Conquer Club

Perseverance Selfie with Ingenuity
Image Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, MSSS

Explanation: On the Mars rover's mission Sol 46 or Earth date April 6, 2021, Perseverance held out a robotic arm to take its first selfie on Mars. The WATSON camera at the end of the arm was designed to take close-ups of Martian rocks and surface details though, and not a quick snap shot of friends and smiling faces. In the end, teamwork and weeks of planning on Mars time was required to program a complex series of exposures and camera motions to include Perseverance and its surroundings. The resulting 62 frames were composed into a detailed mosaic, one of the most complicated Mars rover selfies ever taken. In this version of the selfie, the rover's Mastcam-Z and SuperCam instruments are looking toward WATSON and the end of the rover's outstretched arm. About 4 meters (13 feet) from Perseverance is a robotic companion, the Mars Ingenuity helicopter. Perseverance has now spent over 1,500 sols exploring the surface of the Red Planet. On Earth date January 18, 2024, Ingenuity made its 72nd and final flight through the thin Martian atmosphere.

NGC 6302: The Butterfly Nebula

NGC 6302: The Butterfly Nebula
Image Credit & Copyright: Mike Selby
Explanation: The bright clusters and nebulae of planet Earth's night sky are often given the names of flowers or insects, and its whopping 3 light-year wingspan, NGC 6302 is no exception. With an estimated surface temperature of about 250,000 degrees C, the central star of the planetary nebula is transforming into a white dwarf star, becoming exceptionally hot, and shining brightly in ultraviolet light. The central star is hidden from direct view by a torus of dust, but its energetic ultraviolet light ionizes atoms in the nebula. In this sharp, telescopic view composed with narrowband image data, the ionized hydrogen and doubly ionized oxygen atoms are shown in their characteristic red and blue-green hues to reveal a stunning complex of knots and filaments within the nebula's wing-like bipolar outflows. NGC 6302 lies about 4,000 light-years away in the arachnologically correct constellation of the Scorpion (Scorpius).

Back on Topic:

Mercury is getting a little higher in bright twilight after sunset (bring binoculars), but Jupiter has sunk hopelessly low.

The waning Moon passes widely north of the "Morning Star Venus in the next few mornings

Now Mars is pulling away from Regulus in its movement against the stars. From an Earthbound skywatcher's point of view, Regulus slides toward the lower right with respect your western horizon while Mars does so more slowly.

On paper, Mars is now essentially identical in brightness to Regulus: they're magnitudes 1.4 and 1.34, respectively. But several factors complicate things, as happens everywhere in nature. Mars's dark surface markings make one side of the planet a trace darker than the other. Unusual amounts of dust in the Martian atmosphere brighten the globe.

And Mars and Regulus are plainly different in color: pale orange and icy blue-white. Perhaps the brightness-vs.-color response of your observing eye is a little different than was used in the official definition of "visual" magnitude. In particular, our eye lenses yellow as we age. So compared to teenagers, older folks increasingly see everything through yellow filters. Thus blue-trending objects will look slightly dimmer than yellow or orange ones as you get older compared to their true brightnesses as measured by machines.

and ONE MORE:

Most deep-sky objects look a lot smaller and fainter than you might think. The great globular star clusters M13 and M92, so dramatic in closeup images as cities of thousands of stars, show their true sizes with respect to constellation parts in this image spanning 35°. You can see why you need to get good at star-hopping from map to sky in order to find faint fuzzies with a telescope.

Celestial east is roughly down and celestial north is roughly to the left; this is the scene as you see it when looking high into the eastern sky on late-spring evenings.

https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-n ... une-13-22/

The Summer Solstice is almost here. Take this opportunity to ponder the meaning of things, of what the sky and stars and heavenly motion tell us. Be in AWE of nature and consider ALL that has been created. And appreciate the passage of time and being on earth one more year.

When I see the sky, I see God's Creation.

When I see a beautiful scene in Nature, with no man-made objects, I see God's handiwork.

When I was floating down the Snake River in the Grand Teton National Park, I saw ALMOST no evidence of man, except for the raft we were on. For a long while (30-60 minutes, perhaps) the only evidence of man was the jet overhead and a small fence (supposedly put there by Harrison Ford). And near the end of the trip on the River, I saw several breeding pairs of bald eagles and some of their offspring in the trees along the Snake River, in Wyoming.

Seeing the Wonders in Wyoming, the least populous of the 50 states, I saw the Hand of God in the Grand Tetons themselves and in Yellowstone NP with all its geothermal wonders and in the two falls of the Yellowstone River.

