LYRA and KAG

Russian resupply ship takes aim at International Space Station

2012-01-25T23:55:00.001Z

NEWSALERT: Tuesday, January 24, 2011 @ 1558 GMT
-----------------------------------------------------
The latest news from Spaceflight Now

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
While others are busy talking, we're busy launching.

While other guys launch press conferences, Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne
powers launches of people and critical payloads. In 2011, we powered 14
successful launches. Before you listen to their next promise, click here
and watch all 14 zero-fail launches.

www.FutureSpaceUSA.com/pwr_smoke_and_fire.html
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

SOYUZ ROLLS OUT FOR NEXT SPACE STATION RESUPPLY RUN
---------------------------------------------------
The Russian Soyuz rocket topped by the next resupply freighter this
morning rolled to the Baikonur Cosmodrome launch pad and took aim toward a
rendezvous with the International Space Station.

http://spaceflightnow.com/station/exp30/120124prog46prollout/

ONE RUSSIAN SHIP VACATES STATION PORT FOR NEXT VEHICLE
------------------------------------------------------
After 82 days docked to the International Space Station, a Russian
Progress resupply freighter pulled away Monday afternoon to fly
independently into a higher orbit for deployment of a science satellite
and setting the stage for another cargo ship launching to the outpost
later this week.

http://spaceflightnow.com/station/exp30/120123prog45pundock/

PHOTO SPREAD: ATLANTIS MOVES TO VAB, BUT ONLY FOR STORAGE
---------------------------------------------------------
The shuffling of NASA's three retired space shuttle orbiters between the
two remaining hangars at the Kennedy Space Center continued Friday morning
as Atlantis was moved into a two-month storage at the Vehicle Assembly
Building.

Check out our 5-page photo collection from the event:
http://spaceflightnow.com/shuttle/sts135/120120rollover/

SATELLITE SPIES CRUISE SHIP TRAGEDY FROM SPACE
----------------------------------------------
As seen from space by one of the sharp-eyed Earth-imaging satellites
operated by DigitalGlobe, the Costa Concordia cruise ship is pictured
where it came to rest after running aground with more than 4,000
passengers and crew on January 13 while sailing dangerously close to the
island of Giglio in Tuscan waters.

http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n1201/22ship/

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Good Clear Skies
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Astrocomet
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Colin James Watling

Various Voluntary work-Litter Picking for Parish Council (Daytime) and also a friend of Kessingland Beach (Watchman)
--

Profile: http://www.google.com/profiles/astrocomera
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Lyra Website: https://sites.google.com/site/lyrasociety/

--
Real Astronomer and head of the Comet section for LYRA (Lowestoft and Great Yarmouth Regional Astronomers) also head of K.A.G (Kessingland Astronomy Group) and Navigator (Astrogator) of the Stars (Fieldwork)
--
Information -- More Info -- And More Info

CME Impact on Jan. 24

2012-01-25T23:49:00.001Z

Space Weather News for Jan. 24, 2012
http://spaceweather.com

CME IMPACT: As predicted by analysts at the Goddard Space Weather Lab, a CME hit Earth's magnetic field on Jan. 24 at ~1500 UT (10 am EST). A geomagnetic storm is brewing in the aftermath of the impact, but as this alert is being written it is too soon to say how weak or strong the storm might be. High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras after local nightfall; the hours around local midnight are often best for seeing the Northern Lights. Chances for a good display favor observers in northern Europe, Greenland, Iceland, Canada, Alaska, and possibly northern tier US states such as Maine, Wisconsin and Minnesota. Check http://spaceweather.com for updates.

SPACE WEATHER ALERTS: Would you like a call when geomagnetic storms are in progress? Storm alerts are available from http://spaceweathertext.com (text) and http://spaceweatherphone.com

(voice).

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Good Clear Skies
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Astrocomet
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Colin James Watling

Various Voluntary work-Litter Picking for Parish Council (Daytime) and also a friend of Kessingland Beach (Watchman)
--

Profile: http://www.google.com/profiles/astrocomera
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Lyra Website: https://sites.google.com/site/lyrasociety/

Durable NASA Rover Beginning Ninth Year of Mars Work

2012-01-25T23:44:00.001Z

Feature: 2012-022 Jan. 24, 2012

Durable NASA Rover Beginning Ninth Year of Mars Work

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2012-022&cid=release_2012-022

Eight years after landing on Mars for what was planned as a three-month mission, NASA's
enduring Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity is working on what essentially became a new
mission five months ago.

Opportunity reached a multi-year driving destination, Endeavour Crater, in August 2011. At
Endeavour's rim, it has gained access to geological deposits from an earlier period of Martian
history than anything it examined during its first seven years. It also has begun an investigation
of the planet's deep interior that takes advantage of staying in one place for the Martian winter.

Opportunity landed in Eagle Crater on Mars on Jan. 25, 2004, Universal Time and EST (Jan.
24, PST), three weeks after its rover twin, Spirit, landed halfway around the planet. In backyard-
size Eagle Crater, Opportunity found evidence of an ancient wet environment. The mission met
all its goals within the originally planned span of three months. During most of the next four
years, it explored successively larger and deeper craters, adding evidence about wet and dry
periods from the same era as the Eagle Crater deposits.

In mid-2008, researchers drove Opportunity out of Victoria Crater, half a mile (800 meters) in
diameter, and set course for Endeavour Crater, 14 miles (22 kilometers) in diameter.

"Endeavour is a window further into Mars' past," said Mars Exploration Rover Program Manager
John Callas, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

The trek took three years. In a push to finish it, Opportunity drove farther during its eighth year
on Mars -- 4.8 miles (7.7 kilometers) -- than in any prior year, bringing its total driving distance to
21.4 miles (34.4 kilometers).

The "Cape York" segment of Endeavour's rim, where Opportunity has been working since
August 2011, has already validated the choice of Endeavour as a long-term goal. "It's like
starting a new mission, and we hit pay dirt right out of the gate," Callas said.

The first outcrop that Opportunity examined on Cape York differs from any the rover had seen
previously. Its high zinc content suggests effects of water. Weeks later, at the edge of Cape
York, a bright mineral vein identified as hydrated calcium sulfate provided what the mission's
principal investigator, Steve Squyres of Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., calls "the clearest
evidence for liquid water on Mars that we have found in our eight years on the planet."

Mars years last nearly twice as long as Earth years. Entering its ninth Earth year on Mars,
Opportunity is also heading into its fifth Martian winter. Its solar panels have accumulated so
much dust since Martian winds last cleaned them -- more than in previous winters -- the rover
needs to stay on a sun-facing slope to have enough energy to keep active through the winter.

The rover team has not had to use this strategy with Opportunity in past winters, though it did so
with Spirit, farther from the equator, for the three Martian winters that Spirit survived. By the
beginning of the rovers' fourth Martian winter, drive motors in two of Spirit's six wheels had
ceased working, long past their design lifespan. The impaired mobility kept the rover from
maneuvering to an energy-favorable slope. Spirit stopped communicating in March 2010.

All six of Opportunity's wheels are still useful for driving, but the rover will stay on an outcrop
called "Greeley Haven" until mid-2012 to take advantage of the outcrop's favorable slope and
targets of scientific interest during the Martian winter. After the winter, or earlier if wind cleans
dust off the solar panels, researchers plan to drive Opportunity in search of clay minerals that a
Mars orbiter's observations indicate lie on Endeavour's rim.

"The top priority at Greeley Haven is the radio-science campaign to provide information about
Mars' interior," said JPL's Diana Blaney, deputy project scientist for the mission. This study uses
weeks of tracking radio signals from the stationary rover to measure wobble in the planet's
rotation. The amount of wobble is an indicator of whether the core of the planet is molten,
similar to the way spinning an egg can be used to determine whether it is raw or hard-boiled.

Other research at Greeley Haven includes long-term data gathering to investigate mineral
ingredients of the outcrop with spectrometers on Opportunity's arm, and repeated observations
to monitor wind-caused changes at various scales.

The Moessbauer spectrometer, which identifies iron-containing minerals, uses radiation from
cobalt-57 in the instrument to elicit a response from molecules in the rock. The half-life of cobalt-
57 is only about nine months, so this source has diminished greatly. A measurement that could
have been made in less than an hour during the rover's first year now requires weeks of holding
the spectrometer on the target.

Observations for the campaign to monitor wind-caused changes range in scale from dunes in
the distance to individual grains seen with the rover's microscopic imager. "Wind is the most
active process on Mars today," Blaney said. "It is harder to watch for changes when the rover is
driving every day. We are taking advantage of staying at one place for a while."

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in
Pasadena, manages the Mars Exploration Rover Project for the NASA Science Mission
Directorate, Washington. More information about Opportunity is online at:
http://www.nasa.gov/rovers and http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov . You can follow the project
on Twitter at http://twitter.com/MarsRovers and on Facebook at
http://www.facebook.com/marsrovers .

-end-

--

Good Clear Skies
--
Astrocomet
--
Colin James Watling

Various Voluntary work-Litter Picking for Parish Council (Daytime) and also a friend of Kessingland Beach (Watchman)
--

Profile: http://www.google.com/profiles/astrocomera
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Lyra Website: https://sites.google.com/site/lyrasociety/

Fireball sighting, January 16-17-Reply From Alastair Mc Beath

2012-01-23T23:21:00.001Z

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Alastair McBeath <mcbal.gwyvre@virgin.net>
Date: 23 January 2012 19:43
Subject: Fireball sighting, January 16-17
To: Colin James Watling <astrocomera@googlemail.com>

Dear Colin,

Thanks a lot for your latest fireball report from January 16-17.

Sadly, yet again, I've had no other fireball observations from around 18:29 UT that evening as yet, though I'll be adding details on it to the January fireballs topic on the SPA's Observing Forum after I've sent this message, all being well, at:

http://www.popastro.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=16607 .

As usual, if you've learnt of anyone else who saw this event (or indeed, any other fireballs), please encourage them to send me full details. The separate topic on the Observing Forum still has advice about making and reporting fireballs that you can direct any additional witnesses to, at:

http://www.popastro.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=15296 .

Glad to know your Stargazing Live star party went well that evening too. There seem to have been some decently clear skies over much of the country for once this time.

All best wishes, Alastair.

Alastair McBeath,
Meteor Director, Society for Popular Astronomy.
E-mail: <meteor@popastro.com> (messages under 150 kB in size only, please)

Good Clear Skies
--
Astrocomet
--
Colin James Watling

Various Voluntary work-Litter Picking for Parish Council (Daytime) and also a friend of Kessingland Beach (Watchman)
--

Profile: http://www.google.com/profiles/astrocomera
--

Lyra Website: https://sites.google.com/site/lyrasociety/

Incoming CME

2012-01-23T19:06:00.001Z

Space Weather News for Jan. 23, 2012
http://spaceweather.com

INCOMING CME: Big sunspot 1402 erupted on Jan. 23rd, producing a strong M9-class solar flare and a fast-moving coronal mass ejection (CME). Analysts at the Goddard Space Weather Lab say the CME should reach Earth on Jan. 24th at 14:18 UT (+/- 7 hr) and Mars a little more than a day later. Strong geomagnetic storms are possible when the cloud reaches Earth. Our magnetic field is still reverberating from a CME impact on Jan. 22nd, so another blow could spark impressive auroras at high latitudes. Sky watchers in northern Europe, Canada, Alaska, and northern-tier US states such as the Dakotas, Minnesota and Wisconsin should be alert for Northern Lights.

DON'T MISS THE STORM: Would you like a call when geomagnetic storms are in progress? Storm alerts are available from http://spaceweathertext.com (text) and http://spaceweatherphone.com (voice).

Good Clear Skies
--
Astrocomet
--
Colin James Watling

Various Voluntary work-Litter Picking for Parish Council (Daytime) and also a friend of Kessingland Beach (Watchman)
--

Profile: http://www.google.com/profiles/astrocomera
--
Real Astronomer and head of the Comet section for LYRA (Lowestoft and Great Yarmouth Regional Astronomers) also head of K.A.G (Kessingland Astronomy Group) and Navigator (Astrogator) of the Stars (Fieldwork)
--
Information -- More Info -- And More Info

CME Impact on Jan. 22nd

2012-01-23T18:51:00.001Z

Space Weather News for Jan. 22, 2011
http://spaceweather.com

GEOMAGNETIC ACTIVITY: Earth's magnetic field is reverberating from a CME impact during the early hours of Jan. 22nd. The hit compressed Earth's magnetic field, briefly exposing some geosynchronous satellites to solar wind plasma, and disturbed the ionization structure of Earth's upper atmosphere. As night falls on Jan. 22nd, Arctic sky watchers are reporting bright auroras in response to a polar geomagnetic storm (Kp=5). Please check http://spaceweather.com for images and updates.

