Old 12-8-2012, 11:25 AM   #361
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Default Re: Terry's Astronomy Thread.

Glad you're enjoying the thread foilman! Expect a new feature coming up soon..

What's in the sky tonight?
December 8, 2012
-Since Jupiter is just past opposition, the asteroids Ceres and Vesta in Jupiter's vicinity are near their oppositions too. Vesta's opposition is tonight. It's magnitude 6.4, and Ceres is 6.9. Spot them in binoculars this month using the page under the Upcoming Events Tab. They're near the horns of Taurus.


-Algol in Perseus, the prototype eclipsing binary star, should be in one of its periodic dimmings, magnitude 3.4 instead of its usual 2.1, for a couple hours centered on 12:29 a.m. Sunday morning EST; 9:29 p.m. Saturday evening PST. Algol takes several additional hours to fade and to rebrighten.

-Jupiter's moon Io reappears out of eclipse from Jupiter's shadow at 11:49 p.m. EST; 8:49 p.m. PST.

-For all of Jupiter's satellite events, as well as all of the Great Red Spot's transit times, Sky & Telescope has released this Jupiter'sMoons app. https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/jupi...577009038?mt=8

-During dawn Sunday morning the waning crescent Moon hangs close to Spica, as shown at right.

-At dawn, watch the waning crescent Moon step down past Spica, Saturn, Venus and Mercury from one morning to the next. As always, this scene is drawn for the middle of North America. European observers: move each Moon symbol a quarter of the way toward the one for the previous date. For clarity, the Moon is shown three times actual size.


Astro Picture of the Day:
December 8, 2012
Source:
This remarkably complete view of Earth at night is a composite of cloud-free, nighttime images. The images were collected during April and October 2012 by the Suomi-NPP satellite from polar orbit about 824 kilometers (512 miles) above the surface using its Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS). VIIRS offers greatly improved resolution and sensitivity compared to past global nightlight detecting instrumentation on DMSP satellites. It also has advantages compared to cameras on the International Space Station. While the space station passes over the same point on Earth every two or three days, Suomi-NPP passes over the same point twice a day at about 1:30am and 1:30pm local time. Easy to recognize here, city lights identify major population centers, tracking the effects of human activity and influence across the globe. That makes nighttime images of our fair planet among the most interesting and important views from space.
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Old 12-9-2012, 09:26 AM   #362
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Default Re: Terry's Astronomy Thread.

What's in the sky tonight?
December 9, 2012
-Jupiter's Great Red Spot should transit the planet's central meridian around 9:15 p.m. EST.

-At dawn Monday morning, look upper left of the Moon for Saturn, and lower left of the Moon for little Alpha Librae partway down to Venus and Mercury, as shown at right. If you catch Alpha Lib before dawn becomes too bright, binoculars will show it to be a wide double star.


Astro Picture of the Day:
December 9, 2012
Source:
In 1984, high above the Earth's surface, an astronaut captured a satellite. It was the second satellite captured that mission. Pictured above, astronaut Dale A. Gardner flies free using the Manned Maneuvering Unit and begins to attach a control device dubbed the Stinger to the rotating Westar 6 satellite. Communications satellite Westar 6 had suffered a rocket malfunction that left it unable to reach its intended high geosynchronous orbit. Both the previously caught Palapa B-2 satellite and the Westar 6 satellite were guided into the cargo bay of the Space Shuttle Discovery and returned to Earth. Westar 6 was subsequently refurbished and sold.
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Old 12-10-2012, 06:30 AM   #363
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Default Re: Terry's Astronomy Thread.

New Feature added: the News spoiler tab will reveal interesting news articles that pop up recently relating to space or development leading to something space related.

What's in the sky tonight?
December 10, 2012
-Low in the southeast in early dawn Tuesday morning, the waning crescent Moon is beautifully paired with Venus, as shown at right.


