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. DREAMY
LUNAR ECLIPSE: Mark your calendar: On Tuesday, August 28th,
there's going to be a dreamy, colorful, total eclipse of the Moon:
full
story.
PHOENIX LAUNCH: Phoenix has
left Earth. The robotic Mars lander began its 9 month journey to
the Red Planet this morning when a Delta II rocket blasted off from
Cape Canaveral at 5:26 am EDT. Signals received by the Deep Space
Network indicate the craft is on course and in good condition: status
reports.
The pre-dawn launch wow-ed onlookers, but it wasn't only the
rocket that impressed. The Delta II's exhaust put on a show
of its own:
James Bjornbak snapped this photo from the Kennedy Space Center.
"I used my Nikon
D70 to make a 10-second exposure," he says.
The glowing loop is, essentially, a man-made noctilucent cloud
(NLC). Tiny crystals of ice and other particles in the rocket's
exhaust caught
the rays of the early morning sun and lit up dramatically against
the deep-twilight sky. more images: from
William Wilson
of Titusville, Florida; from
Jerry W. Kinnamon of Zephyrhills, Florida.
A similar display was seen in June when space shuttle Atlantis
lifted off before sunrise to visit the International Space Station.
While the formation of these man-made clouds is understood, the
origin of natural
NLCs, which can gather over high latitudes without any rocket
to prompt them, remains a mystery. NASA's AIM
spacecraft is in orbit now to investigate.
BEWARE THE MARS HOAX: It's
August, which means it's time for the annual Mars Hoax. An email
is going around claiming that Mars will approach Earth on August
27th; the encounter will be so close, the email states, that Mars
will rival the full Moon in size and brightness. Imagine the tides!
The Mars Hoax email first appeared in 2003. On August 27th of that
year, Mars really did come historically close to Earth. But the
email's claim that Mars would rival the Moon was grossly exaggerated.
Every August since 2003, the email has staged a revival. It's as
wrong now as it was then.
REALITY CHECK: Would
you like to see the real Mars? Wake up before dawn and look east.
Mars is having a close encounter with the Pleiades star cluster.
Sky maps: Aug. 5,
6, 7.
The planet looks like a pinprick-bright red star, nothing like a
full Moon, very pretty next to the Pleiades. Pete
Lawrence of Selsey UK photographed the
scene on August 3rd.
.2007
Noctilucent Cloud Gallery
[Night-Sky
Cameras] ["Noctilucent
Cloud"--the song]
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