The Upcoming Celestial Events thread

[Orion11]

Hey all,

I find myself often wanting to post astronomy related things going on in the skies, and instead of making a new thread for every event,
I figured it would be good to have one thread where anyone can post any upcoming events they come across.

cool? or not cool?

To start it off, Tonight right after Sunset, about 9pm,

http://www.astronomy.com/asy/default.aspx?c=a&id=8172

See Mercury, the Moon, and the Pleiades together in the night sky

Don't miss a stunning sight around 9 P.M. local daylight time April 26 when a crescent Moon joins Mercury and the Pleiades in the deepening twilight.
Michael E. Bakich, Senior Editor
April 2009 Mercury finder chart
Mercury lies near the Pleiades star cluster after sunset in late April. The Moon joins this pair April 26. Astronomy: Roen Kelly [View Larger Image]
Mercury puts on a fine show starting the second week of April, and you won't have to get up early or venture far to see it.

In mid-April, Mercury sets more than 80 minutes after sunset. During the month's final 2 weeks, Mercury closes in on the spectacular Pleiades star cluster, also known as the Seven Sisters.

Astronomy magazine Contributing Editor Raymond Shubinski encourages everyone to observe Mercury. "Mercury is a major planet in our solar system," he says. "Everyone who's interested in the sky should see it at least once. And when the planet's bright like it is now, all it takes is a quick trip outdoors."

Don't miss a stunning sight around 9 P.M. local daylight time April 26 when a crescent Moon joins Mercury and the Pleiades in the deepening twilight. The Moon lies 2° (about 4 Moon-widths) above the cluster, and Mercury sits 3° (6 Moon-widths) below the cluster. The Moon's dark portion will be clearly visible, illuminated by sunlight reflected from Earth, known as earthshine. Binoculars will provide the best view.

On April 29, Mercury lies about 3 Moon-widths south of the Pleiades. The Moon has climbed significantly higher and will lie in the constellation Gemini the Twins. Mercury has dimmed to the brightness of Aldebaran, the nearby reddish 1st-magnitude star in the constellation Taurus.

Viewing Mercury through a telescope remains challenging. The planet's disk reveals little. Its low altitude in the sky and its visibility shortly after sunset leave observers viewing the disk while Earth's atmosphere remains turbulent. The unsteady air yields unsteady images.

Still, Mercury's appearance changes noticeably each evening. On April 9, 90 percent of the planet's disk was illuminated. You'll hardly notice it as less than full. The phase shrunk to three-fourths lit by April 15 and to half-phase April 21. By month's end, Mercury will display a 27-percent-lit crescent.

[Luana]

Orion..I think this is a great idea.

Cool

[judykott]

Orion, what a fabulous idea!

[J_rod7]

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Sgr A* - known by the Maya as "Hunab Ku"
'The Great Central Sun' of the Galaxy




This Chandra image of the supermassive black hole at our Galaxy's center, a.k.a. Sagittarius A* or Sgr A*, was made from the longest X-ray exposure of that region to date. In addition to Sgr A* more than two thousand other X-ray sources were detected in the region, making this one of the richest fields ever observed.

During the two-week observation period, Sgr A* flared up in X-ray intensity half a dozen or more times. The cause of these outbursts is not understood, but the rapidity with which they rise and fall indicates that they are occurring near the event horizon, or point of no return, around the black hole.

Absolutely, a good idea. It will be interesting to see other contributions


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[Orion11]

thanks ladies, and bro.

Jrod.. that is an amazing image!!!!!!

not sure ive seen that one,
i got another one that reminds of this one, from its description, Ill try to find it.

that is beautiful man!!
thanks for sharing,
i to look forward to what will be shared in this thread.

i love yas. <3

Ad Astra per Aspera!*

p.s.. that image reminds me of being born for some reason. lol

[Orion11]

ahhh,
here it is , friends...

