Another fireball this time over New England

Another fireball streaked through the sky , this time over New England. Here is a plot of the reports and more information including accounts.
12/31/08
http://www.spaceweather.com/

can't find it? use the archives and go to earlier date other then this one

Crab Nebula seen with its mysterious pulsar

A Pulsar is a spinning shell of star that remains once a star’s core collapses and rebounds to shine a supernova. After it’s titanic explosion a small spinning star with magnetic fields is created. Here is the best evidence and view of a pulsar in the famous Crab Nebula. The Pulsar is in the middle. Chinese astronomers witnessed the supernova explosion in 1054 AD
http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2008/crab/

Ten top Space stories 2008

It is always interesting to see the top 10 of the year 2008. Here are 10 for space.

http://news.aol.com/article/2008-a-momentous-year-in-spaceflight/287469

Saturn titled rings

Saturn like our Earth tilts on its axis. When that happens the beautiful rings sometime appear edge on as they are now. Here is more information and photos to understand this unusual allignment.

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2008/22dec_crazytilt.htm

Moon goes behind Jupiter

Looks to cool to be real. But when you click on this link you will see one of Jupiter's moon go behind the planet while the planet rotates
http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2008/42/video/a/

Beautiful rare nacreous clouds observed/ photographed

These high flying clouds are rare and colorful .
can't find it? use the archives and go to earlier date other then this one
12/20/2008
http://www.spaceweather.com/

SOHO spacecraft and comet hunter rediscovers its first comet

I was hoping that we might be able to see this comet through the SOHO spacecraft imaging.
Today this news appeared :
SOHO spacecraft and comet hunter rediscovers its first comet
http://sungrazer.nrl.navy.mil/index.php?p=latest_news
Look for 12/17/2008
also video of CME and comet via link on http://spaceweather.com (12/19/2008)

Dr. Eric Flescher (kcstarguy@aol.com; dreric1kansas@aol.com), Olathe, KS: Lat 38.834, Lon -94.778: Comet Observers Award Coordinator- Astronomical League / Astronomical Society of Kansas, KC, MO-Louisburg,KS: http://www.astroleague.org/al/obsclubs/comet/comet.htm: Comet Observers Blog: http://cometobservers.blogspot.com/:Subscribe to Comet Observers newsletter (send your email to):CometObserversAwardAL-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

Venus Express spacecraft investigation finds atmospheric loss of hydrogen

It has long been known that Venus is hot with clouds high above in the atmosphere producing a greenhouse effect which traps heat . But underneath Venus' clouds, were there hot oceans or deserts / dry land? Then radar showed the landscape to be dry and arid with no water. Scientists understood that Venus had water, once like Earth but then lost its water. But the mystery was how ? Now the Venus Express spacecraft has made the first detection of an atmospheric loss process on Venus's day-side. The spacecraft has yielded data that revealed that most of the lostatmosphere escapes from the night-side. Planetary scientists are closer to understanding what happened to the water on Venus and all the processes that caused the water to disappear from Venus.

More at:
http://www.esa.int/esaSC/SEM8MYSTGOF_index_0.html

The dynamic Saturn's small moon Enceladus

Scientists, using the Cassini spacecraft diving low to the surface oft the moon, finds even more evidence on Saturn's small moon Enceladus of a world which is even more dynamic.

http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0812/15enceladus/

Biggest, brightest and closest Moon of the year

Tonights Moon is 14% wider and 30% brighter than lesser Moons earlier in 2008. This occurs at perigee, the side of the Moon's elliptical orbit closest to Earth. Here is my picture of the event with my Canon Rebel taken through the trees with a nice moon halo surrounding it.

try to look for bright Geminid meteors starting tonight until this weekend

Yes that moon is bright over in the West near sunrise. It is located near the radiant (Gemini) before sunrise washing out everything in the sky particularly in the West but....

I stepped outside 6:10 Central am to get the newspaper. Well I happened to look up at the right time and saw a nice fat, yellow, zero magnitude Geminid flying across the Big Dipper.

