Universe Today

August 31, 2009December 24, 2015 by Brian Ventrudo

Astronomers Find World’s Best Observing Site

Image of the Chinese Kunlun base, near "Ridge A"

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The search for the best observatory site in the world has lead to the discovery of what is thought to be the coldest, driest, calmest place on Earth. No human is thought to have ever been there, but it’s expected to yield images of the heavens three times sharper than any ever taken from the ground.

The joint US-Australian research team combined data from satellites, ground stations and climate models to assess the many factors that affect the quality of an observing site – cloud cover, temperature, sky-brightness, water vapour, wind speeds and atmospheric turbulence.

The researchers pinpointed a site on an Antarctic plateau with the prosaic name “Ridge A”. At an elevation of 4,053 m, the ridge is not only remote but extremely cold and dry. The study revealed that Ridge A has an average winter temperature of -70 °C, and that the water content of the entire atmosphere in a vertical column above the ridge is equivalent to a layer of liquid water less than the thickness of a human hair.

The ridge is also extremely calm, which means that there is very little of the atmospheric turbulence elsewhere that makes stars appear to twinkle. “It’s so calm that there’s almost no wind or weather there at all,” says Dr. Will Saunders of the Anglo-Australian Observatory and visiting professor to the University of New South Wales, who led the study.

“The astronomical images taken at Ridge A should be at least three times sharper than at the best sites currently used by astronomers,” says Dr. Saunders. “Because the sky there is so much darker and drier, it means that a modestly-sized telescope there would be as powerful as the largest telescopes anywhere else on earth.”

They found that the best place in almost all respects was not the highest point on the Plateau – called Dome A – but 150km away along a flat ridge.

“Ridge A looks to be significantly better than elsewhere on the Antarctic plateau and far superior to the best existing observatories on high mountain tops in Hawaii and Chile,” says Dr. Saunders.

Ridge A is located within the Australian Antarctic Territory (81.5 °S 73.5 ºE), the site is 144km from an international robotic observatory and the proposed new Chinese ‘Kunlun’ base at Dome A (80.37 °S 77.53 °E).

Interest in Antarctica as a site for astronomical and space observatories has accelerated since 2004 when astronomers published a paper in the journal Nature confirming that a ground-based telescope at Dome C, another Antarctic plateau site, could take images nearly as good as those from the space-based Hubble telescope. A detailed study by the Anglo-Australian Observatory suggests the cost of building and running the 2.5 m telescope PILOT optical/infrared telescope at Dome C would be US$8.5 million.

The finding is published today in the Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific.

Source: University of New South Wales

August 31, 2009May 4, 2017 by Nicholos Wethington

Who was the First Monkey to go into Space?

Albert II in preparation for his historic flight. Image Credit: NASA

There are many brave astronauts that have participated – and even given their lives – in the quest to put human beings into space. But before those astronauts had a chance to take flight, there was a long line of other creatures that paved the way for human spaceflight. The first living beings were fruit flies, which were sent up along with some seeds of corn in 1947 to test the effects of radiation on DNA. The container of flies flew aboard a V2 rocket to a height of 106 miles (171 km), and the capsule was recovered with the flies alive and well.

The first monkey to be sent successfully into space was Albert II, a male rhesus monkey, who made it to a height of 83 miles (134 km) on June 14, 1949. Albert II was carried aboard a V2 rocket as well, though his fate was not as lucky as that of the fruit flies: a problem with the parachute on the recovery capsule sadly led Albert II to his death from the force of the impact upon landing.

Albert II was preceded by Albert, whose capsule only made it to a height of 39 miles (63km) on June 11, 1948. Albert did not last long, and possibly suffocated even before his capsule left the ground. Space officially begins at 100 km above the surface of the Earth, and this height is called the Karman Line. After Albert II made it into space, a number of other monkeys, named Albert III, IV, and V all flew aboard rockets, though none survived the flight, either dying on impact or during the flight.

All of the monkeys were anesthetized during their missions, and implants and sensors – as well as cameras on later missions – allowed scientists to study the effects of weightlessness and radiation at high altitudes on living creatures. Without the sacrifice of these animals, there would have been much loss of human life during the space program.

