Astronomy photos: best of 2011

by admin on December 29, 2011

January 2011

A bright storm erupted in Saturn's atmosphere.

  February 2011

The nucleus of Comet Tempel 1

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2012 Night sky

by admin on December 12, 2011

Night sky

Night sky (image: APOD)

The most interesting astronomy events in 2012 night sky:

January 3/4 – Quadrantids Meteor Shower.

The beggining of March – rare possibility to observe all 5 main planets during one night.

 March 3 - Mars at Opposition.

March 14 -  Venus and Jupiter Conjunction (3º).

March 20 – The March equinox occurs at 05:14 UTC.

March 31 – Earth hour – more than 5,200 cities in 135 countries worldwide will switch off their lights.

April 3 - Venus near stars cluster Pleiades.

April 15 - Saturn at Opposition.

April 21/22 - Lyrids Meteor Shower.

May 5/ 6 - Eta Aquarids Meteor Shower.

May 20 – Annular Solar Eclipse. It will be visible in southern China, Japan, the northern Pacific Ocean, and western United States.

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Asteroid near Earth 2011

by admin on November 5, 2011

 
Shapes of asteroids
Shapes of asteroids

Asteroid near Earth

The 400-meter-wide asteroid 2005 YU55 is currently flying near Earth at over 13 km (8 miles) a second. On Tuesday, November 8, 2011, at 6:28 p.m. EST (5:28 p.m. CST; 23:28 UTC), it will pass Earth, coming within 325,000 km (202,000 miles), closer than the Moon’s orbit. 

While 2005YU55 will stay a safe distance away, it is part of a crew of near-Earth asteroids. There are from 500 to 1000 near Earth asteroids, which diameter is estimated to be over 1 km .

It is the closest pass by such a large object since 1976. A similar event will not happen again until 2028. The closest recorded small asteroid to Earth during last decades is FU 162. The asteroid was discovered as it reached its closest approach to Earth on March 31, 2004. It traveled within … 6500 km of Earth’s atmosphere!

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Draconids meteor storm 2011

October 3, 2011

Draconids are not known for their bright meteor displays. They are so-named because meteors appear to radiate from the northern constellation Draco. Normally the Draconids are a weak shower (leftover from Comet Giacobini-Zinner comet) producing about 10 meteors per hour. However, this shower has proved strongly variable in the past. In 1933 and 1946, the Draconids [...]

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How to watch falling of dead NASA satellite UARS

September 18, 2011

Updated: September 28: Although rumours suggested that few of NASA’s UARS satellite debris have finally hit the country Canada, NASA says that any debris have fallen into open waters of Pacific Ocean. UARS (Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite) was an orbital space observatory. The 5,900 kg (13,000 pounds) spacecraft was deployed in 1991.  $750 million mission was sent to study [...]

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Supernova explosion in neighboring galaxy M101

August 31, 2011

The supernova flared up on 2011 August 24 in the Pinwheel Galaxy (M101) just 21 million light-years from Earth. It’s the closest star explosion observed since 1987. How to observe supernova? Designated SN 2011fe (PTF 11kly initially), the supernova is brightening rapidly  in the Big Dipper (constellation Ursa Major). The galaxy stands above the two [...]

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Comet Garrarrd of 2011-2012

August 30, 2011

Comet C/2009 P1 Garradd discovered by Australian amateur astronomer Gordon Garradd is visible in September 2011 through all binoculars and small telescopes as high evening object glowing at  magnitude 7 . It has a bright green head (coma), a sharp nucleus and a short but well defined tail . The comet’s location is in the tiny constellation Arrow (Sagitta) in [...]

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Night sky 2011

January 11, 2011

The most interesting astronomy events in 2011: January 2 -Jupiter and Uranus conjuction  (0.6º)  January 3/ 4 – Quadrantids Meteor Shower.  January 4 – Partial Solar Eclipse. The partial eclipse will be visible in most parts of northern Africa, Europe, and Asia.  January 30 – Venus conjuction with the Moon (3º)  March 20 – The [...]

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Space forums

November 29, 2010

Twenty-five years ago the Internet as we now know it was in the process of being birthed by the National Science Foundation. Since then it’s been an information explosion. In last decades amateur astronomy also changed dramatically. Facility of using electronic mail, increased access to a huge information, and improvement of communication between people. On internet space [...]

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