Fishing for walleye on the Bay of Quinte (Lake Ontario) near Belleville, Ontario, when the full Moon appeared through the clouds on the horizon. Credit and copyright: Rick Stankiewicz.
In Native American lore, the full Moon in February is called the Snow Moon, as this time of year usually signals the deepest snows of winter in the now cold northern latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere. This year, the full moon fell on February 25th and here are a few images shared by our readers. Above is a classic view of a winter evening in the north — especially where I used to live in Minnesota, but also where Rick Stankiewicz lives in Ontario, Canada.
“I was fishing for walleye with some friends on the Bay of Quinte (Lake Ontario) near Belleville, Ontario,” Rick wrote, “and I was fortunate to be in an opportune location to see the Moon rising in the eastern sky. “A pale pastel pink disc appeared initially, but as the minutes wore on and the lunar disk rose higher above the horizon it grew brighter and transformed from pink, then red, then orange as it evaded more and more of the earth’s atmosphere along the horizon. What a wonderful sight and this made the whole trip worth the effort. Our fishing party caught one nice fish this trip but the rising of the Snow Moon was the ‘icing on the cake’ for me.”
A beautiful shot too!
See more below:
Planet Moon? A panoramic view from Östersund, Sweden. Credit and copyright: Göran Strand
Here’s a fun panoramic view of the full Moon, which seemingly creates a little snow covered planet with the full Moon in the sky. This was sent in by Göran Strand from Sweden: “I wanted to catch the Moon in a snowy environment,” Göran wrote, “so me and my friend went out on Storsjöns snow-covered ice here in Östersund, Sweden….As a bonus, a light mist came in over the lake just as we arrived.”
The full Snow Moon on 02-25-2013 as seen from Dayton, Ohio USA. Credit and copyright: John Chumack.
Our pal John Chumack can always be counted on for a great view of the full Moon! You can see more of his images at his Flickr page or his website, Galactic Images.
The Moon partially hidden by tree branches, taken on February 25, 2013. Credit and copyright: Carolyn Postelwait.The February 2013 full Moon as seen in Michigan, USA. Credit and copyright: Kevin (Kevin’s Stuff on Flickr.)
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[caption id="attachment_100297" align="aligncenter" width="580"] The full Moon as seen in Japan on Feb. 25, 2013. Credit and copyright: Masashi Ito.
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'Fly Me to the Moons' -- a view of the Moon with Jupiter and the four Galilean moons, along with a passing airplane. Credit and copyright: Greg Gibbs.
“No matter how much you plan and prepare,” said photographer Greg Gibbs, “sometimes you just have to be very lucky.”
As we mentioned last week, Jupiter and the Moon were going to have a close encounter in the sky on February 18, with an occultation visible in some areas. And so Gibbs was preparing to get shots of the occultation through his telescope from his location in Victoria, Australia, and was using an automated timer to get shots at about 10 second intervals But then he noticed lights from a plane coming close to the Moon.
“I realised that there was a chance that it would pass in front of the Moon,” he said, “so I quickly canceled the remote timer I was using to take the shots and instead started shooting high speed continuous frames. I managed to get this plane crossing the moon in five individual frames just as Jupiter was about to be occulted by The Moon.”
This final product, as Gibbs notes on his Facebook page, is a two image composite. The Moon, Jupiter and the plane are all one single image. Then he took an overexposed image to bring up the Galilean Moons of (from left to right) Io, Callisto and Europa. At the time of this shot, Ganymede had already been occulted by The Moon.
There’s the old saying, “If you can’t be good, be lucky…”
This shot may have been lucky, but it sure is good, too!
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A portrait of William Shakespeare on the cover of the first Folio of his plays. Credit: Elizabethan Club of Yale University
With all this talk lately of rocks whizzing by Earth (or crashing through the atmosphere), it’s remarkable that we didn’t even know of space rocks a few centuries ago. The first asteroid, 1 Ceres, was discovered in 1801.
Dial back a few centuries, and we were still in the realm of a perfect universe with the Earth at the center. William Shakespeare’s (1564-1616) plays are full of these references. Universe Today recently stumbled across a 1964 Irish Astronomical Journal paper replete with examples.
