How does one prevent an impact with an asteroid? First you have to find it, easier said than done. Second, you have to find it before it is too late, a much more difficult task. Third, you have to have a plan to mitigate the threat that will work.

There has been a few ways mentioned to accomplish the third part, which by the way should really be first because without some kind of plan the other two don’t really matter. Plans have been given a good deal more attention since it was learned the Asteroid Apophis will pass very close on April 13, 2029. For those of you with paraskevidekatriaphobia, I’m afraid this is indeed a Friday.

From the Gaurdian.co.uk (December 7, 2005):

Alan Fitzsimmons, an astronomer from Queen’s University Belfast, said: “When it does pass close to us on April 13 2029, the Earth will deflect it and change its orbit. There’s a small possibility that if it passes through a particular point in space, the so-called keyhole, … the Earth’s gravity will change things so that when it comes back around again in 2036, it will collide with us.” The chance of Apophis passing through the keyhole, a 600-metre patch of space, is 1 in 5,500 based on current information.

The Gaurdian article linked above, discusses some of the options to mitigate the threat, it’s quite a good article. Now researchers from Glasgow University are proffering a new idea: painting the asteroid. Painting the asteroid? The idea is by painting an asteroid you might be able to divert it by thermally influencing the surface with the paint and the sun’s rays. All the painting would be done by unmanned spacecraft/painting machine. Read more about it at Scotsman.com.

Occum’s razor aside, I just don’t know about this – maybe; if nothing else it will look good coming in. Apophis seems a fitting name, maybe we should send up a cat too. The Great Cat of Heliopolis after all, so the story goes, did defeat Apophis.

Sources: Scotsman.com, Gaurdian.co.uk

Image from: Gaurdian.co.uk

Actually the fist comet was visible in late 2004, but I remember going out through the first months of the year with the small scope and binoculars (when it was too cold for the scope, -25 C) and following it across the sky. At times the binoculars and telescope weren’t necessary to see Comet Machholz, it got to a magnitude of 3 for a short time I believe. I went out the first night it was visible in the southern sky and scanned it with the binoculars, there it was. I did a few posts on it; this link is to one of March 9, 2005 when the comet was pairing up with Polaris.

The image above was taken by NJScope, a member of the NJ Night Sky Group. He graciously let me use the image. I would have tried to get some images of it, but I didn’t have an imager yet. Pay them a visit too, there’s good stuff there.

Then there was Deep Impact. Wow! In July 2005 we were treated to the spectacle of seeing an impactor essentially get run over by Comet Tempel 1 at 23,000 miles per hour. While the impact happened in the wee hours of the morning, I watched the entire thing. I remember not being tired at all, just the reality of what was occurring took any thought of sleeping right out of the picture. Although I did get one image of Tempel 1 before the impact, I was still trying to figure out the imaging thing ( I still am!) but the image below is one from the Deep Impact site and all due credit goes to the fine folks at NASA.

Here comes 2006 and another comet:

I REALLY like comets, and as the New Year matures a little, we are going to be treated to another comet, perhaps even brighter than Machholz: 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3. The jury is still out on how bright it will be and currently estimates have been toned down from magnitude 2 to 4. Still it will be an easy binocular target and I will try to get some images as it comes to reach whatever magnitude it may attain in May of 2006. As a side benefit, there is speculation that due to the comet, the Bootes meteor shower may be especially good this year.

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I do have some “sky shack” plans on paper and will try to get them up early next week.

The image above is Titan from 57,509 km (35,734 miles) and was taken on December 26, 2005 by Cassini. It’s our last look at Titan for the year (here that is). Happily I can say there is another flyby coming up on January 15, 2006.

I like this image. I can almost imagine seeing it, just this way, in one of those old sci-fi space movies I like so much. Picture it in your minds eye: the captain of the 22nd century spaceship outfitted with the very latest in 1950’s technology, describing the methane clouds and how they must take special precautions until they get to the surface. Even then, not knowing what manner of terrain or beast they may encounter; all the while making sure they had slickers to fend off the methane rain and preparing the weapons to beat back any trouble you just know awaits on the foreboding world.

Little do they know, as they leave their ship and step tentatively onto the peculiar new world with weapons drawn, and with eerie music emanating from who-knows-where, they will see a strange object in the distance. Upon investigation of the mysterious object, they will find a frozen Huygens probe, ala ESA.

Cassini-Huygens did in 2005 what was nothing more than just pure fantasy in the 1950’s. Just imagine where we might be another 50 years; that is, if we manage NOT to blow our selves up between now and then.

