The star next to the moon tonight

The bright "star" next to the nearly Full Moon tonight was Jupiter, in case you were wondering.

Another impact on Jupiter

http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/home/101264994.html

My first thought once it was confirmed was "What is the real rate of visible Jovian impacts versus our sampling rate of looking for them?".

Visible Jovian impact

Link and run: http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2010/06/breaking-news-jupiter-hit-by-yet-another-impactor.ars

Jupiter's SEB has gone pale

Jupiter's South Equatorial Belt, normally a brown-red, has gone as pale as the cream white zones surrounding it. Check out the report with images at the Planetary Society Blog: http://networkedblogs.com/3Jnoh. This is one of those things that happens every 5-10 years or so.

Two awesome things you have already heard about

The LRO imaged most of the Apollo landing site on the Moon. Things will get better as the orbital parameters are modified.

There appears to have been an impact of some sort on Jupiter, first seen by an Australian amateur.

50th anniversary of Sputnik

Things have been very busy and as a result I've been unable to post--but today is the 50th anniversary of man's entry into space with the launch of Sputnik. Last night the visitors to the Ryerson Astronomical Society's Wednesday viewing saw the largest satellite (artificial) in orbit: the International Space Station, as it rose above the horizon, passed Jupiter, and went into the Earth's shadow. Tonight in Chicago, you can see it twice, once at 6:57PM and again, once around the Earth, at 8:30PM. Details are always at Heavens-Above.

P.S. It's also World Space Week. Go to the RAS lecture on Monday about Sputnik.

Just saw the Space Station and the Shuttle

I just ran out and saw the Space Station and the ISS passing to the north, a touch dimmer than Jupiter. If I were inclined, I could see them in the west on their next orbit, but it's quite low. Tomorrow's pass in Chicago is perfect--let's hope the weather cooperates.

Earth and Jupiter from Mars

An older image, but cool nonetheless. Earth and Jupiter visible from Mars, taken by the now-deceased Mars Global Surveyor. Make sure you see the orbital diagram.

You have the chance to see Saturn and Venus close together, from right here on Earth, on Saturday evening, the same evening as the Full Moon.

One more good ISS pass in Chicago

The last good pass of the International Space Station for Chicago in the near future will be tomorrow, June 22nd. You may be asking, why is that? To see the space station pass, you have to pass several criteria, each of which can derail easy viewing.

To first order:
1. The satellite must be above your local horizon.
2. The satellite must be sunlit while you are not.

On #1, a satellite's orbit around the Earth is a invariate thing--that is, it orbits the Earth and the ellipse it defines stays the same in an absolute reference. The Earth may rotate below it, but the object stays in the same fixed plane. Since the Earth rotates every 24 hours, you will roughly be under where the satellite orbits twice a day. The satellite also needs to be in the part of the orbit near you. Generally, this is not a problem, because 1. low earth orbit satellites have an orbital period of only 90 minutes and 2. you can see them several hundred miles away from their ground track. See this Java applet to see the Shuttle's visible ground track.

You also need the pass to occur when the satellite is lit by the sun, and have it dark where you are. This leads to satellites generally being most visible just after evening twilight and before dawn. In the summer, sunlight streaming over the pole can illuminate satellites for most of the night--many people remember staying up and watching the Perseids and seeing more satellites than meteors.

But because the satellite's orbit is fixed in space, and the Earth rotates around the Sun, at any one location the visibility factors come in and out of phase. The satellite's orbit hasn't really changed, but where the terminator is on Earth has. And tonight's ISS pass is the last good one for a few weeks.


So tomorrow, if it's clear, at 8:58 the ISS will start becoming visible in the WNW; pass well above Venus in the west; pass well above the moon, and reach a maximum altitude of 54 degrees at 9:01PM in the SW, and pass by Jupiter at 9:04PM in the SE.

Details at Heavens-Above

See the Shuttle and ISS again tonight, Wednesday, in Chicago

Last night was a fantastic pass--photos will be up in the next post. Tonight, see them again, this time starting at 9:52:07PM in the NW, reaching up about halfway to the zenith in the SW at 9:54:54PM, and entering the Earth's shadow a minute later.

Pass details from Heavens Above.

They look like a moving bright star--about as bright as Jupiter, which is low in the southeastern sky, but not quite as bright as Venus, which is in the west.

Tvashtar erupting

Wow--New Horizons has created an animation of Tvashtar on Io erupting--it's gorgeous:


Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute
Seen on The Planetary Society Blog.
See the description here.

Tvashtar on Io

The gorgeous plumes of Ionian volcanos rise into the sunlight on this image taken from the New Horizons spacecraft as it sped past Jupiter. The darkside of Io is seen via "Joveglow". Tvashtar and a seemingly asymmetric plume is at top.

Seen via tingilinde and many other sites -- see more images here