At U.N. headquarters to mark the International Day of Human Space Flight, Sergey Saveliev, deputy head of Russian space agency Roscosmos, said only international cooperation could make such a mission possible.

“I have to say that currently there is no country that could organize a manned spaceflight to Mars and a safe return,” Saveliev said.

“We strongly believe that this project can be accomplished only through international cooperation,” he said. “In this field, Russia is ready to cooperate with the United States, with Europe and with other countries.”

NASA head Charles Bolden, attending the event, endorsed the idea of an international mission.

“We are absolutely trying to partner with everybody to go — anyone who wants to participate,” Bolden told SPACE.com. “Our goal is to try to form international coalitions.

“Almost everything we do today has some international flavor to it, whether it’s science flights, or human spaceflights. I think you’ll find everything we do from here on out is probably going to be international in nature.”

While NASA has no timetable for sending humans to Mars, the agency says it is beginning work on a huge new heavy-lift rocket that could take a crew there and has set its sights on a first flight of the rocket, dubbed the Space Launch System, in 2017.

source: marsdaily.com

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Several million stars are vying for attention in this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image of a raucous stellar breeding ground in 30 Doradus, located in the heart of the Tarantula nebula.

30 Doradus is the brightest star-forming region in our galactic neighbourhood and home to the most massive stars ever seen. The nebula resides 170 000 light-years away in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a small, satellite galaxy of our Milky Way. No known star-forming region in our galaxy is as large or as prolific as 30 Doradus.

The image comprises one of the largest mosaics ever assembled from Hubble photos and consists of observations taken by Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 and Advanced Camera for Surveys, combined with observations from the European Southern Observatory’s MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope that trace the location of glowing hydrogen and oxygen.

The image is being released to celebrate Hubble’s 22nd anniversary.

The stars in this image add up to a total mass millions of times bigger than that of our Sun. The image is roughly 650 light-years across and contains some rambunctious stars, from one of the fastest rotating stars to the speediest and most massive runaway star.

The nebula is close enough to Earth that Hubble can resolve individual stars, giving astronomers important information about the stars’ birth and evolution. Many small galaxies have more spectacular starbursts, but the Large Magellanic Cloud’s 30 Doradus is one of the only star-forming regions that astronomers can study in detail. The star-birthing frenzy in 30 Doradus may be partly fueled by its close proximity to its companion galaxy, the Small Magellanic Cloud.

The image reveals the stages of star birth, from embryonic stars a few thousand years old still wrapped in dark cocoons of dust and gas to behemoths that die young in supernova explosions. 30 Doradus is a star-forming factory, churning out stars at a furious pace over millions of years. The Hubble image shows star clusters of various ages, from about 2 million to about 25 million years old.

The region’s sparkling centerpiece is a giant, young star cluster named NGC 2070, only 2 million to 3 million years old. Its stellar inhabitants number roughly 500 000. The cluster is a hotbed for young, massive stars. Its dense core, known as RMC 136, is packed with some of the heftiest stars found in the nearby Universe, weighing more than 100 times the mass of our Sun.

The massive stars are carving deep cavities in the surrounding material by unleashing a torrent of ultraviolet light, which is etching away the enveloping hydrogen gas cloud in which the stars were born. The image reveals a fantasy landscape of pillars, ridges, and valleys. Besides sculpting the gaseous terrain, the brilliant stars also may be triggering a successive generation of offspring.

When the radiation hits dense walls of gas, it creates shocks, which may be generating a new wave of star birth.

The colours come from the glowing hot gas that dominates regions of the image. Red signifies hydrogen gas and blue, oxygen.

The image was made from 30 separate fields, 15 from each camera. Hubble made the observations in October 2011. Both cameras were making observations at the same time.

Notes

The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between ESA and NASA.

