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ALDEBARAN and Sun of Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)
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Planets Above The Clouds
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Planets Above The Clouds |
| Explanation |
Clouds scatter the faint orange rays of the setting sun [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap000115.html ] in the foreground of this breathtaking photograph from the summit [ http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/mko/mko.html ] of Mauna Kea, Hawaii [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap980725.html ]. Taken on April 7th, this skyscape features a dramatic lunar and planetary alignment [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap000406.html ]. An overexposed crescent moon [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap991108.html ] dominates the celestial scene, but the bright "star" just below and to its right is Saturn [ http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/cassini/Kids/stories/ ] while further below Saturn is a close pairing of brilliant Jupiter [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap000429.html ] and a fainter, yellowish Mars [ http://marsnt3.jpl.nasa.gov/education/students.html ]. Red giant star Aldebaran [ http://www.bo.astro.it/copernic/alde-eng.html ] is almost directly above the moon near the top of the image and the bright blue stars of the Pleiades cluster [ http://www.aao.gov.au/images.html/captions/uks018.html ] are visible about midway up and to the right of the moon-Aldebaran line. The good news is that planetary alignments [ http://www.skypub.com/news/special/whypanic.html ] like this one do not portend [ http://tech-two.mit.edu/Shakespeare/Tragedy/macbeth/ macbeth.html ] disasters, are relatively common, and can clearly make inspirational viewing for casual stargazers and astronomers alike. The bad [ http://www.badastronomy.com/bad/misc/planets.html ] news is that the world is not going to end because of the highly publicized planetary alignment [ http://www.griffithobs.org/SkyAlignments.html ] occurring tomorrow, May 5th -- so you probably will have to go to work [ http://www.nasa.gov/newsinfo/alignment.html ]! |
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Mount Megantic Magnetic Stor
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Mount Megantic Magnetic Storm |
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Plasma from the Sun and debris from a comet both collided with planet Earth last Saturday morning triggering magnetic storms [ http://www.sec.noaa.gov/NOAAscales/ ] and a meteor shower in a dazzling atmospheric spectacle [ http://spacescience.com/headlines/y2000/ ast14aug_1.htm ]. The debris stream from comet Swift-Tuttle is anticipated [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap000812.html ] yearly, and many skygazers [ http://www.imo.net/news/news.html ] already planned to watch the peak of the annual Perseids [ http://comets.amsmeteors.org/meteors/showers/ perseids.html ] meteor shower in the dark hours of August 11/12. But the simultaneous, widely reported [ http://www.globaldialog.com/~jrummel/Aurora/ Aurora.html ] auroras were [ http://www.infowest.com/personal/s/schmutz/ aurora.HTML ] triggered by the chance arrival of something much less predictable -- a solar coronal mass ejection [ http://science.nasa.gov/ssl/pad/solar/ cmes.htm ]. This massive bubble of energetic plasma was seen leaving the active Sun's surface on August 9, just in time to travel to Earth and disrupt the planet's magnetic field [ http://www-spof.gsfc.nasa.gov/Education/ Intro.html ] triggering extensive auroras [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/ apod_ts?aurora ] during the meteor shower's peak! Inspired by the cosmic light show, Sebastien Gauthier photographed the [ http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Station/3622/ AlbumPhotoAstronomie/AlbumAstronomie3.htm ] colorful auroral displays above the dramatic dome of the Mount-Megantic [ http://astrolab.interlinx.qc.ca/ ] Popular Observatory [ http://astrolab.interlinx.qc.ca/Obs_pop/ OPMM/ob_pop_choix.htm ] in southern Quebec, Canada. Bright Jupiter and giant star Aldebaran can be seen peering through [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap000504.html ] the shimmering northern lights at the upper right. |
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September Sky
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September Sky |
| Explanation |
