Jupiter is shining Bright. [Jupiter in opposition] See link below, also for other sky news


let-jupiter-shine-a-little-light-on-you

July will have some sky events, including a full lunar eclipse:

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/s...meteors-space/

The moon outside my home a couple nights ago. Well with a little help from my artistic side lol.

Take a look at these great astro-photography and last year's eclipse pictures that BruceZ has taken and shared with me in the past.

https://imgur.com/a/Q7Nb3

like mini preview (but see link for details)

That last one is pretty fabulous!

Hi all. Now that the planetary imaging season for this year is over, I have time to share some of the work over the last few months. Here are some of the better results this year:

A good single Jupiter image, from July


Images of Jupiter for a duration of 2 hours (early May) and created a .gif of its rotation


This is my best Saturn to date. Even captured the polar hexagon.


This Mars image was taken about 24 hours after a dust storm was first visible from Earth. The storm is still small at this point, circled here


By the time this image was taken a month later, the dust storm had covered the whole planet and no features were visible


Finally, this image is from late September. Mars is far away by this point, but the dust had settled and surface features were visible again


This is a collage of Venus images that I took from March until mid-September, showing Venus approaching Earth, getting larger and entering its crescent phase


Uranus


Neptune


One of my favorite lunar craters, Gassendi


Pythagoras crater



All images with my Celestron 8" scope and a ZWO ASI224MC planetary imaging camera, taken in Nebraska.

Great stuff schu, thanks for the planetary tour and amazing imagery. Uranus the pale green dot included.

Christmas Comet visible now.

https://abc7chicago.com/science/how-...month/4862040/

So where should you look? The article doesn't say. Very informative.

See the video @34 seconds

Which is the best star chart/map app for the iphone?

I use Night Sky. It's better on an Ipad.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/nigh...475772902?mt=8

Thanks. Waking up the kids for the Geminids, figured visual aids would help explain why they’re called that...

caught one

Nice - had a warm front move in earlier that day and it ended up being the foggiest day/night of the year. Fingers crossed the weather's nicer for the Christmas comet.

Comet Wirtanen will be within a few degrees of the Pleiades tonight. May you have clear skies.

Reminder: 7:30 EST or so this Sunday is Super-Blood-Wolf-Moon watching time!

Every notable celestial thing that's happened has been above an overcast sky for us this past year, fingers crossed that Sunday night's clear.

Goodbye Oppy

Opportunity exceeded all expectations; Kudos to NASA and the whole team of scientists, technicians, engineers and project managers.

last-message-opportunity-last-words


From above link:


NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said: “It is because of trailblazing missions such as Opportunity that there will come a day when our brave astronauts walk on the surface of Mars.

“And when that day arrives, some portion of that first footprint will be owned by the men and women of Opportunity, and a little rover that defied the odds and did so much in the name of exploration."

https://livestream.com/GriffithObser...uryTransit2019

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNvZ...ature=youtu.be

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transit_of_Mercury

Today

The Sky is not Falling!

Comet Neowise is fading but still visible:

comet-neowise-closest-to-earth

If you care enough to chase it you win. This comet Neowize was taken by BruceZ with tracker and he shared it with me last week.

Best viewed in the darkness background of original link

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ovR...uJyDILkyZ/view

Countdown for Rover Perseverance liftoff for Mars:

mars2020/