STORM ALERTS: Would you like a call when geomagnetic storms are in progress? Storm alerts are available from http://spaceweathertext.com (text) and http://spaceweatherphone.com (voice).

--

Good Clear Skies
--
Astrocomet
--
Colin James Watling

Various Voluntary work-Litter Picking for Parish Council (Daytime) and also a friend of Kessingland Beach (Watchman)
--

Profile: http://www.google.com/profiles/astrocomera
--

Lyra Website: https://sites.google.com/site/lyrasociety/

LIVE COVERAGE: Delta 4 rocket ready for blastoff today

2012-01-19T22:05:00.001Z

NEWSALERT: Thursday, January 19, 2011 @ 2028 GMT
-----------------------------------------------------
The latest news from Spaceflight Now

+++
INTRODUCING LATEST ASTRONAUT PATCH!
The International Space Station's Expedition 35 crew patch is now
available from our store. Free shipping to U.S. addresses!
http://www.spaceflightnowstore.com/
+++

IT'S LAUNCH DAY FOR DELTA 4 ROCKET AT CAPE CANAVERAL
----------------------------------------------------
The United Launch Alliance Delta 4 rocket that will deploy a vital U.S.
military communications satellite to support battlefield troops and
unmanned aerial drones in the Middle East is scheduled for blastoff
tonight from Cape Canaveral. The $464 million Wideband Global SATCOM 4
spacecraft is scheduled for launch at 7:38 p.m. EST (0038 GMT).

LIVE UPDATES AND STREAMING VIDEO:
http://spaceflightnow.com/delta/d358/status.html

PHOTOS: ROCKET UNVEILED ON THE PAD THIS MORNING
http://spaceflightnow.com/delta/d358/prelaunch/

ROCKET DETAILS LAID OUT IN AIR FORCE'S 9-LAUNCH ORDER
-----------------------------------------------------
Nine national security spacecraft ranging from spy platforms to navigation
birds, communications satellites and weather observatories have been
entrusted to Atlas 5 and Delta 4 rockets in a $1.5 billion booster
purchase through the Air Force's Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle
program, the Defense Department has announced.

http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n1201/18eelvbuy/

CONSTRUCTION ABOUT TO BEGIN ON ATLANTIS' NEW HOME
-------------------------------------------------
Kennedy Space Center tourism officials, Florida's lieutenant governor and
the final space shuttle commander Wednesday morning broke ground on the
$100 million complex that will showcase the retired orbiter Atlantis.

http://spaceflightnow.com/shuttle/sts135/120118kscvc/

GOOD NIGHT, DISCOVERY
---------------------
The space shuttle Discovery, undergoing her retirement and transition to
museum status at the Kennedy Space Center, has been outfitted with
hollowed thruster and rocket pods, replicas of the main engines, the
payload bay doors sealed up and the emotional moment of being powered down
for the final time. We take a look back at all of those events in this
video package presented for Spaceflight Now+Plus subscribers.

HIGH-DEFINITION GRAIL VIDEO:
http://spaceflightnowplus.com/hd/sts133/

STANDARD-DEFINITION VIDEO:
http://spaceflightnowplus.com/index.php?k=STS-133&s=date

+++
NEW IN OUR STORE: SPACE MODELS
Spaceships scaled to fit on your desk
http://spaceflightnowstore.com/us/catalog/
+++

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Good Clear Skies
--
Astrocomet
--
Colin James Watling

Various Voluntary work-Litter Picking for Parish Council (Daytime) and also a friend of Kessingland Beach (Watchman)
--

Profile: http://www.google.com/profiles/astrocomera
--

Lyra Website: https://sites.google.com/site/lyrasociety/

Earth-Directed Solar Flare Could Bring Geomagnetic Storms This Weekend

2012-01-19T21:59:00.001Z

Space Weather News for Jan. 19, 2011
http://spaceweather.com

EARTH-DIRECTED FLARE: Active sunspot 1401 erupted today, Jan. 19th, for more than an hour around 16:00 UT. The long-duration blast produced an M3-class solar flare and a CME that appears to be heading toward Earth. Forecasters say strong geomagnetic storms are possible when the cloud arrives during the late hours of Jan. 21st. High-latitude (and possibly middle-latitude) sky watchers should be alert for auroras this weekend. Check http://spaceweather.com for movies and updates.

DON'T MISS THE STORM: Would you like a call when geomagnetic storms are in progress? Storm alerts are available from http://spaceweathertext.com (text) and http://spaceweatherphone.com

(voice).

Good Clear Skies
--
Astrocomet
--
Colin James Watling

Various Voluntary work-Litter Picking for Parish Council (Daytime) and also a friend of Kessingland Beach (Watchman)
--

Profile: http://www.google.com/profiles/astrocomera
--

Lyra Website: https://sites.google.com/site/lyrasociety/

Shuttle Discovery video special / NASA launch director gets commercial job

2012-01-19T11:09:00.001Z

NEWSALERT: Tuesday, January 17, 2011 @ 1422 GMT
-----------------------------------------------------
The latest news from Spaceflight Now

+++
While others are busy talking, we're busy launching.

While other guys launch press conferences, Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne
powers launches of people and critical payloads. In 2011, we powered 14
successful launches. Before you listen to their next promise, click here
and watch all 14 zero-fail launches.

www.FutureSpaceUSA.com/pwr_smoke_and_fire.html
+++

GOOD NIGHT, DISCOVERY
---------------------
The space shuttle Discovery, undergoing her retirement and transition to
museum status at the Kennedy Space Center, has been outfitted with
hollowed thruster and rocket pods, replicas of the main engines, the
payload bay doors sealed up and the emotional moment of being powered down
for the final time. We take a look back at all of those events in this
video package presented for Spaceflight Now+Plus.

HIGH-DEFINITION GRAIL VIDEO:
http://spaceflightnowplus.com/hd/sts133/

STANDARD-DEFINITION VIDEO:
http://spaceflightnowplus.com/index.php?k=STS-133&s=date

LEARN MORE ABOUT SFN+PLUS:
http://spaceflightnow.com/store/sfnplus/index.html

FORMER SPACE SHUTTLE LAUNCH DIRECTOR JOINS ULA
----------------------------------------------
As another sign of the changing landscape in the U.S. space program,
NASA's long-time space shuttle launch director has joined United Launch
Alliance to lead the commercial firm's human spaceflight operations.

http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n1201/16leinbach/

WEATHER LOOKS GOOD FOR THURSDAY'S DELTA 4 LAUNCH
------------------------------------------------
Thursday evening is looking like a pretty nice night to launch a rocket
from Florida's spaceport, according the early weather outlook issued by
Air Force meteorologists Monday morning.

http://spaceflightnow.com/delta/d358/status.html

ILL-FATED MARS PROBE FALLS TO EARTH
-----------------------------------
A $170 million Russian Mars probe, stranded in low-Earth orbit after a
malfunction following launch in November, reportedly fell back into the
dense lower atmosphere Sunday, apparently breaking up over the southern
Pacific Ocean west of Chile.

http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n1201/15reentry/

+++
NEW IN OUR STORE: SPACE MODELS
Spaceships scaled to fit on your desk
http://spaceflightnowstore.com/us/catalog/
+++

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Good Clear Skies
--
Astrocomet
--
Colin James Watling

Various Voluntary work-Litter Picking for Parish Council (Daytime) and also a friend of Kessingland Beach (Watchman)
--

Profile: http://www.google.com/profiles/astrocomera
--

Lyra Website: https://sites.google.com/site/lyrasociety/

The Small Fireball Meteor Seen From Pakefield Clifftop Skywatch....

2012-01-18T11:27:00.001Z

Forwarded to Alastair McBeath-SPA Meteor Section Director...

Society for Popular Astronomy

Meteor Section Fireball Report Form

Observer:

Name: Colin James Watling

Email: astrocomera@googlemail.com

Site Location:

Town: Pakefield Clifftop, Lowestoft

County: Suffolk

Country: U.K

Latitude: 52 ° 27 ' 16.51 " N

Longitude: 1 ° 44 ' 11.15 "

Date / Time:

Date (Year - Month - Date): 2012 - 1 - 16

Time: 18 h 29 m 00 s

TimeZone GMT

Start of fireball's track:

80 ° altitude, 335 ° azimuth

h m s RA ° Dec

End of fireball's track:

60 ° altitude, 340 ° azimuth

h m s RA ° Dec

Apparent speed: 3

Visible duration (in seconds): 5

If the object was visible for more than 10 seconds it may not have been a fireball.

Train Details: Bright flaring but no train or tail

Sounds: Nothing heard

Fragmentation: No Fragmentation

Colours: Mainly White

Magnitude Estimate: 5

Additional comments: Seen at the Lyra Skywatch Stargazing night at Pakefield clifftops Lowestoft in conjunction with Stargazing live on BBC2-I would say Magnitude +5 Naked eye seeing conditions-almost 70 people came along and possibly 100 for the whole night-great night of skywatching and really enjoyable (made up for the cold and frost) plenty to see enjoyed by all.

Good Clear Skies
--
Astrocomet
--
Colin James Watling

Various Voluntary work-Litter Picking for Parish Council (Daytime) and also a friend of Kessingland Beach (Watchman)
--

Profile: http://www.google.com/profiles/astrocomera
--

Lyra Website: https://sites.google.com/site/lyrasociety/

Stargazing 2012

2012-01-17T17:06:00.004Z

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: John Perring <jonpy@btinternet.com>
Date: 17 January 2012 10:57
Subject: Stargazing 2012

A well attended star gazing party on Pakefield Cliff on Monday night. At one time about 70 people and with people coming and going possible 100 folk came during the evening. The local press gave good coverage, even though they gave the wrong pub as a venue – no problem, we were in sight of it. The local radio also gave it out, and many came as a result of the leaflet drop in the area.

All in all a very satisfying evening.

The seeing was excellent, even with the light pollution. The sky was very clear and objects such as the Orion Nebula and the Andromeda Galaxy were clearly

Visible.

It was very nice to see the WOW factor when visitors looked through a telescope for the first time. Jupiter and 3 visible moons were the star attraction along with Venus.

Peter Boon, Ivan Barber, John Perring, David and Linda Gwynn and Leonard Brundle all came with telescopes and Colin Watling with his large Binos. Two other people came with their telescopes and one guy moving to this area has said he would like to join LYRA. Graham Walker and Ray Norris came to assist.

Great astronomy, great evening.

Picture Credits and Write up: John Perring (Lyra Treasurer)

--
Good Clear Skies
--
Astrocomet
--
Colin James Watling

Various Voluntary work-Litter Picking for Parish Council (Daytime) and also a friend of Kessingland Beach (Watchman)
--

Profile: http://www.google.com/profiles/astrocomera
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Lyra Website: https://sites.google.com/site/lyrasociety/

Star Parties....

2012-01-17T10:51:00.001Z

A really good turnout for Lyra on the Pakefield Clifftop for the first night of Skywatch and Stargazing Live-really enjoyed the occasion although it was cold the enjoyment of talking to people and telling them about the stars and various other things totally made up for this-I'm sure they enjoyed it as much as I did and everyone else also.

Nights like this are few and far between but when we do have a night like this one-its really worth all the effort we as Amateur Astronomers and the Lyra Society put into it-thanks to Richard, John and Ron for organising it all-hopefully I will be there tomorrow and Wednesday for it all again.

Good Clear Skies
--
Astrocomet
--
Colin James Watling

Various Voluntary work-Litter Picking for Parish Council (Daytime) and also a friend of Kessingland Beach (Watchman)
--

Profile: http://www.google.com/profiles/astrocomera
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Lyra Website: https://sites.google.com/site/lyrasociety/

[BAA-ebulletin 00646] Comet Section newsletter

2012-01-17T01:29:00.001Z

=============================================================
BAA electronic bulletin
=============================================================
The 2012 January edition of "The Comet's Tale", the newsletter of the
Comet Section, is now available for download on the Section web page at
http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/~jds/tail31.pdf [5Mb]. This contains a review
of the comets of and observed in 2011, an update of the predictions for
2012, two articles by Roger Dymock and excerpts from BAA Journals of 50
and 100 years ago. For further updates on comets see the main Section
page at http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/~jds

Updates are likely to be restricted between the end of January and mid
February as communications at my present location are likely to be
disrupted when our communications dome is moved. I just hope that
another sungrazing comet doesn't arrive during the period.

