Don't you want your mom to see the space station? Spaceweather PHONE for Mother's Day.
VENUS & THE MOON: Set your alarm. Just before sunrise on Monday, April 24th, Venus and the crescent Moon will have a spectacular close encounter in the eastern sky. This is worth waking up for, and a wonderful way to begin the day. [sky map]
SOLAR ACTIVITY: "It is big and getting bigger by the hour," says Mila Zinkova of San Francisco, California. "I decided to photograph it as soon as possible because, if I waited longer, the Earth, which I added to the picture for comparison, would become too small to see!" It is this solar prominence, dancing today above the sun's northwestern limb:
In Paris, France, photographer Denis Joye made a 90-minute movie of the prominence. Click here to watch.
Solar prominences are among the most entertaining targets for amateur astronomers. They are huge. They move. And you don't have to stay up late to see them. This one is expected to carry on for days to come.
more images: from Andreas Murner of Lake Chiemsee, Bavaria, Germany; from Didier Favre of Brétigny, France; from Monty Leventhal of Sydney, Australia; from Pete Lawrence of Selsey, UK; from Jim Tegerdine of Marysville, Washington;
COMET NEWS: Fragment B of dying comet 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 has split in two. Using a 4-inch refracting telescope, Mike Holloway of Arkansas photographed the pair last night as they passed the 5th magnitude star chi Bootes:
Look also for Fragment G in the full-sized image
"If they were going to hit something, would they be the Killer Bees?" jokes Holloway. No worries. Fragment B and all the other pieces of comet 73P will be at least 6 million miles away when they pass Earth in mid-May, close enough for a fantastic view, but no impact.
Other astronomers have photographed the breakup as well: