Transcript The Night Sky

Space News Update
- July 29, 2016 In the News
Story 1:
Jupiter’s Great Red Spot Likely a Massive Heat Source
Story 2:
Chorus of black holes radiates X-rays
Story 3:
Loneliest Young Star Seen by Spitzer and WISE
Departments
The Night Sky
ISS Sighting Opportunities
Space Calendar
NASA-TV Highlights
Food for Thought
Space Image of the Week
Jupiter’s Great Red Spot Likely a Massive
Heat Source
Chorus of black holes radiates X-rays
Loneliest Young Star Seen by Spitzer and WISE
The Night Sky
Friday, July 29
• Bright Vega now passes almost straight overhead around 11 p.m. daylightsaving time, depending on your location. As with all star configurations, you'll see
this happening two hours earlier each month.
Saturday, July 30
• As summer proceeds, Scorpius shifts westward from its highest stance in the
south just after dark, and Sagittarius moves in from the east to take its place. So
we're entering prime time for the profusion of Messier objects in and above
Sagittarius. How many can you locate with a map and binoculars?
Start with M8, the big Lagoon Nebula. It's 6° above the spout-tip of the Sagittarius
Teapot pattern.
Sunday, July 31
• The tail of Scorpius lies low due south right after dark. Look for the two stars
especially close together in the tail. These are Lambda and fainter Upsilon Scorpii,
known as the Cat's Eyes. They're canted at an angle; the cat is tilting his head and
squinting one eye.
The Cat's Eyes point west (right) by nearly a fist-width toward Mu Scorpii, a much
tighter pair known as the Little Cat's Eyes. It takes very sharp vision to resolve Mu
without binoculars!
Monday, August 1
• Shortly after sunset, Jupiter, Mercury, faint Regulus and Venus form a diagonal line in the west, as shown here. The line is
27° long. Look early in twilight and bring binoculars, because Venus is only about 4° high even just 20 minutes after
sundown (for skywatchers near 40° north latitude). Regulus may be impossible. Good luck.
Tuesday, August 2
• Explore faint little Lacerta, the Lizard tucked between Cygnus and Andromeda, using binoculars and Mathew Wedel's
Binocular Highlights column and map in the August Sky & Telescope, page 43. Can you make out the little arrowhead of
NGC 7243?
• New Moon (exact at 4:45 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time).
Sky & Telescope
ISS Sighting Opportunities
ISS For Denver:
Date
Visible
Max
Height
Appears
Disappears
Fri Jul 29, 9:36 PM
5 min
30°
11° above W
11° above NNE
Fri Jul 29, 11:16 PM
< 1 min
11°
11° above N
10° above N
Sat Jul 30, 8:42 PM
6 min
52°
10° above WSW
12° above NE
Sat Jul 30, 10:23 PM
1 min
13°
13° above N
10° above NNE
Sun Jul 31, 00:00 AM
< 1 min
10°
10° above N
10° above N
Sun Jul 31, 9:29 PM
2 min
18°
18° above NNW
10° above NNE
Sun Jul 31, 11:07 PM
< 1 min
10°
10° above N
10° above N
Mon Aug 1, 8:36 PM
3 min
26°
26° above NNW
10° above NNE
Mon Aug 1, 10:13 PM
1 min
11°
11° above N
10° above N
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)
7 a.m., 11 a.m., 3 p.m., 7 p.m., 11 p.m. Saturday, July 30 - Replay of Space Station Live
(7/29/16) (NTV-1 (Public), NTV-3 (Media))
1 p.m., Saturday, July 30 - Smithsonian’s National Air & Space Museum Presents - “What’s New
in Aerospace?” – Milestones: Inside Stories (NTV-1 (Public))
8 p.m., Saturday, July 30 - Replay of “What’s New in Aerospace?” – Milestones: Inside Stories
(NTV-1 (Public))
7 a.m., 11 a.m., 3 p.m., 7 p.m., 11 p.m., Sunday, July 31 - Replay of Space Station Live
(7/29/16) (NTV-1 (Public), NTV-3 (Media))
10 a.m., 6 p.m. Sunday, July 31 - Replay of “What’s New in Aerospace?” – Milestones: Inside
Stories (NTV-1 (Public))
Watch NASA TV online by going to the NASA website
Space Calendar
Jul 29 - Moon Occults Aldebaran
Jul 29 - South Delta-Aquarids Meteor Shower Peak
Jul 29 - Comet 45P/Honda-Mrkos-Pajdusakova Closest Approach To Earth (1.526 AU)
Jul 29 - Aten Asteroid 2016 NF23 Near-Earth Flyby (0.081 AU)
Jul 29 - Asteroid 7758 Poulanderson Closest Approach To Earth (1.166 AU)
Jul 29 - Asteroid 1554 Yugoslavia Closest Approach To Earth (1.235 AU)
Jul 29 - Asteroid 5451 Plato Closest Approach To Earth (1.241 AU)
Jul 29 - Asteroid 144296 Steviewonder Closest Approach To Earth (1.519 AU)
Jul 29 - Asteroid 991 McDonalda Closest Approach To Earth (1.640 AU)
Jul 29 - 30th Anniversary (1986), Kokubunji Meteorite Fall (Hit Houses, Roads in Japan)
Jul 30 - Comet P/2008 T1 (Boattini) Closest Approach To Earth (2.104 AU)
Jul 30 - Comet C/2015 X7 (ATLAS) Perihelion (3.685 AU)
Jul 30 - Asteroid 564 Dudu Occults HIP 22850 (6.4 Magnitude Star)
Jul 30 - Apollo Asteroid 5011 Ptah Closest Approach To Earth (1.429 AU)
Jul 30 - Asteroid 3767 DiMaggio Closest Approach To Earth (1.701 AU)
Jul 30 - 15th Anniversary (2001), WMAP, Moon Flyby
Jul 30 - 100th Anniversary (1916), Grigory Neujmin's Discovery of Asteroid 951 Gaspra
Jul 31 - Comet C/2015 M3 (PANSTARRS) Closest Approach To Earth (3.671 AU)
Jul 31 - Atira Asteroid 2010 XB11 Closest Approach To Earth (0.741 AU)
Jul 31 - Asteroid 16155 Buddy Closest Approach To Earth (1.965 AU)
Jul 31 - Asteroid 15092 Beegees Closest Approach To Earth (2.095 AU)
Jul 31 - Asteroid 4772 Frankdrake Closest Approach To Earth (2.162 AU)
Jul 31 - 10th Anniversary (2006), Jodiya Meteorite Fall (Hit Houses in India)
Jul 31 - 45th Anniversary (1971), Dave Scott Becomes 1st Person To Drive Vehicle on Moon (Apollo 15)
Aug 01 - Alpha Capricornids Meteor Shower Peak
Aug 01 - Comet 73P-AF/Schwassmann-Wachmann Closest Approach To Earth (0.277 AU)
Aug 01 - Comet 311P/PANSTARRS Closest Approach To Earth (1.267 AU)
Aug 01 - Comet 59P/Kearns-Kwee At Opposition (4.085 AU)
Aug 01 - Asteroid 1373 Cincinnati Closest Approach To Earth (2.143 AU)
Aug 01 - [Jul 29] Kuiper Belt Object 2013 AT183 At Opposition (63.083 AU)
JPL Space Calendar
Food for Thought
Apollo astronauts experiencing higher rates of cardiovascular-related
deaths
Space Image of the Week
Hubble Gazes at Long-dead Star