Deep Sky Blog

Zodiacal Light

2008-10-17T13:11:00.002-04:00

Zodiacal Light
Originally uploaded by Computer Science Geek

Awesome picture! I've never heard of zodiacal light before today (I know, its embarrassing considering I run an astronomy blog) but I've been checking out some photo's and found these great ones from Computer Science Geek on Flickr. I definitely think this stuff is right up there with aurora and Milky Way photography is terms of coolness (way more important than scientific relevance!).

Zodiacal light is really cool. It basically is light from the Sun reflected back by interplantary dust. To produce this light, according to Wikipedia (which I will choose to trust this time), only a 1mm dust particle every 8 kilometers in space that is equally reflective as the moon can produce this effect.

Orionids Meteor Shower

2008-10-17T11:31:00.003-04:00

I posted up some stuff about last year's Orionid meteor showers here and here.

The Orionid meteor shower comes from the Earth passing through the dust trail of quite possibly the most famous comet of all time, Haley's Comet. Pieces of debris, like ice, dust, or rock, enter Earth's atmosphere and become superheated causing a bright flash and streak as the material completely burns up. The larger and/or denser the material that enters the atmosphere, the longer the streak lasts before vanishing.

A meteor shower's radiant is the point at which all the meteors appear to originate from. For the Orionids, it is the left shoulder of Orion.

Grab a chair, find a dark spot, and hopefully see some good meteors. Unfortunately, a bright moon will be up from dusk to dawn, drowning out much of the Orionids. Don't let that dissuade you, there's still bound to be a few screamin' meteors that'll make it worth the wait.

Great X-Ray, Infrared, and Visible Light Composite

2008-10-17T11:19:00.003-04:00

I grabbed this picture off of this week's SPACE PHOTOS from National Geographic. I think this is an absolutely gorgeous composite of the an irregular galaxy 210,000 light years away. I swear, sometimes astrophotos borderline on art!

I'm back... again!

2008-10-17T11:15:00.003-04:00

Due to the fact my readership has continued to grow, even though I have not posted since late June, I've decided to continue this blog!

Look forward to near daily posts in the future. Sorry for the absence, I've been extremely busy with school and work.

It's Official: Water-Ice on Mars

2008-06-22T14:14:00.001-04:00

It's official water-ice is on Mars! Check out the Emily Lakdawalla's blog on the Planetary Society for a great article!

Why We Should Continue Manned Spaceflight

2008-06-09T11:12:00.001-04:00

Here's a major quickie post: We should continue manned spaceflight because when we develop new technology for spaceflight, we make discoveries that improve our everyday lives. Want proof? Check out this awesome site on Discovery.com.

When We Left Earth

2008-06-09T10:55:00.004-04:00

When We Left Earth is an awesome documentary from the Disocvery Channel that has been airing. I absolutely think it's just awesome; it presents all sorts of footage in a visual and stylistic way.

It certainly is something to watch with the whole family. I'm going to try to get my kids to watch it with me tonight (I have it on DVR; the Box Set pictured is available on July 24, 2008.)

The "secret" footage isn't actually very secret. Anyone can watch it, and people have for many years. Some of the footage is just rarely seen.

However, even though this footage is new or "secret", it looks a heck of a lot better: Discovery Channel was granted access to NASA's footage and remastered it all digitally and converted it to HD. In turn, they gave the footage back to NASA for future generations to enjoy.

This is a must watch that anyone can enjoy!

Best Ever Skeptic Comment Against Alien Life

2008-06-02T20:56:00.002-04:00

This is a real zinger...

In 2000, a group based in the Cardiff Centre for Astrobiology in Wales declared they had found alien microbes in a Leonid fireball based on an infrared spectra of the organic material. Skeptic Matt Genge had this to say:

The infrared spectra of the Leonid meteors are not evidence for bacteria, nor
are the infrared spectra of comets," Genge said. He added that the data show a
feature that is common in all organic material.
"If you took me, put me in an oven, dried me at 300 degrees and then took my
infrared spectra, I'd have [this feature] too. This would certainly not be
evidence that you'll find Matt Genges on comets.
SOURCE: Space.com

Alien Life On Mars?

2008-06-02T20:25:00.004-04:00

Alien life on Mars is a very real possibility. It's not green men, martians, or anything like that, but the organic basis of life, in my opinion, and the opinions of some others, is that there's a big possiblity that life exists on Mars in a very primitive form.

Many conditions on Mars prohibit life from evolving, but not from existing. Many phenomenon that occur on Mars are, if we observe them on this planet, of an organic nature. And there are plenty of inorganic ways that these can be achieved, but my hypthesis is that if their are multiple processes occuring that appear to be of an organic nature, and you can explain each one individually in an inorganic way, doesn't the likelihood of life increase with each seemingly organic process?

For a more detailed post definitely check out my previous post about why I think theres life on Mars.

Is this Ice?

2008-06-02T18:07:00.005-04:00

Does this look like ice to you? It's the new scoop of dirt from the Phoenix lander. This very well could be the first color ice picture from the Red Planet. Check out the white substance to the right; definitely looks like ice chips to me, but there is a possibility it is salt.

Exciting times for Mars enthusiasts indeed! I am glued to my computer and NASA TV non-stop around 2-3pm, waiting for the latest news updates.

Come on... let's find a Martian microbe... now THAT would make the 11 o'clock news!

Deep Sky Blog on Google

2008-06-02T18:00:00.000-04:00

Just for those who would like to know, we have progressed to Google PageRank of 4. Awesome!

Has Anyone Else Noticed The Similarity?

2008-06-02T13:09:00.003-04:00

VS.

I think the likeness is uncanny. What do you think?

Space Shuttle Launches Largest ISS Lab Yet

2008-05-31T17:33:00.002-04:00

At 5:02pm, the shuttle launched into space carrying with it the $1 billion Kibo laboratory. The laboratory will be the largest room in the ISS yet, and is approximately the size of a tour bus.

Kibo, Japanese for "Hope", is culmination of 20 years of research and development by the Japanese. This section marks the unofficial start of a collaboration that is turning out to be very international indeed. It is a great symbol of Japanese pride, and should be.

I personally am very excited for the Kibo, and that the Japanese are coming aboard the ISS in a very big way. As an American citizen, I recognize that we sometimes have a severe superiority complex about our nation being the "best", but I'm excited for the Japanese, because to make true progress in the realm of space travel we need to work globally and not nationally.

Congratulations Japan!

We've Struck Ice (we think)!!!

2008-05-31T16:45:00.003-04:00

What you are looking at researchers are fairly certain is a layer of ice excavated by the blast of Phoenix's retrorockets.

The possibility still exists that it's just rock, however, I doubt geologists would make that mistake, even with a black and white photograph. I was really hoping for a full color photograph letting us know once and for all if this is what we came to find, or if it's just a layer of rock. Based on the smoothness and the behavior of the soil around it, NASA's putting their money on ice.

The way we look at Mars just changed. Forever.

Hacker Shuts Down Phoenix Lander Website

2008-05-31T15:42:00.004-04:00

Overnight, a hacker got into the Mars Phoenix Lander at the University of Arizona and changed the mission page to his signature with a link pointing to some overseas website.

This kind of behavior is totally unacceptable. This website is very popular now, and is providing us with the most up to date information about the Phoenix lander findings. If you remember correctly, the last update was that there may be a possibility of water-ice just barely under the surface of the retrorocket blast zone. I don't know about anyone else, but I have been feverishly checking the mission page to see if that was in fact water-ice or just rock. However, some foreign moron hacked the page, robbing the whole world of real-time mission data we've come to expect.

Hackers like this are just total scum. The thing that makes me mad is that if you are smart enough to hack a website like this, you should at least be smart enough to understand what it's trying to do. And why did you do it? For emails? Spam? Porn advertisements? Come on now, I know you're better than that Mr. Hacker

2008-05-30T23:22:00.002-04:00

We all know there's been talk of an alien peeking in a window in Colorado that's very authentic. I didn't want to have to show this, but I have actual alien footage and it's debuting right here at Deep Sky Blog:

I'm an expert. It's authentic.

Phoenix's Retrorockets Unveil Possible Ice

2008-05-30T20:13:00.004-04:00

Today's news release from the Phoenix lander is very exciting: in the retrorocket blast zone, near a footpad, scientists believe there may be water-ice chunks uncovered by the blast.

This is quicker than anyone could have imagined and very exciting. The only problem right now is that the image sent back was in black and white, which all CCD cameras inherently are, and we won't have a color image until probably tomorrow after the color is added.

Phil Plait at the Bad Astronomy blog has a great article about why CCD cameras take pictures in bacl and white, and how we essentially "trick" them into creating highly detailed color pictures.

