NT Dark Skies

Christmas Wishes

2008-12-23T09:56:00.002+09:30

Thanks to everyone who has enjoyed NT Dark Skies during 2008
2009 is shaping up as a big year for Astronomy worldwide, with 2009 being the international year of Astronomy.
http://www.astronomy2009.org/
You will be hearing a lot more from me on this, in the new year.
Have a happy and safe Christmas and New Year break.

ArnhemLand Astronomy & Science Fair Report

2008-10-03T09:35:00.005+09:30

This National Science Week Event showcased the relevance of science in our everyday lives and demonstrated just how easy and accessible science can be to the community.

When: Saturday the 16th of August from 10am onwards

Where: Hindle Oval # 1 (Town Oval) Nhulunbuy NT

The 2nd Annual Science Fair for Gove, this year's event has expanded to include displays from The Fisheries Dept, Nhulunbuy Regional Fishing Club, a live broadcast from 106.9 Gove FM and more. Our Keynote speaker is Internationally renowned Prof. Ray Norris from CSIRO, who always has an entertaining and informative presentation to deliver. As we did during last years highly successful event we will have school science displays, a variety of guest speakers, Amateur Rocketry, Solar & Lunar Observing, Food and drinks stalls, prizes and loads of fun activities for the kids.

Presenters - and their topics

Professor Ray Norris - Origin & Fate of the Universe, Aboriginal Astronomy

Matt Brazier - Environmental Stategies - More or Less

Ian Maclean - Aboriginal Astronomy - Teaching and Learning

Stallholders - Displays

Gove Amateur Astronomers - Solar&Lunar Viewing, Astronomy Publications and More ...

Nhulunbuy Regional Sports Fishing Club (NRSFC) - Tag and Release Boating Display, How-To Presentations

Department of Fisheries - Sustainable fisheries

Food Drinks and Fun

GAA - Fairy Floss & Popcorn

NCNC - Fresh Cakes & Glow Products

Healthy Hopper - Fresh Coffee & Delicious Smoothies

NRSFC - Sausage Sizzle

Much more to come ..... !!!

Entertainment

Live Band >Bunna Lawrie & The Whale Dreamers 4 pm till late

Bar service from 4pm till 10pm!

Live Broad cast throughout the event from 106.9 Gove FM

GAA Update:

August was a busy time for GAA !

Firstly with the Garma festival where we presented tours of the night sky to the festival visitors from all around the world. The tours were given to Aprox 400 people over the course of the 4 nights.

In the Garma Key forum I was fortunate to have been joined by Professor Ray Norris in doing a presentation to the Key Forum group. Both Professor Norris and I presented to an audience of over 150 people each, on our topics related to Aboriginal Astronomy.

This generated significant media interest with Prof: Norris being interviewed by Phillip Adams for the Late Night Live show on ABC radio national (if you search the ABC site you can listen to the podcast of the interview)

Many Thanks to Tony, Eleonore, Ray & Cilia for their help at Garma.

Garma was followed this weekend just gone by our second annual "Arnhem Land Astronomy & Science Fair". This years the event was held on Hindle oval with a big presence from the NRSFC (Fishing Club) as well as Dhimurru, AQIS & GAA while presentations throughout the day on Space Science, Astronomy and the Environment continued.

In the evening the 10 piece Band "Bunna Lawrie & The Whale Dreamers" were live on stage. The band was very well received by the Audience and are they are keen to come back next year for more. Delicious Hot Curries and Soups were served by the NPS Year 5 Canberra Trip fundraiser and were eagerly devoured by the crowd, in the cool conditions on the night.

GAA showed a continual stream of people through our telescopes, with safe solar viewing during the day & views of the moon and Jupiter through the evening. With several new members joining the club as a result.

The Volunteers and Sponsors are too numerous top mention here, but we give them our wholehearted thanks for their support and participation.

The Science week Activities are not Over though, we have secured funding and sponsorship to bring the Stardreaming planetarium (that was so popular last year) back to the Gove Peninsula !

