Terry's Astronomy Thread.

[Bluearrowll]

If people want a separate discussion thread by all means I can create one. Also igotrhythm, if that rock made it that far into the atmosphere, no doubt it landed somewhere in the forest below, and probably had an impressive streak of light. Do you know where this was filmed and exact day and time? Depending where it may be possible to track down where it came from even though this was posted days ago.

Daily Suspicious0bserver's Weather Post:
April 5, 2014

What's in the sky tonight?
April 5, 2014

-The Moon passes below Jupiter in Gemini this weekend, as shown at right. Although they look close together, Jupiter is currently almost 2,000 times farther away. And it's 40 times bigger than the Moon.

-All week look above Jupiter for Pollux and Castor, left of it for Procyon, and farther right of it for Capella. Way down below it is Betelgeuse, the top corner of Orion.

-A slight increase in solar energetic particles swarming around Earth probably heralds the imminent arrival of two CMEs that have merged en route from the sun. NOAA forecasters expect a glancing blow from the amalgam on April 5th. Chance of geomagnetic storms = 55%. High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras.

News Posted Today:
April 4, 2014
LADEE Skims the Moon Before Crash


Astro Picture of the Day:
April 5, 2014

Source:
Tidally locked in synchronous rotation, the Moon always presents its familiar nearside to denizens of planet Earth. From lunar orbit, the Moon's farside can become familiar, though. In fact this sharp picture, a mosaic from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter's wide angle camera, is centered on the lunar farside. Part of a global mosaic of over 15,000 images acquired between November 2009 and February 2011, the highest resolution version shows features at a scale of 100 meters per pixel. Surprisingly, the rough and battered surface of the farside looks very different from the nearside covered with smooth dark lunar maria. The likely explanation is that the farside crust is thicker, making it harder for molten material from the interior to flow to the surface and form the smooth maria. The link below is a direct link to the full resolution image which clocks in at 1.12GB in size and a massive 34748 x 34748 pixel frame.

http://lroc.sese.asu.edu/data/pr/tiff/WAC_GL180.tif


EDIT: I downloaded the full resolution image and decided to take a look at the Mare Mosoviense:


At full resolution, the crater inside the Mare Moscoviense:



looks like this:



Slightly further zoomed out: