Tuesday, March 12, 2013
Comet PANSTARRS is the closet to the sun today, look to the west after right after the sun goes down about 7:42 p.m.
Scientists say the ability to see a comet without the aid of a telescope usually happens only once every five to 10 years. In 2013 however, sky watchers might have the opportunity to see two comets with the naked eye, including the comet PANSTARRS (or Pan-STARRS) which is visible throughout March and Comet ISON, which will be in our skies this fall. The opportunity to see Comet PANSTARRS is only available every 100 million years, reports space.com. PANSTARRS will be visible in the Northern Hemisphere for about 15 minutes after sunset until the end of March. To see Comet PANSTARRS, look to the west after right after the sun goes down. In Cumming, sunset tonight is at 7:42. On Sunday, March 10, the comet made its closest approach to the …
Monday, March 11, 2013
Comet Pan-STARRS is expected to be visible in the western sky just above the horizon.
Step outside just a little bit after sunset for the next week and you might get to see a comet with the naked eye. Comet Pan-STARRS is expected to be visible in the west just after sunset for up to an hour Most experts expect it to become a naked-eye object about as bright as the stars of the Big Dipper, according to NASA.gov. On March 9 and 10, Astronomy Magazine's Richard Talcott says the comet will pass within 28 million miles of the Sun and will stand some 7° high in the west 30 minutes after sunset. Those are the brightest nights expected as well. Talcott says the crescent Moon can guide you to the comet March 12 and 13. On the 12th, PANSTARRS stands to the upper left of our satellite; the next evening, the comet lies to the Moon’s …
Monday, August 6, 2012
NASA vehicle Curiosity beams back images from the Red Planet after landing early Monday.
The NASA rover Curiosity successfully carried out a challenging landing on Mars early Monday, Aug. 6, transmitting images back to Earth after traveling hundreds of millions of miles through space, according to media reports. The $2.6 billion rover made its dramatic arrival on Martian terrain in a spectacle popularly known as the "seven minutes of terror," according to CNN.com. Do you think NASA should continue to fund Mars projects? Tell us in the comments below. The initial images that the SUV-sized rover sent back to Earth were black and white and grainy, but one showed its wheel resting on the stony ground and the vehicle's shadow appeared in another. Larger color images are expected later in the week, NASA said. The spacecraft had been…
Sunday, August 5, 2012
Mars rover Curiosity is scheduled to land on Mars at 1:31 a.m. EDT Aug. 6. Will it find evidence of life on the Red Planet?
Mars Rover Curiosity is almost at the end of its trip to Mars and, according to NASA, is in the final states of preparing to entry. The landing time is 10:31 p.m. PDT Aug. 5 (1:31 a.m. Aug. 6 on the East Coast). Enthusiasts can tune in for the live broadcast of the landing. The mission is reportedly not specifically to find life, but it is likely to reveal evidence that could point to that possibility. By all accounts from NASA, everything is on schedule to the looming Mars landing. In the last report by 1 p.m. Aug 5, NASA officials gave the following update on it’s website: With Mars looming ever larger in front of it, NASA's Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft and its Curiosity rover are in the final stages of preparing for entry, …
Monday, June 11, 2012
Miss the transit? See this ultra high-def video.
If you missed the Venus Transit last week — or just want a better view of it — check out this video, taken by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory. The observatory's main purpose is to examine the sun's atmosphere and the video captures images about eight times better than HDTV, according to NASA. On June 5, it captured the Transit of Venus across the face of the sun, an event that won't happen again until 2117. The best views in the contiguous U.S. were in the west. For those of us on the east, this might be the best view we'll get. Editor's Note: This article first appeared on Norwalk Patch in Connecticut.
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
Watch the once-in-a-liftetime celestial occurrence from NASA.
Monday, June 4, 2012
The 2012 Transit of Venus will occur Tuesday. It's a once-in-a-lifetime celestial event, and you can catch the action at NGCSU in Dahlonega.
It will be a rare astronomical and skywatching event and it happens on Tuesday, June 5: The transit of the planet Venus across the face of the sun. It will be the last crossing of Venus across the face of the sun until 2117 and North Georgia College & State University’s Coleman Planetarium in Dahlonega (about 28 miles from Cumming) will host a viewing party. On Tuesday, June 5, teams will film the event from the west balcony of the Health & Natural Sciences Building, and will feed live video down to the projection system inside the planetarium, according to a news release. “These transits occur in pairs, with the transits within a pair happening eight years apart,” said Dr. Joseph Jones, associate professor of physics. “However, pairs …
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Thursday, May 31, 2012
June 5 and 6, Venus will cross the face of the sun for the last time this century.
Although astronomers and scientists don’t expect earthquakes and such as predicted by doomsday theorists, they do say that next week’s planetary alignment will be a rare sight. In fact, it will be the last time it will happen this century. According to NASA, the passage of Venus across the sun only happens twice in a century. It happened in 2004 and is scheduled again for June 5 and 6, 2012. Although the entire eclipse will be visible from certain countries, in the U.S. it will only be visible as it begins on June 5. The sun will set before the event ends. According to the Transit of Venus Web site, when this transit happens, Venus will be seen as a small dot gliding slowly across the face of the sun. Since this is a twice in a lifetime …
Sunday, May 20, 2012
Rare 'ring of fire' can be watched -- safely -- via a telescope on Mount Fuji Sunday evening.
A rare solar eclipse, which occurs when the moon passes between the earth and the sun, will occur on Sunday evening, May 20. It will be the first such event visible in the U.S. since 1994. More than 90 percent of the sun could be blocked, according to NASA and media reports. In the U.S., it will only be visible to people in the West and perhaps as far east as Texas. Viewing is risky, of course, and people there are being advised to wear special viewing glasses. However, thanks to the online global village that we live in, the "ring of fire" will be streamed online. Panasonic has set up an online telescope on Mount Fuji, Japan's highest peak. Also, the Slooh space camera will be streaming the eclipse online via telescopes. The entire show …
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
A dead climate satellite that has been circling Earth for 20 years will make a fiery death plunge this week.
Christian Thomas
7:23 pm on Friday, March 8, 2013
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