Original caption:

This 400 by 900 light-year mosaic of several Chandra images of the central region of our Milky Way galaxy reveals hundreds of white dwarf stars, neutron stars, and black holes bathed in an incandescent fog of multimillion-degree gas. The supermassive black hole at the center of the Galaxy is located inside the bright white patch in the center of the image. The colors indicate X-ray energy bands - red (low), green (medium), and blue (high).

The mosaic gives a new perspective on how the turbulent Galactic Center region affects the evolution of the Galaxy as a whole. This hot gas appears to be escaping from the center into the rest of the Galaxy. The outflow of gas, chemically enriched from the frequent destruction of stars, will distribute these elements into the galactic suburbs. Because it is only about 25,000 light years from Earth, the center of our Galaxy provides an excellent laboratory to learn about the cores of other galaxies.
Source

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/marshall...r_xray_rgb.jpg

[J_rod7]

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LOVE the Mosaic, good find Orion11

Here are two nebula East and West of Sgr A* =

This oval, shell-like feature is thought to be a supernova remnant, material from which may help fuel an accretion disk. (The red point in the image is the Sgr A* radio source.)

Sgr A* East



Sgr A* West =
Recent observations of atomic hydrogen gas suggest that some of these filamentary structures are part of massive cloud falling in toward the Galactic Center.



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[rhythm]

O! rhythmm

absolutly

lovin


this

one

keep it comin

and thankyou

[burgundia]

wonderful idea. I'll be checking the thread regularly.

[Orion11]

I was just out there a minute ago, and i got Jupiter and all its moons in the eyepiece!!!
lol, first time ive gotten that!!
woot!!

I could see the bands, the storm (red spot) and all its Moons... man.. soo very cool! . lol
I watched it for over an hour, until it got to light out and it was drowned out.

I got some pics to, they are on the cam, ill se ehow they came out before i go showin em. lol

I just pulled this out of my stellarium... (the stars look extra big due to shining, in the program i guess, thr the scope they were alot finer and smaller than Jupiter. lol)

and made it the same size as i saw it thru the scope, with the 9mm eyepiece.. just for kicks, really.

But this is what ive been staring at..
making contact, in a sense.. lol

Edit: dang... does anyone else find it kind of annoying that we can only upload one pic per post? ive never personally seen that on any other forum.... its always at least 3.. and most of em like 10.. so we gotta make seperate posts in order for seperate pics... .. and they are also resized wicked small when uploaded thru the post. lol

ok, sorry for that.. just had to get it out.

[J_rod7]

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La présentation: The closest Star to Earth...
This Star is best seen during daylight hours
(LOL / ROFLOL)
just after Sunrise, or before Sunset...:::

Multiwavelength Sun
coolcosmos.ipac.caltech.edu




Sun Pictures Gallery
space.about.com



We should all keep an eye on this Beauty (DARK Sunglasses, fur shur)

Yo, Orion, Great photo of Jupiter and 4-Moons. Will LOVE to see the shot through your 'Scope

My 'Scope is an Orion modified Max-Cass with Equatorial mount, Orion Nebula looks good with it.

Do we have some 'Synchronicity' at work here?

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[Orion11]

La présentation: The closest Star to Earth...
This Star is best seen during daylight hours
(LOL / ROFLOL)
just after Sunrise, or before Sunset...:::We should all keep an eye on this Beauty (DARK Sunglasses, fur shur)

hahahahahahaha!!!!!

thats funny man.......

just the other day... i said to a friend and his girlfriend...

"hey... look at that star!!!!" (i even kinda pointed) LOL

and they both looked all around for a bit.., and said.. "wheree??!??"

lmaoo!!

Yo, Orion, Great photo of Jupiter and 4-Moons. Will LOVE to see the shot through your 'Scope

My 'Scope is an Orion modified Max-Cass with Equatorial mount, Orion Nebula looks good with it.

