APOD 2. 6 Saturn's Hexagon Comes to Light

Saturn's North Pole is surrounded by a mysterious hexagon-shaped cloud pattern that has no known cause. In the early 1980's, Voyager 1 captured the strange feature, but the image was not at a good perspective and scientists did not know what to make of the formation. The Saturn orbiter Cassini confirmed the existence of the hexagon, and recently the pole became illuminated for the first time during the Cassini mission. This allowed Cassini to take images of the hexagon using non-infrared imaging. Cassini has now taken enough images to be able to put together a time-lapse video. This video has shown many unusual cloud motions, such as waves coming from the corners of the hexagon. Scientists are still puzzled by the hexagon and will continue to study the hexagon.

Geminid Meteor Shower Observation

Time (total): 2 hrs 15 min

(11:00pm-11:15pm, 12am-2am)

Conditions: clear

Location: Venice

Observations:

11-11:15: 0 meteors

12-1: 10 meteors

1-2: 16 meteors

Total: 26 meteors over 2:15

APOD 2.5 The Magnificent Tail of Comet McNaught

In 2007, Comet McNaught became the brightest comet to streak across the sky in the last 40 years and the second brightest since 1935. The comet was visible in the Southern Hemisphere. In the Northern Hemisphere, the tail of the comet was visible right after sunset. The tail was measured to be about 35 degrees in length at its peak. This image, taken by the discoverer of the comet, was captured in Australia in 2007 after sunset and the comet reached an apparent magnitude of -6. For comparison, Venus' maximum brightness is at an apparent magnitude of -4.6 and the full moon has an apparent magnitude of -12.6. The head of the comet was extremely bright and was even visible to some observers in cities in the Southern Hemisphere. The Ulysses spacecraft, which was designed to study the sun, encountered the tail of Comet McNaught.

APOD 2.4 Bright Sun and Crescent Earth from the Space Station

This stunning view of the Earth and the Sun was taken from the International Space Station during its rendezvous with the Space Shuttle Atlantis. Atlantis was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida on November 16th, and returned home on November 27th. The point of the mission was mainly to send spare parts, to repair, and to build upon the ISS. The mission, STS-129, lasted 10 days. As the International Space Station and the shuttle separated for Atlantis' trek home, they were visible streaking across the sky multiple nights in a row. In the image, the Sun is very bright, and a small crescent of Earth is visible that is still in the sun's light. This crescent is a result of the ISS' orbit around the Earth. A long solar panel extends from the ISS and collects the light from the sun in order to keep the space station functioning. This image captures the beauty of the Earth that many people forget about when they go through their life.

Observations

Date: 12/1/09

Time: 8:35-8:50

Conditions: Clear everywhere except in the East, which had cloud cover low, near the horizon. Not many objects visible because it was slightly hazy.

Observations:

Moon: Full, about 30 degrees high in the East. Could see a small halo when clouds passed in front of the moon.

Jupiter: very bright with a haze in front of it. About 17 degrees high.

Capella: About 12.5 degrees of angular separation from the moon, located in the Northeast.

Fomalhaut: in the constellation Pisces Austrinus in the SSW, dim compared to normal.

Andromeda high overhead

Cassiopeia: high over head, slightly oriented to the North. Could not see all the stars of the WorM asterism.