Shakespeare was born about 20 years after Nicolaus Copernicus, whose book De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres) laid out the case for the Sun-centered solar system. It took a while for Copernicus’ theories to take hold, however.
While bearing in mind that Shakespeare often wrote about historical personages, one passage from Troilus and Cressida demonstrates an example of the characters speaking of the Sun following the other planets in circles around the Earth.
The heavens themselves, the planets, and this centre,
Observe degree, priority and place.
Insisture, course, proportion, season, form,
Office, and custom, in all line of order:
And therefore is the glorious planet Sol
In noble eminence enthroned and sphered
Amidst the other …
An Earth-centered solar system had its problems when predicting the paths of the planets. Astronomers couldn’t figure out why Mars reversed in its path in the sky, for example.
The real explanation is the Earth “catching up” and passing Mars in its orbit, but astronomers in Shakespeare’s time commonly used “epicycles” (small circles in a planet’s orbit) to explain what was going on. Shakespeare wrote about this problem in Henry VI:
Mars his true moving, even as in the heavens,
So in the earth, to this day is not known.
However, the Bard displayed a more modern understanding of the Moon’s movement around the Earth, the paper points out. The Moon’s distance varies in its orbit, a fact spoken about in Othello, although note that Shakespeare attributes madness to the moon’s movements:
It is the very error of the moon;
She comes more near the earth than she was wont
And makes men mad.
For more examples — including what Shakespeare thought about astrology — you can check out the paper here.
Asteroid 2012 DA14 Zooms just 17,200 miles above Earth on Feb. 13 in this artist’s concept. Credit; NASA
Our home planet is due for a record setting space encounter on Friday (Feb. 15) of this week, when a space rock roughly half a football field wide skirts very close by Earth at break neck speed and well inside the plethora of hugely expensive communications and weather satellites that ring around us in geosynchronous orbit.
“There is no possibility of an Earth impact” by the Near Earth Asteroid (NEO) known as 2012 DA 14, said Don Yeomans, NASA’s foremost asteroid expert at a media briefing. Well that’s good news for us – but a little late for the dinosaurs.
At its closest approach in less than 4 days, the 45 meter (150 feet) wide Asteroid 2012 DA14 will zoom by within an altitude of 27,700 kilometers (17,200 miles). That is some 8000 km (5000 miles) inside the ring of geosynchronous satellites, but far above most Earth orbiting satellites, including the 6 person crew currently working aboard the International Space Station.
Although the likelihood of a satellite collision is extremely remote, NASA is actively working with satellite providers to inform them of the space rocks path.
The razor thin close shave takes place at about 2:24 p.m. EST (11:24 a.m. PST and 1924 UTC) as the asteroid passes swiftly by at a speed of about 7.8 kilometers per second (17,400 MPH)- or about 8 times the speed of a rifle bullet. For some perspective, it will be only about 1/13th of the distance to the moon at its closest.
“Asteroid 2012 DA14 will make a very close Earth approach, traveling rapidly from South to North and be moving at about two full moons per minute,” said Yeomans, who manages NASA’s Near-Earth Object Program Office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. “That’s very fast for a celestial object.”
Diagram depicting the passage of asteroid 2012 DA14 through the Earth-moon system on Feb. 15, 2013. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
No known asteroid has ever passed so near to Earth.
“This is a record predicted close approach for a known object this size,” stated Yeomans. “Such close flybys happen every 40 years on average. An actual Earth collision would happen about every 1200 years.”
Yeomans said that if an asteroid the size of 2012 DA14 fell to Earth, the impact effect would be similar to the 1908 Tunguska event in Siberia. That was an air blast event that leveled trees over an area greater than about 800 square miles.
So the local effect on human cities for example of a 50 meter wide asteroid impact would be deadly and utterly devastating. But it would not be catastrophic to all life on Earth. Nevertheless, at this moment, Earth has no defenses against asteroids other than talk.
