Live Broadcasts Archives

June 20, 2014December 23, 2015 by Ken Kremer

SpaceX Set to Launch Oft Delayed Falcon 9 with Commercial ORBCOMM Satellites on June 20 – Watch Live

File photo of SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket after successful static hot-fire test on June 13, 2014 on Pad 40 at Cape Canaveral, FL with ORBCOMM OG2 mission with six OG2 satellites. Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket was rolled out to its Florida launch pad early this morning at 1 a.m., Friday, June 20, in anticipation of blastoff at 6:08 p.m. EDT this evening on an oft delayed commercial mission for ORBCOMM to carry six advanced OG2 communications satellites to significantly upgrade the speed and capacity of their existing data relay network, affording significantly faster and larger messaging services.

The Falcon 9 rocket is lofting six second-generation ORBCOMM OG2 commercial telecommunications satellites from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fl.

Update (6/23): The Saturday launch was scrubbed due to 2nd stage pressure decrease and then was scrubbed on Saturday and Sunday due to weather and technical reasons. SpaceX must now delay the launch until the first week in July because of previously scheduled maintenance for the Eastern Test Range, which supports launches from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. This also allows SpaceX to take “a closer look at a potential issue identified while conducting pre-flight checkouts during [Sunday’s] countdown,” the company said in statement on its website on June 23.

The next generation SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is launching in its more powerful v1.1 configuration with upgraded Merlin 1D engines, stretched fuel tanks, and the satellites encapsulated inside the payload fairing.

SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is set for liftoff, Friday, June 20, 2014 on ORBCOMM OG2 mission with six OG2 satellites from Pad 40 on Cape Canaveral, FL. Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com

Falcon 9 will deliver all six next-generation OG2 satellites to an elliptical 750 x 615 km low-Earth orbit. They will be deployed one at a time starting 15 minutes after liftoff.

The first stage is also equipped with a quartet of landing legs to conduct SpaceX’s second test of a controlled soft landing in the Atlantic Ocean in an attempt to recover and eventually use the stage as a means of radically driving down overall launch costs – a top goal of SpaceX’s billionaire CEO and founder Elon Musk.

The launch has been delayed multiple times from May due to technical problems with both the Falcon 9 rocket and the OG2 satellites.

The May launch attempt was postponed when a static hot-fire test was halted due to a helium leak and required engineers to fix the issues.

Last week on June 13, SpaceX conducted a successful static hot-fire test of the 1st stage Merlin engines (see photos above and below) which had paved the way for blastoff as soon as Sunday, June 15.

However ORBCOMM elected to delay the launch in order to conduct additional satellite testing to ensure they are functioning as expected, the company reported.

“In an effort to be as cautious as possible, it was decided to perform further analysis to verify that the issue observed on one satellite during final integration has been fully addressed. The additional time to complete this analysis required us to postpone the OG2 Mission 1 Launch,” said ORBCOMM.

You can watch the launch live this evening with real time commentary from SpaceX mission control located at their corporate headquarters in Hawthorne, CA.

Watch the SpaceX live webcast beginning at 5:35 pm EDT here: www.spacex.com/webcast.

An ORBCOMM OG-2 satellite undergoes testing prior to launch. Credit: Sierra Nevada Corp

The six new satellites will join the existing constellation of ORBCOMM OG1 satellites launched over 15 years ago.

The weather outlook is currently not promising with only a 30% chance of favorable conditions at launch time. The launch window extends for 53 minutes.

The primary concerns according to the USAF forecast are violations of the Cumulus Cloud Rule, Thick Cloud Rule, Lightning Rule, Anvil Cloud Rule.

In the event of a scrub, the backup launch window is Saturday June 21. The weather outlook improves to 60% ‘GO’.

SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket after successful static hot-fire test on June 13 on Pad 40 at Cape Canaveral, FL. Launch is slated for Friday, June 20, 2014 on ORBCOMM OG2 mission with six OG2 satellites. Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com

Fueling of the rocket’s stages begins approximately four hours before blastoff – shortly after 2 p.m. EDT. First with liquid oxygen and then with RP-1 kerosene propellant.

Each of the 170 kg OG2 satellites was built by Sierra Nevada Corporation and will provide a much needed boost in ORBCOMM’s service capacity.

The ORBCOMM OG2 mission will launch six OG2 satellites, the first six of a series of OG2 satellites launching on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 vehicle. Credit: SpaceX

10 more OG2 satellites are scheduled to launch on another SpaceX Falcon 9 in the fourth quarter of 2014 to complete ORBCOMM’s next generation constellation.

“ORBCOMM’s OG2 satellites will offer up to six times the data access and up to twice the transmission rate of ORBCOMM’s existing OG1 constellation,” according to the SpaceX press kit.

“Each OG2 satellite is the equivalent of six OG1 satellites, providing faster message delivery, larger message sizes and better coverage at higher latitudes, while drastically increasing network capacity. Additionally, the higher gain will allow for smaller antennas on communicators and reduced power requirements, yielding longer battery lives.”

The next generation Falcon 9 is a monster. It measures 224 feet tall and is 12 feet in diameter.

Stay tuned here for Ken’s continuing SpaceX, Boeing, Sierra Nevada, Orbital Sciences, commercial space, Orion, Mars rover, MAVEN, MOM and more planetary and human spaceflight news.

Ken Kremer

June 11, 2014December 23, 2015 by David Dickinson

An Astronomical Eloping: How Rare is a “Friday the 13th Honey Moon?”

The June 2012 "Honey Moon" rising. Photo credit: Stephen Rahn.

Ah, Friday the 13^th. Whether you fear it or it’s just your favorite slasher flick, it’s coming right around the bend later this week. And while it’s pretty much a non-event as far as astronomy is concerned, there’s bound to be some woo in the works, because the June Full Moon — dubbed the “Honey Moon” — falls on the same date.

Well, sort of. We made mention of this month’s Full Moon falling on Friday the 13^th in last week’s post on the occultation of Saturn by Earth’s Moon. We’re not out to alarm any triskaidekaphobics, but we always love the chance to have some fun with calendars in the name of astronomy.

