Sky Guy Viewing ALERT!! Weekend Moon & Planets Before Sunrise

Hey Space Placers!

No matter where you are in the Northern Hemisphere this weekend has some GREAT skywatching in the hours before dawn in the East.

The waning crescent Moon, Venus, Mercury, Mars and bright Regulus will all be visible against the backdrop of the wonderful winter constellations.

CREDIT: WWW.SKY & TELESCOPE.COM

CREDIT: WWW.SKY & TELESCOPE.COM

Get full details here.  

I'M HOPING FOR CLEAR SKIES AND SOME PICS!!!!

Sky Guy in VA

SKY GUY INTERNET ALERT 9/15/17: Farewell Cassini, Onward Voyagers

Hey Space Placers!

Today around the world much of the astronomical community is profoundly moved by the impending death of the Cassini spacecraft   https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/cassini-spacecraft-makes-its-final-approach-to-saturn. Twitter abounds in Tweets about the intrepid explorer that has been in space almost 20 years and in orbit around Saturn and its moons for 13 years. I am quite sure there are a few wet eyes behind those Tweets for what NASA is calling the Grand Finale  https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/grand-finale/overview/ .

In this computer generated visual Saturn looms ever larger to the Cassini spacecraft as it begins its final plunge into Saturn.
CREDIT: NASA

At approximately 7:55 a.m. EDT, September 15, 2017, NASA expects to lose contact with Cassini as the spacecraft hits the upper atmosphere of the ringed planet at a blistering 70,000 miles per hour  https://youtu.be/AbOf91x2_fs . An explorer to the very end, Cassini will be live streaming its last moments and gathering data with 8 of its 12 science instruments until the thrusters cannot overcome the aerodynamic forces and Cassini starts to tumble, break apart and finally be consumed like a shooting star in the atmosphere of Saturn. 

It will take 83 minutes for Cassini’s final data transmission to reach Earth traveling at the speed of light - 186,000 miles per second. Almost a billion miles away Saturn and its moons will once again be solitary in their orbit around the Sun. Gone will be the amazing spacecraft that took thousands of photographs, collected Terabytes of data, sent the ESA’s Huygens lander to Titan https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/spacecraft/huygens-probe/      and discovered a large global ocean under the thick ice at Enceladus  https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/science/enceladus/  .

As stated by NASA,“the final set of views from Cassini's imaging cameras is scheduled to be taken and transmitted to Earth on Thursday, Sept. 14. If all goes as planned, images will be posted to the Cassini mission website beginning around 11 p.m. EDT (8 p.m. PDT). The unprocessed images will be available at:  https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/galleries/raw-images  .”

“Live mission commentary and video from JPL Mission Control will air on NASA Television and the agency’s website from 7 to 8:30 a.m. EDT (4 a.m. to 5:30 a.m. PDT) on Sept. 15. A post-mission news briefing from JPL is currently scheduled for 9:30 a.m. EDT (6:30 a.m. PDT), also on NASA TV.”

“A new NASA e-book, The Saturn System Through the Eyes of Cassini, showcasing compelling images and key science discoveries from the mission, is available for free download in multiple formats at:   https://www.nasa.gov/ebooks  .”

Bright Saturn is in the southwest sky after dark. Tonight look at Saturn and say farewell to Cassini. And when ‘The Grand Finale” for Cassini is finally over take some comfort as will I in knowing that the atoms that were Cassini are now part of Saturn.

Voyagers

Two NASA spacecraft - Voyager 1 and Voyager 2  https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/    - made world-wide headlines recently by celebrating their 40th anniversaries in space. Voyager 1 is about 13 billion miles from Earth and is cruising interstellar space while Voyager 2 is 11 billion miles distant. The spacecraft are healthy and continue to send data back to Earth. They will finally go silent years from now when their radioactive fuel supply is spent.

These twins opened up the outer solar system of gas giant planets - Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune - as we had never seen them before   https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2017-203  . With their respective flybys the Voyagers transformed these giants from what could be obtained through telescopes to up close and mesmerizing personal views. The science obtained filled volumes and the photographs we saw transformed these worlds into actual worlds we had been to.

The Voyagers have become cultural icons due in part to their longevity, discoveries and perhaps most importantly of all, the “Golden Record”  https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/golden-record/   that each of them carries. The late Dr. Carl Sagan was the primary mover in getting these artifacts of Earth and humanity placed on the Voyagers. He also convinced NASA to take the first ever portrait of the solar system which included our Earth https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA00451 .