Image credit: NASA, ESA, D. Lennon and E. Sabbi (ESA/STScI), J. Anderson, S. E. de Mink, R. van der Marel, T. Sohn, and N. Walborn (STScI), N. Bastian (Excellence Cluster, Munich), L. Bedin (INAF, Padua), E. Bressert (ESO), P. Crowther (Sheffield), A. de Koter (Amsterdam), C. Evans (UKATC/STFC, Edinburgh), A. Herrero (IAC, Tenerife), N. Langer (AifA, Bonn), I. Platais (JHU) and H. Sana (Amsterdam)

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According to Bigelow Aerospace’s President and Founder, Robert T. Bigelow, “We’re very excited to be working with our colleagues at SpaceX to present the unique services that our two companies can offer to international clientele.

“We’re eager to join them overseas to discuss the substantial benefits that BA 330 leasing can offer in combination with SpaceX transportation capabilities”.

The BA 330 is a habitat that will provide roughly 330 cubic meters of usable volume and can support a crew of up to six. Bigelow Aerospace plans to connect two or more BA 330s in orbit to provide national space agencies, companies, and universities with unparalleled access to the microgravity environment.

“SpaceX and BA have a lot in common. Both companies were founded to help create a new era in space enterprise,” said SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell.

“Together we will provide unique opportunities to entities – whether nations or corporations – wishing to have crewed access to the space environment for extended periods. I’m looking forward to working with Bigelow Aerospace and engaging with international customers,” Shotwell explained.

SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft will be capable of carrying seven passengers to orbit. With the company’s Falcon family of rockets, SpaceX is working to create the world’s safest human spaceflight system.

The companies will kick off their marketing effort in Asia. Representatives from Bigelow and SpaceX will meet with officials in Japan shortly after the next launch of the Falcon 9 and Dragon spacecraft.

source: space-travel.com

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The sky was hazy and a bit cloudy today. I waited for a few minutes before sunset to try to image the sun hoping to get a glimpse of AR 1476. My patience was rewarded though only for brief moments before and during the sunset. Taken with Sony A77 500mm RF with and without Baader AstroSolar Photo Filter Density 3.8. Shutter Speed from 1/3200 sec. to 1/1000 sec. IS0 400 to ISO 100. image by: Alberto Lao

Huge sunspot AR1476 is crackling with M-class solar flares and appears to be on the verge of producing something even stronger. The sunspot’s ‘beta-gamma-delta’ magnetic field harbors energy for X-class flares, the most powerful kind. Earth is entering the line of fire as the sunspot rotates across the face of the sun.

Sunspot AR1476 is so large, people are noticing it without the aide of a solar telescope. The behemoth appears at sunrise and sunset when the light of the low-hanging sun is occasionally dimmed to human visibility. Alberto Lao sends this picture from Manila, the Phillippines.

image credit: Alberto Lao

The sunspot looks a lot like Hawaii, but it is much bigger than any island on Earth. From end to end the sprawling active region stretches ~160,000 km, or a dozen times wider than our entire planet. If you have a sunspot telescope, take a look. The view is magnificent.

Caution: Even when the sun is dimmed by clouds and haze, looking into the glare can damage your eyes. Looking through unfiltered optics is even worse. If you chose to photograph the low sun with a digital camera, please use the camera’s LCD screen for pointing. Do not peer through the optical viewfinder.

source: spaceweather.com

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Seen here in this artist's concept, the planet is called 55 Cancri e. It's a toasty world that rushes around its star every 18 hours. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope has detected light emanating from a “super-Earth” planet beyond our solar system for the first time. While the planet is not habitable, the detection is a historic step toward the eventual search for signs of life on other planets.

“Spitzer has amazed us yet again,” said Bill Danchi, Spitzer program scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “The spacecraft is pioneering the study of atmospheres of distant planets and paving the way for NASA’s upcoming James Webb Space Telescope to apply a similar technique on potentially habitable planets.”

The planet, called 55 Cancri e, falls into a class of planets termed super Earths, which are more massive than our home world but lighter than giant planets like Neptune. The planet is about twice as big and eight times as massive as Earth. It orbits a bright star, called 55 Cancri, in a mere 18 hours.