The Planetarium was in the town hall for shows on Saturday the 20th September. A steady stream of people came to the dome throughout the day.

All this was made possible with the fantastic support of our growing list of sponsors

NT Community Benefit Fund

CSIRO NT Science Week Committee

Australian Air Express

Rio Tinto B&A Technology

Manfield Colair

Gil's Graphics

The Arnhem Club

Rio Tinto Alcan Gove

106.9 Gove FM

Walkabout Hotel

Professor Ray Norris

Last years event was a roaring success, check out our report on the
2007 Astronomy and Science Fair

Mars Phoenix Lander - Touchdown 25th May

2008-05-19T18:14:00.003+09:30

Breaking News: **NASA's Phoenix lander Has touched down on the surface of the Red Planet **

Cold Case - Phoenix And The Outlook For Life On Mars

This mission has the potential to take our understanding of the suitability of the sub surface conditions on Mars for life to a new level. First Photo from NASA show a flawless deployment of all the equipment. All systems are go !

Read the full article at http://ezinearticles.com/?id=1194381

The landing went off just like the animation below !

Viewing the Eta Aquarids

2008-05-03T13:02:00.003+09:30

Haley's Comet is the best known of all the comets. It is a Comet that few of us will ever see again in our lifetime. However we can get to see bits of it as they burst into our atmosphere in the form of the Eta Aquarid meteor shower each May.
Check out the full story in my article at http://EzineArticles.com/?id=1144748
The maps below will help you to find where in the sky this shower radiates from.

Northern Hemisphere View 3:30 am

Southern Hemisphere View 3:30am

UPDATE 5-5:
I went out to observe the Eta Aquarids with fellow Gove Amateur Astronomers club member "Notch" this morning, and with a dark North Eastern sky vantage point, looking out over the Arafura Sea from 4:35 to 5:35 am we had a good setting.
I dont know about anyone else, but I find kicking back, relaxing and taking in a good meteor shower very inspiring, bringing a hightened sense of awareness of my surroundings.
It's hard not to be inspired with the music of the morning as waves tumble against the sand and the crickets sing their morning song.
It was Amazing to see just how bright the Zodiacal light gets, rising up from the eastern horizon for up to 1 hour before first light ! At one point it seemed to outshine the light dome from the nearby town of Nhulunbuy.
As usual the Meteors came in bursts of 3 or 4 in a minute.
One sporadic meteor was very impressive, traveling from south to north at the zenith. It was as bright as a welding flash (or so it seemed to my dark adapted eyes) and left a smoking train that persisted for at least 30 seconds.
Anyhow at 5:35am the final count was 45 confirmed Eta Aquarids
I am looking forward to tomorrow morning (the predicted peak) and what that might bring.
Leave a comment here and tell the world about your Eta Aquarid experience.

A Successful ISAN 2008 in Nhulunbuy

2008-04-15T17:09:00.006+09:30

As the afternoon storms rolled in on Sunday here in Nhulunbuy I was able reflect back on a very successful International Sidewalk Astronomy Night 2008 (ISAN 2008) held on the previous evening of Saturday the 12th April
We had 3 telescopes there for the night,an 8 and 10 inch Dobsonian Mounted reflectors, plus an LX-90 Computerized tracking telescope. Manned by myself, Bruce & Notch.
The Dobsonian Telescope takes its name from the inventor of this type of telescope, the vererable John Dobson, who is also the founder of the ISAN !
We had probably 50 or 60 people stop for a look, many of whom had never looked through a telescope before. The Wow's and Wakara's (Yolngu for WOW)escaped the lips of many a viewer as they had their first look at Saturn through a telescope.
That fact alone made the night a great success.
An Announcement was even made over the PA at the Arnhem club, bringing quite a few more people out for a look.

We were in a location that we would never normally consider for an observing night, the most brightly lit street corner in town opposite the Arnhem Club.
The benefit was, it is also the busiest spot in town for people walking around.
Targets for the night were: The Moon, Mars, Saturn, Sirus (The brightest star) , Alpha Centuri (our nearest visible star bar the Sun)and the Orion Nebula.
We will probably even pick up a few new club members from the evening !
Thanks also to GAA members Eleonore and Tom for their help.
I look forward to the 2009 event, and I expect given the success we had, GAA will do a few more of these nights between now and then !