Do we have some 'Synchronicity' at work here?

haha, awesome bro!
what size scope? i wanna get a max-cass onea thse days..
when i fully learn the art of material manifestation. lol

the synchronicity(s) are always at work ...
everyday they show more n more.

so.. fur shur!! haha.

thanks bro.

[Gemeos]

Hi Orion,

Thank You for opening this thread. I love Astronomy!
Every time I can, I go up to the country and do some night-sky observations with my 10x50 binoculars. It's great.

This is a must-read thread!

Best

Gemeos

[Dantheman62]

Explanation: Is our Galaxy this thin? We believe so. Magnificent spiral galaxy NGC 4565 is likely similar to our own spiral galaxy, but viewed edge-on from far away. Also known as the Needle Galaxy for its narrow profile, bright NGC 4565 is a stop on many telescopic tours of the northern sky as it lies in the faint but well-groomed constellation Coma Berenices. This sharp color image reveals the galaxy's bulging central core dominated by light from a population of older, yellowish stars. The core is dramatically cut by obscuring dust lanes which lace NGC 4565's thin galactic plane. NGC 4565 lies about 30 million light-years distant and spans over 100,000 light-years in diameter. Visible through a small telescope, some sky enthusiasts consider NGC 4565 to be a prominent celestial masterpiece Messier missed.

[Dantheman62]

Explanation: What's causing those strange dark streaks in the rings of Saturn? Prometheus. Specifically, an orbital dance involving Saturn's moon Prometheus keeps creating unusual light and dark streamers in the F-Ring of Saturn. Now Prometheus orbits Saturn just inside the thin F-ring, but ventures into its inner edge about every 15 hours. Prometheus' gravity then pulls the closest ring particles toward the 100-km moon. The result is not only a stream of bright ring particles but also a dark ribbon where ring particles used to be. Since Prometheus orbits faster than the ring particles, the icy moon pulls out a new streamer every pass. Sometimes, several streamers or kinks are visible at once. The above photograph taken in mid-January by the robotic Cassini Spacecraft orbiting Saturn. The oblong moon Prometheus is visible on the far left of the image.

[Orion11]

damn thats sweet Dan!!

the pic of Saturns rings.. to the top left....
almost looks like a 'worm hole' opening up... or closing. lol

cuz you know.. ive seen soo many in my life! LOL

thanks bro

[Dantheman62]

Explanation: Last Sunday's fading evening twilight featured a young crescent Moon along the western horizon. The young Moon also shared the sky with the lovely Pleiades star cluster and wandering planet Mercury. Framed by clouds in this serene skyscape from Selsey, UK, a similar twilight scene was visible around the globe. Emerging from the cloud bank below the Pleiades, the narrow sunlit lunar crescent is overexposed. Still, the Moon's dim night side is impressively clear, illuminated by earthshine. Bright, innermost planet Mercury lies near the bottom of the field. Mercury will remain near the Pleiades, low in the west after sunset over the coming days, an ongoing conjunction of planet and star cluster that will offer skygazers some excellent binocular views.

[raulduke]

Originally Posted by Orion11

cool? or not cool?

Definitely cool. Thx bro!

Dan, I check out APOD often too (got it on my iphone), great site.

You guys hear about this gamma ray burst photograph?

GRB 090423: The Farthest Explosion Yet Measured
Credit: Gemini Observatory / NSF / AURA, D. Fox & A. Cucchiara (Penn State U.), and E. Berger (Harvard Univ.)
Explanation: An explosion so powerful it was seen clear across the visible universe was recorded in gamma-radiation last week by NASA's orbiting Swift Observatory. Farther than any known galaxy, quasar, or optical supernova, the gamma-ray burst recorded last week was clocked at redshift 8.2, making it the farthest explosion of any type yet detected. Occurring only 630 million years after the Big Bang, GRB 090423 detonated so early that astronomers had no direct evidence that anything explodable even existed back then. The faint infrared afterglow of GRB 090423 was recovered by large ground telescopes within minutes of being discovered. The afterglow is circled in the above picture taken by the large Gemini North Telescope in Hawaii, USA. An exciting possibility is that this gamma-ray burst occurred in one of the very first generation of stars and announced the birth of an early black hole. Surely, GRB 090423 provides unique data from a relatively unexplored epoch in our universe and a distant beacon from which the intervening universe can be studied.