Remember the brightest ones might be coming around 9 pm Earthgrazers so watch for them Dec 12- 14) Friday, Sat (Maxiumum) and Sunday night. These can appear all over the sky and are usually very long, very bright and can appear even in the areas that areas that are washed ouot by the moon. I am more interested in seeing the bright ones any way because those are the ones to remember this (and other showers ) yearly event.

Hope you see some. Please report any you see.

A spectacular (Perseid ) earthgrazer skimmed across the atmosphere near the Grand Tetons in August , 1972. Luckily it was caught on film.
Here is the link to see the video.
If you have not seen it before , the time has come

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=503_1215418331

Globular cluster: Hubble sees many stars

This very popular globular cluster has some of the oldest stars in a tight bunch. More here

http://news.aol.com/article/hubble-spots-celestial-snow-globe/270504

VENUS' GLOBAL CLOUD PATTERNS

It has sulphuric acid clouds and is very hot. The Venus Express spacecraft has found that  light on the atmospheric
 conditions that are responsible for the characteristic ultraviolet features in the Venusian
cloud deck
http://sci.esa.int/jump.cfm?oid=43792

Students discover unique planet

Students discover unique planet
This extraordinary find is about 5 tim
also in the photo of the 3 students showing off their data, it looks they are showing it off on an Apple ibook
http://www.astronomy.com/asy/default.aspx?c=a&id=7711

This week, Astronomy.com reported some intriguing comet research at Lowell Observatory in Arizona. A Lowell scientist, Dave Schleicher, studies the chemistry of comets. He and his colleagues recently found that Comet 96P/Machholz 1 has a weird chemistry. Machholz is extremely low in a chemical called cyanogen compared to other comets. The Lowell researchers think it may be a totally new class of comets, possibly cooked up billions of years ago in...
http://cs.astronomy.com/asycs/blogs/astronomy/2008/12/05/so-what-does-comet-96p-machholz-smell-like.aspx


Scientists find meteor debris in Canada
PHOTOS
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/28/AR2008112801930.html

University of Calgary graduate student Ellen Milley poses with a fragment of a meteorite in a small pond near Lloydminster, Sask., Canada Friday, Nov. 28, 2008. Scientists said Friday they had found remains of a meteor that illuminated the sky before falling to earth in western Canada earlier this month. University of Calgary scientist Alan Hildebrand and Milley found several meteor fragments near the Battle River along the rural Alberta-Saskatchewan border, near the city of Lloydminster late Thursday. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Geoff Howe)
University of Calgary graduate student Ellen Milley poses with a fragment of a meteorite in a small pond near Lloydminster, Sask., Canada Friday, Nov. 28, 2008. Scientists said Friday they had found remains of a meteor that illuminated the sky before falling to earth in western Canada earlier this month. University of Calgary scientist Alan Hildebrand and Milley found several meteor fragments near the Battle River along the rural Alberta-Saskatchewan border, near the city of Lloydminster late Thursday. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Geoff Howe) (Geoff Howe - AP)


other solar system news
http://webmail.aol.com/39997/aol/en-us/Suite.aspx

blog archives on right very nice

JETS ON THE MOON ENCELADUS what makes them work?

Scientists continue to search for the cause of the geysers on Saturn's small
moon Enceladus. Geysers are visible as a large plume like stream of water vapor
and ice particles escaping the moon. Inside the plume are jets of dust and
gas. What actually causes/controls the jets is enigma. The Cassini
spacecraft continues to collect new data to look for ideas and actual conclusions.

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n0812/02enceladus/

Great looking trio in the sky 12/1/2008

The forecast for Monday night was clear near Kansas City.

It started cloudy then started to get partly cloudy.

I drove down to Louisbourg, KS (south of Kansas City ) to take a picture at the observatory. The trio was remarkably pretty. I hope you all were able to take a peak

Here is one of my pics