Hubble scrutinises site of mysterious flash and missing cloud belt on Jupiter

 Click on image to enlarge

Source: www.spacetelescope.org

New and detailed observations from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have provided insights into two recent events on Jupiter: the mysterious flash of light seen on 3 June and the recent disappearance of the planet’s dark Southern Equatorial Belt.

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• Urugay het nou net die 1ste doel teen Bavana aangeteken. Disaster!  

Hopes High for Asteroid Samples From Japanese Space Capsule

By Tariq Malik
SPACE.com Managing Editor, posted: 14 June 2010, 01:57 pm ET www.space.com

The triumphant Sunday landing of a Japanese space capsule that visited an asteroid and returned to Earth despite near-overwhelming  malfunctions now has scientists around the world asking one final question: Did it actually capture a piece of asteroid Itokawa?

"First, the sample container will be inspected, and then the content will be extracted," said Keiji Tachikawa, president of Japan's space agency JAXA, in a Monday statement.  "We hope to find the Itokawa's surface material in the capsule, and contribute to understanding the origin and evolution of the solar system."

 This still from a NASA video shows the Hayabusa spacecraft as it burned up over Australia during re-entry on June 13, 2010 to cap a 7-year mission to the asteroid Itokawa. Hayabusa ejected a sample return capsule (bright dot at lower right) before burning up. It landed in the Australian outback and has been recovered. Credit: NASA/SETI

 Japan's Hayabusa asteroid sample capsule and parachute are seen in the Australian outback after its historic June 13, 2010 landing. The capsule was jettisoned from its Hayabusa mother ship after a 7-year voyage to the asteroid Itokawa to collect samples. Credit: JAXA

 An artist's concept of Japan's Hayabusa landing on the asteroid Itokawa. Credit: ©Akihiro Ikeshita/JAXA

Source: www.space.com

Stellarium 0.10.5 released!

The Stellarium team is very proud to announce the release of stable version 0.10.5. This is an important bug fix release closing more than 30 bugs in the main application and in the plugins. It also brings small GUI usability improvements, as well as a much reduced starting time.

A huge thanks to all community bug reporters who helped us a lot finding bugs!

• www.stellarium.org  
  
• Wiki with more information: quickstart; FAQ; user's guide; scripts

Star Party at Mountain Sanctuary Park, Magaliesberg, from 6-8 August 2010

The West Rand Astronomy Club will be hosting a Star Party at Mountain Sanctuary Park, Magaliesberg, from 6-8 August 2010.

All are welcome, and we would like to invite members of ASSA Bloemfontein.

See attached Invite for more information and bookings. Also attached are maps and details for Mountain Sanctuary Park.

The West Rand Astronomy Club will be hosting a Weekend Away Star Party at the Mountain Sanctuary Park from 6th to 8th August 2010.

The Mountain Sanctuary Park is a private nature reserve in the Magaliesberg Mountains, about 120km north-west of Johannesburg and 90km west of Pretoria.

The night sky is beautiful from this site and if conditions are favourable, the Coal Sack in the Southern Cross and the Small Magellanic Cloud can be seen.

Accommodation options are chalets, log cabins or camping.

Those bringing telescopes stay free, if camping. 10 large campsites have been reserved for those with telescopes. These campsites border a central field where the telescopes will be set up. Please join us for a weekend of star gazing under dark skies.

Bookings
Please contact Elizabeth at Mountain Sanctuary Park by 30 June 2010.
Tel: (014) 534-0114 (08H00 - 17H00, 7 Days a week)
eMail: owen@mountain-sanctuary.co.za
Website: www.mountain-sanctuary.co.za

Be sure to mention you are booking for the WRAC Star Party and whether you are bringing a telescope.

For more information contact
Kenny Nevill on 082 335 1983, email: kenny@wrac.org.za.

If bringing a telescope, please email Doryn Jolly, doryn@wrac.org.za to let
her know you are bringing a telescope and the type of telescope.

Terms and conditions apply.
_____________________________________________________________________

FW: Sumbandila Missing Blog

SunSpace was established in 2000 as a spin-off from Stellenbosch University following the successful launch of SUNSAT by NASA with a Delta-II launch vehicle. During the past decade SunSpace has developed and delivered numerous satellite components, subsystems and two flight model satellite, now operational in space. This blog documents the mission of Sumbandila (funded by the DST), launched on a Soyuz-2.1b on 17 September 2009. SunSpace places a high premium on a strong partnership with the South African Government for supplying the ongoing satellite needs of our government.

