Stargazers will get two opportunities in the coming days (or rather, nights) to watch the International Space Station fly across Baltimore's skies. Both are very bight evening passes, high over head, with plenty of other stuff in the sky to add variety to your time under the stars.

The weather looks pretty good for Saturday night, but Monday evening could be dicey, with "mostly cloudy" skies forecast. Check for weather updates. Urban lighting and thin clouds shouldn't hurt any. The ISS is very bright on these passes.

The first event comes Saturday evening, as the station passes over Lake Michigan and becomes visible from Central Maryland. Look for a very bright, star-like object rising in the northwest at 8:12 p.m. EDT. If it's blinking, has multiple or colored lights, it's an airplane. Keep looking. 

The ISS and its crew will climb high overhead, passing just above the moon in the western sky. It will climb as high as 69 degrees - more than two-thirds of the distance between the southwestern horizon and the zenith (straight up) by 8:15 p.m.

From there, the station will pass below the planet Mars in the southeast, disappearing over the Atlantic at 8:17 p.m.

The second pass comes on Monday evening, and it will look very much like Saturday's flyby. The station will rise in the northwest again, this time at 7:26 p.m. EDT. It will pass below the moon, 65 degrees above the southwestern horizon at 7:29 p.m.

From there it will slide off toward the southeast, passing between Mars and Sirius, the bright star to the lower left of the Constellation Orion, before vanishing at about 7:31 p.m. As always, drop back here after the show and share the experience.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 7:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Sky Watching
        

The National Weather Service has hoisted a string of sun and moon icons across the five-day forecast today. It's a reminder that there is plenty to see up there if we would just lift our eyes above the grimy snow piles and glaring street lights.

The weather forecast looks pretty good, right through the middle of next week. Sterling is looking for sunny days in the 50s by this weekend, and partly cloudy to mostly clear nights.

It's an opportunity to get reacquainted with the night sky after a month of cold and snow and ice.

On the way home the other night I noticed that Venus has returned to the evening sky. It's still very low in the west, setting about an hour after the sun. And it's not yet as brilliant as it will be by the end of March, when it will set more than an hour and a half after sunset.

But it's been quite a while since we've had Venus (left, in ultraviolet) as our evening star, and it will be a welcome sight for commuters and evening dog-walkers. Late in March we'll get a chance to see Mercury rise out of the sun's glare and get pretty close to Venus prior to a nice conjunction in early April.

Mars (right) is fading this month, but it remains a prominent presence high in the eastern sky each evening. Look for it just below the twin stars of Gemini - Castor and Pollux. It is noticeably redder than the bright stars of the winter constellations, and hard to miss.

And in case you missed Thursday's night's flyover by the International Space Station, the ISS will make a very similar pass on Saturday evening. Thursday's appearance was notable for the station's ability to gleam right through the scattered thin clouds that spread over much of the Baltimore area.

Look for the ISS again Saturday evening as it rises above the southwest horizon at 6:08 p.m. This pass will be nearly as bright as Thursday's, but probably with fewer clouds. The station will climb  even higher - to within 3 degrees of the zenith at 6:11 p.m. From there it will slide off toward the northeast, disappearing from view at 6:14 p.m.

Saturn, too, is visible in the evening sky this weekend as it nears opposition on the 22nd. Look for it low in the east southeast later in the evening, say, 10 p.m. It has a steady light and a slightly yellowish tint compared with the stars.  

Clear skies!    

Posted by Frank Roylance at 12:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
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Space Cadets! If skies stay clear enough, we'll have a fine opportunity this (Thursday) evening to watch the International Space Station fly almost directly over Baltimore.

The ISS will be cruising up the East Coast around dinner time. We'll catch our first glimpse as it passes 220 miles over Georgia, and we'll be able to watch it until it disappears in the Earth's shadow off the coast of Maine.

Look for a bright, star-like object rising above the southwest horizon at 6:53 p.m. If it has multiple lights, colored or blinking lights, it's an aircraft. Keep looking.

The ISS will climb toward the zenith, passing above the bright winter constellation Orion at about 6:56 p.m. From there, the station will fly above the twin stars of Gemini and - just below Gemini in the eastern sky, reddish Mars - before vanishing in the northeast at about 6:58 p.m.

As always, take the kids outside with you. They're great at spotting this thing. And then come back here and leave a report to share the experience.

Got the stargazing bug? Head out to the Community College of Baltimore County, this Friday evening for a Star Party being thrown by the school's Astronomy Dept. Here are the details:

"Star Party, from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Observatory at CCBC, 7200 Sollers Point Road. If conditions appear cloudy, rainy or snowy, please check for cancellations by calling 410 282-3092 approximately 45 minutes before the scheduled start time.

"Visit the CCBC Web site for additional information about star parties, or call 443 840-4216." The star parties are free.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 12:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
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No guarantees here, but this may be an event worth crawling out of bed for on Sunday morning.

The space shuttle Endeavour is wrapping up its business at the International Space Station today, having assisted in the installation of the station's new observation dome (NASA photo). Now the shuttle crew is preparing for undocking this evening and a landing in Florida Sunday night, weather permitting. Between now and then, the shuttle and the ISS will be flying in rather close formation, affording us a chance to see them both cross our skies, one after the other.

It's an opportunity that will soon become a bit of space history. The shuttle fleet is scheduled to be retired by fall, with just four flights left on the manifest. The sight of a shuttle and the ISS crossing the sky together will be a memory worth pursuing. You can read more about it here.

So, here's the deal: Our best chance to see the two spacecraft from Maryland will come at 5:43 a.m. on Sunday. The ISS will rise above the north northwest horizonas it crosses above the northern Great Lakes. It will look like a bright, moving star. It will climb less than halfway between the north northeast horizon and the zenith (straight up), rising to just 37 degrees at 5:45 a.m. as it flies over the northern Hudson River Valley.

From there, the space station will glide off toward the east southeast, disappearing at 5:47 a.m.

The flyby is not one I would normally alert readers to, because of the hour, the cold and its relatively low arc across the sky. But skies are forecast to be only partly cloudy, and because of the diminishing opportunities to see the two craft together, I figured it would be worth the shot.

If you do go out to watch, allow several minutes on either end of the listed times. I'm not sure at this moment whether the shuttle will be flying ahead of the ISS or behind. (You can tell them apart because the ISS is much brighter.) But they should pass over in fairly quick succession. There has also been talk of raising the station's orbit, which also could affect the timing a bit.

Good luck. And as always, if you spot them, please drop back here and leave a comment describing the scene. I'll post them as soon as I can.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 12:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)
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You knew this had to happen: The Lorton, Va. doctors whose office was drilled by the meteorite that fell from the sky Jan. 18 are now in a battle with their landlord over the ownership of the space rock.

The docs donated the meteorite to the Smithsonian, and according to this morning's Washington Post, the Smithsonian gave them $5,000 as an expression of their gratitude (and recognition that the stone is worth far more on the commercial market).

But now the landlord is asserting his rights as the owner of the land where the meteor fell. He claims the rock is his, and he may have the law on his side. For now, the Lorton meteorite remains at the Smithsonian.

Four-and-a-half billion years drifting in space, and it ends in an all-too-human scrap over property and money.

(PHOTO/Sally Sennert/Smithsonian Institution)

Posted by Frank Roylance at 1:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
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A Washington DC television station is reporting an apparent meteorite fall in Lorton, Va. The space rock, which has been taken to the Smithsonian Institution, crashed through the roof of a doctor's office at around 5:45 p.m. on Monday, narrowly missing patients and staff.

NOTE: An earlier version of this post erroneously referred to the office as a dental office. Although there is a dental office in the building, the doctors who found the meteorite are in a family medical practice. The Weatherblog regrets the error.

The reported time of the fall matches closely the time that scores of people from New Jersey to southern Virginia reported they saw a bright meteor fall, leaving a writhing smoke trail in the twilight sky. The Baltimore Sun's WeatherBlog has received more than 100 reports of the fall from observers.

The story on the Web site of WUSA9 in Washington says the mango-sized meteorite crashed through the roof and acoustical tiles of the Williamsburg Square Family Practice office in Lorton. Dr. Frank Ciampi told the station the crash was so loud he thought bookshelves had toppled.

Experts at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History, interviewed by the station, confirmed the fractured meteorite was a stony "chondrite" meteorite, with a dark fusion crust formed by the heat of its passage through the atmosphere.

Professional meteorite hunter Steve Arnold says he is on his way to Virginia. "I hope to find some other pieces," he said in email to the WeatherBlog. Arnold, TV's "Meteorite Man," also took part in the apparently unsuccessful hunt for fragments of the meteor that fell somewhere along the Mason-Dixon line north of Baltimore last July 6.  That fall was accompanied by a sonic boom that startled residents in Maryland and Pennsylvania.

The Smithsonian museum's Linda Welzenbach said the Lorton meteorite is believed to be only the fourth confirmed meteorite fall in Virginia's history.

UPDATE: Meteorite hunters have been using readers' comments to the WeatherBlog to calculate the entry path of the meteorite. They've been scouring the comments, especially, for descriptions of the altitude and angle of the meteor's arrival last Monday evening. Not everyone included that information in their comments. There's still time. Here's a note I received Monday, Jan. 25 from Rob Matson. You can contact him directly at Robert.d.matson@saic.com :

"Hi Frank,

"I've been following the posts on your blog by witnesses to the
Lorton fireball in the hopes of finding someone, *anyone*, who
viewed the fall "from the side" as opposed to roughly inline
with it (someone that wasn't NNE or SSW of Lorton). It's a
shame that not one of the witnesses from well east or well
west of the meteor made mention of the *slope* of the meteor's
path relative to the horizon. This is a critical piece of
information as far as reconstruction of the 3D track. I was
really hoping that one of the easternmost observers (e.g.
Rehoboth Beach, DE; Ocean City, MD) would have commented
about the slope since it most definitely did not fall
vertically toward the horizon from these vantage points. Even
better would have been a single picture of the smoke trail
from one of these side-viewing vantage points. Surely in
this age when everyone has a cell phone camera, someone must
have taken such an image?

"If you have any images or even sketches of the bolide's path
(or its smoke trail taken as soon after the fall as possible),
I would love to see them. Even one such image where the path
wasn't vertical would allow a crude reconstruction of the
entry angle, aiding in the recovery of additional specimens
from the fall. - Best wishes, Rob"

This request for help was answered by several readers. Matson has since sent the following:

Thanks very much for posting my message on your blog. As a result, I've already received one image from one of your readers (Columbia, MD vantage point) which is the most useful along-track view of the smoke trail I've seen to date, as it contains both the track and the crescent Moon. Used in conjunction with the smoke trail image taken from Silver Spring (would love to know the precise location for that image, btw), I can construct a crude 3D track solution.

But I'm still holding out hope for an image from the Chesapeake or anywhere along the DelMarVa peninsula.

Thanks again,

Rob

(PHOTO WUSA9)

Posted by Frank Roylance at 10:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (37)
Categories: Sky Watching
        

UPDATE: This meteor appears to be the one that drilled through the roof of a Lorton, Va. dental office Monday evening. Read more here. 

The Tuesday morning mail contained the following report from a reader in Reisterstown, Md. He and his wife spotted a bright meteor to their south after sunset on Monday evening. The crescent moon and planet Jupiter were visible in the southwest.

Here's his report, including a meteor photo he says resembles what he saw. If anyone else spotted the same object, please leave us a comment and describe what you saw. Please include the time, your location, the direction you were looking, the direction of flight, the object's approximate height above the horizon (in degrees, if possible; zero degrees is on the horizon, 90 degrees is straight up) and anything else you can remember.

Thanks.