"The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth his handiwork".

The Heavens are telling the Glory of God.

AND:
Is it fine to go outside, see the stars and planets, and LET NATURE SPEAK to you? That is what happens to me when I see the night sky and try to figure out what planet that is or which star is that bright one. THAT is why I post on HERE how to find objects in the Night Sky. I have known of APPS for this for a long time; I chose NOT to use them as I try to use MY BRAIN to determine that. And IF I have questions afterwards, I go to websites, such as Sky and Telescope, to help answer my questions. (Or I go there to determine if my knowledge was good enough to ascertain the identity of that object.)

WoW...THAT was GREAT...!!



and looking ahead:

SUNDAY, JUNE 22

■ Late these evenings, look south-southeast to south for orange Antares, the Betelgeuse of summer. Both are 1st-magnitude "red" supergiants, which are actually more like bright orange.

Stay up late these evenings, and Scorpius will await you in the south. Following behind it is Sagittarius, recently arisen. The farther south you are the higher they will be.

Use binoculars to hunt out the labeled Messier objects. M4 and M22 are globular clusters, M7 and M6 are open clusters, and M8 is an emission nebula. Others also lurk.

https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-n ... une-20-29/

I hope to catch more of these great sights soon.

BUT WAIT, there's MORE:



I clearly saw VENUS just a few minutes ago. There are too many street lights to see more than the brightest objects in the night sky where I am. BUT VENUS is GOOD, making me again appreciate the heavenly views and enjoy the wonders of creation.



I may try for Mercury later today.

I am not sure that I have ever seen Mercury and knew what I was looking at. Has anyone seen it? With or without lenses?

Like you, I'm not sure if I've ever seen mercury. Saturn, Jupiter, mars, and venus, yes. Mercury stays so close to the sun, and too many trees make it a hard target. If I was ever out west, and thought about trying, I probably could for sure.

WILLIAMS5232 wrote:Like you, I'm not sure if I've ever seen mercury. Saturn, Jupiter, mars, and venus, yes. Mercury stays so close to the sun, and too many trees make it a hard target. If I was ever out west, and thought about trying, I probably could for sure.

Yes, WILLIAM, since Mercury is so CLOSE to the sun, it makes sense that would it be seen near sunrise or sunset and ALSO that it would be hard to spot, against the brightness of the sun. Since it it usually VERY LOW in the horizon, then TREES would often be in the way to view it. For all those reasons, I suppose I have not really seen AND recognized the planet Mercury in the sky before.

June 25-27, about 30 minutes after sunset, may be the optimal time to view it, as shown in the diagram (from SkyandTelescope) below.



https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-n ... une-20-29/

Unfortunately for me, there is probably TOO much light "pollution" around me for good viewing of this phenomenon. Now the good news is that Mercury is above most trees for most of us.

Mars and Regulus continue drawing apart as they sink low in the western twilight this week. A line from Mars through Regulus points down to fading Mercury. Bid them goodbye for the season while you still can.

and

This is the time of year when the two brightest stars of summer, Arcturus and Vega, shine equally high overhead shortly after dark: Arcturus toward the southwest, Vega toward the east. Both are magnitude 0.

Arcturus and Vega are 37 and 25 light-years away, respectively. They represent the two commonest types of naked-eye star: a yellow-orange K giant and a white main-sequence A star. They're 150 and 50 times brighter than the Sun, respectively — which, combined with their nearness, is why they dominate the evening sky.

Vega's white has just a touch of icy blue. Arcturus is pale yellow-orange: a summery ginger-ale color. Do their colors stand out a little better for you in the deep blue of late twilight than in full dark? They seem to for me. Binoculars, of course, always make star colors much more evident.

https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-n ... 27-july-6/

What’s rarer than a naked-eye nova? Having two of them at the same time!

Amateurs get a rare treat this summer — two novae simultaneously visible with the unaided eye.

https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-n ... incidence/

AI Overview
Here are other dates this will happen through 2025. – NBC 5 ...
There is a partial solar eclipse on August 23, 2025, visible in parts of Canada, Greenland, and the Arctic. However, there is no total solar eclipse on August 2, 2025, or August 23, 2025, as some internet rumors have suggested, according to The Economic Times and the Daily Record. The partial eclipse on August 23 will cause the sun to appear crescent-shaped as the moon blocks part of the sun.

and

The waning crescent Moon in the dawn passes Venus, then Jupiter. Look before or during early dawn, while the sky is still pretty dark, to spot the horntips of Taurus a well as the rest of Taurus off the frame to the upper right. Then wait a bit for rising Jupiter, and fainter orange Betelgeuse almost two fists to its right.

