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ASTEROID FLYBY:
Newly-discovered asteroid 2009
FH is flying past Earth today, March 18th, only 85,000 km (0.00057
AU) away. That's a little more than twice the altitude of a geosynchronous
communications satellite. There is no danger of a collision with
the 20-meter-wide space rock--just a close shave. Experienced amateur
astronomers can track 2009 FH using this
ephemeris. It is shining about as brightly as a 14th magnitude
star.
asteroid images: from
Eric Allen of Observatoire du Cégep de Trois-Rivières, Champlain,
Quebec, Canada; from
Dean Drumheller of San Mateo, California;
SPACESHIP SIGHTINGS:
Space shuttle Discovery docked to the International Space Station
on March 17th at 5:20 p.m. EDT. Just before the two spaceships joined,
Quintus Oostendorp watched them fly side-by-side over his backyard
in the Netherlands:
"It was a beautiful sight seeing both spacecraft
moving together past the bright star Sirius," says Oostendorp.
"I photographed the event using my Canon
350D."
Now that Discovery is docked, construction can begin.
The shuttle is delivering a new set of solar arrays to the station.
They will be bolted in place on March 19th and unfurled on March
22nd. The arrays are so large, you can actually see
them through backyard telescopes. The trick is knowing when
to look.
more images: from
Jens Hackmann of Weikersheim, southern Germany; from
Marco Langbroek of Leiden, the Netherlands; from
Matthew Cook of Ann Arbor, Michigan; from
Robert Hoetink of Enschede, the Netherlands; from
Dennis Put of Brielle, Zuid-Holland, the Netherlands; from
Guy Blattmann of Saint-Etienne-de-Crossey, France
RAINBOW PLANET:
Something special is happening to Venus. The brightest of all planets
is hanging low in the western sky at sunset, and if you look at
it with a backyard telescope, you'll see that it is a slender 4%
crescent. But that's not the special part.
What's special is, Venus looks like a rainbow:
Mark D. Marquette took the picture from Boones Creek, Tennessee
on March 16th. It shows the view through his 8-inch
Celestron. "There was an extreme rainbow effect,"
he says.
Venus resembles a rainbow because Earth's atmosphere acts like
a prism. When Venus is near the horizon, refraction separates the
red crescent from the blue. The crescent is so thin, the splitting
of colors is obvious. Later this month, Venus will disappear into
the glare of the spring sun--so catch the rainbow planet while you
can!
more images: from
Maurice Gavin of Worcester Park SW London UK; from
Sadegh Ghomizadeh of Tehran, Iran; from
Joe Ricci of Rochester, New York; from
Elias Chasiotis of Markopoulo, Greece; from
Lorenzo Comolli of Tradate (VA), Italy; from
Paul Kinzer of Galesville, Wisconsin; from
P-M Hedén of Vallentuna, Sweden; from
Alan Simpson of Renfrew, Scotland; from
Frederic Caron of Victoriaville, Qc, Canada; from
Paul Schneider of Wilton, Connecticut;
March
2009 Aurora Gallery
[previous Marches: 2008,
2007, 2006,
2005, 2004,
2003, 2002]
Comet
Lulin Photo Gallery
[Comet
Hunter Telescope: review]
[Comet
Lulin finder chart]
Explore
the Sunspot Cycle
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