Earth Hour 2008 - In Gove NT

2008-03-30T07:44:00.004+09:30

We held our Earth Hour Observing night last night (29th March) and it was well attended by members of the public here in Gove NT, with at least 50 stargazers
turning up for the evening.
For many of these people it was the first time to an Astronomy night.
The biggest benefits are:
* I have realized we can do public observing nights on our largest oval for the town.
* Awareness has been raised that earth hour is now a global event
* Local People have realized that Individuals can make a difference.
For an observing night in town it just needs 1 or 2 sets of lights
switched off (not hard to do)and we can have an observing night that is easily accessible to the public.
I am sure the countdown has begun to next years Earth Hour already & we can all
all do something to make every hour "Earth Hour"
The Photo above shows our scopes set up for our "Earth Hour" observing night on Hindle oval Nhulunbuy NT.

I have published a detailed article on Ezine articles on this subject to show how we can all carry the success of earth hour into the future, and how this benifits your astronomy experience.
http://EzineArticles.com/?id=1077889

Earth Hour 2008 - Lights Out

2008-03-27T21:44:00.004+09:30

In a huge expansion of the Earth Hour event hosted by Sydney last year, the WWF has promoted the event around the world.
As of tonight there are over 235,000 Individuals and 15,000 business registered to be involved.
There has been some comment that this is a token effort. However, when you take into account the number of people involved and if each person saves just .5 of a Kilo Watt hour (Kwh) that is over 100 Megawatt/hours and assuming that a business will save this amount again, we are talking about the output of a medium sized power station for 1 hr.
More importantly, if this becomes a habit, then the savings become signifigant.

From an Astronomy point of view, it is a huge opportunity to make people aware of just how much difference it makes, turning off unnecessary outdoor lighting.

So make sure you make the effort, register at http://www.earthhour.org/sign-up

GAA will be holding an observing night here in Gove on Sat at 8pm on Hindle Oval.

This is how it happened last year:

Saturn Comes to "Opposition"

2008-02-26T00:09:00.004+09:30

So what does this mean with Saturn coming to "Opposition" ?
Simply put it means that as the sun sets in the west, Saturn will be rising in the east.
Or if you drew an imaginary line between, the Sun, Earth and Saturn, it would be at straight line at the time of opposition.
Saturn can now be seen at its closest point to the earth for the year and as such it is an ideal time to view the beautiful ringed planet.
Saturn's rings are slowing closing up as each year passes, this means that in a few years time we will see the rings edge on, making them almost disappear !
Right now though is the time to look though, and if you have never seen Saturn before you are in for a big treat. It is a planet of incredible beauty and the subtle colors will be seen as the scope goes above 6" in mirror or lens diameter.
Your will also be able to pick out 4 or 5 moons of Saturn, depending on your scope size !
Best time to enjoy Saturn is mid evening, when it has risen half way up in the eastern sky.
If you want to learn more on how to find Saturn and the other planets visit http://www.nightskysecrets.com

Bright Fireball (Meteorite ?) in USA

2008-02-21T22:08:00.002+09:30

The bright fireball reported in the USA at 5:30 am Pacific time on the 19th Feb, in Washington, Oregon and Idaho has turned up on several security Cameras. There is a lot of uncertainty about the nature of the event. It could be a small asteroid or cometry fragment breaking up in Earth's atmosphere, an increasing number of these are being tracked by the automated telescopes, but none this small, reportedly the size of a basketball.
Thousands of tonnes of meteor dust falls to earth every year, but normally it comes in to the atmosphere in sand or rice grain size. Its always exciting to see a big one like this come in. Rest assured, no human in recorded history has been killed by a meteorite, yet !