I'm very excited about the possibility of water-ice that close to the surface. I thought the lander would find ice, just not so close to the surface. Perhaps if there's an ice layer, there's liquid water below. And who knows what that could mean. Why water? Phoenix says it best. (Space Science teachers, that links a freebie; use it!)

The digging arm will dig very slowly over the next couple of months, carefully analyzing each bit of soil as it goes ever deeper. We've barely just scratched the surface and already the discoveries are fascinating.

Sorry... No Doomsday in 2012!

2008-05-30T19:27:00.003-04:00

I'm glad someone did it. This is a crucial must-read article for anyone who is concerned about December 2012 and the so-called "apocalypse" that is going to occur then. This is a ridiculous rumor started by... who cares...

Check out Universe Today's post on why this won't be happening.

Only the genious' at Universe Today could mathematically disprove a doomsday theory. Very cool, check it out.

FlickrFind: Fall/Late-Summer Milky Way

2008-05-30T19:01:00.001-04:00

Fall/Late-Summer Milky Way
Originally uploaded by chipdatajeffb

I'm a sucker for wide-angle milky way photography and this photo is absolutely stunning. Check out the author's Flickr feed for sure!

HA! HA! HAAAA!

2008-05-30T17:36:00.001-04:00

I hope the "real" alien looks this authentic!!!

Laughed so hard I cried...!

Real Alien Picture!

2008-05-30T17:14:00.004-04:00

Finally, what all astronomer's have been looking for! A real alien looking through a window! Apparently after traveling a few million light years this alien stopped by a notable nut job's window for some "peeping".

Yeah right. It looks almost like someone super imposed E.T. from the Atari over a dark window pane.

The YouTube jockeys are already claiming this as the real thing, but it's quite laughable. What they're actually saying is the "real" thing is an admitted hoax, because this still is the only released footage of this so called "authentic" video.

Check out Phil's post on how easy it is to fake this. Apparently, stupidity is contagious. YouTube has been quarantined.

In Honor of New Mars Fever

2008-05-30T10:35:00.008-04:00

Since everyone seems to be talking about Mars these days with the lander firmly and safely on the surface, I thought I'd post the winning photo captured by Spirit in Gustav crater back in 2005.

Kind of looks like the second sun setting on Tatooine...

This picture always leaves me breathless and I thought I'd come up with an excuse to post a three-year-old photograph.

Enjoy!

Image Courtesy of NASA/JPL

Coolest Landing Pic Ever

2008-05-29T15:29:00.004-04:00

Want to see your tax dollars at work? Nothing says it better than the breath-taking oblique angle photograph of the Phoenix lander, it's parachute, and its parachute lines descending into (actually past) the "Heimdall" crater!

A satellite we launched 42 million (give or take a few million) miles to orbit the planet takes a photograph of the entrance of another spacecraft we send to check for samples.

Your viewing the first ever photograph of a spacecraft landing on another world taken by a camera not attached to it.

This is history. Now Phoenix... find us some water, and some life!

EDIT: Changed post title. Yeah, I totally copied the title of Bad Astronomy blog's post. Sorry. It REALLY wasn't intentional.

Deep Sky Blog is Back

2008-05-29T15:17:00.003-04:00

To everyone who reads this blog, I've been away without making any new posts for quite a while. I've had some family issues, and I've re-enrolled in school to make a pretty drastic career change. Enough of that though, I just wanted to confirm the fact that I'm back, and this blog should be updated as often as it was.

I've also been without an internet connection until about a week ago.

Thanks for your patience.

Mercury Messenger Flyby 1 Summary

2008-01-18T10:13:00.001-05:00

MESSENGER has returned quite a few high quality Mercury photographs. Check these out; the surface details are of the side of Mercury the Mariner 10 missions did not photograph!

The cratered surface of Mercury has not been visited in about 30 years. Only 45% of the surface of Mercury has been imaged by the Mariner 10. MESSENGER has a full suite of scientific instruments and will be able to tell us many things about the geological history, and hopefully about the highly reflective material (possibly water-ice in the perpetual shadows) of the north and south poles, of Mercury as well as image the remaining portion of the planet unseen by the previous Mariner mission.

The official MESSENGER website has a slew of great, entertaining, and interactive information pertaining to Mercury. Check it out for some fast facts, great animations, and even an interactive quiz or two to test your Mercurian knowledge.

MESSENGER Now At Closest Point To Mercury

2008-01-14T14:04:00.000-05:00

MESSENGER is now at its closest point (about 124 mi) from the surface of Mercury. Now... we wait for the pics!

Mercury Flyby Photo # 1

2008-01-14T09:16:00.000-05:00

Today's Mercury photo from the continuing coverage of MESSENGER is posted! Check it out!

Today's Mercury Photograph

2008-01-13T11:58:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow, the first flyby of Mercury will occur. As you can see, we are quickly approaching the closest planet to the Sun.

MESSENGER Update: New Photograph Released!

2008-01-11T20:23:00.000-05:00

Yeah, so it looks like the old one but bigger; who cares! We're closing in on the first rock from the Sun!

Great New Blog & Awesome Astrophotos

2008-01-11T19:25:00.000-05:00

I found a great new astroblog called the Orbiting Frog. Check it out; great content here as well!

Also, pointed out by the legendary Bad Astronomer, Travis Rector has a gallery of images available for public viewing. He has the fantastic job of processing the data from large telescopes around the world into the desktop-wallpaper-worthy photos we've all come to enjoy!

Identify Never-Before-Seen Galaxies

2008-01-11T13:01:00.000-05:00

GalaxyZoo is probably not new news, but it is to me. If you create account, you will make a significant scientific contribution by classifying new galaxies, many of which have never been seen before!

Trust me it's as easy as it sounds. Turn in your name and you'll even be credited! Try to determine spiral, elliptical, and merging galaxies from fuzzy original photos. The computer program can pick out the galaxies, but the human eye is the only thing that can classify them.

Easy as it sounds, labelling can be tricky. They are awfully fuzzy, and sometimes you have to identify photographs from a bad angle.

Got some down time? Let's classify some galaxies!

P.S. The GalaxyZoo blog will be on the blogroll from now on too! Check it out!

MESSENGER Team Receives First Optical Navigation Images

2008-01-09T15:00:00.000-05:00

Interplanetary space junkies will have a treat in the next upcoming days: Mercury will be imaged by the MESSENGER spacecraft. In fact, it already has, according to the site: here's the first photo of Mercury by MESSENGER:

The first of eight navigational photos have been received. The spacecraft features two cameras: a wide-angle camera, or WAC, and a narrow-angle camera, or the NAC. To assist in navigation, the WAC takes photos of the starry background, and the NAC, which photographs the planet. Since the stars are so far away, they may as well be 'fixed' in space, and, in conjunction with the planet photograph, are used to determine exact position and if any adjustments need to be made. Stay tuned for more Mercury photographs as they become available!

Processed Mars Pic

2008-01-05T11:57:00.000-05:00

Here's my older pic of Mars...

And my newer pic. This one is 7 exposures stacked through Registax, and with adjusted Curves through Photoshop (with a custom diffraction spike brush as well).

Stay tuned in for how I made the improvements!

Photoshop Tutorial: Diffraction Spikes #1

2008-01-04T09:54:00.000-05:00

Lately, I've been fooling around with my Adobe Photoshop, and decided to give a whirl at creating artificial diffraction spikes on wide-angle astrophotography. My final photograph will be submitted after this article because it is still in need of some processing, though I will include some great examples such as the preceding photo of the Pleiades, which has very visible diffraction spikes.

It should be noted that diffraction spikes actually detract from the scientific worth of a photograph, as certain features of stars may be obscured by their inclusion. They are strictly there to "pretty up" a photograph, and provide no calculable scientific value.

I have created a custom brush preset using instructions I found on IceInSpace.com, an Australian amateur astronomy website with some great information.

Do these steps and soon you're astrophotos will have those cool diffraction spikes on them as well! Look forward to my published photographs of Mars (similar to one already posted) stacked with Registrax and using IceInSpace's diffraction spike tutorial. It's going to be pretty cool, and I think a gigantic leap forward in quality.

Featured Photographer: The Star Doctor

2008-01-01T11:09:00.000-05:00

Not to get repetitive with the photographer posts, but this site is just too incredibly awesome to pass up and not blog.

Ruben Kier over at The Star Doctor has some of the most amazing astrophotos I have ever seen, but I think the real meat and potatoes of this website is the observatory this guy has set up in the mountains. The roof slides off and everything (and he even has a La-Z-Boy recliner in the observatory too!).

Says on the site he takes naps in the recliner and double-checks every hour or two that everything is still aligned, tracking, and in focus. Now that's the life!

