[Skinwalker]

2012 June 6



Eclipsed Moon Over Wyoming
Credit & Copyright: Mack H. Frost

Explanation: A setting full moon rarely looks like this. Monday morning just before a fully lit Strawberry Moon dropped behind the Absaroka Mountain Range near Cody, Wyoming, USA, the shadow of the Earth got in the way. A similarly setting partial lunar eclipse was visible throughout most of North and South America, while simultaneously the same partially darkened moon was visible throughout eastern Asia. Pictured in the foreground is a snowbank formation known as the Horse's Head off a tributary of the Shoshone River. Lunar eclipses occur about twice a year, and the next one -- a penumbral eclipse -- will occur in late November.

[ChotooMotoo]

no Venus transit pictures?

[Wolfn]

This is my current desktop background (the previous solar eclipse)

 Eclipse clouds.jpg (131.79K)
Number of downloads: 4

[Skinwalker]

ChotooMotoo, on 06 June 2012 - 10:39 PM, said:

no Venus transit pictures?

DOH!

Your wish is my command.

[Skinwalker]

2012 June 7

Venus Transit 2012
Explanation: Occurring in pairs separated by over a hundred years, there have now been only eight transits of Venus since the invention of the telescope in 1608. The next will be in December of 2117. But many modern telescopes and cameras were trained on this week's Venus transit, capturing the planet in rare silhouette against the Sun. In this sharp telescopic view from Georgia, USA, a narrowband H-alpha filter was used to show the round planetary disk against a mottled solar surface with dark filaments, sunspots, and prominences. The transit itself lasted for 6 hours and 40 minutes. Historically, astronomers used timings of the transit from different locations to triangulate the distance to Venus, while modern astronomers actively search for planets that transit distant suns.

[Skinwalker]

Wolfn, on 06 June 2012 - 10:51 PM, said:

This is my current desktop background (the previous solar eclipse)

Eclipse clouds.jpg

That's a really cool pic there.

[ChotooMotoo]

Yay! My friend had a venus transit party complete with telescopes, but it was a cloudy day, I was chasing my daughter, and I had a procedure on my knees and couldn't walk over the lawn to the telescopes

[Skinwalker]

ChotooMotoo, on 07 June 2012 - 10:44 PM, said:

Yay! My friend had a venus transit party complete with telescopes, but it was a cloudy day, I was chasing my daughter, and I had a procedure on my knees and couldn't walk over the lawn to the telescopes

OH! I hope these pics help to make up for it then.

[Skinwalker]

2012 June 8


When Venus rises with the sun

This dramatic telephoto view across the Black Sea on June 6 finds Venus rising with the Sun, the planet in silhouette against a ruddy and ragged solar disk. Of course, the reddened light is due to scattering in planet Earth's atmosphere and the rare transit of Venus didn't influence the strangely shaped and distorted Sun. In fact, seeing the Sun in the shape of an Etruscan Vase is relatively common, especially compared to Venus transits. At sunset and sunrise, the effects of atmospheric refraction enhanced by long, low, sight lines and strong atmospheric temperature gradients produce the visual distortions and mirages. That situation is often favored by a sea horizon.

[meraj]

as salaamu alaikum,

holy star trails, batman!

http://www.flickr.co...ith/7257865460/

meraj

[Skinwalker]

meraj, on 09 June 2012 - 12:59 AM, said:

as salaamu alaikum,

holy star trails, batman!

http://www.flickr.co...ith/7257865460/

meraj

Awesome pics there Meraj.

[Skinwalker]

2012 June 9


Venus at the Edge

As its June 6 2012 transit begins Earth's sister planet crosses the edge of the Sun in this stunning view from the Hinode spacecraft. The timing of limb crossings during the rare transits was used historically to triangulate the distance to Venus and determine a value for the Earth-Sun distance called the astronomical unit. Still, modern space-based views like this one show the event against an evocative backdrop of the turbulent solar surface with prominences lofted above the Sun's edge by twisting magnetic fields. Remarkably, the thin ring of light seen surrounding the planet's dark silhouette is sunlight refracted by Venus' thick atmosphere.

[Skinwalker]

2012 June 10



Two New Hubble-Quality Telescopes Gifted to NASA

What if you were given a new Hubble telescope for free? How about two? The astronomical community is abuzz with just this opportunity as the US National Reconnaissance Office has unexpectedly transferred ownership of two space-qualified Hubble-quality telescopes to NASA. The usefulness of these telescopes in addressing existing science priorities has begun, but preliminary indications hold that even one of these telescope could be extremely useful in searching for extrasolar planets as well as distant galaxies and supernovas that could better explore the nature of dark energy. Although they start out as free, making even one telescope operational and fitting it with useful cameras would be quite expensive, so NASA is being decidedly careful about how to fit these new telescopes into its existing budget. Pictured above, the original Hubble Space Telescope floats high above the Earth during a servicing mission in 2002.