For UK observers the best comet at the moment is still 2009 P1
(Garradd), which will remain about 7th magnitude for several more
weeks. Do send in your observations to cometobs [at] britastro.org,
whether they are visual reports or images, or indeed reports of
astrometry or orbit computation.

Jonathan Shanklin
j.shanklin [at] bas.ac.uk
Director, Comet Section
Halley, Antarctica
2012 January 16

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=============================================================

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Good Clear Skies
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Colin James Watling

Various Voluntary work-Litter Picking for Parish Council (Daytime) and also a friend of Kessingland Beach (Watchman)
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Profile: http://www.google.com/profiles/astrocomera
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More Info

And More Info

[BAA-ebulletin 00640] BAA Stargazing LIVE! event at Regents Park, London

2012-01-09T15:55:00.001Z

===========================================================
BAA electronic bulletin
===========================================================

The BAA, in collaboration with the Baker Street Irregular Astronomers,
will be holding a Stargazing LIVE! public observing evening in London
on Wednesday 18 January. This is to coincide with the programmes on
BBC Two that will be broadcast on 16, 17 and 18 January.

Members of the BAA and BSIA will be at The Hub in The Regent's Park
from 17:30 to 23:00. We will be there even if it is cloudy (but not if
it is raining and forecast to rain all night). The Hub is a round
building in the middle of Regent's Park (see map at
http://britastro.org/stargazinglive2012). It is a café and sports
centre, and the café will be open until about 22:00.

If there is any clear sky at all we will be observing using telescopes
and binoculars from the concrete deck of The Hub. We expect many
members of the public to join us, and we would like as many BAA
members as possible to come along, with portable optical equipment if
possible, to help show and explain celestial objects to the public. If
you cannot bring any equipment, we would still love to see you there
to help inform the public and publicise the BAA. The most prominent
object in the sky will of course be Jupiter, but conditions at the Hub
are such that it is perfectly possible to observe the brighter
deep-sky objects from there, and Messier 42 and 45 will no doubt be
popular targets if conditions allow. The lights of the café are quite
dim, there are no nearby street lights, and the outdoor lighting of
The Hub will be further dimmed by red screens.

There is no danger of getting too cold as it is possible to retreat
into the café and get hot food and drinks. There are toilets there. We
will have a BAA stand giving out information. There will also be a
raffle with a prize of a 90mm refractor starter telescope, donated
jointly by the BAA and The Widescreen Centre.

Access to The Hub is from the so-called Monkey Gate, which is the gate
on the Outer Circle immediately west of London Zoo. The path from
there to The Hub is lighted with subtle lamps in the ground. It is
approximately a 5 minute walk from the Outer Circle, so this limits
the weight of equipment that can be bought to reasonably portable
telescopes (though people have been known to bring quite large
Dobsonians). Driven telescopes do make it much easier to show the
public objects like Jupiter at decent magnification. Parking on the
Outer Circle is free after 18:30. There is a bus, no. 274, which stops
close to the Monkey Gate. This goes to both Baker Street and Camden
Town Underground stations. Baker Street Station is about 25 minutes
walk from the gate, round the Outer Circle. St John's Wood and Camden
Town Stations are both about 15 minutes walk from the gate.

Please be vigilant if carrying equipment between a car and The Hub, or
back. Although the are is not regarded as unsafe, members are
encouraged to walk in groups whenever possible.

If Wednesday 18 January is completely cloudy, the event will be
repeated on the backup date, which is Wednesday 25 January, from 17:30
to 23:00 (but not the raffle). This coincides with a BAA Ordinary
Meeting at Burlington House, but as that will end by 20:00, it may
still be possible to attend both events.

Any further enquiries to me at the address below. I hope to see some
of you there on the 18th or the 25th.

David Arditti
d@davidarditti.co.uk

Message sent: 2012 January 9
===========================================================
BAA-ebulletin mailing list visit:

http://lists.britastro.org/mailman/listinfo/baa-ebulletin

(c) 2011 British Astronomical Association http://www.britastro.org/
===========================================================

--

Good Clear Skies
--
Astrocomet
--
Colin James Watling

Various Voluntary work-Litter Picking for Parish Council (Daytime) and also a friend of Kessingland Beach (Watchman)
--

Profile: http://www.google.com/profiles/astrocomera
--

Lyra Website: https://sites.google.com/site/lyrasociety/

Space Station Flying by the Moon

2012-01-09T15:40:00.003Z

The International Space Station can be seen as a small object in upper left of
this image of the moon in the early evening Jan. 4 in the skies over the Houston
area flying at an altitude of 390.8 kilometers (242.8 miles). The space station
can occasionally be seen in the night sky with the naked eye and a pair of field
binoculars.

Image credit: NASA/Lauren Harnett

Good Clear Skies

Astrocomet

Colin James Watling--Various Voluntary work-Litter Picking for Parish Council (Daytime) and also a friend of Kessingland Beach (Watchman)

Profile: http://www.google.com/profiles/astrocomera

Lyra Website: https://sites.google.com/site/lyrasociety/

Real Astronomer and head of the Comet section for LYRA (Lowestoft and Great Yarmouth Regional Astronomers) also head of K.A.G (Kessingland Astronomy Group) and Navigator (Astrogator) of the Stars (Fieldwork)

Information

More Info

And More Info

Meteors from a Shattered Comet

2012-01-05T05:19:00.001Z

Space Weather News for Jan. 3, 2012
http://spaceweather.com

FIRST METEOR SHOWER OF 2012: The annual Quadrantid meteor shower peaks on Wednesday morning, Jan. 4th, when Earth passes through a narrow stream of debris from a comet thought to have broken apart some 500 years ago. The shower is expected to be strong (as many as 100 meteors per hour), but elusive, with a peak that lasts no longer than a couple of hours. The shower's radiant near Polaris favors observers in the northern hemisphere. Images, live audio from a meteor radar, and more information are available on today's edition of http://spaceweather.com.

Don't just watch meteors, wear them! Authentic meteorite jewelry is available in the Space Weather Store: http://www.shopspaceweather.com/ownameteorite.aspx

--

Good Clear Skies
--
Astrocomet
--
Colin James Watling

Various Voluntary work-Litter Picking for Parish Council (Daytime) and also a friend of Kessingland Beach (Watchman)
--

Profile: http://www.google.com/profiles/astrocomera
--

Lyra Website: https://sites.google.com/site/lyrasociety/

SPA ENB No. 324

2012-01-03T02:19:00.001Z

Good Clear Skies
--
Astrocomet
--
Colin James Watling

Various Voluntary work-Litter Picking for Parish Council (Daytime) and also a friend of Kessingland Beach (Watchman)
--

Profile: http://www.google.com/profiles/astrocomera
--

Lyra Website: https://sites.google.com/site/lyrasociety/

A Happy New Year

2012-01-01T00:00:00.001Z

Wishing you all a very happy and good Prosperous and Rewarding New Year.....

Good Clear Skies
--
Astrocomet
--
Colin James Watling

Various Voluntary work-Litter Picking for Parish Council (Daytime) and also a friend of Kessingland Beach (Watchman)
--

Profile: http://www.google.com/profiles/astrocomera
--

Lyra Website: https://sites.google.com/site/lyrasociety/

2011

2011-12-31T01:59:00.002Z

Its not been a too bad year for Skywatching and Astronomy although being clouded out for the June 15 Lunar Eclipse at the Sailors Rest Home gathering and me not being able to have the Christmas buffet and Skywatch at my house due to lack of finances has put me out a bit and has been disappointing for me-next year I will save up and put some money aside so I can have the meeting at my house again and hopefully I will make up for missing this one this year.

Looking forward to 2012 Comet Garradd should have a good showing around March time and will be on display during the Evenings within that Month and should reach a good Binocular brightness-I will keep sending the Astronomy Emails of anything that might been happening and worth looking at and I still hope to add my percentage of work towards being a Lyra member and running KAG and for everyone to continue to enjoy the art of Astronomy the way I do and just what pleasure I get from doing so-Good Clear Skies and Happy 2012.

--

Good Clear Skies
--
Astrocomet
--
Colin James Watling

Various Voluntary work-Litter Picking for Parish Council (Daytime) and also a friend of Kessingland Beach (Watchman)
--

Profile: http://www.google.com/profiles/astrocomera
--

Lyra Website: https://sites.google.com/site/lyrasociety/
--
Real Astronomer and head of the Comet section for LYRA (Lowestoft and Great Yarmouth Regional Astronomers) also head of K.A.G (Kessingland Astronomy Group) and Navigator (Astrogator) of the Stars (Fieldwork)
--
Information

--
More Info

And More Info

Fireball sighting, December 21-22-Reply

2011-12-31T01:31:00.001Z

Dear Colin,

Thanks very much for your detailed fireball report from December 21-22.

As with your August sighting, regrettably I've not had any other fireball observations from around 06:28 GMT that morning so far. As usual though, your observation will remain to-hand in the hopes more may arrive. I added the event to the December fireballs topic on the SPA's Observing Forum earlier today, at:

http://www.popastro.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=16484 .

If you've learnt of anyone else who saw this event (or indeed, any other fireballs), please encourage them to send me full details. The separate topic on the Observing Forum still has advice about making and reporting fireballs that you can direct any additional witnesses to, at:

http://www.popastro.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=15296 .

It's very unlikely your latest fireball was a Geminid, partly as the path you described would struggle to pass through the shower's radiant, but primarily because the Earth moves very quickly out of that meteoroid stream once the maximum is past. Video observations have confirmed no discernible Geminid activity beyond December 17 in the past decade, for example. In general other than very near the maxima of one of the major showers, most such casually-seen fireballs throughout the year tend to be sporadics.

Best wishes for New Year, Alastair.

Alastair McBeath,
Meteor Director, Society for Popular Astronomy.
E-mail: <meteor@popastro.com> (messages under 150 kB in size only, please)

Good Clear Skies
--
Astrocomet
--
Colin James Watling

Various Voluntary work-Litter Picking for Parish Council (Daytime) and also a friend of Kessingland Beach (Watchman)
--

Profile: http://www.google.com/profiles/astrocomera
--

Lyra Website: https://sites.google.com/site/lyrasociety/

Twin GRAIL spacecraft will enter lunar orbit this weekend

2011-12-31T00:59:00.001Z

NEWSALERT: Friday, December 30, 2011 @ 1850 GMT
-----------------------------------------------------
The latest news from Spaceflight Now

+++
LAST DAYS OF OUR WINTER SPACE SALE!
40% off space patch collection sets
$5 book and DVD sale
http://www.spaceflightnowstore.com/
+++

RINGING IN THE NEW YEAR WITH SPACECRAFT REACHING THE MOON
---------------------------------------------------------
A spacecraft tandem that will deduce the Moon's interior from crust to
core is lined up to enter lunar orbit this weekend after a
2.6-million-mile, 3.5-month trek from Earth.

http://spaceflightnow.com/delta/d356/LOIpreview.html

OUR LAUNCH COVERAGE:
http://spaceflightnow.com/delta/d356/status.html

HIGH-DEFINITION GRAIL VIDEO:
http://www.spaceflightnowplus.com/hd/grail/

GLOBALSTAR CRAFT 'FLAWLESSLY' ORBITED BY SOYUZ ROCKET
-----------------------------------------------------
With a rumble and bright orange glow, a Soyuz rocket blasted off and
disappeared into frigid clouds over Kazakhstan on Wednesday to deliver six
second-generation Globalstar communications satellites to orbit.

http://spaceflightnow.com/soyuz/st24/111228launch/

THIS YEAR'S HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE SATURN SYSTEM
---------------------------------------------
NASA's Cassini spacecraft circling Saturn returned scores of picturesque
scenes of the giant planet and its moons in 2011, opening new research
horizons and dazzling the public with colorful views of the final
frontier.

http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n1112/27cassiniphotos/

EXPERIENCE A SPACE SHUTTLE LAUNCH LIKE NEVER BEFORE
---------------------------------------------------
These slow-motion films capture the awe-inspiring sight of a space shuttle
blasting off from the Kennedy Space Center on one of the program's final
missions, Discovery soaring skyward in February headed for the
International Space Station. The amazing videos are presented here for
Spaceflight Now+Plus users.

http://www.spaceflightnowplus.com/hd/sts133film/

LEARN MORE ABOUT SPACEFLIGHT NOW+PLUS:
http://spaceflightnow.com/store/sfnplus/index.html

+++
INTRODUCING LATEST ASTRONAUT PATCH!
The International Space Station's Expedition 35 crew patch is now
available from our store. Free shipping to U.S. addresses!
http://www.spaceflightnowstore.com/
+++

--

Good Clear Skies
--
Astrocomet
--
Colin James Watling

Various Voluntary work-Litter Picking for Parish Council (Daytime) and also a friend of Kessingland Beach (Watchman)
--

Profile: http://www.google.com/profiles/astrocomera
--

Lyra Website: https://sites.google.com/site/lyrasociety/

Charts-info Astrosite Groningen (Secember 26, 2011)

2011-12-27T02:23:00.001Z

Dear comet observers,

We have prepared the following new charts for our homepage:

* C/2009 P1 (Garradd):

two 7.5x10 degrees charts for the period 28 December 2011 - 30 January 2012.