Once I get to retirement age, I hope I can have something this nice! This site is definitely something any amatuer astronomer can drool over!

Featured Flickr Photographer: OpoTerser

2007-12-31T15:30:00.001-05:00

Summer Milky Way Full Frame at 50mm f/1.7
Originally uploaded by OpoTerser

This guy definitely has some awesome wide angle Milky Way shots. Cruise by his gallery to check them out; he also has some awesome Moon shots to boot.

Great Job OpoTerser!

Mars Near To Earth

2007-12-29T09:22:00.000-05:00

This is a photo I took of Mars two nights ago. Mars is currently near its closest point to Earth, and I wanted to snap a shot before it returned in 2016!

Orion, the Hunter

2007-12-29T09:16:00.001-05:00

Constellation Name: Orion
Observed Date: 12/27/07, 8:14pm EST

Sky Conditions: Clear

Coordinates: (Will be updated)

Note: This Orion photograph is to replace the original photos I have taken which can be found here.

Things to See in 2008

2007-12-23T12:03:00.000-05:00

There's a bunch of cool stuff that is going to be going on this upcoming year in 2008. A couple notable things are:

Comets - There will be quite a few comets coming around in 2008. Four of these will likely be visible with binoculars. 8P/Tuttle will remain visible for awhile. For a complete list of comets, check resources at aerith.net and the Institute of Astronomy to see what we can look forward to in 2008.

Planets & Moon - Look forward to many solar and lunar eclipses. Also check out the many planets coming into opposition (their closest approach to Earth) and conjunctions (in which planets appear very close to each other). A full list of expected phenomena can be found at Sea and Sky.

Asteroid Events - Any dedicated asteroid hunters out there can check out Poyntsource for a complete list of all global asteroid events. This site even let's you import information into Google Earth.

Meteor Showers - According to the International Meteor Organization, " The meteor year ahead starts well for the stronger showers, with moonless maxima for the Quadrantids, α-Centaurids, η-Aquarids and δ-Aquarids, but things go somewhat awry in August with the Perseids peaking near full Moon, while the Orionids in October, the Leonids in November and the Geminids in December are even worse-placed." Check out their 2008 calendar for a full listing of what to expect when meteor hunting in 2008.

The year 2008 will be a great year for observing, and remember, 2009 is the International Year of Astronomy.

Flickr Find: Jupiter & Computer Science Geek

2007-12-22T10:25:00.001-05:00

Opposition of Jupiter with Milky Way
Originally uploaded by Computer Science Geek

Check out this awesome twilight photo of Jupiter. I'm a real sucker for wide angle astrophotography, and this one is definitely a gem. Check out the author Computer Science Geek on his Flickr page.

Tunguska-sized Asteroid Misses Earth; Sets Sights on Mars

2007-12-22T09:07:00.000-05:00

On November 20, 2007, NASA-funded observers discovered an asteroid, subsequently named 2007 WD5, after it had made its closest approach to Earth at 4.7 million miles. In terms of NEOs (Near Earth Objects), this is a very close call.

While we may be out of the woods, Mars certianly is not. At 5:55am EST on January 30, 2008, it is scheduled to pass within a mere 30,000 miles of Mars. This means there is at least a statistical probability of 1 in 75 that it would collide.

This would be an event the size of Tunguska, or larger. It would slam into the surface at more nearly 28,000 mph, create a crater more than a half mile wide, and release more than three megatons of energy.

On another note, notice that the asteroid was discovered after it made its closest approach to Earth. We need to do better than this NASA; you're gonna let another Tunguska or dinokiller through.

Peace on Earth

2007-12-20T12:26:00.000-05:00

Michele from the Earth and Weather Space has beat me to the punch on a great Christmas-related article. Dwight D. Eisenhower transmitted the first broadcast through space on December 19th, 1958 from the Atlas satellite.

Check out the Earth and Weather Space to find out what he said!

Ursid Meteor Shower

2007-12-20T09:35:00.000-05:00

Referring back to our brief post on Comet 8/P Tuttle I actually forgot something very important about that comet; we are only two days from passing through the debris left along the path of the comet. The radiant will be in the Little Dipper (Ursa Minor), near Polaris.

The Ursid meteor shwoer has been quite dull in the preceding years, but experts are expecting a much grander show this year because the comet is quickly approaching us. For some pics of this comet, which is as big but not as bright as comet Halley, check out the always cool Flintstone Stargazing, or some more amateur photos at SETI's dedicated website.

Unfortunately, viewing conditions will not be ideal for this meteor shower because of the fact that it will be peaking when North America is in the day time, and Europe and Asia will have a bright moon, obscuring their view of outburst as well. Suggestions for successful viewing on SETI's website include blocking the Moon with an obstruction such as a telephone pole and viewing the constellation.

Interestingly, the dust in this comet that we see is centuries old; this year's dust is estimated to be from the comet's passing between 300 and 900 A.D. Results of a study making this claim can be found in the Journal of the International Meteor Organization.

Peter Jenniskens, a meteor astronomer with the SETI institute, says this on SPACE.com about a potential mission to study the Ursids meteor phenomena, "To investigate this, we are hoping for an opportunity to observe the outburst from a Gulfstream V aircraft in a mission similar to our campaign to study the September 1 Aurigids."

"If approved, the Ursid flight will be a long 16-hour mission, involving one aircraft, departing from NASA Ames Research Center in the early morning of December 22nd. The plane will fly north-west towards Alaska, land in Anchorage for a refuel stop, and then continue on to follow the Earth's shadow, fly over the Arctic and turn towards Canada to return at Ames just after sunset."

"We don't need to fly all the way to the North Pole, just far enough north to stay in darkness all the time. The aircraft will follow the Earth's rotation, making the meteors fall from a radiant high in the sky throughout the mission. The moon will stay low on the horizon on one side of the plane."

The can view the very cool, official prediction paper of the Ursid meteor shower here. Check this out; it is by far the most in-depth information about this meteor shower available this year.

Below I have included SETI's official Ursid meteor shower debris prediction:

Very cool mission idea. Too bad that this meteor shower won't be easy to view from North America; seems interesting. Maybe we'll be lucky enough to catch a stray...

I usually like to include an amateur photo of any meteor shower I've found, but I've yet to actually find any amateur astrophotography regarding the Ursids (other than the host comet 8/P Tuttle). Seems this is a difficult one to image; let me know if anyone is able to.

Happy meteor hunting!

Sorry for Slow Postings

2007-12-20T09:07:00.001-05:00

I'd just like to apologize for the lack of posts recently. I'm going through a bit of a crisis with my home; I've lost water pressure in my well! I've been using all my non-work time to try and fix this problem. You never realize how devastating water-loss can be; no dishwashing, showers, flushing toilets, or water to make coffee and tea. It's been tough, but it should be fixed today.

Thanks for your patience!

Mars At Its Closest Photograph

2007-12-18T14:43:00.001-05:00

Here's a few pictures of Mars while at its closest point to Earth:

This is a photo by Alan Dyer of what Mars looks like from Earth in an overexposed photograph. Check out how much brighter it is than Orion!

Hubble released this image yesterday of Mars at its closest point to Earth. Great time for Mars astrophotography!

It's been a great time for Mars photographs! Any reader photos would be welcome, just e-mail them to rick.tiffini[at]gmail.com.

Comet Visible with Binoculars

2007-12-17T14:47:00.000-05:00

While everyone is still checking out 17/P Holmes, it's easy to forget another comet is passing through. Not the biggest or brightest of the comets, but still a nice view if you've got some nice equipment; even a pair of 10x50 binoculars will do.

Check out Sky and Telescope's Observing blog for more detailed information and charts to help you locate it.

I found a new (to me) astronomy/astrophotography blog called Flintstone Stargazing, and its really cool. Check it out; this guy even has some new pics of Comet 8P/Tuttle from this year like the one to the right!

EDIT: Flintstone Stargazing rocks. It's going on the blogroll!

Mars Comes Closest to Earth Tomorrow

2007-12-17T14:03:00.000-05:00

Mars will be at its closest point in it orbit to Earth tomorrow. Mars already is an extremely impressive object with its hue very easily distinguishable as red.

Courtesy of Sky & Telescope Observing Blog, we have this handy chart to help us plot Mars' position in the sky, though it's really a formality at this point since it is so easily visible. Look to the constellation Gemini, and it should be easily visible as it is by far the brightest object in that section of the sky.

On an astrophotography note, I've found that Mars is notoriously difficult, at least for me, to photograph. I seem to get lots of streaks, trails, and other problems. I will be getting my gear out shortly to see if I can get a good Mars shot as I add Taurus and Gemini to my constellation list.

Check out the post at Sky & Telescope for more detailed information on what telescope, filters, etc. will give you the best view of Mars.