[Skinwalker]

2012 June 11



A Venus Transit Music Video from SDO

What's that black dot moving across the Sun? Venus. Possibly the clearest view of Venus crossing in front of the Sun last week was from Earth orbit. The Solar Dynamics Observatory obtained an uninterrupted vista recording it not only in optical light but also in bands of ultraviolet light. Pictured above is a composite movie of the crossing set to music. Although the event might prove successful scientifically for better determining components of Venus' atmosphere, the event surely proved successful culturally by involving people throughout the world in observing a rare astronomical phenomenon. Many spectacular images of this Venus transit from around (and above) the globe are being proudly displayed.

[meraj]

as salaamu alaikum,

Skinwalker, on 11 June 2012 - 09:13 PM, said:

2012 June 11



A Venus Transit Music Video from SDO

What's that black dot moving across the Sun? Venus. Possibly the clearest view of Venus crossing in front of the Sun last week was from Earth orbit. The Solar Dynamics Observatory obtained an uninterrupted vista recording it not only in optical light but also in bands of ultraviolet light. Pictured above is a composite movie of the crossing set to music. Although the event might prove successful scientifically for better determining components of Venus' atmosphere, the event surely proved successful culturally by involving people throughout the world in observing a rare astronomical phenomenon. Many spectacular images of this Venus transit from around (and above) the globe are being proudly displayed.

there's something about that simple black dot moving across the sun that is strangely mesmerizing.

meraj

[Skinwalker]

meraj, on 12 June 2012 - 12:46 AM, said:

as salaamu alaikum,



there's something about that simple black dot moving across the sun that is strangely mesmerizing.

meraj

I agree. And when you put it to music it is beautiful.

[Skinwalker]

2012 June 13



A Venus Transit Over the Baltic Sea

Waiting years and traveling kilometers -- all to get a shot like this. And even with all of this planning, a good bit of luck was helpful. As the Sun rose over the Baltic Sea last Wednesday as seen from Fehmarn Island in northern Germany, photographer Jens Hackmann was ready for the very unusual black dot of Venus to appear superimposed. Less expected was the textures of clouds and haze that would taint different levels of the Sun various shades of red. And possibly the luckiest gift of all was a flicker of a rare green flash at the very top of the Sun. The above image is, of course, just one of many spectacular pictures taken last week of the last transit of the planet Venus across the face of the Sun for the next 105 years.

[Skinwalker]

2012 June 14

M13: The Great Globular Cluster in Hercules

In 1716, English astronomer Edmond Halley noted, "This is but a little Patch, but it shews itself to the naked Eye, when the Sky is serene and the Moon absent." Of course, M13 is now modestly recognized as the Great Globular Cluster in Hercules, one of the brightest globular star clusters in the northern sky. Telescopic views reveal the spectacular cluster's hundreds of thousands of stars. At a distance of 25,000 light-years, the cluster stars crowd into a region 150 light-years in diameter, but approaching the cluster core upwards of 100 stars could be contained in a cube just 3 light-years on a side. For comparison, the closest star to the Sun is over 4 light-years away. Along with the cluster's dense core, the outer reaches of M13 are highlighted in this sharp color image. The cluster's evolved red and blue giant stars show up in yellowish and blue tints.

[Skinwalker]

2012 June 15

M65 and M66

Nearby and bright, spiral galaxies M65 (top) and M66 stand out in this engaging cosmic snapshot. The pair are just 35 million light-years distant and around 100,000 light-years across, about the size of our own spiral Milky Way. While both exhibit prominent dust lanes sweeping along their broad spiral arms, M66 in particular is a striking contrast in red and blue hues; the telltale pinkish glow of hydrogen gas in star forming regions and young blue star clusters. M65 and M66 make up two thirds of the well-known Leo Triplet of galaxies with warps and tidal tails that offer evidence of the group's past close encounters. The larger M66 has been host to four supernovae discovered since 1973.

[Skinwalker]

2012 June 17

Jupiter's Rings Revealed

Why does Jupiter have rings? Jupiter's rings were discovered in 1979 by the passing Voyager 1 spacecraft, but their origin was a mystery. Data from the Galileo spacecraft that orbited Jupiter from 1995 to 2003 later confirmed that these rings were created by meteoroid impacts on small nearby moons. As a small meteoroid strikes tiny Adrastea, for example, it will bore into the moon, vaporize, and explode dirt and dust off into a Jovian orbit. Pictured above is an eclipse of the Sun by Jupiter, as viewed from Galileo. Small dust particles high in Jupiter's atmosphere, as well as the dust particles that compose the rings, can be seen by reflected sunlight.