What we’re seeing here is merely the intersection of three cycles of events… and nothing more. These sorts of things can be fun to calculate and can provide a teachable moment, even when that well meaning but often misinformed relative/coworker/stranger on Twitter sends it your way . Hey, some people golf or collect steel pennies, this is our shtick.

A “Friday the 13^th Honey Moon” is basically the subset of: 1. Fridays that fall on the 13^th day of the month (OK, that’s two input parameters, we know) that also 2. Fall in the month of June, and 3. Occur on a Full Moon.

Friday the 13^th occurs from one to three times a calendar year, so you can already see that one will occasionally happen to land on a Full Moon date fairly frequently… but how ‘bout in June? To this end, we compiled this handy listing of “Full Moons that fall on the 13th day of the month” — 15 in all — that occur from 1990 to 2030:

Full Moon's that fell on the 13th from 1990-2030 as reckoned in Universal Time. Only one (March 1998) fell on a Friday the 13th. Chart by author. — Full Moons that fell on the 13th from 1990-2030 as reckoned in Universal Time. Only two (March 1998 and June 2014) fall on a Friday the 13th. Chart by author.

That’s about one every two to three years. But you have to go aaaaall the way back to June 13^th, 1919 to find a Full Moon that fell on a Friday the 13^th in the month of June. This will next occur on June 13^th, 2098.

Of course, this is just an interesting intersection concerning the vagaries and nuances of our Gregorian calendar and the lunar cycle. You could just as easily see significance where there is none in the Full Moon coinciding with the next Superbowl or Academy Awards. Humans love to pick out patterns where often none exist.

(Fun homework assignment: When is the last/next total lunar eclipse that occurs on Friday the 13^th?)

And keep in mind, the instant of the Full Moon this week occurs on Friday at 4:13 UT… this means that from the U.S. Central time zone westward, the Full Moon actually falls on Thursday the 12^th.

The rising Moon just hours before Full on Thursday June 12th. Note Saturn to the upper right. Created using Stellarium.

Fun fact: the 13^th falls on a Friday more than any other day of the month! It’s true… in a span of 400 years following the institution of the Gregorian calendar in 1582, Friday fell on the 13^th a total of 688 times, while Thursday and Saturday the 13^th fell in last place at 684.

But there’s is something else that’s special about the June Full Moon. It also falls closest to the June solstice, marking the start of astronomical northern hemisphere summer and winter in the southern. This means that the Full Moon nearest the June solstice rides at its lowest to the southern horizon for northern hemisphere observers, but is high in the sky for observers south of the equator.

The June 2012 Full Honey (or do you say Strawberry?) Moon. Photo by author.

The June solstice this year falls on Saturday, June 21^st at 10:51 UT /6:51 AM EDT. The Full Moon closest to the June solstice is nearly, but not always, in June… It can occur up to July 6^th, and the last time it fell in July is 2012 and the next is 2015. The July Full Moon is known as the Full Buck Moon.

Our good friends over at Slooh will be webcasting the Full Honey Moon this Friday the starting at 1:30 UT/9:30 PM EDT (Thursday June 12^th) for two hours from its Canary Islands site and the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile observatory near Santiago, Chile. The broadcast will be hosted by Slooh astronomer Geoff Fox, astronomer and author of The Sun’s Heartbeat Bob Berman, and Slooh engineer Paul Cox.

Is there a connection between late spring weddings, the June Full Moon and the modern term “honeymoon”? Well, the rising June Full Moon certainly takes on an amber color for northern hemisphere observers as it rises low through the sultry summer skies. The Moon’s orbit is actually tilted five degrees relative to the ecliptic, which means it alternates from “flat” to “hilly” about every 9 years varying from 18 to 28 degrees relative to the celestial equator. We’re approaching a flat year — known as minimum or minor lunar standstill — in 2015, after which the Moon’s apparent path across the sky will begin to widen once again towards 2024.

The ~9 year variation between major and minor lunar standstill. Credit Wikimedia Commons graphic in the Public Domain.

Bob Berman has this to say about the origin of the term: “Is this Full Moon of June the true origin of the word honeymoon, since it is amber, and since weddings were traditionally held this month? That phrase dates back nearly half a millennium to 1552, but one thing has changed: weddings have shifted, and are now most often held in August or September. The idea back then was that a marriage is like the phases of the Moon, with the Full Moon being analogous to a wedding. Meaning, it’s the happiest and ‘brightest’ time in a relationship.”

It’s also worth noting the June Full Moon was known as the Strawberry Moon to the Algonquin Indians of North America. Huh… and here we thought most weddings were in May.

Whatever the case, you can get out enjoy the rising Full Moon with that significant other this week… and don’t fear the Honey Moon.

May 21, 2014December 23, 2015 by Bob King

Potential Weekend Meteor Shower Will Pelt the Moon Too!

the shaded or speckled area indicates where May Camelopardalids can stoke the lunar surface. telescopic observers will want to point their telescopes to the shaded dark area at the top right of the lunar disk.

If the hoped-for meteor blast materializes this Friday night / Saturday morning (May 23-24) Earth won’t be the only world getting peppered with debris strewn by comet 209P/LINEAR. The moon will zoom through the comet’s dusty filaments in tandem with us.

Bill Cooke, lead for NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office, alerts skywatchers to the possibility of lunar meteorite impacts starting around 9:30 p.m. CDT Friday night through 6 a.m. CDT (2:30-11 UTC) Saturday morning with a peak around 1-3 a.m. CDT (6-8 UTC).

While western hemisphere observers will be in the best location, these times indicate that European and African skywatchers might also get a taste of the action around the start of the lunar shower. And while South America is too far south for viewing the Earth-directed Camelopardalids, the moon will be in a good position to have a go at lunar meteor hunting. Find your moonrise time HERE.

Earlier lunar impact on the earthlit portion of the moon. Credit: NASA — Earlier lunar impact on the earthlit portion of the moon recorded by video camera. Credit: NASA

The thick crescent moon will be well-placed around peak viewing time for East Coast skywatchers, shining above Venus in the eastern sky near the start of morning twilight. For the Midwest, the moon will just be rising at that hour, while skywatchers living in the western half of the country will have to wait until after maximum for a look:

“Anyone in the U.S. should monitor the moon until dawn,” said Cooke, who estimates that impacts might shine briefly at magnitude +8-9.