SOLAR SYTEM PORTRAIT
NASA

The famous “Pale Blue Dot” photograph became the subject of a wonderful book by Dr. Sagan. Much of what he wrote is even more meaningful today https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/1816628-pale-blue-dot-a-vision-of-the-human-future-in-space . I highly recommend reading it as well as Sagan’s other books.

 The Voyagers may very possibly outlive humanity as they could roam the Milky Way Galaxy for hundreds of millions of years. Unless they collide with something in space they will be a lasting testament to a species who reached for the stars  - and put a Golden Record out amongst them to say, ‘Hello’.

SKY GUY IN VA

Cassini Video - MUST SEE!!

Hey Space Placers!

Watch this video - it is one of the BEST NASA has produced. I watched it a dozen times - awe inspiring. I will have more on Cassini's fiery end next week.



SKY GUY IN VA

UPDATED Sky Guy ALERT Severe Geomagnetic Storm Underway

Hey Space Placers!

UPDATE:

NASA WEBPAGE ON SOLAR FLARES

3 Atlantic hurricanes, an 8.2 earthquake and an X9 solar flare that leads to G4 (severe) geomagnetic storms. Watch this video to see raw power, especially the second one.

Humanity exists on this planet ONLY because the weather and geology allow it. Change either of them and you change humanity.

Right now we are witnessing the awesome power of Mother Nature in weather, geology and space weather. It is something to behold and comprehend.

Check NOAA SWPC for more details and updates. Could be Aurora tonight.

Sky Guy in VA humbled by Mother Nature's display of  space/terrestrial weather and geology

New Horizons Flight Plan for 2014 MU69

Hey Space Placers!

With solar flares, hurricanes and general political  dysfunction dominating the world, the Universe goes on.

Such it is with the New Horizons mission which just filed its flight plan for the 1/1/18 flyby of 2014 MU69. 

Artist's concept of NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft flying by a possible binary 2014 MU69 on Jan. 1, 2019. Early observations of MU69 hint at the Kuiper Belt object being either a binary orbiting pair or a contact (stuck together) pair of nearly like-sized bodies with diameters near 20 and 18 kilometers (12 and 11 miles).

Credits: Carlos Hernandez

This will be an amazing feat in the history of the solar system exploration as it will be the farthest encounter with a solar system object to date.

Sky Guy in VA

PS - If you are the path of Irma, be prepared....that includes you SC, NC, AND VA>

SKY GUY VIEWING ALERT 9/5-6 AURORA

Hey Space Placers!

Earth is due to get a solar storm that will likely produce Aurora for the upper latitudes.

Check here for details  and here for NOAA Space Weather.

SKY GUY IN VA

Florence Flyby Reveals TWO MOONS!

Hey Space Placers!

Read my blog from yesterday about Florence for background and then check out the results of the flyby that revealed the true size of this big boy asteroid - 2.8 miles - and its TWO moons!

GIF of Radar Images of Florence & TWO Moons
NASA JPL

Sky Guy in VA

Sky Guy Internet ALERT!!! 9/1/17 BIG Space Rock Florence Flyby

Hey Space Placers!

A BIG asteroid, 3122 Florence passed by today at 8:06 a.m. EDT JUST 18 times the distance to the Moon - THAT is a close shave in terms of distance - a little over 4 million miles.

From EarthSky:
Radar images of asteroid 3122 Florence, obtained from August 29, 2017 via Goldstone Radar in California. Higher resolution radar images expected in the next few days, as the space rock will also be studied from Arecibo Observatory. Image via NASA/JPL.

Florence will be visible tonight in backyard telescopes and maybe even binoculars if you know where to look.

From EarthSky:
During late August and early September, the near-Earth asteroid 3122 Florence passes Earth as close as 4.4 million miles from Earth. It will be bright enough to spot in modest backyard telescopes, and possibly binoculars. Note that the labeled dates on this chart mark the asteroid’s location at 11 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time; translate to your time zone. Diagram via SkyandTelescope.com.

You can get more details on how to spot Florence here. I will be clouded in until Sunday so I will try to watch the flyby via  Bareket Observatory in Israel host a webcast of this asteroid pass on September 1, 2017 beginning at   EDT.

At at about 3 miles across Florence would cause great devastation to our planet if it were to hit. NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination Office tracks Florence as well as other asteroids and comets.

We need telescopes and spacecraft to detect and protect our planet from these interlopers. If not, we will go the way of the dinosaurs someday as they were wiped out by a comet or asteroid about twice the size of Florence.

Sky Guy in VA