"There was no sonic boom as in your report from a year or two ago. Have other people seen this? - Henry Simoni-Wastila"

Continue reading "Twilight meteor reported Monday in Maryland" »

Posted by Frank Roylance at 8:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (182)
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I was going to say, "...caught on film," but I suspect few these days are using actual film. Anyway, there was an eclipse of the sun this morning. It was an "annular" or ring eclipse. The moon, being unusually far from the Earth at the moment, on the far end of its lopsided orbit around the Earth, appears smaller in the sky and its disk was unable to completely cover the sun's disk.

So, along the path of "totality" - from East Africa to Burma and China - it appeared as a ring of sunlight around the rim of the moon's disk.

Outside the path of totality, across a wide swath from Central Europe, to Central Asia and South Africa, it was a partial eclipse, with the moon blocking a slice of the sun.

There are lots of photos here, with more coming. 

The American Southwest will be treated to a similar annual eclipse of the sun in May 2012.

(AP PHOTO/Alexander F. Yuan/Annular eclipse from Kaifeng, Central China/1/15/2010)

Posted by Frank Roylance at 11:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Sky Watching
        

When I stuck my head outside this morning, I spied stars overhead, and I thought we'd get lucky with an early departure of the snow clouds.

But things seem to have clouded over again at mid-day, so there's some concern that this evening's flyover by the International Space Station might be obscured.

The forecast from Sterling does leave some hope. It calls for skies to clear to only partly cloudy tonight. So, just in case, here are the particulars for tonight's pass by the ISS, in the hope some of us will get lucky, brave the cold and wind, and step outside for a look.

This will be a very bright pass for the ISS, with a forecast magnitude of -3.0. That's as bright as Jupiter at its best, so we should have no problem spotting the station from anywhere in the region, even if there is a thin veil of clouds.

Look for the contraption to appear above the southwest horizon, to the right of Jupiter, at 5:42 p.m. It will appear like a bright, moving star. If you see colored lights, flashing strobes or multiple lights it is an aircraft. Keep looking (The kids are great at this.)

It will climb into the northwest sky, pass Cygnus the Swan and the Summer Triangle, and rise almost two-thirds of the way from the horizon to the zenith (straight up) by 5:45 p.m. 

ISS is orbiting at 17,500 mph, and at its highest point will be about 250 miles from observers in Baltimore. Be sure to wave. There are five people on board at the moment, including two Russians, two Americans and a Japanese astronaut.

From there it will zip off toward the northeast, disappearing at about 5:47 p.m.

As always, if you see the flyby, stop back here, leave a comment and share the experience with readers who missed it. Good luck.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 11:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
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A brilliant meteor that startled residents across parts of Idaho and northern Utah early Wednesday morning may have been a small asteroid, scientists say. It exploded in the atmosphere with a force equal to a thousand tons of TNT.

Spaceweather.com reports:

"Witnesses in Colorado, Utah, Idaho and elsewhere say the fireball "turned night into day" and "shook the ground" when it exploded just after midnight Mountain Standard Time. Researchers who are analyzing infrasound recordings of the blast say the fireball was not a Leonid.  It was probably a small asteroid, now scattered in fragments across the countryside.  Efforts are underway to measure the trajectory of the asteroid and guide meteorite recovery efforts."

Security camera footage of the event shows a flash that brightened the sky so much that a street light operated by a light sensor winked out for a time before the sky grew dark again.

Here's a video from local TV.

If this was a small asteroid (or a big space rock of some sort) entering the atmosphere, it would be second one in recent weeks to make news.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 5:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
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With the moon entering its "new" phase tonight, the skies should be ideally dark for viewing Tuesday morning's peak of the annual Leonid meteor shower. And the weather forecast, while not ideal, calls for partly to mostly clear skies. With cooler air moving in with a high-pressure system out of the Great Lakes, our skies should be drying out from this morning's foggy humidity. That will help clear the atmosphere for the best view of the "shooting stars." 

The Leonids occur each November when the Earth, in its annual orbit around the sun, passes through remnants of the dust trails left behind by the passage of Comet Tempel-Tuttle, which passes through this area of the solar system every 33 years. Astronomers say the trails we'll be intersecting tonight were laid down by the comet in AD 1466 and 1533.

Here's more from Sky & Telescope.

UPDATE: Here (left) is a meteor captured by amateur astrophotographer Mike Hankey, in northern Baltimore County, during the Leonid shower. It may be a "sporadic," rather than a Leonid. Still a nice shot, better than anything I've ever managed. Mike said:

"At the time I was focused on Procyon and shooting continuously and waiting and watching. I saw a meteor radiate directly out of [the bright star] Procyon and was like, NO WAY! But I check the camera screen and couldn't see anything. I didn't realize I caught it until this morning when I was reviewing the pics.

"It was much brighter in person, it's a little faint in the pic. Still really happy I caught it."

Here's Mike's Web site.

Earlier post resumes here:

Some Leonid showers have reached "storm" proportions, with counts of more than 1,000 per hour in some locations. This year's show, for eastern North America, is expected to produce rates of a more conventional 20-30 per hour. But any time you can spend an hour under the night sky and see 20 meteors, some with persistent trails, is a memorable night out.  

The best time to look will be in the hours before dawn - say, 3 or 4 a.m. until the dawn begins to brighten the sky.

Intrepid meteor watchers should find the darkest location they can, as far from urban light pollution as possible. Look for a place with a broad view of the sky. The shower's "radiant" is the constellation Leo - the place in the sky from which the meteors seem to emerge as the Earth plows into them. 

Leo rises in the northeast after 11 p.m. By 4 a.m. it will be high overhead, and the meteors will appear to be flying away from it in all directions. So you can look anywhere for them.

When it's over, as always, come back here, leave a comment and let everyone share the experience. Good luck!

Posted by Frank Roylance at 2:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)
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The International Space Station is back in our evening skies, and on Sunday evening the big contraption will be flying up the East Coast and almost directly over Baltimore. (And even more directly over Ocean City.) 

The weather forecast is quite promising for this pass, and the station will appear especially bright, even in badly light-polluted urban settings. It's also a convenient early-evening pass, so sky watchers will have no excuse not to step outside with the kids and get a look at your (and their) tax dollars at play.

The only hitch is that on this pass the ISS will fly into the Earth's shadow and disappear well before reaching the northeast horizon, cutting short our view, which of course depends entirely on sunlight reflecting off the hardware.

Watch for the station as it rises above the southwest horizon at 6:14 p.m. It will appear like a bright star, hustling across the sky. If you see blinking strobes, multiple or colored lights, that's a airplane. Keep looking.

The ISS will pass well above the planet Jupiter, which is now the brightest object in the southern sky. It will reach a maximum elevation of 70 degrees above the southeastern horizon at 6:17 p.m., and soon after that fade quickly away as it enters the Earth's shadow - another brief nighttime for crew aboard the station.

There are currently six crew members aboard the ISS. They include two Americans (one male, one female); two Russians; one Belgian (the first European expedition commander) and one Canadian, all male.

They are currently preparing for the scheduled arrival of the Space Shuttle Atlantis on Nov. 16. The flight, to deliver spare parts to the station, is one of the last six shuttle flights on the NASA manifest before the fleet is retired in 2010. After that, under current plans, the U.S. will have to rely on Russian vehicles to support the station and its crew. 

Note to Bucket Listers: If you have never seen a shuttle launch in person, start planning now to get down to Florida to watch one of these spectacular events before it's too late. TV images of a shuttle launch do not do the experience justice. You can't see that blinding flame, hear the crackling engines, or feel the sound in your chest.

And, with the cameras focused on the shuttle, you lose all sense of the space ship's acceleration and speed as it leaps into the air and disappears from view. You simply can't believe that people willingly ride that monster. Be there.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 7:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Sky Watching
        

The forecast is promising for Friday evening, a good opportunity to see the stars from the Comunity College of Baltimore County's Dundalk campus.

The Department of Astronomy in the School of Mathematics and Science will have its big Celestron 14-inch CGE 1400 XLT (sounds impressive, doesn't it?) telescope set up to provide the public with a close-up view of the heavens. One prominent target, I expect, will be the planet Jupiter, which is shining brightly high in the southern sky this month. Here it is in this NASA photo, with four of its moons.

This will be the first in a series of Friday evening observing sessions for the public in Dundalk this fall. Here's when and where and how:

Nov. 6, 7-9 p.m.

Nov. 20, 7-9 p.m.

Dec. 11, 7-9 p.m.

If the skies look iffy, give them a call, 45 minutes before the start of the session, at 410 282-3092 to see if it's still on.

Address: 7200 Sollers Point Road, Dundalk. Turn into CCBC Dundalk from Sollers Point Road and take the first right into the parking lot. Walk to the observatory.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 12:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
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Astronomers are predicting an exceptional year for the annual Leonid meteor shower, which will peak two weeks from today. The Leonids are among the best meteor displays on the astronomical calendar. November nights (with luck) can be clear and crisp, and this shower has occasionally ramped up to very high - even storm - rates.

This year's viewing, assuming the weather cooperates, will be enhanced by the total absence of moonlight; the moon will be "new" that night.

But the best hope for sky watchers is that the people who have learned to forecast these things seem to be in broad agreement that the Earth this year will be passing through the core of some heavy streams of dust left behind by the comet Tempel-Tuttle in past centuries.

If they're right, observers in central and eastern Asia will have the best view, with meteor rates forecast to exceed several hundred per hour as we slip through the dust left by the comet during its passes through the inner solar system in the years 1466 and 1533.

That will occur 12 to 14 hours after the best viewing time for those of us stuck here in eastern North America, according to an article on Space.com. 

Here, in the hours between 3:30 and 5:30 a.m. Nov. 17, the Earth will pass through a separate stream of comet dust, spread by Tempel-Tuttle during its pass through the region in the year 1567. Forecasters anticipate "modest" meteor rates of 25 to 30 per hour. Not spectacular, but a very nice display if they're right.

And if we're clouded out, we'll get another chance early on the 18th. The Leonids are typically active a few days before and after the peak on the 17th and 18th.

The best thing about these meteors, forecasters say, is that many will leave persistent trails as they streak into the atmosphere. A couple dozen of those during a morning's watch would be something to remember.

And in the meantime, if you just can't resist getting out of bed to stand around in the cold at midnight or later, the annual Taurid shower is about to begin. It peaks between the 5th and 12th of November and, while not nearly as numerous as the Leonids, the Taurids can and do produce some spectacular fireballs. 

As with all meteor showers, you'll need clear skies and a dark location far from urban lighting. And if you're successful, be sure to come back here, drop us a comment, and let everyone know where you were, and what you saw. Clear skies! 

(AP Photo/Leonid meteors, Nov. 17, 1998)

Posted by Frank Roylance at 10:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
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NASA officials are saying Wednesday that the blast reported in the atmosphere over an Indonesian island on Oct. 8 was probably a small asteroid - about 10 meters in diameter - that detonated in the atmosphere. The force of the blast has been estimated at 50 kilotons - the equivalent of 100,000 tons of TNT.

There is You Tube video of the aftermath of the event. It shows what is described as a smoke trail left behind by the space rock's entry into the atmosphere, and some panic among the people on the ground.

Don Yeomans and other scientists with NASA's Near Earth Object program say the detonation was detected by sensors around the world - devices set up to detect low-frequency sound waves generated by atmospheric nuclear weapons testing.

"Assuming an estimated size of about 5-10 meters in diameter, we would expect a fireball event of this magnitude about once every 2 to 12 years on average. As a rule, the most common types of stony asteroids would not be expected to cause ground damage unless their diameters were about 25 meters in diameter or larger," they said.

The real question is why the Near Earth Object searches never spotted this object as it headed for our planet. 