The first monkeys to survive the flight into space were two monkeys named Able and Miss Baker. They flew to a height of 360 miles (580 km) on May 28, 1959 aboard a Jupiter rocket. Their capsule landed 1700 miles (2736 km) downrange from the Eastern Space Missile Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida, and they were successfully recovered. To read more about this historic event, check out our story commemorating the 50th anniversary of the flight.

For more information on the history of animals in space, NASA has a brief synopsis here, and a much more detailed version here.

Source: NASA

August 31, 2009December 24, 2015 by Nancy Atkinson

Astro Art of the Week #8: Space Shuttle Sketches

Sketch of the space shuttle. Credit: Assi Suer

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This week’s Astro Art was submitted by Assi Süer, a 20 year-old amateur astronomer and astrophysics student from Sweden. She has been sketching and painting since she was young. Since space shuttle Discovery is now docked at the International Space Station for the STS-128 mission, Assi’s sketches seemed fitting for this week, especially since her fellow Swede, Christer Fugelsang, is on board. “He has inspired me, and many more, to never give up,” Assi said. “Even a Swede can become an astronaut, but only if we work hard for it. It is, of course, nothing wrong with Swedes, but it’s hard for us because we’re such a small part of the European Space Agency.”

“‘Failure is not an option’ is my favorite quote,” Assi said, “because failure definitely isn’t an option for me, if I’m going to one day work for ESA, which is my dream. So I’m going to do everything to not fail.”

Below is another of her sketches of space shuttles.

Assi shared that she would one day like to sketch and design Mars landers. You’ve got a great talent, Assi! Go for it!

Hear Assi on the 365 Days of Astronomy podcast from August 22 talking about astronomy for beginners.

August 31, 2009December 29, 2015 by Nancy Atkinson

Carnival of Space #118

This week’s Carnival of Space is hosted by Stuart Atkinson over at Cumbrian Sky (who also created the nifty new Carnival picture!)

Click here to read the Carnival of Space #118.

And if you’re interested in looking back, here’s an archive to all the past Carnivals of Space. If you’ve got a space-related blog, you should really join the carnival. Just email an entry to [email protected], and the next host will link to it. It will help get awareness out there about your writing, help you meet others in the space community – and community is what blogging is all about. And if you really want to help out, let Fraser know if you can be a host, and he’ll schedule you into the calendar.

Finally, if you run a space-related blog, please post a link to the Carnival of Space. Help us get the word out.

August 29, 2009January 24, 2021 by Nicholos Wethington

Black Hole on Earth

Magnetic field around a black hole. Image credit: NASA

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As you are likely aware, there are numerous ways in which the Universe could kill us all, destroying the Earth and whatever signs of human life, or life in general, existed on our planet. Gamma Ray Bursts, Coronal Mass Ejections, or just the odd asteroid or comet slamming into the Earth would easily take out most of the life on our planet. But, what about black holes? Do we have to worry about them, too? Could a black hole wipe out all life on Earth, sucking us all into oblivion? It’s possible, but not very likely. And by not very likely, it’s calculated that the odds of being killed by a black hole are about one in one trillion.

First, a black hole has to get to the Earth. There are two ways of this happening. The first is that we create one ourselves, the second that a black hole wandering the galaxy happens upon our little Solar System, and meanders in towards the Sun. We’ll start with the first scenario: creating our own destruction.

How could we make our own black hole? Well, theoretically, when you slam protons together with enough force, there is the potential for the creation of a small, short-lived black hole. Particle colliders like the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva, Switzerland, which is scheduled to start operating again in November 2009, could potentially create miniscule black holes through the collisions of protons. There were many headlines from the mainstream media about the potential of the LHC to create runaway black holes that would find their way to the center of the Earth and devour it from the inside, causing, “total destruction.” Sounds scary, doesn’t it? Even more, two people were suing to stop the LHC because of the potential hazard they thought it posed.

However, the LHC is in no way going to destroy the Earth. This is because any black holes created by the LHC will almost instantly evaporate, due to what’s called Bekenstein-Hawking radiation, which theorizes that black holes do indeed radiate energy, and therefore have a limited lifespan. A black hole with the mass of, say, a few protons, would evaporate in trillionths of a second. And even if it were to stick around, it wouldn’t be able to do much damage: it would likely pass through matter as if it didn’t exist. If you want to know whether the LHC has destroyed the Earth, go here.