Astro Picture of the Day:
December 10, 2012

Source:
Have you ever experienced a total eclipse of the Sun? The above time-lapse movie depicts such an eclipse in dramatic detail as visible from Australia last month. As the video begins, a slight dimming of the Sun and the surrounding Earth is barely perceptible. Suddenly, as the Moon moves to cover nearly the entire Sun, darkness sweeps in from the left - the fully blocked part of the Sun. At totality, only the bright solar corona extends past the edges of the Moon, and darkness surrounds you. Distant horizons are still bright, though, as they are not in the darkest part of the shadow. At mid-totality the darkness dips to the horizon below the eclipsed Sun, created by the shadow cone - a corridor of shadow that traces back to the Moon. As the total solar eclipse ends - usually after a few minutes - the process reverses and Moon's shadow moves off to the other side. Solar eclipses can frequently be experienced at gatherings organized along the narrow eclipse path as well as specialized cruises and plane flights.
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Old 12-10-2012, 06:44 AM   #364
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Default Re: Terry's Astronomy Thread.

Interesting. I've always taken a great liking to Astronomy, never knew this thread existed until now, lol. I'll be checking it frequently.
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Old 12-11-2012, 06:37 AM   #365
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Default Re: Terry's Astronomy Thread.

What's in the sky tonight?
December 11, 2012
-Flyby of Toutatis. The small Earth-crossing asteroid 4179 Toutatis is performing one of its close approaches to Earth tonight, as it does every four years. Locate it creeping across the stars of Cetus and Pisces using at least a 3- or 4-inch telescope tonight through Friday night. It's magnitude 10.9 tonight and peaks at 10.5 on Friday. Use the finder charts for each of these four nights here: http://www.skyandtelescope.com/obser...-Flies-By.html

Algol should be at its minimum light for a couple hours centered on 9:18 p.m. EST. Here's a comparison-star chart giving the magnitudes of three stars near Algol; use them to judge its changing brightness.

News Posted today:
December 7, 2012
Spacetime Ripples on the Horizon?


Astro Picture of the Day:
December 11, 2012
Source:
Stars are sometimes born in the midst of chaos. About 3 million years ago in the nearby galaxy M33, a large cloud of gas spawned dense internal knots which gravitationally collapsed to form stars. NGC 604 was so large, however, it could form enough stars to make a globular cluster. Many young stars from this cloud are visible in the above image from the Hubble Space Telescope, along with what is left of the initial gas cloud. Some stars were so massive they have already evolved and exploded in a supernova. The brightest stars that are left emit light so energetic that they create one of the largest cloud of ionized hydrogen gas known, comparable to the Tarantula Nebula in our Milky Way's close neighbor, the Large Magellanic Cloud.
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Bluearrowll = The Canadian player who can not detect awkward patterns. If it's awkward for most people, it's normal for Terry. If the file is difficult but super straight forward, he has issues. If he's AAAing a FGO but then heard that his favorite Hockey team was losing by a point, Hockey > FFR
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Old 12-12-2012, 06:38 AM   #366
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Default Re: Terry's Astronomy Thread.

What's in the sky tonight?
December 12, 2012
[b]-As the stars come out in late twilight, the flattened W of Cassiopeia is still standing on one end high in the northeast. By as early as 8 p.m. it turns around to be a horizontal M, even higher in the north.

-Mercury, Venus, and Saturn form a diagonal line in the southeast as dawn begins to brighten. Venus is by far the brightest, at magnitude –3.9. Look well to its upper right for Saturn, magnitude +0.7, and farther on for Spica, magnitude +1.0. Look lower left of Venus for Mercury, magnitude –0.5. Mercury is having its best morning apparition of 2012. This line of four points is lengthening: it grows from 33° to 42° long this week.


Astro Picture of the Day:
December 12, 2012
Source:
In front of a famous background of stars and galaxies lies some of Earth's more unusual trees. Known as quiver trees, they are actually succulent aloe plants that can grow to tree-like proportions. The quiver tree name is derived from the historical usefulness of their hollowed branches as dart holders. Occurring primarily in southern Africa, the trees pictured in the above 16-exposure composite are in Quiver Tree Forest located in southern Namibia. Some of the tallest quiver trees in the park are estimated to be about 300 years old. Behind the trees is light from the small town of Keetmanshoop, Namibia. Far in the distance, arching across the background, is the majestic central band of our Milky Way Galaxy. Even further in the distance, visible on the image left, are the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, smaller satellite galaxies of the Milky Way that are prominent in the skies of Earth's southern hemisphere.
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Bluearrowll = The Canadian player who can not detect awkward patterns. If it's awkward for most people, it's normal for Terry. If the file is difficult but super straight forward, he has issues. If he's AAAing a FGO but then heard that his favorite Hockey team was losing by a point, Hockey > FFR
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Old 12-12-2012, 06:54 AM   #367
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Default Re: Terry's Astronomy Thread.