These scenes are always drawn for a skywatcher at 40° north latitude. If you're far south of there, Betelgeuse will be higher than Jupiter.

https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-n ... uly-18-27/

Sky gazers! Here are the must-see space events this August

August 9 – Full Moon
The eighth full Moon of the year, known as the Sturgeon Moon, will light up the night sky.

August 12 – Jupiter–Venus Conjunction
Two of the brightest planets, Jupiter and Venus, will appear extremely close in the eastern predawn sky in Gemini. Visible from both hemispheres.

August 12–13 – Perseid Meteor Shower
One of the best meteor showers of the year! Expect up to 120 meteors per hour under dark skies. Best viewed from the Northern Hemisphere.

August 15–31 – Planet Parade
Six planets will line up across the morning twilight sky. Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, and Saturn will be visible to the naked eye. The planet parade will be visible from both hemispheres.

Brilliant celestial cat's eyes shine tilted and unequal on Tuesday morning. Venus and Jupiter will actually be at their most dramatic earlier in a darker sky, 60 minutes or more before sunrise.

Think photo opportunity. Zoom in, frame the planets with interesting foreground, and brace your phone or camera firmly.

LOOKING EAST
https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-n ... gust-8-17/

The Perseids will suck this year, owing to the brightness of the moon.

Dukasaur wrote:The Perseids will suck this year, owing to the brightness of the moon.

That, Duk,is ONE of the problems of viewing the Night Sky.

My problem is that the Cloud Cover did not allow me to see the Conjuction of Jupiter and Saturn. I got up at 5 am for 3 consecutive days and saw only CLOUDS. One morning the moon was barely visible, and I only knew where to look for it as I saw it 30 minutes earlier. I am not sure I saw the moon the other two mornings.

jusplay4fun wrote:

Dukasaur wrote:The Perseids will suck this year, owing to the brightness of the moon.

That, Duk,is ONE of the problems of viewing the Night Sky.

My problem is that the Cloud Cover did not allow me to see the Conjuction of Jupiter and Saturn. I got up at 5 am for 3 consecutive days and saw only CLOUDS. One morning the moon was barely visible, and I only knew where to look for it as I saw it 30 minutes earlier. I am not sure I saw the moon the other two mornings.

Saturn is too dim for me to see, but I did see Venus dancing with Jupiter. Was a very clear morning, and just slightly after dawn, so most of the stars were dimming out and Venus and Jupiter were very obvious. I literally walked out of my front door on the way to work and they were directly in front of me.

Dukasaur wrote:

jusplay4fun wrote:

Dukasaur wrote:The Perseids will suck this year, owing to the brightness of the moon.

That, Duk,is ONE of the problems of viewing the Night Sky.

My problem is that the Cloud Cover did not allow me to see the Conjuction of Jupiter and Saturn. I got up at 5 am for 3 consecutive days and saw only CLOUDS. One morning the moon was barely visible, and I only knew where to look for it as I saw it 30 minutes earlier. I am not sure I saw the moon the other two mornings.

Saturn is too dim for me to see, but I did see Venus dancing with Jupiter. Was a very clear morning, and just slightly after dawn, so most of the stars were dimming out and Venus and Jupiter were very obvious. I literally walked out of my front door on the way to work and they were directly in front of me.

You are correct, Duk. I meant to say the conjunction of VENUS and Jupiter (not Saturn; I think that one, Jupiter and Saturn, was Dec. 2020.) I am too far South to see it when it was at its best. HAPPENS.

jusplay4fun wrote:Sky gazers! Here are the must-see space events this August

August 9 – Full Moon
The eighth full Moon of the year, known as the Sturgeon Moon, will light up the night sky.

August 12 – Jupiter–Venus Conjunction
Two of the brightest planets, Jupiter and Venus, will appear extremely close in the eastern predawn sky in Gemini. Visible from both hemispheres.

August 12–13 – Perseid Meteor Shower
One of the best meteor showers of the year! Expect up to 120 meteors per hour under dark skies. Best viewed from the Northern Hemisphere.

August 15–31 – Planet Parade
Six planets will line up across the morning twilight sky. Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, and Saturn will be visible to the naked eye. The planet parade will be visible from both hemispheres.