Scientists are now tracking more than a thousand potentially threatening near-Earth asteroids. One of them passed the Earth on Oct. 17, skidding by inside the moon's orbit - less than 240,000 miles from the planet. It's size? About 35 kilometers in diameter.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 1:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
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We'll be battling increasing cloudiness all day today, with rain due to settle in for the next few days as a variety of low-pressure systems slop through the region.

But if this change in the weather holds off just long enough, we may get a look at a lovely pairing of the waxing moon and the planet Jupiter this evening. The conjunction should be bright enough to seep through a hazy sky like we have this (Monday) morning.

For more, visit Sky & Telescope.com

UPDATE: Here's a shot of the moon and Jupiter (tiny white dot to the left of the moon) taken around 11 p.m. Monday night. (Hey, it's a point-and-shoot...)

Jupiter has been a bright presence in the evening sky for months now in the southeast and south. It is the brightest star-like object up there and impossible to miss when the weather cooperates. The moon is on its way to full on Nov. 2, moving eastward each night, closer to Jupiter's position in the southern sky in the evening.

In addition to tonight's conjunction, the moon's trek toward its full phase will provide lots of moonlight for Saturday's little tricksters and beggars - although the forecast at this five-day distance calls for mostly cloudy skies by the 31st.

Part of our wet weather in the next day or two will be influenced by another coastal low - the sort that tends to draw moisture in off the ocean and bring us damp, chilly east winds, significant rain and - when it's cold enough - snow storms. El Nino winters like the one coming up tend to produce more such storms. And that seems to be the pattern we're already seeing this fall, with several rainy spells powered at least in part by coastal lows.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 10:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
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With no moonlight to interfere, this should be the best night for stargazers to get a look at the annual Orionid meteor shower. Forecasters are calling for "mostly clear" skies tonight, with calm winds and lows in the 40s.

Observers say Orionid activity has been picking up in recent days, with a strong showing in some places, and several bright fireballs. This same shower last year produced an impressive fireball seen from Elkridge. The photo above was taken early today by Jefferson Teng, in Shanghai, China. (Used with permission.) You can easily see the constellation Orion in the top center of the photo.

"I woke up early in the morning to observe the shower through my bedroom window," says Teng. "This one was quite bright considering the light pollution in Shanghai."

This shower is active from early October through early November. The meteors arrive as the Earth, making its annual trek around the sun, passes through the dusty trail of Halley's Comet, which last passed through the inner solar system in 1986. Like bugs on the windshield, the comet dust strikes the atmosphere at high speed, heating the air as the grains streak in, causing it to glow. About half will produce persistent trails.

Here is a gallery of a few of the first 2009 Orionid meteor photos. Here is the 2006 gallery.

The Orionids average around two dozen an hour under dark-sky conditions. But since 2006, observers report the shower has produced counts of up to 60 an hour. The people who calculate these things say the increased activity is occurring because the Earth happens to be passing through several old streams of Halley's dust, left behind during some of the comet's early periodic passes through this part of the solar system - specifically, during its appearances in 1266 BC, 1198 BC and 911 BC. 

We passed through the same region in 2006, 2007 and 2008, with plenty of meteors, and this year is expected to be similar.

The best time to look is after the constellation Orion (Left, NASA sky map) rises in the east, around 11 p.m. But if you can manage it, the most promising hours are those before dawn. If you miss the show tonight, try again on Thursday morning. Friday looks like it will be cloudy or rainy.

The meteors will appear to emerge from Orion, but may appear anywhere in the sky, so find a dark spot with a good view in all directions. Dress for the cold. A lounge chair and a warm sleeping bag will make things a bit more pleasant.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 10:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)
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I know, I know. I dropped the ball. That nocticlucent cloud experiment we wrote about here early last week was postponed on Tuesday night due to bad weather. And when it finally got the green light on Saturday, I was asleep at the switch, trying to have a life away from work. Mea culpa.

Anyway, the launch at around 7:45 p.m. produced the predicted artificial cloud in the the sky, which was visible from many locations on the East Coast.

Here is the CNN story, and another from Space.com. Here is a Flickr post showing what the cloud looked like, although the shooter had no idea what it was.

Finally, here is some You Tube video of the actual event, shot from Eldersburg, Md. The very bright, steady light in the sky is the planet Jupiter.

(NASA photo)

Posted by Frank Roylance at 7:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Sky Watching
        

UPDATE: 8:00 p.m. Tonight's launch attempt was scrubbed due to bad weather. No word yet on when they will try again. Earlier post follows:

Sky watchers in the mid-Atlantic region may get a look at an odd artificial cloud Tuesday night after it's released from the fourth stage of a rocket set for launch from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on the Eastern Shore.

The cloud of aluminum particles from the rocket's exhaust is expected to provide scientists with insights into the physics of "noctilucent clouds," the highest natural clouds (around 50 miles up) that form in the Earth's atmosphere. That's a NASA photo of such clouds, above.

The experiment, called "Charged Aerosol Release Experiment" (CARE), is being conducted by the Naval Research Laboratory and the Pentagon's Space Test Program. Also involved are NASA, the University of Michigan, the Air Force Research Laboratory, Clemson, Stanford and Penn State universities, the University of Colorado and MIT.

The launch window for the experiment opens at 7:40 p.m. Tuesday, and closes at 7:57 p.m. Weather forecasters gave the launch a 60 percent chance of favorable weather. Clear skies are needed up and down the coast to provide multiple camera locations with a view of the cloud.

Backup dates for the launch are each evening Sept. 16-20, but the weather is expected to deteriorate this week. The next opportunity would come next month.

The experiment is being carried by a 65-foot Black Brant 12 rocket, a sub-orbital vehicle used frequently by scientists at Wallops. The rocket is programmed to climb 180 miles above the Earth - much higher than the altitude of natural noctilucent clouds - and 98 miles down range (east) from Virginia's Eastern Shore.

Observers should watch for the cloud to be released about six minutes after launch. If skies are clear, the sinuous white cloud should become visible in the eastern sky after its release.

To follow the launch via Webcast, http://sites.wff.nasa.gov/webcast.  For Twitter updates, go to http://twitter.com/NASA_Wallops. Or call the recorded updates at 757-824-2050.

And as always, any WeatherBlog readers who see it are invited to come back here and leave comments describing the event for those who miss it.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 6:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Sky Watching
        

If the clouds would only part for a little while Wednesday evening, Marylanders would get a rare opportunity to watch as the International Space Station and the shuttle Discovery fly over Baltimore, one right after the other.

Discovery and its crew undocked today (Tuesday) from the space station, in preparation for their return to Earth Thursday evening. In the meantime, they will be flying more or less in tandem with the station.

It's not immediately clear which would pass over first. But here (below) is the information for the ISS flyby. My advice would be to step outside a few minutes earlier in case Discovery drops to a lower orbit and gets out in front of the station. Or, hang around for a few minutes afterwards and watch for Discovery to follow in the station's wake.

But the tracks should be the same. If you see both at the same time, Discovery will be the dimmer of the two. I've seen that twice. It's a kick.

Here's a photo of Tuesday night's pass, shot from Ontario, Canada, by Kevin Fetter. Discovery seems to have been out in front of the ISS.

For Baltimore Wednesday evening, the space station will rise above the western horizon at 8:05 p.m., moving swiftly toward the northeast like a bright, steady star. It will climb to about two-thirds of the way between the northwest horizon and the zenith (straight up) by 8:08 p.m., then head off toward the northeast, disappearing at about 8:12 p.m.

The Baltimore forecast, unfortunately, isn't very promising. But maybe the coastal storm will move far enough east to allow our skies to clear a bit. We have seen a few sunny breaks today.

Good luck, and come back here after the show and let others know what they missed.

(NASA Photo)

Posted by Frank Roylance at 4:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (11)
Categories: Sky Watching
        

UPDATE, Monday Sept. 7: Obviously, the weather forecast has changed over the weekend. Our next best opportunity to see the ISS fly over Baltimore would be Wednesday, but the prospects aren't very good for that evening, either. We'll keep trying. Earlier post follows.

Expecting a crowd for a Labor Day barbecue? Or maybe you're going to someone else's place and you need a conversation-starter. Well, this will make you the life of the party. Amaze everyone by predicting and pointing out a bright flyby by the International Space Station. Here's how:

The ISS, with 13 spacefarers on board and still docked with the space shuttle Discovery, will be flying almost directly over Baltimore Monday evening. You will be looking at a record number of humans in space at once - 13. Skies should be clear, so you have a pretty good shot at seeing this event no matter where you are in the area.

If you're at the beach, look a little farther west. At Deep Creek lake, it will fly almost directly overhead.

From Baltimore, look to the southwest at 8:51 p.m. Watch for a very bright, steady, star-like object rising above the horizon like a swiftly moving star. If you see multiple lights, colored lights or flashing strobes, it's an airplane. Keeping looking. (NASA photo)

The ISS, moving at 17,500 mph and 216 miles up, will climb high into the sky over Baltimore, rising to 71 degrees above the northwestern horizon at 8:54 p.m., just below the bright star Vega, part of the Summer Triangle asterism. (The other points are Altair and Deneb. See if you can find them.)

From there, the $100 billion contraption will head off toward the northeast, but watch closely. About a minute after reaching its highest point in the sky, at 8:55 p.m., the station will vanish, flying into the Earth's shadow. Out of direct sunlight, it can no longer reflect the direct sunlight we need to be able to see it. The shuttle Discovery is due to return to Earth on Thursday.

Here's a bonus: That bright "star" in the southeast in the evening this month isn't a star. It's the planet Jupiter (right), currently about 381 million miles away. Take a look with a good pair of binoculars. Steady them against something solid and see if you can spot any of its four Galilean moons, tiny dots of light laid out in a line on either side of the planet. That's what Galileo saw when he discovered them 400 years ago. 

That's it. Be sure to get the kids involved. No kids? Borrow the neighbors' little angels. They can usually spot the ISS before anyone else. Who knows? Maybe one of them will be inspired and become an astronomer, or an astronaut. Or a science writer!

Anyway, enjoy, and be sure to stop back here afterwards and leave a comment. Let everyone else know what they missed.

Clear skies!

Posted by Frank Roylance at 5:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Sky Watching
        

Early riser alert! Did you get up before dawn Monday morning to see the International Space Station fly nover Baltimore, only to find skies clouded over and the view impossible?

Well, here's your second chance: The ISS, with the space shuttle Discovery attached and a total of 13 humans on board for only the second time in history, will fly almost directly over Baltimore before dawn Wednesday morning.

This will be the brightest pass for at least the next 10 days, so, provided skies are clear, it should be easy to spot from any location, even downtown Baltimore. And the forecast is promising, thanks to this cool, dry Canadian air.

The catch, of course, is that you have to be up and outside by 5:30 in the morning. 

So here's the drill: Look for the ISS to appear above the northwest horizon at 5:32 a.m., as the ISS/Discovery complex passes 217 miles over Lake Michigan. It will climb through the W-shaped constellation Cassiopeia, rising nearly to the zenith (straight up) at 5:35 a.m. as it passes just north of Baltimore.

From there, the station will head off toward the southeast, past Mars and high above bright Venus rising low in the east, finally disappearing in the southeast at 5:37 a.m. as it flys over Cape May, N.J. and out over the Atlantic.

The next bright and easy-to-spot evening pass by the ISS will be next Monday evening, Sept. 7. There will be another on the 9th. Come back here for details. You can also make your own ISS flyby calculations at Heavens-Above.com

Posted by Frank Roylance at 11:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Sky Watching
        

Plan to be up before dawn Monday? Maybe the dog needs walking? Or perhaps you just have an early commute, or a date with your running shoes? Well, keep your eyes open. If skies stay clear early risers will be treated to a fine show by a crescent moon, the planet Venus and a bright, early pass by the International Space Station.

