar eclipse of May 21/20 had opened the 'hot' 2 1/2 weeks in the sky: Lots of pictures and links can be found in this live-blog and this page. There are reports from Hong Kong (pictures), Japan (more), California, Nevada (H-Alpha), Utah (more & more), Arizona (more, more and more), New Mexico (more) and Texas (more and more) and reports here and here. Interesting videos comes from an island off Taiwan, Japan, California (great Baily's Beads from 4:00! Also H-Alpha and nearby), Nevada (timelapse), Arizona (with Beads; more and a partial sunset) and New Mexico (Beads at 3rd contact; the same), plus another partial sunset and a sunset ring! Further picture & story collections are here, here, here, here and here.

More selected pictures from Norway (yes, they got a shallow partial - at night!), China (with chromosphere & inner corona; more and another chromosphere from there), Japan (with Beads), California (montage), Nevada (good Beads; also clouds), Monument Valley (more, more and more) and Arizona (at the edge, more in the stream; more, more, Beads at the edge and people in the foreground), also low chromosphere (more), a Texas sunset, a setting crescent and more Beads (more). From space the antumbra as seen by the LRO (more), Michibiki, Terra and the ISS (video; more space eclipses) - and the view from a balloon; there was also radio astronomical interest. Finally the confession on how a famous picture fake was made - that was distributed for real ("I was taken with a lens of three months salary! No proposal ... who cares?"; see also here and here).

The big full moon of early May - see here for angular size comparisions - was also widely observed two weeks earlier, even from the ISS. Further reports, pictures and collections here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here - and here's a list of big full moons over many years. • A video of a grazing occultation of a star by the Moon.

A big sunspot group crossed the solar disk in mid-May as documented in German postings on two German blogs # one, two, three, four, five, six and seven. Also the full disk May 21 ... 30 animated (more), an unusual effect by an M flare (more and more), prominences on May 19, May 17, May 15 & other dates and May 5, satellite use for serious space weather assessment (not like here ...), tales of the Carrington Event, corona mysteries, auroral processes studied and a Canadian aurora on May 20.

The long Garradd comet show is coming to an end after many months: pictures of May 16, May 15 and May 11. • Meanwhile interest is rising in comet PANSTARRS: an update and pictures of May 21, May 20 and May 18 (wide-angle). Also a little Holmes outburst and news about P/2012 K3, 2011 KP36, P/2005 N3, C/2012 K5 and P/1994 X1.

In other small bodies news a Lyrid imaged from the ISS (more and more plus a related timelapse), while the imaging balloon was also found. • There is finally a little video of the April 22 bolide (more) while the meteorite search continues (more, earlier) - and meteorites fell in India, too (pictures). • A close visit by tiny 2012 KT42, ESA crowdsources NEAs, a new story about 2012DA14 is fishy (dito, dito and the real risk), WISE improves the PHA statistics (more, more, more, more and more), the Yarkowsky effect was measured in a NEA (more, more, more and more) and there is new speculation about the Tunguska impactor (more, more, more and more).

In other news the supernova 2012cg has flattened out at 12 mag.: more reports here and here. • Also a SN early warning system, problems for Boles, the SN hunter, a Nova in Oph (more, a spectrum and several recent novae) and reviews of CVs and R CrB. • A sprite & a meteor: some connection? • The NLC season is just beginning, a paper on the earliest NLC reports and aurora fun. • A video with TWAN winners (more). • And finally Tiangong vs. the Sun, geostationary satellites in motion, a crazy rocket launch trail and an old UFO case finally solved.

EXTRA: Why you should look at tonight's full moon - and find out for yourself how "super" it really is!

Here we go again: When a full moon in the spring of 2011 coincided with perigee it was hyped as a "supermoon" (using a term introduced by an astrologer), connected with natural disasters (absolute nonsense) - and then widely debunked as a total non-event: no normal person would be able to notice that this moon was closer to Earth than others throughout the year. In time I pointed out on this blog that this claim was also wrong and a pity because it would discourage people from actually finding out for themselves what's going on in the sky.

