Last Updated:
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
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Welcome to The Astronomy Stop.
I am a member of the Texas Astronomical Society and have
been active in Amateur Astronomy and Astrophotography since
2001.
Enjoy the links on this site and take a look at my images.
They are updated frequently so check back often.
I have a Feedback link at the bottom of this page. If
I can answer any questions don't hesitate to contact
me......Terry
Your comments are appreciated.
Dawn Mission to Vesta and Ceres:
NASA's
Dawn spacecraft, the first ever to orbit an object in the main asteroid
belt, is spiraling towards its first of four intensive science orbits.
That initial orbit of the rocky world Vesta began Aug. 11, at an
altitude of nearly 1,700 miles (2,700 kilometers) and will provide
in-depth analysis of the asteroid. Vesta is the brightest object in the
asteroid belt as seen from Earth and is thought to be the source of a
large number of meteorites that fall to Earth.
Ceres and Vesta reside in the extensive zone between Mars and Jupiter
together with many other smaller bodies, called the asteroid belt. Each
has followed a very different evolutionary path constrained by the
diversity of processes that operated during the first few million years
of solar system evolution.
Dawn launched in September 2007. Following a year at Vesta, the
spacecraft will depart in July 2012 for Ceres, where it will arrive in
2015.
Click on the image to display an
enlarged view.
This July 24
image of the asteroid Vesta was captured by Dawn at a distance
of 3,200 miles.
The images
are extraordinarily detailed, revealing mountains, craters,
cracks and broad stony plains.
The
pictures were the first ever to bring such focus to an object in
the distant asteroid belt where hundreds of rocky objects are
all flying between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.
In this image,
obtained by the framing camera on NASA's Dawn spacecraft, a set
of three craters, informally nicknamed "Snowman" by the camera's
team members, is located in the northern hemisphere of Vesta.
In this image, obtained by Dawn's framing camera,
a peak at Vesta's south pole is seen at the lower right. The
grooves in the equatorial region are about six miles wide.
Astronomy
Image of the Month:
Celestial Snow Angel
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope
presents a festive holiday greeting that's out of this world. The
bipolar star-forming region, called Sharpless 2-106, looks like a
soaring, celestial snow angel. The outstretched "wings" of the
nebula record the contrasting imprint of heat and motion against the
backdrop of a colder medium.
Sharpless 2-106, Sh2-106 or
S106 for short, lies nearly 2,000 light-years from us. The nebula
measures several light-years in length. It appears in a relatively
isolated region of the Milky Way galaxy.
A massive, young star, IRS 4 (Infrared Source 4), is
responsible for the furious activity we see in the nebula. Twin
lobes of super-hot gas, glowing blue in this image, stretch outward
from the central star. This hot gas creates the "wings" of our
angel.
The Hubble images were taken in February 2011 with the Wide
Field Camera 3. Visible narrow-band filters that isolate the
hydrogen gas were combined with near-infrared filters that show
structure in the cooler gas and dust.
The Hubble Deep Field: The most important image ever taken.
It is the farthest we have ever seen into space using the most
advanced telescope we have.
Weather / Sky
Conditions:
The Clear Sky Clocks below are the
astronomers forecast. They show at a glance when, in the next 48
hours, we might expect clear and dark skies for one specific
observing site. The site is specifically intended for amateur
astronomers. The forecast data comes from a numerical weather model
run by The Canadian Meteorological Center.
Clear Sky Clocks
ASTROTX Observatory
Atoka, OK
ISS Tour - Welcome
to the International Space Station:
We often see
the International Space Station (ISS) appearing in the news, or in the
odd film, but the images are usually of the exterior or small sections
of the interior. If you want to see a proper tour of the ISS then look
no further.
With astronaut Jeffrey
Williams on camera we get a fly-through of the ISS from one end to the
other. There’s no space spared on the walls which are covered in pipes,
wires, the odd laptop, and even one of the astronauts exercising on a
running machine.
Journey to the edge of the Universe:
If nothing is faster
than the speed of light (186,000 miles per second) then we are crawling
when trying to even break free of our own galaxy. This video puts
the distance of the universe into perspective.
**Click on Arrows icon in lower
right of the frame to view the video in full screen mode. **
JWST: Hubble's Successor
The James Webb Space Telescope (sometimes called
JWST) is a large, infrared-optimized space telescope, scheduled for
launch in 2014. Webb will find the first galaxies that formed in the
early Universe, connecting the Big Bang to our own Milky Way Galaxy.
Webb will peer through dusty clouds to see stars forming planetary
systems, connecting the Milky Way to our own Solar System. Webb's
instruments will be designed to work primarily in the infrared range of
the electromagnetic spectrum, with some capability in the visible range.
Webb will have a large mirror, 6.5
meters (21.3 feet) in diameter and a sunshield the size of a tennis
court. Both the mirror and sunshade won't fit onto the rocket fully
open, so both will fold up and open once Webb is in outer space. Webb
will reside in an orbit about 1.5 million km (1 million miles) from the
Earth.
**Click on Arrows icon in lower
right of the frame to view the video in full screen mode. **
Credit: NASA
Lunar Phases:
A lunar phase or phase of the moon
refers to the appearance of the illuminated portion of the Moon as
seen by an observer. The lunar phases vary cyclically as the Moon
orbits the Earth, according to the changing relative positions of
the Earth, Moon and Sun. Click on each button to view the
various phases or click on the 'Run Animation' button to view
the entire lunar cycle.
Apollo Landing
Sites
NASA's
Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or
LRO, has returned its first
imagery of the Apollo moon
landing sites. The pictures show
the Apollo missions' lunar
module descent stages sitting on
the moon's surface, as long
shadows from a low sun angle
make the modules' locations
evident.
The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter
Camera, or LROC, was able to
image all six Apollo sites.
The satellite reached lunar
orbit June 23, 2009 and captured the
Apollo sites between July 11 and
15. Though it had been expected
that LRO would be able to
resolve the remnants of the
Apollo mission, these first
images came before the
spacecraft reached its final
mapping orbit.
**UPDATE**
As of 09/06/11, NASA has now
released improved images for
Apollo's 12, 14, and 17. These
images have been added below.
All
images credit:
NASA/Goddard Space
Flight Center/Arizona
State University
