We watched the space shuttle, Discovery, and the International Space Station pass overhead this evening from our driveway. They were very bright and about 30 seconds apart, moving in tandem across the sky. It was a lovely sight and the best naked eye view of a shuttle we’ve ever had. I took some photos and share one here. Because they followed the same path in the sky, both Discovery and the ISS form a single, thin, white line in the photo. (The circles of light are internal reflections from the camera lens caused by a streetlight just out of the frame.)

Discovery and the ISS passing over Hamilton

Most of Southern Ontario will be witness to a rare Double Flyby tonight.

As of 8:37am EST Shuttle Discovery undocked from the International Space Station, on her final flight and is returning home for the last time.

This evening starting at approx. 6:55 pm EST a rare double Flyby will be visible as the Shuttle and the ISS will seem to be chasing each other across the Northern sky.

The Shuttle will rise above the horizon at 18:56:00 EST (look to the NW).
It will head east across the sky rising to a height of 47 Deg in the NE.

The ISS will rise above the horizon approx. 30 seconds behind the Shuttle and follow an
almost identical track across the sky rising to a height of 48 Deg in the NE.

Below is the link to the NASA satelite sighting page for Canada.
Select your province, then select the closest city to where you live.

http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/cities/skywatch.cgi?country=Canada

Here is a link to Mario Carr’s latest astronomy column in the local paper. I’m sure you’ll enjoy reading his article as much as I did. Well done, Mario!

http://www.hamiltonmountainnews.com/arts_and_entertainment/article/230670

Check out this excellent video presentation by some university students who are trying to make a difference. Vote for their video to help in the fight against light pollution.

http://www.tdgogreenchallenge.com/video/id/149/playid/149

Request for archival data: V1647 Ori and McNeil’s Nebula

February 15, 2011: Dr. Colin Aspin (U. Hawaii) has requested archival images and other observations of the FU Orionis variable V1647 Ori and the surrounding field over the previous 10 years in support of a study of this star. Aspin writes that he is hoping to obtain more data with which to create a multi-year light curve of this star to put present-day observations in context of its past behavior.

The AAVSO international database contains fewer than 50 observations of this star over the past ten years; however, V1647 Ori lies near the bright reflection nebula M78 (central coordinates: RA: 05 46 46.7, Dec +00 00 50), and is believed to be the illumination source of the recently erupted object McNeil’s Nebula, first discovered in 2003. Observers with deep-sky images of the M78 field and/or of McNeil’s Nebula may have images in which V1647 Ori/McNeil’s Nebula are visible. AAVSO observers with sufficient experience in image reduction are asked to photometer their images to obtain magnitudes of V1647 Ori and to submit these data to the AAVSO; Aspin also requests that you contact him for copies of your images as well. All observers are invited to contact Dr. Aspin directly (caspin@mac.com) with questions and for further information and assistance; he notes that any observers who provide useful data on V1647 Ori and/or McNeil’s Nebula will be acknowledged by name in the forthcoming publication to be submitted to the Astronomical Journal.

V1647 Ori is located at the following (J2000) coordinates:

RA: 05 46 13.14 , Dec: -00 06 04.8

Charts for the V1647 Ori field are available via VSP:

http://www.aavso.org/vsp

We note that due to the presence of nebulosity in this region, observers should consider plotting DSS charts rather than using the default plotting option.

Please submit all observations to the AAVSO using the name “V1647 Ori”.

This AAVSO Special Notice was prepared by M. Templeton.

—————————————————
SUBMIT OBSERVATIONS TO THE AAVSO

Information on submitting observations to the AAVSO may be found at:
http://www.aavso.org/webobs

SPECIAL NOTICE ARCHIVE AND SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION

A Special Notice archive is available at the following URL:
http://www.aavso.org/special-notice-archive

Subscribing and Unsubscribing may be done at the following URL:
http://www.aavso.org/observation-notification
Page Editor: Matthew Templeton
Last Updated: February 15, 2011 – 4:23pm
Keywords:

* archival data
* deep-sky
* front page news
* Observing campaigns
* Special Notices
* young stellar object
* YSO

NASA’s Stardust spacecraft closes in for a Valentine’s Day rendezvous with Comet Tempel 1

Some 340 million kilometers away, out beyond the orbit of Mars, the Stardust spacecraft is getting ready for a big Valentine’s Day date. On February 14 the NASA craft will fly past Comet Tempel 1 at a planned distance of only 200 kilometers, getting a good look at the s…econd comet it has investigated at close range since the probe’s 1999 launch….

Source:Scientific American – Space
Published:2011-02-11 22:56:00 GMT

Here’s a link to the Aurora Cam in Yellowknife

Click here to get to the Canadian Space Agency’s aurora cam page

Here’s a link to the chart of 100 excellent double stars

Click here to be taken to the Astronomical League list of 100 great double stars

A few other things were mentioned:
here’s the link to the observer’s certificate. Please print one off, and check off your targets you have already done, or do once you have printed it. Turn it in to me at the meeting and i will get back to you with a duly crafted ‘real’ one!

Click here to download a pdf version of the certificate. No framing it until i re-make it for you though!

It’s more than likely, since the moon sets early, and if the sky
is clear, look north for the green and red glow of aurora.

It’s been a while since we got a magnetic index of 6, and that’s what it is now.

Look up at midnight if it’s clear, every night, because aurora
are hard to predict!

This is from Mike Jefferson:

“LOFAR II, for January 21/2011, logged one C-class flare @ 12:00 noon of about 2.5 ‘magnitude’ – not very large but interesting and satisfying after a barren period of weeks.
Today, the sun seems to have regressed back to its recent inactivity – but for how long?
For the 21st, the GOES data shows 5 small C-class, x-ray events, of which we bagged the one most significant. Another occurred during our night period and the other 3 were too small for LOFAR II to detect reliably.
According to NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, sunspot 1149 in the sun’s northern hemisphere is crackling with these C-class events, is where our event originated, is growing and is poised to possibly develop into an M-class event in the next short while.

HAAers should stay alert to the possibility of a cataclysmic solar event and possibly aurorae!”

— Mike Jefferson

This weekend’s weather forecast is calling for alarmingly cold temperatures. Even a keen observer would be reluctant to drag all their equipment outside in -20 degree weather. (That’s cold enough to freeze your Bob’s Knobs off!)

Matthew Mannering has an excellent article on observing with binoculars in the January issue of our newsletter. In his article, he states:

“Binoculars also have a very important role in my winter observing. Quite honestly there are lots of times I wouldn?t go out if I had to haul my big stuff out of the house. Cool down times for a large scope just get worse as the temperature drops and I don?t have a secure yard to go leaving it outside for hours at a time unattended. Mostly, I just take out my binos and within about 10 minutes they have reached equilibrium with the outdoor temperature. In fact you can start using them right away although you will notice some astigmatism and the focus will change continuously until they reach equilibrium. Better yet, when your toes and fingers start to turn blue; which I find seems to happen all of a sudden, tear down time is close to zero.”

You can read his entire article on page 15 here: http://www.amateurastronomy.org/EH/January2011.pdf

Observing with binoculars is a great way to enjoy the crystal clear winter skies without having to spend too much time outdoors in these unappealing temperatures! You can check out the double stars in Orion that Steve mentions in his Sky This Month column (page 12 on this month’s newsletter – see the above link) and in his blog posting of January 15th.