All three should be visible from urban settings, IF skies are clear. Sunrise isn't until 6:21 a.m.

Here's the deal: The moon and Venus will be up above the eastern horizon by 4:30 a.m. The moon will be easy enough to spot, and Venus will be the bright "star" just below and slightly to the left of the moon.  Here's a sky map from Spaceweather.com

Then, watch for the International Space Station to emerge from the Earth's showdow and rise above the southern horizon at 5:12 a.m. It will be a very bright, steady white light, like a moving star or an aircraft (only without multiple lights or flashing strobes). It will move toward the northeast, climbing more than halfway from the southeastern horizon to the zenith (straight up) by 5:13 a.m.

The ISS will fly just above the constellation Orion, and very close to the moon and Venus before disappearing at 5:16 a.m. 

Great show, if you can get out of bed for it. If you do, drop back here and describe what you saw for all the sleepyheads. 

Posted by Frank Roylance at 6:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Sky Watching
        

The annual Perseid meteor shower - one of the year's most-watched night-sky events - will be dimmed some by a 72-percent-illuminated moon tonight. When skies are clear, the shower is always worth a few hours of sky-watching on a pleasant summer night. But unfortunately, the forecast tonight is not too promising, either.

The Perseids occur each summer as the Earth, making its way around the sun on its annual trek, passes through the broad dust trail left behind by Comet Swift-Tuttle. Although the peak of the shower occurs on the night of Aug. 11-12, the rate at which the dust particles strike the Earth's atmosphere (think of bugs smacking into your windshield) has been rising for weeks, and will take weeks to settle down again to background levels.

Astronomers say we will be slicing through a denser-than-normal patch of the dust trail tonight, with meteor rates as high as 200 per hour possible for short periods of time. But these things are notoriously fickle. Here is a gallery of some of last summer's Perseids.

Given the moonrise at around 10:30 p.m., meteor watchers would be well-advised to get outside to a dark location after sunset. The best time might be between 9 and 11 p.m. After that, we'll have to stand with our backs to the moon and take whatever we can get in the moonlight. The dimmest meteors will be washed out, but bright ones should break through.

The best time to watch, if there were no moon, would normally be in the hours before dawn Wednesday morning. 

All that's needed to spot meteors are a dark location, as far from urban lighting as you can get; a comfortable place to stretch out - a beach lounger, a blanket or sleeping bag - and a broad stretch of sky. Although the meteors will appear to radiate from the constellation Perseus, in the northeast before midnight, you should be able to spot them anywhere in the sky. Evening hours will be best for catching "Earth-grazers" as they skim across the sky at the top of the atmosphere, like stones skipping across a pond.

If clouds cancel the party, try again any night this week. Rates will be diminished, but a night out under the stars, with whatever meteors occur, is always worthwhile. Jupiter is brilliant in the southeast in late evening; the moon, Mars and Venus rise and follow the giant planet into the sky  by 3 a.m.

(SUN PHOTO/Karl Merton Ferron/August 2007)

Posted by Frank Roylance at 11:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Sky Watching
        

Another sequence of what appears to be the July 6 "Mason Dixon meteor" has turned up on YouTube, and it has meteorite hunters jazzed up. It was shot from a site near Pittsburgh. Meteorite hunters may be able to use the new images, with others that have surfaced, to help pinpoint the location of any space rocks that made it to the ground. Here's a comment from Rob Matson, posted to the meteorobs.org listserve:

"This is indeed the Pennsylvania bolide! This is definitely going to help improve the impact point prediction as the quality of the video is superb compared to the York Water video.

Continue reading "More video of July 6 meteor surfaces" »

Posted by Frank Roylance at 5:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Sky Watching
        

The International Space Station will be making quite a few evening passes over the region during the coming week. And while most are too short or too low to the horizon for a rewarding view, two flybys will be especially bright and high in our skies.

And, it's a two-fer. You get to see the ISS, along with the shuttle Endeavour, which is docked with the station until its scheduled return to Earth on July 31.

So pick up the babies and grab the old ladies, and everyone step outside for a look at a hundred billion of your (and many other countries') tax dollars as they soar overhead. There are 13 people up there now, including the six members of the ISS crew, and seven members of the shuttle Endeavour crew. That's a record - the most people ever to fly in space at the same time, and the biggest crowd ever in orbit.

On Thursday evening, watch for the ISS/Endeavour to rise above the northeast horizon at 9:45 p.m. It will look like a very bright star, hustling briskly toward the east. When we first pick it up it will be flying about 216 miles  the Great Lakes. It will pass just "above" the North Star, rising more than halfway up the northeastern sky by 9:50 p.m. Then, it will slide off toward the east, disappearing into the Earth's shadow at 9:51 p.m.

If you miss that pass (or if skies are cloudy), you'll get a second chance on Saturday as the ISS and Endeavour make an almost identical pass, a bit earlier in the evening. Watch for them in the northwest again, appearing at 9:01 p.m. The pair will reach their highest point above the northeast horizon at 9:04 p.m., then head off toward the eastern horizon, disappearing there at 9:06 p.m.

Enjoy. (And whatever you do, don't tell my wife I'm blogging on vacation time.)

(NASA Photo)

Posted by Frank Roylance at 5:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Sky Watching
        

The search for any fragments of last Monday's fireball meteor is continuing, although not as intensely as last week. I received the following email on Saturday from Steve "Meteorite Man" Arnold:

"Hello Frank,

" A personal situation brought me back to Arkansas today. I hope to get back there very soon.

"I am still fielding reports, a good one from Lancaster, and West Philly, also a great one from NJ.

"Also, the York Water Co. had a second video (that I haven't seen, but Jeff gave me a very detailed description) that could put the end of the fireball at the south side of Lancaster. But no new videos, after all this effort.

"I actually did some door-knocking yesterday [Friday] walking into businesses with cameras facing the right way, with no luck.

"I would love to zero in on a tight area before encouraging locals to devote time looking, but the peak of interest will be coming down pretty quick, I would guess.

"But NBC's 'Meteor' 4-part mini-series starring Jason "George Castanza" Alexander starts tomorrow [Sunday] through Wednesday, and 'Meteorite Men' airs four times this next week over on Science Channel, so who knows?

"It is a bit tough as much of the interest is down your way, and the rocks, no doubt, are up in Penn.

"Hey, there is a new debate now that the still photo of [Mike] Hankey's (above) is of a jet and not the meteor. It will be interesting to see how that plays out, especially with Sky and Telescope wanting to run it. Without that data my zone probably doesn't change too much, but it makes soime of it a bit more fuzzy ...  - Steve"

And this morning, I received the following additional information from Arnold:

"A 'rocket scientist' type friend of mine was able to crunch the numbers and get them to me about 3am today.  He has taken both the Hankey photo and the YWC video and extrapolated a real tight fall zone."

For more astro photos by Mike Hankey, visit: mikesastrophotos.com  He's also posted a letter from Richard Kowalski, at the University of Arizona, a leading asteroid hunter who had initially expressed doubts that Mike had photographed the meteor. But he's now convinced it's the real deal.

The hunt continues ...

Posted by Frank Roylance at 11:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Sky Watching
        

"Meteorite Man" Steve Arnold is still looking for those key eyewitness reports that could point him toward any remnants of the July 6 Mason-Dixon Meteor that may have survived the fall to Earth.

Arnold has read through more than 100 comments from Weather Blog readers who saw or heard the meteor, and he's singled out more than 30 that were detailed enough to suggest that just a little more information might help point him to the impact zone.

That's Arnold below on Wednesday, kneeling in front of the Water Co. security apparatus that captured video of the meteor as it fell east of York, Pa. Monday morning. (Click here to see the video.)

The camera itself is the dark gray object attached to the bottom of the silver box. The videographer at right is TV producer Bob Melisso, who is filming Arnold's search on behalf of the Science Channel program "Meteorite Men."

Here's what he's asking for. And below his note are the names of the commenters he wants to hear from.

"For those of you that saw the fireball, please reply with the following details: 

Siobhan, in West Chester, Pa.; M Gaines, in Lancaster, Pa.; Matt B, in Bel Air; Melissa Tillery, who was driving on I-70 near Hagerstown; Sam Luther, who was camping near Delta, Pa.; John, in rural northwest Harford, Co.; Diane, in Port Deposit; Chuck and Nikki, in Port Deposit;

Raquel, in Bergen County, N.J.; Nicole Green, in Pikesville; Myranda Warfield, in Jefferson; Mike and Julie, in Forest Hill; DJ, in Bel Air; Kimberly, in Forest Hill; DCD, in Littlestown, Pa.; Lisa Ewing, in Port Deposit; Karen Haney, in Hickory, north of Bel Air; Jenny Gresock, in Seven Valleys, Pa.;

Frank Memmo, in Churchville; Ashley Simpson, in Arnold; Chris, in Conowingo area of Cecil County; Kristen B., in Forest Hill; Dale, in Forest Hill; Tom D., who was southbound on I-83 in York, Pa.; Matt Bureau, in Greensburg, Pa.; Timothy Jones, in Philadelphia;

Chelsea, in Forest Hill; Terry, in Earlesville; Sue, in White Marsh; and HC, who was southbound on I-83 near Glen Rock, Pa.

Thanks. We'll keep you posted on any progress in the meteorite hunt.

And while we're on the topic, NBC on Sunday night will air yet another movie about a meteor headed for the Earth, and beautiful scientists racing to save the planet. It's called, "Meteor," of all things, and it starts at 9 p.m. on WBAL Channel 11 in Baltimore.

Jason Alexander ("Seinfeld's" George Castanza) is among the cast.

Come back here after it's over and let's see how many scientific errors we can list.

(SUN PHOTO By Frank D. Roylance)

Posted by Frank Roylance at 10:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Sky Watching
        

There is always a chance that clouds and storms will interfere. But if we get lucky, there should be plenty of opportunity to spot the International Space Station this week as it passes over the mid-Atlantic states.

The long hours of northern daylight at this time of year are keeping the station in direct sunlight later into the evening, and earlier in the morning, so there are actually more than 20 flybys that observers in the Baltimore area could catch in the next nine days if they were so inclined. But many are in the wee hours of the morning, and other passes are low to the horizon and harder to see.

In this post I'll highlight just four passes, all of them very bright, evening opportunities at least halfway up the sky from the horizon. Here goes:

Tuesday evening, July 7: Look for the ISS as it rises above the southwestern horizon at 9:32 p.m. EDT. It will pass through the Summer Triangle, climbing to 43 degrees above the southeastern horizon by 9:35 p.m. From there it will cruise off toward the northeast, disappearing at about 9:38 p.m. UPDATE: Good pass, very bright, no clouds. The unmanned Russian Progress supply ship trailed the ISS by about 15 seconds.

Wednesday evening, July 8: On this pass, too, the ISS will rise from the southwest at 9:57 p.m., passing just above Saturn. Then it will travel through the stars of the Big Dipper, about 48 degrees above the northwestern horizon at 9:59 p.m. From there it will head off toward the northeast as it flies over New England and the Canadian Maritime Provinces and disappears at about 10:02 p.m.

Thursday evening, July 9:  This pass will begin in the southwest at 8:46 p.m. EDT. The ISS will appear like a bright, moving star, rising 46 degrees above the southeast horizon at 8:49 p.m. From there it will fly off toward the northeast and vanish at 8:52 p.m.