Any meteors hitting the moon will also be burning up as meteors in Earth's skies from the direction of the dim constellation Camelopardalis the Giraffe located in the northern sky below Polaris in the Little Dipper. Stellarium — Any meteors hitting the moon will also be burning up as meteors in Earth’s skies from the direction of the dim constellation Camelopardalis the Giraffe located in the northern sky below Polaris in the Little Dipper. Stellarium

“The models indicate the Camelopardalids have some big particles but move slowly around 16 ‘clicks’ a second (16 km/sec or 10 miles per second). It all depends on kinetic energy”, he added. Kinetic energy is the energy an object possesses due to its motion. Even small objects can pack a wallop if they’re moving swiftly.

Bright lunar meteorite impact recorded on video on September 11, 2013. The estimated 900-lb. space rock flared to 4th magnitude.

Lunar crescents are ideal for meteor impact monitoring because much of the moon is in shadow, illuminated only by the dim glow of earthlight. Any meteor strikes stand out as tiny flashes against the darkened moonscape. For casual watching of lunar meteor impacts, you’ll need a 4-inch or larger telescope magnifying from 40x up to around 100x. Higher magnification is unnecessary as it restricts the field of view.

I can’t say how easy it will be to catch one, but it will require patience and a sort of casual vigilance. In other words, don’t look too hard. Try to relax your eyes while taking in the view. That’s why the favored method for capturing lunar impacts is a video camera hooked up to a telescope set to automatically track the moon. That way you can examine your results later in the light of day. Seeing a meteor hit live would truly be the experience of a lifetime. Here are some additional helpful tips.

Meteorite impact flashes seen from 2005 to the present. Fewer are seen in the white areas (lunar highlands) because flashes blend in compared to those occurring on the darker lunar 'seas' or maria. Credit: NASA — Meteorite impact flashes seen from 2005 to the present. Fewer are recorded in the white areas (lunar highlands) because the flashes blend into the landscape compared to those occurring on the darker lunar ‘seas’ or maria. Click for more information on lunar impacts. Credit: NASA

On average, about 73,000 lbs. (33 metric tons) of meteoroid material strike Earth’s atmosphere every day with only tiny fraction of it falling to the ground as meteorites. But the moon has virtually no atmosphere. With nothing in the way, even small pebbles strike its surface with great energy. It’s estimated that a 10-lb. (5 kg) meteoroid can excavate a crater 30 feet (9 meters) across and hurl 165,000 lbs. of lunar soil across the surface.

A meteoroid that size on an Earth-bound trajectory would not only be slowed down by the atmosphere but the pressure and heat it experienced during the plunge would ablate it into very small, safe pieces.

NASA astronomers are just as excited as you and I are about the potential new meteor shower. If you plan to take pictures or video of meteors streaking through Earth’s skies or get lucky enough to see one striking the moon, please send your observations / photos / videos to Brooke Boen ([email protected]) at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. Scientists there will use the data to better understand and characterize this newly born meteor blast.

On the night of May 23-24, Bill Cooke will host a live web chat from 11 p.m. to 3 a.m. EDT with a view of the skies over Huntsville, Alabama. Check it out.

May 19, 2014December 23, 2015 by David Dickinson

Can You Say Camelopardalids? Observing, Weather Prospects and More for the May 24th Meteor Shower

It could be the best of meteor showers, or it could be the…

Well, we’ll delve into the alternatives here in a bit. For now, we’ll call upon our ever present astronomical optimism and say that one of the best meteor showers of 2014 may potentially be on tap for this weekend.

This is a true wild card event. The meteor shower in question hails from a periodic comet 209P LINEAR discovered in 2004 and radiates from the obscure and tongue-twisting constellation of Camelopardalis.

But whether you call ‘em the “209/P-ids,” the “Camelopardalids,” or simply the “Cams,” this weekend’s meteor shower is definitely one worth watching out for. The excitement surrounding this meteor shower came about when researchers Peter Jenniskens and Esko Lyytinen noticed that the Earth would cross debris streams laid down by the comet in 1803 and 1924. Discovered by the LIncoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research (LINEAR) automated all-sky survey located at White Sands, New Mexico, comet 209P LINEAR orbits the Sun once every 5.1 years. 209P LINEAR passed perihelion at 0.97 AUs from the Sun this month on May 6^th.

Looking north from latitude +30N at 7:00 UT on the morning of May 24th. Created using Starry Night.

The meteor shower peaks this coming U.S. Memorial Day weekend on Saturday, May 24^th. The expected peak is projected for right around 7:00 Universal Time (UT) which is the early morning hours of 3:00 AM EDT, giving North America a possible front row seat to the event. Estimates for the Zenithal Hourly Rate (ZHR) of the Camelopardalids run the gamut from a mild 30 to an outstanding 400 per hour. Keep in mind, this is a shower that hasn’t been witnessed, and it’s tough enough to forecast the timing and activity of known showers. It’s really a question of how much debris the 1803 and 1924 streams laid down on those undocumented passages. One possible strike against a “meteor storm” similar to the 1998 Leonids that we witnessed from Kuwait is the fact that the “Cams” have never been recorded before. Still, you won’t see any if you don’t try!

Cams — The orientation of the Earth, the day/night terminator, the Sun, Moon and radiant of the meteor shower on May 24th at 7:00 UT. Created by author.

Comet 209P/LINEAR passes 0.055 AUs — about 8.3 million kilometres — from the Earth on May 29^th, shining at +11^th magnitude and crossing south into the constellation of Leo Minor in late May. Interestingly, it also passes 0.8 degrees from asteroid 2 Pallas on May 26^th. Though tiny, comet 209P/LINEAR’s 2014 passage ranks as the 9^th closest recorded approach of a comet to the Earth.

The Moon is also at an ideal phase for meteor watching this coming weekend as it presents a waning crescent phase just 4 days from New and rises at around 4:00 AM local.

