Coo-ee! Saturn!

From The Day the Earth Smiled;

Something great, something big, something very special that's never happened before is about to happen!
On July 19, 2013, the Cassini spacecraft, currently in orbit around Saturn, will be turned to image that planet and its entire ring system during an eclipse of the sun, as it has done twice before during its previous 9 years in orbit.

But this time will be very different. This time, the images collected will capture, in natural color, a glimpse of our own planet alongside Saturn and its rings on a day that will be the first time the Earth's inhabitants know in advance their picture is being taken from a billion miles away.

I will be jumping up and down and waving furiously! For the UK, we need to wave at 22:27 BST

Now say cheese!

More on ISON

Hubble has caught this gorgeous picture of ISON

Thanks to Waiting for ISON for this info. They also very helpfully provide a link to the NASA Comet ISON Observing Campaign (CIOC). Do check it out for valuable information on the comet.

Comet links

Soo... Comet ISON is coming! According to Under British Skies, the nucleus is 1.5 to 3 km - tiny by comet standards. Currently at mag 14, it will take a large scope to view but should be at small scope visibility by August.

Check out here to see a visualisation of the comet as it tracks into the inner solar system. Fingers crossed for perihelion on the 28th November!

More useful links;

Comet chasing in July by Skyhound

Under British Skies (Radio)

LEGO Cusoo Kit wicked ideas..

Love love love the woman astronomer!

Visit here for more info on this custom lego kit.

A perfect time for a cup of tea...

Later on in the evening, why don't you have a look into the south for the richly populated area of sky which is Sagittarius?

One of the easiest ways of finding the constellation is to take a pair of binoculars (10 x 50 is fine) and start at Deneb in Cygnus. Sweep to the right and follow the curve of the milky way down to the horizon. You are looking for a funny shaped asterism named 'the teapot' which house some pretty unspectacular naked eye stars. However, the whole area is part of the galactic centre - you will see literally dozens of nebula and clusters. some will be naked eye, others require bins or scopes.

what is nice is that there appears to be nebula right at the top of the teapot spout - that's the steam you see! ;). Click on the picture to view a larger version.

Look to the South after midnight to see a region seemingly teaming with galaxies and nebula.

Tonight in the west - Venus and the Moon chase the Sun

Look tonight in the west (you will need a good view of the horizon) at just after sundown to see a young moon framed nicely with Venus and Regulus in Leo.

Look West, just after sunset.

For ISS passs and all your meteor needs

... head over here to Meteorwatch and +VirtualAstro

For April's ISS passes, have a look here

Aurora Event scheduled to hit Northern Hemisphere on 13th!

Aurora over Alaska (NASA)

A Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) is headed towards the Earth and is expected to hit on the 13th. It's predicted strength (it's KP number) is thought to be a 6, which for the UK would mean viewing from Midlands, Birmingham area.

See here for more info. Keep checking back for more updates.

PANSTARRS bagged in North Hampshire!

Picture of C/2011 L4 courtesy of NASA

Or to give it its less prosaic name, Comet C/2011 L4! Last Tuesday evening proved to have exceptional seeing (for once a clear AND moonless night!), and with a lucky clear spot in our schedule, Mr Ghost and I headed off to our dark sky site up on the downs. Not the most spectacular faint fuzzy... but there none the less!

Certainly not a naked eye object, didn't even catch it in the 10 x 50's... but the 150mm newt with 25 mm eyepiece on our (un-motarised) EQ3 did the trick. The comet was located (very nicely and completely randomly by Mr Ghost who is proving to have a knack with this kind of thing) in the NW sky at about 8pm BST. Situated due south of M31 and 32 in Andromeda.

Of course that was low down on the 2nd April. By no it will be moving up through Andromeda and into Ursa Major. As it relative position in the sky gets higher, unfortunately, its apparent magnitude gets lower. I can see from my observing diary, that the previous session had been on the 15th Feb. Lets hope that that we get some good seeing in the next few weeks so that we cant have a look at the Virgo/Coma Berenices galaxies.

Clear Skies!