Friday evening, July 10: Watch for the space station to rise out of the western sky at 9:10 p.m. EDT, passing just below Saturn this time, then climbing to 46 degrees (halfway up) from the northwestern horizon. It will pass along the bottom edge of the Dipper stars at 9:13 p.m. before moving off toward the mortheast, where it will fade away at 9:16 p.m.

As always, come back here and let us know how you did. Take the kids out to watch. One of them might decide to become an astronaut. Or a science writer. 

The image above, by the way, is the expected view through the ISS Cupola that astronauts will carry to the station and install sometime next year. 

Posted by Frank Roylance at 3:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (15)
Categories: Sky Watching
        

There's an interesting launch planned for early Wednesday at the NASA Wallops Flight Facility, down on Virginia's Eastern Shore. It's not one that will be visible for hundreds of miles around, but it does mark an important milestone for manned space flight. The weather forecast is promising.

At 6:15 a.m. EDT, NASA will attempt to launch its Max Launch Abort System, a rocket-propelled mechanism that's designed to pull astronauts and their crew capsule away from their boosters in the event of a failure at, or near, the launch pad. If there's a delay, the launch window is open until 10 a.m.

UPDATE: Launch (photo) was successful. Anyone see it?

The idea recalls the tall escape towers that topped the old Mercury and Apollo capsules. They were essentially small rocket engines designed to yank the crew capsule to safety and provide time for its parachutes to deploy and lower the crew safely to the ocean.

If the space shuttle had had a similar system, the Challenger crew might have made it to safety as their booster rockets and liquid fuel tanks blew up after launch in 1986.

The MLAS system is being developed for possible use with NASA's planned Orion spacecraft, the Apollo-like capsule that will carry astronauts to the International Space Station by 2015, and on to the moon in 2020, if all goes according to plan.

Anyway, the launch from Wallops Wednesday morning will be a short one - two minutes. The MLAS rocket is expected to carry a simulated Orion capsule no more than a mile into the sky, and a mile out to sea. But it would sure be something nifty to watch if you happen to be nearby.

The test vehicle is 33 feet tall and the whole system weighs 45,000 pounds. The weather forecast for the area is good.

For more information, visit the Wallops Web site. Their launches can be followed on Twitter @NASA_Wallops.

(NASA PHOTO)

Posted by Frank Roylance at 2:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Sky Watching
        

Space Cadets! There will be an unusually nice opportunity Monday evening to watch the International Space Station fly by on its way from the Louisiana coast to the Canadian Maritime provinces.

If skies are clear, we'll pick it up at 10:43 p.m. EDT, rising out of the southwest as it passes over northern Alabama. Look for a bright, star-like object hustling toward the northeast, rising about halfway up the northwestern sky by 10:46 p.m. At that moment, it will be somewhere over central Pennsylvania, about 280 miles from viewers in Baltimore, moving northeast at 17,500 mph.

From there it will pass through the handle of the Big Dipper and race off toward the northeast, disappearing from view at 10:49 p.m. as it flies over New Brunswick, Canada.

Sure, it's a bit late. But hey, it's summer. Take the kids outside with you and let them try to be the first to spot the station. That's their money up there, too. Here's more on what they're doing up there.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 7:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Sky Watching
        

I was going to use this item for the P. 2 print weather page comments on Saturday morning, but I don't trust the skies to be clear. Besides, the summer solstice arrives Sunday morning, so I used that instead.

So here is a skywatching opportunity for our online readers, on the off-chance anyone is out of bed before dawn and finds the skies full of stars:

Sleepless in Baltimore? Rise and shine before 5 a.m. Sunday and, if skies are clear, watch a very bright, very high pass by the International Space Station. Watch for it at 4:50 a.m. climbing out of the southwest, as bright as Jupiter (nearby, in the south). The station will be high overhead at 4:52 a.m., then zoom off toward moonrise in the northeast. Venus is brilliant, low in the east.

There are currently six crew members on board the station. They're orbiting at 17,500 mph, currently at an altitude of about 216 miles and sinking. The next shuttle mission, when it finally gets off the ground (July?), will carry seven astronauts to the station, temporarily placing 13 people in orbit at the same time, a new record.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 3:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Sky Watching
        

When the International Space station flies over Baltimore Friday night, it may look the same to us as it did on Wednesday evening, but there will be twice as many eyeballs looking back down at us. Sometime around 8:30 a.m. Friday, a Russian Soyuz spacecraft (like the one at left), launched Wednesday, will dock with the station and unload the next three crew members to man the orbiting outpost. That will make six people on board.

NASA hopes the larger crew will enable additional scientific research aboard the station. With just three aboard, they spent most of their time just keeping the place going.   

If skies clear in time, the flyover will be almost as bright as Wednesday's pass, which was probably the brightest I've ever seen it in years of observations. The trajectory will be nearly the same as Wednesday's.

Watch for the ISS to appear above the northwest horizon at 8:37 p.m. EDT as it passes over Lake Michigan.

From there it will climb above the crescent moon and Saturn, lower in the southwest, rising nearly to the zenith (straight up) at 8:40 p.m. From there - high over Washington DC - it will slide off toward the southeast, disappearing far out over the Atlantic at 8:44 p.m.

If you see it, stop back here and leave us a comment.  

Posted by Frank Roylance at 8:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Sky Watching
        

If our skies stay clear this evening we may get a good look at the International Space Station as it flies directly over Baltimore en route from high over Lake Michigan to the Delmarva Peninsula and out to sea.

Look for a bright, star-like object to appear above the northwest horizon at 9:21 p.m. EDT. It will be moving briskly toward the southeast at an orbital speed of 17,500 mph. It will slip just beneath the cup of the Big dipper and pass almost exactly through the zenith (217 miles straight up) at 9:24 p.m. From there it will move southeastward, disappearing at 9:26 as it enters the Earth's shadow.

This is a very bright pass, so the ISS should be easily visible from urban locations, and even through thin clouds. Take the kids. If you see it, drop back here and leave us a comment.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 5:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Sky Watching
        

Orbital Sciences Corp. finally got its Minotaur 1 rocket (below, left) off the ground at the NASA Wallops Flight Facility yesterday evening. It carried an Air Force TacSat-3 technology satellite, a NASA biotech satellite and three other "birds" to orbit. It was only the third successful launch to orbit ever from the Eastern Shore.

Here's the YouTube video from the launch site.

As advertised, the launch - 20 minutes late at 7:55 p.m. EDT - was visible from Baltimore, as well as Fall River, Mass. and many other locations from the mid-Atlantic states to New England.

The word is the satellites made it to orbit and were in contact with their creators.

But the rocket wasn't all that easy to spot from 115 miles away. My daughter and I posted outselves at the foot of Bond Street in Fells Point. When we saw nothing at the scheduled launch time of 7:35, we called home, got a Web check, and learned the liftoff was delayed to 7:55. When that time arrived, we scanned the southeast horizon. I got nothing, but very soon my daughter spotted the rocket's flame rising above Tide Point. When the long, thin, white contrail appeared, I finally picked it up. And, with binoculars, I followed the Minotaur much higher above the horizon than I expected - maybe 45 degrees - before I lost it.

If they had delayed liftoff until 9 or 10 p.m., and skies at the surface had been darker, I think we would have seen more. But we've had quite a few comments from readers saying they saw the launch just fine and got a kick out of it.

Above is an image sent to me by Matt Schroeder, who photographed the launch from Mt. Airy. Here's what he had to say:

"Frank: My friend Ben called me around 7:50 p.m. tonight to tell me a rocket was about to be launched from Wallops Flight Facility.  My son Jacob (age 5) and I ran outside and looked to the southeast.  We live about 7 miles north of Mount Airy, Maryland.  Amazingly we saw the rocket as it sped into the sky!  Jacob thought that was pretty cool (and so did I) ...  After taking the picture I also noticed a small plane in the upper right side of the image. - Best regards, Matt Schroeder"

His shot is better than the ones I got with my point-and-shoot from downtown Baltimore (below). You can just barely make out the white smoke trail rising through the brown smog at the bottom-center of my image.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 10:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Sky Watching
        

The U.S. Air Force will try again this evening to launch its TacSat-3 satellite from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on Virginia's Eastern Shore. Weather conditions are expected to be favorable, with only a 10 percent chance that bad weather would stop the countdown.

UPDATE 4 p.m.: Weather is now 100 percent GO for launch.

Two attempts to launch the satellite earlier this month were stopped by bad weather. A third attempt ended 2 minutes before liftoff because of a technical problem. The only "issue" controllers were watching was a potential conflict in the use of the launch range. Not clear whether that's still an issue this morning. 

This week's clear weather will make this a terrific opportunity for Marylanders to see the launch from wherever they are. The high-pressure system that moved in late yesterday has cleared the skies, providing ideal conditions for long-distance observation of the launch. It could be visible for hundreds of miles, from the Carolinas to southern New England, and as far west as eastern Kentucky.

The launch window at Wallops opens at 7:35 p.m. and lasts until 11:30 p.m. All we will need here in Baltimore is an unobstructed view toward the southeast. If the launch comes early enough in the launch window - even well after sunset - the sun should illuminate the rocket's smoke trail quite nicely. Later on, we may only get a view of the 69-foot Minotaur's fiery plume as it rises toward orbit.

Here's a delightful YouTube video of a Minotaur launch in California in 2006. It gives you a pretty good idea of what to expect. And here's Joe Rao's blog from the Hayden Planetarium on the first attempt on May 5. It includes a picture of a previous Minotaur launch that also gives you an idea of what to look for.

If successful, this launch will be only the third satellite to be sent into orbit from Wallops - both atop Minotaurs. The first was in December 2006, in a launch that was clearly visible from Baltimore. The second was in April 2007, but clouds obscured the view from here. An earlier attempt, in October 1995, ended in a spectacular failure as the Conestoga rocket went awry and had to be destroyed high over the Virginia beaches.

The Minotaur rocket was assembled by Orbital Science Corp. The lower two stages come from a decommissioned Minuteman ballistic missile. The upper two stages include motors from Orbital's Taurus and Pegasus rockets.

Continue reading "Virginia rocket launch "GO" for tonight " »

Posted by Frank Roylance at 10:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (14)
Categories: Sky Watching
        

Skies should be clear tonight, so Marylanders who are willing to step outside for a few minutes  just after 9 p.m. will have a fine view of the International Space Station as it flies from high over northern Mississippi to Maine.

Because the space shuttle Atlantis, launched yesterday, is headed for the Hubble Space Telescope this time, and not the space station, we will not be treated to a two-fer. But while the shuttle is not visible this week from Maryland, the space station will be making a very bright pass that should be visible to anyone - even in city lights - who can find an unobstructed view of the northwestern sky.

The ISS will be following nearly the same track it flew on Sunday evening. It will first become visible at 9:13 p.m. EDT, low in the western sky, just below Castor and Pollux, the twin stars in Gemini. From there, it will sweep across the northwestern sky like a steady, white, moving star. It should be the brightest object in that part of the heavens. It will rise more than halfway to the zenith (straight up), passing below the cup of the Big Dipper at about 9:16 before heading off toward the northeast, slipping close by Polaris, the North Star, and then disappearing at 9:18 p.m. EDT

The ISS currently has three crew members on board. That's Koichi Wakata, flight engineer, of the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency, in the photo. Now that the station has its full complement of solar panels, there are plans to increase the crew soon to six people. Construction is scheduled to continue into 2010, until the space shuttle fleet is retired.

Until then we can marvel as the huge contraption soars silently across the sky at 17,500 mph, reflecting the sun's light and reminding us where billions and billions of our tax dollars have gone.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 11:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Sky Watching
        

This time the countdown got to within 2 minutes and 15 seconds of liftoff, but a low-voltage reading from somewhere inside the Minotaur 1 rocket or its payload last night aborted the count at about 10:43 p.m. It was the third time this week attempts to send five small satellites into orbit from the NASA Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia fell short. The first two attempts were halted by bad weather.

