[Bluearrowll]

What's in the Sky Tonight?
March 16, 2012

-Jupiter and Venus have separated to 4.0 degrees now. Still notably close, but nothing compared to the 13th.

-Comet Garradd at 7th magnitude passes within 1/4 of a degree of 4th magnitude star Lambda Draconis. One of the best nights to try and discover this comet! Good luck on your quest to photograph or observe it.

Astro Picture of the Day
March 16, 2012

Source:
One of the most famous images related to space as of late, this is a photo of the Pillars of Creation taken in 1995 by the Hubble Telescope. The pillars lie in the Eagle Nebula dubbed M16 and are associated with an open star cluster. The "pillars" are molecular hydrogen gas and dark dust that doesn't emit light. The pillars are light years in length and so dense that interior gas actually gravitationally contracts to form stars. Unfortunately, this pretty structure is short lived, as there is evidence of a supernova explosion that happened 6,000 years ago. The Eagle Nebula and the Pillars of Creation are about 7,000 light years away, so we only have another thousand years to observe these pillars before we witness their destruction.