Cassini spies a blue storm on Saturn. Click for larger

Hey, check out the blue storm in Saturn’s southern hemisphere.  I wonder if the blue color is from lower atmospheric levels being convected upwards, hard to tell.    The storm certainly is symmetrical. The rings add an eerie look to the northern hemisphere too.

The Cassini press release:

Rendered in myriad hues, vivid details of Saturn’s stormy atmosphere play out below the shadow of the rings.

A well defined storm swirls through the atmosphere of the southern hemisphere in the lower left of the image, like the tight blue circle of an eye’s iris.
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The December Pairing. Click for larger

Tonight there will be a very nice pairing in the sky.  Just after sunset, look to the West and you will see the crescent moon and Venus close together.

I am fast becoming a Phoenix or north of there “wanna be”, because my sky will likely be cloudy (my weather forecast is for “miserable” – really!).  If you also have at least cloudy skies, don’t worry, you can see it on subsequent nights, just not quite as nicely lined up.

What you will see is similar to the image above.  The image is from a similar pairing last December, and this time around Venus will be even brighter, you will not be able to miss it!!

By the way, I took the image above with a little Canon PowerShot A520.  The 520 is just a regular small digital camera I usually toss in the car if I am traveling.  If your digital camera can take exposures of about 1 to 5 or so seconds, you can take a pretty decent picture of the night sky.  I encourage you to try it out.  If you do let me know how it works out for you.  Hint:  you will need to use a tripod or put the camera on a steady surface.

Oh and guess what?  I let the dog out this morning and as I was doing so I always check out the sky, well there was Saturn shining away, nicely.  As quick as I could I had shoes on and a coat and was outside and lo’ and behold there was Lulin!!  It was not naked eye but fine in binoculars.   I also went out the observatory but I am not able to get the scope on it because of it’s direction.  Looks like I might be able to put “Plan B” into action Sunday or Monday morning.  “Plan B” involves using that A520 and a portable telescope.  Will it work?  I dunno but I’m going to find out.

A Solar Eclipse seen by a spacecraft. Credit JAXA via Science@NASA

How about an unscheduled Solar eclipse, sort of?  Japan’s space agency,  JAXA has a spacecraft named Kaguya orbiting the moon. On February 9th the spacecrafts HD camera saw the Earth move in front of the Sun creating a solar eclipse. As Science@NASA puts it: “This makes the first time a spacecraft from Earth has captured hi-resolution images of a solar eclipse while orbiting another world.”

The image above is from the video made of the eclipse; want to see the video from JAXA? Click here. Go to Science@NASA for the full story.

Lulin spotting is off for the next couple of days to maybe about four because of clouds, rain and snow. Yes, makes that “you should move to Phoenix” comment even more to the point. 

Helix Nebula from the ESO. Click for larger version. Image Credit: ESO

Here’s an image of the Helix Nebula taken by the ESO’s telescopes.  I have such a hard time seeing this nebula.  I have made several attempts to image it and I keep missing it somehow.  Of course I was having the same problem with the Eagle Nebula and it turned out I was getting it every time, just needed to do a bit more processing – the eagle is a very dark nebula all I could see initially was some of the star field.  Here’s an image of the Eagle I took a while back, I was having rotation problems so it’s a bit fuzzy, but you get the idea.

Well anyway, the Helix is a mag 7.3 or so, but lemme tell you it’s a pretty darned dim 7.3, IMHO.  One night I was bound and determined I was going to get it and I pointed to where it should have been, and unbeknownst to me my alignment was a little off.  I looked through the eyepiece and thought I was actually looking at Uranus, because what I was seeing was blueish and pretty small.  Turned out not, what I was seeing was the Saturn Nebula.  I did manage to find Uranus and even got a couple of moons, it’s around here some place.

As for the Helix, no luck as yet, later this year when it i s better positioned I will try again, I am set up much better so I’m confident I can get it.  We will, well our Sun will, end up similar to this in the distant future.  Check out the ESO press release (below) and the Helix Nebula page on SEDS for some insight on how one day it is all likely to end for old Sol.

Here’s the ESO press release about the image:

This colour-composite image of the Helix Nebula (NGC 7293) was created from images obtained using the the Wide Field Imager (WFI), an astronomical camera attached to the 2.2-metre Max-Planck Society/ESO telescope at the La Silla observatory in Chile.

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I went running out full of anticipation in catching an image of Lulin – made it all the way out to the where my car is parked before I came to the conclusion it was overcast once again.

OCO Launch. Image Credit: NASA TV

NASA launched the Orbiting Carbon Laboratory this morning.  After going outside and confirming that is was completely overcast so there was no chance of seeing Lulin, I managed to catch the launch.

The mission was to measure atmospheric carbon dioxide from space.  Did I say was?  Yes, just several minutes into launch and after attaining enough altitude to separate the satellite from the spacecraft the fairing failed to separate and seemly ending the mission before it really even began.

The disappointment in the control room was palpable, kind of had to feel sorry for those folks.  There will be a press conference in a couple hours, maybe we learn more.  Check the OCO website for the latest.

I suppose there is still some hope, but chances are instead of doing any science the OCO will join the thousands of pieces of junk in orbit.

Update: Supposedly the spacecraft has crashed in the ocean somewhere near Antarctica.