Michele at the Earth and Weather blog has a great post on the subject as well. Enjoy it; Mars won't be back like this until 2016.

Mars Exploration: A Timeline

2007-12-14T13:31:00.001-05:00

NASA has a great interactive timeline that discusses every attempt to reach Mars. A great read, you have to check it out. Man, the Soviet Union made a bunch of attempts but their spacecrafts kept burning up...

Check it out here!

Hotspots on Enceladus

2007-12-13T18:46:00.000-05:00

Hot spots on Enceladus have lead scientists to believe that it might be less than dead than previously thought, as outlined by William McKinnon in his presentation "Cold Fire: The Geology and Geophysics of Enceladus," on Dec. 10, 2007, at the Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco.

There is clear evidence now that the icy satellite of Saturn in geologically active. Plumes of ice and vapor are being ejected into the atmosphere, and for this to happen, the temperature has to bee at least 100 degrees C hotter than previously thought.

Enceladus actually isn't cold enough for this to happen, however, a "hot spot" near the south pole is. The thought for this mechanism, similar to the oceans of Europa, is the gravitational pull of Saturn on the moon causings the crust of water ice to rub along fault lines, creating enough firction heat to expel water "smoke" into the atmosphere.

Even though water is present, the existance of life is unlikely, according to McKinnon, because the water shows no sodium content. Sodium content is associated with subterranean water coming in contact with rocks and other minerals.

Odyssey Moon Enters Google X Prize

2007-12-07T09:13:00.000-05:00

Odyssey Moon, a British-based private spaceflight company, is seeking Google's $30 million X-Prize for successfully landing a rover on the Moon.

Headquartered on the tax lenient Isle of Man in the Irish Sea, the company, brainchild of CEO Robert Richards (founder of International Space University), is fixed to win this new age space race.

The company consists of many experienced space engineers, and is potentially one of the strongest competitors at this point.

The Google X-Prize requires a team to land a rover capable of moving 500 meters and transmitting back video, data, and images to qualify for the entire prize by December 31st, 2012.

Richards, confident of his company's ability, has been quoted as saying, "We believe the Google Lunar X Prize goals are achievable. And we do intend to win."

They intend to reduce the cost of moon travel "by an order of magnitude."

He describes the moon as "an eighth continent rich in energy and resources floating just offshore." Very accurate considering the Helium-3 isotope, an extremely efficient, potent, and clean fuel that could power the Earth, in its entirety, for many centuries.

Along with Carnegie Mellon and a slew of other potential teams, its great to see the competition heating up. The moon is the "gateway" to the private sector of solar system exploration.

Look out moon. We're coming back, and this time it's for good!

Voyager 2 Approaches Termination Shock

2007-12-06T12:32:00.000-05:00

Astronomers like to make cool names for boundaries in outer space. If you cross the point of no return near a blackhole, it's called the event horizon. However, when you leave the heliosphere of our Sun, it's called the termination shock.

The heliosphere is a sphere surrounding the solar system in which the solar wind, electronically charged particles emitted at high speeds by our Sun, slows to subsonic speeds. The solar wind travels at supersonic speeds when it is emitted and eventually slows as it "pushes" against the interstellar medium of plasma, neutral gas, and dust. This boundary is not fixed, meaning it can change depending on certain variables.

Since the heliosphere moves back and forth, it is estimated that Voyager 2 will cross the termination shock twice: once in the next month or two and again in the middle of 2008. The spacecraft is now in the outer heliosphere, beyond which lies galactic space.

The spacecrafts next big step will be the heliopause: the boundary where the solar wind comes to a complete halt.

This probe was launched nearly 5 years before I was born, yet still is running strong. We can't build a moon base in 2007 but we could send a probe hurtling into space that is functional for a full 30 years? It's very frustrating to see that we have to build back our knowledge back to what it was 30 years ago. Of course this makes the statement, "They don't make 'em like they used," an accurate statement concerning spacecraft.

How to Get Your Wife Interested In Astronomy!

2007-12-06T10:33:00.000-05:00

Check out the full scoop on Daily Galaxy

Ever feel like your wife just really could care less about the strength of a magnetic field in a magnetar, the path of a planemo, or the latest discovery of a nova in the constellation Puppis?

Well fear not, because there's one astronomical discovery she will be interested in. The star formerly known as BPM 37093, located in the constellation Centaurus, is actually a large, crystallized carbon mass nearly 2,500 miles in diameter. Don't let the big words fool you: this crystallized carbon is basically a gigantic diamond!

A diamond this large is literally 10 billion-trillion-trillion carats; the number is so incredibly huge it would be followed by 34 zeroes.

The carbon core of white dwarf stars often crystallize into diamonds. This is the largest diamond yet located in the galaxy.

That should get some wives interested...

Adapted from: Daily Galaxy

Geminid Meteor Shower

2007-12-06T09:34:00.000-05:00

The Geminid meteor shower is set to peak on Friday, December 14th. The Geminid meteor shower occurs when the Earth passes through a debris cloud left by near-earth object (NEO) 3200 Phaethon, which, interestingly is not a comet, but an asteroid, some theorists think.

Asteroids don't normally spew debris into space. The tail of a comet leaves debris sometimes as small as a grain of sand that when they come into contact with Earth's atmosphere become a bright flash of light streaking across the sky: a meteor. So where in the world does the debris that forms the Geminids come from?

Some think that the asteroid collided with another NEO that creates a cloud of dust and debris that follows it around in its orbit. Some think that it is actually an extinct comet. The comet's orbit is highly elliptical, like a comets. It comes extremely close to the Sun, twice as close as Mercury, where repeated blasts of solar energy could have reduced it to the rocky comet core we see today.

True to astronomical acronym fashion, this NEO is also classified as a PHA, or Potentially Hazardous Asteroid, because it comes a mere 2 million miles away from Earth's orbit. The size of this asteroid is 5 km wide; half the size of the asteroid assumed to have made the dinosaurs extinct.

3200 Phaethon is visible with a telescope in the constellation Virgo, where it will be 11 million miles away from Earth on December 10th. It appears as a magnitude 14 object not visible to the naked eye.

The meteor showers radiant is just "above" the star Castor, depending on what angle you are observing from.

A pretty sweet animation of the radiant and estimate of the meteors can be found on the incredibly cool Shadow & Substance website. This place has tons of cool fluid animations that can be used to illustrate tons of different things, so I encourage you to check it out.

Life's Precursors Found in Titan's Atmosphere

2007-12-01T13:21:00.000-05:00

Despite not having nearly any oxygen at all, the atmosphere on Titan has something very interesting in it: negative ions.

These ions act as building blocks that more complex organic molecules form from. Carbon can form using these polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, PAHs, which have been mentioned in this blog before on the post Why I Think There's Life on Mars...

Check out even more details on the Astronomy Report blog which has an adapted version of the official release by University College London.

This makes one think... if Titan has the building blocks for life on it, could there be life on it? I know it rains methane on the moon and has lakes and oceans of methane and that its super-cold, however, what if water was as acidic and destructive to organisms living on Titan as liquid methane is to humans living on Earth? What if the temperature of Earth is as blazing hot to an organism on Titan as the surface of Venus is to us earthlings?

Just food for thought!

Enthusiasts: Vote Prospace!

2007-12-01T12:18:00.000-05:00

In the upcoming elections, Colony Worlds, one of my favorite blogs about intersolar colonization, has brought up a very valid point in their recent post. With elections coming up, and different candidates having different directions for our space program, it's important for us to vote prospace to keep Bush'S vision for the space program alive.

Presidential candidate Obama seeks to delay the already long-delayed Constellation space program. The space program

If your a fan of space exploration like me, I urge everyone to vote pro-space. I've created this button anyone can feel free to use on there site if they would like to advertise that they will be voting pro-space.

Chang'e 1 vs. Kaguya

2007-12-01T12:01:00.000-05:00

Four days ago, the first lunar pictures taken by China's Chang'e 1 lunar orbiter were released, weeks after Kaguya's HD camera took photos. So compare the two here:

Chang'e 1

Vs.

Kaguya

While Kaguya is undoubtedly prettier, both missions, hot-on-the heels of each other, are part of a plan laid out by The Planetary Society called the Lunar Decade. Each of these missions, and India's planned mission, Chandrayaan 1, play an integral part in the plan.

Exciting New Fusion Technology

2007-12-01T11:23:00.000-05:00

Currently still in its R&D phase is Bussard inertial electrostatic (IEC) fusion. This exciting form of fusion can be used to power spaceships with amazingly cheap costs and extremely short travel times. Travel times with this type of fusion include:

Travel to Titan would take 75-90 days.

24 hours to lunar orbit from low earth orbit.

Travel to Mars would take 33-38 days.