For this blogger had found out by chance that the ellipticity of the lunar orbit is actually pretty obvious to the naked eye, with perigee full moons easily recognized as such without being told about their closeness beforehand. In the following year I even made a little sport out of guessing the distance of full moons without knowing the numbers, and it worked quite well. To do this properly the Moon has to be reasonably high in the sky and away from distracting foreground objects: the 'moon illusion' must not be allowed to play a role. Just take in the unobstructed sight (and look how much surface detail of the maria one can actually see with the unaided eye, while you're at it).

Tonight we are facing another perigee moon - and wouldn't you believe it, the debunkers in their zeal to kill the 'supermoon' idea repeat the claim that the eye can't see anything without a ruler: NASA does it, also Sky & Telescope does it, many normally reputable astronomy blogs do it. This AP video tops them all by even completely mixing up the perigee effect and the moon illusion in its first minute - yikes! I can only encourage everyone to have a look tonight: of course you're biased now but try to memorize the appearance of the full moon and recall that when viewing more distant ones later in the year (the one in June will still look exactly the same, so don't despair if it's cloudy tonite)! More stories with varying degrees of flawed-ness (and occasional nice numbers and plots) here, here, here, here, here, here, here, hier and hier.

Solar satellite "filmed" complete Nova Sgr 2012 outburst with high cadence!

This could be a first in nova research: When Nova Sagittarii 2012 alias PNV J17452791-2305213 erupted on April 21, the satellite STEREO B had the field firmly in its view, and from the inadventend high-cadence photometry an impressive lightcurve has been generated, showing the complete peak! Whether such a record is unprecedented isn't clear yet. The nova reached 8.8 mag. briefly; since the nova has faded a lot: discovery pictures here and here, early spectra here and here (strong H-Alpha) and reports here and here. • Also blazar OJ 287 is flaring and in a high optical state, though not brighter than 13.5 mag.

On the Sun a prominence & CME on April 22, a prominence and sunspot details on April 21, a prominence on April 17 and a famous prominence (more) on April 16. • The SDO has been in orbit for 2 years, generating lots of pretty pictures. • An EGU press conference on space weather forecasting (abstracts links and COMESEP's home), ISWI and another doom story, picked up here and here. • Hinode sees a pole asymmetry. • Camilla visited the stratosphere (not 'space'), generating publicity for NASA like here, here (7:10-42), here, here and even here.

The aurora was quite active around April 24 as images from Sweden, northern Germany, northwestern Ireland (more and more, a video [alt.]), Northern Ireland and Canada (video) show; more collections here and here. • Also a celebrated aurora timelapse from Norway, more here - and auroral ballooning (more) in Alaska (video). • Also a sky mystery that could be a venting satellite, a story on amateur spysat hunters, and the sad death of Dale Ireland (also here and here) - whose automatic weather timelapse algorithm keeps running ...

Minor bodies in the news: Comet Garradd on April 18, April 17 and April 16, plus Faulkes observations of the Rosetta target. • Trans-Neptunian star occultations til 2015. • Yet more evidence against the Dryas impact and the impact history of the Earth. • The Target Asteroids! project explained here, here, here and here, plus a study on capturing a NEO. • A great bolide over the U.S., dropping meteorites in old gold rush country, a Brazilian bolide and the usual Lyrids.

Planets now well placed - a long-term calculation of altitudes for Germany - are Saturn (April 21 [dito and dito], April 12 [dito] and near opposition pictures), Mars (on April 19, April 16, April 7 and March 29/30) and Venus: a deeep picture in the Pleiades and with the Moon - and Obama. • Being so bright and well-placed - and thus also the sky highlight of early May - Venus also caused various UFO alerts, notably on German TV (covered also here, here, here and here) or here. While Venus looks like this right now (or like this in the near IR), it's prone to video artefacts. • And talking about a misunderstood Venus, its role in a famous aircraft incident in Jan. 2011 is less clear than in all the news coverage e.g. here, here, here, here, here or here as reading the actual investigation report shows. • Finally Mercury & the Moon on April 19 from Oz.