Image Credit: ESA / NASA / ASI

It was 23 degrees (- 5 C) and getting colder, the sky was clear for the most part; a good night to try out the new sky shack. I went out early, set the scope up and got all the other parts and pieces of equipment into place. About 5 pm it was dark enough so I turned on the heater and did an alignment. The alignment didn’t go so well, entirely my fault, I knew it, but went with it any way and paid the price later. The alignment may have gone better but I my mind was on the heater. I was anxious to see how well it would work. I had set it to low figuring that would give me the best representation of what it could do. I knew it was working when the window in the shack started to fog up. I walked back into the shack and WOW, it was working great.

I got the computer and started it. I didn’t get any images really, but did quite a bit of looking around. To be truthful the lack of images wasn’t for lack of trying. The poor alignment wouldn’t allow the scope to track, heck it wouldn’t even find the objects properly. Like I said earlier, I knew better but went with it.

So after a quite a while of messing around I decided to re-align. This time I was more careful and had it nailed. Just the way it was supposed to be, pick a target and go, the scope was dead on. Perfect. About that time, since it was outside the entire time, the Autostar hand controller decided it had enough of the cold. The hand controllers are known for having a poor temperament when it comes to cold. I was hoping that using the computer to control the scope, it wouldn’t matter if the hand controller didn’t function properly – wrong. The controller was not accepting any commands by me and was preoccupied with turning the scope in a slow circle. So I turned off the scope and looked around a bit more.

I did check out the Orion Nebula and it was outstanding! Next time out it will be my top priority. I also tried out my new OIII filter on it, a big difference, thanks to Andrew at Above the Clouds for that! I can’t wait until I can get out again.

So, the sky shack is a smashing success. I could have sat in there without a jacket and been quite comfy. The window fogging up should be easy to fix, I’ll try wiping it down with mentholated shaving cream, that works quite well on bathroom mirrors (I have no idea why. but it does). If that doesn’t work I will resort to paper towels as I did tonight. The computer screen was quite easy to see though so I sized the window just right.

As far as the hand controller goes, hey I took a chance. I think I can get a longer cable that attaches it to the scope. Long enough in fact to feed it through the shack wall and still have enough to take it back out to the scope if need be. More often than not that’s where I need it, but when not in use it can be inside nice and warm. Another five dollars down the tubes.

All and all I am satisfied.

Ever heard of Blue Origin? It’s a pretty quiet venture by Jeff Bezos. If you’ve never heard of Jeff Bezos, you have heard of the other company he founded: Amazon.com.

Blue Origin is another private space venture. Bezos is remodeling an office and warehouse in a Seattle suburb that will eventually be used to design and build the spacecraft and engines. Plans apparently call for building an experimental structure where rocket engines can be tested. The complex may be open next year.

The test launches will be done in West Texas near Van Horn. Long term plans possibly include a spaceport where space-tourism flights could take to the skies once a week.

Rumor has it, the project may involve a spacecraft that launches and lands vertically.

So the private space industry is alive and growing pretty fast or so it seems. The bit about the vertical landing seems kind of doubtful, but far be it for me to be a naysayer.

Read more about it at MSNBC and The Olympian

I am looking forward to the first clear night I’ve had in over 7 weeks, naturally I am supposed to be at a meeting. Oh well, there will be other meetings, there always are. I will be testing out the new sky shack.

On November 7 NASA scientists observed an explosion near the edge of Mare Imbrium. The explosion was caused by a 12 centimeter-wide meteoroid that hit the surface at an astounding 27 km/sec, and producing a blast roughly equal to 70 kg of TNT. The image is a sequence of 6 false-color video frames.

Credit: Wes Swift/NASA

Rob Suggs and Wes Swift (Marshall Space Flight Center) happened to be testing a new telescope and video camera to monitor the moon for meteor strikes. As luck would have it, they hit the jackpot on the first night out.

Bill Cooke, a meteor expert with Marshall Spaceflight Center suspects the object was a Taurid, the same meteor shower that gave us many fireballs between October and early November. I was at first kind of surprised at how small the crater created is estimated to be, only 3 meters wide and 0.4 meters deep, too small for even Hubble to see. However if the surface is very hard it would take a big blast to create it. Makes me stop and think about what created the larger craters we can see from Earth.

Suggs is contemplating a long-term monitoring program. “We need to develop software to find these flashes automatically,” Suggs says. “Staring at 4 hours of tape to find a split-second flash can get boring; this is a job for a computer.”

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