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What's in the sky tonight?
October 2, 2012

-As dawn begins to break Wednesday morning, look east for dazzling Venus. Just 0.2° from it or less (as seen from the Americas) is Regulus, less than 1% as bright. You may need binoculars to separate Regulus from Venus's glare. A telescope provides a fine view, though Venus itself is currently an undistinguished gibbous disk just 16 arcseconds in diameter.

-Venus (magnitude –4.1, in Leo) rises in darkness around 4 a.m. daylight saving time (depending on where you live), emerging above the east-northeast horizon two hours before the first glimmer of dawn. By dawn it's blazing high in the east.

Astro Picture of the Day:
October 2, 2012

Source:
Fresh evidence of an ancient stream has been found on Mars. The robotic rover Curiosity has run across unusual surface features that carry a strong resemblance to stream banks on Earth. Visible in the above image, for example, is a small overhanging rock ledge that was quite possibly created by water erosion beneath. The texture of the ledge appears to be a sedimentary conglomerate, the dried remains of many smaller rocks stuck together. Beneath the ledge are numerous small pebbles, possibly made smooth by tumbling in and around the once-flowing stream. Pebbles in the streambed likely fell there as the bank eroded. Circled at the upper right is a larger rock possibly also made smooth by stream erosion. Curiosity has now discovered several indications of dried streambeds on Mars on its way to its present location where it will be exploring the unusual conjunction of three different types of landscape.