Of course, there are other ways of creating black holes than the LHC, namely cosmic rays that slam into our atmosphere on a regular basis. If these are creating mini-black holes all of the time, none of them seem to be swallowing the Earth whole…yet. Other scientific experiments also aim at studying the properties of black holes right here on Earth, but the danger from these experiments is very, very minimal.

Now that we know black holes created here on Earth aren’t likely to kill us all, what about a black hole from the depths of space wandering into our neighborhood? Black holes generally come in two sizes: supermassive and stellar. Supermassive black holes reside in the hearts of galaxies, and one of these is not likely to come barrelling our way. Stellar black holes form from a dying star that, in the end, gives up its fight against gravity and implodes. The smallest black hole that can form from this process is about 12 miles across. The closest black hole to our solar system is Cygnus X-1, which is about 6,000 light years away, much too far to pose a threat by muscling it’s way into our vicinity (although there are other ways that it could potentially harm us if it were closer, like blasting us with a jet of X-rays, but that’s a whole other story). The creation process for a black hole of this variety – a supernova – could potentially sling the black hole across the galaxy, if the supernova happened in a binary pair and the explosion was asymmetric.

If a stellar black hole were to plow through the Solar System, it would be pretty ugly. The object would likely be accompanied by an accretion disk of heated, radioactive matter that would announce the presence of the black hole by frying our atmosphere with gamma and X-rays. Add to that the tidal forces of the black hole disrupting the Sun and other planets, and you have a huge mess on your hands, to say the least. It’s possible that a number of planets, and even the Sun, could be flung out of the Solar System, depending on the mass, velocity, and approach of the black hole. Yikes.

Artist's rendering of a black hole. Image Credit: NASA

There lies one last possiblity for black holes to wreak their havoc on the Earth: Primordial Black Holes. These are miniature black holes theorized to have been created in the intense energies of the Big Bang (which the LHC plans to mimic on a MUCH smaller scale). Many of them most likely evaporated billions of years ago, but a black hole that started out with the mass of a mountain (10 billion tons) could potentially still be lurking around the galaxy. A hole of this size would shine at a temperature of billions of degrees from Bekenstein-Hawking radiation, and it’s likely we would see it coming due to observatories like NASA’s Swift.

From a few yards a way, the black hole’s gravity would be barely noticeable, so this kind of black hole wouldn’t have an effect on the gravity of the Solar System. At less than an inch, though, the gravity would be intense. It would suck up air as it passed through the atmosphere of the Earth, and start to make a small accretion disk. To such a tiny black hole, the Earth seems close to a vacuum, so it would probably pass right through, leaving a wake of radiation in its path and nothing more.

A black hole of this variety with a mass of the Earth, however, would be roughly the size of a peanut, and would be able to potentially swing the Moon straight into the Earth, depending, of course, on the trajectory and speed of the black hole. Yikes, again. Not only that, if it were to impact the Earth, the devastation would be total: as it entered the atmosphere, it would suck up a lot of gas and form a radioactive accretion disk. As it got closer, people and objects on the surface would be sucked up into it. Once it impacted the surface, it would start swallowing up the Earth, and probably eat its way all the way through. In this scenario, the Earth would end up being nothing more than a wispy disk of debris around the remaining black hole.

Black holes are scary and cool, and none of the scenarios depicted here are even remotely likely to happen, even if they’re fun to think about. If you want to learn more about black holes, Hubblesite has an excellent encyclopedia, as does Stardate.org. You can also check out the rest of our section on black holes in the Guide to Space, or listen to the multiple Astronomy Cast episodes on the subject, like Episodes 18, or the questions show on Black, Black Holes. Much of the information on the likelihood and aftereffects of a black hole collision with the Earth in this article is taken from chapter 5 in Phil Plait‘s “Death from the Skies!”

Sources: Discover Magazine, NASA

August 29, 2009December 24, 2015 by Nancy Atkinson

Radio Contact Lost With Chandrayaan-1

Artists impress of Chandrayaan-1 at the moon. Credit: ISRO

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India’s lunar orbiter Chandrayaan-1 lost contact with ISRO’s ground station early on August 29. “We are not able to establish contact with the spacecraft. We are not getting the data, we are not able to send commands,” an ISRO official told the Press Trust of India. “In simple terms, the spacecraft has become dumb. It can’t speak.” The 11 scientific payloads onboard the orbiter had been operating normally, and the spacecraft was sending data during a planned sequence to its ground station when contact was lost. Officials are now analyzing data obtained, hoping to find any indications of what could have happened.