Previously, Spitzer and other telescopes were able to study the planet by analyzing how the light from 55 Cancri changed as the planet passed in front of the star. In the new study, Spitzer measured how much infrared light comes from the planet itself. The results reveal the planet is likely dark, and its sun-facing side is more than 2,000 Kelvin (3,140 degrees Fahrenheit), hot enough to melt metal.

The new information is consistent with a prior theory that 55 Cancri e is a water world: a rocky core surrounded by a layer of water in a “supercritical” state where it is both liquid and gas, and topped by a blanket of steam. “It could be very similar to Neptune, if you pulled Neptune in toward our sun and watched its atmosphere boil away,” said Michaël Gillon of Université de Liège in Belgium, principal investigator of the research, which appears in the Astrophysical Journal. The lead author is Brice-Olivier Demory of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge.

The 55 Cancri system is relatively close to Earth, at 41 light-years away. It has five planets, with 55 Cancri e the closest to the star and tidally locked, so one side always faces the star. Spitzer discovered the sun-facing side is extremely hot, indicating the planet probably does not have a substantial atmosphere to carry the sun’s heat to the unlit side.

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, scheduled to launch in 2018, likely will be able to learn even more about the planet’s composition. The telescope might be able to use a similar infrared method to Spitzer to search other potentially habitable planets for signs of molecules possibly related to life.

“When we conceived of Spitzer more than 40 years ago, exoplanets hadn’t even been discovered,” said Michael Werner, Spitzer project scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. “Because Spitzer was built very well, it’s been able to adapt to this new field and make historic advances such as this.”

In 2005, Spitzer became the first telescope to detect light from a planet beyond our solar system. To the surprise of many, the observatory saw the infrared light of a “hot Jupiter,” a gaseous planet much larger than the solid 55 Cancri e. Since then, other telescopes, including NASA’s Hubble and Kepler space telescopes, have performed similar feats with gas giants using the same method.

In this method, a telescope gazes at a star as a planet circles behind it. When the planet disappears from view, the light from the star system dips ever so slightly, but enough that astronomers can determine how much light came from the planet itself. This information reveals the temperature of a planet, and, in some cases, its atmospheric components. Most other current planet-hunting methods obtain indirect measurements of a planet by observing its effects on the star.

During Spitzer’s ongoing extended mission, steps were taken to enhance its unique ability to see exoplanets, including 55 Cancri e. Those steps, which included changing the cycling of a heater and using an instrument in a new way, led to improvements in how precisely the telescope points at targets.

JPL manages the Spitzer Space Telescope mission for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Science operations are conducted at the Spitzer Science Center at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena. Data are archived at the Infrared Science Archive housed at the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center at Caltech. Caltech manages JPL for NASA.

source: NASA

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The $51 billion Commerce, Justice, Science Appropriations Act for 2013 (H.R. 5326) that the Republican-led House began debating May 8 would fund NASA at $17.56 billion next year — the lowest level since 2008 and some $150 million less than President Barack Obama requested for the agency.

NASA’s commercial crew program — a two-year-old effort that aims to foster development by 2017 of at least two privately operated launchers capable of transporting crews to the international space station — would receive $500 million next year under the House spending measure, which is $330 million below the White House request. The House bill would also direct NASA to immediately narrow the field of commercial crew competitors, either by picking a single provider now or adopting a so-called leader-follower strategy where the bulk of the money goes to one company.

In a Statement of Administration Policy issued May 7, the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) cited the below-request funding for NASA’s commercial crew program among the reasons Obama would be likely to veto H.R. 5326 if it reaches his desk as is.

“The Administration strongly opposes the level of funding provided for the commercial crew program, which is $330 million below the [fiscal year] 2013 Budget request, as well as restrictive report language that would eliminate competition in the program,” OMB wrote. “This would increase the time the United States will be required to rely solely on foreign providers to transport American astronauts to and from the space station.

