Terry's Astronomy Thread.

[Sky Kitten]

What's in the sky tonight?
May 20, 2013

-Low in the afterglow of sunset, Jupiter has drawn to within 8° of Venus, which shines to its lower right. Can you see Mercury yet, 3° to the lower right of Venus?

-These three planets about to swing through a "trio" together, as shown in the video below. They'll appear closest together in a tight little triangle, 2° on a side, next Sunday the 26th.

Astro Picture of the Day:
May 20, 2013

Source
One of the brightest galaxies in planet Earth's sky and similar in size to the Milky Way, big, beautiful spiral M81 lies 11.8 million light-years away in the northern constellation Ursa Major. This deep image of the region reveals details in the bright yellow core, but at the same time follows fainter features along the galaxy's gorgeous blue spiral arms and sweeping dust lanes. It also follows the expansive, arcing feature, known as Arp's loop, that seems to rise from the galaxy's disk at the right. Studied in the 1960s, Arp's loop has been thought to be a tidal tail, material pulled out of M81 by gravitational interaction with its large neighboring galaxy M82. But a recent investigation demonstrates that much of Arp's loop likely lies within our own galaxy. The loop's colors in visible and infrared light match the colors of pervasive clouds of dust, relatively unexplored galactic cirrus only a few hundred light-years above the plane of the Milky Way. Along with the Milky Way's stars, the dust clouds lie in the foreground of this remarkable view. M81's dwarf companion galaxy, Holmberg IX, can be seen just above and left of the large spiral. On the sky, this image spans about 0.5 degrees, about the size of the Full Moon.

[Bluearrowll]

Hello! I've returned from Algonquin Park on a very successful trip - and a very tiring one. Arrived home later than I would have liked due to traffic - departing at 3;30pm which should have got me home by around 7;30 had me instead arriving at 11;45. I'm very tired but that doesn't stop the fact I have to work in about 30 minutes ##.

What's in the sky tonight?
May 21, 2013

-The star near the waxing gibbous Moon this evening is Spica in Virgo.

-Venus (magnitude –3.9) is still quite low in the west-northwest in twilight, to the lower right of Jupiter. Watch as Venus and Jupiter draw together by about 1° per day. On May 17th they're still 11° apart. Their conjunction comes on the 28th, when they'll be 1° apart with Mercury right alongside.

Astro Picture of the Day:
May 21, 2013

Source
Once the famous sunset comet, PanSTARRS (C/2011 L4) is now visible all night from much of the northern hemisphere, bound for the outer solar system as it climbs high above the ecliptic plane. Dimmer and fading, the comet's broad dust tail is still growing, though. This widefield telescopic image was taken against the starry background of the constellation Cepheus on May 15. It shows the comet has developed an extensive anti-tail, dust trailing along the comet's orbit (to the left of the coma), stretching more than 3 degrees across the frame. Since the comet is just over 1.6 astronomical units from planet Earth, that corresponds to a distance of over 12 million kilometers. In late May Comet PanSTARRS will pass within a few degrees of the north celestial pole.