Where's Saturn? Is that a UFO--or the ISS? What's the name of that star? Get the answers from mySKY--a fun new astronomy helper from Meade. . PROMINENCE ALERT: Readers, if you have a solar telescope, point it at the sun. A large prominence is leaping over the sun's northwestern limb: image. more images: from Michael Borman of Evansville, Indiana; from Pete Lawrence of Selsey, West Sussex, UK. METEOR WATCH: The annual Draconid meteor shower peaks Oct. 9th at 0430 UT--in other words, tonight at 9:30 pm PDT or 12:30 am EDT. Don't expect a big display. The source of the shower, comet 21P/Giacobini-Zinner, is far away and unlikely to produce more than a few slow meteors every hour. It should be noted, however, that unexpected Draconid outbursts have happened as recently as Oct. 2005 resulting in dozens to hundreds of meteors. Could tonight be such a night? Here's where to look. PERUVIAN METEORITE UPDATE: On Sept. 15th, a fireball streaked across the skies of Peru and soon thereafter a watery crater was discovered by local residents near the town of Carancas. At first experts dismissed the connection; the crater didn't look like a meteorite impact. But since then minds have changed: "Without reservation this is definitely a meteorite," says astronomy professor Peter Brown of the University of Western Ontario. "We found some infrasound data recorded by a station in La Paz about 70 km away. From the size of the the airwave we can work out the kinetic energy of the impactor--about 0.03 kton TNT." "Something like 20 to 30 kg of the meteorite have already been recovered, but odds are good a multi-ton monster lurks at the bottom of the crater," he continues. "The bad news: It is below the water table, the rainy season is coming and unless some action is taken ASAP, the rock will quickly oxidize and crumble." [more] Meanwhile, he says, "we are digging for seismic data of the actual impact--the first actual seismic recording of a terrestrial meteorite impact!" Stay tuned. TIE FIGHTER: Lately, observers have been saying the International Space Station reminds them of a TIE Fighter. Here's why: Amateur astronomer Chris Todd of Ocean, New Jersey, took the picture Oct. 6th through his hand-guided 8-inch Meade LX90. "It was an amazing space station flyover!" he says. The "wings" in Todd's picture are the station's copper-colored solar arrays, one of them newly unfurled giving the station a symmetrical fighter-like outline. Truly, however, there is no comparison: While a cramped Star Wars TIE Fighter could barely hold one Darth Vader, the International Space Station is large enough to house 3+ astronauts with room to spare for a science lab, a kitchen, a miniature gymnasium and more. It all adds up to a 480,000-lb spaceship as bright as the planet Venus. Later this month space shuttle Discovery will join ISS in Earth orbit. For one or two nights, as the shuttle prepares to dock with the larger space station, it will be possible to see and photograph the spacecraft side-by-side. When should you look? Check Heavens Above for flyby timetables or sign up for SpaceWeather PHONE to receive can't-miss alerts by phone and email. September 2007 Aurora Gallery [August 2007 Aurora Gallery] [Aurora Alerts] |