Transcript Space Image of the Week

Space News Update
- September 20, 2016 In the News
Story 1:
Russians delay next crew launch to station
Story 2:
Hubble Watches as Comet 332P Breaks Apart
Story 3:
Astronomers discover five new Neptune trojans
Departments
The Night Sky
ISS Sighting Opportunities
Space Calendar
NASA-TV Highlights
Food for Thought
Space Image of the Week
Russians delay next crew launch to
station
Hubble Watches as Comet 332P Breaks
Apart
Astronomers discover five new Neptune
trojans
The Night Sky
Tuesday, September 20
• This is the time of year when, during the evening, the dim Little Dipper
"dumps water" into the bowl of the Big Dipper way down below. The Big
Dipper will dump it back in the evenings of spring.
Wednesday, September 21
• As summer ends, the Sagittarius Teapot moves west of due south during
evening and tips increasingly far over, as if pouring out the last of summer.
Look for it left of Mars.
Thursday, September 22
• Autumn begins in the Northern Hemisphere, and spring in the Southern
Hemisphere, at the equinox: 10:21 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time (14:21 UT).
This is when the Sun crosses the equator heading south for the season.
• Coincidentally, every year when summer turns to fall, Deneb takes over
from brighter Vega as the zenith star around the time when twilight fades
into night (for skywatchers at mid-northern latitudes).
Friday, September 23
• The W pattern of Cassiopeia stands high in the northeast after dark. The
right-hand side of the W is tilted up.
Look along the second segment of the W counting down from the top. It's
not quite horizontal. Notice the dim naked-eye stars along that segment
(not counting its two ends). The one on the right is Eta Cassiopeiae,
magnitude 3.4, a Sun-like star just 19 light-years away with an orangedwarf companion — a lovely binary in a telescope.
The "one" on the left is a wide naked-eye pair, Upsilon1 and Upsilon2 Cassiopeiae, 0.3° apart. They're orange giants
unrelated to each other, 200 and 400 light-years away.
• Last-quarter Moon (exact at 5:56 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time on this date). The Moon rises around midnight or 1 a.m. on
the morning of Saturday the 24th. Once it's fairly well up you'll find that it's in Gemini, with Castor and Pollux to its left. Orion
is much farther to its right.
Sky & Telescope
ISS Sighting Opportunities
ISS For Denver:
Date
Visible
Max Height
Appears
Disappears
Tue Sep 20, 4:08 AM
< 1 min
10°
10° above NNE
10° above NE
Tue Sep 20, 5:41 AM
4 min
36°
10° above NW
32° above ENE
Wed Sep 21, 4:51 AM
2 min
23°
21° above N
20° above NE
Wed Sep 21, 6:25 AM
1 min
18°
10° above WNW
18° above WNW
Thu Sep 22, 5:34 AM
5 min
84°
19° above NW
11° above SE
Fri Sep 23, 4:45 AM
2 min
39°
39° above ENE
11° above ESE
Fri Sep 23, 6:18 AM
5 min
18°
10° above W
10° above S
Sighting information for other cities can be found at NASA’s Satellite Sighting Information
MAVEN Launch November 18, 2013
NASA
NASA-TV Highlights
(all times Eastern Time Zone)
10:30 a.m., Tuesday, September 20 - Replay of ISS Expedition 49 In-Flight Event with the MD Anderson
Cancer Center, Houston and Flight Engineer Kate Rubins of NASA (NTV-1 (Public))
12:30 p.m., Thursday, September 22 - ISS Expedition 49 In-Flight Interviews with the Associated Press and
KGO-TV, San Francisco with Flight Engineer Kate Rubins of NASA (Starts at 12:20 p.m.) (all channels)
Watch NASA TV online by going to the NASA website
Space Calendar
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-
Apollo Asteroid 2016 RM20 Near-Earth Flyby (0.016 AU)
Asteroid 24101 Cassini Closest Approach To Earth (1.333 AU)
Asteroid 11911 Angel Closest Approach To Earth (1.722 AU)
Asteroid 31 Euphrosyne Closest Approach To Earth (2.259 AU)
Asteroid 4442 Garcia Closest Approach To Earth (2.749 AU)
65th Anniversary (1951), Aerobee Missile Launch (Yorik the Monkey & Mice - 1st Animals to Survive Rocket Flight)
Moon Occults Aldebaran
Comet 73P-AY/Schwassmann-Wachmann At Opposition (0.623 AU)
Comet 73P-AZ/Schwassmann-Wachmann At Opposition (0.623 AU)
Comet 93P/Lovas Closest Approach To Earth (1.389 AU)
Apollo Asteroid 469219 (2016 HO3) Closest Approach To Earth (0.160 AU)
Apollo Asteroid 5786 Talos Closest Approach To Earth (0.939 AU)
Asteroid 2675 Tolkien Closest Approach To Earth (0.986 AU)
H.G. Wells' 150th Birthday (1866)
Autumnal Equinox, 14:21 UT
EKS N2/ Tundra 12L Soyuz-2.1b/Fregat-M Launch
Comet 135P/Shoemaker-Levy At Opposition (3.147 AU)
Apollo Asteroid 2015 DS53 Near-Earth Flyby (0.050 AU)
Asteroid 386622 New Zealand Closest Approach To Earth (0.894 AU)
Asteroid 5029 Ireland Closest Approach To Earth (1.681 AU)
Asteroid 8353 Megryan Closest Approach To Earth (2.028 AU)
Kuiper Belt Object 2010 RE64 At Opposition (51.670 AU)
15th Anniversary (2001), Deep Space 1, Comet Borrelly Flyby
Peter Pallas' 175th Birthday (1741)
Michael Faraday's 225th Birthday (1791)
Thomas Wright's 305th Birthday (1711)
Cassini, Orbital Trim Maneuver #460 (OTM-460)
Comet 73P-AA/Schwassmann-Wachmann Closest Approach To Earth (1.081 AU)
Comet 338P/McNaught Closest Approach To Earth (1.356 AU)
Comet 31P/Schwassmann-Wachmann At Opposition (3.703 AU)
Comet 294P/LINEAR At Opposition (4.100 AU)
Asteroid 43844 Rowling Closest Approach To Earth (1.283 AU)
Asteroid 9951 Tyrannosaurus Closest Approach To Earth (1.346 AU)
Asteroid 12490 Leiden Closest Approach To Earth (2.517 AU)
Kuiper Belt Object 308933 (2006 SQ372) At Opposition (26.252 AU)
Kuiper Belt Object 120347 Salacia At Opposition (43.735 AU)
Willie McCool's 55th Birthday (1961)
JPL Space Calendar
170th Anniversary (1846), Johann Galle's Discovery of Neptune
Johann Encke's 225th Birthday (1791)
Food for Thought
Water-Powered Cubes Aim for Moon Orbit
Space Image of the Week
50,000 Kilometers over the Sun
Image Credit & Copyright: Pete Lawrence