Launch managers decided not to try a fourth time Saturday evening. The tracking facilities at Wallops will now be transitioned to assist with the planned launch of the space shuttle Atlantis from Cape Canaveral in Florida. That launch is planned for 2 p.m. Monday. The Atlantis crew is headed for the Hubble Space Telescope for a week of repairs and upgrades.

The Minotaur 1 launch, if successful, would be only the third flight to orbit from the NASA launch center on Virginia's Eastern Shore. The payload includes an Air Force TacSat-3 technology experiment, a NASA biological experiment and three "pico-satellites" built by university and commercial owners.

If skies are clear, the Minotaur launches from Virginia can be seen for hundreds of miles.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 11:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Sky Watching
        

The latest weather briefing this afternoon projects an 85 percent chance the Air Force will be able to launch its TacSat-3 satellite atop a Minotaur rocket tonight. The launch window is currently set to open at 7:35 p.m. 

UPDATE 6:35 p.m.: One hour to go and everything looks fine for launch at 7:35 p.m. Range control personnel are shooing boaters from the area. No one wants rocket parts to fall on people if things go badly.

UPDATE 6:50 p.m. : Count is holding at T-45 minutes. Some sort of problem with launch support equipment.

UPDATE 8:40 p.m.: Count is still holding while troubleshooters work on a power supply problem at the pad. If the count resumes, it would take the launch to the end of the window at 11 p.m.   Thunderstorms and severe weather are due at the pad by 1 a.m. 

UPDATE 9:40 p.m.: New launch time is 10:40 p.m. The clock is running again.

UPDATE: 10:35 p.m.: T-10 minutes and counting. Cloud cover will be a problem for many of us.

UPDATE:  10:55 p.m.:  Launch scrubbed again, this time for a technical problem just 2 minutes 13 seconds before liftoff. Wallops has ruled out a fourth attempt on Saturday evening. Next try will come after the Atlantis shuttle mission to Hubble Space Telescope, preparing to launch Monday

But while there are no storms threatening the launch at the moment, there are plenty of clouds around to spoil the view from Baltimore. Here's the radar loop.

Things may thin out some before the rocket takes to the air, so it's definitely worth watching for. But there are no guarantees. Look toward the southeast, low on the horizon.

The best place to be is clearly down on the Eastern Shore, in OC or Chincoteague.

Once again, you can follow the countdown via the NASA Wallops Webcast. But remember that it typically runs at least 15 seconds behind the actual events, so be sure to start watching for the launch a minute or so before the Web countdown reaches zero.

You can also folow the events via Twitter, at twitter.com/NASA_Wallops

If you see the launch, please come back here and leave us a comment. Tell us where you were and what you saw. Thanks!

QUERY: Anyone having trouble getting on Twitter?

Posted by Frank Roylance at 5:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Sky Watching
        

More showers and thunderstorms are forecast for the Eastern Shore Friday and Saturday nights, which will be the last opportunities for what could be weeks for the launch of a 69-foot Minotaur rocket from the NASA Wallops Flight Facility.

The launch, only the fourth attempt to put satellites in orbit from Virginia, could be visible for hundreds of miles if skies are clear. Two attempts this week have been scrubbed due to bad weather.

UPDATE at 4 p.m.: Launch window will open early, at 7:35 p.m., in an effort to get the rocket off before bad weather moves in. There is a 50 percent chance of another scrub. Earlier post resumes below.

If the rocket doesn't get off during tonight's 8-11 p.m. launch window, the launch team will regroup for another attempt on Saturday night. After that, NASA will need to reconfigure the facility to support Monday's planned launch of the space shuttle Atlantis from Cape Canaveral in Florida. Atlantis and its crew of seven astronauts are headed for an 11-day mission to repair and upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope.

Keith Koehler, spokesman for Wallops, said that once Atlantis has landed, the Wallops tracking station will be needed again to support another Florida launch. He wasn't sure which that was. The only one I could find that's coming up on the NASA launch schedule in Florida is the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and the Lunar Crater Observing and Sensing Satellite, set for a tandem launch on June 2. The two spacecraft are being sent to the moon to scout potential landing sites, and search for water near the north and south lunar poles.

There's another shuttle launch - Endeavour - scheduled for June 13.  How Wallops will slip the Minotaur 1 and its Air Force TacSat-3 satellite into the mix will depend on when Atlantis actually launches and when it returns. 

Our forecast for the next two nights looks about the same as last night's. Ditto for the Virginia Shore. That means a threat of showers and thunderstorms as solar heating stirs up all this humidity and kicks off convection. Bad weather has already scrubbed two Minotaur launch attempts on Tuesday and Thursday nights. Last night, the launch pad had to be cleared because of nearby lightning. And heavy rains swept the rocket as it stood on the pad just before the game was called at around 10 p.m.

Continue reading "Storms again threaten Minotaur launch " »

Posted by Frank Roylance at 10:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Sky Watching
        

A weather briefing at T-minus 3 hours and counting finds the forecast for tonight's planned Minotaur 1 launch from the NASA Wallops Flight Facility is improving. Meteorologists now predict a 70 percent chance of good weather as the three-hour launch window opens at 8 p.m. down on the Virginia Eastern Shore.

The only potential show-stopper they see are some storm cells drifting their way from the DC area this afternoon. The storms could spoil the launch, or they could weaken and dissipate as another one did this afternoon. Here's the radar loop.

The view from Baltimore still looks pretty cloudy. We may well have too much cloud between us and Wallops to see this shot. But it's sure worth a look this evening. The rocket plume would be bright enough to shine through thin clouds. But these big cumulus heaps? Maybe not.

You can follow the countdown via Twitter and a NASA Webcast. Details in the previous post. Remember, these Webcasts are delayed as they find their way to your computer, so the online countdown lags behind the real thing by 15 seconds or more. Get outside and start looking a minute or two before the Web countdown gets to zero, at least.

By my watch - which is linked by radio to the NIST atomic clock in Colorado (such a geek) - the Wallops Webcast is currently running 16 seconds behind the true time.

Here's how the cloud cover looked from orbit this afternoon.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 5:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Sky Watching
        

The U.S. Air Force plans to launch a new satellite tonight from the NASA Wallops Flight Facility on Virginia's Eastern Shore. If skies were clear, the evening launch of the Minotaur 1 rocket would be visible for hundreds of miles. I watched one in December 2006 from the front room of my house in Cockeysville.

But alas, the clouds that have socked us in here for 40 days and 40 nights also threaten to obscure our view of the launch.

UPDATE: Chance for a weather delay Tuesday put at 85 percent.

UPDATE 9 p.m. Tuesday: Launch has been postponed due to bad weather at Walops. No immediate word on when the next attempt will be made. 

UPDATE Weds. 7:45 a.m.: Latest from Wallops:  The next attempt will be Thursday, May 7. Launch window 8 - 11 p.m. Earlier post resumes below...

With some luck, the clouds will be thick enough to delay the launch itself, perhaps to a date when skies have cleared. One can only hope. Here's how a recent Minotaur launch from California looked to a man and his son. A sweet moment neither will ever forget. 

I spoke this morning with Wallops spokesman Keith Koehler. He says the launch criteria call for a cloud ceiling of at least 5,000 feet, or 3,000 feet if the clouds are thin, "so folks can still see the burn." If something goes wrong, the launch team needs to have a photographic record of it.

There will be a new weather briefing at noon Tuesday. Yesterday's forecast put the chances for meeting launch weather criteria at 50 percent.

For now, the launch is set for sometime between 8 and 11 p.m. The Minotaur 1 rocket will carry the Air Force Research Laboratory's Tac-Sat 3 satellite, and four others, including several university research satellites. For more on the payload, click here.

You can check the status of the launch on the Wallops Information phone line: 757 824-2050.

You can also get status Tweets from http://twitter.com/NASA_Wallops

For the launch Webcast, go to http://sites.wff.nasa.gov/webcast

If you decide to drive down to Wallops for the launch, the Visitor's Center will be open. And once you're in range, you can pick up the launch broadcast on your car radio at 760 AM on your dial.

Finally, if a miracle occurs, and skies clear, you can track the countdown on the Webcast, and watch for the liftoff low in the southeastern sky (as seen from Baltimore).  But remember to start looking a minute or so before the Web countdown gets to zero. The Webcast is delayed, something I discovered while watching for the rocket back in 2006.

By the time I finally looked out the window at the daytime launch, the Minotaur was already climbing toward orbit. It looked like a rising vertical jet contrail - topped by a bright light - that was quickly being twisted and contorted in the winds aloft. 

This is actually the third Air Force Minotaur launch from Wallops, which hopes to become a busier location for orbital flights. The first was the 2006 launch I watched. There was a second in April 2007, but long-distance observers were foiled by clouds.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 10:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Sky Watching
        

If skies remain clear across Maryland, as they should, we may be able to catch an unusual gathering of celestial objects in the western sky after sunset on Sunday.

UPDATE: Here's a gorgeous shot of this event.

The first of the crowd to appear will be a slender crescent moon, just above the western horizon about 45 minutes after sunset. Sunset for Baltimore on Sunday will be at 7:55 p.m. The moon will be barely 24 hours past "new," and just about as slim a sliver of moon as you will ever see.

Next, as the dusk continues to deepen, just below the moon, you should be able to see a tiny "star" pop into view. Binoculars will help while the sky remains fairly bright. It's not actually a star, but the always-elusive planet Mercury, which is about as far to the east of the sun this month as it gets, and therefore easiest to spot.

Now, as the darkness gathers, and the moon and Mercury sink closer to the horizon, watch immediately below the moon for a delicate cluster of stars called the Pleiades to appear. This star cluster is called Subaru by the Japanese. It's also known as the Seven Sisters because it appears to the unaided eye to contain seven stars in a close grouping. With binoculars, many more appear. In a small telescope, there are hundreds. They're all in a tight bunch, fairly close by astronomical standards - about 415 light years away. (One light year - the distance light travels in a year - is about 5.9 trillion miles.) 

The moon, by comparison, will be a mere 228,000 miles away on Sunday, while Mercury currently stands about 82.7 million miles from Earth. Here's the sky map, from NASA.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 4:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Sky Watching
        

Tomorrow morning could have been a triple jackpot for stargazers in Maryland - a nice, spring meteor shower, a rare close encounter of Venus and the crescent moon, and a nice flyby by the International Space Station - all in the hours before dawn. But, alas, bad luck in the form of clouds are conspiring to spoil the view.

The annual Lyrid meteor shower occurs as the Earth plows through the dusty trail of the comet Thatcher. As the sand-grain-sized bits of comet dust strike the atmosphere, they heat up the air around them and create fleeting trails of light across the sky.

The Lyrid meteors appear to emerge from the constellation Lyra, the lyre, because that's the direction toward which the Earth appears to be moving at this time of year. It's like snowflakes in the headlights. If the forecast were for clear skies, we could all gather in some dark place far from city lights, in the hours before dawn, and watch 10 to 20 meteors per hour - with higher rates possible if we got really lucky. 

But forecasters are calling for showers before 3 a.m., and mostly cloudy skies and a chance for more showers Wednesday morning.

The other attraction before the dawn on Wednesday was to be a close conjunction of the planet Venus and the waning crescent moon, low in the eastern sky around 5 a.m. For observers in the western U.S., the moon will actually pass in front of Venus, eclipsing its light for more than an hour. It's called an occultation. Here's a video of a recent one. For Marylanders, it is only a very close encounter, probably best observed with binoculars.

