NASA At Home: An ideal diversion for Sheltering in Place

 Have you ever wanted to take your mind off of current events and reached for your telescope?

Especially in light of the COVID-19 pandemic related restrictions, there is a lot of demand for high quality astrophotography and measurements that can be obtained from home, and I was quite pleased to find that NASA, the United States' Space Agency, is responding to this demand in a big way with a NASA at Home program.

I'm yet to explore the program in detail, but my brief investigation has suggested that there are podcasts from current/former astronauts and scientific personalities, ebooks available for free on NASA's contributions to exploration in space and the history of space exploration, activities and specialized materials to help children learn more and get inspired about space, and even more content that I haven't gotten into yet.

I'm also pretty stoked about the space images featured on a daily basis on the home page of NASA's web portal, and the virtual tours available on the site are a great way to while away an afternoon. If you are looking for a way to get through a terrible at-home science class, try promising your eight year old that they can explore the Houston command center after school tonight if they behave.

If you end up checking it out, comment below and share your impression!

Asteroid Florence Scheduled to do a near pass by the Earth Tomorrow

September 1st, 2017 is not only the beginning of a new month, the day of remembrance for Eid al Adha in the Muslim world, or the start of the new school year in the United States.

It is also the day that Asteroid Florence will be passing only 4.4 million miles away from the Earth. Best of all, it should be visible to either the naked eye or simple light telescopes, if pointed in the proper direction and at the right time.

Space.com had a great write up discussing the way that the asteroid was going to travel between the planets in it's grand trip, and their video helps to visualize the areas that the asteroid traverses when we can't immediately visualize it, but you can't blame people for being both excited and concerned when a 4.8 kilometer wide rock flies by the planet at breakneck speeds.

I hope that you guys and dolls get a chance to check it out, and that this near-Earth object and out home world never meet.

The Great American Eclipse seems to have rekindled Americans' Enthusiasm for the skies

Just in case you happen to live in a different part of the world, a good portion of the United States was fortunate enough to see a full solar eclipse earlier this month on August 22nd, 2017, and even more of the Northern American continent was able to see a partial eclipse.

I didn't happen to be located on the path of the totality, but I had a free hour during the eclipse in my area and I got to see the sun with a bite taken out of it. Even a partial solar eclipse is pretty cool when you can see it from your driveway.

What I find interesting is the number of people who suddenly became enthusiasts overnight, and it seems like the "popular science" crowd picked up on astrophotography for the first time, while the children of the space age had their childhood dreams of exploring the moon, near planets, and distant stars reawakened.

Check out some of the pictures that have been posted to the different forums, and if you haven't look into the video available from NASA.

It's a sight to be seen.

Nasa Website Dedicated to the eclipse Streams

Reddit's Astrophotography Forum

Ideal conditions for Lunar photography June 12th and June 13th

Assuming that you have access to clear skies and  bit of patience, tonight and tomorrow night offer a fantastic opportunity to observe the (nearly) full moon here in the United States.

The west coast is scheduled to be relatively calm for the next two days and only recently having crossed the midpoint of its cycle, the moon will appear nearly full tonight and tomorrow night.

Make sure to look to the skies, and share your results.

Clear skies and a full moon make for a wonderful experience

Here on the West Coast of the United States, the weather has been surprisingly clear for days in a row. I've been lucky enough to encounter clear skies and a full or nearly full moon several nights in a row, and as a result I've had great views of a full round circle framed by trees that are yet to develop foliage.

What sorts of sights have you been able to capture in your parts of the world?

A Once in a Lifetime Sight: Super Moon, November 14th 2016

I've written before about the Super Moon phenomenon. In some rare cases the moon becomes visible to us here on Earth at a closer portion of it's transit around the planet, and appears larger to us due to the slightly decreased distance.

As has been discussed many times, the moon appears a bit larger if it is a bit closer, but there is a greater reason to mention the upcoming phenomenon. This will not simply be remarkable, but nearly unique. The moon, as observed on November 14th of this year by those lucky enough to have clear skies, will look larger than it will until 2034.

That's right, we will have to wait 18 years until we see such an event!

True, it is the same moon, but the last time that the moon would have appeared so close was in 1934, truly a lifetime (several of my lifetimes) away.

I'd recommend taking a look into the skies.

Another Night of Aurora Light

Over the past few days, I have been rather busy, but I wanted to share a bit of a journey that I went on. There have been very high indices for ggeomagnetic activity in the past week, and there is a high likelihood for geomagnetic activity in the upper atmoshpere for the next couple of weeks. Geomagnetic activity, as well as a high particle count for solar radiation, has resulted in highly visible and spectacular views for the Northern Lights, also known as the Aurora Borealis.