Chandrayaan 1 and NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter teamed up on August 20 to perform a bi-static radar experiment, and although no results have been released yet, the data had been successfully returned from the test.

Chandrayaan-1 was launched October 22, 2008, reaching the moon in early November. It has made over 3,000 orbits and its high-resolution cameras relayed over 70,000 digital images of the lunar surface, providing breathtaking views of mountains and craters, including those in the permanently shadowed area of the moon’s polar region.

The Times Now website is reporting that the mission is over, with a quote from Project Director of the Chandrayaan-1 mission, M Annadurai: “The mission is definitely over. We have lost contact with the spacecraft.”

He added “It has done its job technically…100 per cent. Scientifically also, it has done almost 90-95 percent of its job.”

But as of this writing it has only been about 18 hours since contact was lost. We’ll keep you posted on further news on Chandrayaan-1

Sources: PTI , Times Now

Hat tip to Svetoslav Alexandrov

August 28, 2009December 24, 2015 by Nancy Atkinson

COLBERT, Leonardo and a Neutralino Heading for Space Station

Discovery lift off. Credit: flyingjenny on Twitpic. Click image for more of flyingjenny's images

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The third launch attempt was a charm for space shuttle Discovery and her crew. The STS-128 mission is now underway with a successful liftoff one minute before midnight, local time, from Kennedy Space Center. Discovery is carrying the Leonardo supply module to the International Space Station, and tucked away inside is the COLBERT treadmill, along with several refrigerator-sized racks of science equipment, a freezer to store research samples, a new sleeping compartment, an air purification system, and other supplies, plus another unusual object packed in Swedish astronaut Christer Fuglesang’s belongings: a theoretical particle called a neutralino.

The plush particle with the CERN logo. Source: CERN

As you may have guessed, Fugelsang didn’t bring a real neutralino, but a soft toy version (see the whole collection of particles at Particle Zoo.) Fugelsang is a former CERN physicist and he wanted to take something representing CERN up to space on his mission. He chose the neutralino because it links together astrophysics and particle physics. In particle physics, the neutralino is a hypothetical particle, one of many predicted by supersymmetric theories.

The countdown and launch were textbook, without any hitches or delays. The valve that scrubbed a launch attempt earlier this week behaved normally, and while weather (which forced the first launch scrub) was a concern early during the countdown, the Florida skies eventually cleared allowing for a gorgeous nighttime liftoff. The stunning lead image is courtesy of flyingjenny on Twitter. Click the image for more of her images. Several comments from Twitterers attending the launch said night was turned into day as the shuttle ascended!

The mission is commanded by veteran astronaut Rick “C.J.” Sturckow. With him are pilot Kevin Ford and Mission Specialists Patrick Forrester, Jose Hernandez, John “Danny” Olivas, and Fugelsang, along with a new crew member for the station, Nicole Stott.

Of course, the treadmill is named after comedian Stephen Colbert, (if you’ve been living under a rock and haven’t heard about this, read about it here) and otherwise is called the Combined Operational Load Bearing External Resistance Treadmill.

Discovery is scheduled to dock with the ISS on Sunday August 30.

Sources: NASA TV, CERN

August 28, 2009December 24, 2015 by Nancy Atkinson

Loch Ness Monster On Google Earth?

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As only a British tabloid (and Fox News) could, reports came out this week of the Loch Ness Monster being spotted on Google Earth. “This amazing image on Google Earth could be the elusive proof that the Loch Ness Monster exists,” The Sun reported. Well, for one thing, this doesn’t look *anything* like Nessie. Doesn’t he have a long black neck? And another thing about this: it looks surprisingly like a …. boat. Imagine that, a boat on a lake captured by Google Earth! Astounding!
Look closely and you’ll see the squared off back end of the boat (the stern), the rounded ~~stern~~ bow in front, and the tentacle-looking things are just the boat’s wake. This looks very much like another image of a boat on Loch Ness on Bing (below). Click on the picture to get to the image on Bing and zoom out for the full effect.

