Archive – Page 353 – Astronomy Now

Live coverage of the partial solar eclipse

23 October 2014 Astronomy Now

Live coverage of the partial solar eclipse from NASA Television.

Hubble creates view of Comet Siding Spring alongside the red planet

23 October 2014 Astronomy Now

This composite Hubble Space Telescope image captures the positions of comet Siding Spring and Mars in a never-before-seen close passage of a comet.

North America gets ready for a partial solar eclipse

23 October 2014 Astronomy Now

A partial eclipse of the Sun is set to wow North Americans this afternoon (23 October) as the Moon’s silhouette will be seen to cover as much as 50 percent of the Sun from the USA, and up to 80 percent of the Sun in northern Canada.

Mosaic-making: Asimoplan software

23 October 2014 Steve Ringwood

Visual observers now have the benefit of wide-field eyepieces but astro-imagers are somewhat limited to the size of their CCD chip and when it comes to imaging large objects, they must take several images and build a mosaic.

Mars spacecraft safe after fortuitous comet encounter

20 October 2014 Stephen Clark

A fleet of robotic spacecraft orbiting Mars got a front row seat to space history Sunday and lived to tell about it, giving scientists their first close-up look at a comet fresh from a cloud of primordial mini-worlds at the outer reaches of the solar system.

Last-ditch search finds fresh targets for New Horizons

19 October 2014 Stephen Clark

Scientists using the powerful Hubble Space Telescopes have identified three tiny objects at the frontier of the solar system that NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft could visit after making an historic flyby of Pluto next summer.

Saturn’s moon Tethys ‘hangs like a droplet’ on the planet’s rings

18 October 2014 Astronomy Now

Like a drop of dew hanging on a leaf, Saturn’s moon Tethys appears to be stuck to the planet’s A and F rings in this view from the Cassini probe.

Observing the Moon: The Modern Astronomer’s Guide

18 October 2014 Astronomy Now

In this newly updated book, Gerald North gently walks the reader though the fascinating world that is our nearest neighbour in space.

Amateur astronomers have ringside seats for cometary close encounter

18 October 2014 Mark Armstrong

Amateur astronomers around the globe have a ringside seat as Comet 2013 A1 (Siding Spring) hurtles through space en route to an incredibly close encounter with the planet Mars on Sunday, 19 October.

Mars probes will hide from comet dust

17 October 2014 Keith Cooper

This Sunday, a comet will come closer to Mars than any other comet has ever been seen to approach a planet without actually hitting it, sending our assorted spacecraft orbiting the red planet running for cover.