I feel very lucky to live in a place where I can simply hop into the car and drive out to a dark field to watch the Aurora Borealis stream across the sky, fade in and out of view, and shift from green to blue and purple.
I wish you all the best of luck in your pursuit of that elusive phenomenon!

Looking to get into astrophotography? Here are some great places to start!

As longer-term followers of my site will be able to tell you, I've been interested in stargazing ever since my earliest days growing up in the rural US. The lack of lighting at night made it possible for my neighbors and I to go out with a flashlight on overcast nights and light up a spot of the clouds above us, and see countless stars. But as I got older, and had greater exposure to the online communities that are also interested in stargazing, I realized that astrophotography is not only an institutional exercise, that I had long read about in publications from the local state college observatory, but also a personal endeavor that people took part in at home for recreational purposes or personal business. I believe that many, if not most, people interested in astrophotography have a similar story, and are somewhere between the initial childhood fascination with the night sky and the more "developed", for lack of a better term, passion for the practice of capturing high color images of constellations, planets, or specific portions of the night sky. As a resource for people just starting their journey, I've compiled a couple of popular websites that will provide a bit of advice for people looking to get into the hobby or business of astrophotography.

#1. Reddit.com/r/astrophotography

Reddit offers a great way for people to get in touch with others who share similar interests, and for this particular hobby the rule holds true. The people on Reddit have worked together to develop not only a thriving community where individual contributors may share photographs of the sky and discuss the details of their personal setups, seek advice about programs used to colorize and edit photos, and determine best practices for finding areas to collect unspoiled images without surface light pollution. I especially like the accessible language and openness to all experience levels, as it makes it easier for a young person with a small telescope, or no telescope, and a cheap camera to not only find great pictures but also share his or her own pictures with the larger group, with only constructive criticism.

#2 Popular Photography

Great article by Paul Lefavre, Popular Photography, screenshot taken 7/16/16

Popular photography is primarily a magazine aimed at hobbyist and professional photographers that are interested in techniques and equipment to get the most out of the images that they are trying to create, in terms of clarity, color, depth or any one of a number of other important factors. One of my favorite things about popular photography is the amateur focus, in that the language is not overly technical and the concepts discussed are, at least initially, very basic in nature and easy for beginners to understand.
In 2008, about 8 years ago as of the date of this piece, the magazine featured a very nice tutorial on the general principles of astrophotography, and I consider it a "must read" for people that want to take their current equipment that is adapted to, for instance, take pictures of people at birthday parties or milestone events (graduations, weddings, etc) and change the settings to get clear images of stars in a much more challenging low light, high contrast night sky. I can also recommend Popular Photography for other content, since it's quite an interesting read. Please excuse me while I click around the site for a couple of hours...

On May 9, we’ll see Mercury moves across the face of the sun

On May 9, 2016, most of the world will be able to witness the transit of Mercury, when the planet crosses between the Earth and the Sun. The visible transit of Mercury occurs about once every decade, the last being 9 years ago.

A map shows the visibility of the transit on May 9, 2016. While most will be able to watch the event, some, like those in eastern Asia, Oceania and Antartica, won't be able to see it. (F. Espenak/eclipsewise.com)

The sun, being as bright as it is, makes the viewing of this event rather complicated. Although the transit of Mercury is visible to the naked eye, there will be about 7 and a half hours of almost complete sunlight involved, so that would be rather damaging were you to kick back and watch unprotected. The Weather Channel suggests setting up a solar projection box and observing the sun's light with a pinhole display, or using an aluminized solar filter on a telescope set towards the sun.

Interestingly enough, there are a couple of different common points in the intersectional orbital planes of Mercury and the Earth where one might witness a transit of Mercury, one of which occurs in May, and the other in November. Due to the different relative positions of the planets to the sun and each other, transits of Mercury occurring in May tend to have a much larger relative size of Mercury to the sun in comparison to those occurring in November, with the May events showing Mercury to be 1/158th the size of the sun, and the November events showing Mercury to be 1/194th the size of the sun.

Have fun this month!

May is also set to show us a very large Mars, with the Red Planet coming the closest to us that it will in this year's orbit.

Relevant Headlines:

http://www.space.com/32780-mercury-transit-2016-nasa-video.html

http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2016/2016-transit-mercury/

https://weather.com/science/space/news/mercury-transit-may-2016 

Clear Skies, and Moon-shine

It's a moony night tonight, and I've been lucky enough to have clear skies.