The expected radiant for the Cams sits at Right Ascension 8 hours and declination 78 degrees north in the constellation of Camelopardalis, the “camel leopard…” OK, we’ve never seen such a creature, either. (Read “giraffe”). Unfortunately, this puts the radiant just 20 degrees above the northern horizon as seen from +30 degrees north latitude here in Florida at 7:00 UT. Generally speaking, the farther north you are, the higher the radiant will be in the sky and the better your viewing prospects are. Canada and the northern continental United States could potentially be in for a good show. Keep in mind too, the high northern declination of the radiant means that it transits the meridian (crosses upper culmination) a few hours before sunset Friday night at 6 PM local; this means it’ll have an elevation of about 38 degrees above the horizon as seen from 30 degrees north latitude just after sunset. It may well be worth watching for early activity after dusk!

Weather — A look ahead at the cloud cover prospects for the morning of May 24th. Credit: NOAA.

Clouded out or live on the wrong side of the planet to watch the Camelopardalids? Slooh will be carrying a live broadcast of the event starting at 3:00 PM PDT/ 6:00 PM EDT/ 22:00 UT. Also, the folks at the Virtual Telescope Project will carry two separate webcasts of the event, one featuring the progenitor comet 209P LINEAR starting at 20:00 UT on May 22^nd and another featuring the meteor shower itself starting at 5:30 UT on May 24^th.

Observing meteors is fun and easy and requires nothing more than a good pair of “mark-1 eyeballs” and patience. And although the radiant may be low to the north, meteors can appear anywhere in the sky. We like to keep a pair of binocs handy to examine any lingering smoke trains left by bright fireballs. Counting the number of meteors you see from your location and submitting this estimate to the International Meteor Organization may help in ongoing efforts to understand this first time meteor shower. And capturing an image of a meteor is as simple as setting a DSLR on a tripod with a wide field of view and taking time exposures of the sky… something you can start practicing tonight.

P_20140518_110518 — Our humble meteor observing rig… (Photo by author).

Don’t miss what could well be the astronomical event of the year… I’d love to see a meteor shower named after an obscure constellation such as the #Camelopardalids trending. And we fully expect to start fielding reports of “strange rocks falling from the sky” this week, which the cometary dust that composes a meteor shower isn’t. In fact, Meteorite Man Geoffrey Notkin once noted that no confirmed meteorite fall has ever been linked to a periodic meteor shower.

Don’t miss the celestial show!

-Got pics of the Camelopardalids? Send ‘em to Universe Today. There’s a good chance that we’ll run an after-action photo-round up if the Cams kick it into high gear.

-Read more about the Camelopardalids here in a recent outstanding post by Bob King on Universe Today.

April 18, 2014December 23, 2015 by Nancy Atkinson

Watch Live Webcast: Secrets of the Universe’s First Light

The BICEP telescope located at the south pole. Image Credit: CfA / Harvard

Just a month ago came the news of the first direct evidence of primordial gravitational waves — ripples in the fabric of spacetime — providing the first direct evidence the Universe underwent a brief but stupendously accelerated expansion immediately following the Big Bang.

This almost unimaginably fast expansion when the Universe was only a trillionth of a trillionth of a trillionth of a second was first theorized more than three decades ago, and the announcement last month was so monumental that some are comparing it to the discovery of the Higgs boson.

On April 18, 20:00 UTC (3 pm EDT, 1:00 pm PDT, two of the scientists who made this groundbreaking discovery will come together for a conversation with two of the pioneering leaders of the field. Together, they will examine the detection of a distinctive, swirling pattern in the universe’s first light, what the swirl tells us about that monumental growth spurt, and the many implications on the way we understand the universe around us.

You can watch below:

The hangout will include members of the BICEP2, which made the discovery, as well as two notable scientists in this field, John Carlstrom and Michael Turner.

April 15, 2014December 23, 2015 by David Dickinson

Seeing Red: Spectacular Views of this Morning’s Total Lunar Eclipse

Did the Moon appear a little on crimson side to you last night? It’s not your imagination, but it was a fine textbook example of a total lunar eclipse. This was the first total lunar eclipse visible from the Earth since late 2011, and the first of four visible from the Americas over the next 18 months.

And although much of the U.S. and Canadian eastern seaboard was under cloud cover, those west of the Mississippi River were treated to a fine show. We were the lucky exception here at Astroguyz HQ just north of Tampa Bay in Florida, as the storm front held off juuusst long enough to witness the eclipse in its entirety.

We will admit, though, that there were some tense moments. A wave of thick clouds threatened to end our session altogether just moments before the onset of totality before finally abating. We shot stills, streamed video, made observations, and heck, just stepped back once in a while to stare at the ruby-tinged beauty that was totality.

And judging from the flurry of web traffic, the odd late Monday night/ early Tuesday morning timing for this eclipse did little to stem folks interest. We noted to Virtual Star Party co-host that the excitement was reminiscent to the early morning landing of Curiosity on the Red Planet.

Anyhow, here’s just a sampling of some of the great pics currently pouring in to Universe Today:

An eclipsed Moon+Spica. Credit: Henry Weiland of Honolulu, Hawaii

Visually, we’d place this morning’s eclipse between a Danjon value of 3 and 4, with a bright yellowish rim contrasting with a dark, coppery core near the center of the umbra. One astute viewer noted during the webcast that the eclipsed Moon took on a decidedly 3-D appearance, versus its usual flat look when nearing Full.

The eclipsed Moon, Mars and Spica. Credit: @Astrocolors

And speaking of Mars, we fielded lots of “what are those bright stars nearby?” questions as well. The bright blue-white star Spica and the planet Mars “photobombed” many eclipse images. Spica just missed being occulted by the Moon during the eclipse by less than two degrees, And Mars just passed opposition this week and was at its closest approach to the Earth for 2014 on the night of the eclipse.

Approaching totality as seen from Jacksonville, Florida. Credit Richard Hay @WinObs — Approaching totality as seen from Jacksonville, Florida. Credit: Richard Hay @WinObs.

As totality approached, shutter-speeds became longer as the red edge of the Moon became apparent. It always amazes me to think that the Earth casts that long red shadow back into the void of space every night, but its only during a lunar eclipse that you actually get to see it. We’re always told that the Earth is round, but during a lunar eclipse is one of the only times that you can really witness this curve, up close and personal.

