Transcript NASA-TV Highlights Monday, January 26

Space News Update
- January 23, 2015 In the News
Story 1:
Hilltop Panorama Marks Mars Rover's 11th Anniversary
Story 2:
Rosetta Data Reveals More Surprises About Comet 67P
Story 3:
NASA’s CATS Installed on ISS by Robotic Handoff
Departments
The Night Sky
ISS Sighting Opportunities
Space Calendar
NASA-TV Highlights
Food for Thought
Space Image of the Week
Hilltop Panorama Marks Mars Rover's 11th
Anniversary
Rosetta Data Reveals More Surprises
About Comet 67P
NASA’s CATS Installed on ISS by Robotic
Handoff
The Night Sky
Friday, January 23
The Moon, dim Mars, and bright Venus form a big diagonal line in the west in twilight, as
shown here. And can you still detect tiny, faint Mercury? Bring binoculars.
Three shadows on Jupiter. Late tonight Callisto, Io, and Europa are all casting their tiny
black shadows onto Jupiter at once, from 1:27 to 1:52 a.m. Saturday morning EST (10:27
to 10:52 p.m. Friday evening PST). Then all three satellites themselves appear in front of
Jupiter at once (and hence are practically invisible) from 2:08 to 2:12 a.m. EST.
Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles will livestream the triple-shadow event from 8:30 to
11:00 p.m. PST (11:30 p.m. to 2 a.m. EST, or 4:30 to 7:00 January 24 UT).
Saturday, January 24
Brilliant Sirius, the Dog Star, glitters in the southeast after dinnertime. Look high above it
for Betelgeuse in Orion's shoulder, shining reddish-orange. To their left is Procyon, the
Little Dog Star. It forms the equilateral Winter Triangle with them. Sirius, Betelgeuse, and
Procyon are 8.6, 500, and 11.5 light-years away, respectively. Here's some starwatching
you can do through even the worst city light pollution.
Sunday, January 25
Orion shines high in the southeast in early evening now. Orion is the showiest
constellation, but his main pattern is surprisingly small compared to some of his dimmer
neighbors. The biggest of these is Eridanus the River, enormous but hard to trace. Dimmer
Fornax the Furnace, to Eridanus's lower right, is almost as big as Orion. Even the main
pattern of Lepus, the Hare cowering under Orion's feet, isn't much smaller than Orion's
main pattern.
Monday, January 26
Earth to dodge a bullet! A relatively large near-Earth asteroid, 2004 BL86, is flying by our planet, passing us by three times the distance of the
Moon. Tonight the asteroid will brighten to 9th magnitude as it crosses Cancer, nicely placed in the evening hours for telescope users in the
Americas. See the article and detailed finder chart in the February Sky & Telescope, page 50, or our version online: Mountain-size Asteroid
Glides Past Earth.
Tuesday, January 27
"If I had to choose just one deep-sky object to demonstrate the appeal of binocular astronomy, it would probably be the Pleiades," writes Gary
Seronik. The Pleiades are certainly a nice sight overall. But the cluster holds a secret in its center: the 8th-magnitude double star South 437,
barely resolvable with 10× glasses. See Gary's column and chart in the February Sky & Telescope, page 45. The large black circle on his
chart spans a 10× binocular's 5° field of view. Algol shines at its minimum brightness, magnitude 3.4 instead of its Sky
usual&2.1,
for a couple
Telescope
hours tonight centered on 10:42 p.m. EST.
ISS Sighting Opportunities
ISS For Denver:
Date
Visible
Max
Height
Appears
Disappears
Sat Jan 24, 6:07 AM
3 min
60°
18 above NW
35 above E
Sun Jan 25, 5:17 AM
1 min
33°
33 above NE
20 above E
Sun Jan 25, 6:51 AM
< 1 min
13°
11 above WNW
13 above W
Mon Jan 26, 6:00 AM
4 min
51°
32 above W
10 above SE
Tue Jan 27, 5:11 AM
2 min
38°
38 above ESE
13 above SE
Tue Jan 27, 6:46 AM
< 1 min
10°
10 above WSW
10 above SW
Sighting information for other cities can be found at NASA’s Satellite Sighting Information
NASA-TV Highlights
(all times Eastern Daylight Time)
Monday, January 26
12 p.m., Commercial Crew Program Status Briefing; Launch America: Commercial Crew's Path
Forward (all channels)
Watch NASA TV online by going to the NASA website
Space Calendar
Jan 23 - Comet 4P/Faye Closest Approach To Earth (1.816 AU)
Jan 23 - Asteroid 2062 Aten Closest Approach To Earth (0.186 AU)
Jan 23 - Asteroid 10552 Stockholm Closest Approach To Earth (1.502 AU)
Jan 23 - Asteroid 8208 Volta Closest Approach To Earth (2.182 AU)
Jan 23 - [Jan 23] Bill Progue's 85th Birthday (1930)
Jan 23 - 145th Anniversary (1870), Nedagolla Meteorite Fall in India
Jan 23 - Ernst Abbe's 175th Birthday (1840)
Jan 24 - Comet 119P/Parker-Hartley At Opposition (2.411 AU)
Jan 24 - [Jan 18] Asteroid 2015 AP44 Near-Earth Flyby (0.030 AU)
Jan 24 - Asteroid 2014 QJ362 Near-Earth Flyby (0.083 AU)
Jan 24 - Asteroid 100000 Astronautica Closest Approach To Earth (1.030 AU)
Jan 24 - Asteroid 22824 von Neumann Closest Approach To Earth (1.556 AU)
Jan 24 - Asteroid 5036 Tuttle Closest Approach To Earth (1.690 AU)
Jan 24 - Lecture: Universe from the South Pole, Washington DC
Jan 24 - 15th Anniversary (2000), Discovery of Dhofar 019 Meteorite (Mars Meteorite)
Jan 24 - 25th Anniversary (1990), Hiten Launch (Japan Moon Orbiter)
Jan 24 - 30th Anniversary (1985), STS-51-C Launch (Space Shuttle Discovery, DOD)
Jan 25 - Comet 222P/LINEAR At Opposition (1.626 AU)
Jan 25 - Asteroid 588 Achilles Occults TYC 6749-01372-1 (12.1 Magnitude Star)
Jan 25 - [Jan 20] Asteroid 2015 BK4 Near-Earth Flyby (0.014 AU)
Jan 25 - [Jan 18] Asteroid 2015 BF Near-Earth Flyby (0.024 AU)
Jan 25 - Asteroid 1640 Nemo Closest Approach To Earth (1.775 AU)
Jan 25 - Asteroid 20488 Pic-du-Midi Closest Approach To Earth (2.080 AU)
Jan 25-28 - Workshop: Galaxies Inside and Out, Tehran, Iran
Jan 26 - Asteroid 357439 (2004 BL86) Near-Earth Flyby (0.008 AU)
Jan 26 - [Jan 18] Asteroid 2015 AK45 Near-Earth Flyby (0.012 AU)
Jan 26 - Asteroid 5256 Farquhar Closest Approach To Earth (2.128 AU)
Jan 26 - 10th Anniversary (2005), Mike Brown, et al's Discovery of Haumea Moon Hi'laka
Jan 26 - 35th Anniversary (1980), Voyager 1's Discovery of Saturn Moon Epimetheus
JPL Space Calendar
Food for Thought
NASA, Microsoft Collaboration Will Allow Scientists to ‘Work on
Mars’
Space Image of the Week
Chandra Celebrates the International Year of Light
Image Credit: NASA/CXC/SAO