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Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2011/08/12 12:52 CDT
Amateur astronomer Patrick Wiggins sent me this neat little animation of comet Garradd moving against background stars through an hour's worth of observing. I'm not any kind of astronomer but if I were I think I would get a kick out of looking at things that appear to move within one night of watching -- asteroids, comets, Jupiter's spots. I'm impatient that way.
Posted by Meg Schwamb on 2011/06/08 02:43 CDT
On May 5 and 6, I had a run on the WIYN (Wisconsin-Indiana-Yale-NOAO) telescope, a 3.5 m telescope, the second largest telescope on Kitt Peak in Arizona.
Posted by Meg Schwamb on 2011/05/25 08:30 CDT
The last decade has seen an explosion in our understanding of the solar system with the discovery of the largest Kuiper belt objects (KBOs) of comparable size to Pluto.
So far, no moons found at Ceres or Vesta
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2011/04/15 02:37 CDT
Since the Galileo mission discovered tiny Dactyl circling Ida in 1993, quite a lot of asteroid systems have been found to be binary; there are even a few triples. So it's quite reasonable to guess that two of the biggest asteroids, Ceres and Vesta, might also have satellites.
Welcome to Carnival of Space #191
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2011/04/05 11:25 CDT
Welcome, everyone, to the Planetary Society Blog for the 191st Carnival of Space! Every week, a different webmaster or blogger hosts the Carnival, showcasing articles written on the topic of space.
Checking in on Jupiter: the belt is coming back
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2011/03/25 03:46 CDT
Since it's been several months since I last took a look at Jupiter, I thought it was time to see what's up with the South Equatorial Belt.
A dog-bone-shaped asteroid's two moons: Kleopatra, Cleoselene, and Alexhelios
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2011/02/23 12:47 CST
Asteroid (216) Kleopatra has been interesting to astronomers for a long time because its brightness is highly variable, but it seems to get more interesting every time somebody looks at it with a new instrument. This week a paper was published in Icarus revealed that it's 30 to 50% empty space.
Close approach to Earth turns Apollo into Aten
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2011/02/08 12:49 CST
Last week we got buzzed by a very small asteroid, something that happens fairly often. But there were several details that made the close approach of asteroid 2011 CQ1 worthy of note.
Jupiter's outbreak is spreading
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2010/11/22 11:03 CST
Jupiter, always a pretty sight in the sky, is now worth visiting every day; the "outbreak" that heralds the return of Jupiter's formerly red, now fadedsouth equatorial belt is expanding and multiplying.
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2010/11/11 10:48 CST
Jupiter's faded belt may be coming back.
The August 20, 2010 Jupiter fireball -- and the March 5, 1979 one
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2010/08/24 11:36 CDT
Following up on the story I first posted on August 22, the Jupiter impact fireball first noticed by Japanese amateur astronomer Masayuki Tachikawa has been independently confirmed by two other Japanese astronomers.
Yet another Jupiter impact!? August 20, seen from Japan
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2010/08/22 05:03 CDT
Yet another Jupiter impact!? August 20, seen from Japan
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2010/05/10 05:22 CDT
Via Daniel Fischer's Tweet about a blog entry by Astro BobI learned of something which should be obvious to anyone who has trained even a rather small telescope on Jupiter over the past few weeks: one of its iconic stripes is just plain gone.
Posted by Timothy Reed on 2009/06/15 03:56 CDT
Timothy Reed explains how optical telescopes are tested for gravity sag, and the methods used to counteract or compensate for it.
Posted by John Spencer on 2009/06/08 01:49 CDT
Taking a look at Jupiter's moon, Io, from Hawaii.
Farewell to Hubble, Obama Calls, Astronauts Testify to Congress as Shuttle is Set to Land
Posted by Ken Kremer on 2009/05/22 05:13 CDT
Farewell to Hubble, Obama Calls, Astronauts Testify to Congress as Shuttle is Set to Land
An Auspicious Week for Astronomy
Posted by Mark Adler on 2009/05/11 11:54 CDT | 1 comments
On Monday, if all goes well, we will launch the Space Shuttle to rejuvenate one the greatest scientific missions launched on or off the Earth: the Hubble Space Telescope.
Mapping Mars, now and in history
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2009/02/26 04:23 CST
Planetary cartographer Phil Stooke has been working on a cool project to compose and compare maps of Mars that show how we saw the planet throughout the Space Age.
Treasures from Mars' ancient history
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2009/01/28 12:06 CST
In which I discover Earl Slipher's Mars: The Photographic Story.
No Longer Boring: 'Fireworks' and Other Surprises at Uranus Spotted Through Adaptive Optics
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2004/11/11 07:10 CST
Uranus has the unfortunate reputation of being the most boring planet in the solar system. But where it appeared to be a nearly featureless, hazy blue ball to Voyager 2, it is now blooming dozens of clouds that are visible to the sharp-eyed Keck II Telescope.
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