“While the Administration appreciates the overall funding level provided to NASA, the bill provides some NASA programs with unnecessary increases at the expense of other important initiatives,” the NASA portion of the statement concludes.

Although OMB does not cite any specific examples besides commercial crew, the House bill rejects Obama’s proposal to cut NASA’s $1.5 billion planetary science portfolio by 20 percent and provides more money than the president requested for the Mars Next Decade planning effort and the Discovery and New Frontiers line of competitively selected space science missions.

The Senate, meanwhile, has yet to schedule floor debate for its version of the Commerce, Justice Science bill that Senate appropriator’s approved April 19.

The Senate bill would provide $525 million for commercial crew but give NASA free rein to manage the program as it sees fit.

source: spacenews.com

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For detailed postions of Saturn’s Moons click here.

  Uranus– will be only a marginal target if visible at all. Toward the end of the month it will be very low on the eastern horizon just before sunrise. It will rise around 3am but not get very high before morning twilight takes over. At least four of Uranus’ moons can be seen with larger amateur scopes.A chart detailing the moons can be found Here. Neptune– will be visible low in the southeast before dawn. It will be higher in the sky than Uranus. Neptune will be in Aquarius. Look for it just before it starts to get light. Neptune will be shinning at magnitude 7.9.
A finder chart for Neptune can be found Here. Pluto– should be visible this month. Always a difficult target, it will be sitting in the sky in the Milky Way above Sagittarius before dawn. It will be high in the sky to the south after midnight but the best time to look for it is when it is highest in the south not long before it starts to get light. You will need darks skies and at least a 10” telescope.You will have to image the target area for two nights in a row and see which of the “stars” move to be sure you have seen it. 

A finder chart for Pluto can be found at: Here. Eris (pronounced “EE-ris”)– formerly known as Xena, 2003 UB313, and “the tenth planet” – is magnitude 19 in central Cetus, high in the south during evening.For detailed information please visit Astronomical Delights Solar Eclipse May 20th On May 20th there will be an annular solar eclipse. The Moon will be a little too small to completely cover up the Sun. On centerline the Moon will centrally cover up the center of the Sun creating an annulus (ring of fire) of the Sun. Unfortunately the eastern and southeastern U.S. will miss all of the eclipse.The centerline starts in southern China at sunrise, hits southern Japan then races across the Pacific Ocean. It will hit the U.S. mainland in northern California in the late afternoon, cut across central Nevada, southwestern Utah, northeastern Arizona, central New Mexico and then end in north central Texas at sunset. Reno, Albuquerque and Lubbock will get good views, weather permitting.

PROPER SOLAR FILTERS WILL BE NEEDED TO SAFELY OBSERVE THIS ECLIPSE. Meteor Showers for May 2012 May 1 – Phi Bootid Meteors- A really long term meteor shower that actually begins on or about April 16 and persists until May 12, emanating from the constellation of Bootes and Hercules (the radiant has indeed moved in recent years!), high in the eastern sky at dark, and remain so for most of the night for northern latitudes.  The best time to observe the most of these meteors is always about 2 a.m. local time…this year, the nearly Full Moon will be rise before sunset and be in the sky nearly all night, particularly at the mid-duration of this long shower, so observing a week before will provide for the longest period of observations, and thus the most meteors.   About 6 meteors can be seen per hour, most medium bright, relative fast and pretty much overhead, all traced back to northwestern Hercules.May 3 – Alpha Scorpiid Meteors – The peak of this shower takes place during the week of this year’s May Full moon, so the faintest members of this meteor shower will not likely be seen  for several nights before and after the actual peak date.  The minor meteor shower is another long duration one, beginning in early April on the Libra-Scorpius border and slowly moving into the constellation of Ophiuchus by May 9!  The motion of this radiant is of much interest to astronomers and your detection of meteors from night to night as to where they appear to originate is very important; the radiant will rise in the far southeastern sky about 9 p.m. local time and be overhead at 1 p.m. the following morning….unfortunately about the time the light of the moon will be filling our warm spring evening skies.

