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2014 hasn’t even ended yet and we already have one of the best comets of 2015 showing off in our skies: C/2014 Q2 (Lovejoy), already visible to the naked eye and predicted to get brighter over the next couple of weeks! This is the fifth comet discovered by Australian "amateur" astronomer Terry Lovejoy. In 2011, one of “his” comets made a spectacular pass through the sky. This one may not be quite so ostentatious, but its location and brightness make it a winner. On Jan. 7 it will pass about 70 million kilometers (44 million miles) from Earth, and it’s...

A recently discovered comet is surprising skywatchers by becoming brighter than predictions had first suggested and can now be seen with the unaided eye during the next few weeks. Comet McNaught, officially catalogued as C/2009 R1, was discovered by Australian astronomer Robert McNaught last September using the using the 0.5-meter Uppsala Schmidt telescope and a CCD camera. It's the 51st comet that bears McNaught's name. Although initially an extremely faint object, enough observations of the newfound comet were made to allow Brian Marsden of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Mass., to calculate an orbit. Comet McNaught is expected to...

The far side of the moon could have been visible from earth billions of years ago, a new study suggests.The relative rotations of the moon and the earth mean that only the one side is ever visible. However, scientists believe that the impact of a large asteroid hitting the moon could have flipped it around, turning a different side that we now see towards earth. A study of craters on the far side of the moon suggests that it was hit by a large object around 3.9 billion years ago.

Space Weather News for Feb. 17, 2008 http://spaceweather.com DOUBLE FLYBY: If all goes according to plan, space shuttle Atlantis will undock from the International Space Station (ISS) on Monday morning, Feb. 18th, at approximately 4:30 am EST. This is good news for sky watchers across North America who will be able to witness a rare double flyby on Monday evening. Atlantis and the ISS will appear as a tight pair of lights, as bright as Jupiter or Venus, gliding in tandem across the twilight sky--an unforgettable sight. Favored cities include Los Angeles, New Orleans, Dallas, Jackson (MS), Pensacola, Philadelphia, Reno,...

http://www.heavens-above.com/main.aspx?lat=34.052&lng=-118.243&loc=Los+Angeles&alt=115&tz=PST

Caption: Fig. 1: Image of the mass distribution over a patch of sky about one quarter of the area of the Full Moon. These images were made by PhD student Stefan Hilbert using the Millennium Simulation, the largest computer simulation of cosmic structure formation ever carried out. The left panel represents the kind of image which could be made by a low-frequency radio telescope with a diameter of 100 kilometres, using the gravitational distortion of images of pregalactic structure in the neutral hydrogen distribution. The right panel represents the kind of image which could be made for the same region...

A major dust storm has just broken out on Mars and the event will be visible this weekend with good-sized backyard telescopes. The timing is incredible. Amateur skywatchers around the world are planning to gaze at Mars Saturday night because it will be closer to Earth than anytime until the year 2018. The dust storm was no more than a small bright dot Thursday yet it was large and obvious Friday, as seen in images taken by Clay Sherrod at the Arkansas Sky Observatories. NASA took note and is monitoring signals from its Mars rovers, one of which has detected...

There are four planets visible to the naked eye now, and a fifth will begin to make brief appearances in the evening sky during the week of March 14. Not until April 2036 will there be another chance to readily see all five naked-eye planets at the same time in the evening.Last week I provided an overview of this great planet panorama. Here I discuss details of what to expect for each planet. NightSky Friday Visit SPACE.com each Friday to explore a new backyard astronomy feature. >>Go to NightSky Friday archive page    Images THE SETUP: The solar system seen from...

ASTRONOMY/SPACE ALERT FOR SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA Brian Webb, KD6NRP Ventura County, California E-mail: kd6nrp@earthlink.net Web Site: http://home.earthlink.net/~kd6nrp 2003 January 19 (Sunday) 16:35 PST ---------------------------------------------------------------------- SHUTTLE REENTRY VISIBLE Launch Alert reader Rick Baldridge recently passed the word that part of the upcoming reentry of Space Shuttle Columbia will occur over northern California before dawn on February 1st. According to Rick "The shuttle will be re-entering the Earth's atmosphere over the North Bay Area at 4:48am (22 minutes before landing) which is well before the start of astronomical twilight, yielding a spectacular sight to all of central and northern California, Nevada and points...

SHUTTLE REENTRY VISIBLE Launch Alert reader Rick Baldridge recently passed the word that part of the upcoming reentry of Space Shuttle Columbia will occur over northern California before dawn on February 1st. According to Rick "The shuttle will be re-entering the Earth's atmosphere over the North Bay Area at 4:48am (22 minutes before landing) which is well before the start of astronomical twilight, yielding a spectacular sight to all of central and northern California, Nevada and points east almost to the Mississippi River basin where sunlight will begin to interfere. Many PAS [Penninsula Astronomical Society] members have seen these re-entries...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2003 January 8 Abell 1689 Warps Space Credit: N. Benitez (JHU), T. Broadhurst (Hebrew Univ.), H. Ford (JHU), M. Clampin(STScI), G. Hartig (STScI), G. Illingworth (UCO/Lick), ACS Science Team, ESA, NASA Explanation: Two billion light-years away, galaxy cluster Abell 1689 is one of the most massive objects in the Universe. In this view from the Hubble Space Telescope's Advanced Camera for Surveys, Abell 1689 is seen to warp...