Seems significant maybe.

[Gemeos]

Hey Dan,

Great photos! Thanks!

The Universe is such a great "Show", and people aren't aware of it!

[J_rod7]

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Hey Yo Orion,
My Max/Cass is a 127-mm diameter Primary mirror, with total Focal L. at 1540-mm. The f=12.1, and is equivalent to ~350x without the Barlow multipliers; also a full spectrum of filters. Haven't got a camera for it yet.

Dantheman,
Great shot there of NGC 4565. That's one I don't yet have on my walls. And, yes, it is said that our own galaxy is as thin as a pancake if viewed on edge.

Raulduke,
That massive Gamma-burster very likely when the first Galaxies and Stars were forming from primordial Hydrogen. There were no heavier elements around then, so Stars could grow to HUMONGOUS size (a technical term). Someone asked me about that one once, and following is a little write-up I gave 'em...:

An explosion of that magnitude is most likely produced by the Collapsar event of a HYPERNOVA STAR. HyperNovas result from HyperMassive single Stars which are in the range of 120 to 160 Solar Mass. Such stars are also 'First-Generation' stars within young, newly forming Galaxies. (Remember, we are also looking backwards in Time 12.2-Billion+ years, or more). When such HyperMassive Stars collapse, they instantly form a "Black Hole" with all the equivalent mass of 120 to 160 Suns all converted to Pure Energy (There is no MASS or Matter "inside," only Energy equal to the Mass times the speed of Light squared, E=MC^2, a truly HUGE amount of energy).

SuperNova Stars, which are more common, are generally in the range of 10 to 30 Solar Masses. SuperMassive Collapsars also instantly form "Black Holes."

Our Sun (equal = 1-Solar Mass) is a 'Third-Generation' Star, since it has accumulated all the elements higher than Iron (on the periodic chart) within itself, which were produced in the explosions of 'ordinary' Nova Stars - having less than 3-Solar Mass, and distributed throughout it's collected planets (Terra, Mars, Pluto, Malona, &c). First Generation Stars, on the other hand, accumulate only from coalescing huge cloud-masses of Hydrogen with some Helium, and with no heavier elements, when they ignite by Fusion into the Star. With no heavy elements to begin with, is the reason such Stars can grow so large. We don't see such HyperMassive Stars in our neighborhood, as these are in the first evolution phase of young Galaxies.

When ANY Star collapses into a "Black Hole," all of the Stars' Angular Momentum is converted into Spin. Then all the Energy inside the Event Horizon is now spinning at a very high 'velocity' which, like a monstrous Electro-Magnetic Generator, Polarizes the "Hole" (creates a pair of poles) which focuses Energy from the Accretion Disk, where the remaining mass of the Star from it's outer 'shell layers' is still being converted into Energy.

"Black Holes" with Jets are in the 'Feeding' stage. Ours, at the Core of our Galaxy, is currently in a 'Quiescent Mode.' (But there are signs that it may begin soon to feed again.)

These Focused beams include extremely Energetic Gamma, and also lesser energetic Energy down through X-Ray bands, Visual Light bands, and all down into the Radio-Frequency bands - all this in a continuous spectrum. It is ONLY when the Polarization Axis is pointed directly in our direction, are we able to "see" them. Like having the barrel of the Canon pointed at us. "Black Holes" and their Galaxies are oriented in every possible direction. Therefore, for each one that we do see, there are hundreds of thousands more which we can't see (Ratio less than 1/100,000), but they ARE there too.

