Cap'n Bob & the Damsel

Astronomy

Fireball over Wickenburg

fireball.jpgDamsel and I were out in the courtyard to watch the overflight of the International Space Station this evening. It was still pretty light out and I wanted to see if I could see Sirius in Canis Major as a gauge for the predicted magnitude of the ISS at -1.9. Sirius is magnitude -1.46, a little less bright than the satellite.

Image: Similar fireball photographed over Russia.

When I turned my attention eastward to look at Sirius, a bright meteor streaked across the sky, bright white initially and turning to orange and breaking into fragments as I watched. It was gone by the time I called to Damsel to come and look. This is the first fireball meteor we have seen in Arizona and the first one I, personally, have seen in over 20 years of looking up. The image in this post is not of the event we witnessed tonight, but a stock image of a fireball seen over Russia in the past.

In scanning local news reports, I have not seen any mention of this event. The good news is that Damsel and I both saw a nice ISS pass which makes three out of four in this recent series of evening passes. One was rained out earlier in the week.

We like to keep looking up. The stars here are usually spectacular and we see the Milky Way most clear nights.

04 Feb 2016 by Arizona Astronomy Something Shiny Space Rocks

New Horizons Glitch

Pluto Charon Animation

The New Horizons Space Probe is approaching planet Pluto with the closest approach taking place next week. Over the holiday weekend, however, the spacecraft computer detected a problem and switched to “safe” mode.

The spacecraft took a series of images last week that were combined into the animated image above. Click on the image to enlarge.

The problem the spacecraft had, occurred after the images were taken. The New Horizons Team reports that a recovery is underway and that the spacecraft, otherwise, appears healthy:

During that time the autonomous autopilot on board the spacecraft recognized a problem and – as it’s programmed to do in such a situation – switched from the main to the backup computer. The autopilot placed the spacecraft in “safe mode,” and commanded the backup computer to reinitiate communication with Earth. New Horizons then began to transmit telemetry to help engineers diagnose the problem.

A New Horizons Anomaly Review Board (ARB) was convened at 4 p.m. EDT to gather information on the problem and initiate a recovery plan. The team is now working to return New Horizons to its original flight plan. Due to the 9-hour, round trip communication delay that results from operating a spacecraft almost 3 billion miles (4.9 billion kilometers) from Earth, full recovery is expected to take from one to several days; New Horizons will be temporarily unable to collect science data during that time.

06 Jul 2015 by Aerospace Astronomy Science

Asterism

Asterism

Last evening, Damsel and I went out to watch a flyover of the International Space Station. The conditions were right for it to be a very bright and spectacular pass. As a bonus, we were also treated to a beautiful conjunction of the Moon, Jupiter and Venus in the western sky.

The flyover was everything we expected with the ISS appearing in the twilight to the north northwest and flying overhead at sixty degrees above the horizon. The magnitude of the spacecraft was very bright and registered at minus 3.6 according to SpaceWeather.com. We watch it until it winked out crossing the terminator (Earth shadow) well to the southeast of here, about three minutes after the initial sighting.

I was intrigued by the asterism, however, and went back inside to get my camera and a tripod to attempt to capture the stellar event. I got set up and experimented with various camera settings. The image above, even though slightly overexposed, shows the positions of the Moon, Jupiter and Venus as they appeared to us. When you click on the image to enlarge, you can see the earthshine-illuminated darkside of the Moon.

Canon SL1, 1/20sec., F4.0, ISO 6400 and 75mm focal length.

21 Jun 2015 by Astronomy Environment Photography

First Color Image of the Pluto/Charon System

nh-first-pluto-charon-color-image.jpg

NASA’s New Horizons mission to Pluto released this image yesterday of planet Pluto and it’s satellite Charon. The distance between the imaging spacecraft and the two objects was about 71 million miles when this photo was taken.

At first glance, the colors appear to be quite close to those depicted in space artist Dan Durda’s 2001 illustration (commissioned by NASA) of the planetary system panorama seen here. The reddish color of Pluto is brighter than its grayish companion. Click on the image to enlarge.

New Horizons at Pluto

NASA Press Release:

First Pluto-Charon Color Image from New Horizons

This image of Pluto and its largest moon, Charon, was taken by the Ralph color imager aboard NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft on April 9 and downlinked to Earth the following day. It is the first color image ever made of the Pluto system by a spacecraft on approach. The image is a preliminary reconstruction, which will be refined later by the New Horizons science team. Clearly visible are both Pluto and the Texas-sized Charon. The image was made from a distance of about 71 million miles (115 million kilometers)—roughly the distance from the Sun to Venus. At this distance, neither Pluto nor Charon is well resolved by the color imager, but their distinctly different appearances can be seen. As New Horizons approaches its flyby of Pluto on July 14, it will deliver color images that eventually show surface features as small as a few miles across.

Some of us have been waiting for fifteen years to see the images from New Horizons. We’re looking forward to seeing more as the spacecraft looms closer.

15 Apr 2015 by Aerospace Astronomy Rocket Science Technobabble

Inner Planets Conjunction

Inner Planets Conjunction

On Friday, I managed to photograph Venus and Mercury, our two sunward neighboring planets, which were only about 0.7° apart in the western sky just after sunset. It’s a good thing that I got this photo then, because the rainclouds rolled in the next morning and have been with us since, at least in the evening hours. The two planets continued their close proximity for a couple of days, but now are rapidly separating. Click on the image to enlarge.

11 Jan 2015 by Astronomy Photography

Winter Solstice

winter-solstice.jpg

ephemeris.jpgHappy First Day of Winter! Although the seasonal temperatures are going to continue to be cool or cold, the good news is that the days from this point forward (in the northern hemisphere) will be getting longer until the June Summer Solstice.

I got a screenshot from Archaeoastronomy dot com showing the position of the Earth in our orbit today. In ninety days when we arrive at the vernal equinox, the weather should be warm and the flowers on the cacti will be opening.

I also put a screenshot from the ephemeris on our family blog to the right, showing the less than ten hours of daylight that we get here on this day. As I mentioned above, the days will now be getting longer. The times shown in the graphic are Arizona local.

21 Dec 2014 by Astronomy Environment

Adios AR 2192 (For Now)

AR 2192

I went out to the courtyard to photograph the last image of the great sunspot of 2014, AR 2192 before it rotates out of Earth view. According to the article below, there is a possibility of the spot to return to the Earth-facing side of the solar disk in a couple of weeks. Click on the image to enlarge.

From SpaceWeather.com:

SUPER-SUNSPOT PREPARES TO DEPART: The biggest sunspot in nearly 25 years is about to leave the solar disk.

. . .

As AR2192 approaches the sun’s horizon, it is no longer facing Earth. However, the odds of an Earth-directed radiation storm are higher than ever. The reason is, the western limb of the sun is well-connected to Earth. Solar magnetic fields springing out of that region spiral back to our planet. If a sunspot passing through the area explodes, those spiralling magnetic fields can funnel energetic particles in our direction.

In only a few days, the behemoth sunspot will begin a 2-week transit of the far side of the sun, carried around by the sun’s 27-day rotation. However, that doesn’t mean we’ve seen the last of this magnificent active region. Big sunspots typically persist for two or three solar rotations before they decay. After it leaves, AR2192 will return in November.

28 Oct 2014 by Astronomy Photography Science

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