Star clusters, planets, and a red giant posed for this portrait of the night [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap000708.html ] sky from rural Jasper County, Iowa, USA. Astrophotographer [ http://geocities.com/stanzman_2001/ ] Stan Richard recorded the four minute time exposure looking east around midnight on September 3rd at Ashton-Wildwood Park. To avoid star trails [ http://pages.prodigy.net/pam.orman/JoeTrails.html ], his camera was mounted on a barndoor-style [ http://casa.colorado.edu/~rachford/widefield/ barndoor.html ] tracker to compensate for the Earth's rotation [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap000715.html ]. Can you identify his celestial subjects? (Click on the image for a labeled version.) The Pleiades [ http://www.pantheon.org/mythica/articles/p/ pleiades.html ] and Hyades [ http://www.pantheon.org/mythica/articles/h/hyades.html ], the closest open or galactic star clusters [ http://www.seds.org/messier/open.html ] to the Sun, should be recognizable to beginning stargazers [ http://starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov/ ]. Of course gas giant Jupiter [ http://galileo.jpl.nasa.gov/jupiter/jupiter.html ] rules as the brightest object in the picture and the largest planet in the Solar System, but second largest planet Saturn [ http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/cassini/Kids/stories/ ] is also visible nearby. For sheer size cool red giant star Aldebaran [ http://www.astro.uiuc.edu/~kaler/sow/aldebaran.html ] is more impressive though, spanning about forty times the diameter of the Sun. Sixty light-years away and yellowish in this picture, Aldebaran is known as Alpha Tauri, the brightest star in Taurus [ http://aibn47.astro.uni-bonn.de/~gallery/constellations/ taurus/ ], the Bull. |
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Saturn and Vesta in Taurus
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Saturn and Vesta in Taurus |
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Last November, while skygazing [ http://pages.prodigy.net/pam.orman/ JoeGallery.html ] toward the constellation Taurus [ http://hou.lbl.gov/~vhoette/Explorations/StarHop/ ], astrophotographer Joe Orman arranged this time exposure to include the lovely Hyades and Pleiades star clusters in the field of his telephoto lens. A distance of 400 light-years [ http://school.discovery.com/ schooladventures/universe/itsawesome/lightyears/ ] for the close-knit Pleiades [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap010506.html ] and 150 light-years for the V-shaped [ http://www.aspsky.org/mercury/mercury/9803/hyades.html ] Hyades [ http://astro.estec.esa.nl/Hipparcos/hyades.html ] puts these clusters in the general galactic neighborhood [ http://www.anzwers.org/free/universe/ 250lys.html ] of the Sun. Punctuating the Hyades' appearance, bright yellow Aldebaran [ http://www.astro.uiuc.edu/~kaler/sow/aldebaran.html ], 60 light-years away, is not actually a member of the cluster, but it is Taurus' brightest star. Above Aldebaran a yellower, even brighter Saturn [ http://space.jpl.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/wspace?tbody=6& vbody=3&month=11&day=17¢ury=20&decade=0&year=1&hour=00& minute=0&rfov=30&fovmul=-1&bfov=30 ] is is seen about 1.2 light-hours [ http://casswww.ucsd.edu/public/tutorial/Intro.html ] from our fair planet. Last and least massive [ http://aa.usno.navy.mil/hilton/asteroid_masses.htm ], one of the faint specks below Aldebaran is main-belt asteroid [ http://www.seds.org/nineplanets/nineplanets/ asteroids.html ] Vesta, a mere 13 light-minutes [ http://www.unmuseum.org/speed.htm ] away. Still cruising through Taurus, Vesta [ http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/PR/95/20.html ] is steadily approaching a close alignment or conjunction [ http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/astronomy/ Conjunction.html ] with Saturn on March 19. Need a program [ http://pages.prodigy.net/pam.orman/ JoeAlmanac2002.html ] to follow the players? Click on the image for a labeled version. |
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Hale-Bopp: Climbing Into Sou
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Hale-Bopp: Climbing Into Southern Skies |
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Fighting the glow of the setting sun and the city lights of Cape Town, South Africa, comet Hale-Bopp [ http://www.saao.ac.za/sky/comet.html ] is just visible near the center of this panoramic view - photographed on May 3rd. In the foreground is the Strand beach front, about 50 km East of Cape Town, while the Cape Peninsula mountain ranges can be seen at the left along the horizon. The bright star visible above and to the left of the comet is the red giant Aldebaran [ http://www.astro.wisc.edu/~dolan/constellations/hr/1457.html ] in the constellation Taurus. As Hale-Bopp [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap970505.html ] continues its outbound journey during the month of May it will climb higher into evening southern skies. Still a bright comet [ http://galileo.ivv.nasa.gov/comet/news82.html ] it is now providing an enjoyable and much anticipated showing [ http://galileo.ivv.nasa.gov/comet/brown4.html ] for Southern Hemisphere observers [ http://www.saao.ac.za/ ]. |
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