By comparison, the K-T event that caused the mass extinction of the dinosaurs some 65 million years ago was caused by an asteroid about 10 km (6 mi) in diameter. About 2/3 of all species went extinct. If 2012 DA14 impacted Earth the force would be equivalent to about 2.4 megatons of energy (2.4 million tons of TNT), said Yeomans.
Artists concept of meteoroide impact event
There is no danger to the ISS crew and apparently they won’t have any chance to observe it.
“The ISS is not positioned right for observations,” Lindley Johnson, program executive, Near Earth Object Observations Program, NASA Headquarters, Washington, told Universe Today.
“No NASA space-based assets will be making measurements,” Lindley told me. “The asteroid is moving to fast.”
However, radar astronomers do plan to take images around eight hours after the flyby using the Goldstone antenna in California’s Mojave Desert, which is part of NASA’s Deep Space Network.
Some skilful and knowledgeable Earthlings might have a chance to see the asteroid hurtling by with binoculars or a small telescope.
“The asteroid will be observable in the dark sky in Eastern Europe, Asia and Australia, achieving about 7.5 magnitude, somewhat fainter than naked eye visibility,” explained Yeomans. “Closest approach will be over Indonesia.”
Astronomers at the La Sagra Sky Survey program in southern Spain discovered the asteroid in February 2012 just after its last Earth flyby, at a fairly distant 7 Earth-Moon distances. They reported the finding to the Minor Planet Center.
NASA’s NEO group and collaborators in Pisa, Italy then use such data to predict future flight paths and look into past trajectories as well.
Yeomans said that the Feb 15 flyby will be the closest for the next 100 years and its orbit will be perturbed so that it comes back less frequently – changing its orbital class from Apollo to Aten.
Due to its small size and recent discovery, not much is known about the composition of 2012 DA14. It might be silicate rock.
Small space rocks hit Earth on a daily basis amounting to about 100 tons. Car sized rocks hit weekly.
Color coded shaded relief map of Linné crater (2.2 km diameter) created from an LROC NAC stereo topographic model. The colors represent elevations; cool colors are lowest and hot colors are highest. Credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University.
Linné crater on the Moon is one of the youngest, most well-preserved lunar impact craters. This cone-shaped crater thought to be less than 10 million years old – a mere whippersnapper when it comes to impact craters. Scientists have been studying this crater for years, using it to investigate how cratering occurs in mare basalt. This “barnstorming” flyover video was created with data from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.
LRO helped discern the actual shape of this crater, and other craters too. It was once thought that the circular Linné crater was bowl-shaped, and that set a precedent for understanding the morphology of craters on the Moon, and also on Earth. But laser-mapping observations by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter determined Linné is actually more of a truncated inverted cone, with a flattened interior floor surrounded by sloping walls that rise up over half a kilometer to its rim.
It’s a magnificent crater, and enjoy this unique chance to see it up close.
When the Apollo boys visited the Moon back in the ’60s and ’70s they left more than just some experiments, rovers, and family portraits behind –- they also left, shall we say, a little bit of themselves on the lunar surface. It makes total sense when you think about it, but still… there’s poop on the Moon.
In this video, Minute Physics and Destin from Smarter Every Day show how astronauts would relieve themselves during the Apollo missions (or at least the gadgets they used — we all know how they did it) and why it was decided to make astronaut poop a permanent part of their lunar litter.
(Because there’s no public toilets in the Sea of Tranquility.)
In another video Destin goes on to discuss some of the other things the Apollo astronauts left on the lunar surface as part of their… duties… most notably the Laser Ranging Retroreflectors that are still being used today to measure distances between Earth and the Moon. Destin explains how their corner-cube reflectors work — using, fittingly, the mirrors in a restroom shared with NASA at the University of Alabama at Huntsville. Check out the video below.
According to the Lunar and Planetary Institute: “The Laser Ranging Retroreflector experiment has produced many important measurements. These include an improved knowledge of the Moon’s orbit and the rate at which the Moon is receding from Earth (currently 3.8 centimeters per year) and of variations in the rotation of the Moon. These variations in rotation are related to the distribution of mass inside the Moon and imply the existence of a small core, with a radius of less than 350 kilometers, somewhat smaller than the limits imposed by the passive seismic and magnetometer experiments. These measurements have also improved our knowledge of changes of the Earth’s rotation rate and the precession of its spin axis and have been used to test Einstein’s theory of relativity.”