Unfortunately, light pollution in my neighborhod has rendered me incapable of making out all but a few stars, so I am looking deeply into a field of velvety darkness and contemplating the beauty of the moon.

Over the past few nights, I've watched the progression of the phases of the moon from a crescent to the waxing half moon that was visible tonight, and I must say that it merits more appreciation than people normally give it.

I didn't happen to snap a picture, but feel free to take one of your own.

Enjoy your night, and look forward to upcoming phenomenal events taking place in the skies above!

Anyone Looking To See The Blood Moon?

The "Blood Moon" is a phenomenon that is only observed every couple of centuries, when the normal reflected light of the sun is occluded by the earth and the moon is illuminated only by the light coming off of the Earth and other bodies in space. This is also a lunar eclipse, and according to Yahoo News, it will be highly visible to people in the United States tonight, September 27th of 2015, starting at 8PM Eastern Time. Unfortunately, a good deal of the inhabitants of North America will be unable to see it due to extensive cloud coverage, inclement weather, or bad timing, but it will be a sight to see for all those lucky souls who turn their eyes to the stars tonight.

In this graphic from Sky and Telescope, you can see which areas are most likely to be able to see the entire eclipse. This covers much of North America, All of South America, Africa, and Europe, and much of Asia.

Enjoy yourselves!

For more information about weather in your part of North America, or a longer discussion of the phenomenon of the Blood Moon, check out this piece featured on Yahoo News: http://news.yahoo.com/total-lunar-eclipse-us-weather-forecast-see-blood-155743736.html

Here is additional discussion of the event on space.com: http://www.space.com/30480-rare-super-harvest-blood-moon-to-shine-on-september-27-2015-video.html

Turn Your Eyes North! The Aurora Borealis Reappears over the Northern Hemisphere

One of the most famous phenomena of the natural world, the Aurora Borealis is a stunning visual display caused by the passage of solar wind through the atmosphere. The high energy particles leaving the sun excite molecules of air and create stunning displays of color: faint, watery tendrils of blue, green, red and purple that can appear in any number of forms, from small ribbon shaped patches to vast stream-like expanses that stretch across the night sky.

The visibility of the Northern lights is dependent on location, conditions, and the activity of the sun.

Location

Living in Northern Canada, Alaska, or Northern Europe is the most convenient way to see the Northern Lights. If  there is a solar storm, and a great deal of electrified matter leaves the sun, it is possible to see the lights from closer to the equator, but still rather unlikely. A similar phenomenon may be observed in the Southern reaches of the globe, called the Aurora Australis, but it is less famous.

Conditions

Even if you happen to be located close to one of the magnetic poles, a number of factors can play into the appearance of the lights. The angular polarity of the Earth's magnetic field relative to the solar wind plays a major role in the visibility of the lights and the intensity of the lights, due to the interplay between the Earth's magnetic field and the solar radiation the most visually stunning displays are only seen when the magnetic field is out of alignment.

Good weather is also key. Cloud coverage can obstruct visibility of the Northern Lights, as the reactions that generate the light take place far above the cloud layer in the outer reaches of the atmosphere.

Conditions on the ground can affect the ability of a viewer to perceive and appreciate the lights. Light pollution from vehicular traffic, residential buildings, and other viewers can diminish the appearance of the skies, and vegetation may obstruct your view.

Solar Activity

As I have alluded in earlier portions of this piece, the primary event that triggers the Aurora is a solar emission. This is a poorly understood (by me) event wherein the sun releases an above-average amount of high energy particles into the solar system, some of which eventually stream over to the planet Earth. This is a variable process, and quite unpredictable to the average observer, but the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration publishes an index to help people predict the degree of activity that we can expect from the Aurora lights every three days.

If you have the opportunity, you should take advantage of the chance to see the northern lights billow across the heavens.

Featured Website: Hilalsighting.org

I occasionally discuss a stargazing site on this blog, and I'm inspired to shout out to hilalsighting.org

It's probably the definitive website for sharing information related to the Islamic calendar and sightings of the moon to begin a new month.

This is especially topical, considering that the new moon is a signifier of the beginning of Ramadan, the Islamic month of fasting, prayer, and the anniversary of the revelation of the Quran.

Check it out!

New Telescope Planned for Construction in Hawaii

There is a new telescope slated to be built on a mountaintop in Hawaii, situated out in the Pacific Ocean, away from the big city light pollution of the continents.

The "Thirty Meter Telescope" is likely to be the largest device of its kind in the world, and the most powerful optical telescope ever built.

The problem with the Thirty Meter project, however, is that it is slated to be built directly on top of a sacred mountaintop, and construction has been halted by a group of native Hawaiian protesters that believe that the construction of such a device in that location would constitute sacrilege.

