Irish Trojan in Tennessee

Mars probe discovers ice

By Brendan Loy

It's official: there's ice on Mars.

No Shuttle for me

By Brendan Loy

Tried to watch the Shuttle & ISS fly overhead, but the sky was too bright and hazy (even the Moon is somewhat dimmed by wispy clouds, so the spacecrafts didn't stand a chance). Anyone have better luck elsewhere?

Shuttle & ISS Wednesday night

By Brendan Loy

Assuming the Space Shuttle Discovery undocks as scheduled from the International Space Station at 7:33 AM EDT tomorrow (i.e., Wednesday) morning, there will be an opportunity tomorrow night for folks in parts of the southeastern U.S. to see the Shuttle and ISS flying overhead side-by-side.

Here in Knoxville, the 9:04 PM EDT flyover is just 11 minutes after sunset, so I'm not sure how visible the spacecrafts -- particularly the dimmer Shuttle -- will be. Certainly, there won't be much to see if you're west of Knoxville; the sky will be too bright. But the further east you go, the darker the sky will be at the requisite time. Thus, both the Shuttle and ISS should be easily visible in places that are east of Knoxville and reasonably close to the black line below:

Along the Carolina and Georgia coasts, all across the Florida peninsula, and in the Bahamas, the view should be stunning, weather permitting. As I've said before: "Trust me: even if you're not into dorky stuff like Iridium flares, this is well worth a trip outside at the proper time, if the sky is clear." The sight of "two distinct, bright dots, moving briskly across the evening sky in tandem -- two unmistakable beacons of the human presence in space" is "a really neat thing to see."

You can use Heavens-Above to check the specific viewing conditions for your location. If you're in the U.S., just click here and enter the name of your city or town, then select it from the resulting list of locales. On the screen that follows, click on "10 day predictions for: ISS" and look for an evening flyover on June 11 (or for that matter, June 12 or 13). If you're outside the U.S., select your country here and then follow the same steps.

It's a shame the flyover is so close to sunset here in Knoxville, because from this location, the spacecrafts' path takes them right past Mars, Saturn and the Moon:

The Phoenix has landed

By Brendan Loy

NASA's latest Mars probe touched down successfully today.

All of God's creatures

By Brendan Loy

The Vatican says it's OK to believe in aliens.

But not gay aliens, presumably. ;)

Shuttle to land tonight

By Brendan Loy

The Space Shuttle Endeavour is scheduled to land at Kennedy Space Center at 8:39 PM EDT. Complete coverage here.

UPDATE: The Shuttle landed safely.

Endeavour & ISS over Knoxville

By Brendan Loy

I drove a few miles to Carl Cowan Park this evening, where I figured I'd have a clear-ish horizon and a dark-ish sky to watch the Shuttle & ISS flyover. And, sure enough, I saw both spaceships -- preceded a few minutes earlier by the ATV Jules Verne -- race across the sky. The view of the Shuttle & ISS wasn't as spectacular as when I saw them from Nashville (they were much brighter and more directly overhead in that particular instance), but it was still neat. And I got a video!

Pay no attention to my blithering at the end of the video about how the Shuttle "stayed light longer than I thought it would." I was just a bit confused in real-time. On the video, it's perfectly obvious that the Shuttle faded into shadow when and where you'd expect it to, based on the ISS's behavior moments before.

The more interesting question -- which I don't mention in the video -- is why the Shuttle flared up so bright, brighter even than the ISS, in the final moments before it disappeared into the Earth's shadow. I'm sure there's a good answer to that question, but I don't know what it is.

P.S. The apparent jerky motion of the ATV, Shuttle and ISS is a result of my camcorder's "Super Night Shot" feature. In actuality, orbiting satellites move rather smoothly. :)

P.P.S. The title of this post is technically wrong. The Shuttle and ISS were not directly over Knoxville when I saw them, but rather, over the Memphis area.

Another chance to see the Shuttle & ISS

By Brendan Loy

If you're in the South, the lower Great Plains or Midwest, or Texas, and your sky is clear, you may be able to see the Space Shuttle and International Space Station fly across the sky tonight as two distinct, bright dots, the Shuttle trailing about 20 seconds behind the ISS. (That's "seconds" as a unit of time, not as a unit of angular distance.)

The Shuttle Endeavour undocked yesterday, and is scheduled to land tomorrow, so tonight is the only side-by-side Shuttle & ISS viewing opportunity for this mission, barring delays. As I've said before, this is a very cool thing to see, well worth a few minutes standing outside and looking up at the sky.

The flyover will occur between 9:34 and 9:39 PM Eastern time. To find out exactly where in the sky to look, and when, go to Heavens-Above, select your location from the database or the map, and then click on "ISS" or "STS-123" under the heading "Satellites." The closer you are to the solid black line in the graphic below, the better your viewing opportunity will be:

Don't pay too much attention to the red circle, as it "moves" along with the Shuttle and ISS. Just look at the solid black line. The closer you are to it, the better. But don't believe me -- go to Heavens-Above and found out the local details. And then go outside tonight and look up.

Here in Knoxville, I'll be looking up to the western sky -- just barely south of due west, actually -- about one-third of the way from the horizon to the zenith. The sky's clear now; hopefully it'll stay that way. Now I just need to pick a viewing location. If I'm able to get any good pictures, I'll (obviously) post 'em!

BOOM!

By Brendan Loy

The military has released video of the spy satellite's fuel tank exploding upon impact from the missile. w00t!

You can watch it on YouTube, via Fox News, here, or download the military's video in WMV form here. (Hat tip: SpaceWeather.)

Also, here's another picture of falling debris from the satellite shoot-down.

A couple of stories about people witnesing re-entering satellite debris, from MSNBC and Space.com.

And, you know that incredible photo of satellite debris & the eclipsed moon that I posted early this morning? Well, it made the local news out in Oregon.

Speaking of the eclipse, here's an awesome shot of the International Space Station in front of the partially eclipsed Moon!

Check out this stunning eclipse photo, too. It was taken in Hamedan, Iran.

This long-exposure shot is neat, too. More here.

A lunar eclipse and a manmade meteor

By Brendan Loy

Weird things happen during total lunar eclipses. Two eclipses ago, during totality, the Red Sox won their first World Series since 1918. Last night, also during totality, the Navy shot a freakin' missile at a freakin' satellite and blew it out of the sky.

Speaking of which: an Oregon-based blogger named Sherry Holub, a.k.a. "scorpy808," managed, incredibly, to capture a photo of what was almost certainly a piece of that spy satellite burning up on re-entry into the atmosphere -- right next to the eclipsed moon in the sky. Here it is:

Wow. Totally awesome. I'm so jealous. :)

(Republished with Holub's permission. In addition to her LiveJournal blog, she also runs a company called JV Media Design.)

Missile hits satellite; Earth eclipses Moon

By Brendan Loy

It's a hit! The missile hit the spy satellite! No further details are available yet. [UPDATE, 12:05 AM: According to the AP, "In a statement announcing that the Navy missile struck the satellite, the Pentagon said, 'Confirmation that the fuel tank has been fragmented should be available within 24 hours.' It made no mention of early indications, but a defense official close to the situation said later that officials monitoring the collision saw what appeared to be an explosion, indicating that the fuel tank was hit."]

Folks on the west coast and in Canada: Did you see anything unusual in the sky -- like a "swarm of meteors", perhaps?

[UPDATE, 12:25 AM: Blogger "scorpy808" captured what appears to be a photo of the eclipsed Moon with a piece of re-entering satellite debris right next to it!. OMG! Awesome! (I found this by searching Google Blog Search for the word "satellite" and the phrase "I saw.") And here is another possible sighting report. Not to mention Lisa's in comments!]

Back here in the southeast, the only thing unusual in the sky right now is a very reddish moon, which is just starting to show a sliver of white on the lower right edge as it begins to emerge from the Earth's umbra. As I mentioned below, the clouds eventually cleared and Becky, Loyette and I were able to see it. Well... Loyette may not have seen it, per se, but she was in its presence, anyway. :)

Here's a photo I took of the eclipse at 10:45 PM:

That's Saturn at the bottom of the photo, and the star Regulus at the top.

UPDATE: Here's a wider view, taken at 10:56. The clouds appear orange due to the Greater Knoxville light dome:

Reader Ken Wagner sends along eclipse photos from Nashville. Thanks, Ken! Others' photos can be found here and here.

Don't forget...

By Brendan Loy

...about the eclipse tonight! It's the last total lunar eclipse until December 2010 -- which will be almost two years into the Obama Administration! :)

Visibility map here. Totality goes from 10:01 PM to 10:51 PM EST, with mid-eclipse at 10:26. The partial portion begins at 8:43 PM and ends at 12:09 AM.

UPDATE, 8:44 PM: Here in Knoxville, it's completely overcast at the moment. Perhaps it'll clear, but I'm pessimistic about getting to see the last total lunar eclipse of the decade. :(

In a not-really-related story, Brian Williams stated on NBC Nightly News that the weather west of Hawaii has now improved to the point where the military thinks it probably will be able to go ahead with tonight's satellite shoot-down attempt, around 10:30 PM EST. More here. Apparently Defense Secretary Gates gets to give the final order.