May 5-6 – Eta Aquarid Meteors – Normally one of the finest meteor showers of each year, the Eta Aquarid meteors were recorded as early as 401 A.D. by the ancient Chinese stargazers…..now we know them to be part of TWO debris clouds left in the wake of famous HALLEY’s COMET through which the earth passes each year.  Meteors can be seen from this shower all the time from April 21 through May 12, but the peak is fairly steep and occurs each year on May 4…..look for brilliant and spectacularly exciting fireballs from May 9 through 11, all of which will be seen dramatically in spite of this year’s full moon on this date.  The radiant for this meteor shower is located very near the star asterism known as “The Water Jar” in Aquarius, but moves a bit northeast each day through the long period the meteoric cloud persists around the earth.  Note that this meteor shower for northern latitudes is very low in southern skies…most meteors should be seen coming from the EAST horizon (not overhead like most showers!) about 2 a.m……but by 7 a.m., note that the most frequent meteors appear to originate about halfway from that point to overhead.  On most dates with not-so-dark skies such as we will have in 2012 up to 10 Eta Aquarids per hour might be expected, most bright and leaving glowing “fireball” trails behind them.   This will be a poor year in hopes of seeing these fine meteors, but the many bright fireballs may be seen should you observe from the end of evening dusk until about midnight! Comets for May 2012 Comet C/2009 P1 (Garrard)- Very easily the best comet thus far of 2012, this one is still lingering and doing so quite nicely; presently it is on the Lynx-Cancer border at about magnitude 7 and sporting a very fine tail and strong coma; CCD images have revealed both a gas tail and dust tail and this has been a remarkable comet for well over 8 months now.  The comet will be nearly overhead for mid-northern observers at the end of evening twilight and will set in the NW sky about 5 hours later.Comet 29P (Schwassmann-Wachmann) -  this is always an exciting and explosive (literally!) comet; presently in the constellation of LEO and high overhead for northern observers about midnight, the comet should be about 11th or 12th magnitude, with a very odd-shaped coma and very bright central nucleus.  As always, we recommend continuous monitoring of this exciting comet which has been known to fragment into dozens of pieces on several occasions.  Observations in January and February from ASO showed a very pronounced and strongly illuminated coma in outburst, Japanese fan-shaped, and perhaps even some spiral structure to the head of the comet.  Watch this one!

Comet C/2011 F1 (LINEAR) – Now high in northerns skies in the constellation of DRACO, this comet will be about 12th magnitude, faint to visual telescopic observations, but quite bright in terms of CCD capture.  The comet will be visible throughout the night since it is a circumpolar object, not rising nor setting through the course of the night for northern observers.

Comet C/2006 S3 (LONEOS) – A nice comet located in southern declinations, this 12th magnitude comet will be in SERPENS, south of the celestial equator and south of overhead by about 2 a.m. local time. ]]> http://mwvastronomy.net/2012/05/astronomy-sky-calendar-may-2012/feed/ 0 http://mwvastronomy.net/2012/04/12-mile-high-martian-dust-devil-spotted-by-nasas-mars-reconnaissance-orbiter/ http://mwvastronomy.net/2012/04/12-mile-high-martian-dust-devil-spotted-by-nasas-mars-reconnaissance-orbiter/#comments Thu, 05 Apr 2012 15:55:06 +0000 Michael Muracco http://mwvastronomy.net/?p=1001

A Martian dust devil roughly 12 miles high was captured winding its way along the Amazonis Planitia region of Northern Mars on March 14, 2012 by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UA

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has now spotted a gigantic Martian dust devil roughly 20 kilometers (12 miles) high, churning through the Amazonis Planitia region of northern Mars. The HiRISE camera (High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment) captured the event on March 14, 2012. Scientists say that despite its height, the plume is just 70 meters (70 yards) wide.