Additionally, the ecosystem of the mountain is both delicate and unique, and the construction of the telescope, and the surrounding superstructure of an observatory and support system, would likely spell disaster for the creatures living on and around the peak.

While legally there is no dilemma, there are significant social justice causes to be considered, and at this time construction has been halted.

I've included a concept image of what the telescope would look like.

Altered Solar Eclipse image to Highlight the Corona

Solar eclipses are almost uniformly spectacular, and there have been several partial and full solar eclipses over the past year, the most recent one being the eclipse from late April that took place over Northern Europe.

I managed to stumble across an image hosted on Imgur of a solar eclipse, that had been digitally optimized to highlight the corona of the sun.

Does anyone out there know the way to edit an image to show the corona and not the various other aspects of the shot?

Whatever the creator did, it's stunning

Astronews: A great site for developments in astronomy and stargazing, especially if you are ein Deutschsprächer

There are a lot of different sites on the web for picking up news and information about astronomy, and there are similarly a lot of new sites in German, but I really like the site Astronews for the unique combination of these two things with a genuinely fun site.

Screen capture of Astronews.com from 5/19/15

Astronews features a lot of entertaining sections, including a dynamic home page rich with images, a news feed populated with a lot of interesting content about current events and upcoming spectacles in astronomy, an "Ask Astronews" section that allows users to query the site administrators and get personalized feedback, a picture of the day section that showcases notable or praiseworthy shots daily, and a Glossary to review common or not so common astronomical terms in German.

Since I am no longer in language classes, I find it necessary to conduct a good bit of self study, so it is both pleasant and useful for me to exercise my German language skills by consuming media in German. I also genuinely like the content, since it allows me to enjoy two hobbies at once.

I would recommend Astronews to anyone looking to get quality content, whether photographical or journalistic, as well as any German language learners. If you aren't so into German, you can easily have the content translated by using Bing or Google translate.

Summer Nights Are Great for Stargazing

I spend the winter and spring looking forward to the summer. Not only am I laden with golden sunshine during the warm days, but I have a great opportunity to go outside without excessive rain or cool temperatures and get a good look at the sky.

Nearly full moon tonight!

I'm looking forward to clear skies and a nearly full moon tonight. The astronomical full moon is coming up on May 3rd, just 2 nights away, and the lack of cloud cover makes this a great opportunity.

We are probably all familiar with the different terms used to describe the phases of the moon, waxing meaning that the illuminated portion of the moon is becoming more visible, waning means that the illuminated portion becomes less visible, crescent moon meaning that there is just a sliver of the illuminated portion visible and gibbous moon meaning that nearly all of the illuminated portion of the moon is visible.

Despite these basic definitions, and the knowledge that I have that the moon isn't full tonight, I still think of a gibbous moon as nearly full, and I'm pretty excited for a chance at getting a clear shot of the moon.

Has anyone seen a good image of the moon lately?

How are the skies in your area?

I'm unlucky enough to be unable to see the stars too frequently in my climate, due to a combination of extreme weather and excessive cloud cover making it hard to go out to a dark field and see the moon, respectively.


I'll also include a quick illustration (from stardate.org) of how the moon's appearance changes based on the position of the moon relative to the earth and the sun.

Large Field Photography

I just saw this image on Reddit, and it's fantastic.

A large field capture of the majority of the night sky, it encapsulates an uncounted number of stars, and the constellations Cassiopeia all the way to the Andromeda galaxy.

Breathtaking, but also a testament to the ability of modern recording devices, even those at the consumer level, to take very high quality wide angle shots of large fields of the night sky. The person who took this photo used a canon t3i camera with a 24 millimeter lens, then processed the image in PixInsight at ISO 1600.

I think that the image is very nice, the only critique would be that there is some artifactual light distortion likely stemming from imperfections in the glass.


You can see the image in it's full glory on the host site Imgur but a smaller version will be shared here in the post.

It's just breathtakingly large.

The MAVEN Orbiter is making it's 100th passing around Mars

Maven, an orbiting spacecraft intended to study the Martian atmosphere, is about to make its 100th journey around the red planet.

It's a landmark victory for NASA and humanity at large, as the MAVEN orbiter has been a useful tool to evaluate the changes that have taken place on Mars to the atmosphere and shed light on what may lay in wait for the planet Earth.

This is especially interesting as people discuss the possibility of going to Mars through projects like Mars One and Space X.

For more information, here's a commercial piece from ABC http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/nasas-maven-probe-learned-1000-mars-orbits/story?id=30175139