Want to see how corner-cube reflectors work? Click here.
The Laser Ranging Retroreflector experiment deployed on Apollo 11 (NASA)
Just goes to show that not everything that got left behind was crap.
See more videos from Destin at Smarter Every Day here and more Minute Physics here.
This is absolutely lovely. Photographer Mark Gee says this incredible real-time video “is as it came off the memory card and there has been no manipulation whatsoever.” It shows the full Moon rising over the Mount Victoria Lookout in Wellington, New Zealand.
“People had gathered up there this night to get the best view possible of the moon rising,” Gee wrote on Vimeo. “I captured the video from 2.1km away on the other side of the city. It’s something that I’ve been wanting to photograph for a long time now, and a lot of planning and failed attempts had taken place. Finally, during moon rise on the 28th January 2013, everything fell into place and I got my footage.”
While Gee said it was a challenge to shoot, the final result is stunning.
The Galilean Satellites of Jupiter are clearly visible just above a halo around the Moon, seen over central Italy on January 21, 2013. Credit: Giuseppe Petricca
Last night, the Moon and Jupiter snuggled up in the sky, coming within 29 arcminutes of each other. This will be the closest conjunction of these two bodies in the sky until 2026. The waxing gibbous Moon and the gas giant planet made for a great pair in the western night sky, and some astrophotographers, like Giuseppe Petricca in the image above, were also able to capture some of the Moons of Jupiter as well.
See more images from around the world, below.
Jupiter and the Moon 1-21-13. The Moon is intentionally overexposed so you can see three moons. Ganymede on the left and Io and Callisto on the right (Europa was transiting at the time). Credit and copyright: Robert Sparks.Moon & Jupiter Conjunction, January 21, 2013. Quick 2-frame collage of this remarkable conjunction between our Moon and the giant planet. This was taken with a Canon EOS Rebel T2i DSLR and a Celestron C90 Maksutov-Cassegrain telescope. Credit an copyright: Gustavo Sanchez/Observatorio Guajataca.Reflections over Lavender Bay, Sydney Australia, Jupiter and Moon conjunction. ‘By this point I had to leave the bay area but one last look back and I saw this frame, so I tried my best to capture it whilst the timer on my parking ticket was quickly running out.’ Credit and copyright: Carlos Orue (ourkind on Flickr.)Moon-Jupiter January conjunction. Taken with Nikon 55-300 + kenko 2X, 3 different shots for each body. Credit and copyright: Alejandro García (bokepacha on Flickr).Planet Jupiter vs. the Moon. The small orb on the lower left is the planet Jupiter visible near the moon in the night sky of January 21, 2013. Credit and copyright: Daniel Lowe/danieldragonfilms.com./IStockTimelapse.comIn some areas of South America, the conjunction actually became an occultation. This picture captures the moment when about half of Jupiter was behind the (dark part of) the disk of the Moon. Credit and copyright: Sergio Gorbach, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Sergio Gorbach, from Buenos Aires, Argentina sent us this image, showing how he was in a region where the conjunction turned into an occulation. “This captures the moment when about half of Jupiter was behind the dark part of the disk of the moon,” Sergio wrote via email. “On the scope three of the Galilean moons where visible, but not on this picture, unfortunately. The picture quality is not great since they were taken by a smartphone held by hand in front of the eyepiece of my (cheap) telescope, but the resulting image is not that bad.”
Not bad indeed!
