July 2011 Highlights

Well, we are heading into another month. Prime time to be enjoying cookouts and beaches and all that great stuff. Or at least that's the case for the northern hemisphere. I am off on vacation, so this is a scheduled post this time around. But, at least with these it is pretty easy to schedule. There are plenty of sites to see this month, and it will be plenty warm, so no excuse to not go out and enjoy the night sky! You all know you like a cool summer's night, so let's see what we got: July 1: New Moon: The Moon will be directly between the Earth and the Sun and will not be visible from Earth.             Partial Solar Eclipse: This one will only be visible off the coast of Antarctica. It you see it, I salute your bravery. July 4: Earth at Aphelion: The...

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Posted in Aphelion,Full Moon,Highlights,July,Meteor Shower,Neptune 16 comments

'Gone' on Vacation.

I am going to be spending a week or two down in North Carolina at the Outer Banks with my girlfriend. I will have my laptop and telescope and stuff with me, so I will make occasional updates on whatever catches my fancy. I will try to cover the final space shuttle launch, which is hopefully on the 8th, if it doesn't get delayed. I might even get to watch it travel up the eastern seaboard if we time it right. Needless to say, I am excited to spend some time with my girlfriend, but the Outer Banks has another draw. See, it gets dark there, really really dark. To give you an idea of this, and maybe inspire some jealousy, I want you to watch the video below. It circulated on a couple astronomy blogs around June 15th. It is made by Daniel Lowe, and he wrote an article on how the video was made. You...

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Posted in OBX,personal,Video 23 comments

Preparing for Final Flight

The last space shuttle mission is about a week and a half away. The Space Shuttle Atlantis is gearing up for launch on July 8th. The 'Final Four' astronauts are on site and conducting practice runs while Atlantis is being a thorough examination in preparation for launch. But Atlantis sure does look amazing in the morning light. NASA recently released the above photo of the Sun rising behind Space Shuttle Atlantis, taken on June 23rd. Meanwhile, the crew of STS-135 (the designation of this final mission) have been hard at work. The 'Grande Finale' of NASA's shuttle program is approaching fast. This is one time where we do not want 'bombs bursting...

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Posted in Atlantis,NASA,Space Exploration,Space Shuttle 17 comments

Close Call With an Asteroid

Earlier today, (Monday, June 27 2011) at 17:01 UTC (1:01 PM Eastern US time) a small rock, roughly 10 meters in size, and named Asteroid 2011 MD, flew right past the Earth. In fact, if flew really really close to Earth, at about 12,400 km (7430 mi) from Earth’s surface. That distance is less than the diameter of the Earth itself! Or about 1/32 the distance to the Moon. But astronomers were dead on in determining that it would miss us. Trajectory of near-Earth asteroid 2011 MD passing Earth on June 27, 2011. Credit: NASA/JPL Near-Earth Object Program Office. It is actually fairly easy to determine where things are heading in space, or at least...

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Posted in 2011 MD,Asteroids,Space News 19 comments