These new charts are now available in the charts section of our mainpage at:

http://www.shopplaza.nl/astro

Here you can also download charts from earlier updates.

Reinder Bouma/Edwin van Dijk.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--

Good Clear Skies
--
Astrocomet
--
Colin James Watling

Various Voluntary work-Litter Picking for Parish Council (Daytime) and also a friend of Kessingland Beach (Watchman)
--

Profile: http://www.google.com/profiles/astrocomera
--

Lyra Website: https://sites.google.com/site/lyrasociety/

NASA Telescopes Help Find Rare Galaxy at Dawn of Time

2011-12-25T22:09:00.001Z

Feature: 2011-392 Dec. 21, 2011

NASA Telescopes Help Find Rare Galaxy at Dawn of Time

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-392&cid=release_2011-392

Astronomers using NASA's Spitzer and Hubble space telescopes have discovered that one of the
most distant galaxies known is churning out stars at a shockingly high rate. The blob-shaped galaxy,
called GN-108036, is the brightest galaxy found to date at such great distances.

The galaxy, which was discovered and confirmed using ground-based telescopes, is 12.9 billion
light-years away. Data from Spitzer and Hubble were used to measure the galaxy's high star
production rate, equivalent to about 100 suns per year. For reference, our Milky Way galaxy is about
five times larger and 100 times more massive than GN-108036, but makes roughly 30 times fewer
stars per year.

"The discovery is surprising because previous surveys had not found galaxies this bright so early in
the history of the universe," said Mark Dickinson of the National Optical Astronomy Observatory in
Tucson, Ariz. "Perhaps those surveys were just too small to find galaxies like GN-108036. It may
be a special, rare object that we just happened to catch during an extreme burst of star formation."

The international team of astronomers, led by Masami Ouchi of the University of Tokyo, Japan, first
identified the remote galaxy after scanning a large patch of sky with the Subaru Telescope atop
Mauna Kea in Hawaii. Its great distance was then carefully confirmed with the W.M. Keck
Observatory, also on Mauna Kea.

"We checked our results on three different occasions over two years, and each time confirmed the
previous measurement," said Yoshiaki Ono of the University of Tokyo, lead author of a new paper
reporting the findings in the Astrophysical Journal.

GN-108036 lies near the very beginning of time itself, a mere 750 million years after our universe
was created 13.7 billion years ago in an explosive "Big Bang." Its light has taken 12.9 billion years
to reach us, so we are seeing it as it existed in the very distant past.

Astronomers refer to the object's distance by a number called its "redshift," which relates to how
much its light has stretched to longer, redder wavelengths due to the expansion of the universe.
Objects with larger redshifts are farther away and are seen further back in time. GN-108036 has a
redshift of 7.2. Only a handful of galaxies have confirmed redshifts greater than 7, and only two of
these have been reported to be more distant than GN-108036.

Infrared observations from Spitzer and Hubble were crucial for measuring the galaxy's star-
formation activity. Astronomers were surprised to see such a large burst of star formation because
the galaxy is so small and from such an early cosmic era. Back when galaxies were first forming, in
the first few hundreds of millions of years after the Big Bang, they were much smaller than they are
today, having yet to bulk up in mass.

During this epoch, as the universe expanded and cooled after its explosive start, hydrogen atoms
permeating the cosmos formed a thick fog that was opaque to ultraviolet light. This period, before
the first stars and galaxies had formed and illuminated the universe, is referred to as the "dark
ages." The era came to an end when light from the earliest galaxies burned through, or "ionized," the
opaque gas, causing it to become transparent. Galaxies similar to GN-108036 may have played an
important role in this event.

"The high rate of star formation found for GN-108036 implies that it was rapidly building up its
mass some 750 million years after the Big Bang, when the universe was only about five percent of
its present age," said Bahram Mobasher, a team member from the University of California,
Riverside. "This was therefore a likely ancestor of massive and evolved galaxies seen today."

Other authors include: Kyle Penner and Benjamin J. Weiner of the University of Arizona, Tucson;
Kazuhiro Shimasaku and Kimihiko Nakajima of the University of Tokyo; Jeyhan S. Kartaltepe of
the National Optical Astronomy Observatory; Hooshang Nayyeri of the University of California,
Riverside; Daniel Stern of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.; Nobunari
Kashikawa of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan; and Hyron Spinrad of University of
California, Berkeley.

JPL manages the Spitzer Space Telescope mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate,
Washington. Science operations are conducted at the Spitzer Science Center at the California
Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Caltech manages JPL for NASA. For more information about
Spitzer, visit http://spitzer.caltech.edu/ and http://www.nasa.gov/spitzer/ .

-end-

--

Good Clear Skies
--
Astrocomet
--
Colin James Watling

Various Voluntary work-Litter Picking for Parish Council (Daytime) and also a friend of Kessingland Beach (Watchman)
--

Profile: http://www.google.com/profiles/astrocomera
--

Lyra Website: https://sites.google.com/site/lyrasociety/

Geminid Fireball Seen

2011-12-22T21:40:00.001Z

Society for Popular Astronomy

Meteor Section Fireball Report Form

Thank you. You have submitted the following fireball report to the SPA Meteor Section. You will be redirected to the Meteor Section Home Page in 30 seconds.

Observer:
Name: Colin James Watling
Email: astrocomera@googlemail.com

Site Location:
Town: Kessingland, Lowestoft
County: Suffolk
Country: England
Latitude: 52 ° 25 ' 05 " N
Longitude: 1 ° 43 ' 11 " E

Date / Time:
Date (Year - Month - Date): 2011 - 12 - 22
Time: 06 h 28 m 00 s
TimeZone GMT
Start of fireball's track:
70 ° altitude, 70 ° azimuth
or
h m s RA ° Dec

End of fireball's track:
30 ° altitude, 30 ° azimuth
or
h m s RA ° Dec

Apparent speed: 3

Visible duration (in seconds): 6
If the object was visible for more than 10 seconds it may not have been a fireball.

Train Details: White train as long from end to end-thin.

Sounds: Slight Sonic boom

Fragmentation: No Fragmentation

Colours: White

Magnitude Estimate: 4

Additional comments: Seen and Observed coming over the sky from my Bedroom window and dissapearing into clouds in the East-slim Crescent Moon rising in the South East with Earthshine-I would say it came from the Constellation of Gemini which is high in the West around this time/year so this was more than likely a Geminid Fireball and the Meteors being active from this Constellation during late December.

--

Good Clear Skies
--
Astrocomet
--
Colin James Watling

Various Voluntary work-Litter Picking for Parish Council (Daytime) and also a friend of Kessingland Beach (Watchman)
--

Profile: http://www.google.com/profiles/astrocomera
--

Lyra Website: https://sites.google.com/site/lyrasociety/

--
Lat' 52.41825356698225 North

- (Chimney Pot)

Long' 1.7198766767978668 East

Elev: 38ft/11.5824 Meters above sea level
--
Real Astronomer and head of the Comet section for LYRA (Lowestoft and Great Yarmouth Regional Astronomers) also head of K.A.G (Kessingland Astronomy Group) and Navigator (Astrogator) of the Stars (Fieldwork)
--
Information -- More Info -- And More Info

SPA ENB No. 323

2011-12-20T16:41:00.001Z

***********************************
The SOCIETY for POPULAR ASTRONOMY
***********************************
====================================================
Electronic News Bulletin No. 323 2011 December 18
====================================================

Here is the latest round-up of news from the Society for Popular
Astronomy. The SPA is Britain's liveliest astronomical society, with
members all over the world. We accept subscription payments online
at our secure site and can take credit and debit cards. You can join
or renew via a secure server or just see how much we have to offer by
visiting http://www.popastro.com/

PLANETS
By Andrew Robertson, Planetary Section Director

Mercury reaches greatest western elongation of 22° on December 23, so
it will be a morning object visible in the SE before sunrise. At the
start of civil twilight (07:19, about 41 minutes before sunrise) on
December 18 and 19 it will be at 9° altitude. By the 23rd it will be
at 8° altitude and by the 27th it will be down to 7° altitude, and
thereafter it descends quickly. So it is an opportunity for early
risers with a good horizon to the SE to view that elusive planet.
Twilight times are for my location at 1°.5 east of Greenwich; they
will be four minutes later for each degree further west you are.
Latitude may make a difference too.

IS VESTA THE 'SMALLEST TERRESTRIAL PLANET?'
NASA

The 'Dawn' spacecraft has spent the last four years on its way to the
asteroid Vesta, which was discovered over 200 years ago but until now
has been seen only as little more than an unresolved starlike point
and considered simply as a large rocky asteroid. Now the spacecraft's
instruments are revealing its true complexity. Astronomers are seeing
enormous mountains, cliffs, craters of all sizes, and plains. It has
a rich chemical history and an iron core. Its surface features
indicate that it is 'differentiated' like the 'terrestrial' planets
Mercury, Venus, the Earth and Mars. Differentiation is what happens
when the interior of a planet gets hot enough to melt, separating its
materials into layers: the light material floats to the surface while
the heavy elements, such as iron and nickel, sink to the centre.

The history begins about 4.57 billion years ago, when the planets of
the Solar System started forming from the primordial solar nebula.
As Jupiter gathered itself together, its powerful gravity stirred up
the material in the asteroid belt so objects there could no longer
coalesce. Vesta was in the process of growing into a planet when
Jupiter interrupted the process. Although Vesta's growth was stunted,
it is still differentiated like a true planet. Astronomers believe
that the Solar System received radioactive aluminium and iron from a
nearby supernova explosion at the time when Vesta was forming. Those
materials decayed and gave off heat. As the asteroid was gathering
material into a big ball of rock, it was also trapping the heat inside
itself. As Vesta's core melted, lighter materials rose to the
surface. Vesta may have had volcanoes and flowing lava at one time,
although none has yet been found. Vesta has so much in common with
the terrestrial planets that there may be a case to have it re-
classified as a 'dwarf planet'. Dawn will leave Vesta towards the
end of 2012 for Ceres, where it will arrive in 2015.

PLANET IN 'HABITABLE ZONE' OF SUN-LIKE STAR
NASA

A newly confirmed planet, Kepler-22b, is about 2.4 times the radius of
the Earth and is said to be in the 'habitable zone' of its star
(Kepler 22), about 600 light-years away. Although it is much larger
than the Earth, its 290-day orbit is much like our own, and its star is
a G-type one like the Sun, but slightly smaller and cooler. Scientists
do not know anything about Kepler-22b's composition, but its discovery
is claimed to be a step closer to finding Earth-like planets.

Kepler stares continuously at a particular area of sky in Cygnus and
Lyra; it measures the brightness of more than 150,000 stars, looking
for dips that may be caused by planet candidates that transit in front
of the stars. It requires at least three dips equally spaced in time
to verify a signal as a transit. Since its first list was published
last February, the number of planet candidates identified by Kepler
has nearly doubled, to over 2000, but now there are only 48 candidates
deemed to be in their respective stars' 'habitable zones', an actual
decrease from the 54 reported in February, largely because the Kepler
team has adopted a more realistic definition of what constitutes the
zone. Candidates require follow-up observations to see whether they
are actual planets. The Kepler team uses ground-based telescopes and
the Spitzer space telescope to review planet candidates found by the
spacecraft. The matter is seen a bit more in perspective when it is
recognised out that, out of the 54 'habitable-zone' planet candidates
reported in February, Kepler-22b is the *only one* that has been
confirmed as a planet.

[(Editorial aside:) The 'habitable zone' of a planetary system merely
refers to the band of orbits where the mean temperature of a body in
thermal equilibrium between the heat arriving from the star and that
conjectured to be lost by the planet's own radiation into space should
allow liquid water to exist on the surface. The anthropomorphic
reference to 'habitability', when all that is meant is that the
surface temperature promises to allow water to be a liquid rather than
ice or steam, appears to be a ruse to persuade people in general, and
perhaps funding agencies in particular, to believe that the discovery
of such a body brings very near the discovery of 'little green men'.
More realistic souls have drawn attention to the fact that there is
much more to habitability than mere equilibrium temperature. If the
Kepler team lived on Alpha Centauri it would probably consider Venus,
the Moon and Mars to be in the Sun's 'habitable zone', but living as
we do nearer at hand we can see that neither Venus nor the Moon would
be likely to represent pleasant abodes even for little green men.
Obviously there has to be, around *any* star, a range of radii that
satisfies the basic temperature demand of 'habitability': at the
surface of the star it is too hot and in the far distance (outer
space) it is too cold, so somewhere in between it must be 'just
right'. There is no sense in which an Earth-like temperature is un-
usual or anomalous -- it can not avoid occurring over some appreciable
range of radii around every star, although in an individual case (that
of Venus is notable) the hypothetical temperature calculation is
falsified by conditions related to the characteristics of the planet
itself.]