NYC Credit: AstroVal1 — A gathering of red objects, both celestial and terrestrial. Credit: AstroVal1, New York City.

This eclipse was placed reasonably high in the sky for Northern hemisphere viewers, though that also meant a lack of pics with foreground, except of course for creative shots like the one above. And with the explosion of digital imaging technology, its amazing what folks are doing to image eclipses, even using mobile phones:

An IPhone eclipse. Credit: Mike Weasner.

We’ve come a long way since the days of film and doing back of the envelope calculations for afocal SLR photography of the Moon, that’s for sure. Unlike solar totality, lunar eclipses are a long at stately affair. In fact, totality during this eclipse lasted for one hour and 18 minutes, about 29 minutes short of the theoretical maximum. This morning’s eclipse won’t be topped in length until 2018.

A brick red Moon in eclipse. Credit: Rob Sparks.

This also marked our first attempts at adventures in live-streaming an eclipse both on UStream and G+, which was a blast. Thanks to co-hosts and saros chasers Scott Lewis, Fraser Cain, Thad Szabo and Katie Mack (@AstroKatie) for making the broadcast a success!

As of yet, there’s no images of the eclipse from space-based assets, though some may surface. Universe Today’s Elizabeth Howell noted that NASA engineers took precautions to protect the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter during the event: an extended lack of sunlight is a bad thing for solar-powered spacecraft. As of yet, there’s no word as to how the LADEE spacecraft also in orbit around the Moon fared, though its due to complete its mission and crash into the Moon this month.

The eclipsed Moon and Spica. Photo by Author.

And like the “Blue,” “Super” and “Mini” Moon, the Blood Moon meme is now — for better or worse — here to stay. We’ve already fielded multiple queries for media sources asking if the current tetrad of eclipses has any special significance, and the answer is no; I would still file your taxes on this April the 15th. Eclipses happen, as do wars, earthquakes and lost car keys… each and every year.

Credit: John O'Connor, Fort Pierce, Florida. — Approaching totality. Credit: John O’Connor, Fort Pierce, Florida.

Want more? There’s no word yet as to if anyone caught any of the more bizarre challenges during this eclipse, such as completing a triple saros exeligmos, catching an ISS transit, spotting a selenelion or catching a stellar occultation during the eclipse. If you did any of the above, let us know!

And finally, the biggest post-eclipse question on everyone’s mind is always: when’s the next one? Well, Australians only have to wait two weeks until a partial solar eclipse graces their continent on April 29th… and the next total lunar eclipse once again favors North America and the Pacific region on October 8th, 2014.

T’was a great kickoff this morning of eclipse season 1 of 2 for 2014!

April 14, 2014December 23, 2015 by David Dickinson

Webcasts and Forecasts for Tonight’s Total Lunar Eclipse

The December 21st 2010 Solstice eclipse. Photos by author.

Are you ready for some eclipse action? We’re now within 24 hours of the Moon reaching its ascending node along the ecliptic at 13:25 Universal Time (UT)/ 9:25 AM EDT on Tuesday morning and meeting the shadow of the Earth just over seven hours earlier.

We’ve written about viewing prospects for tonight’s lunar eclipse. This eclipse is the first total lunar eclipse since December 10^th, 2011 and is the first in a series of four — known as an eclipse tetrad — visible from North America in 2014 and 2015. Totality lasts 1 hour and 18 minutes and falls just 29 minutes short of the theoretical maximum, which was last neared on January 21^st, 2000 and won’t be topped until July 27^th, 2018.

This will be an early morning event for U.S. East Coasters spanning 2:00 to 5:30 AM local (from the start of the partial umbral phases and totality), and a midnight spanning-event for the Pacific coast starting at 11:00 PM Monday night until 2:30 AM Tuesday morning on the 15^th.

And as always with celestial events, the chief question on every observer’s mind is: will the skies be clear come show time? Should I stay put, or ponder going mobile?

When it comes to astronomical observing, a majority a mainstream weather resources only tell part of the story, often only listing cloud cover and precipitation percentages. Seeing, transparency, and low versus middle and high cloud decks can often mean the difference between a successful observing session and deciding to pack it in and watch Cosmos reruns online. But the good news is, you don’t need crystal clear skies to observe a total lunar eclipse, just a view of the Moon, which can easily “burn through” a high cirrus cloud deck. We’re going to share a few sites that are essential tools for planning an observing session and what they say about the prospects for seeing tonight’s eclipse.

Cloud cover prospects. Credit: NOAA. — Cloud cover prospects towards the end of tomorrow morning’s lunar eclipse. Credit: NOAA.

Now the bad news: things aren’t looking good for eastern North America. In fact, the dividing line between “cloudy” and “clear” runs right down through central Ontario and follows the Mississippi River at mid-eclipse, which occurs at 7:47 UT/3:47 AM EDT. There’s a high pressure front sweeping eastward, bringing rain and cloudy skies with it. The Florida peninsula and parts of New England and the Canadian Maritimes may have shots at viewing the eclipse through partly cloudy skies.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration maintains a great interactive site with graphical interactive forecasts, to include satellite maps. Another long-standing source of good info is the Weather Underground. For tailor-made astronomy forecasts, we’re checking Clear Sky Chart (formerly Clear Sky Clock) and SkippySky daily for upcoming prospects. A great feature in SkippySky is that it not only gives you cloud cover maps, but layers them with high versus middle and low clouds… again, a thin high cloud deck during the lunar eclipse could still mean game on!

Clouded out? There’s a half dozen webcasts planned for tonight’s lunar eclipse as well.

Dependable Slooh will have a live broadcast with commentary on the eclipse starting at 2AM EDT/6:00 UT:

Also, our good friends at the Virtual Telescope Project will be covering the lunar eclipse as part of their ongoing Global Astronomy Month campaign and will utilize several North American observers to cover the event:

NASA is also planning a broadcast out of the Marshall Space Flight Center of the eclipse along with a discussion on Reddit with NASA planetary scientist Renee Weber also starting at 2:00 AM EDT:

Video streaming by Ustream

The Coca-Cola Space Science Center and Columbus State University also plans host a webcast of the lunar eclipse starting at 3:00 UT/11:00 PM EDT.