But given the forecast, the most practical equipment may be an umbrella. 

Finally, the International Space Station, appearing daily in the morning sky this week, will make a very bright pass just north and west of Baltimore on Wednesday morning. If skies were to clear in time, you could look for the ISS to appear above the western horizon at 5:32 a.m., rising like a bright, steady star to more than halfway up the northwestern sky by 5:35 a.m. before slipping off to the northeast and disappearing at 5:38 a.m.

All this information is for the optimists who may be willing to rise and shine and give it a go. For the rest, sleep tight.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 10:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Sky Watching
        

There has been plenty of debate today about the nature of the fireball spotted around 9:40 p.m. Sunday in the southern sky (as seen from Maryland). But I'm now convinced that it was a natural meteor, and not space debris.

Geoff Chester, spokesman for the U.S. Naval Observatory got out in front early on this story, saying he was "99.44 percent" sure the object was a Russian rocket booster, falling to Earth after the launch of the Russian Soyuz space capsule en route to the International Space Station.

I don't think so. Man-made space debris is traveling at orbital velocities, and re-enters the atmosphere at a fairly slow speed compared with meteors. We all remember the painful video images of the space shuttle Columbia breaking up on re-entry in 2003, with the loss of its crew. It is very slow compared with meteor entries.

Eyewitness descriptions of Sunday night's event said they watched this object for only a few seconds before it vanished. Here's a eyewitness comment we received this morning:

Now, Ted Molczan, a knowledgeable and experienced satellite watcher active with SeeSat-L, a public mailing list for hobbyists who track and observe Earth satellites, says he agrees. This was not space debris. I asked him to check the orbit of the Russian rocket body, and whether it might have been what was seen by observers from Maryland to North Carolina. Here's his response:

Dear Frank,

The object was 2009-015B / 34670, the SL-4 rocket body from the recent Soyuz-TMA 14 launch to ISS. Geoff Chester of the Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C. expressed certainty that its decay is what was seen last night, but he is mistaken: http://www.livescience.com/space/090330-rocket-debris.html

Continue reading "Virginia fireball was not Russian booster rocket" »

Posted by Frank Roylance at 4:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (12)
Categories: Sky Watching
        

Residents of Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina were startled Sunday night by what appears to have been a sizable meteor, complete with bright flashes and a sonic boom, at about 9:40 p.m.

That explanation is not official, but from the descriptions finding their way onto the Internet, that sounds like a likely explanation. Here is more on the fireball phenomenon. This log of sightings reported to the American Meteor Society will give you an idea of how common they are.

Here are more eyewitness reports.

The WeatherBlog would welcome any comments, photos or video from readers who witnessed last night's event. Be sure to tell us where you were, what direction you were looking, the time, and what you saw or heard. Here's a gallery of Leonid meteors from 2001

Here's a description of Sunday's event from Bryan Bonner, of Carroll County, passed along to me this morning:

"Saw a huge fireball at 940 pm sunday night in south souteast sky. It started at 45 degrees and descended straight down, tail covered entire path. Began white hot and went through the color spectrum before disappearing just above the horizon. It seems like it was too big to have burned up completely. I`ve lived in carroll all my life and have seen many a falling star as it were, but never anything like this."

And here is a FAQ page on the pheneomenon of meteoric fireballs.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 10:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (21)
Categories: Sky Watching
        

The space shuttle Discovery is set to return to Earth Saturday with a clean bill of health on its heat-deflecting tiles. NASA has been ultra-careful about inspecting the heat tiles after reaching orbit so as to avoid a repeat of the Columbia accident in 2003 that cost the lives of seven astronauts. Columbia's wings were damaged by a fragment of insulation during launch, and the spacecraft was destroyed during re-entry.

NASA has not always been that careful. A 1988 flight of the shuttle Atlantis - the second mission after the Challenger disaster - nearly ended in disaster after 700 of the heat tiles were damaged during launch (left). One was kocked out entirely.

The crew spotted it, but were unable to communicate their worry - fear - to mission control in Houston because of restrictions imposed by the Department of Defense. They were flying a classified spy satellite mission and were barred from sending clear photos of the damage.

The crew knew it looked bad - likely fatal. But the guys on the ground couldn't see it. They gave the crew a green light to come home.

So the crew crossed their fingers and headed home. They made it, by a whisker. Everybody was astonished by the damage they found after landing. If they had burned up on re-entry just two flights after Challenger, it likely would have ended the shuttle program.

It's a helluva yarn, told by CBS's Bill Harwood, and posted online by SpaceflightNow.com

Posted by Frank Roylance at 6:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Sky Watching
        

Ricky Arnold, the Maryland-born-and-raised former middle-and high-school teacher has begun his first spacewalk. Launched into space aboard the shuttle Discovery earlier this week, Arnold is busy this afternoon attaching the final truss segment on the International Space Station. Later, he and astronaut Steve Swanson will install the fourth and final pair of ISS solar panels on the truss.

Right out of the hatch, Arnold marveled at his view of the moon high overhead, but he went quickly to work.

You can watch the spacewalk live on NASA TV. Click here.

As they worked, the ISS passed over Europe not long after sunset there. Satellite observer Leo Barhorst watched it fly over Holland. Here's his report, from the SeeSat discussion group:

Posted by Frank Roylance at 2:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Sky Watching
        

Our skies will be clearing off by Tuesday evening - just in time for Marylanders to get a fine view of the International Space Station as it flies high over Baltimore. The flyby begins at 7:39 p.m. EDT, only about two hours after the shuttle Discovery is scheduled to pull up alongside the ISS and dock.

UPDATE: Tuesday 5 p.m. Here's a picture of the pair just before they docked, snapped from Holland.

The Discovery crew of seven includes Maryland native and former Waldorf science teacher Richard Arnold (right). There are three crew members aboard the ISS, for a total of 10 humans zipping up the Eastern seaboard, passing 220 miles over Baltimore at a speed of 17,500 mph. Imagine Arnold's two daughters looking up and seeing Dad soaring over like a star!

Look for the ISS and Discovery to appear above the southwest horizon at 7:39 p.m., like a bright, moving star, rivaling Venus in its brilliance. It will be barely 25 minutes after sunset in Baltimore, so the sky will still be quite bright. But observers should have little difficulty spotting the station, which will be reflecting the light from the just-set sun.

From there it will fly very close to the bright star Aldebaran, the reddish "eye" of Taurus the Bull, which may or may not be visible in the dusk. It will move close (86 degrees) to the zenith - (90 degrees) straight up - at 7:42 p.m.

Then it's off toward the northeast, passing just beneath the bowl of the Big Dipper before disappearing at 7:46 p.m. Those stars may not be visible, either, depending on where you are.

With luck, Discovery will be slow, and late in pulling up beside the ISS. That would give us an opportunity to see the two objects as separate dots of light - one brighter (ISS), the other dimmer (Discovery). I've seen that twice, and it's quite a spectacle.  

Posted by Frank Roylance at 5:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Sky Watching
        

Except for the cold, the forecast out of Sterling this morning could not be better for those of us hoping to catch a glimpse of Comet Lulin as it makes its closest approach to Earth - a "mere" 38 million miles. Lulin should be visible high in the southern sky around 1 a.m., but you may be able to spot it earlier - say, after 11 p.m., if you look a little lower in the southeast.

Here is a sky map to guide you. The photo above was shot last week by Gary Honis, in Conyngham, Pa. Used with Gary's permission. You can explore the comet's orbit in 3D with this interactive tool.

Observers in recent days have said Lulin has brightened to a magnitude of 5.35. That's just a shade brighter than 6, which is considered to be the limit of naked-eye visibility. By contrast, Venus, high in the western sky after sunset, is a brilliant minus-4 at the moment. (The lower the number, the brighter the object.)

I would not count on being able to see the comet as a naked-eye object from urban or suburban locations tonight without binoculars, at least. A small telescope is even better. But if you can flee the urban corridor, you should be able to pick out the comet as a fuzzy blob or light alongside the planet Saturn. With binoculars or a telescope, you should be able to capture both comet and Saturn within the same field of view. A rare treat! 

But if you're going out tonight, bundle up. The forecast low for BWI is 21 degrees. Today's gusty winds, which in combination with very low humidity, has increased the fire hazard this afternoon, should have died down by the time comet-watchers are venturing out.

If you can't bring yourself to venture out into the cold tonight (or even if you can), you can also watch the comet online. The Coca Cola Space Science Center in Columbus, Ga., will be Web casting the encounter after 11:30 p.m. tonight., You can join in by clicking here.

And here is a large and growing photo gallery of Lulin images. Some astronomers have assembled time-lapse movies of the comet moving in front of background stars. 

Posted by Frank Roylance at 11:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Sky Watching
        

You can never be sure about weather forecasts. But stargazers looking for Comet Lulin in the coming days will be encouraged by the predictions coming from NWS Sterling this morning. The forecast calls for mostly clear skies tonight, and again early next week - prime time for Lulin hunters.

As you may already have read, Lulin - a lovely green comet discovered in 2007 by astronomers in Taiwan and mainland China - has made its turn around the sun this winter and is now speeding off into deep space. That's Lulin in Gregg Ruppel's Feb. 6 photo above, just above the bright star Zubenelgenubi in Libra. (Ya gatta love a star named Zubenelgenubi! Sounds like Obi wan Kenobi.) 

On Monday evening, Lulin will be "only" 38 million miles from Earth - its closest approach, and therefore the best opportunity for Earthlings to get a glimpse. Here's Spaceweather.com on the comet. And here's an article from Sky & Telescope.

Lulin, like so many comets, is a visitor from the Oort Cloud, a realm of icy objects far beyond the orbits of the outermost planets. Something - perhaps a collision - sent or hurtling inward toward the sun. In January, the sun's gravity grabbed it and hurled back out toward the Oort Cloud, and it is only now passing our general vicinity, outbound.

Astronomers who have calculated Lulin's trajectory say it is parabolic, rather than elliptical, which suggests that it has never visited the inner solar system before. And that, they say, may explain why the comet's icy nucleus is spewing such large volumes of gas and dust. Solar heating and the stream of solar particles called the "solar winds" have been activating the comet's ices and dust and sending them off into space in the form of a large halo, or "coma" around the nucleus, and several "tails" of gas and dust.

Astronomers have been watching Lulin for months through their telescopes. Here is a beautiful gallery of their photos. And in recent weeks, as Lulin has drawn closer to Earth, it has been brightening to naked-eye visibility - at least from locations far from urban light pollution. But binoculars will be your best bet for finding the comet wherever you are.

Continue reading "Skies promising for Comet Lulin" »

Posted by Frank Roylance at 10:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Sky Watching
        

So how's your view of the southwestern sky? If you can get a clear view in that direction early this evening, you can look forward to a very nice flyby by the International Space Station as it passes over the eastern U.S. from high over Chicago to the South Carolina coast.

This pass is lower - closer to the horizon as seen from Baltimore - than those I usually mention here. It can be hard for some people to get a clear view past trees and buildings when the flyovers are less than 45 degrees above the horizon. And the lighting geometry can make these passes dimmer, and harder to see.

But this one caught my eye for several reasons: It is an early-evening pass, when many Marylanders will be able to pause on their way to their cars after work, or step outside to watch before dinner goes on the table. The station will also fly very close to brilliant Venus from our perspective (the red dot at left), drawing attention to the planet, which has dominated the evening sky for many weeks.

And, the skies should be clear.  

So, set your cell phone alarms, and look for the station to rise above the western horizon at 5:41 p.m.. It will pass just below Venus, about 37 degrees above the southwestern horizon at around 5:44 p.m. At that point the station will be about 360 miles from Baltimore, traveling at about 17,500 mph.