Wow, that picture is PHENOMENAL!
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Old 12-13-2012, 06:18 AM   #368
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Default Re: Terry's Astronomy Thread.

What's in the sky tonight?
December 13, 2012
-The Geminid meteor shower, often the best in the annual meteor calendar, should be at its maximum late tonight. And there's no Moon. Expect a count of 120 per hour tonight at its peak!

-On the same dates, a new shower may also be making its appearance. Debris streams from Comet Wirtanen, crossing our orbit for the first time, could produce a couple dozen meteors visible per hour from December 10th to 14th from a radiant just south of the Great Square of Pegasus, according to computer models by Russian meteor scientist Mikhail Maslov. The "Piscids" would be unusually slow moving.

-The new shower doesn't have a name yet. Before naming it, astronomers will wait to see if it is real. If any meteors do materialize, they might be called "Piscids." The shower's radiant is located in the constellation Pisces, according to Maslov's dynamical models of the debris stream. Maslov also predicts that the meteors will be very slow moving, which should help novice sky watchers distinguish them from the faster Geminids. More Information here about this new meteor shower.

-New Moon (exact at 3:42 a.m. on the 13th EST).



Astro Picture of the Day:
December 13, 2012
Source:
Get out your red/blue glasses and check out this awesome stereo view of another world. The scene was recorded by Apollo 17 mission commander Eugene Cernan on December 11, 1972, one orbit before descending to land on the Moon. The stereo anaglyph was assembled from two photographs (AS17-147-22465, AS17-147-22466) captured from his vantage point on board the Lunar Module Challenger as he and Dr. Harrison Schmitt flew over Apollo 17's landing site in the Taurus-Littrow Valley. The broad, sunlit face of the mountain dubbed South Massif, rises near the center of the frame, above the dark floor of Taurus-Littrow to its left. Beyond the mountains, toward the lunar limb, lies the Moon's Mare Serenitatis. Piloted by Ron Evans, the Command Module America is visible in orbit in the foreground against the South Massif's peak. To see all of Apollo 17's photos, you can go here.
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Bluearrowll = The Canadian player who can not detect awkward patterns. If it's awkward for most people, it's normal for Terry. If the file is difficult but super straight forward, he has issues. If he's AAAing a FGO but then heard that his favorite Hockey team was losing by a point, Hockey > FFR
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Old 12-13-2012, 07:17 AM   #369
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Default Re: Terry's Astronomy Thread.

Man, I've been fortunate enough to see this ALL WEEK this week. Absolutely amazing!
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Old 12-14-2012, 06:20 AM   #370
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Default Re: Terry's Astronomy Thread.

What's in the sky tonight?
December 14, 2012
-Orion stands centered between two bright lights this year. High above it during evening shines bright Jupiter (with its orange sidekick Aldebaran). A similar distance below Jupiter, Sirius rises around 8 p.m. (the time depends on your location) — with its white sidekick Mirzam.

-Sirius, just 8.6 light-years away, is the brightest star in the night sky. It's also the closest that's ever visible to the unaided eye from mid-northern latitudes.

-Algol should be at minimum light for a couple hours centered on 6:07 p.m. EST. Watch it rebrighten for much of the rest of the night.

-Jupiter's Great Red Spot should cross Jupiter's central meridian around 8:22 p.m. EST.