Spy Satellite Plummeting to earth

2008-02-17T08:15:00.003+09:30

A SPY SATELLITE ALSO REFFERED TO RECONNAISANCE SATELLITE.
Is plummeting out of control into the earths atmosphere and this process will accelerate of the coming weeks as it falls deeper into the outer atmosphere, the drag on the wayward spacecraft increasing as each day passes.
NASA reports that it is very uncommon for satellites lose control and re-enter the Earth's atmosphere uncontrollably. The majority of all satellites that do return to our planet are on a well planned re-entry position. But they have claimed that there have been a few satellites they have lost control of and they simply burn up in the re-entry of our atmosphere.
The U-tube report below gives a good explanation:

Not a lot has been previously publicized about this particular satellite because of its top secret functions and whereabouts. The US Military launched this Satellite for the purpose of its high resolution cameras and discreet methods of spying. The first generation type known as Corona and Zenit took photographs, then ejected canisters of photographic film would descend to earth.

A few up-to-date reconnaissance satellite images have been declassified on occasion, or leaked, as in the case of KH-11 photographs which were sent to Jane’s Defense Weekly in 1985 exposing imagines of the Nicolaiev 444 shipyard in the Black Sea.

However, we do know that it is predicted for a re-entry some time in late Feb 2008. When and were the satellite debris will land, at this time is unpredictable.
Although the date March 6th has been tossed about quite a bit.

When the Spy Satellite USA -193 or otherwise known as NRO L-21, as was first launched in December 2006 by Delta II, ground controllers lost contact shortly after it reached its orbit.

Predictions indicated when re-entry will occur, however, NASA and the US Military are not releasing more information on this Particular Satellite due to the nature of its mission. We do know that this particular USA 193 has been so called “lost in space” and out of NASA's control. Otherwise, top officials will refrain from any other releases fearing that pieces not destroyed in re-entry could contain top secret information.

Statisticians and analysts for the US Military and NASA, along with armchair space enthusiasts are monitoring and watching the satellite to determine if and when the re-entry will occur. The predictions are that, the majority of the Satellite will burn up in the re-entry process through our atmosphere, however, there could be small pieces that could make it through to ground landing.
The Pentagon is considering launching missiles to destroy the satellite before re-entry, however this will litter the lower earth orbit with lots of debris, not a good thing for space flight !

Keep you eyes on the sky, as this satellite is bright enough to be seen with the naked eye.
You will find information about the location of this bright satellite, as it passes over your town or city, wherever you may live in the world at http://heavens-above.com/
Military officials are trying to determine its re-entry location to collect any leftover, top secret information rich debris.

Venus, Jupiter and Moon 5-2-08

2008-02-05T12:24:00.000+09:30

I just couldn't help myself !
After yesterday mornings effort and being keen to get a better shot and capture for the record, I was out at 4:30 am.
Anyhow here are a few shots from this morning, this time at 100iso setting.
A bit better than 400 iso on my Canon S2-IS I think.
The first a close up the second obviously a wide field.

Keep an eye on your Email for notification of these events from nightskysecrets.com if you are a subscriber.
If your not a subscriber yet and you have found this site, you can get a free subscription and introduction to astronomy audio at http://www.nightskysecrets.com

Venus-Jupiter-Moon Conjunction on 4-2-08

2008-02-04T06:16:00.000+09:30

As a follow on from the previous blog post, the moon has now joined the fray with Jupiter and Venus for a lovely morning conjunction.
This week has been an absolute feast for Astronomy, we are even enjoying clear skies here in Gove NT Australia.
This is a very unusual thing for February as this should be the height of our wet season.
But the astronomers up here in the top end are not complaining at all.
The photo here was done in a brightening dawn sky with just a little thin high cloud and was taken with a tripod, rather than handheld like the previous Venus-Jupiter shots.
I think the effect makes for a nice photo anyhow.

Venus - Jupiter Conjunction 1-2-08

2008-02-01T06:17:00.000+09:30

Here is a photo (best i could do !) of the close conjunction of Venus and Jupiter at just 0.6 degrees apart this morning.
They made a fine sight through a 10" reflecting telescope magnified 44x with a teleview 28mm Panoptic eyepiece.
This nicely framed the 2 planets in the eye piece.
Jupiter was showing all 4 moons on the one side of the planet as the conjunction was visible from my location here in Nhulunbuy Nt Australia.

