See the Planet Mercury

Via @popastro.  Society for Popular Astronomy.

Mercury reaches greatest western elongation on the 4th of December when it will rise about two hours before the Sun, shining at magnitude -0.5. Try to catch it for a few days around that date before it draws back towards the Sun again.

Venus is closing in on the Sun again too but still shining brilliantly at around magnitude -4 which makes it impossible to miss if you have a clear sky.

Saturn rises well before dawn at 4am at the start of December and nearly two hours earlier than that by the month’s end. Though much fainter than Venus, it is very bright at around magnitude 0.6. The planet’s spectacular rings are well open now making it a fine sight through a small telescope for early risers.

Image credit: Mercury, Venus and Saturn pictured on 2 December by Paul Sutherland

California Meteorite Update

From Bad Astronomy.   It's a meteorite, no it's not, yes it is.

Fireball - Meteorite Hits House in California

From Space.com.

Homeowner Lisa Webber, …found the space rock Saturday (Oct. 20)…. She recalled hearing a sound on her roof the night the meteor was reported and went searching behind her house, where she found a 2.2 ounce (63 grams) stone.

My Favorite Venus Transit Video

It's pretty clear that NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) has stolen the show, at least on Youtube and Twitter, with it's videos of the recent Venus transit.  However, my favorite video is not the popular, creepy (yet beautiful!) extreme ultraviolet images of a flat-looking black circle moving across amazing prominences and other features in the hot solar corona.  

My favorite is this video in orange light where you can clearly see sunlight scattered around Venus' atmosphere as it moves in front of the Sun.  The limb of the Sun also seems to be refracted by the planet's atmosphere.

These images were made by the SDO's Heliocentric and Magnetic Imager (HMI) which observes at a wavelength of an Fe I (unionized iron) absorption line at λ6173.

Live Stream of Venus Transit

There are several live streams of the Venus transit.  Here's one from Mt. Wilson.

http://sunearthday.nasa.gov/webcasts/mtwilson/

Today's Solar Eclipse

It won't be visible from the Atlanta area, the sun will be setting at about the time of first contact.   It will be visible farther to the west.

Article in Sky and Telescope


Image by NOAA/SEC

Strange Objects Punching Holes Through Saturn’s Outer Ring

From Wired.

Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

Coronal Mas Ejection, Geomagnetic Storm Update

From spaceweather.com:

 A coronal mass ejection (CME) hit Earth's magnetic field on March 8th around 1100 UT. The impact was weaker than expected, sparking only a mild (Kp=5) geomagnetic storm. However, the storm could intensify in the hours ahead depending on electromagnetic conditions in the wake of the CME. High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras

Solar Flare

Watch for aurorae!

From Space Weather: “ Big sunspot AR1429 has unleashed another major flare. This one is the strongest yet, an X5-class eruption on March 7th at 00:28 UT. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded the extreme UV flash”

And: “A coronal mass ejection (CME) hit Earth's magnetic field on March 7th at approximately 0400 UT. The impact was not a strong one, but it could stir up polar geomagnetic storms anyway. High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras.”

From 11-Alive News.

Comet Lovejoy C/2011 W3

Amazing pictures from the ISS.

Sky and Telescope.

Wikipedia.

Earth's Rotation Measured!

Actually it's easier to think of this in terms of the wandering of the poles being measured.  Story at Physorg.com.

Dawn Approaches Vesta

“Unveiling [a] spectacular alien world.” by Ken Kremer at Universe Today.

Images of Jupiter and Moons

Here are 10 sets of remarkable images of Jupiter's moons, provided by observers in recent months. Many of them resolve surface details. (South is up in all images. Click on the thumbnail images below for full size versions.) From britastro.org.

Astroid 2005 YU55 Fly By

from Sky and Telescope.

Beautiful! Dione and Saturn

(RT @PTTU) http://bit.ly/nRlz68

Trojan asteroid discovered in Earth orbit

by Stuart Gary at ABC Science.

“WISE looked at the infrared light coming from all over the sky and was particularly good at detecting asteroids, finding about 150,000 of them, including 500 which come near the Earth.”

By examining the orbits of these objects in the WISE data, Connors and colleagues identified a small asteroid called 2010 TK7 as a probable Earth Trojan. The researchers then used ground-based telescopes to confirm the sighting, calculating that it's been in a stable orbit with Earth for more than 10,000 years.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Solar System Telescope

solarsystemscope.com is very neat.  At first I was bothered by the schematic representation of planet's orbit sizes.  However, in fact, there's a control that lets you slide between the schematic and true display of relative distances and sizes.  It's a nice tool for visualization.

Astronomers Calculate Comet's Orbit

using amateur images from the web.

Valentine's Day Solar Flare

I missed this class X solar flare that erupted on Monday.

Planet Tyche?

Four Jupiters and out in the Oort cloud.   It's possible that WISE could detect such a planet if it exists, according to Mike Brown in this Universe Today article.

My first response to seeing the tweet for this article was to say, Bah!, Humbug!, and ignore it.  However, this theoretical outer body has some basis in patterns of comet orbits.

Actually, the most fascinating part of the article is the diagram.  Look how evenly spaced the planets appear when put on a log scale!   (Well, yes, with Uranus omitted).

Image originally from NASA/JPL.