FASTEST ROTATING STAR
ESO

An international team of astronomers has been using the Very Large
Telescope at the Paranal Observatory in Chile to make a survey of the
most massive and luminous stars in the Tarantula Nebula, in the Large
Magellanic Cloud. Among the many brilliant stars there, the team has
discovered one, called VFTS 102, that has an equatorial rotational
velocity of more than 600 km/s -- more than 300 times faster than the
Sun and very close to the point at which it would be torn apart by
centrifugal forces. VFTS 102 is the fastest-rotating star known to
date. The astronomers also found that the star, which is around 25
times the mass of the Sun and about 100,000 times brighter, is moving
through space at a significantly different speed from its neighbours.
That could imply that it has been ejected from a double-star system
after its companion exploded as a supernova, an idea that is supported
by the existence of a pulsar and an associated supernova remnant in
its vicinity. Its high rotational velocity might have arisen from its
accretion of a stream of gas lost from the hypothetical companion star
before the latter exploded as a supernova.

DOUBLE STAR OBSERVED WITH VLT INTERFEROMETER
ESO

In a considerable technical achievement, four telescopes at ESO's
Paranal Observatory in Chile have been used together as an
interferometer with a 130-m baseline, giving the resolution equivalent
to that of a telescope of that aperture. The system was used to
observe the double star SS Leporis, whose components orbit one another
in 260 days. The stars are separated by only a little more than the
distance between the Sun and the Earth, while the larger and cooler of
the two stars is a red giant that extends about a quarter of the way
to its hot companion, a distance corresponding roughly to the orbit of
Mercury. The hot component appears to have accreted about half of the
mass that was originally in the giant. The new observations show that
the giant star is smaller than was previously thought, making it much
more difficult to explain how it has lost matter to its companion.
The astronomers now think that, instead of the matter pouring off the
giant through the gravitational effect of the hot star, a process
called 'Roche-lobe overflow', it must be being expelled from the giant
star as a stellar wind, like the 'solar wind' but a lot denser, and
captured by the hot companion.

CLUSTER HAS MANY MASSIVE STARS
University of Toronto.

Astronomers have found the most numerous batch of young, massive stars
yet observed in our Galaxy, in a cluster of hundreds of thousands of
stars that include several hundred massive blue stars dozens of times
the mass of our Sun. The light of all the newborn massive stars is so
intense that it has expelled and heated the gas that remained in the
cluster after their birth, creating a glowing hollow shell about a
hundred light-years across. Comparable clusters of massive stars have
been noticed in other galaxies, but they are so far away that all the
stars tend to appear blurred together. The cluster now observed is
located nearly halfway across our galaxy, 10,000 parsecs (30,000
light-years) away, and the line of sight is badly obscured by dust.
The researchers used the New Technology Telescope at ESO; they could
measure only the brightest stars in the cluster, but from the
uppermost portion of the colour-magnitude diagram they deduced that at
least a dozen stars were of the most massive types, some possibly a
hundred times as massive as the Sun. In fact, before observing the
cluster from the ground, the team had first noticed the glow from the
large shell of heated gas in images from the WMAP satellite, which is
sensitive to microwaves (between radio waves and visible light). To
make an image of the gas shell being blown away and heated up, they
used the Spitzer satellite, which works with infrared light. Most of
the light emitted by the heated gas is infrared which is less obscured
than visible light by gas or dust. The giant stars in the cluster
emit mostly in the ultraviolet, which is very badly blocked by dust
and thus not visible in the image. Such stars burn their nuclear fuel
very quickly in astronomical terms; they will last only a few million
years, even though they contain dozens of times more fuel than the
Sun.

GALACTIC TAILS
RAS

An international group of astronomers has discovered in two groups of
galaxies extraordinarily long one-sided gaseous tails that are amongst
the longest structures ever observed in such environments. They
emanate from CGCG 097-026 and FGC1287, two spiral galaxies in small
groups in the outskirts of the cluster known as Abell 1367 in the
constellation of Leo, at a distance of 100 Mpc (Megaparsecs). The
astronomers used the Expanded Very Large Array radio telescope in the
USA to study Abell 1367. The projected lengths of the gaseous tails
are about 9 and 10 times the sizes of the respective parent galaxies,
i.e. about 160 and 250 kiloparsecs. In both cases the amount of cold
hydrogen gas in the tails is approximately the same as that remaining
in the galaxies themselves. In other words, the galaxies have lost
half their fuel for star formation. There is an idea that galaxies in
large clusters lose their gas through its being swept out by the
movement of the galaxies through the intergalactic gas already present
there, but the galaxies concerned here are only on the outskirts of
the cluster and ought not to have lost their gas in that way. The
origin of the extraordinary tails remains a puzzle for the scientists.

MASSIVE BLACK HOLES DISCOVERED
University of California - Berkeley.

The most massive black holes are found in elliptical galaxies, which
are thought to result from mergers of two or more galaxies. To date,
approximately 63 super-massive black holes have been found in the
cores of nearby galaxies. The most massive one known until now was
one reputedly of 6.3 billion solar masses in the centre of the
'nearby' galaxy M87. Astronomers at the Gemini, Keck and McDonald
observatories have been obtaining spectra of the diffuse starlight at
the centres of several massive elliptical galaxies, each the brightest
galaxy in its cluster. In that way they can estimate a velocity
dispersion for the unresolved stars, and try to interpret it to
indicate the mass of the central object. Finding huge masses
contained within a volume only a few hundred light-years across, the
astronomers conclude that the masses must be massive black holes.
They have found two that appear to have masses of about 10 billion
Suns, though the uncertainties in the actual values are substantial.
The holes are at the centres of two elliptical galaxies, both about
100 Mpc away. One is in the elliptical galaxy NGC 3842, the brightest
galaxy in the Leo cluster; the other is in NGC 4889, the brightest in
the Coma Berenices cluster. Physical laws show that holes of such
masses must have event horizons (distances from within which nothing,
even light, can escape) at radii of about 200 astronomical units (five
times the size of the orbit of Pluto). The black hole at the centre
of the Milky Way is less massive by a factor of about 2500, and its
event horizon is at a distance about one-fifth the radius of the orbit
of Mercury.

TWO SPECULATIONS ABOUT THE CHRISTMAS GAMMA-RAY BURST
NASA

Two competing theories have been put forward, in separate papers
published in 'Nature', to explain a gamma-ray burst (GRB 101225A) that
was detected in Andromeda by the orbiting 'Swift' observatory on
Christmas Day 2010. Follow-up observations by the Hubble telescope
and ground-based ones failed to determine its distance. The gamma-ray
emission lasted at least 28 minutes, which is unusually long.
Astronomers from the Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia in Spain
suggest that the burst occurred in a binary system where a neutron
star orbited a normal star that had just entered its red-giant phase,
enormously expanding its outer atmosphere. The expansion engulfed the
neutron star, they say, causing the giant's atmosphere to be ejected
and the neutron star's orbit to be made smaller. The neutron star may
then have merged with the giant's core, creating a black hole and
oppositely-directed jets of particles, producing gamma rays, followed
by a weak supernova. The team says that the event would have to have
taken place about 2000 Mpc away. Astronomers at Brera Observatory in
Italy, however, suggest an entirely different model. It involves the
tidal disruption of a large comet-like object and the ensuing crash of
debris onto a neutron star located 'only' about 3000 parsecs away.
Gamma-ray emission would have occurred when debris fell onto the
neutron star; X-ray variations lasting several hours, detected by
Swift's X-Ray telescope, might have been caused by late-arriving
clumps of matter striking the neutron star.

REDDEST GALAXIES IN THE UNIVERSE
Astropublishing

A group from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics has
discovered four extremely distant galaxies that are amongst the
reddest ever detected. Located at a distance of around 4000 Mpc, they
must have formed during the first billion years of existence of the
Universe. The four galaxies appear to be physically related to each
other; one also shows evidence of an active nucleus, presumably owing
to the presence of a super-massive black hole. They were observed
with the Spitzer space telescope at infrared wavelengths, where the
galaxies are much brighter than they are in visible light. Redness in
distant galaxies can arise in three ways -- a large population of very
red stars, dust in their interstellar medium, or a great distance
resulting in a large red-shift caused by the Doppler effect.
According to the researchers involved in this study, it is likely that
all three effects are important in the galaxies that they observed.

CLOSEST SPACECRAFT TO APPROACH PLUTO
Johns Hopkins University

The 'New Horizons' mission has reached a milestone on its way to
Pluto, now being closer to Pluto than any previous spacecraft has
been. It has taken New Horizons 2,143 days of high-speed flight --
covering more than a million kilometres a day for nearly six years --
to break the closest-approach mark of 1.58 billion kilometres set by
Voyager 1 in 1986. New Horizons is healthy and on course for its
closest approach of 12,500 kilometres to Pluto on 2015 July 14. At
its current distance from Pluto (about as far as from here to Saturn)
Pluto remains just a faint point of light. But when it rushes through
the Pluto system in 2015, its cameras will be able briefly to observe
fine details on the former planet and it moons. New Horizons is
currently in hibernation, with all but its most essential systems
turned off; operators will waken the spacecraft in January for a
month of testing and maintenance activities.

SPA SOLAR SECTION
By Richard Bailey, SPA Solar Section Director

2011 NOVEMBER
Rotation Nos. 2116, 2117 White Light

Autumn's effects, low Sun and often cloudy skies, plus tall trees,
buildings, wind turbines, what-have-you, curtailed observation
opportunities. From the scattered observation reports received,
though, enough information arrived to put together an outline of solar
activity. Again, the NH was more energised than the SH by a factor of
at least 1.6. Faculae were regularly seen by the limb.

Week 1: the band of ARs across the NH at the end of October was on
show gradually heading westwards. NH AR 1339,the largest of Cycle 24
so far, was in the E on the 2nd, and SH AR 1338, also a strong one,
appeared there the same day, followed on the 5th by SH AR 1344.
Week 2: well-balanced activity in both hemispheres. NH AR 1339
decayed as it neared the W limb. 9 ARs seen on the 12/13th, almost
equally divided between the hemispheres. The most individual sunspots
of the month were counted on the 10th, 28 in the NH, 17 in the SH.
Week 3: much the same. SH AR 1334 was an open gathering of smallish
sunspots, showing well from the 18th in the E, with smaller SH AR
1352, a line of small sunspots, just ahead. 9 ARs (6 NH and 3 SH) on
the 15th.
Week 4 to end of month: almost a repeat viewing of Week 1 with a
spread of some 6 NH ARs across the disc on the 27th, the SH almost
blank with AR 1352 just visible by the SW limb. 9 ARs on the 24-26th,
7NH and 2 SH.

MDF 6.75 R 84.84

H-ALPHA

An overview of the month's prominence activity is difficult to compile
owing to the conditions mentioned earlier. Mixed, often low-level
prominences showed each day, but the 12th had a majestic arch
standing on the S rim, and a lower hedgerow in the NE. Another long,
dense one was on show in the SE on the 16th. The 14th had a tall,
wide 'forest' formation in the S. Minor flaring was seen on the 2nd,
6th,13th, 15th. and 17th. Filaments were seen daily, a long NH one on
the 13th. stretching about half the width of the disc. It showed well
for more than a week as it went to the W limb. Another strong but
shorter one spread southwards between AR 1353 and AR 1354 around the
19th.

MDF 5.39

A reminder again that a selection of pictures is viewable on the Solar
link from the SPA Homepage, under Monthly Reports. To view any to a
larger scale, click to save them to your computer then open them with
a graphics programme.