Amazingly, these almost ridiculous travel times are accompanied by what the general public likes: an equally ridiculous low cost. Cost can be as low as these figures:

$200 million of research, development, building, and testing.

2 8-gigawatt thermal fusion engines are nearly 100x less expensive than our best systems available today.

Check out a the Advanced Nanotechnology Blog for more in detail information. Definitely a must for any aspiring space junkie!

I was referred to this site by the always awesome Bad Astronomy Blog.

Space Explorer

2007-11-30T16:17:00.001-05:00

Just an FYI; I am removing Space Explorer from the blogroll. It appears that this blog cuts and pastes entire articles from new sites. That's plagiarism bro, and it's not going to remain on this blogroll.

Great Worldwide Star Count Results

2007-11-30T10:26:00.001-05:00

Some of you may remember my post Fight The Light: Calling All Readers to participate in the Great World Wide Star Count.

There were over 6,600 observations by citizen scientists in over 60 countries! Here is a results map of North America... notice the diagonal string of lower star counts in the northeast region of the United States.

Awesome Astrophotographer

2007-11-30T09:12:00.000-05:00

I found this guy while crusing the digital astro group on Yahoo.

Joe Carr has some photos in his astrophoto gallery on Zenfolio. Truly amazing photographs; I thought these were Hubble images or something!

Truly talented, I think this is the type of quality all astrophotographers should strive for. Great job Joe!

Holmes Revival

2007-11-30T09:01:00.000-05:00

Johnny Horne from Sky & Telescopes Observing Blog captured this extraordinary example of comet 17P Holmes on 11/27 (when many websites reported it no longer visible to the naked eye). This is probably my favorite Holmes photo yet.

Check out the site and learn the details of how this photo was taken with a new Nikon D300 DSLR camera. Read, and learn from a truly talented astrophotographer!

Lights With No Sun

2007-11-30T08:39:00.000-05:00

The ESA's Rosetta, the first ever spacecraft whose destination is a comet, took this picture of the Earth at night. Large cities are clearly visible as mankind's presence on this planet is clearly visible-- even when the Sun is not.

Rosetta has a super complex trajectory is making its course to comet 67P Rosetta. This includes not one, but three gravity assist maneuvers around Earth and another around Mars. This truly will show how efficient current technology can accurately predict the course of our probes.

Once reaching comet 67P Rosetta, the craft will remain in orbit with the comet during its journey to and from the Sun. In a nutshell, Rosetta will ultimately tell us what comets are made of, why they are different (or the same) as other intersolar materials, and give us a better idea of what the surface of a comet actually looks like.

Interesting mission to be sure, and likely it will present us with new information while verifying what we already know about comets. The study of the origin of comets never looked so sweet... just check out this picture of a very overexposed Mars taken by Rosetta's wide-angle camera against the stunning backdrop of our Milky Way. Every astrophotographers dream--wide angle astrophotography with a twist: no atmosphere!

Flickr Find: Great Mars pic!

2007-11-29T16:10:00.001-05:00

mars-11to15
Originally uploaded by chipdatajeffb

Great Flickr find here! Here's an awesome webcam photo of Mars taken with a Phillips ToUCam Pro.

Just shows how incredibly awesome a webcam photo can truly be. Check out our web cam post, and be sure to view all the technical details of this outstanding example of webcam astrophotography.

Flickr Find: Great Venus pic!

2007-11-29T15:53:00.001-05:00

Venus, the Morning Star
Originally uploaded by gainesp2003

I found this pic on Flickr and used it in my previous post about all the great new Venus stuff going on. I loved it so much, I wanted to make a post showing it in all its glory.

Check out other photographs from this photographer!

Truly a marvelous Venus shot, congrats!

The Earth Without Humans

2007-11-29T14:53:00.000-05:00

I found this interesting chart on one of my favorite blogs, The Daily Galaxy, on the recovery process of planet Earth if humans were eradicated completely. Not sure if it applies to this blog, but cool nonetheless.

Gift Idea: An Acre on the Red Planet!

2007-11-29T12:14:00.000-05:00

Looks like there's a hot new real estate market opening up... acre lots on the Red Planet!

That's right friends, you too can own a piece of the red planet! For a mere $34.00, you can own an entire acre on the red planet itself.

Registration includes:

Letter of Proclamation

Property Fact Sheet

Full Color Photo of Mars

Lifetime registration in the Red Planet Land Claimss database

I personally think this makes a great gift for the amatuer astronomer; however, like those "star databases", don't take it too seriously. I seriously doubt you'll ever step foot on it and I doubt you'll ever even be on any sort of semi-official map.

Still a pretty cool gift idea! (Wish I thought of that...)

A Different Kind of Venus...

2007-11-29T10:35:00.000-05:00

Venus recently seems to be a hot topic, and for good reason: the ESA's Venus Express probe has been churning out some very interesting data. You can even check out our most recent Venus post titled The Oceans of Venus for even more information.

We know that the solar wind interacts with the hydrogen in Venus' atmosphere, causing it to forever be lost in space. More recently, we have discovered that oxygen has been escaping the atmosphere all along as well. This is an exciting discovery because since the structure of water, obviously made up of both hydrogen and oxygen, has been escaping into the atmosphere, with enough data, we can reverse this process mathematically and determine how much water has escaped into space.

Venus expert, David Grinspoon, thinks the amount of water is indeed significant: nearly as much as the oceans of Earth (Source: Daily Galaxy). He actually authors a book called Life on Venus, in which he states that 4 billion years ago, when the Sun's heat output was little more than half of its current output, that Earth was likely too cold to support life but Venus would have been right in the middle of the habitable zone.

Daily Galaxy blogger Doug Aamoth brought up an interesting point in his article: if intelligent life existed on Venus we'd have no clue. The solar system is 5 billion years old, and if a civilization were present on Venus, all traces would be completely wiped clean in a mere 50,000 years by natural geologic process. Very intriguing and makes one think: if they were there, could they have made it off the rock before the greenhouse effect ran rampant?

The ESA held a press conference today discussing the findings of the Venus Express. We can look forward to the findings to be officially published in an upcoming issue of the Nature journal, but we can see what researcher Dmitri Titov says about the findings:

"An important first set of results concerns the complex dynamics and
structure of Venus's atmosphere, studied with a whole suite of instruments. The
spacecraft has revealed the structure and movements of the atmosphere, from its
upper reaches to just above the surface, and has obtained the best global map of
atmospheric temperatures to date. This is already improving our understanding of
the global dynamics and the meteorology of Venus." (Source: Astronomy Report)

One thing is for certain: Venus is shaping up to be a much livelier, active planet with a richer and more mysterious past than anyone could have ever guessed. This is a planet we will be watching with a close eye for some time, and who knows, maybe there's an archaelogical ruin or two on the scorching surface?

New Nova Found in Puppis

2007-11-19T17:39:00.000-05:00

From Sky & Telescopes Observing Blog:

Nova Puppis 2007 can be found about 1° northeast of RS Puppis, a Cepheid variable star. The nova's 2000.0 coordinates are right ascension 8h 16.3m, declination –34° 15′. Its type is not yet known, nor whether it is still brightening or beginning to fade.

Looks like there's a new nova in town! Enjoy looking for this one; it's visible with binoculars. From what I hear, this is a rare helium nova.

Leonid Meteor Shower Peaks Tonight

2007-11-17T15:02:00.000-05:00

The Leonid meteor shower will peak tonight at 11pm. This year will provide clear, favorable conditions for viewing the powerhouse Leonid meteor shower show. The moon is only the first quarter phase, and will have long set in the West by the time the constellation Leo, for which the Leonids are named after, climbs high in the sky to provide the best atmospheric viewing conditions.

The Leonids are the remains of the Tempel-Tuttle comet. The Earth annually passes through its dusty debris trail, which contains debris as tiny as a grain of sand, and creates an incredible light show for patient observers.

Occasionally, we pass through an unusually thick concentration of debris, and in 1999, 2000, and 2001, observers were graced with meteor showers showing more than one thousand objects per hour. The comet had passed through the inner solar system near these times, creating a much higher than expected concentration. The comet has long since vacated our region of the solar system, and these areas of high concentration are expected to be gone, creating a much more modest estimate of what to expect this year.

These bits of "debris" are actually coined meteoroids, the proper term for debris before entering Earth's atmosphere. Meteors are meteoroids that have entered the atmopshere and "lit up". Leonids never hit the ground due their brittle composition, but if one did, which is literally nearly impossible, it would be called a meteorite.

Leonids turn up the heat, literally and figuratively. The meteors can heat up to over 3000 degrees Farenheit. They also have been clocked travelling more than 80mps (that's miles per second, kids) through the atmosphere until they eventually burn up about 60 miles above us.