UPDATE, 10:27 PM: Just stepped outside with Becky and Loyette (the latter wrapped up in a blanket, sound asleep) and caught a glimpse of the eclipsed Moon, in between clouds. Yay! Baby's first eclipse! (She'll be almost 3 years old when the next one rolls around...)

A fireball, a spy satellite, and an eclipse

By Brendan Loy

Did any readers up in the Northwest (i.e., Washington, Oregon, Idaho or Montana) happen to see the fireball yesterday morning at around 5:30 AM? (Video here; lots of local news articles here). I'd love to see one of those someday...

Speaking of skywatching events, don't forget about the total lunar eclipse tonight. Mid-totality, at 10:26 PM EST, will be visible all across the 48 contiguous states. And those in the Pacific Northwest may also want to keep a weather eye to the western sky right around then -- i.e., approx. 7:30ish local time -- because, as I mentioned yesterday, they might be able to see some spy-satellite fragments streaking across the sky. Just call it Fireball Country!

And now for something completely different

By Brendan Loy

Every single post on the homepage right now is about presidential politics. Ick. Overkill. As Obama might say, time for a change!

Let's see... how about a pretty picture of an Iridium flare?

I took that from a random roadside spot in Loudon last Monday. My parents were in town, and I wanted to show them what an Iridium flare is, so we drove out and watched it. We also dragged Jay and Ashley out to watch, so they got to meet my parents. The flare itself was somewhat less impressive than I expected, given its predicted negative-7 magnitude, but it made for a very nice photo, especially with the thin, wispy clouds all around. Here's the wider view.

Previous Iridium flare posts can be found here, here, here and here. Explanations of the flares can be found here and here.

Unless you're a serious dork like me, Iridium flares probably aren't worth a drive out to some random spot -- but if one happens to take place where you are, it's well worth a look up to the sky in the proper spot at the proper time. Heavens-Above can tell you when flares will happen near you. (It also has predictions for lots of other stuff, including when and where you can see that decaying spy satellite pass overhead, though you'll need a darkish sky for that.)

Did a comet ravage North America in 11,000 B.C.?

By Brendan Loy

Donald Sensing has a fascinating post about a hypothesized cataclysm 13,000 years ago. It's not a new theory (the linked articles are from last spring), but it's one I don't think I'd read about before. Anyway, check it out.

Full Moon & Mars

By Brendan Loy

If the sky is clear where you are right now (and it's, um, nighttime), step outside and look up. The Full Moon is right next to Mars.

Boom!

By Brendan Loy

There's a 1-in-75 chance that a Tunguska-sized asteroid will hit Mars on January 30. It would leave a scar on the Red Planet's surface the size of Arizona's Meteor Crater. More likely, however, new data early next month will reduce or eliminate the odds of an impact. (Hat tip: InstaPundit.)

Mars, the Moon, and the Ring

By Brendan Loy

I didn't get a picture of Mars at perigee on Tuesday, but here it is last night, at left, just outside a ring around the Moon:

Tunguska asteroid was smaller than previously believed

By Brendan Loy

This story is a couple of days old, but I neglected to post it earlier. Scientists have discovered some fascinating new details about the Tunguska explosion of 1908:

“The asteroid that caused the extensive damage was much smaller than we had thought,” says Sandia [National Laboratories] principal investigator Mark Boslough of the impact that occurred June 30, 1908. “That such a small object can do this kind of destruction suggests that smaller asteroids are something to consider. Their smaller size indicates such collisions are not as improbable as we had believed.”

Because smaller asteroids approach Earth statistically more frequently than larger ones, he says, “We should be making more efforts at detecting the smaller ones than we have till now.”

Indeed. (Hat tip: InstaPundit.) More after the jump about what the scientists learned.

Mars at perigee

By Brendan Loy

Tomorrow night, Mars will make its closest approach to Earth until 2016. At 55 million miles away, it won't be as nearby as it was during the much-hyped close encounters in 2003 (35 million) and 2005 (43 million), but it's well worth a look regardless. Indeed, the Red Planet has been a brilliant fixture in the night sky for several weeks now. I see it all the time while walking Robbie.

Mars will be in the eastern sky, not far from Orion, in the hours after sunset tomorrow.

P.S. For those who prefer astrology to astronomy:

The entire Mars perigee period is always one of elevated tension and conflict, the kind of atmosphere that cultivates inflamed passions, hot tempers and rash action: feelings that we have suppressed or have not paid attention to will in some way be held up to the truth and any illusions we have ever harboured will be shattered.