Brilliant celestial cat's eyes shine tilted and unequal on Tuesday morning. Venus and Jupiter will actually be at their most dramatic earlier in a darker sky, 60 minutes or more before sunrise.

Think photo opportunity. Zoom in, frame the planets with interesting foreground, and brace your phone or camera firmly.

LOOKING EAST
https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-n ... gust-8-17/

I did see Venus and Jupiter yesterday morning (8/18/25).

I am not sure how many planets are still visible NOW:

The final 'planet parade' of the year will feature six planets aligning in the pre-dawn sky on Sunday, August 10.

A planetary alignment, casually called a 'planet parade,' occurs when several planets gather closely on one side of the sun at the same time.

Mercury, Venus, Jupiter and Saturn will be bright enough to be seen without a telescope in the hour before sunrise, but stargazers will need a telescope or binoculars to see Uranus and Neptune.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/graphics ... 575867007/

TOO CLOUDY in VA this morning to see anything in the night sky, other than CLOUDS.

I have seen Jupiter and Venus on the few mornings that are not too cloudy. I SAW [corrected 8/29) both a few minutes ago. I was unable to find Mercury, as it is small and very near the horizon. With Luck, I may see Mars this evening. I will look for Saturn, too.

i've never knowingly spotted mercury. it's the last planet i need to locate. unless one day i get out my telescope and try and identify Uranus and neptune. which i understand would be pretty difficult.

i'm still amazed at the patience it took to identify pluto.

WILLIAMS5232 wrote:i've never knowingly spotted mercury. it's the last planet i need to locate. unless one day i get out my telescope and try and identify Uranus and neptune. which i understand would be pretty difficult.

i'm still amazed at the patience it took to identify pluto.

I may try to look for Mercury very soon this morning.

Yes, the discovery of Pluto is an amazing story and so is the story of the satellite (New Horizons, about 10 years ago) used to fly by it (and its moon Charon) by the team of scientists. It took about 9.5 years to reach Pluto from its launch.

details: (AI OVerview)

The Journey and Flyby
Launch:
New Horizons launched in 2006, the fastest spacecraft ever to be launched from Earth.
Travel Time:
It took the probe nearly 10 years and traversed over 3 billion miles (5 billion kilometers) to reach Pluto. (...)

Key Discoveries and Data

The mission revealed stunning, high-resolution images of Pluto, showing varied terrain including ice plains, mountain ranges, and glaciers.
Atmospheric Composition:
New Horizons gathered data on Pluto's atmosphere and volatile transport mechanics.
System Insights:
The mission provided valuable insights into the origin of the outer solar system and the evolution of planet-satellite systems.

Legacy of the Mission
First-Ever Exploration:
New Horizons completed the reconnaissance of the major bodies of the solar system, providing the first up-close look at the dwarf planet.
Beyond Pluto:
After its successful encounter with Pluto, the spacecraft continued its journey into the Kuiper Belt, performing a flyby of the Kuiper Belt Object Arrokoth (then nicknamed Ultima Thule) in 2019.

WILLIAMS5232 wrote: i'm still amazed at the patience it took to identify pluto.

Yeah that’s pretty impressive. How are the dark skies south of the big easy?

@justplayforfun,
Yeah, I paid close attention to new horizons, especially when in passed that object Thule or whatever. It was amazing they predicted its elongated shape from several (or maybe just 2) viewing stations by analyzing starlight as it passed in front....or something to that effect.

@2dimes,
They're about as good as you'd expect, but daylight is creeping up on my drive down to work now. So really the only night sky I see is in the big easy, or when I go home every other week, which there I can make out a slight haze of the milky way

jusplay4fun wrote:I have seen Jupiter and Venus on the few mornings that are not too cloudy. I SAW [corrected 8/29) both a few minutes ago. I was unable to find Mercury, as it is small and very near the horizon. With Luck, I may see Mars this evening. I will look for Saturn, too.

I saw Venus and Jupiter this morning, but there were too many clouds to make a serious effort to find Mercury. I am not dedicated enough to look for Mars, not yet. Maybe this weekend, long one.

I did go hunting for Mercury on 8/30, too, but NO LUCK.

I laid out Sunday night on my back with binoculars. It was fairly clear, but some feathery high level clouds that would brush by every now and again. I studied Cygnus for a while and just a little past the tail, I spotted what appeared to be an (open)star cluster. I didn't have my book to confirm. Other than that, saw about 50,000 stars. Maybe 100,000.