Also, the PBS Star Gazers project is planning on hosting a broadcast of the eclipse starting at 1:30 AM EDT/5:30 UT:

Video streaming by Ustream

And finally, we hope to launch our very own initiation into the world of eclipse webcasting with an hour-long broadcast of the crucial phase transition from partial to total eclipse starting at 2:30 AM EDT/6:30 UT, weather willing:

Live streaming video by Ustream

And hey, word is that doomsday purveyor John Hagee is planning a broadcast of a more “End of the World” bent tonight as well. We didn’t know he was an astronomy fan…

Prospects call for a brighter than normal eclipse, as atmospheric sciences professor at the University of Colorado Richard Keen notes that the Earth’s stratosphere is currently relatively clear of dust and volcanic ash. Still, we’ve been surprised before. The darkness and color of the eclipsed Moon is expressed on what’s known as the Danjon scale. As during eclipses previous, we’ll be data-mining Twitter for estimates and averages to see how they stack up… tweet those observations to #DanjonNumber.

Opportunities to catch the ISS transiting the Moon... during tonight's eclipse. Credit: CALSky. — Opportunities to catch the ISS transiting the Moon during tonight’s eclipse. Credit: CALSky.

We also ran the possibilities for catching a shadow transit of the International Space Station in front of the eclipsed Moon for North American observers. To our knowledge, this has never been done before. Live near one of the two paths depicted above? You may be the first to accomplish this unusual feat. Check in with CALSky for specifics.

Our backyard "eclipse broadcasting station." — Our backyard “eclipse broadcasting station.”

Finally, ever wonder when the next eclipse will occur during the Sunday night Virtual Star Party? If you’re like us, you consider and ponder such astronomical occurrences… and it turns out, the very last lunar eclipse in the current tetrad next year on September 28^th, 2015 does just that. And stick around until July 13^th, 2037 and we’ll have the first ever total solar eclipse occurring during the show… we just need someone in Australia to stream it!

Tonight’s eclipse is number 56 of saros 122. Reader Rob Sparks notes that the last eclipse (55) in this series occurred on April 4^th 1996 and also hosted an extra-special celestial treat, as Comet Hyakutake was just beginning to put on its memorable performance.

In short, don’t fear the “Blood Moon,” but do get out and catch tonight’s fine lunar eclipse… we’ll be doing a post-eclipse photo roundup tomorrow, so be sure to send those pics in to Universe Today!

April 9, 2014December 23, 2015 by David Dickinson

Mars Opposition Season 2014: Images From Around the World

Mars as seen on from Aguadilla, Puerto Rico on Mars 25th, 2014, two weeks prior to opposition. Credit-Efrain Morales Rivera.

Did you see it? Last night, the Red Planet rose in the east as it passed opposition for 2014, and astrophotographers the world over were ready to greet it. And although Mars gets slightly closer to us over the coming week, opposition marks the point at which Mars is 180 degrees “opposite” to the setting Sun in Right Ascension as viewed from our Earthly vantage point and denotes the center of the Mars observing season. Opposition only comes around once about every 26 months, so it’s definitely worth your while to check out Mars through a telescope now if you can. We’ve written about prospects for observing Mars this season, and the folks at Slooh and the Virtual Telescope Project also featured live views of the Red Planet last night. We also thought we’d include a reader roundup of pics from worldwide:

Mars and Spica rising over the telescope domes at Kitt Peak, Arizona. The 2.1 metre dome is on the left, and the 0.9 metre dome is to the right. Credit-Rob Sparks @halfastro.

Even near opposition, Mars presents a challenge to observers. In 2014, Mars only reaches 15 arc seconds maximum in apparent size, a far cry from its 25″ appearance during the historic 2003 opposition. Now for the good news: we’re in a cycle of improving oppositions… the next one on May 22nd, 2016 will be better still, and the 2018 opposition will be nearly as favorable as the 2003 appearance!

Mars as seen from the Netherlands at 0:26 UT... about 3 hours past opposition. Credit- Christian Fröschlin. — Mars as seen from the Netherlands at 0:26 UT… about 3 hours past opposition. Credit- Christian Fröschlin @chrfde.

And you can see just how technology in the amateur astronomy community has improved with each successive appearance of Mars over the years. Early observers were restricted to sketching features glimpsed during fleeting moments of steady seeing. Even during the film era of photography, absurdly long focal lengths were required to yield even a tiny speck of a dot. And even then, the “graininess” of the film tended to smear and yield a blurry image with few details to be seen.

The advent of digital photography opened new vistas on planetary imaging. Now backyard astrophotographers are routinely taking images using stacking techniques and processing to “grab” and align those moments of good seeing. These images are often now better that what you’d see in a text book taken from professional observatories only a few decades ago!

And you can now easily modify a webcam to take decent planetary images that can then be stacked and processed with software freely available on the web.

…And check out this video animation also by Christian Fröschlin that shows the rotation (!) of Mars:

Mars as seen from Ottawa, Canada, taken using an IPhone 4S through a NexStar 8SE telescope on April 4th, 2014. Awesome! Credit-Andrew Symes @FailedProtostar

Shahrin Ahmad made an excellent video from Malaysia that demonstrates just what raw captured images of Mars look like before processing:

Note that the large dark triangular region is Syrtis Major.

Mars annotated, a stack of 1128 frames shot at 666x. Credit-Mike Weasner/Cassiopeia Observatory.

The northern polar cap is currently tipped towards us, as it’s northern hemisphere summertime on Mars. Many images reflect this prominent feature, as well as the orographic clouds skirting the Hellas basin that have been the hallmark of the Mars opposition of 2014. These are also apparent visually at the eyepiece. It’s worth staying up a bit towards local midnight to observe and image Mars, as it transits at its maximum elevation — and is above the murk of the sky low to the horizon — right around this time.

Mars captured through a Celestron C6 SCT telescope on April 5th, 2014. Credit: Joel Tonyan.

Mars: a study of color contrasts on the eve of opposition. Credit-Laura Austin @LAismylady

And Mars observing season doesn’t end this week. Mars makes its closest passage to the Earth for 2014 next Monday on April 14th at 0.618 Astronomical Units (A.U.s) distant. Mars will occupy the evening sky for the remainder of 2014 before finally reaching solar conjunction on June 14th, 2015. Mars will still be greater than a respectable 10″ in apparent size until June 24th and will continue to offer observers a fine view at the eyepiece.