Leonids were once thought to be the heralds of the end of the world. Thank goodness we know different. We can just enjoy their annual wonder.

Five Tips for Great Moon Photography

2007-11-17T12:30:00.000-05:00

Photographing the moon can be a daunting task. There are several tips I can give about photographing the moon.

Pick a Clear Night - This is very important. Any haze, clouds, wisps, or fog can ruin a shot. The less atmosphere you shoot through, the better the picture will be.

Know Your Phases - Knowing the phase of the moon is crucial for what to expect in the resulting photograph. A full moon gives great pictures of features on the moon's surface, but half moons create shadows on the moon's surface that results in better definition.

Know Your Camera Settings - The single most important fact of moon photography is a rudimentary understanding of your f stops, ISO, and shutter speed. The "auto-picture setting" features on most digital cameras will create a bright blur in the sky with absolutely no detail visible. It is possible to take great photos without the need of a tripod with the correct settings. Use a lower ISO setting to reduce noise, a shorter shutter speed to reduce blurring and negate the need for a remote shutter, and a higher aperture (f/stop) to collect as much light as possible in the short amount of time allowed by the camera to create the photograph. Focus on infinity.

Know Where The Moon Is In The Sky - This is a basic one, but still an important one. If you have a clear view of the horizon, when the moon is rising at night time, you will get a deep orange color. As it rises it will become more of a yellowish color, and it will eventually become the bluish-white color we generally think of when we think of the moon. Depending on what you are going for, keep this in mind.

Trial and Error - Experiment with different settings and record their results in a notebook, or even on back of the finished photographs. Get a feel for your camera; I can't provide exact settings because every camera is different. Keep this in mind: auto-picture won't work; you're gonna have to go all manual.

Planetary Possibilities of the Pleiades

2007-11-17T11:50:00.000-05:00

Planets Forming In Pleiades Star Cluster, Astronomers Report

ScienceDaily (2007-11-15) -- Rocky terrestrial planets, perhaps like Earth, Mars or Venus, appear to be forming or to have recently formed around a star in the Pleiades ("seven sisters") star cluster, the result of "monster collisions" of planets or planetary embryos. Astronomers using the Gemini Observatory in Hawaii and the Spitzer Space Telescope report their findings in an upcoming issue of the Astrophysical Journal, the premier journal in astronomy. ... > read full article

Science Daily has released this article (along with a few other astronomy publications) about the planetary possibilities of the Pleiades. This has long been my favorite cluster because of the fantastic view it provides with or without binoculars, the ease of its locations, and the cool blue colors of these young stars. Below is a previously published photograph I took of the Pleaides:

Video: Watch the Kaguya Earthrise!

2007-11-16T12:07:00.000-05:00

Kaguya (Selene), the Japanese lunar orbiter, has sent back this amazing video of an earthrise as seen from the surface of the Moon. Enjoy!

Deep Sky Blog on Google

2007-11-16T10:35:00.000-05:00

Well, I haven't checked in awhile, but it turns out we are PageRank 2 out of a possible 10. Not bad considering we were N/A for a long time, then we were PageRank 1 for awhile, and now 2. We're growing in popularity and I'd like to thank all the other bloggers who are linking here. Thanks for your support!

The Amazing Green Flash

2007-11-15T12:56:00.000-05:00

I just found this post over at a blog called The Earth and Weather Space. This is an atmospheric optical phenomena that is quite rare which makes the Sun appear green, and in rare cases, even shoot a green ray into the sky.

Check it out: quite a great picture!

Wikipedia describes the green flash phenomena as:

The reason for a green flash lies in refraction of light (as in a prism) in the atmosphere: light moves more slowly in the lower, denser air than in the thinner air above, so sunlight rays follow paths that curve slightly, in the same direction as the
curvature of the Earth. Higher frequency light (green/blue) curves more than lower frequency light (red/orange), so green/blue rays from the upper limb of the settingsun remain visible after the red rays are obstructed by the curvature of the earth. Green flashes are enhanced by atmospheric inversions, which increase the density gradient in the atmosphere, and therefore increase refraction. A green flash is more likely to be seen in clear air, when more of the light from the setting sun reaches the observer without being scattered. We might expect to see a blue flash, but the blue is preferentially scattered out of our line of sight and remaining light ends up looking green.

Other great "green flash" sites are here:
An Introduction To Green Flashes

Green Flash Photo Gallery

A Green Flash Explanation

November's Naked Eye Northern Hemisphere Objects

2007-11-14T19:47:00.000-05:00

November has quite a few interesting stars that are visible in the Northern Hemisphere. Check these stars out if you find yourself being new to astronomy and without any "expensive gear":

Altair - This is the brightest star in the constellation of Aquila, the eagle. The name Altair literally means "the flying eagle" in Arabic. It is also the apex of the Summer Triangle.

Capella - This is the brightest star in the constellation of Auriga. It appears yellowish in color and is a spectroscopic binary.

Deneb - This is the brightest star in Cygnus, the swan. This star is one of the most luminous stars known. It is a blue supergiant.

Vega - This is the fifth brightest star in the sky and is of the blue-white variety. It is actually the second brightest star in the Northern Hemipshere. It is the brightest star in the constellation Lyra.

Algol - This is the brighest star in the constellation Perseus. It means "the ghoul" in Arabic and represented the head of the Gorgon, Medusa. It is actually located quite close at the present time to Comet 17P/Holmes. This binary star flucuates magnitude frequently.

Fomalhaut - This is a young star that is the head of the fish constellation, Piscus Austrinus.

Pleiades - This open cluster is easily visible to the eye in the Taurus constellation. Binoculars reveal many more than the seven obvious stars in this cluster. This cluster resembles a tiny "dipper" like the Ursa constellations.

Hyades - This is an easily visible open cluster noticed but never catalogued by Messier. Shaped like a triangle, it is very easy to locate using sky maps.

Aldebaran - This is a red giant, and has the Alpha designation, in the constellation Taurus. It is one of the brighest stars in the night sky. It appears to be a part of the Hyades open cluster, but it is just merely in the line of sight.

Polaris - The northen star, this is the brightest star that is closest to the celestial north pole. This keeps it position relatively uniform. It is the brightest star in Ursa Minor.

Check out the Sky Maps link in our links section. It points directly to some high quality maps that make locating all of these objects very easy.

Venus Through The Treeline

2007-11-14T12:30:00.000-05:00

This is a great picture of Venus (yes, Venus, not the moon) through the treeline at about 4:57am EST. Venus is so bright that long exposure photographs, even with my non-DSLR digital camera, makes it appear almost as bright as the moon because of the amount of light collected in the camera's lens. Hope you enjoy this picture as well!

Cepheus

2007-11-14T12:23:00.001-05:00

Constellation Name: Cepheus

Observed Date: 11/13/07, 8:17pm EST
Sky Conditions: Clear
Coordinates: (Will be updated)

Ursa Minor

2007-11-14T12:14:00.000-05:00

Constellation Name: Ursa Minor
Observed Date: 11/13/07, 8:05pm EST
Sky Conditions: Clear
Coordinates: (Will be updated)

Mars Phoenix Lander

2007-11-11T17:29:00.000-05:00

My thoughts frequently drift to the Mars Phoenix Lander, which at this moment in time, is hurdling through space at astounding speed to the red planet Mars.

The Phoenix will once for all run definitive tests on the orangish-red soils of our less than hospitable neighbor. In honor of my thoughts and wishes for the Phoenix team, I am creating a countdown clock until the day Phoenix lands. Once it lands, who knows what it will find out about the organic (or inorganic) history of Mars' geology.

Countdown to Mars Phoenix Lander touchdown!

A Few Projects...

2007-11-11T17:05:00.000-05:00

First of all, let me apologize for my lack of posting recently. I have officially moved to the country, and its been a long, hard work, and I couldn't get off of work. That being said, here's a few things I have in store:

For this blog, the next post will be a detailed post about building your own newtonian refractor.
I have also created a photo blog only for my astrophotography. Check it out at http://deepskyastrophotography.blogspot.com.
I am creating another blog about eco-friendly living at http://leanergreenerlife.blogspot.com.

This blog is not dead, I apologize for the lack of updates and these should pick back up to normal pace shortly.

Blackberry Gets An Astronomy Lesson

2007-11-03T13:57:00.000-04:00

Starry Night software is now available, and get this, FREE of charge! Simply type this URL into your Blackberry's browser:

http://www.starrynightsupport.com/widgets/blackberry/StarryNight.jad

The download will begin automatically. Enjoy; you now have mobile access to awesome sky maps! Generate real images on-the-fly!

This is a huge deal to me because if you're a corporate-type like me, you live on your Blackberry! Finally, something a little less stressful comes from my Blackberry (besides BrickBreaker)!