The image was taken during late northern spring, two weeks short of the northern summer solstice, a time when the ground in the northern mid-latitudes is being heated most strongly by the sun.

Dust devils are spinning columns of air, made visible by the dust they pull off the ground. Unlike a tornado, a dust devil typically forms on a clear day when the ground is heated by the sun, warming the air just above the ground. As heated air near the surface rises quickly through a small pocket of cooler air above it, the air may begin to rotate, if conditions are just right.

source: NASA, universetoday, space.com

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For the latest images and other details, see: http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/ Venus– will be high in the southwestern sky just after sunset all month. It will be blazing at magnitude -4.6 by midmonth and hard to miss. Around the 2nd and 3rd Venus will be real close to the Pleiades (M45) (click here for details). During the month Venus will shrink in phase but grow in diameter. By the end of the month Venus will brighten slightly more to magnitude -4.7. Venus will be so bright that it will probably be better to target it through your telescope using a use a Moon density filter or during the twilight, before it gets completely dark. Mars– will be a must see target this month. At midmonth it will be at magnitude -0.4 and will appear 11.3” in diameter. This is good for Mars. It will be in the southeast sky when it gets dark. Since it will be shrinking and dimming as the month goes on, it would be better to observe it earlier in the month and catch it when it is high in the southern sky around 10PM. The short time around opposition is often the only time many observers look at Mars since the rest of the time it is too far away and too small to see details. Unlike the other outer planets, the window of opportunity to see Mars at its best does not last long.

Mars has many details on its surface to look for. One detail to look for is its northern polar cap which should be visible (if the cap is there and not melted off yet).

 
For the lastest information on NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander visit: http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu/ Jupiter– will be a tough target this month. It will be fading into the sunset glare. Early in the month about an hour after sunset it will be 15º above the horizon and shinning at magnitude -2.1. This should be bright enough to be seen through the glare. As the month goes on it will sink even lower and disappear completely. If you were to get a telescope on it early this month you would likely see that it is a disk but you would be hard pressed to see any detail.

 
For detailed postions of Jupiter’s Moons click here. Saturn– will reach opposition on the 15th. This when it is closest to us which means it will be at its biggest and brightest. This will be the best time to view it with your telescope. It will shine at magnitude 0.2 at opposition. It will be in Virgo near Spica but this month it will be easy to find. Just look to the southeast when it gets dark. Saturn will be the bright yellow “star”. It will come up at sunset but the best time to observe it would be when it is at its highest in the sky in the south at around 11PM.

Saturn is a great target even with a small telescope. Saturn’s disk will appear somewhat flattened and have some banding. The flattening and banding are more subtle than Jupiter’s. Saturn’s famous rings will be tilted open close to 15º. This is as wide as they have been for years. Saturn also has moons that can be seen through a telescope. They are not always as obvious as Jupiter’s moons.

 
For the latest images from Cassini, see:http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm

For detailed postions of Saturn’s Moons click here.

  Uranus– will be only a marginal target if visible at all. Toward the end of the month it will be very low on the eastern horizon just before sunrise.
A finder chart for Uranus can be found Here.At least four of Uranus’ moons can be seen with larger amateur scopes.

A chart detailing the moons can be found Here. Neptune– will be a visible low in the southeast just before dawn. It will be in Aquarius. Neptune may be able to be spotted but it would not be a good view so low on the horizon.

 
A finder chart for Neptune can be found Here.