Astro Picture of the Day:
December 14, 2012
Source:
On the morning of November 14, sky gazers from around the world gathered on this little planet to stand in the dark umbral shadow of the Moon. Of course, the Moon cast the shadow during last month's total solar eclipse, and the little planet is actually a beach on Green Island off the coast of Queensland, Australia. The picture itself, the first little planet projection of a total solar eclipse, is a digitally warped and stitched wrap-around of 8 images covering 360x180 degrees. To make it, the intrepid photographer had to remember to shoot both toward and away(!) from the eclipse during the excitement of totality. Near this little planet's horizon, the eclipsed Sun is just above center, surrounded by the glowing solar corona. Venus can be spotted toward the top of the frame. At bottom right, bright star Sirius shines at the tip of an alarmingly tall tree.
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Bluearrowll = The Canadian player who can not detect awkward patterns. If it's awkward for most people, it's normal for Terry. If the file is difficult but super straight forward, he has issues. If he's AAAing a FGO but then heard that his favorite Hockey team was losing by a point, Hockey > FFR
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Old 12-15-2012, 11:44 AM   #371
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Default Re: Terry's Astronomy Thread.

What's in the sky tonight?
December 15, 2012
-In early evening, the "Summer Star" Vega is still the brightest thing in the northwestern sky, though it's moving ever lower. The brightest above it is Deneb. Vega is 25 light-years away; supergiant Deneb is about 1,400.

-Mercury, Venus, and Saturn form a long diagonal line in the southeast as dawn begins to brighten. Venus is by far the brightest, at magnitude –3.9. Look far to its upper right for Saturn, magnitude +0.7, and farther on for Spica, magnitude +1.0. Look lower left of Venus for Mercury, magnitude –0.5, now moving a little lower each day. The whole line of four points is now about 45° long.


Astro Picture of the Day:
December 15, 2012
Source:
From a radiant point in the constellation of the Twins, the annual Geminid meteor shower rained down on planet Earth this week. Recorded near the shower's peak in the early hours of December 14, this skyscape captures Gemini's lovely shooting stars in a careful composite of 30 exposures, each 20 seconds long, from the dark of the Chilean Atacama Desert over ESO's Paranal Observatory. In the foreground Paranal's four Very Large Telescopes, four Auxillary Telescopes, and the VLT Survey telescope are all open and observing. The skies above are shared with bright Jupiter (left), Orion, (top left), and the faint light of the Milky Way. Dust swept up from the orbit of active asteroid 3200 Phaethon, Gemini's meteors enter the atmosphere traveling at about 22 kilometers per second.
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Old 12-16-2012, 09:39 AM   #372
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Default Re: Terry's Astronomy Thread.

What's in the sky tonight?
December 16, 2012
-Jupiter's moon Io crosses Jupiter's face from 8:19 to 10:29 p.m. EST, closely followed by its tiny black shadow (much plainer to see in a telescope) from 8:41 to 10:52 p.m. EST. Meanwhile, the Great Red Spot should cross Jupiter's central meridian around 10:00 p.m. EST.

-Jupiter (magnitude –2.8, in Taurus) is already glaring in the east as twilight fades. It climbs to dominate the eastern and high southeastern sky into the evening, with orange Aldebaran 5° below it and the Pleiades about twice as far to its upper right. Jupiter is highest in the south around 10 or 11 p.m. In a telescope it's still a big 48 arcseconds wide, essentially as large as it ever appears.

News Posted Today:
December 15, 2012
Toutatis Revealed by Chinese Spacecraft

Astro Picture of the Day:
December 16, 2012
Source:
Is this coat hanger a star cluster or an asterism? This cosmic hang-up has been debated over much of last century, as astronomers wondered whether this binocular-visible object is really a physically associated open cluster or a chance projection. Chance star projections are known as asterisms, an example of which is the popular Big Dipper. Recent precise measurements from different vantage points in the Earth's orbit around the Sun have uncovered discrepant angular shifts indicating that the Coat Hanger is better described as an asterism. Known more formally as Collinder 399, this bright stellar grouping is wider than the full moon and lies in the constellation of the Fox (Vulpecula). On the far right of the image is the open cluster of stars NGC 6802. Individually the stars range between magnitudes 5 and 7, but combined the coat hanger is magnitude 3.6. The coat hanger can be found just south of Cygnus.
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Bluearrowll = The Canadian player who can not detect awkward patterns. If it's awkward for most people, it's normal for Terry. If the file is difficult but super straight forward, he has issues. If he's AAAing a FGO but then heard that his favorite Hockey team was losing by a point, Hockey > FFR
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Old 12-16-2012, 03:23 PM   #373
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Default Re: Terry's Astronomy Thread.

