Monthly Archives: April 2011

Snake and serpent twist the night away

Posted on April 30, 2011 by astrobob

Two fearsome creatures come back to life in the night sky every spring – Hydra the Water Snake and Draco the Dragon. Hydra is the largest of the 88 constellations and slithers its way across nearly the entire southern sky … Continue reading →

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Auroras possible tonight through Monday

Posted on April 29, 2011 by astrobob

The latest forecast from the NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center calls for a modest chance for auroras late tonight through Monday May 2 for northern regions. While it’s cloudy here in Duluth, Minn., I hope your weather’s better. If you … Continue reading →

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Antimatter, dark matter and strangelets – oh my!

Posted on April 29, 2011 by astrobob

I’d almost given up seeing NanoSail-D, the 107-square foot solar sail that was deployed on January 20 this year. On a pass a month ago, I saw just one brief flash. Last night, the sail was slated to zip north … Continue reading →

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Morning moon and planet party begins

Posted on April 28, 2011 by astrobob

Tomorrow and Saturday mornings we begin a grand round of moon and planet conjunctions that lasts into mid-May. Last week we looked at the ‘invisible planetary alignment’ to the right or west of the sun. Those same planets are sorting … Continue reading →

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The school that was built by meteorites

Posted on April 27, 2011 by astrobob

At 3:49 p.m. on July 21, 2002, a brilliant fireball streaked across the sky above the Kingdom of Lesotho (li-soo-too) not far from the capital city of Maseru. Only a few people saw the flash, because it was mostly cloudy … Continue reading →

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I really wasn’t trying to avoid you

Posted on April 26, 2011 by astrobob

Fact of life. There are some people and places we choose to avoid either for fear of getting roped into a conversation we don’t care to have or simply because we know what’s better for us. We give these individuals … Continue reading →

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21 candles for Hubble

Posted on April 25, 2011 by astrobob

The Hubble Space Telescope was launched into space 21 years ago and deployed by the space shuttle Discovery on April 25, 1990. To celebrate its coming of age, astronomers aimed Hubble’s camera at a beautiful trio of interacting galaxies known … Continue reading →

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Corvus the Crow caw-caws tonight

Posted on April 24, 2011 by astrobob

Crows are smart. Some fashion hooks from twigs to get at food. Yet intelligence is probably not the first thing that comes to mind when most of us think of crows. We’re more likely to associate them with bad omens … Continue reading →

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Down the rabbit hole through gravity’s lens

Posted on April 23, 2011 by astrobob

I played with lenses as a kid, fascinated by their seemingly magical ability to turn the world upside down, shrink and magnify it. The word lens comes from the Latin word for ‘lentil’ and refers to the biconvex shape of … Continue reading →

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Comet Elenin update and an invisible planetary alignment

Posted on April 22, 2011 by astrobob

Comet Elenin continues to inch its way through the asteroid belt en route to the inner planets. Seen from Earth, it recently moved from the constellation Sextans the Sextant into the more familiar Leo the Lion. Today it’s 242 million … Continue reading →

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