Bulletin compiled by Clive Down

(c) 2011 the Society for Popular Astronomy

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Shuttle Discovery powered down for last time / South American Soyuz launch

2011-12-19T16:14:00.001Z

NEWSALERT: Sunday, December 18, 2011 @ 2237 GMT
---------------------------------------------------------------------
The latest news from Spaceflight Now

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Spaceships scaled to fit on your desk
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SHUTTLE DISCOVERY'S HISTORIC PAYLOAD BAY GOES DARK
--------------------------------------------------
After deploying 21 satellites from expansive confines, including the
Hubble Space Telescope, commercial spacecraft and military eavesdroppers,
hosting scientific platforms and hauling key pieces of the International
Space Station, the payload bay of space shuttle Discovery was closed and
locked as the spacecraft was powered off for the final time Friday.

http://spaceflightnow.com/shuttle/sts133/111216doors/

STS-133: DISCOVERY'S FINAL FLIGHT:
http://spaceflightnow.com/shuttle/sts133/

FINAL MISSION HIGH-DEFINITION TV ARCHIVE:
http://www.spaceflightnowplus.com/hd/sts133/

SIX DEFENSE SATELLITES LAUNCHED BY SOYUZ ROCKET
-----------------------------------------------
A Russian Soyuz rocket fired six satellites into space Friday, launching
missions to serve defense agencies in Europe and Chile with
high-resolution imagery and electronic intelligence.

http://spaceflightnow.com/soyuz/vs02/111217launch/

MISSION STATUS CENTER:
http://spaceflightnow.com/soyuz/vs02/status.html

RUSSIANS NOW PREPARING FOR RE-ENTRY OF MARS PROBE
-------------------------------------------------
Russia's $163 million Phobos-Grunt Mars probe, stranded in low-Earth orbit
after a malfunction following launch Nov. 8, is expected to fall back into
Earth's atmosphere next month, Russian officials confirmed Friday.

http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n1112/17reentry/

NASA RETHINKS MECHANICS FOR COMMERCIAL CREW CONTRACTS
-----------------------------------------------------
Faced with uncertain budgets, NASA is giving up fixed-price contracts and
moving back to more flexible, but less comprehensive, Space Act Agreements
to continue design work on a new commercial manned spacecraft to ferry
U.S. astronauts to and from the International Space Station, officials
said Thursday.

http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n1112/15commcrew/

DECISION INCREASES RISK IN COMMERCIAL CREW PROGRAM
--------------------------------------------------
NASA's decision to give up insight and influence in the design of
privately-developed space vehicles could cause delays in the resumption of
U.S. human spaceflight, officials said Thursday.

http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n1112/16commercialcrew/

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The International Space Station's Expedition 35 crew patch is now
available from our store. Free shipping to U.S. addresses!
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Spectacular Sundiving Comet

2011-12-19T02:26:00.003Z

Space Weather News for Dec. 15, 2011
http://spaceweather.com

SUNDIVING COMET: Comet Lovejoy is plunging toward the sun, and its ~200-meter wide core is vaporizing furiously as it approaches the hot star. So far the comet's brightness seems to be exceeding expectations. Indeed, there is a slim chance that the sundiver will brighten enough to be seen with the naked eye in broad daylight on Dec. 15th. Check http://spaceweather.com for further discussion and the latest movies from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory.

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Comet Lovejoy Survives Death-Plunge into the Sun

2011-12-19T02:26:00.001Z

Space Weather News for Dec. 16, 2011
http://spaceweather.com

SUNGRAZING COMET SURVIVES: Sungrazing Comet Lovejoy has confounded the experts and survived its close encounter with the sun. Last night, NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded amazing movies of the comet entering and exiting the sun's atmosphere. Comet Lovejoy's scorched remnant is now receding from the sun in full view of the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory. Visit http://spaceweather.com for the latest movies and discussion.

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Significant Sungrazing Comet + Geminid Meteor Shower

2011-12-13T09:37:00.001Z

Space Weather News for Dec. 13, 2011
http://spaceweather.com

GEMINID METEOR SHOWER: Earth is passing through a stream of debris from near-Earth asteroid 3200 Phaethon, source of the annual Geminid meteor shower. Forecasters expect meteor rates to reach 20-to-40 per hour when the shower peaks in bright moonlight on the night of Dec.13/14. The best time to look, no matter where you live, is between 10 pm local time on Tuesday, Dec. 13, and sunrise on Wednesday, Dec. 14th. Check http://spaceweather.com for more information and live audio from a meteor radar.

BIG SUNDIVING COMET: A comet nearly as wide as two football fields (200m) is plunging toward the sun where it will most likely be destroyed in a spectacular light show on Dec. 15/16. Solar glare will hide the event from human eyes, but NASA and ESA spacecraft should have a grand view. Check http://spaceweather.com for full coverage.

METALLIC PHOTOS OF THE SUN: Would you like to have an explosion a billion times more powerful than an atomic bomb hanging on your wall? Unique metallic photos of solar flares and prominences are now available in the Space Weather Store: http://www.shopspaceweather.com/metallicpicturesofthesun.aspx

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[BAA-ebulletin 00635] GEMINID METEOR SHOWER NEARING PEAK

2011-12-13T09:26:00.001Z

=============================================================
BAA electronic bulletin
=============================================================
GEMINID METEOR SHOWER NEARING PEAK

The Geminid meteor shower is now underway, with peak activity expected during Wednesday, 14th December. Unfortunately, weather forecasts indicate very variable observing conditions across the British Isles and Northern Europe, so it is important to have a good geographical spread of observers to ensure adequate coverage. The waning gibbous Moon will also be rather obtrusive, so observers are advised to direct their gaze away from the Moon, or to hide the Moon behind an obstruction such as the wall of a house.

The Geminids are currently the most active of the regular annual showers, with rates outstripping those of the Perseids for a 24-hour interval centred on their 14-15 December maximum - a real treat for observers prepared to brave the cold, damp and windy weather.

This year, Geminid activity is expected to peak at about 14h on Wednesday, December 14th, when the peak Geminid Zenithal Hourly Rate may reach 140 m/h - sadly during daylight hours for observers across Europe. The maximum is broad, however, and it is important to have a spread of observers making observations throughout the nights of 13th/14th December and on 14th/15th December to ensure adequate coverage of the shower maximum. In addition, observations by BAA members in North America and the Far East will be welcomed by the Meteor Section to improve coverage of the period of peak shower activity.

The Geminid radiant (at RA 07h 32m Dec +33o, just north of Castor) rises early on and reaches a respectable altitude well before midnight, so observers who are unable to stay up late can still contribute very useful watches. On the evening of Wednesday 14th December there is the added bonus of an increased proportional abundance of bright events after maximum; past observations show that bright Geminids become more numerous some hours after the rates have peaked, a consequence of particle-sorting in the meteor stream.

Geminid meteors enter the atmosphere at a relatively slow 35 km/sec, and thanks to their robust (presumably rocky/asteroidal as opposed to dusty/cometary) nature tend to last longer than most in luminous flight. Unlike swift Perseid or Orionid meteors, which last only a couple of tenths of a second, Geminids may be visible for a second or longer, sometimes appearing to fragment into a train of 'blobs'. Their relatively low speed and the abundance of bright events makes the Geminids a prime target for imaging.

For further information, or copies of report forms, observing notes, and details of how to carry out group meteor watches, please visit the BAA Meteor Section website at http://britastro.org/meteor

This e-bulletin issued by:
John W. Mason, Director, BAA Meteor Section
2011 December 12
=============================================================
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Join NASA/JPL for the Last Total Lunar Eclipse Until 2014

2011-12-10T14:24:00.001Z

Join NASA/JPL for the Last Total Lunar Eclipse Until 2014

The last total lunar eclipse until 2014 will grace the sky the morning of Saturday, Dec. 10, reaching totality at about 6 a.m. PST, and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory wants you to be there. Not only will the moon be showing off a red-orange glow, but also many viewers in the U.S. and Canada will have the rare chance to see a seemingly impossible sight: the sun and eclipsed moon together!

You can text, tweet, post or snap to join the conversation with NASA/JPL and participate in the "I'm There: Lunar Eclipse 2011" event. It all starts today! Here's how to join the fun:

1. TEXT MESSAGE: Text IMTHERE to 67463 to share your eclipse viewing spot and comments with NASA/JPL, or enter your 10-digit cell phone number in the "Join the Conversation" box at http://1.usa.gov/sqf5op. (Available to users in the U.S., message and data rates may apply). To join the campaign, just text in with the zip code of your viewing location, and see it plotted on the map at http://1.usa.gov/sqf5op. Then, on Saturday morning, you'll receive a reminder to go out and watch plus instructions on how to share your comments via text.

2. TWITTER: Eclipse watchers around the world can participate by including @NASA/JPL and #Eclipse in their tweets, then see their comments displayed in the Twitter stream at http://1.usa.gov/sqf5op. Don't forget to tell us where you're watching the eclipse!

3. FACEBOOK: Join JPL's Total Lunar Eclipse event page on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/events/150487628392791/) to share your experiences and upload lunar eclipse photos. After the eclipse, NASA/JPL will pick one lucky winner to have his or her photo featured on JPL's Space Images website and available for download as an official NASA/JPL wallpaper.

4. ONLINE: Visit NASA/JPL's Lunar Eclipse homepage at http://1.usa.gov/sqf5op throughout the weekend to find others who are watching in your area, view comments and updates, check the weather, and explore more resources, including eclipse timetables and related events.

Learn more about where and when to view the lunar eclipse from JPL astronomer Steve Edberg at http://blogs.jpl.nasa.gov/.

Can't see the eclipse from your area? Slooh, the online Space Camera, will broadcast a live feed of the total lunar eclipse from several locations, starting at 6:06 a.m. PST (9:06 a.m. EST). Watch here: http://events.slooh.com/.

- end -

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Total Eclipse of the Moon

2011-12-10T12:40:00.001Z

Space Weather News for Dec. 9, 2011
http://spaceweather.com

LUNAR ECLIPSE: Sky watchers on the Pacific side of Earth should be alert for a total lunar eclipse on Saturday, Dec. 10th. The disk of the full Moon will turn a beautiful shade of copper-red as it passes through Earth's shadow between 4:45 am and 8:18 am Pacific Standard Time (12:45 to 16:18 UT). For observers in western parts of the USA and Canada, the event will be magnified by the Moon illusion as the morning Moon sets behind trees, buildings, and other foreground objects along the western horizon. Please check http://spaceweather.com for more information and full coverage of the eclipse as it happens.

If you appreciate these free alerts, please consider supporting SpaceWeather.com by making a purchase from the Space Weather Store. For instance, there's probably someone on your Christmas list who would like to receive a piece of authentic meteorite jewelry: http://www.shopspaceweather.com/Meteorite-Jewelry.aspx

Unfortunately we won't see much from here in East Anglia-the Moon Rises @ 15.38 UT when the the last part of the Umbral shadow will just be showing as its coming out of the Eclipse ending @ 16.18 UT-it will then exit the Penumbral shadow @ 17.31 UT with Astronomical Twilight ending @ 17.46 UT.

Sunset is @ 15.40 UT and Lighting up time (Civil Twilight) occurs @ 16.21 UT.

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[BAA-ebulletin 00633] DON'T FORGET THIS WEEKEND'S LUNAR ECLIPSE

2011-12-09T13:51:00.001Z

=============================================================
BAA electronic bulletin
=============================================================
DON'T FORGET THIS WEEKEND'S LUNAR ECLIPSE

This Saturday afternoon, on 10 December, there will be a total eclipse of
the Moon. Eclipses of the Moon occur when the Full Moon passes through the
cone of shadow cast by the Earth into space. The eclipse first becomes total
at 14:06 UT, reaches maximum at 14:32 UT, and ends at 14:57 UT. The partial
eclipse ends at 16:18 UT.

Unfortunately, from the UK, the Moon will already have started leaving the
umbra (the central, dark part of the Moon's shadow) well before moonrise,
and the observable part of the partial phase will last from moonrise until
16:18 UT.

>From London, Moonrise is at 15:51 UT, from Norwich it is at 15:39 UT and
from Sheffield at 15:46 UT. Accordingly observers in Eastern parts of the UK
will be able to see just the last 30-40 minutes of the partial phase,
provided they have a clear, unobstructed north-eastern horizon.

Sadly, from locations further north and west, with moonrise occurring later
in the afternoon, most of the partial phase will be over before the Moon
rises. Observers should go out at about the time of local Moonrise when, if
the sky is clear, the partially-eclipsed Moon may be glimpsed very low down,
close to the horizon, in the north-eastern sky.

One never quite knows how dark or how bright a lunar eclipse will be.
Everything depends on the conditions in the Earth's upper atmosphere through
which all light falling onto the shadowed Moon has to pass. There have been
eclipses when the Moon has been difficult to find even with a telescope,
while at other eclipses it has remained bright red or vividly coloured.