To see it on Google Earth, go to coordinates Latitude 57°12’52.13″N, Longitude 4°34’14.16″W. Take a tour of Loch Ness (it is pretty there!) and you’ll see lots of other suspicious looking white things in the lake that are (gasp!) more boats!

August 28, 2009April 26, 2016 by Nancy Atkinson

Future Designs: Robotic Mars Greenhouse, Teleporting Fridge

"Little Prince" robot greenhouse. Credit: Electrolux

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Now THIS is what I’m talking about! Every year Electrolux holds a competition for students to design concepts for future appliances, and they’ve just announced the eight finalists. My favs: a robotic greenhouse for Mars and a teleporting refrigerator. Le Petit Prince (Little Prince) is a robotic greenhouse concept that is specially designed to help the future exploration and expanding population when we colonize Mars. This intelligent robot carries and cares for a plant inside its glass container, which is functionally mounted on a four-legged self-transporting pod. Not only does it search for the optimum place to receive enough sunlight and other nutrients, it also send reports of its movements and developments to its fellow greenhouse robots through wireless communication. It was designed by Martin Miklica, from the Brno University of Technology in the Czech Republic. He said he was inspired by the book The Naked Sun by Isaac Asimov and R2-D2 from Star Wars (and surely Wall-E had something to do with this, too.)

See video of Le Petit Prince, below, and of the teleporting fridge.

This one I can’t wait for: The Teleport Fridge by Dulyawat Wongnawa, Chulalongkorn University, Thailand. Once we figure out how to beam things up, the Teleport Fridge teleports food, eliminating the time and distance a person has to travel to buy fresh groceries or products from a store or farm. Using touch-screen technology as the interface for the teleportation process, the Teleport Fridge simply teleports food to compartments in its refrigeration and freezer units. If the food spoils, it teleports it to the compost pile. Very cool, but it takes the adventure out of opening those containers in the back of the fridge.

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See the other six design concepts and vote for your favorite here.

Source: Electrolux Design Lab

August 28, 2009December 24, 2015 by Tammy Plotner

Weekend SkyWatcher’s Forecast: August 28-30, 2009

Greetings, fellow SkyWatchers! Are you ready for a little lunacy this weekend? Yes, it’s back – but there is no other distant world whose features we can study quite so clearly and as well as the Earth’s companion – the Moon. If it’s been awhile since you turned a telescope or binoculars its way, why not spend an evening or two enjoying some of its features before it becomes overwhelmingly bright? There are other bright objects we often take for granted as well, too… Such as colorful and challenging double stars. If that’s not enough for you – then keep your eyes wide open – because some very cool things are about to happen with Jupiter’s moons! Time to dust off your optics and I’ll see you in the backyard…

Friday, August 28, 2009 – When we begin our observations tonight, we’ll start by having a look at another great binocular or telescope study crater, Archimedes. You’ll find it located in the Imbrium plain north of the Apennine Mountains and west of Autolycus.

Under this lighting, the bright ring of this Class V walled plain extends 83 kilometers in diameter. Even though it looks to be quite shallow, it still has impressive 2,150-meter-high walls. To its south is a feature not often recognized, the Montes Archimedes. Although this relatively short range is heavily eroded, it still shows across 140 km of lunar topography. Look for a shallow rima that extends southeast across Palus Putredinus toward the Apennines. Mark your challenge notes!

Keep those binoculars handy, as we look toward the Northern Cross, otherwise known as Cygnus the Swan. Start at the Swan’s beak—Albireo—and hold the binoculars very steady. Can you make out two stars where you thought there was one? If so, then you are seeing 3.2-magnitude Albireo’s distant companion. But don’t stop with binoculars; bring out the scope and have another look at Beta Cygni (RA 19 30 45 Dec +27 57 55). Albireo’s brighter star is a warm golden yellow and the fainter is a pristine aqua blue. Many astronomers agree this is the premier pair of colors in the heavens!

