Dear Friends: A great and easy skywatching opportunity this weekend: Shortly after sunset each evening, the planets Mercury, Venus, and Saturn will appear VERY close together in the sky — on Saturday evening, they’ll be so close that you could cover them all with your thumb at arm’s length, and then they’ll be even closer […]
1. SAVING HUBBLE: Since my last e-mail, Mike Griffin has been appointed and confirmed by Congress as the new Administrator of NASA. I don’t know him personally, but from everything I’ve read he seems like an outstanding choice who might really be able to get NASA out of its current doldrums. As readers of these […]
My apologies for violating my usual rule of sending e-mails only on rare occasions, but this is just too exciting for anyone to miss: The Huygens probe landed successfully on Titan this morning! Check out the “raw images” already posted at http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Cassini-Huygens/index.html. Scientists are only just beginning to try to understand what we are seeing, […]
1. THE SIRENS OF TITAN Don’t miss this one: I’d suggest clicking right now on http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm to see the countdown to our first landing on the surface of a world in the outer solar system. That’s right — the Huygens probe arrives at Titan on Friday morning. If all goes well, it will collect data […]
1. MOON/JUPITER ECLIPSE FOR EARLY EASTERN RISERS For those of you in the Eastern U.S., the Moon will eclipse (pass in front of) Jupiter shortly before dawn on Dec. 7; for exact times at different locations, see http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2004/29nov_moonjupiter.htm. Elsewhere, Jupiter and the Moon will still appear quite close together as a beautiful pair…. Questions you […]
Welcome back to school! Here’s the first of this academic year’s space science updates, with information about Wednesday’s total lunar eclipse and tomorrow’s Cassini flyby of Titan. Best wishes, Jeff 1. TOTAL LUNAR ECLIPSE Don’t miss this Wednesday night’s (Oct. 27) total eclipse of the Moon — it will be 2 1/2 years until the […]
Dear Friends, Tonight and tomorrow morning are the best times to watch the annual Perseid meteor shower, which is expected to be quite good this year. Simple watching instructions: you need an unobstructed view of the sky, so that you can watch a large part of the sky with your peripheral vision and thereby “catch” […]
Dear Friends, A short e-mail this time: This morning’s transit of Venus produced many beautiful images that will undoubtedly appear on the web over the coming days. For the moment, I recommend taking a look at a slide show that the New York Times has just posted on its web site. Go to http://www.nytimes.com/ (you […]
Dear Friends, Here is the next in my occasional series of space science updates, with info today on the May 4 lunar eclipse, observing Venus, the Venus transit, and the latest NASA space science missions. instructions for subscribing or unsubscribing can be found at the end of the message. Best wishes, Jeff 1. LUNAR ECLIPSE […]
Dear Friends, Welcome to the new "listserv" for my space science news e-mails. 1. All five naked-eye planets Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter & Saturn are visible in the early evening right now. Don’t miss it — go out just after the Sun drops below the horizon, and watch as the sky darkens. You’ll first see […]