WILLIAMS5232 wrote:I laid out Sunday night on my back with binoculars. It was fairly clear, but some feathery high level clouds that would brush by every now and again. I studied Cygnus for a while and just a little past the tail, I spotted what appeared to be an (open)star cluster. I didn't have my book to confirm. Other than that, saw about 50,000 stars. Maybe 100,000.

A) I did make a concerted effort to find Mercury this morning, but it was to NO AVAIL. Mercury is simply now too low in the sky and rises too near sunrise, so even without clouds, the rays of the sun hide mercury from me. Maybe some other time.

B) Maybe these, WILLIAM?

Owing to its position embedded in the centre the summer Milky Way, Cygnus naturally hosts many open clusters, including Messier 29 (NGC 6913) and Messier 39 (NGC 7092).

Let’s start with the latter, M39, which to most observers’ eyes is the superior cluster; it’s certainly the bigger and brighter of the pair, with its 30 or so principal members shining with an integrated magnitude of +4.6 across a sprawling full-Moon-sized 32 arcminutes. Its appearance is somewhat misleading, as M39 is physically one of the closest (800 to 1,000 light years distant) and smallest of Messier’s clusters, with its member stars spread across just nine-light years of space.

Messier 39 is faintly visible with the naked eye as a brighter spot within the rich Milky Way background, lying some nine degrees north-east of Deneb and just under three degrees north of rho (ρ) Cygni. A small telescope at low power will show 30 or so stars in an obvious, triangular shape, but perhaps the best views are to be had through large binoculars.

Messier 29 is easy to spot through a pair of 10 × 50 binoculars as a tight knot of stars lying just under two degrees south-south—east of magnitude +2.2 Sadr (gamma [γ] Cygni). It shines with an integrated magnitude of +6.6 from its estimated membership of 200 plus stars and spans just seven arcminutes on the sky. A small telescope resolves its brightest stars into a pattern that gives it the appearance of a ‘mini Pleiades’ lying in a rich Milky Way field.

Unfortunately, interstellar dust and gas along its line of sight severely blights it, knocking over three magnitudes off its brightness.

https://astronomynow.com/2024/08/26/ope ... 0are,stars

C) I doubt that with the "light pollution where I live, Richmond, VA and the East Coast, USA, I could see those star clusters or constellations, M39 and M29.

D) Have you heard about this?

The Vera C. Rubin Observatory, formerly the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST), is an astronomical observatory in Coquimbo Region, Chile. Its main task is to conduct an astronomical survey of the southern sky every few nights, creating a ten-year time-lapse record, termed the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (also abbreviated LSST).[2][3][4] The observatory is located on the El Peñón peak of Cerro Pachón, a 2,682-meter-high (8,799 ft) mountain in northern Chile...... (....)

Rubin is expected to catalog more than five million asteroids (including ~100,000 near-Earth objects), and image approximately 20 billion galaxies, 17 billion stars, and six million small Solar System bodies.[17]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vera_C._Rubin_Observatory

yes, it was m39 for sure. i'm really surprised i didn't see m29 tho. i studied the area for at least 10 minutes. at least now i know where to look and i'll be able to actively pursue it. it is a very rich area full of stars. when i compared lyra, i was unimpressed. i guess cygnus is like right in the middle of the milky way. it's hard to look away when you see so many stars.

Spoiler

[img]https://i.postimg.cc/J4QGgZYv/m39.jpg[/img]

Spoiler

this was the closest picture to what i saw with my binoculars. i wanted to find a zoomed out version, but no luck. this is like 3 times the magnification of my binoculars, and there's maybe 150% more visable stars. (these are all guess as i have no real way to count all the stars, regardless it's well worth having a decent pair of binoculars for stargazing. i have a big ass telescope, but it's so much trouble getting set up, i use the binoculars 10x's more[img]https://i.postimg.cc/8cQ78HSQ/m39a.jpg[/img]

where i live is pretty dark skies. i mean considering. i'm about 30 miles off the mississippi coast, and right in the middle of national forest so theres no street lights or neighbors lights. it's not arizona but it's pretty good.

while i'm sure i've heard of observatories in south america, i'm not sure which ones they were. so i'll say i haven't heard of that one specifically. but i'll do a deeper dive to see the progress of that mapping project.

as far as mercury goes, i've kind of put off looking for it. it's just so elusive. i think i'll give it a real shot next time i go out west and can see a low horizon. a mercury year is like 88 days on earth, so i think that should mean every 44 days is a good window to see it. i think i should be able to get that out of the way. and i'll be so happy. i'll never have to look for it again.