The annual Perseid meteor shower will peak this Thursday night – Friday morning, August 11-12. This may be an above average year for the number of meteors.
The best time to watch for Perseid meteors will be from about 1 am (after the moon sets) until about 4 am at the first traces of daylight.
Perseus will be high in the northeast, but meteors should be visible over much of the sky. A dark observing site will be best.
WILLIAMS – This Wednesday, October 8 two events happen in Williams.
Sky and Telescope reports:
We’re approaching the second of four total lunar eclipses that come at half-year intervals in 2014 and 2015: a lunar-eclipse tetrad. All four can be seen from at least parts of North America.
You can wake up at about 1:15 a.m. to witness the total lunar eclipse. The penumbral eclipse begins about 1:17. During this phase, you will dark shadow move across the moon. The total eclipse, in which the moon changes color, begins about 2:18 with the maximum eclipse occurring at 3:55.
At 7 p.m. the Community United Methodist Church on Sherman Avenue and Second Street in Williams will sponsor an inspirational concert by The Steel Magnolias of San Marcos, Texas.
You will not see this.
The Society held a viewing last month in the same location and hopes to make this a monthly event. Tourist and residents of Williams are invited to come tour the skies.
The group picked this day because the brightness of the moon will not interfere with the viewing of other heavenly bodies. The group donates their telescopes and time to interest people in the science of astronomy.
On December 24, 1968 at about 4:38 pm—just before we took one giant leap—Apollo 8 orbited the moon snapping photos and taking reconnaissance. The small capsule held astronauts Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and William Anders.
As they orbited, they made a significant turn which brought into view the earth rising over the moon. They snapped a picture that would appear on the front cover of TIME and become an icon of the environmental movement. It was listed in LIFE magazine’s 100 photos that changed the world.
According to Business Insider, William Anders described the event in a television interview:
I don’t know who said it, maybe all of us said, ‘Oh my God. Look at that!’ and up came the Earth. We had had no discussion on the ground, no briefing, no instructions on what to do. I jokingly said, ‘well it’s not on the flight plan,’ and the other two guys were yelling at me to give them cameras. I had the only color camera with a long lens. So I floated a black and white over to Borman. I can’t remember what Lovell got. There were all yelling for cameras, and we started snapping away.
To commemorate the 45th anniversary of the event, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center created a video showing the events surrounding the historic photo. They released the video on December 20th of last year.
The video combines the photos of the moon being taken at the time, the records of the flight and the photos taken of the moon to create a simulation showing the sequence of events.
What’s even more shameful is that the United States government is willing to hand over $98.3 million in aid this year alone.
The Mars Orbiter Mission successfully took off at 09:08 GMT today from the Satish Dhawan Space center on the east coast of India. If it goes into orbit around the red planet, India will become the fourth space agency to have a craft orbiting Mars.
From the BBC:
Some commentators have wondered whether India should be spending $72m (£45m) on a scientific mission when the country has one of the highest rankings for childhood malnutrition in the world.
But those who defend such projects say the MOM is comparatively cheap and that the technological development required to mount this mission could indirectly benefit the country’s other activities.
Nisha Agrawal, chief executive of Oxfam in India, told the BBC: “India is home to poor people, but it’s also an emerging economy, it’s a middle-income country, it’s a member of the G20. What is hard for people to get their head around is that we are home to poverty but also a global power.
“We are not really one country but two in one. And we need to do both things: contribute to global knowledge as well as take care of poor people at home.”
Read more at The Daily Sheeple
Scientists have confirmed for the first time that the planet Mercury holds “at least 100 billion tons of water ice” and also has “organic material” in the permanently-shadowed craters at its north pole.
The alleged findings came from NASA’s Messenger Spacecraft, which has been in orbit around Mercury since 2011.
Theories that Mercury – also known as the Swift Planet – could potentially contain forms of water were already being discussed back in 1992. Back then, Earth-based telescopes had picked up “bright areas” in and around the planet’s polar regions.
Alternative explanations were put forward to account for the bright areas, but Messenger provided enough evidence for water ice to exist on the planet closest to our sun.
The discovery is even more spectacular, taking into account that Mercury’s surface temperatures can sometimes reach 427 degrees Celsius (800 F).
Although the finding of almost 22 cubic miles pales when compared with our planet’s water capacity (an estimated 332,500,000 cubic miles!), Mercury is our solar system’s smallest planet, roughly one tenth the size of Earth.
Read more at Russia Today
by Maj. Eric Badger
Air Force Public Affairs
12/11/2012 – CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AFNS) — In the next installment to improve space capability and further develop an affordable, reusable space vehicle, the Air Force conducted its third X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle launch here on December 11, officials said.
The launch comes on the heels of the successful flight of OTV-2, which made an autonomous landing at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., June 11 after a record 469 days in space.
“We couldn’t be more pleased with the strides we’ve made in this program and the success of the X-37B vehicle on the first two flights,” said Mr. Richard McKinney, Deputy Under Secretary of the Air Force for Space. “However, it is important to keep in mind that this is an experimental vehicle and a third mission is still relatively young for a test program. This is the first re-flight of a vehicle so that is certainly a key objective for us. We have only just begun what is a very systematic checkout of the system.”
Lieutenant Colonel Tom McIntyre, X-37B program manager for the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office, explained the third X-37 flight will not only help the Air Force better evaluate and understand the vehicle’s performance characteristics, but this first re-flight is an important step in the program. OTV-1 launched in April 2010 and spent 224 days in orbit before going through the refurbishment process prior to being prepped for this mission, he said.
“This mission will incorporate the lessons learned during the refurbishment process on OTV-1,” said Lieutenant Colonel McIntyre. “As the X-37B program is examining the affordability and reusability of space vehicles, validation through testing is vital to the process. We are excited to see how this vehicle performs on a second flight.”
“The X-37B OTV is designed for an on-orbit duration of approximately 9 months,” said Lieutenant Colonel McIntyre. “As with previous missions, actual duration will depend on the execution of test objectives, on-orbit vehicle performance, and conditions at the landing site.”
The X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle is led by the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office, and is designed to demonstrate reusable spacecraft technologies for America’s future in space and operating experiments which can be returned to, and examined, on Earth. Technologies being tested in the program include advanced guidance, navigation and control, thermal protection systems, avionics, high temperature structures and seals, conformal reusable insulation, lightweight electromechanical flight systems, and autonomous orbital flight, reentry and landing.
Officials anticipate multiple missions will be required to satisfy the test program objectives, but the exact number of missions has not been determined.
A planet with conditions that could support life orbits a twin neighbour of the sun visible to the naked eye, scientists have revealed.
The world is one of five thought to be circling Tau Ceti, a star just 12 light years away that is almost identical to the sun.
Astronomers estimate the Tau Ceti planets to be two to six times bigger than Earth. One of them, with five times the Earth’s mass, lies in the star’s “habitable zone”.
Also known as the “Goldilocks zone”, this is the orbital region that is neither too hot nor too cold to allow liquid surface water and, potentially, life. Details of the discovery are to appear in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.
Because of the difficulties involved in detecting extra-solar planets, most found so far have had high masses. The Tau Ceti planetary family is thought to be the lowest-mass solar system yet detected.
Read more at The Guardian