Jupiter and the Moon over London, England on January 21, 2013. Credit and copyright: Sculptor Lil on Flickr. Jupiter and the Moon. Hooligan handhelded shot series with EF-S 60 mm f/2.8 macro lens. Credit and copyright: Sergei Golyshev. Luna con Jupiter -- as seen from Spain. Credit and copyright: Jordi Villanueva Alberich.Moon/Jupiter Conjunction - 21st January 2013. Canon EOS Rebel T3, f5.6, 1/4000 sec. ISO 6400, 300mm. Credit and copyright: Apple Lily.Moon and Jupiter conjunction Jan. 21, 2013. Two exposures back to back to compensate for the exposure differences. Credit and copyright: jimnista on Flickr.This is a collage of three photos, all taken on January 21, 2013: one of the Moon and Jupiter, another focusing on Jupiter’s Moons (both with a Canon Rebel T2i), and another through an 8 inch Dobsonian telescope of Jupiter, which was scaled to size and overlayed on Jupiter to provide some detail. ‘The moons are obviously not to scale because they are out of focus, I think it makes the photo a bit more dramatic,’ said photographer Chris Gorman.Who says you can't enjoy the night sky even in Urban areas! This photo of Jupiter and the Moon in close proximity was taken in the light polluted suburbs of Atlanta, Georgia. This photo is one shot - not a collage! Credit and copyright: Dave Hudson.
Dave Hudson took this great shot on Tuesday, January 21, 2013 @ 10:32pm EST.
Camera and Telescope: Celestron C8 on a Celestron CG5 EQ mount
Canon 60D using Eyepiece projection with MAXIM adapter and Celestron .63 Focal Reducer
17mp picture, ISO 100, 1/60 second exposure, no filters
Telescope: 203.2 mm aperture, 2000mm focal length, F10 – reduced to F6.3 using Celestron Focal Reducer
Jupiter-Moon Conjunction, Jan 21, 2013 from San Diego, California. Shot with a Fuji Finepix 2000hd. Credit and copyright: Bob Gould. .Jupiter-Moon conjunction on January 21, 2013. Credit and copyright: Paul Latham.Jupiter-Moon conjunction 1/21/13 from Houston Texas. Credit and copyright: Chris Grabo.
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Video caption: Preview of Mars Curiosity Parade Float. Jim Green, Director of the Science Mission Directorate Planetary Systems Division at NASA Headquarters, describes the replica of the Mars Curiosity Rover on the second NASA float in Monday’s (Jan 21, 2013) presidential inaugural parade. Parade photos below
Full scale models of NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover and the Orion crew capsule are participating in the 2013 Presidential Inaugural Parade on Monday, Jan 21, 2013, in Washington, DC – representing NASA’s robotic and human spaceflight endeavors.
The fantastically successful Curiosity rover is discovering widespread evidence for the ancient flow of liquid water on Mars.
The Orion multi-purpose capsule will take our astronauts back to the Moon and farther into space than ever.
NASA is the ONLY federal agency asked to be in the inaugural parade and now Curiosity is leading the NASA group with Orion after Curiosity.
Update 530 PM EDT – NASA’s 2 floats just passed by a cheering and waving President Obama & VP Biden at the reviewing stand in front of the White House – prominently near the front of the parade. See float photos from the parade below
Walking alongside both floats are members of the Curiosity team from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory – including ‘Mohawk Guy’ – and several current and former astronauts.
The participating astronauts are Alvin Drew, Serena Aunon, Kate Rubins, Mike Massimino, Lee Morin and Kjell Lindgren, as well as Leland Melvin, NASA’s associate administrator for Education, and John Grunsfeld, NASA’s associate administrator for Science.
The marching team for Curiosity includes Richard Cook-project manager (from JPL), Bobak Ferdowsi (otherwise known as ‘Mohawk Guy’)-flight director (from JPL), Dave Lavery – program executive (from NASA Headquarters) , Michael Meyer – program Scientist (from NASA Headquarters), Jennifer Trosper-mission manager (from JPL) and Ashwin Vasavada, Deputy Project Scientist (from JPL)
Image caption: Orion crew capsule float with NASA astronauts at the Presidential Inaugural parade on Jan 21, 2013 in Washington, DC. Credit: NASA
Image caption: Curiosity float with team members at the Presidential Inaugural parade on Jan 21, 2013 in Washington, DC. Credit: NASA
Be sure to check out NASA’s Flickr stream for many photos from the 2013 Inaugural Day festivities and parade – here and here
The full Moon as seen in Japan on Feb. 25, 2013. Credit and copyright: Masashi Ito.