  Pluto– should be visible this month. Always a difficult target, it will be sitting in the sky in the Milky Way above Sagittarius before dawn. It will be sitting high in the sky to the south after midnight. A telescope of 8″ or more is needed to view this 14th magnitude distant planet

A finder chart for Pluto can be found at: Here. Eris (pronounced “EE-ris”)– formerly known as Xena, 2003 UB313, and “the tenth planet” – is magnitude 19 in central Cetus, high in the south during evening.For detailed information please visit Astronomical Delights Meteor Showers for April 2012 April 4 – Kappa Serpentid Meteors – This is a one-week-duration meteor shower, from April 1 through 7, with somewhat of a mild peak about midway through that period; look for the radiant to rise in the constellation of Serpens about 8 p.m local time just south of due east and be nearly overhead for observers in southern latitudes of the northern hemisphere at about 2 a.m. Several meteors per hour should be seen from this minor radiant in normal years, and this year is not favorable since the moon is nearly full in 2012.

April 7 – Delta Draconid Meteors – With no particular peak to speak of, this is one of those “circumpolar” meteor showers for northern hemisphere observers that will be in the sky pretty much all night; it is a very long duration shower from late March until about April 17. Found only in 1971 in the constellation of Draco, the meteors are conspicuously slow and leave very fine trains in their wakes; to view the most meteors from this now-annual shower, set up about 10 p.m. local time and face somewhat northeast; as the night progresses the meteors will be originating more and more from very high northern skies….thus after midnight direct your sights to nearly directly overhead, the ZENITH. Note that the moon, nearlly full and very bright throughout the night, will hamper observations throughout the night.

April 10 -Viginid Meteors – This is the first of THREE meteor showers which appear to emanate from the constellation of VIRGO during the month of April each year. A two-week display, the meteors can be seen coming from just south of overhead (northern hemisphere) from April 1 through 15 with no definite peak; to differentiate THIS shower from the other two, the radiant is centered at near right ascension 12h 24m / declination 00 degrees. This year the bright moon is just past full and rising before 10 p.m., so this will be a very unfavorable year for this meteor shower..

April 14 – THE APRIL FIREBALLS – Not a particularly good year for this interesting shower in early morning hours because of bright moonlight, but then again being bright fireballs, these can be seen in spite of the third quarter moon which will rise about 11 p.m. local time.. As its name suggests, this can sometimes be a pretty spectacular display if the conditions are right and the skies are dark; however, during times of the new moon – as it was in 2010 – , these huge and bright fireballs come streaking clearly across our crisp and clear springtime skies along with countless fainter meteors that are associated with no identified meteor swarm. This unusual display lasts for the last two full weeks of April….there is no known radiant or seeming point of origin for this curious group, and they can be seen originating from just about any part of the dark night sky. They likewise are not – or appear to not be – associated with any other known major or minor meteor shower group. The April Fireballs are characterized by tremendously bright meteors, nearly all of which demonstrate beautiful and long-lasting trails through the sky. The moonlight will be totally out of the sky in 2011. however, with their brightness, even the moon’s light should not interfere for observing these very spectacular meteors. Always look for the April Fireballs late in the night, preferably after midnight. Because of the late nature of the peak of these unusual meteors, 2012 should be a less than favorable time to try to catch a few of these. NOTE: several of these renegade meteors have been known to reach the ground as meteorites! Heads UP!

April 17 – Sigma Leonid Meteors – The Sigma Leonids are no longer “in” Leo….they have migrated it seems into Virgo to become one of our three Virgo showers for April. The radiant is up early, just due south of overhead about 9:30 p.m. local time; this is a minor shower with only a few members seen on dark nights per hour. The crescent moon will rise only hours before dawn, so it should not interfere with observations of this shower..

April 22 – The Lyrid Meteor Shower – Other than some spectacular fireworks from the April Fireballs (see above), this is April’s most dependable meteor showers and typically one of the best of each year, provided that moonlight allows sightings of the most faint members. Since the moon will be NEW and absent from the sky throughout the night, this will be an excellent year for the LYRIDS viewing throughout the entire nights of 2012. This shower is comprised of cometary debris from Comet Thatcher, a very famous comet last seen in 1861. Althought this associated comet was not identified until only 100 or so years ago, this meteor shower from it’s demise is one of the oldest known on record, being recorded by the ancient Chinese stargazers first in 687 B.C. As with many meteor showers – and the comets they come from – this one seems to be waning with every encounter with the earth however. It is no longer the sky spectacle as recorded by those earliest skywatchers. Look for the meteors to emanate from a point on the Hercules-Lyra border, very near the brilliant blue-white star Vega. The radiant rises about 7:30 p.m. local time, but he best time to see the most meteors each year is always around midnight when the radiant is nearly directly overhead at midnight for northern hemisphere observers.

