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ASTEROID PHOTO-OP: Astrophotographers, mark your calendars. On July 3rd, asteroid 2004 XP14 will fly past Earth barely farther away than the Moon. The 600-meter space rock, glowing like a 12th magnitude star, will glide through the Milky Way in only 4 hours, passing many stars and nebulae along the way. Can you say "photo-op"? Stay tuned for details.
SATURN & MARS: This is the weekend of Saturn and Mars. The two planets are eye-catchingly close together in the western sky. Look for them popping out of the twilight after sunset: sky map.
Above: Sky watchers in Bucharest, Romania, enjoy Mars and Saturn on June 17th. Photo credit: Alex Conu.
more images: from Luis Carreira of Leiria, Portugal; from Denis Joye near Paris, France; from Paco Bellido of Cordoba, Spain;
SPACE STATION SUMMER: The International Space Station (ISS) is doing something unusual: For the next few days it'll be orbiting Earth in almost-constant sunlight. This happens every year around the time of the summer solstice, and it results in many good sighting opportunities.
On June 13th, the ISS flew over the home of John Locker in Wirral , UK. The station was so bright, he was able to point his telescope at the moving target and record this video:
still frame | full video |
"Nicely illuminated is Canadarm2 (the station's robotic arm), which is fully extended," says Locker. Also visible are "the ribbed sections of the P1 truss radiator."
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