|
ISS TOOLBAG:
NASA's runaway toolbag dropped
from the International Space Station on Nov. 18th can be seen through
binoculars as it orbits Earth. Europeans are favored with a series
of flybys in the nights ahead. The backpack-sized bag is drifting
away from the ISS and it now leads the station by about eight minutes.
Check the Simple Satellite Tracker for flyby
times.
THANKSGIVING SUN:
This morning Greg
Piepol of Rockville, Maryland, looked through the eyepiece of
his backyard solar telescope and observed a very curious sunspot:
"Happy Thanksgiving!" says Piepol. "I
must have been thinking about dinner because when I did a double-take
the turkey was gone." The real Thanksgiving sun is pictured
here. A new sunspot is forming near the center of the sun's
disk but it has not yet formed a dark turkey-core. Stay tuned for
updates.
more images: from
Andy Yeung of Hong Kong; from
Stephen Ames of Hodgenville, Kentucky
SUNSET PLANETS:
When the sun sets tonight, go outside and look southwest. Venus
and Jupiter are beautifully close together in the twilight sky.
Konstantinos Christodoulopoulos
sends this picture taken just hours ago from Athens, Greece:
Photo details: Canon
EOS 300D, 2 sec, ISO 200
Readers, if you think this is pretty, just wait. The two worlds
are converging for a spectacular conjunction with the Moon on Dec.
1st. Some astronomers are calling it the "sky show of the year."
Don't miss it! Sky maps: Nov.
27, 28,
29, 30,
Dec 1.
more images: from
P-M Hedén of Vallentuna, Sweden; from
Martin Popek of Nýdek, Czech Republic; from
Jim Saueressig of Burlington, Kansas; from
Philip Harrington of Middle Island, New York; from
Zlatko Pasko of Stara Pazova, Serbia; from
Michel Hersen of Portland, Oregon; from
Mark E. Peter of Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio; from
Brian Emfinger of Ozark, Arkansas;
UPDATED: Nov.
2008 Aurora Gallery
[Previous Novembers: 2007,
2006, 2004,
2003, 2001,
2000]
|