April 25 Mu Virginid Meteors – This is our third of three meteor showers within the constellation of Virgo for the month of April, and is south of overhead about 1 a.m. local time, far in the eastern realms of the large Virgo constellation; it takes dark, moonless skies to see the few – only about 7 per hour – meteors from this annual minor display. The crescent moon will be in the western sky sets right after dusk, so you have all night to watch for these meteors!.

April 23 – Grigg-Skjellerup Meteors – Here is an oddity just by its name…the only annual meteor shower known by the comet from which the meteoroid cloud came! It also is unique in that it is a “localized” meteor shower, visible only in certain parts of the world, but not others, on each pass. For example, there was a brilliant display of these meteors seen in New Zealand in 1977….but not one in the United States. If visible, they will be seen early in the evening, originating south of overhead. At right ascension 07h 48m / declination -45 degrees, these will appear to be coming literally from the south horizon for northern hemisphere observers, perhaps the only way to differentiate them from the other meteors showers in the same direction of sky each April. This year is a good year for this unusual meteor shower, particularly for those who observe before midnight.

April 28 – Alpha Bootid Meteors – Coming from a point very near the bright “alpha star” Capella in the constellation of Bootes, this radiant is in the sky from dusk until dawn, and nearly overhead at about 1 a.m. Look for these meteors to be few, BUT those that are seen are typically very fine fireballs moving slowly across the sky and leaving beautiful “smoky trails” behind them. Observers will NOT be hampered by moonlight for this shower in 2012 – the radiant rises about 3-4 hours after sunset, and the moon will be setting in the opposite sky by the time the radiant rises.. Comets for April 2012 Comet c2009 P1 (Garrard) – this has been a fine comet since late summer of 2011. Presently at 8th magnitude, this binocular comet is a circumpolar object for northern observers and is in the constellation of Ursa Major; hence, it can be observed throughout the evening, but the best window is early evening in NW skies.

Comet 29P (Schwassmann-Wachmann) – this is always an exciting and explosive (literally!) comet; presently in the constellation of Corvus in southern skies. As always, we recommend continuous monitoring of this exciting comet which has been known to fragment into dozens of pieces on several occasions. Observations in January and February from ASO showed a very pronounced and strongly illuminated coma in outburst, with a broad fan-shaped, and perhaps even some spiral structure to the head of the comet. Watch this one!

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Venus, Jupiter and the Pleiades April 3, 2012

M45 The Pleiades or Seven Sisters

As the bright planets Venus and Jupiter go their own separate ways Venus continues to grow ever-brighter as the northern spring evenings warm up hovering in the west-northwest sky high above the setting sun.

Venus is will continue its celestial display as it passes near the well-known Pleiades (M45) star cluster in the western sky on Tuesday April 3, 2012.

There is nothing else like the Pleiades star cluster in the sky. Greek mythology calls the Pleiades the Seven Sisters, the daughters of Atlas and Pleione. Atlas, rebelled against Zeus, the king of the gods, who retaliated by sentencing him to forever holding up the heavens on his shoulders.  This so grieved the sisters that Zeus placed them in the heavens so that they could be close to their father.

Detailed telescopic view of Venus and the Pleiades.

The clusters seven bright stars are easily picked out and those with more acute eyesight may glimpse up to 12 stars under good conditions.

In a telescope, Venus currently appears as a dazzling silver-white “half moon”, but in the nights to come it will gradually become larger as it swings around its orbit closer to Earth.

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