Seemed relevant.

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Old 12-17-2012, 06:27 AM   #374
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Default Re: Terry's Astronomy Thread.

What's in the sky tonight?
December 17, 2012
-The first-discovered asteroid, 1 Ceres, is at opposition tonight. It's not far from 4 Vesta, which is also in Taurus along with Jupiter. Ceres and Vesta are now magnitudes 6.7 and 6.5, respectively.

-Mars (magnitude +1.2, in Sagittarius) still remains low in the southwest in evening twilight. In a telescope it's just a tiny blob 4.3 arcseconds in diameter — hardly larger than Uranus!

Astro Picture of the Day:
December 17, 2012
Source:
Why does this galaxy have so many big black holes? No one is sure. What is sure is that NGC 922 is a ring galaxy created by the collision of a large and small galaxy about 300 million years ago. Like a rock thrown into a pond, the ancient collision sent ripples of high density gas out from the impact point near the center that partly condensed into stars. Pictured above is NGC 922 with its beautifully complex ring along the left side, as imaged recently by the Hubble Space Telescope. Observations of NGC 922 with the Chandra X-ray Observatory, however, show several glowing X-ray knots that are likely large black holes. The high number of massive black holes was somewhat surprising as the gas composition in NGC 922 - rich in heavy elements - should have discouraged almost anything so massive from forming. Research is sure to continue. NGC 922 spans about 75,000 light years, lies about 150 million light years away, and can be seen with a small telescope toward the constellation of the furnace (Fornax).
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Bluearrowll = The Canadian player who can not detect awkward patterns. If it's awkward for most people, it's normal for Terry. If the file is difficult but super straight forward, he has issues. If he's AAAing a FGO but then heard that his favorite Hockey team was losing by a point, Hockey > FFR
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Old 12-18-2012, 06:27 AM   #375
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Default Re: Terry's Astronomy Thread.

What's in the sky tonight?
December 18, 2012
-After dinnertime this week, Cassiopeia stands at its very highest in the north like a flattened M (for skywatchers at mid-northern latitudes). The Milky Way runs through it, stretching all the way down to the east horizon on one side and the west horizon on the other. Given the quality of your sky, how much of the Milky Way (if any) can you trace out?

Astro Picture of the Day:
December 18, 2012
Source:
Have you ever seen a sun pillar? When the air is cold and the Sun is rising or setting, falling ice crystals can reflect sunlight and create an unusual column of light. Ice sometimes forms flat, six-sided shaped crystals as it falls from high-level clouds. Air resistance causes these crystals to lie nearly flat much of the time as they flutter to the ground. Sunlight reflects off crystals that are properly aligned, creating the sun-pillar effect. In the above picture taken last week, a sun-pillar reflects light from a Sun setting over Östersund, Sweden.
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Bluearrowll = The Canadian player who can not detect awkward patterns. If it's awkward for most people, it's normal for Terry. If the file is difficult but super straight forward, he has issues. If he's AAAing a FGO but then heard that his favorite Hockey team was losing by a point, Hockey > FFR
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Old 12-19-2012, 06:15 AM   #376
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Default Re: Terry's Astronomy Thread.

What's in the sky tonight?
December 19, 2012
-The first-quarter Moon shines at the dim Circlet of Pisces, below the much larger and brighter Great Square of Pegasus early in the evening.

-By week's end, use binoculars to try to spot Antares twinkling low in the dawn below Venus and to the right of Mercury.