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Hubble Catches Stars On The Move

Source: SpaceDaily by Staff Writers, Heidelberg, Germany (SPX) Jun 03, 2010

By exploiting the exquisite image quality of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and comparing two observations made ten years apart astronomers have, for the first time, managed to measure the tiny motions of several hundred young stars within the central cluster of the star-forming region NGC 3603.

The team was surprised to find that the stars are moving in ways that are at odds with the current understanding of how such clusters evolve. The stars in the cluster have not "settled down" as expected.

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Vuurbal tref Jupiter! Kyk die video

Herman Bonnet van ASSABFN stuur hierdie nuuswenk op Spaceweather.com. Loer gerus die videos.

Photo credit: Anthony Wesley, Broken Hill Australia

JUPITER IMPACT! Amateur astronomers Anthony Wesley of Australia and Christopher Go of the Philippines have independently observed an impact event on Jupiter. The strike occurred at 20:31 UT on June 3rd and produced a bright flash of light in the giant planet's cloudtops:

"I still can't believe that I caught a live impact on Jupiter," says Go, who has made a must-see video of the event.

"There were no visible remains at the impact point for the next half hour or so, until sunrise put an end to the imaging," says Wesley.

The nature of the impactor is presently unknown. It might have been an asteroid or a comet. In either case, a dark and cindery debris field is expected to develop around the impact point; that's what has happened in the aftermath of previous Jupiter impacts. Astronomers are encouraged to monitor Jupiter, and stay tuned for updates.

Update #3: A full day has elapsed since the flash, and many observatories have imaged the impact site. So far, a prominent debris cloud has not emerged. Was this impactor too small to produce much debris? Observations will continue...

Update #2: Wesley has posted a 46 MB video of the impact on his web page.

Update #1: Anthony Wesley has pinpointed the impact site at Jovian latitude minus 16.1^o, and central meridian longitudes CM1: 300^o, CM2: 33.8^o and CM3: 210.4^o.

Komeet 81P/Wild

Hier is `n komeet in Virgo met `n magnitude van so 10 wat `n lekker uitdaqing bied vir die donker aande wat voorlê.

 Click on image to enlarge

On this night 81P/Wild is best visible between 18:30 and 01:06, with the optimum view at 21:27. Look for it in Virgo, high in the sky in complete darkness. It is easy visually in the Orion SkyQuest XT8 Dob. Use the Ultima 42mm for optimum visual detection. It is magnitude 10.5 with a diameter of 1.5'.

In the following 30 days this object is easy visually on June 6-17, with the best view coming on June 6. During this period it will fade by about 1.2 magnitudes and will reach minimum altitude of 11° on June 21.

81P/Wild will next reach perihelion in late July 2016. It is predicted to reach maximum brightness of magnitude 11.3 in mid July. The best visibility from Bloemfontein, South Africa near maximum brightness is predicted to be in mid July when it will be approximately magnitude 11.3. At that time it will be in Leo, low in the northwestern sky during evening twilight and will be detectable in the Orion SkyQuest XT8 Dob. The previous perihelion was late February 2010. Note that the magnitude and visibility of a comet can be very unpredictable.

Visit Comet Chasing in June

Source: Skytools 3

Opening special: "Star Gazer’s Deep Space Atlas, Outdoor Viewing"

Hier is `n aanbod wat jy nie kan laat verbygaan nie. Jou vroeë kersgeskenk is nou nog meer bekostigbaar.

Sean Mitchell het laat weet hulle het `n spesiale openingsaanbod op Wayne se nuwe verbeterde: "Star Gazer’s Deep Space Atlas, Outdoor Viewing"

Die openingsaanbod is R299 + R65 (geregistreerde posaflewering).
Totale koste is R364.

Blaai af op die blog en lees meer oor die atlas.  

Web: www.deepspaceatlas.com

Bortle Dark-Sky Scale

 Het jy geweet van hierdie duistere skaal? Hier is `n inliging op `n Wiki daaroor. Klik op die skakel en word wyser....

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Hier is net so `n lusmaker:

The Bortle Dark-Sky Scale is a nine-level numeric scale that measures the night sky's and stars' brightness (naked-eye and stellar limiting magnitude) of a particular location. It quantifies the astronomical observability of celestial objects and the interference caused by light pollution and skyglow. John E. Bortle created the scale and published it in the February 2001 edition of Sky & Telescope magazine to help amateur astronomers compare the darkness of observing sites. The scale ranges from Class 1, the darkest skies available on Earth, through Class 9, inner-city skies.[1]