From there it will slide off toward the southern horizon, disappearing at 5:47 p.m., to the right of the bright winter constellation Orion, rising in the east.  

As always, we urge you to take the kids and let their young eyes help you spot the station. And, drop back here afterwards and share the experience with those who missed it. 

Speaking of the ISS, here's an astonishing photo of the station, snapped from California, just as it was passing in front of the moon.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 11:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Sky Watching
        

Across the Indian Ocean today, from South Africa to Indonesia, the sun and moon put on a spectacular display. It was an "annular eclipse" of the sun, where the moon is too far from the Earth to completely cover the sun's disk. That leaves a blazing "ring of fire" shining around the moon as it passes in front of the sun from Earth's perspective. Here's more.

Farther outside the path of totality it looked like a bizarre crescent sun. Sunlight filtered through leafy trees left thousands of little crescents projected onto the ground and buildings. Here's a remarkable gallery of photos from today's eclipse.

Cue Johnny Cash.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 6:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Sky Watching
        

If you missed the International Space Station when it passed over Baltimore Sunday evening, you may get a second chance tonight, if skies remain clear as the giant tinker toy passes just north and west of the city.

Actually, some observers did manage a glimpse of the station Sunday. There was a layer of thin clouds over the region, and no stars were visible. But Venus could just barely be seen through the haze. And if you can see Venus in the southwest after sunset, you will likely be able to see the ISS. They're just about the same brightness these days. And sure enough, we did spot the station as it passed just right of Venus and crossed the sky from southwest to northeast.

Tonight's flyby will follow a very similar track, offset just a bit to the north and west. 

Look for a bright, steady, star-like light to rise over the west southwest horizon at 5:40 p.m. It will pass well to the right of brilliant Venus and reach its maximum elevation - about two-thirds of the way up the northwestern sky - at 5:42 p.m.  Then it will pass by the W-shaped constellation Cassiopeia and zip off toward the northeast, disappearing at 5:46 p.m.

You can get ISS flyby predictions for your location - and much more - at Heavens-Above.com

Posted by Frank Roylance at 10:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Sky Watching
        

It's been a month since the great Dec. 1 triple conjunction of the moon, Venus and Jupiter in the western sky. The moon has orbited the Earth once since then, so it's back in the western sky for another rendezvous with Venus.

Look to the west after sunset tonight, and especially tomorrow night - New Year's Eve - for another lovely conjunction of a very slender crescent moon and the brilliant planet Venus. Tonight (Tuesday, Dec. 30) Venus will be high over the southwestern horizon. The moon, just past "new," will stand well below, to the right.

Tomorrow, the moon will have a bit more thickness to it, and it will be right above Venus. (The NASA photo above shows another close conjunction of the moon and Venus, with a different configuration.)

Jupiter is still there, too, but far closer to the horizon now and perhaps lost in the air pollution, twilight or obstructing trees and buildings. If you manage to find it, binoculars may bring out Mercury, which will be close beside Jupiter (from Earth's perspective) tonight and tomorrow night.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 9:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
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The full moon that rises over Baltimore tonight is the last before the winter solstice, which makes it the Long Night Moon. Some also call it the Moon Before Yule.

But this full moon is even more notable for the fact that it will be the closest Earth's only natural satellite has come to its mother planet in 15 years, and the nearest until 2016. If there were an easy way to compare it side-by-side with a more average full moon, it would even appear visibly nearer - and larger. Maybe you'll notice anyway. It's said to be as much as 14 percent wider and 30 percent brighter than your run-of-the-mill full moon. 

This event is called "perigee," the moon's closest approach to the Earth for the month as it moves along in its 28-day elliptical orbit of the Earth. In this case, that translates to about 221,559 miles at 5 p.m. this afternoon. That's about 25 minutes after moonrise in Baltimore. If the clouds clear off soon enough, we may actually get a look at it. 

The Maryland Science Center will be offering even closer views of the moon, 5:30 to 9 this evening, weather permitting, through their Crosby Ramsey Memorial Observatory telescope, where it is Stargazing Friday. No charge.  For information, call 410 685-5225.

For the period from the year 1750 through 2125, the nearest perigee was 221,441 miles, on Jan. 4, 1912. The farthest apogee will be 252,724 miles, on Feb. 3, 2125. So during tonight's perigee the moon will be just 118 miles farther away than the closest perigee of that entire 375-year period. Cool!

This perigee also comes just a few hours after the moon is precisely full - at 11:38 EST this morning. And when the full moon and perigee coincide, we can anticipate unusually high tides, although wind and weather conditions may blunt the effect. You can track the tides in real time here.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 11:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)
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Okay, so how cool was that? After the clouds blew off last evening, the triple conjunction of Jupiter, Venus and the crescent moon in the southwest jumped out against a very dark sky. It was hard to miss. Here's a gallery from CNN iReports.

And the show isn't really over.

The moon's orbit will carry it a bit farther east each night this week after last night's close encounter. Venus will climb even higher as Jupiter sinks toward the sunset. Watch the dancers as they shift their relative positions each night. It's Kepler's celestial mechanics on display, all week long. (That's Johannes Kepler at left.)

Here's more from SpaceWeather.com 

Posted by Frank Roylance at 11:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
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I can see a few rays of sunshine warming the rock walls of the State Penitentiary this morning. And that suggests the clouds may clear enough late this afternoon to give Marylanders a peek at tonight's sky spectacular. Here's the official forecast - for "mostly cloudy" skies.

The event is a striking triple conjunction of the planets Venus and Jupiter, with the crescent moon. They will form a beautiful triangle after sunset, hanging just above the southwest horizon. All three will be plenty bright enough to spot from anywhere skies are clear (or more-or-less clear toward the southwest), even in light-polluted urban settings.

Photographers have already been busy snapping pictures of the two planets, with the moon approaching from the lower right. That's Heather McLaughlin's shot above, taken from Foster City, Calif. (Used with permission.) Here is a gallery from SpaceWeather.com

By tonight, the moon will have moved just to the left of Venus and Jupiter.

If you're reading this in Europe, you will have an even more astonishing show to watch if your skies aren't clouded up. From your perspective, the moon will move in front of Venus in what astronomers call a "lunar occultation."

UPDATE: The clouds cleared, and we had a good look at this conjunction, around 6 p.m., from the roof of the Sun garage, looking southwest toward the Basilica. I tried a snapshot with my point-and-shoot (below). It's more than a little blurry, but you get the idea. I expect others will have better images online by morning.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 11:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)
Categories: Sky Watching
        

Whenever evening skies are clear this week, take a moment to step outside and catch a glimpse at one of the year's most striking events in the night sky.

Each night, the brilliant planets Jupiter and Venus - now dazzling in the southwestern sky after sunset - will draw closer together.

They're headed for a spectacular triple conjunction with a very young crescent moon on Monday, Dec. 1 (left). On that evening, Jupiter and Venus will stand just 2 degrees apart in the evening sky - the width of two pinky fingers held at arm's length.

Jupiter - now above and to the left of Venus - will have moved by Dec. 1 to a spot immediately above and to the right of Venus.

The crescent moon will hang just above and to the left of Venus, forming a lovely, delicate triangle.

If skies are clear, the spectacle is sure to grab the attention of anyone who happens to glance that way - evening commuters, dog walkers and folks out for an after-dinner stroll. You won't need to find dark skies. This celestial event will be visible everyplace that isn't clouded in. 

Don't miss it!

Posted by Frank Roylance at 11:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
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Building high pressure is clearing the air over Central Maryland, and while we may not be cloudless Saturday evening, skies should be clear enough to catch a glimpse at the newly enlarged International Space Station as it soars over Baltimore with the space shuttle Endeavour docked alongside.

The precise timing may be a little squishy. (Times in the print edition of The Sun this morning may be a minute too early. NASA planned to boost the ISS's orbit a few miles, as it must from time to time, and in Earth orbit, getting higher slows your speed relative to the ground, which changes the timing of these flyovers. So allow a minute or so on either side of the times we're posting here, just in case.

The good news is that this will be one of the brightest flyovers we've seen. The shuttle delivered a new living quarters  module to the station in preparation for adding three more full-time crew members (bringing total to six). And with Endeavour attached, that makes plenty of additional surface to relfect sunlight. The prediction is that ISS/Endeavour will be brighter than Jupiter, which hangs over the southwestern horizon after sunset this week, but somewhat dimmer than Venus, which stands lower and to the right of Jupiter.

Look for the ISS to rise above the southwestern horizon at 5:30 p.m., just to the right of Venus and Jupiter (visible in the time-lapse photo at right by Justin Cowart, in Carbondale, Ill.; used with permission). The station is headed northeast, from high over Louisiana toward the skies of Nova Scotia. It will climb right through the Summer Triangle, passing very close by Deneb in the constellation Cygnus, the Swan. (Print edition says Vega. Wrong again.)  At that moment - 5:33 p.m., it will be about 223 miles over your head.

Be sure to wave. That's a passle of your tax dollars flying by. Even more amazing, between the ISS crew of three and the Shuttle crew of seven, that's a small village of 10 people soaring over at 17,500 mph. 

You can generate ISS flyby predictions tailored to your location anytime by visiting Heavens-Above.com   That's where the map at right came from. There's much more, too. 

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Posted by Frank Roylance at 4:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
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The WeatherBlog received an excited report last night from Jeff Ceccola, in suburban Philadelphia:

"Frank,

I believe I [saw] the Northern Lights right here in West Chester, Pa.  There was perhaps up to 100 tubes of vertical light ranging from an aqua blue to a magenta all throughout the east through the southern sky.  The lights were not moving but I am unsure what else this phenonem could have been.  I spoke to all 4 Philly news stations and they said they have had dozens of reports.  Any sightings down there? Regards, Jeff."

Before I had a chance to respond, Jeff heard from one of the Philly TV weather guys, and he (Jeff) got back to me with this explanation:

"Per Glenn "Hurricane" Schwartz NBC 10 Philadelphia, he theorized the lights were merely snow flakes reflecting in the moon light.  Oh well, pretty nonetheless."

I think Glenn is close. It would be very unusual, this far south, to see the Northern Lights, especially in the eastern and southern skies.

But my guess is that the atmospheric display Jeff saw was most likely what are referred to as "light pillars." They're caused by ground lighting reflecting off flat snow crystals descending through very cold air. Because it's man-made lighting, the light will consist of any number of different colors, which would explain what Jeff saw. In the up-shining beams of light, the descending crystals appear to form colorful columns or tubes.

Here's a link to a site with some amazing photos of a variety of atmospheric light phenomena. Scroll to the bottom for images of artificial light pillars.

Jeff wrote back this morning and agreed:

"Yes, that certainly seems to be the consensus.  I fear my unbridled excitement interfered with my logic.  Nonetheless, nature once again provided a show that I will not soon forget.  It really was beautiful.  I have attached a picture that someone sent to the NBC 10, it is a perfect facsimile of what I was seeing last night."

That's the photo at the top of this post. We're always happy to get reports of unusual phenomena in the sky, aurora borealis among them.

Here's a link to a gallery of true aurora borealis images taken in recent days around the Far North. To see these spectacular displays, you need to get yourself beneath the "auroral oval" - the region around the Earth's north magnetic pole where the solar particles raining down on the Earth strike the upper atmosphere and kick off the light shows. (Yellow band in the image below.)

That oval is currently in far northern Canada. But it does occasionally expand farther south. To check on its current position, click here, and scroll down the lefthand column.

The best chance for seeing the aurorae is during periods of high solar activity. We are currently just emerging from the latest solar "minimum," so we may have to wait a while to have even a slim chance to see them this far south. The last time that happened that I can recall was in November 2004.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 10:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Sky Watching