Astro Picture of the Day:
December 19, 2012
Source:
Why is this nebula so complex? When a star like our Sun is dying, it will cast off its outer layers, usually into a simple overall shape. Sometimes this shape is a sphere, sometimes a double lobe, and sometimes a ring or a helix. In the case of planetary nebula NGC 5189, however, no such simple structure has emerged. To help find out why, the Earth-orbiting Hubble Space Telescope recently observed NGC 5189 in great detail. Previous findings indicated the existence of multiple epochs of material outflow, including a recent one that created a bright but distorted torus running horizontally across image center. Results appear consistent with a hypothesis that the dying star is part of a binary star system with a precessing symmetry axis. Given this new data, though, research is sure to continue. NGC 5189 spans about three light years and lies about 3,000 light years away toward the southern constellation of the Fly (Musca).
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Bluearrowll = The Canadian player who can not detect awkward patterns. If it's awkward for most people, it's normal for Terry. If the file is difficult but super straight forward, he has issues. If he's AAAing a FGO but then heard that his favorite Hockey team was losing by a point, Hockey > FFR
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Old 12-20-2012, 06:18 AM   #377
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Default Re: Terry's Astronomy Thread.

What's in the sky tonight?
December 20, 2012
-Jupiter's moon Europa crosses Jupiter's face tonight from 9:45 p.m. to 12:07 a.m. EST, followed by its tiny black shadow (plainer to see in a telescope) from 10:40 p.m. to 1:04 a.m. EST.

-Look for Antares and Mercury low in the Southeast just before sunrise tomorrow morning. Antares is in the constellation Scorpius - the constellation that 'drags' the bulge of the milky way behind it.



Astro Picture of the Day:
December 20, 2012
Source:
The small, northern constellation Triangulum harbors this magnificent face-on spiral galaxy, M33. Its popular names include the Pinwheel Galaxy or just the Triangulum Galaxy. M33 is over 50,000 light-years in diameter, third largest in the Local Group of galaxies after the Andromeda Galaxy (M31), and our own Milky Way. About 3 million light-years from the Milky Way, M33 is itself thought to be a satellite of the Andromeda Galaxy and astronomers in these two galaxies would likely have spectacular views of each other's grand spiral star systems. As for the view from planet Earth, this sharp composite image, a 25 panel mosaic, nicely shows off M33's blue star clusters and pinkish star forming regions that trace the galaxy's loosely wound spiral arms. In fact, the cavernous NGC 604 is the brightest star forming region, seen here at about the 1 o'clock position from the galaxy center. Like M31, M33's population of well-measured variable stars have helped make this nearby spiral a cosmic yardstick for establishing the distance scale of the Universe.
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Bluearrowll = The Canadian player who can not detect awkward patterns. If it's awkward for most people, it's normal for Terry. If the file is difficult but super straight forward, he has issues. If he's AAAing a FGO but then heard that his favorite Hockey team was losing by a point, Hockey > FFR
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Old 12-21-2012, 06:45 PM   #378
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Default Re: Terry's Astronomy Thread.

What's in the sky tonight?
December 21, 2012
-By about 9 p.m. at this time of year (depending on how far east or west you live in your time zone), the dim Little Dipper hangs straight down from Polaris, as if from a nail on the cold north wall of the sky. If you have a light-polluted sky, all you may see are Polaris and the two stars forming the far end of the Little Dipper's bowl: Kochab and Pherkad, the "Guardians of the Pole."

-Winter begins in Earth's Northern Hemisphere at the solstice, 6:12 a.m. EST, when the Sun begins its six-month return northward. This is the shortest day of the year and the longest night. (But the Earth didn't flip over? No continents flying loose? Maybe next year.)



Astro Picture of the Day:
December 21, 2012
Source:
Welcome to the December solstice, a day the world does not end... even according to the Mayan Calendar. To celebrate, consider this dramatic picture of Orion rising over El Castillo, the central pyramid at Chichén Itzá, one of the great Mayan centers on the Yucatán peninsula. Also known as the Temple of Kukulkan it stands 30 meters tall and 55 meters wide at the base. Built up as a series of square terraces by the pre-Columbian civilization between the 9th and 12th century, the structure can be used as a calendar and is noted for astronomical alignments. In fact, the Mayans were accomplished astronomers and mathematicians, accurately using the cyclic motions of the stars, Sun, Moon, and planets to measure time and construct calendars. Peering through clouds in this night skyscape, stars in the modern constellation Orion the Hunter represented a turtle in the Mayan sky. Tak sáamal.
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Bluearrowll = The Canadian player who can not detect awkward patterns. If it's awkward for most people, it's normal for Terry. If the file is difficult but super straight forward, he has issues. If he's AAAing a FGO but then heard that his favorite Hockey team was losing by a point, Hockey > FFR
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Old 12-22-2012, 08:06 AM   #379
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Default Re: Terry's Astronomy Thread.