Mars Asteroid Impact - Updated 12-1 - Almost NO chance !

2008-01-06T12:54:00.000+09:30

It was a good animation and got everyones imaginations fired up, but it is all over now !
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2007-152

Still, I for one am glad that someone is watching out for these lumps of rock, that could one day hit earth !

The Geminids are coming - Finder Map

2007-12-12T05:49:00.001+09:30

The attached map shows the approximate position of the "Radiant" of these meteors (double click on map to magnify).
The Radiant is the point in the sky from which the meteors appear to radiate from, if traced back to their origin of movement.
Let all the readers of this blog know how many Geminids you saw by leaving your comment on this post.
The full story on these Meteors can be found at

http://EzineArticles.com/?id=869977

Update:
What a night, I was out with a few other keen Astronomy
 club members observing Geminids from our dark sky site
 10km from town between 10pm and 2am on Friday the 14th
 and we saw 100's of Geminids.
Our more northerly declination (12deg S) will have contributed
 to the number of meteors spotted.
We noticed that many of them started a long way from the radiant,
 only bursting to life behind us,
as we looked 20 to 30 Deg above and beside the radiant.
This is the first time I have seen this shower as the Wet Season
 is usually beginning by this time of year, but this year we got lucky!
Even if you did not manage to catch the peak on Fri the 14th,
have a go on Sat the 15th as you will still see many  fine meteors.

Mars Finder Map - 24-12-07

2007-12-03T12:19:00.000+09:30

* Map Updated on 19-12-07

On Christmas Eve Mars forms a triangle with the stars Mu and Gamma Gemini and shares the night sky with the full moon..

Click twice on the map, to zoom in for a readable version.

For a full writeup on Mars See my Article at:

http://EzineArticles.com/?id=862797

Mars and the Moon together !

2007-11-26T22:11:00.000+09:30

The moon rises at about 9:15 in the evening on Tues 27th Nov.
That big Bright red "Star" that's nearby the moon, you guessed it, it's the planet Mars.
Mars finally returns bright & red as ever to our evening skies after 2 years absence.
This is a great opportunity to identify Mars in the night sky, with the moon as your guide.
Mars will be just 1 hand span (5 Degrees) above the moon, so you cant miss it.

The Map above shows what you will see at Approx 9:30pm in the evening.
I will be publishing a detailed account shortly, featuring the "opposition" of Mars on Christmas day this year. Keep an Eye out for that one !

Finding Uranus - Serious Astronomy - Really!

2007-11-26T21:12:00.000+09:30

Follow the link below to the full article that tells the story shown on this map:

http://EzineArticles.com/?id=847290

The planet Uranus is well placed for viewing and can be spotted using 2 relatively bright stars in Aquarius. With a bit more of an effort Neptune can be found in Capricornius.
The map above shows their positions and will need to be oriented according to you location in the world.
Double click on the map and use the zoom function that shows up as the mouse cursor, to zoom in for a view that you can read.
Good luck finding Uranus ! Yes this is serious Astronomy :-)

Taurid Meteor Shower

2007-11-04T07:33:00.000+09:30

With the peak of the Orionid meteor shower now behind us, the next shower of Cometary debris to grace our skies are the “Southern Taurids”.
This meteor shower, along with its cousin the the “Northern Taurids” are the leftover fragments from the passage of Comet 2p Encke.
The first Maximum is on the 5^th of November (Southern Taurids) with the second Maximum following on the 12^th of November.
The theoretical maximum number or ZHR “Zenith Hourly Rate” is about 5/hr
Despite the scarcity in numbers they are notable for their comparatively slow speed, brightness & color, with some of them being classed as “Fireballs”.
You will know a fireball when you see one, it will be as if someone has let off a flare that is shooting across the sky at great speed.