At a more impersonal level a Mars perigee period is marked by fires, explosions, accidents, storms and various ‘acts of God’. To be forewarned is forearmed: have candles and matches and a good supply of water and a few tins of food at hand. Be aware.

Well then. Good to know.

Iridium flare!

By Brendan Loy

A -7 flare went over our apartment complex this evening:

Wider (but less zoomed-in) view here.

Geminid meteor shower Thursday night

By Brendan Loy

The annual Geminid meteor shower, known for producing fireballs and Earthgrazers, peaks Thursday night and Friday morning. (Hat tip: Jen Featherston.)

Earthgrazers (meteors that first appear near the horizon and fly across almost the entire sky) are most likely to appear (moving ENE to WSW) during or shortly after twilight Thursday evening. More "regular" meteors will become visible as the sky gets darker, particularly once the moon sets around 8:00 PM. Peak conditions begin after 10:00 PM local time and stretch into the wee hours of Friday morning, during which time you can expect to see between 60 and 120 meteors per hour in ideal dark-sky conditions.

Shuttle & ISS: last chance Wed. AM

By Brendan Loy

The Space Shuttle Discovery is scheduled to land Wednesday afternoon, but for much of the eastern U.S., there's one final chance -- or in some places, two final chances -- early Wednesday morning to see it fly overhead in tandem with the International Space Station. Having watched the pair fly overhead from Nashville back in August, I can tell you it's a really neat thing to see. (I tried to go see it again Monday morning, but they were so close together that they looked indistinguishable to the naked eye.)

In the northeastern U.S. and surrounding areas, the Shuttle and ISS be visible flying overhead from around 5:05 to 5:09 AM EST. Then, from about 6:36 to 6:41 AM EST, they'll be flying over the Great Plains and Upper Midwest. In each case, they'll be visible for hundreds of miles in every direction (the closer you are to the track, the brighter and closer to directly overhead they'll be). The ISS will be the brighter object, the Shuttle dimmer, and the ISS will be "leading" while the Shuttle trails behind. They'll be around 20-25 seconds apart (i.e., when one passes a given point in the sky, the other will pass that same point 20-25 seconds later).

For local details, go to Heavens Above.

Shuttle & ISS early Monday morning

By Brendan Loy

All across the eastern third of the country, there is a chance tomorrow morning to see the International Space Station and the Space Shuttle fly overhead 20-25 minutes after the Shuttle undocks -- and they'll be surrounded by an awesome celestial show. Bright planet Venus and a slender crescent Moon will be side-by-side, with Saturn nearby and Mars and Mercury on either side of them, and Comet 17P Holmes in the sky as well.

The location of the ISS and Shuttle in the sky will differ depending on where you're located, but they'll flying overhead around the same time everywhere. They'll be directly over the Tallahassee area at 5:51 AM EST, Jacksonville at 5:52, Myrtle Beach at 5:53, Virginia Beach at 5:54, the Atlantic Ocean south of Long Island at 5:55, off Cape Cod at 5:56, and Halifax at 5:57. At each of those times, they'll be visible for hundred of miles in all directions. You can get details for your location at Heavens Above.

Here's what the ISS's path over Knoxville will look like:

Because the flyover will be very soon after undocking, I suspect the spacecrafts will be so close together that they'll be barely distinguishable, like when I saw them over Notre Dame, rather than two distinct points of light, like they were over Nashville. Regardless, with everything else that'll be in the sky, it should be quite a sight. I'm planning to get up early -- very early -- and head over to one of the dark-sky viewing sites used by the Smoky Mountain Astronomical Society.

There should be another flyover Tuesday morning at around 6:15 AM EST, and that one could be more like the Nashville sighting where the ISS and Shuttle are two very distinct lights in the sky. But I'll post more about that later if I decide to get up and see it, too.

Comet goes boom

By Sean Sullivan

Something happened yesterday on Comet Holmes, an obscure comet fainter than Pluto.  Until yesterday.  From Space Weather:

Whatever is happening to Comet 17P/Holmes, it's weird. "I've never seen anything like it! It almost looks like a planet," says Eric Allen ...The comet has no tail, a remarkable golden color, and yesterday it shocked astronomers with a spectacular eruption, brightening almost a million-fold from 17th to 2.5th magnitude in a matter of hours.

To put that in perspective, this is similar to the brightness of stars in the Big Dipper or Orion's Belt, easily visible to the unaided eye from within major light-polluted cities.

Unlike the traditional notion of a comet's appearance, this comet has no visible tail.  It's just a small bright sphere, even in a telescope.  To the eye, it's more starlike in appearance than cometlike.

For a recent event, this makes sense, because a comet's tail is formed by  loose material with low mass and high surface area being blown away from the sun by the pressure of sunlight.  Whatever broke free from Comet Holmes hasn't had time to get affected by sunlight to form a tail.

The comet is favorably placed for observers in the northern hemisphere.  It's in the constellation Perseus, which is up all night at this time of year.  Here's a star map from Space Weather.  I don't know if the comet will stay bright or fade quickly, but it's worth watching to see what happens next.

In other celestial news, the space shuttle was launched Tuesday.  The orbital alignment isn't favorable for visual observers in the United States, but there are a few passes that can be seen at southern latitudes (e.g. Florida, southern California).  Predictions can be made at Heavens Above.   I think there may be some better visual passes near the very end of the mission.

Venus, Moon & Saturn in morning sky

By Brendan Loy

If you're up in the predawn hours tomorrow -- I will be, what with my flight leaving at 7:30 AM and all -- make sure to look at the eastern sky. It'll be a lovely sight, with the slender crescent Moon sandwiched between Saturn and Venus:

Apparently Sirius Black's brother will be in attendance as well. :)

(Hat tip: SpaceWeather.com.)

WOW!

By Brendan Loy

As promised, we just watched the International Space Station and an Iridium flare almost intersect in the sky over Denver, and it was an AWESOME sight:

That's Cassiopeia on the right. Here's a closer view, showing just the flare, the ISS, and the star Gamma Cephei:

Full-size image here.

We were very lucky to be able to see the show at all. The weather forecast as of last night called for 50% cloud cover, and when we arrived at our viewing spot 25 minutes before the flare, it looked like a big ugly cloud was headed straight for the spot where the Iridium/ISS encounter was going to happen:

Thankfully, though, the cloud moved off to the east, leaving the area around Cassiopeia, Polaris and Gamma Cephei completely clear.

(By the way, in the cloud photo, the brightest "star" is Jupiter, the other noticably bright star is Antares, and the line at bottom left is not a satellite but an airplane landing at Denver International Airport.)

The Iridium satellite we saw was number 45. We also saw two other satellites: Lacrosse 3 and, I think, SeaSat 1.

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's... an ISS and an Iridium flare!

By Brendan Loy

V, her friend Caleb (of kitten fame) and I just got back from the roof of V and Kristy's high-rise apartment building, where we watched an International Space Station flyover and a magnitude -8 Iridium flare (the brightest possible) within a half-hour of one another. I figure, what better way to celebrate passing the bar than by watching nerdy astronomical phenomena? :)

Here's a shot of the ISS passing Albali:

The squiggly part of the line is a result of the wind rattling the camera early in the 15-second exposure. Full-size version here.

Here's an even squigglier image:

And here's a shot of a blurry V watching the ISS:

As for the Iridium flare, I messed up the timing of my photo and just barely caught the tail end of it:

It was the brightest I've seen, though. Very cool.

Tomorrow night, we have an amazing opportunity to see the magnitude -1.8 Space Station and a magnitude -8 Iridium flare almost intersect in the sky. We'll have to drive a bit east of here, but it'll totally be worth it. Here's a sky map I mashed up, showing the approximate location of the Iridium flare (in red) and the ISS (in blue) during a 15-second window from 7:52:48 PM to 7:53:03 PM:

But that's tomorrow night. For now, I'm off to celebrate my bar passage in a more traditional way... involving, well, a bar. :)

My first Iridium flare

By Brendan Loy

I just saw my first Iridium flare, caused by Iridium 65, with Becky and Barb from the parking lot of the UB Anderson Gallery in Buffalo. And of course, I got a photo:

Wide view here (2592x1944 pixels, 616 KB).

It wasn't terribly dramatic to the naked eye, but that's because it was a relatively weak flare from this location (magnitude -2, about the brightness of Jupiter, whereas some flares can get up to -9, about the brightness of a half moon) and we were in a rather well-lit parking lot, so there was lots of light pollution. I definitely look forward to seeing a lower-magnitude (i.e., brighter) flare from a better location sometime soon. But as a "starter flare," this wasn't too bad. :)

I missed the eclipse! :(

By Brendan Loy

After blogging about it, counting down to it, etc., I actually ended up skipping this morning's lunar eclipse. I hate to miss such things, but I was exhausted, and after all, I've seen plenty of lunar eclipses -- and I'll have a chance to see another one in February -- so I decided going to sleep, and cuddling with my pregnant wife, was the more prudent option. :)

Anyway, SpaceWeather.com has an eclipse photo gallery.