What's in the sky tonight?
December 22, 2012
-Every year during Christmas season, Sirius rises in the east-southeast, far below Orion, around 7 or 8 p.m. When Sirius is still low, binoculars often show it twinkling in vivid colors. All stars do this when low. But Sirius is the brightest, making the effect more pronounced.

-Venus (magnitude –3.9) is still the bright "Morning Star," but it's moving lower in the dawn every week. Look southeast.

Astro Picture of the Day:
December 22, 2012
Source:
Splendors seldom seen are revealed in this glorious picture from Saturn's shadow. Imaged by Cassini on October 17, 2012 during its 174th orbit, the ringed planet's night side is viewed from a perspective 19 degrees below the ring plane at a distance of about 800,000 kilometers with the Sun almost directly behind the planet. A 60 frame mosaic, images made with infrared, red, and violet filters were combined to create an enhanced, false-color view. Strongly backlit, the rings look bright away from the planet but dark in silhouette against the gas giant. Above center, they reflect a faint, eerie light on the cloud tops while Saturn casts its own dark shadow on the rings. A similar Cassini image from 2006 also featured planet Earth as a pale blue dot in the distance. Instead, this scene includes icy moons Enceladus (closer to the rings) and Tethys below the rings on the left.
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Bluearrowll = The Canadian player who can not detect awkward patterns. If it's awkward for most people, it's normal for Terry. If the file is difficult but super straight forward, he has issues. If he's AAAing a FGO but then heard that his favorite Hockey team was losing by a point, Hockey > FFR
PS: Cool AAA's Terry
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Old 12-23-2012, 09:31 AM   #380
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Default Re: Terry's Astronomy Thread.

What's in the sky tonight?
December 23, 2012
-With the coming of winter, the Great Square of Pegasus is once again balancing on one of its corners as it descends the western evening sky.

-It's a busy evening at Jupiter. Ganymede, Jupiter's largest satellite, emerges from behind Jupiter's eastern limb at 7:26 p.m. EST — then just 6 minutes later it disappears into eclipse by the planet's shadow. Ganymede emerges from Jupiter's shadow farther out from the planet at 9:42 p.m. EST. Twenty-two minutes after that, Io starts crossing the planet's face, followed by Io's tiny black shadow at 10:36 p.m. EST. At 10:45 p.m. EST, Jupiter's Great Red Spot should cross the planet's central meridian.

News:
December 12, 2012
Big River on Titan


December 20, 2012
Planets Around Tau Ceti?
Astro Picture of the Day:
December 23, 2012
Source:
Comet Hale-Bopp, the Great Comet of 1997, became much brighter than any surrounding stars. It was seen even over bright city lights. Away from city lights, however, it put on quite a spectacular show. Here Comet Hale-Bopp was photographed above Val Parola Pass in the Dolomite mountains surrounding Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy. Comet Hale-Bopp's blue ion tail, consisting of ions from the comet's nucleus, is pushed out by the solar wind. The white dust tail is composed of larger particles of dust from the nucleus driven by the pressure of sunlight, that orbit behind the comet. Observations showed that Comet Hale-Bopp's nucleus spins about once every 12 hours. A comet that may well exceed Hale-Bopp's peak brightness is expected to fall into the inner Solar System next year.
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Bluearrowll = The Canadian player who can not detect awkward patterns. If it's awkward for most people, it's normal for Terry. If the file is difficult but super straight forward, he has issues. If he's AAAing a FGO but then heard that his favorite Hockey team was losing by a point, Hockey > FFR
PS: Cool AAA's Terry
- I Love You


An Alarm Clock's Haiku
beep beep beep beep beep
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- ieatyourlvllol

Last edited by Bluearrowll; 12-23-2012 at 09:40 AM..
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