BTW, for all you Apple fans out there, and iPhone version is available too.

Enjoy!

Some More Astrophotos!

2007-11-03T11:07:00.000-04:00

This is a photo of Venus over the treeline on my property. I zoomed in to get a better shot, but if you look at the stars in the picture, you can see them start to trail. If you use a zoom lens on your camera, 30-second exposures are out of the question unless you have some sort of tracking.

This is a picture of the open cluster, the Hyades. Notice they form a perfect 'V' with the tip pointing to the upper-righthand corner of the photo. Again, this is a 20-second exposure with NO zoom.

Cassiopeia

2007-11-03T11:02:00.000-04:00

Constellation Name: Cassiopeia

Observed Date: 11/2/07, 12:52am EST

Sky Conditions: Clear

Coordinates: (Will be updated)

Orion

2007-11-03T10:27:00.001-04:00

Constellation Name: Orion the Hunter

Observed Date: 11/1/07, 12:34am EST

Sky Conditions: Clear

Coordinates: (Will be updated)

Constellation Hunter

2007-11-03T10:17:00.000-04:00

I'm going to be starting a new project on this blog. I'm going to be going for the Constellation Hunter certificate through the Astronomical League. The rules for this award are that you:

List date and time.
List latitude and longitude of observation.
List constellation name.
List sky conditions and/or transparency
A sketch of all stars that were visible to the unaided eye, out to the limits of the constellation's boundary. Named stars should be identified on the sketch.
The sketch should include other objects that are visible within the boundaries of the constellation, including but not limited to: galaxies, open clusters, globular clusters, and nebulas.

I'll be photo-logging all my constellations in the Northern Hemipshere. It might not be up right away, but I'll have a links box to all constellations I have located and cataloged.

Let's Get Our Kids Involved!

2007-11-01T14:53:00.000-04:00

Astronomy is a rewarding, interesting, and ultimately fulfilling hobby. This hobby, as most involved know, is very kid friendly. Here are a few ideas for parents looking to get there kids involved in astronomy:

1.) Join an astronomy club. These clubs have meetings and usually some sort of educational presentation. They also have observing sessions at designated spots, and they also may host star parties, which are fun events for guests and other people to enjoy astronomy. Check these out at http://www.astronomyclubs.com/.

2.) If you join a club, or if you join the Astronomical League, you can complete observer challenges. These can be as simple as sketching the listed constellations, observing galaxies with binoculars, or even observing obscure nebulae with a 17" telescope.

3.) Learn a little and share it. My daughter was nearly excited as me when I showed her 17P/Holmes, and let's face it: if you didn't know what you were seeing, it wasn't that incredibly impressive. Her enthusiasm drew off my enthusiasm.

Astronomy is an important science and as technology advances, it is becoming more and more important each passing day. Who knows where the space program is going to be in fifteen years, but I know one thing: if there are great opportunities in the space program available in the future, I would love my kids to have a passion for that branch of science.

Build Your Own Astro Cameras!

2007-10-31T16:51:00.000-04:00

For the monetarily-challenged astrophotographers (such as myself), there is a simple alternative. Single-use, disposable cameras can make excellent astronomical cameras; with some modifications of course.

The idea behind the whole concept is simple: even though the camera is handicapped with a focal plane of around f/10, the removal of the shutter mechanism allows for long-exposure photography. All the original pictures taken by me on this site are taken at f/2.8, and more often than not are a 30-second exposure. However, for the budget-minded astrophotographer, we are simply replacing the poor focal length with more time to collect light. A 25-minute exposure will generally, under decent conditions, provide a photo yielding about 2.5 more stars than are visible. Not too shabby, especially since disposable camera bodies are free from most photo labs. You also will want to pick up some used film canisters with toothed spindles.

Since this technique is so useful, let's go through the steps to successfully disassemble, modify, and use our new astrocamera.

Open the camera body cautiously by unsnapping the plastic tabs. One plastic tab should already be removed by the original film processor. Unsnap all the pieces, four in total: the front, the back, the middle (main camera part), and a cylindrical film roll.

Find out if the camera model used a flash. If it does not, skip to step 3. The flash unit retains its charge long after use and can be quite dangerous. Since we are photographing very dim stars, we do not want a flash so we need to remove the unit completely. If the camera has a flash unit, you must short out the large capacitor by connecting both leads with an insulated wire. Do this more than once!!!

Now that we have either disabled the flash unit and removed it (or skipped that step entirely if you did not have one) its time to get the shutter mechanism out. You will need to remove the lens assembly temporarily so we can reach the mechanism. The lens assembly is normally on a piece of black housing and there may be a metal band securing it. Remove this C-shaped piece of metal and discard. Be careful not to get your fingers on the lens! This can ruin an image and causes the camera to be out of focus. At this point carefully remove the lens and set it somewhere safe, preferably a lens (or glasses) microfiber cloth.

With the lens assembly removed you should see the shutter mechanism. It is a hinged metallic piece. Remove the spring it is connected to and the hinged metallic piece itself. Leave the plastic piece it is connected to alone.

With the shutter mechanism removed, carefully replace the lens assembly.

With the lens assembly replaced, snap the camera body back together.

And there we have it; a perfectly functioning astrocamera. We still need to load it with film and that can get a little sticky because a disposable camera runs reverse of what a regular camera does. Here's the steps for film loading:

Remove a toothed spindle from the used film canisters you acquired.

Put the toothed spindle in the reusable film canister.

Attach the end of the film to the spindle with a small piece of masking or electrical tape and wind it up.

Put it into the film canister with a little bit of extra film hanging out.

Secure the top by screwing it in; we don't want light getting in here.

Fasten the extra film hanging out to the original cylindrical canister.

Put the camera body back together.

And there we have it! A perfectly functional astrophotography camera. Unless your going for star trails, you're going to have to have a device to properly track the sky.

Check out my post on barnyard trackers!!!

On a personal note, I've done this once before when I was a kid in space camp and the pictures turned out awesome! I'm running mostly on memory on what we did, but to fill in the holes, I borrowed heavily from this site at astrosociety.org.

Deadly Dance of Two Galaxies

2007-10-31T16:22:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, the Hubble telescope spotted two intertwining galaxies and produced this stunning image:

The pair of galaxies are gliding past each other, and literally through each other, and the effects of gravity are evident. Even in the spiral arms, which appear as "fuzz", there are many millions of stars and even though they pass through the galaxy together, stars won't likely collide, though orbits will likely be altered.

Our First Award: Break Out Blogger Award

2007-10-31T12:16:00.001-04:00

DrowseyMonkey has awarded this site with the Break Out Blogger award. Look for it (and any other) awards we receive at the very bottom of this webpage. Thanks!

More Astrophotography From Last Night

2007-10-30T18:46:00.000-04:00

Here's a few of my photos from last night's photo session. I mostly did some stuff with the comet, but took a few more snaps. Check em out!

A Night with the Comet (17P/Holmes)

2007-10-30T13:00:00.000-04:00

Our solar system post for Wednesday is an update on an object about 99.9% of all telescopes pointed upward are looking at: Comet 17P/Holmes.

It looks like the comet is still maintaining its current magnitude, and a "fuzziness", often described as nebulous, dust cloud surrounds the yellowish-greenish object. It is east of Mirfak, and nearly as bright, and it is very obviously apparent that it is not a star anymore.

In the following photo, the contrast of the yellowish tint of the comet has been increased digitally to give a more accurate picture of what I saw, rather than what the camera saw. I kept the other stars dim to make its location more apparent.

Here is an unaltered photograph depicting what you can expect through the naked eye.

Comet 17P/Holmes continues to blaze at a very visible 2.8 magnitude and will remain so until it burns its fuel and diminishes in magnitude again. No one knows when the comet will fade, but its very apparent anyone who wants to see 17P/Holmes will have a chance.

Deep Sky Objects Viewable with Binoculars

2007-10-29T14:59:00.000-04:00

For today's deep space object post we'll be checking out a few deep sky objects that are visible this time of year to the amateur using binoculars! That's right, there are a number of deep sky targets that can be seen, albeit not in the vibrant, colorful flare that the best astrophotos exhibit. Below is a list of must-see objects that the amateur can see even before buying their first scope:

Andromeda Galaxy - This vibrant galaxy in the Andromeda constellation is the most well-known galaxy among amateur astronomers. You won't see the full visual prowess of this galaxy, like the dust lanes seen in photos, but you will see the Andromeda Core, the bright center of the galaxy surrounded by some fuzzy nebulosity. Don't expect the full glory of this galaxy and it won't disappoint.