Certainly worth watching out for if you are out under the night sky after 9 pm throughout November, as the full range of this shower extends from the 25^th of September through to the 30^th of November.
Might be a good to watch for as you are out looking for Uranus & Neptune, the subject of my next article !

Comet Holmes (17P) - Brightens by 1 million times!

2007-10-28T12:27:00.000+09:30

This is certainly a dramatic brightening of this comet & here in the NT we are well placed for a good view of this "exploding" comet.
However viewers in Australia as far south as Adelaide are getting a look at it low on the northern Horizon.
If your in the northern Hemisphere you are in a prime viewing position !
What's happening to Comet Holmes is a mystery, but it is one that you can see with your own eyes. After 9:30 pm CST in the NT Australia, you will see Comet Holmes at Magnitude 2.5 rising in the North East , is similar in brightness to the stars of the Constellation Perseus.
It is very easy to see below the Alpha star "Mirfak" in Perseus.
The Sky Map shows the location of this amazing Comet glowing brightly like a fuzzy yellow star.
Viewing will get better as the week progresses and the moon comes up later in the evening, giving a nice dark sky background to see it against.
If you have any kind of Binoculars or a Telescope, this will be an Ideal target for you due to it's Brightness.
So make sure you get out & see it while it is still bright, I for one will be out there tonight !

Halloween Moon

2007-10-26T06:24:00.000+09:30

Features on the Full moon
With the full moon dominating the night sky this weekend, it's worth noting some of the prominent features visible with the reflected light of the full moon.
A pair of binoculars is all you will need to see these features.
-The Mares
These are known as the "Seas" of the moon. The name seas came about prior to the invention of the telescope in the 1500's when these obviously dark areas of the moon were thought to be seas of water.
In fact what they are, is ancient solidified lava plains, caused by massive impacts fracturing the young moons crust billions of years ago.
Four of the Major Sea's are Labeled in the attached photo.
-Bright Young Craters
When we speak of "young" craters on the moon, we are talking about craters that were formed millions of years ago.
The brightest of these features Tyco, labeled above in the southern region of the moon was caused by a 10km wide meteor striking the moon Aprox. 109 million years ago. the resulting 85 km wide crater has walls 4800m high & the bright "Rays" of the impact debris stretch 1/2 way across the face of the moon !
Copernicus on the other hand is 810 million years old, yet its cobweb like blanket of ejected material spread over an area 500km in diameter to a depth of 900m.

So take the time to view the moon as Halloween approaches & read the geological history history on its battered face.

Orionid Meteors - What Did you see ?

2007-10-22T20:53:00.000+09:30

Observing Reports

Up here in the NT we saw 20 Orionids in the hour between 4:15am and 5:15am Sunday morning. About 5 of them were bright & left brief trains. All were notable for their great speed & blueish white color.It was well worth the early morning effort for a fellow club member and I, from our beachside location. Ian - ian@nightskysecrets.com

This weekend, Fri/Sat was the only overnight I had available - and the weather lookssuspect for Sun/Mon. So I jumped out of bed at 1:30 and headed for the hills with my comfy chair and blanket, coffee and radio.From around 2:30 until sunrise I saw about a dozen meteors, most of which were definitely coming from a radiant point in Orion. A couple fairly bright. All were very fast.Stayed to watch Saturn and Venus rise, then headed for home and a few more hours sleep.
I'm happy with what I saw. Eric - http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showpost.php?p=263298&postcount=18

What Did you see ? Add your observations, by either Emailing me & I will post here or make a comment in the comments sections below.