This total lunar eclipse takes place at the Moon's descending node in
eastern Taurus, four days after apogee. The Moon's orbital trajectory takes
it through the southern half of Earth's umbral shadow. Although the eclipse
is not central, the total phase still lasts 51 minutes. Eastern Asia,
Indonesia, Australia and Japan are best placed for viewing this eclipse,
near midnight and with the Moon at a good altitude above the horizon.

Further information on this eclipse may be found at:

http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/OH/OH2011.html#LE2011Dec10T

This e-bulletin issued by:
Dr John Mason
BAA Press and Publicity Officer

Email: docjohn@dircon.co.uk Tel: 07901 890061
2011 December 8
=============================================================
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(c) 2011 British Astronomical Association http://www.britastro.org/
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[BAA-ebulletin 00632] BRILLIANT FIREBALL ON 7 DECEMBER 2011

2011-12-09T09:49:00.001Z

=============================================================
BAA electronic bulletin
=============================================================
BRILLIANT FIREBALL ON 7 DECEMBER 2011

Reports are coming in of a brilliant fireball, visible in twilight at about
16:07 UT on Wednesday, 7th December 2011. The event occurred less
than 20 minutes after sunset so the sky was still very bright, but by a
fortunate coincidence it appeared in the same part of the sky as Jupiter and
the waxing gibbous Moon, both of which were visible at the time.

Sightings have so far only been received from observers in Kent, Essex and
Suffolk, but it is likely that the event would have been visible from most
of South-Eastern England, as well as across the Channel in Belgium and the
Netherlands.

According to Malcolm Beasley of Folkestone, Kent the fireball was "very
bright, much brighter than the Moon in the same area of sky and appeared a
brilliant white in still daylight, clear sky conditions. There was no
obvious sound associated with the sighting. It appeared to leave a very
short, high altitude, white vapour trail which slowly dispersed to the
east."

Such sightings are comparatively rare since few fireballs are bright enough
to be visible in a very bright twilight sky. Many areas of the South-East
had clear, cloudless skies late on the Wednesday afternoon in question.

Any BAA members who saw this event, or who may have been contacted by
non-astronomers who witnessed it, are asked to collect as much information
about the sighting as possible and send it either to the BAA Meteor
Section's Fireball Co-ordinator Len Entwisle at len.entwisle@btinternet.com
or to meteor@britastro.org.

Useful information will include the name and location of the observer, the
precise time of the event, the altitude and azimuth of the start and end
points of the visible track, the position of the observed track relative to
the Moon and Jupiter in the sky (if seen towards the south-east), and a
description of the fireball's appearance together with any unusual features.

This e-bulletin issued by:
John W. Mason, Director, BAA Meteor Section
2011 December 8
=============================================================
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China's launch rate set to surpass United States

2011-12-07T14:25:00.001Z

NEWSALERT: Monday, December 5, 2011 @ 1508 GMT
---------------------------------------------------------------------
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Foundation's 2012 Astronaut Autograph Club! Join today and receive an
astronaut-signed photo and a personalized letter from a legendary
astronaut for every month of the year. Memberships are limited.

Order by December 15, 2011 and save $50 by using promo code AAC12 at
check-out!

http://www.astronautstore.org/20asaucl8.html
**************************************

CHINA'S LAUNCH RATE SET TO SURPASS UNITED STATES
------------------------------------------------
For the first time since joining the spacefaring community in 1970, China
is poised to eclipse the number of U.S. space launches in a single year.

http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n1112/04china/

CASSINI RADAR PAINTS NEW PICTURE OF ICY ENCELADUS
-------------------------------------------------
NASA's Cassini spacecraft captured unprecedented radar imagery of Saturn's
icy moon Enceladus last month, uncovering new details of the moon's highly
reflective frozen surface.

http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n1112/03enceladus/

ESA SHUTTING DOWN PHOBOS-GRUNT LISTENING CAMPAIGN
-------------------------------------------------
The European Space Agency announced Friday it would cease attempts to
contact Russia's Phobos-Grunt Mars probe, as hopes diminish of ever
recovering the stranded spacecraft and guiding it toward the red planet.

http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n1112/02phobosgrunt/

PUT ON YOUR 3D GLASSES AND CHECK OUT ASTEROID VESTA
---------------------------------------------------
NASA released a 3D video of asteroid Vesta this week, showing rifts and
valleys across the 330-mile-wide world sandwiched between the orbits of
Mars and Jupiter.

http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n1112/02vesta/

MARS SCIENCE LABORATORY POSTPONES ADJUSTING COURSE
--------------------------------------------------
The first scheduled opportunity for the Mars Science Laboratory to tweak
its trajectory on the interplanetary cruise from Earth to the red planet
won't be needed for awhile, flight controllers announced Thursday.

http://spaceflightnow.com/atlas/av028/111201noburn.html

HIGH-DEFINITION VIDEO:
http://www.spaceflightnowplus.com/hd/msl/

STANDARD-DEFINITION VIDEO:
http://spaceflightnowplus.com/index.php?k=av-028&s=date

IT'S OUR BIRTHDAY!
------------------
Thursday marked the 12th anniversary of Spaceflight Now's launch onto the
Internet. We have covered hundreds of rocket launches, flyout of the space
shuttle program and robotic expeditions across the solar system. Thanks to
all our readers for visiting the site every day!

DROP US A LINE ON FACEBOOK:
http://www.facebook.com/spaceflightnow

DELTA 4 ROCKET TO PROVIDE LAUNCH SERVICES FOR WGS 5
---------------------------------------------------
As United Launch Alliance's Delta 4 rocket gets ready to launch the next
craft for the U.S. military's backbone communications satellite
constellation in January, the Air Force has awarded the booster the rights
to deploy the subsequent bird as well.

http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n1112/01wgs5/

GLOBALSTAR SWAPS SATELLITES BEFORE NEXT LAUNCH
----------------------------------------------
Struggling with recurring problems with satellite momentum wheels,
Globalstar exchanged one of six mobile communications spacecraft set to
launch in December with a spare platform to ensure it does not succumb to
an issue that has knocked one of the company's newest satellites out of
service.

http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n1112/02globalstar/

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+++

Good Clear Skies
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Astrocomet
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Various Voluntary work-Litter Picking for Parish Council (Daytime) and also a friend of Kessingland Beach (Watchman)
--

Profile: http://www.google.com/profiles/astrocomera
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Lyra Website: https://sites.google.com/site/lyrasociety/

What's Up for December 2011?

2011-12-07T14:16:00.001Z

What's Up for December: a mission recap and lots of planets to view.

Hello and welcome. I'm Jane Houston Jones at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

NASA's Juno spacecraft, which launched in August, will arrive at Jupiter in 2016. Juno will map the giant planet's magnetic field and help us better understand this strange material.

Scientists think Jupiter's magnetic field is generated by an ocean of liquid metallic hydrogen hidden within the planet. Metallic hydrogen is hydrogen gas compressed so much by gravity that it becomes an electrically conductive liquid.

NASA's twin GRAIL spacecraft launched on a three-month journey to the moon in September. GRAIL-A will enter lunar orbit on New Year's Eve, and GRAIL-B will follow the next day. Then they'll spend about two months reshaping and merging their orbits, until one spacecraft is following the other in the same low-altitude, near-circular, near-polar orbit and they begin formation flying.

NASA's Dawn mission is using its ion propulsion system to lower its orbital altitude. A new framing camera image is dominated by bright rayed craters of different sizes.

(Launch controller in background: Liftoff!)

And NASA's Mars Science Laboratory and its rover named Curiosity are on their way to Mars after a successful launch in November.

Through a small telescope you may be able to see some markings on Mars. But this year and next just aren't good for Mars viewing.

Venus climbs higher in the southwest sky after sunset. Jupiter continues to shine all night long, while Mars rises in the late evening. You can even catch Saturn a few hours before dawn and Mercury just at dawn.

There's an eclipse this month, too. On December 10 observers in Asia, Australia and on the Pacific coast of the U.S. will get to see a total lunar eclipse. From the west coast, the eclipse is visible from 6:06 until 6:47 a.m., just before the moon sets at 7:17.

You can learn about the planets at solarsystem.nasa.gov.

And you can learn about all of NASA's missions at www.nasa.gov.

That's all for this month. I'm Jane Houston Jones.

Good Clear Skies
--
Astrocomet
--
Colin James Watling

Various Voluntary work-Litter Picking for Parish Council (Daytime) and also a friend of Kessingland Beach (Watchman)
--

Profile: http://www.google.com/profiles/astrocomera
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Lyra Website: https://sites.google.com/site/lyrasociety/

SPA ENB No. 322

2011-12-07T14:09:00.001Z

Good Clear Skies
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Astrocomet
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Colin James Watling

Various Voluntary work-Litter Picking for Parish Council (Daytime) and also a friend of Kessingland Beach (Watchman)
--

Profile: http://www.google.com/profiles/astrocomera
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Lyra Website: https://sites.google.com/site/lyrasociety/

Charts info Astrosite Groningen (December 2, 2011)

2011-12-07T13:50:00.001Z

Dear comet observers,

We have prepared the following special charts for our homepage:

* 29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 1 :

a 7.5x10 degrees finderchart for the period 4 December 2011 - 5 August 2012.
eleven 1.2x1.6 degrees charts for the period 4 December 2011 - 3 August 2012.

These new charts can now be downloaded from the charts section of our mainpage:

http://www.shopplaza.nl/astro

Here you can also download charts from earlier updates....

Reinder Bouma/Edwin van Dijk.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Good Clear Skies
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Astrocomet
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Various Voluntary work-Litter Picking for Parish Council (Daytime) and also a friend of Kessingland Beach (Watchman)
--

Profile: http://www.google.com/profiles/astrocomera
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Lyra Website: https://sites.google.com/site/lyrasociety/

[BAA-ebulletin 00631] Comet C/2009 P1 Garradd

2011-12-05T23:20:00.001Z

=============================================================
BAA electronic bulletin
=============================================================
Comet C/2009 P1 Garradd has been putting on a good show in the evening sky over the last few months. It is currently in Hercules at around
magnitude 7 and should be visible in binoculars in a dark sky. The comet
currently shows nice dust and gas tails and we have received a number of
images which are stored in the Comet Section web gallery. This can be
accessed by going to http://www.britastro.org and selecting
"Galleries->Comets" from the main menu bar.

As noted in the December Journal (p331) the comet remains in Hercules
until the middle of February next year but the best viewing time will
move from the evening to the morning as we move into 2012. It is
expected to be at its brightest in early February, perhaps even reaching
6th magnitude if the current performance is maintained.

An evening sky finder chart for the next couple of months can be found here:

http://www.britastro.org/misc/2009p1_finder.jpg

The Moon is currently moving into the evening sky so the best views will
be later in December once dark skies return.

We are planning to include a short review of observations of this comet
in the February Journal. Please submit any observations to the Comet
Section using the address cometobs@britastro.org so that we can consider
them for inclusion.

Nick James & Denis Buczynski.
=============================================================
BAA-ebulletin mailing list visit:
http://lists.britastro.org/mailman/listinfo/baa-ebulletin
(c) 2011 British Astronomical Association http://www.britastro.org/
=============================================================

Good Clear Skies
--
Astrocomet
--
Colin James Watling

Various Voluntary work-Litter Picking for Parish Council (Daytime) and also a friend of Kessingland Beach (Watchman)
--

Profile: http://www.google.com/profiles/astrocomera
--

Lyra Website: https://sites.google.com/site/lyrasociety/

Black Friday Solar Eclipse

2011-11-25T16:13:00.001Z

Space Weather News for Nov. 25, 2011
http://spaceweather.com

SOLAR ECLIPSE: This morning, the new Moon passed in front of the sun producing a partial solar eclipse over Earth's southern hemisphere. Sky watchers in Antarctica and parts of New Zealand and South Africa witnessed the solar disk turning into a crescent as slender as 9%. Images and more information are highlighted on today's edition of http://spaceweather.com.

Circumstances and Parameters etc:

http://astro.ukho.gov.uk/eclipse/0522011/

BLACK FRIDAY: Authentic rocks from space, solar telescopes, stellar wall hangings: You can't get any of this stuff at your local mall. For truly out-of-this-world holiday gifts, visit the Space Weather Store:

http://shopspaceweather.com

Good Clear Skies
--
Astrocomet
--
Colin James Watling

Various Voluntary work-Litter Picking for Parish Council (Daytime) and also a friend of Kessingland Beach (Watchman)
--

Profile: http://www.google.com/profiles/astrocomera
--

Lyra Website: https://sites.google.com/site/lyrasociety/

LIVE: Mobile launcher rollout / New crew arrives at space station

2011-11-21T13:59:00.003Z

NEWSALERT: Wednesday, November 16, 2011 @ 1824 GMT

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The latest news from Spaceflight Now

+++
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+++

MAMMOTH MOBILE LAUNCH MOUNT MOVES TO PAD TODAY
----------------------------------------------
One of NASA's heavy-duty diesel-powered crawlers is moving the space
agency's towering new 39-story mobile launch platform Wednesday to pad 39B
at the Kennedy Space Center. First motion occurred just before 9:30 a.m.
EST (1430 GMT) and it's expected to reach the pad by 5:30 p.m. EST. We are
streaming live video of the rollout.