Oh, and thinking about "Black Holes," some new theories have proposed there are micro-holes, little balls of energy with strong gravity, smaller then a proton. There's supposed to be Gazillions of these (High-Math here). But myself, I think this theory is full of holes. Anyway, here's artist conceptions of one of these micro-beasties...:



A micro black hole, also called a quantum mechanical black hole and inevitably a mini black hole, is simply a tiny black hole for which quantum mechanical effects play an important role.
http://www.ecopolis.org/in-space-hap...trange-things/


And this next is a concept of Gravity Waves...:



In physics, a gravitational wave is a fluctuation in the curvature of spacetime which propagates as a wave, traveling outward from a moving object or system of objects. Gravitational radiation is the energy transported by these waves. Important examples of systems which emit gravitational waves are binary star systems, where the two stars in the binary are white dwarfs, neutron stars, or black holes.
http://www.ecopolis.org/wp-content/u..._2phmedium.jpg




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[Orion11]

i love you guys/gals.. thanks soo much!!

great stuff!!

Here is the new Sky map for May 2009
http://www.skymaps.com/downloads.html

scroll down and choose your hemisphere and the PDF will open for you...

Each month the new one can be found there...

i have located many galaxies and messier objects using these maps, that i wouldnt have been able to find otherwise..
(until i learn its whole computer thing, then i can just tell it where to look) lol

and from sky and telescope...


#

Friday, May 1

# First-quarter Moon (exact at 4:44 p.m. EDT).

# Mayday is also known as Beltane, for the ancient Gaelic festival that gave rise to some of our May Day traditions. Beltane is one of the four cross-quarter days about midway between the equinoxes and solstices. In other words, this is the midpoint of spring (Northern Hemisphere spring).

More or less. The actual midpoint between this year's March equinox and June solstice comes on May 5th, at 4:45 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time.



# Saturday, May 2

# The Moon shines about 3° below Regulus during evening for North America, as shown at right.

# Venus in the morning sky is at its greatest illuminated extent: when its sunlit area appears to be largest as seen in a telescope (when it shows the most illuminated square arcseconds). This is about when Venus is at its greatest brilliancy.


dang.. i just lost a bunch of stuff in this post... grrrr.... lol

[Orion11]

J Rod, that scope sounds great!!!

i just got my first scope for Xmas, 5 inch meade newt.

do you ever do any astrophotography?

[Malynda]

Originally Posted by Orion11

dang.. i just lost a bunch of stuff in this post... grrrr.... lol

I didn't get lost. I may have wandered off the path and started thinking about other interesting things that your post conjured. lol I started thinking about Venus (love) and Mars (war) being so close to each other from our vantage point. Then I was thinking about 05/05/2009 at 4:45pm and all the other interesting coincidences, patterns, etc. that I have been seeing lately (or imagining lol). It was a great post and I shall be watchful for the beauty of the heavens that day. Thanks for taking the time to share that information.

[cantaloupe]

This thread ROCKS
Thanks Orion. Great images all!

[Dantheman62]

Not really on topic, but here's a little info on Hubble!...........

Servicing Mission 4 — the fifth and final visit to Hubble,

1 May 2009
On 11 May, Space Shuttle Atlantis will launch with a crew of seven to visit the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and carry out the fifth and final servicing mission. The replacement and repair of several instruments will see Hubble equipped to continue its programme of discovery well into the next decade.

The combination of Hubble's powerful suite of instruments and its location far above Earth's atmosphere has consistently produced outstanding scientific results for 19 years. This success is due to both the robust initial design of the satellite and the remarkable series of servicing missions that have kept the complex operating platform functioning and up to date.

Astronauts from NASA and ESA visited Hubble in 1993, 1997, 1999 and 2002, carrying out a series of repairs and upgrades on each occasion. During the upcoming Servicing Mission 4 (SM4) astronauts will carry out five spacewalks to complete one last set of improvements. This will mean that every major component on the spacecraft, apart from the mirrors, will have undergone at least one upgrade since launch.





For the rest of the article....... http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMOC9BNJTF_index_0.html