Orionid Meteors - Hayley's Comet

2007-10-19T05:04:00.000+09:30

Orionid Meteor Shower - Peak's on 21st Oct
Watch a piece of history fulfill its destiny, and burn up in a bright flash of light as it hits our Atmosphere at 66km/second !
Yes that right, it is that time of the year where we are treated to the lovely sight of the Orionid meteor shower.
These ancient bits of Hayley's comet put on a very flashy display as they burst into our atmosphere at this incredible speed
Most of what you see is taking place at 100km (60 miles) in our upper atmosphere as these tiny fragments, most which are no bigger than a grain of sand or rice for a big one, Ionize the air around them as they vaporise in a flash of light.
Some of them will leave a smoking "Train" which is the burnt up debris of their passage.
Usually this train will last just a few seconds, but they have been known to persist for up to 15 minutes with some meteor showers.
I have just come from an early morning observing session of the Orionid's myself & I counted 4 of these flashy meteor in a 20 minute period from the suburbs on the morning of Friday the 19th. At the peak on the 21st you may to see up to 25 meteors per hour streaking across the sky, appearing to radiate from the constellation of Orion "The Hunter"
The best place of course to see any meteor shower is from the dark skies of the country, where the lank of artificial light will allow you to see the fainter meteors of the shower.
In my experience meteors tend to come in little bursts close together, so make sure you give yourself an hour or so at least to lay back, relax, enjoy your favourite warm drink & perhaps even listen to some soothing music and enjoy the show (just try not to fall asleep !)
The best way to see this and any meteor shower is with the Naked eye laying back in a deck chair, on a picnic mat or the like & looking in the general direction of the constellation which in this case is Orion.
The attached map shows the constellation of Orion high overhead at 4 am in the morning with the radiant labeled as "Orionids".
Click on the map to enlarge and get a better image.
The early hours of the morning and the subsequent absence of the moon, through till first light will be the best time to see this shower, so make sure you rug up for the cooler weather & enjoy !

Morning Skies - Planetary Delights !

2007-10-15T05:23:00.000+09:30

Venus-Saturn-Mars
Its an early start to the day, but rising at 5 am has its rewards !
Looking to the East right now, the early bird will catch the "astronomical worm" and be rewarded with the sight of brilliant white Venus, Yellowish Saturn & the Giant Star Regulus in the constellation Leo "The Lion", forming a lovely right angle triangle.
The star map below shows it as seen from Gove NT Australia, but it can be seen most places in the world (up the other way if you are in the northern hemisphere).
Even as we look at this striking asterism, our eyes will be drawn up to the bright red wanderer passing into the feet of the constellation Gemini "The Twins". This is of course the growing disk of the planet Mars, as it continues it's steady march across the night sky towards it's Christmas present to us all, when it reaches opposition to us on the 25th of December.
Opposition being when Mars is in the opposite side of the earth to the sun, meaning that Mars will rise in the east as the Sun sets on December 25th.

So make the effort in the early hours of the morning to see this planetary Trio, which even with a small telescope will show their shape & colours.
Venus is at almost 1/2 phase right now (thats right, Venus has phases just like the moon !)
Saturn is slowly growing in apparent size as the earth catches up with the ringed planet in its orbit.
Mars will grow 1/2 as big again in its apparent size by Christmas, but already dark surface features are already becoming visible with a telescope.
No doubt you will need to rug up if you are in the northern hemisphere, but make the effort and get out under the morning sky to view this lovely planetary trio.

Sputniks 50th Birthday

2007-10-04T21:38:00.000+09:30

Just 50 short years ago on October 4 1957 the first Satellite to orbit the earth was successfully launched into space by the USSR, to the great surprise of the USA, then firmly engaged in a space race with the USSR.

Falling to earth just 3 months after it none the less catapulted us into the computer age that we all take for granted today as we communicate across the world in seconds on our high speed broadband connections & computers that scientists of the day could only dream of.

Our fascination with space continues to this day both in the community at large and in the scientific community as it breaks new ground each day, discovering new worlds beyond our own, unraveling the mysteries of the galaxy we live in and the universe we are all part of, with revelations of the origin & fate of it all that were unknown when Sputnik was launched.

Now as you look into the night sky you will see satellites streaking across the night sky every few minutes, a far cry from the simple beeps emitted from Sputnik, just 50 short years ago.

If you are new to astronomy or you would like to get a start in discovering what it is all about about & how YOU can unravel the secrets of the night sky you can down load a free copy of my Audio "night sky secrets revealed" at www.nightskysecrets.com

Happy satellite spotting !