LIVE VIDEO OF ROLLOUT:
http://spaceflightnow.com/live/

PREVIEW STORY:
http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n1111/15mobilelauncher/

PHOTO GALLERY: ROLLOUT BEGINS:
http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n1111/16rolloutphotos/

SOYUZ CAPSULE DOCKS TO THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION
------------------------------------------------------
The Soyuz spacecraft carrying three new residents for the International
Space Station successfully docked to the orbiting outpost at 12:24 a.m.
EST (0524 GMT) Wednesday while flying 248 miles over the South Pacific.

http://spaceflightnow.com/station/exp29/status.html

ARCHIVED VIDEO COVERAGE:
http://www.spaceflightnowplus.com/index.php

HIGH-DEFINITION VIDEO:
http://www.spaceflightnowplus.com/hd/exp29/

HELP WANTED: APPLY TO BE A NASA ASTRONAUT ONLINE
------------------------------------------------
NASA is recruiting up to 15 new astronauts to bolster the agency's corps
of space fliers to staff the International Space Station and lay the
groundwork for exploration missions beyond Earth, agency officials
announced Tuesday.

http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n1111/15astronauts/

DECEMBER DEADLINE FOR STRANDED MARS PROBE
-----------------------------------------
Russia has until early December to establish contact with the stranded
Phobos-Grunt Mars probe and send it toward the Red Planet, the head of the
Russian space ageny said Monday.

http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n1111/14phobosgrunt/

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Good Clear Skies
--
Astrocomet
--
Colin James Watling

Various Voluntary work-Litter Picking for Parish Council (Daytime) and also a friend of Kessingland Beach (Watchman)
--

Profile: http://www.google.com/profiles/astrocomera
--

Lyra Website: https://sites.google.com/site/lyrasociety/

[BAA-ebulletin 00629] 2011 November 19 meeting videos

2011-11-21T13:59:00.001Z

=============================================================
BAA electronic bulletin
=============================================================
We had a really good Ordinary Meeting at Burlington House yesterday and
I have just uploaded the videos. Everything worked well this time and I
have made some changes to the video encoding that should make the slides
a bit easier to read. You can access this material by logging in to the
BAA website and then selecting Members->Videos. The videos are in MP4
format and they should play on most PCs and most mobile devices.

If you have not yet registered for the members' only section of the
website you can do this by selecting Members->Register.

The videos available are:

- Dark Energy, Extra Dimensions and Cosmology (Heavens)

- Extrasolar Planets (Veras)

- Sky Notes (Moore)

I found Alan Heavens talk particularly interesting and would definitely
recommend downloading this if you have not tried the videos before. It
lasts 70 minutes and is 160MB in size. This should take only around 5
minutes to download with 4Mbit/s broadband.

Let me know if you have any problems playing these videos or any
suggestions for how we can improve the service.

Don't forget that the Christmas meeting is on Saturday December 10th and
includes a talk by Prof Jocelyn Bell Burnell so it should be an
excellent event, well worth a trip to London.

Nick James (ndj@nickdjames.com)
=============================================================
BAA-ebulletin mailing visit:
http://lists.britastro.org/mailman/listinfo/baa-ebulletin
(c) 2011 British Astronomical Association http://www.britastro.org/
=============================================================

Good Clear Skies
--
Astrocomet
--
Colin James Watling

Various Voluntary work-Litter Picking for Parish Council (Daytime) and also a friend of Kessingland Beach (Watchman)
--

Profile: http://www.google.com/profiles/astrocomera
--

Lyra Website: https://sites.google.com/site/lyrasociety/

SPA ENB No. 321

2011-11-21T13:58:00.005Z

Good Clear Skies
--
Astrocomet
--
Colin James Watling

Various Voluntary work-Litter Picking for Parish Council (Daytime) and also a friend of Kessingland Beach (Watchman)
--

Profile: http://www.google.com/profiles/astrocomera
--

Lyra Website: https://sites.google.com/site/lyrasociety/

Re: Newsletter

2011-11-21T13:58:00.003Z

On 19 November 2011 00:36, Ron Larter <ron.larter@talktalk.net> wrote:

Hello Colin.

I hope all is well with you and with KAG.

Richard has invited me to become involved with the newsletter and with that in mind, it's in the process of being re-organised to become a newsletter more geared around our society. It will still have the usual bi-annual reports, committee information, LYRA programme, Jim Stellar's article etc; but the remaining part of the newsletter is being changed . For example, there will be observation pages, back to basic astronomy pages, meteor page, comet page, planet page, articles page and so on. There will also be a page for LYRA members to publish their views, thoughts, poetry, observations, astro photos and drawings, etc. In fact, anything astronomical they might wish to send in to us for publication. I also hope to have a page where members will be invited to send in a brief outline about themselves and how they got into astronomy and what equipment they have. It's felt it will help us come to know each other better, which is turn should create a better bonding society.

My reason for writing to you is to ask if you would like to make a regular contribution to the newsletter for the 'Brief Bio' page, the NASA page, the Comet page and perhaps reports about your affiliated Kessingland group observation reports and programmes.

I suggested perhaps the newsletter could be published on a quarterly basis, one for each season, but Richard feels every four months might be better instead of every three months. However, it's being put forward in the committee meeting next month for final approval.

Would you be interested to make contributions to the newsletter?

Best regards.

Ron.

PS: Did you see the fireball on Thursday night at about 10.20. It shot out from just under the Plough and had a blue head of about mag -6 and a firework sparkly tail. It was a beautiful thing to witness.

Hello Ron-I have seen several fireballs of that description but unfortunately I must have missed that one-the SPA Meteor Section always welcomes those reports and I have sent several in past years to them.

I would very much like to contribute information about what's happening in the night sky with Comet reports and also a bit about NASA and Space travel in general and also a regular update on KAG although not much has been happening of recent and only a few clear nights have there been so I have made the effort to do something when the night skies are clear although not as much as I would like to because of the inconsistent weather-thankyou for asking Ron.

--

Good Clear Skies
--
Astrocomet
--
Colin James Watling

Various Voluntary work-Litter Picking for Parish Council (Daytime) and also a friend of Kessingland Beach (Watchman)
--

Profile: http://www.google.com/profiles/astrocomera
--

Lyra Website: https://sites.google.com/site/lyrasociety/

Mars rover fitted with nuclear power source for next week's launch

2011-11-21T13:58:00.001Z

NEWSALERT: Friday, November 18, 2011 @ 1630 GMT
---------------------------------------------------------------------
The latest news from Spaceflight Now

+++
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+++

NUCLEAR POWER GENERATOR HOOKED UP TO MARS ROVER
-----------------------------------------------
Engineers installed the plutonium power source on NASA's Curiosity rover
Thursday, adding the final piece to the complex robot before its Nov. 25
blastoff to Mars.

http://spaceflightnow.com/atlas/av028/111117mmrtg/

MOBILE LAUNCHER ROLLOUT VIDEOS POSTED
-------------------------------------
The mobile launch platform for NASA's heavy-lift rocket was rolled to
Kennedy Space Center's pad 39B this week. Check out these videos of the
move, posted for on-demand viewing and downloading for Spaceflight
Now+Plus users:

http://www.spaceflightnowplus.com/index.php

MILITARY COMMUNICATIONS CRAFT MOVES CLOSER TO LAUNCH
----------------------------------------------------
A spacecraft that will improve communications with the U.S. military's
aerial drones currently employed in some of the world's hotspots has
arrived at Cape Canaveral to prepare for blastoff in January.

http://spaceflightnow.com/delta/d358/111117wgs.html

CHINESE CAPSULE RETURNS AFTER DOCKING MISSION
---------------------------------------------
The return capsule of the Shenzhou 8 spacecraft parachuted to a safe
landing in Inner Mongolia on Thursday, wrapping up China's first docking
mission ahead of manned flights next year.

http://spaceflightnow.com/china/shenzhou8/111117landing/

VIDEO: SHENZHOU DESCENDS UNDER PARACHUTE
http://spaceflightnow.com/china/shenzhou8/111117landing/landingvideo.html

MESSENGER GETS ANOTHER YEAR EXPLORING MERCURY
---------------------------------------------
NASA has announced that it will extend the MESSENGER mission for an
additional year of orbital operations at Mercury beyond the planned end of
the primary mission on March 17, 2012. The MESSENGER probe became the
first spacecraft to orbit the innermost planet on March 18, 2011.

http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n1111/17messenger/

VOYAGER 2 COMPLETES SWITCH TO BACKUP THRUSTER SET
-------------------------------------------------
NASA's Voyager 2 has successfully switched to the backup set of thrusters
that controls the roll of the spacecraft, allowing engineers to reduce the
amount of power that the 34-year-old probe needs to operate by turning off
the heater that keeps the fuel to the primary thrusters warm.

http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n1111/17voyager/

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+++

Good Clear Skies
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Astrocomet
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Various Voluntary work-Litter Picking for Parish Council (Daytime) and also a friend of Kessingland Beach (Watchman)
--

Profile: http://www.google.com/profiles/astrocomera
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Lyra Website: https://sites.google.com/site/lyrasociety/

Fwd: LIVE: Three men will fly their Soyuz capsule to space tonight

2011-11-14T00:12:00.001Z

NEWSALERT: Sunday, November 13, 2011 @ 1757 GMT
---------------------------------------------------------------------
The latest news from Spaceflight Now

+++
INTRODUCING LATEST ASTRONAUT PATCH!
The International Space Station's Expedition 35 crew patch is now
available from our store. Free shipping to U.S. addresses!
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+++

THREE MEN READY TO FLY THEIR SOYUZ CAPSULE TO SPACE TONIGHT
-----------------------------------------------------------
After exhaustive work to recover from a dramatic August launch failure, a
Russian Soyuz spacecraft carrying two cosmonauts and a NASA astronaut was
poised for blastoff late Sunday on a delayed flight to the International
Space Station, the program's first manned launching since the U.S. shuttle
was retired.

LAUNCH UPDATES AND STREAMING VIDEO:
http://spaceflightnow.com/station/exp29/status.html

ROLLOUT PHOTO GALLERY:
http://spaceflightnow.com/station/exp29/111111rollout/

ARCHIVED VIDEO COVERAGE:
http://www.spaceflightnowplus.com/index.php

HIGH-DEFINITION VIDEO:
http://www.spaceflightnowplus.com/hd/exp29/

PHOBOS-GRUNT MARS PROBE REMAINS SILENT IN EARTH ORBIT
-----------------------------------------------------
Russia officially remained silent on the status of its beleaguered
Phobos-Grunt Mars probe Friday as concerns grew that the toxic fuel-laden
spacecraft could crash back to Earth by December.

http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n1111/11phobosgrunt/

LAUNCH VIDEO REPLAY:
http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n1111/08phobosgrunt/launchvideo.html

LOCKHEED MARTIN TO SELECT DELTA 4 ROCKET FOR ORION TEST
-------------------------------------------------------
NASA announced this week it has signed on to a long-sought proposal by
Lockheed Martin Corp. for a $370 million unmanned orbital test flight of
the Orion capsule in early 2014, clearing the way for final contract
negotiations for launch on a Delta 4-Heavy rocket.

http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n1111/10orioneft1/

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Good Clear Skies
--
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Colin James Watling

Various Voluntary work-Litter Picking for Parish Council (Daytime) and also a friend of Kessingland Beach (Watchman)
--

Profile: http://www.google.com/profiles/astrocomera
--

Lyra Website: https://sites.google.com/site/lyrasociety/

What's Up for November 2011?

2011-11-08T00:37:00.001Z

What's Up for November 2011?
Thu, 03 Nov 2011 11:00:00 -0500

What's Up for November 2011. Planets on parade as we prepare for Curiosity Rover Launch


		Questions? Contact Us

STAY CONNECTED:


This message has been sent by NASA Headquarters · Washington, DC 20546

Good Clear Skies
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Various Voluntary work-Litter Picking for Parish Council (Daytime) and also a friend of Kessingland Beach (Watchman)
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Profile: http://www.google.com/profiles/astrocomera
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Lyra Website: https://sites.google.com/site/lyrasociety/