Mars as seen from Rhode Island on the night of opposition. Credit-Cherie @KelieAna

And don’t forget, that waxing gibbous Moon is now homing in on Mars and will only sit a few degrees away from the Red Planet and Spica on the night of the April 14th/15th, 2014 during a fine total lunar eclipse. And no, a “red” planet + a “blood red” eclipsed Moon does not equal doomsday… but it’ll make a great photo op!

Mars imaged using a 150 mm scope. Credit-Sergei Golyshev under a Creative Commons Share-Alike 2.0 Generic License.

… and finally, Mars and the bright blue-white star Spica offered us a fine morning view as the storm front passed over Astroguyz HQ here in Florida this AM:

Author — Mars, Spica, and our partly cloudy terrestrial atmosphere. Photo by author.

Want something more? Have you ever seen Mars… in the daytime? Currently shining at magnitude -1.5, its just possible if you known exactly where to look for it low to the east about 10 minutes or so before local sunset. In fact, near opposition is the only time you can carry this unusual feat of visual athletics out. The best chance in 2014 is on the evening of April 13th and 14th, when the waxing gibbous Moon lies nearby:

Looking east on the evening of April 13th, just before sunset. Credit: Starry Night education software.

Good luck, and thanks to everyone who imaged Mars this season!

April 3, 2014December 23, 2015 by David Dickinson

Night of the Red Planet: Mars Opposition 2014 Coming Soon!

Coming to you on April 8th courtesy of the Virtual Telescope!

Mars attacks and comes to a night sky near you this month, and the folks at the Virtual Telescope Project and Slooh are bringing it to you live and in color. Unlike most planets, “Mars viewing season” comes around only once about every two years. And while Mars is shining bright in the sky right now, the “official” event of Mars being closest to Earth happens next week on April 8^th, when the Red Planet reaches opposition and shines at magnitude -1.5 in the constellation Virgo.

We’ve written about the prospects and circumstances for viewing Mars this opposition season; now it’s time to watch it live. The webcast starts at 23:00 Universal Time (UT) or / 7:00 PM EDT on the night of Tuesday April 8^th, and will feature real-time images brought to you via robotic telescopes worldwide. Hosted by astrophysicist Gianluca Masi and run in conjunction with Astronomers Without Borders, this online observing session of Mars also occurs during Global Astronomy Month. Anyone who tuned in for their recent online Messier Marathon and live broadcasts of several recent Near-Earth Asteroids past our fair planet knows that they’re in for quite a treat!

Want more? Or simply want dual screen live views of “all Mars, all the time?” Our dependable friends over at Slooh will be chronicling the Mars opposition on the same night, starting at a slightly different bat-time at 02:00 UT (the morning of the 9^th) which is 10:00 PM EDT the evening of the 8^th. Slooh will be presenting a live feed from its automated telescopes based in the Canary Islands off of the coast of West Africa and will feature live commentary from hosts Paul Cox and astronomer and author of The Sun’s Heartbeat Bob Berman.

“Mars has held disproportionate focus for humans since ancient times,” Berman said in a recent press release. “It is neither the closest planet, nor the largest, nor the most detailed through telescopes. Nonetheless, it is the only planet in the universe that shows distinct and sometimes detailed surface features through our telescopes. It is also the most Earthlike body in the known universe, with oxygen bound into its soil and water contained in its ices. Therefore, during the brief two weeks when it comes near us every 26 months, it deserves the limelight.”

Indeed, Mars has captivated observers ever since Christiaan Huygens sketched the first blurry surface feature Syrtis Major back in 1659. Percival Lowell enthralled the public imagination with his sketches of what he thought were canals built by an intelligent and ancient civilization on the Red Planet, and astronomer David Peck Todd once proposed to signal said Martians via balloon aloft in 1909. The SETI Institute’s Seth Shostak noted in his book Confessions of an Alien Hunter that to the average person on the street in the early 20^th century, the idea that Mars was inhabited was a given.

Of course, the reality revealed to us by the early Mariner missions in the 1960s onwards paints a bleak picture of a cratered world with a tenuous atmosphere inhospitable to life as we know it.

Still, Mars is a real world, somewhere that rovers are rolling across and exploring even as we peer at it though the eyepiece this month. Six months prior to opposition also the best opportunity to send spacecraft to Mars, and later this year, NASA’s MAVEN and India’s Mars orbiter Mangalyaan both launched in late 2013 will complete the trip.

Mars approaches Earth during the month of April. Credit: Efrain Morales Rivera/Jaicoa Observatory/Aguadilla, Puerto Rico.

Observing the Red Planet through the eyepiece is easy. The most conspicuous feature is the white northern pole cap, currently tipped towards us. Orographic clouds have also been imaged by amateurs recently over the Hellas basin, and a planet wide dust storm could always crop up at any time. A Martian day is only 37 minutes longer than the Earth’s, meaning you’re only seeing Mars rotated by about 15 degrees of longitude if you observe it at the same time each night. At about 15” across, you could stack 120 Mars diameters as seen this week from Earth across a Full Moon. And no, Mars NEVER appears as big as a Full Moon as seen from the Earth, not this week, every August, or EVER, despite those pesky chain-emails from well meaning co-workers/friends/relatives who just know that you’re into that “space thing…”

All oppositions of Mars are not created equal. In fact, we’re coming off of a series of lackluster oppositions that’ll see Mars getting successively better until 2018, when it’ll nearly top the historic opposition of 2003. For ephemerides buffs, Mars reaches opposition — that is, it’s 180 degrees opposite to the Sun as reckoned in right ascension — on April 8^th at 21:00 UT/5:00 PM EDT. It is not quite, however, at its closest to us for 2014: it has still got 0.003 AU (465,000 kilometres, a little over the distance from the Earth to the Moon) and just over 5 days before its closest approach to Earth on the night of April 14^th/15^th, when a total eclipse of the Moon lies just nine degrees away. The reason opposition and the closest approach of Mars to Earth are not quite in sync is because the orbits of both planets are elliptical, and while Mars is currently moving towards perihelion, Earth is heading toward aphelion on July 4^th.