Orion Nebula (M42) - The most famous of all nebula and a favorite among amateur astronomers is Messier's 42nd, the Orion Nebula. Simply aim your binoculars at Orion's "sword" (three visible stars perpendicular to Orion's "belt") and the binoculars will likely show a bit of nebulosity on a dark night (and away from light pollution).

The Pleiades (M45) - The Seven Sisters, or the Pleiades, is an open cluster of stars easily visible to the naked-eye, even under less than optimal conditions. Photographs often show dust clouds surrounding each star, but the binoculars likely won't bring this into view (under normal conditions). What you will see is the fiery blue beauty of a hot, young star "incubator". The view through binoculars, even without the dust clouds visible, is breath-taking.

The Hyades - This open cluster was observed, but never placed in Charles Messier's famous catalog. It has been known since ancient times, and makes a perfect "V" in the sky. This is the closest open cluster to Earth at a mere 151 light years away.

Locating these objects is easy. Visit the Sky View Cafe or Sky Maps and print a map. Or if you like, you can even check Stellarium software to see where it is relative to you real-time.

Look forward to more "Visible with Binoculars" posts in the future. Good luck to you!

The Last Survivor of a Cosmic Clash

2007-10-27T16:36:00.000-04:00

Hubble telescope's most recent addition to its list of already impressive cosmic phenomena is disocvery of a quasar, MC2 1635+11.9, surrounded by the "shells" of stars. It resides in the MC2 1635+119, the host galaxy.

Researchers are suggesting that these star remnants are the casualties of a cosmic collision between two galaxies. This supports current views that many quasars are formed between galactic collisions.

Quasars are some of the brightest objects in the universe and exist in the centers of galaxies and are fueled by blackholes.

Harmony Node Installed

2007-10-27T14:07:00.000-04:00

The Harmony node is officially installed in the International Space Station.

Wearing protective gear in case any equipment or hardware was jarred loose during the rocket flight, astronauts opened the door and went inside Harmony for the first time. Equipment was secured using more than 700 bolts; each of which will have to be removed by astronauts.

Harmony is about the size of a school bus and is the first living space increase in the space station since 2001. Harmony will serve as a connecting point for European and Japanese modules.

It certainly is a great day for space advancement. The spirit of spce exploration combined with a spirit of international cooperation is crucial if we ever want to make our home the entire solar system and not just Earth.

You can view the opening of the new hatch at CNN.com.

Supernova Remnant: G292.0+1.8

2007-10-27T12:47:00.000-04:00

The Chandra X-Ray telescope has created a new, beautifully colorful composite image from the G292.0+1.8 nebula in Centaurus. This is considered a "textbook example" of the image, but the different colors, which represent different elements such as hydrogen or neon, teach us many things about the nature of supernovae.

More information available at Chandra's Official Site.

Planetary Astrophotography: The Web Cam Trick

2007-10-26T15:32:00.000-04:00

Of all the expensive CCD and DSLR cameras available for astrophotography, a surprisingly cheap alternative exists for planetary photography that many video bloggers actually might already have: the web cam.

The premise is simple: a web cam essentially takes many camera shots, stitches them together, and then creates a video. Anyone interested in astrophotography knows that the sharpest, most colorful, most detailed images come from stacking multiple exposures on top of each other. If we take that same principle and reverse it by dissecting the video created by a webcam, we essentially have many multiple exposures in a relatively short amount of time. This works well on planets because we don't need very long exposures to extract tons of light because we'd just have a big blur if your telescope already has the planet in sight.

Connecting the webcam to the telescope is the most beautiful part: you don't need any special parts, just point the webcam down the eyepiece of your telescope!

Webcam astrophotography is not only very cost-effective (decent models can be purchased for $200 or less), it actually is almost unanimously considered the best way to photograph planets.

To get started, you will need the following:

Your telescope

Webcam

Software

For your telescope, use a larger focal length, because the higher magnification does not show up properly on the developed images. The webcams simply can't handle massively magnified moon or planet images.

Your webcam should have a CCD chip for best results. Philips Vesta Pro is a popular and highly recommended webcam.

Your software arsenal should include the following programs for the best results:

Adobe PhotoShop (For image color and attribute tweaking; also works as a stacker)

AstroStack (Freeware Image stacking software for astrophotography)

K3 CCD Tools -or- Registrax (Freeware CCD utility that can help "reverse engineer" webcam video to create stackable images)

**Photo is courtesy of http://www.webcam-astrophotography.com/.

My Sources and Additional Sources:

Web Astrophotography FAQ

AstroPix

K3 Astrophotography

Mega Outburst in Comet 17/Holmes

2007-10-25T13:37:00.000-04:00

The magnitude 17 comet, Holmes, has experienced a tremendous boost in brightness. It jumped almost instantly from magnitude 17 to magnitude 3, an increase of about one million times brighter!

This makes a near-impossible comet to observe a naked-eye object in Perseus. Slew eastward from Alpha Perseii and you will run across it.

There is a distinct yellowish color to the comet. It is expected to stay bright for at least a week, at which time is will decrease in magnitude slowly until it is invisible, and ultimately, back to its original magnitude of 17.

New reports are putting the comet at a magnitude 2.8, which is brighter than its original magnitude when it was first discovered during an outburst in 1892.

This photo was taken by platarko on the Cloudy Night Forums.

The Overview Effect on Observers

2007-10-24T20:35:00.000-04:00

"The Overview Effect" is described as a feeling of oneness, unification, and connection with the Earth as one single living organism. This effect occurs when astronauts are in space observing the Earth from the outside in.

Their is debate upon the legitimacy of this effect; however, some have gone so far as to say that it's inherent in our genes: being in space is part of our evolution. Five billion years of life and in the last forty five years, life finally made it back where it was "truly" born: space, the origin of all life.

So physicists actually hypothesize that the overview effect is a natural effect of quantum physics (that devilish little subject even the Ph.D's don't fully understand) on the human body. Will all these hypotheses flying around, one question still hasn't been answered definitively and I do not know if it will anytime soon: is the overview effect physiologically real, or psychologically real or both?

I personally believe space is simply a part of evolution: a process not totally explained by natural selection. What if entering a human entering space underwent an instant evolution on an individual basis, sort of like a cosmic barmitzvah? Space is our ultimate destiny as a species. In one hundred years we've gone from steam to space.. who's the say in the next hundred we won't go from Saturn to stars?

However, my question about this overview effect is if only astronauts have felt it. I personally think that astronomers have sampled the overview effect, however, not in its concentrated glory like astronauts have. I mean why else can a hobby turn into a lifetime passion? Amateur astronomers spend their lives collecting new and more advanced optic technology to delve just a fraction deeper into the void of space. Looking for what?

I like to chalk up what I think of as the "astronomers overview effect" to one of those liquor-containing choclates available around the holidays: we've certainly sampled it, and now we're going after the bottle that only those astronauts can seem to get plenty of.

New Astrophotography Series

2007-10-24T19:28:00.000-04:00

I won't be doing this very often, but Friday will begin a five part article series: Astrophotography on a Budget. I wanted to give a heads up to the readers so we can have the chance t get the word out about this great series.

Some highlights:

Essential freeware programs for the astrophotgrapher on a budget.
Deep Space exposures under $2000!!
Build your own Astro-Camera!!
Much, much more!!

Harmony and Balloons

2007-10-24T19:04:00.000-04:00

This is the first article in the new format outlined in the previous post. Hope you enjoy it!

In our Solar System this week I'd like to report on two new exciting changes; Harmony and the big balloon. Most of us know what Harmony is, the newest edition to the International Space Station. It was successfully launched yesterday live on NASA TV, (which, if I have any space fans reading, and I hope I do, is definitely worth a DirectTV bill each month) and the crew is beginning preparations to attach the Harmony module, aptly named by students, the first living space enhancement to the space station since 2001. After the launch, the astronauts could be heard stating the California wildfires were clearly visible from space.

Right now, according to NASAs website, the rendezvous is complete and preparations for the assembly have begun. There are five scheduled spacewalks on this mission; far more than normal on a shuttle mission such as this. The ISS will pave the way back to the Moon for mankind.

In other news, a large solar telescope has been launched on a balloon larger than a Boeing 747. The project, dubbed Sunrise, is an international collaboration to understand the magnetic fields and other atrributes of our Sun.

The ballon will rise more than 120,000 feet in the air, above the denser levels of our atmosphere, and above radiation-blocking water vapor and ozone. The optics on this instrument will be able to document surface features on the Sun to a size of just 19 miles long, which is nearly double the resolution of any current solar telescope (sorry for those of you who shelled out $5000 for a Coronado telescope!)

Balloon-bourne instruments such as this are less expensive to build than traditional spacecraft and their increased availability will likely take us in pursuit of Venus, a planet whose dense atmosphere, poisonous gases, and incendiary temperatures have kept researchers from sending a viable probe to send information back.