Saturday, August 29, 2009 – If you stayed out late, or decided to get up early, this morning is a scenic opportunity for binoculars. Just before dawn, look for Mars well risen along the ecliptic plane and aim your optics its way and see what you discover. That’s right! Messier 35 will be about a degree away…

As you start observing this evening, keep an eye on your time for 6:42 UT and watch Jupiter if you live in North America. Believe it or not, Io will partially occult Europa and the two will seem to meld together like a snowman for 13 minutes. And check back later! For at 7:38 UT, its shadow will take a very small bite out of it for approximately 8 minutes!

Our lunar mission for tonight is to move south, past the crater rings of Ptolemaeus, Alphonsus, Arzachel, and Purbach, until we end up at the spectacular crater Walter.

Named for Dutch astronomer Bernhard Walter, this 132- by 140-kilometer-wide lunar feature offers up amazing details at high power. It is worthwhile to take the time to study the differing levels, which drop to a maximum of 4,130 meters below the surface. Multiple interior strikes abound, but the most fascinating of all is the wall crater Nonius. Spanning 70 kilometers, Nonius would also appear to have a double strike of its own—one that’s 2,990 meters deep!

Although it will be tough to locate with the unaided eye thanks to the Moon near Lambda, let’s take a closer look at one of the most unsung stars in this region of sky—Eta Sagittarii (RA 18 17 37 Dec -36 45 42). This M-class giant star will display a wonderful color contrast in binoculars or scopes, showing up as slightly more orange than stars in the surrounding field. Located 149 light-years away, this irregular variable is a source of infrared radiation and is a little larger than our own Sun, yet is 585 times brighter. At around 3 billion years old, Eta has either expended its helium core or just began to fuse carbon and oxygen, creating an unstable star capable of changing its luminosity by about 4%. But have a closer look, for Eta is also a binary system with an 8th magnitude companion!

Sunday, August 30, 2009 – For observers in eastern North America, keep an eye on the time again tonight and watch Jupiter. At 5:44 UT, Io will graze Ganymede for 7 minutes and at 7:47 UT, its shadow will make a stately 22 minute pass, covering about 1/3 of the small moon in shadow!

Tonight let’s do a little Moon-shadowing of our own as we head to the western shore of Mare Cognitum and look along the terminator for the Montes Riphaeus—the ‘‘Mountains in the Middle of Nowhere.’’ But are they really mountains? Let’s take a look…

At its widest, this unusual range spans about 38 kilometers and runs for a distance of about 177 kilometers. Less impressive than most lunar mountain ranges, some peaks reach up to 1,250 meters high, making these summits about the same height as our Earthly volcanoes Mounts St. Augustine and Kilauea. While we are considering volcanic activity, consider that these peaks are the only things left of Mare Cognitum’s walls after the lava filled them in. At one time, this area may have included some of the tallest lunar features!

Tonight let’s have a look at the second brightest star of the Summer Triangle—Altair (RA 19 50 47 Dec +08 52 06). Like Vega, 16-light-year-distant Alpha Aquilae is a Sirius-type star, which is several times the size and mass of our Sun. Such stars burn hotter at the surface (approaching 10,000 Kelvin) and appear much whiter to the eye as a result. An unusual feature of Altair is its exceedingly high speed of rotation, requiring just 6 hours to complete an ‘‘Altairian day’’ at the equator. Because of this, its girth is significantly greater than its height, and gases on the equator move along at the surprising rate of 150 kilometers per second! As you observe Altair telescopically, look for a 10th magnitude companion roughly 3′ to the northwest.

Still more? Then while you’re out this weekend, have a go at the outer planets. While it takes several observations to be sure you’ve capture tiny Pluto by Gamma Cap, more northeastern Neptune is fairly easy and so is Uranus in Pisces. This rough finderchart will help you along the way – although most of these stars won’t be visible thanks to the bright influence of the Moon. So how do you find them? Use primary stars that do show – like Alpha Peg – to begin your search. For Uranus? Try about a handspan southeast, just as Neptune will be roughly two finger widths northeast of Gamma Cap.

This week’s awesome photos are (in order of appearance): Archimedes (credit—Wes Higgins), Beta Cygni (credit—Palomar Observatory, courtesy of Caltech), Albategnius to Walter (credit—Alan Chu), Eta Sagittarii (credit—Palomar Observatory, courtesy of Caltech), Montes Riphaeus (credit—Greg Konkel) and Alpha Aquilae: Altair (credit—Palomar Observatory, courtesy of Caltech). We thank you so much!