www.skyandtelescope.org copy pastes.

[jusplay4fun]

NASA will try to launch Artemis again on Saturday, Sept. 3
By Ben Turner published 1 day ago

NASA believes that a change in fueling procedures should fix the problem

NASA will make its second attempt at launching its 'mega moon rocket' this Saturday (Sept. 3.), the space agency announced, just days after scrubbing the rocket's first liftoff attempt following an engine issue.

The Artemis 1 rocket is made up of the six-person Orion capsule perched atop the 30-story Space Launch System (SLS) — dubbed the 'mega moon rocket' — and was initially scheduled to embark on its maiden voyage to the moon and back on Monday (Aug. 29). But engineers were unable to cool one of the rocket's four core stage RS-25 engines down to a safe temperature in time for launch. That issue, along with poor weather conditions, forced NASA to cancel the launch just two minutes into the spacecraft's two-hour launch window, NASA officials said at a news conference on Tuesday (Aug. 30).

The rocket's new window for a second attempt will be on Sept 3., one day later than the earliest available window of Friday (Sept. 2.), which NASA ruled out due to a high risk of adverse weather conditions.

(...)

NASA views this flight as the first of three missions that will be a vital testbed for the hardware, software and ground systems that are intended to one day transport the first humans to Mars and beyond. The upcoming uncrewed Artemis 1 test flight — part of the Artemis program named after the twin sister of the ancient Greek god Apollo — will be followed by Artemis 2 and Artemis 3 in 2024 and 2025/2026 respectively. Artemis 2 will make the same journey as Artemis 1, but with a four-person human crew, and Artemis 3 will send the first woman and the first person of color to land on the moon's south pole.

https://www.livescience.com/nasa-announ ... aunch-date

[Dukasaur]

Last night I saw a planet near the full moon around midnight. About 5% north of the moon.

I'm thinking it had to be Jupiter. Too bright to be Saturn, too high in the sky to be Mars or Venus.

[jusplay4fun]

Last night I saw a planet near the full moon around midnight. About 5% north of the moon.

I'm thinking it had to be Jupiter. Too bright to be Saturn, too high in the sky to be Mars or Venus.

I think you are correct, Duk:

This Week's Sky at a Glance, September 9 – 17
As the Moon wanes from full to last quarter, passing Jupiter and Mars along the way, darkness returns to the evening sky for constellation spotters and deep-sly observers.

https://skyandtelescope.org/observing/sky-at-a-glance/

I think that is a TYPO; DEEP SKY, not sly....

[jusplay4fun]

Behold! Webb Telescope's first Mars image reveals a troubled planet

The James Webb Space Telescope’s first images of Mars reveal a swath of the planet’s eastern hemisphere, including one of the Solar System’s largest impact craters and a lava flow from a long-extinct shield volcano. Webb captured the images with its Near InfraRed Camera, or NIRCam, instrument on September 5, along with data from its Near InfraRed Spectrometer (NIRSpec).

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technolo ... 60177c0206

see the pics on the link above. Science Can Measure those things..!

[jusplay4fun]

NASA successfully crashed a spacecraft into an asteroid Monday, marking a win for the agency's plan for when a devastating asteroid should ever threaten humanity.

The 1,260-pound Double Asteroid Redirection Test spacecraft, or DART, collided with the estimated 11 billion pound, 520-foot long asteroid Dimorphos at 14,000 miles per hour close to 7 million miles from Earth. The spacecraft hit about 55 feet from the asteroid's center.

The spacecraft had launched its camera and a shoebox-size companion, LICIACube, over a week ago to photograph the mission, which confirmed the impact.

"This was a really hard technology demonstration to hit a small asteroid we've never seen before, and do it in such spectacular fashion," Nancy Chabot, planetary scientist and mission team leader at Johns Hopkins University, said after the impact.

The completed mission culminates a 10-month-long journey for DART, which cost $325 million. The asteroid orbits a larger one named Didymos, and the two were chosen because they don't pose any threat to Earth.

from MSN, 9/26/22

[jusplay4fun]

Asteroid impacts on the moon millions of years ago correspond with large space rock strikes here on Earth — including the massive impact that wiped out the nonavian dinosaurs.

The finding reveals that major impacts during Earth's prehistory were not isolated events. Instead, these asteroid strikes were accompanied by a series of smaller hits both here and on the moon, whose surface is littered with over 9,000 craters left by space rock impacts.

The research could help astronomers better understand the dynamics of the inner solar system and assist in calculating the likelihood that our planet will be struck by potentially devastating massive space rocks in the future.

Scientists from Curtin University's Space Science and Technology Centre (SSTC) in Australia obtained the results by studying microscopic glass beads within lunar soil samples returned to Earth by China's Chang'e-5 lunar mission in 2020.

more at MSN

[jusplay4fun]

The James Webb telescope captured a stunning image of the 'fingerprint' that forms when 2 stars come close to each other in orbit

https://www.msn.com/en-us/kids/science- ... c9ea3969a3

The James Webb Space Telescope captured the rare sight of a "fingerprint" in space.

The "fingerprint" in the image consists of 17 concentric circles radiating from a point of contact.
The rings are formed when two stars pass each other once every eight years.
NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has detected a new, wondrous sight — a cosmic fingerprint radiating out from a point of contact between two distant stars.

[jimboston]

5 unanswered posts

sad

[Dukasaur]

5 unanswered posts

sad

Nobody forces you to read them. People interested in Astronomy may find them interesting. Move along.

[HitRed]

In 2018, Chinese officials talked about the moon and Mars as sovereign Chinese territory.

[jimboston]

I didn’t read them… I just commented that he had posted 5 times without anyone else responding.

Can’t be too interesting if he posts 5 times and nobody chimes in.

I imagine his “conversations” at home with family and “friends” are similar.
He does a lot of pontificating and nobody responds.

They probably used to tell him to STFU but realized that doesn;t work.

[jusplay4fun]

MONDAY, OCTOBER 17

■ Tonight Mars shines right on the line between the horntip stars of Taurus. Look east once Mars is well up, around about 10 or 11 pm. Mars glares at magnitude –0.9, Beta Tauri above it is mag 1.6, and Zeta Tauri is much closer below Mars at mag 3.0.

■ Last-quarter Moon (exact at 1:15 p.m. EDT). The Moon rises around midnight in dim Cancer. Above it will be Pollux and Castor. Much higher above you'll find bright Capella.

THIS WEEK'S PLANET ROUNDUP
Mars, magnitude –0.9 in eastern Taurus, clears the east-northeast horizon around 9 p.m. or so and gains altitude for the rest of the night. Mars this week is passing between the horntip stars of Taurus, Beta and Zeta Tauri. It's exactly between them on the night of Monday the 17th. Watch it creep eastward from night to night.



https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-n ... r-14-22-2/

[jusplay4fun]

Webb Telescope Captures New View of ‘Pillars of Creation’

“Pillars of Creation” captured in NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s near-infrared view. The pillars resemble arches and spires rising from a desert, but are filled with semitransparent gas and dust.
© NASA

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technolo ... 633b5da57e

Yes, it’s full of stars, and stars to be.

Twenty-seven years ago, in 1995, the Hubble Space Telescope wowed the world with a cosmic landscape called Pillars of Creation. The image revealed towering mountains of gas and dust in the Eagle Nebula, one of the most productive star factories in the Milky Way galaxy. It was high art from deep space and a visual triumph for the newly repaired and reborn Hubble, which had been marred by a blurred lens that prevented it from recording clearer scenes of the cosmos.

Now the James Webb Space Telescope, Hubble’s successor, has turned its infrared eyes to see through those same columns and inspect the newborns still in their dusty cribs. In the new view of the Pillars released on Wednesday, cherry-red streaks and waves are jets of material squeezed from globs of gas and dust — baby protostars — as they collapsed and heated up toward stardom.

After 20 years and some $10 billion the Webb telescope launched on Christmas Day last year into an orbit around the sun and a million miles from Earth. The launch was stupendously successful, as was the complex unfolding procedure in space that put the telescope into operational mode.

[jusplay4fun]

THIS WEEK'S SKY AT A GLANCE, OCTOBER 21 – 29

THIS WEEK'S PLANET ROUNDUP
Mercury is sinking away into the sunrise glow. Good luck with it before sunrise on the 24th, even at magnitude –1.0 and even with a telescope. See that date above.

Venus is hidden in conjunction with the Sun.

Mars, magnitude –1.0 in eastern Taurus, clears the east-northeast horizon around 8 or 9 p.m. and gains altitude for most of the night. Still creeping eastward, it has just passed between the horntips of Taurus, Beta and Zeta Tauri.

Jupiter is a month past opposition. In early evening it blazes whitely high in the southeast at magnitude –2.8, in dim Pisces. It stands highest in the south around 10 or 11 p.m. In a telescope Jupiter is still a big 48 arcseconds wide.

https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-n ... r-21-29-3/

[jimboston]

Another 3-fer

Boring… I’m not gonna chime in until / unless he gets 5 in a row.

[jusplay4fun]

THIS WEEK'S SKY AT A GLANCE, OCTOBER 28 – NOVEMBER 5
BY: ALAN MACROBERT OCTOBER 28, 2022

■ This is the time of year when the Big Dipper lies down horizontal low in the north-northwest after dark. How low? The farther south you are, the lower. Seen from 40° north (New York, Denver) even its bottom stars twinkle nearly ten degrees high. But at the latitude of Miami (26° N) the entire Dipper skims along just below the northern horizon out of sight.

also:

The waxing Moon crosses the Sagittarius Teapot. Even using the Moon to get started, you may need binoculars to piece out the Teapot's stars so low so long after summer's end.

You'll need a good sense of the size of your binoculars' field of view. A typical binocular's field is a little larger than the Teapot's handle.

These scenes are always drawn for an observer at 40° north latitude, 90° west longitude, near the middle of North America. Elsewhere on the continent, the Moon will appear a bit differently placed with respect to the background stars.

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 4

■ The waxing gibbous Moon shines with Jupiter this evening, as shown below. They're only about 2° to 4° apart at the times of evening in the Americas.



https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-n ... ember-5-2/

[jusplay4fun]

I didn’t read them… I just commented .....

WoW..! What a shock. NOT.

Meanwhile, to get back on Topic:

https://skyandtelescope.org/wp-content/ ... ov05ev.jpg

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 4

■ The waxing gibbous Moon shines with Jupiter this evening, as shown below. They're only about 2° to 4° apart at the times of evening in the Americas.

They're both prime targets for small telescopes! Most scopes will usually show at least the tan North and South Equatorial Belts on Jupiter's dazzling whiteness, and of course its own four big moons on either side of it (except when one of them is hidden behind Jupiter, passing in front of it, or eclipsed in its shadow). Consider, as you look, that each of those four is roughly the size of our own Moon so much closer in the foreground.

https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-n ... ember-5-2/

[jusplay4fun]

Lunar Eclipse going on NOW. I hope that you have a chance to see it, LIVE.

https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/in.html?query=

https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/lun ... november-8

[Dukasaur]

Yup, went out and looked at the lunar eclipse.

Nice clear skies.

The Taurid meteor showers are on too, but we didn't see any of those.

[jusplay4fun]

I saw the moon about 75% covered; I needed some sleep before getting going later this morning.

Did you see the reddish hue and the "Blood" Moon? I did NOT.

What’s special about November’s lunar eclipse?
The last total lunar eclipse for three years occurs on November 8, 2022, with the next occurring on March 14, 2025 — though we will continue to see partial and penumbral lunar eclipses during that time.

A lunar eclipse occurs when the Sun, Earth, and Moon align so that the Moon passes into Earth’s shadow. In a total lunar eclipse, the entire Moon falls within the darkest part of Earth’s shadow, called the umbra. When the Moon is within the umbra, it will turn a reddish hue. Lunar eclipses are sometimes called “Blood Moons” because of this phenomenon.

[KoolBak]

DoD....here are some (crappy) pix of the Strawberry Moon from our cool secluded camp spot in the coast range. It was huge in person...

https://photos.app.goo.gl/DQSbqZzzZxumY8qa7

[fishydance]

DoD....here are some (crappy) pix of the Strawberry Moon from our cool secluded camp spot in the coast range. It was huge in person...

https://photos.app.goo.gl/DQSbqZzzZxumY8qa7

Pretty awesome, but the campsite is more awesome. I'm jealous

[Dukasaur]

I saw the moon about 75% covered; I needed some sleep before getting going later this morning.

Did you see the reddish hue and the "Blood" Moon? I did NOT.

Yes, it was definitely reddish.

My sleep wasn't bothered at all. I get up at 0523 for work and the full eclipse was at 0558, so I had over half an hour before it came. It was pretty much a normal morning except for taking 10 minutes out to watch the moon.

DoD....here are some (crappy) pix of the Strawberry Moon from our cool secluded camp spot in the coast range. It was huge in person...

https://photos.app.goo.gl/DQSbqZzzZxumY8qa7

Very cool.

[KoolBak]

DoD....here are some (crappy) pix of the Strawberry Moon from our cool secluded camp spot in the coast range. It was huge in person...

https://photos.app.goo.gl/DQSbqZzzZxumY8qa7

Pretty awesome, but the campsite is more awesome. I'm jealous

Not a soul for miles....I love it there

[jusplay4fun]

THIS WEEK'S SKY AT A GLANCE, NOVEMBER 11 – 19

Jupiter blazes white high in the southeast in twilight at magnitude –2.8. It's highest in the south as early as 8 p.m. now, in dim Pisces. In a telescope it shrinks a bit this week, from 46 to 45 arcseconds wide.

https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-n ... r-11-19-2/