A photo-montage leading up to the 2003 opposition. Photos by author using a webcam turned planetcam.

Can’t wait until the 8^th? Universe Today hosts a Virtual Star Party every Sunday evening at 11:00 PM EDT / 03:00 UT on Google+ featuring telescopes and commentary by observers and astronomers worldwide. Weather willing, Mars should be a centerpiece object for the show this Sunday night on April 6^th.

Be sure to check out Mars at its best this week for 2014, either in a sky near you or online… hey, maybe we’ll be live casting the transit of Earth, the Moon and Phobos someday from Mars on the slopes of Elysium Mons on November 10^th, 2084:

Let’s see, hopefully they’ll have perfected that whole Futurama “head in a jar” thing by then…

Enjoy!

March 4, 2014December 23, 2015 by David Dickinson

Watch the Close Pass of NEO Asteroid 2014 DX110 Wednesday Night

The orbital path and position of Apollo NEO asteroid 2014 DX110 just a week prior to disocvery. Credit- Created using NASA/JPL's Solar System Dynamics Small-Body Database Browser.

BREAKING- No sooner than the cyber-ink was dry on this post than we got notice of another 10-metre NEO asteroid 2014 EC passing Earth at just under 0.2 times the Earth-Moon distance – less than 64,000 kilometres – on Thursday, March 6th at 21:18 UT/4:18 PM EST. And the Virtual Telescope will be carrying this passage live as well on March 6th starting at 19:00 UT/2:00 PM EST. Bring in on, universe!

The Earth-Moon system gets a close shave on the night of Wednesday, March 5^th 2014 when Near Earth Object (NEO) asteroid 2014 DX110 passes our fair planet at 216,000 miles or about 345,600 distant at around 21:06 Universal Time (UT)/ 4:06 PM EST.

About 30 metres in diameter, 2014 DX110 was discovered by the Pan-STARRS 1 survey on February 28^th, and its orbit was initially refined using follow up observations made by the Great Shefford Observatory in West Berkshire, England.

And although the asteroid is no threat to Earth or the Moon – it makes a pass 232,800 miles from our natural satellite one hour and 22 minutes after its closest passage from the Earth – the asteroid is currently listed on NASA’s risk page for a 1 in 10,000,000 chance of impact with Earth on March 4^th, 2046.

Of course, additional observations usually lower this remote possibility even further in the case of most newly discovered near Earth asteroids. Visually, 2014 DX110 isn’t expected to brighten above +15^th magnitude as it glides northward through the constellation of Camelopardalis at closest approach Wednesday night.

But the good news is, you can catch the passage of 2014 through the Earth-Moon system Wednesday night courtesy of our friends at the Virtual Telescope Project:

The webcast of the event is expected to go live at 20:30 UT, and will include live commentary.

Its been a busy last few weeks in terms of asteroid flybys, including a passage of Amor NEO asteroid 2014 DU110 earlier today at 15:54 UT/10:54 AM EST at 0.14 A.U.s or just over 20 million kilometres distant. And the folks at the Virtual Telescope Project will be covering another asteroid flyby on Sunday, March 9^th starting at 23:00 UT/6:00 PM EST to track the 180 meter asteroid 2014 CU13. This large Apollo NEO is projected to pass 8 lunar distances or over 3 million kilometres away from the Earth on March 11^th at 9:05 UT/4:05 AM EST.

It should be easy to pick out the motion of 2014 DX110 moving against the starry background at closest approach in real time. 2014 DX110 is an Apollo-class asteroid, and has an orbital period of 1192 days or about 3.26 years. It also has a fairly shallow inclined orbit relative to the ecliptic traced out by Earth’s path around the Sun, with a tilt of just over 5.7 degrees. This means that 2014 DX110 is approaching the Earth from just southward and behind it in its orbit around the Sun before crossing just inside of our orbit and northward of the ecliptic plane.

The discovery of asteroid 2014 DX110 was announced by the Minor Planet Center on Sunday, March 2^nd in electronic circular 2014-E22. The orbit of 2014 DX110 takes it just interior of Earth’s at a perihelion of 0.83 A.U.s from the Sun and out to an aphelion of 3.6 A.U.s into the realm of the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

Generally speaking, asteroids passing interior to the Moon’s orbit grab our attention for further scrutiny. Looking back through the European Space Agency’s Near-Earth Objects Dynamics Site, asteroid 2014 DX110 also made an undocumented close passage of Earth on March 17^th, 1998 at a minimum possible miss distance of 102,300 miles/163,680 kilometres distant, and a similar passage March 22^nd, 1982. 2014 DX110 passed sufficiently close enough to Earth on these passages to alter its orbit so that it now returns to our terrestrial neighborhood every 13 odd years during the span of the 21^st century. 2014 DX110 will be moving at a velocity of 14.8 kilometres per second relative to Earth on closest approach Wednesday night and will be inside the Earth’s Hill sphere of gravitational influence from March 4^th to March 7^th, though of course, it’s moving much too fast for capture.

2014 DX110 will be interior of the Moon’s orbit from 18:06 UT/1:06 PM EST on March 5^th until 00:07 UT March 6^th (7:07 PM EST on the night of March 5^th). The large size – about the size of an office block – and the nature of its orbit, coupled with its relatively large velocity relative to the Earth rule out any potential for 2014 DX110 being space junk in solar orbit returning to Earth’s vicinity, though such objects from the Apollo missions and the Chinese Chang’e-2 Moon mission have been recovered as Earth asteroids before.

Such an impact risk, however remote, merits further study to refine the orbit of this potentially hazardous space rock. Surveys such as PanSTARRS, the Catalina Sky Survey and the B612 Foundation’s asteroid hunting Sentinel space telescope slated for launch as early as 2017 are working to identify dangerous space rocks. The next and more difficult step will be mitigation and working to nudge these asteroids out of harm’s way, hopefully years in advance.

But you can breathe a sigh of relief Wednesday night as asteroid 2014 DX110 passes us at a safe distance. Thanks to Gianluca Masi at the Virtual Telescope Project for bringing this one to our attention!