Tag Archives: InSight

In the Sky This Week – November 20, 2018

The Catholic Astronomer avatarPosted on by
This entry is part 70 of 72 in the series In the Sky This Week

Venus and Spica continue their weeks-long conjunction in the eastern predawn sky. Orion and Canus Major are in the southwestern predawn sky all week. A few months ago, I remember writing about Orion just becoming visible in the eastern predawn sky; watching constellations creep across the southern sky over the course of a season is pretty interesting. I’m certainly learning a lot about the sky from writing these posts… Saturn becomes the “evening star” in the southwestern sky at dusk; if you’re lucky, and have a clear horizon, you might catch a glimpse of Mercury very low in the sky around 5:30 PM ET on Nov. 20th. Mars and Neptune will be high in southern sky after sunset all week. Here’s a close-up of where Neptune is near the red giant star Lambda Aquarii (λ-Aqr , 73 Aqr): Uranus is above the Moon! Yea, I said it! Actually, when generating images for this post, this image made me laugh pretty hard… Uranus … Continue reading →

In the Sky This Week – May 15, 2018

The Catholic Astronomer avatarPosted on by
This entry is part 43 of 72 in the series In the Sky This Week

Mars and Saturn agree that they rather like the early morning sky, and have decided to stay there forever… or so it seems… Jupiter just past opposition, is slowly leaving the morning planets and making its way towards being visible only in the evenings. I was playing with the equatorial grid feature of Stellarium and noticed how close Polaris was to the North Celestial Pole. So, of course, I HAD to see how the South Celestial Pole looked… and I noticed the the southern hemisphere doesn’t have a convenient star near the pole – which led me to find this article on the One-Minute Astronomer about how to find the South Celestial Pole. The Moon The Moon is new on the 15th, and joins Venus in the western sky near sunset as a thin waxing crescent on the 17th. The Moon will be high in the western sky after sunset on the 20th &21st. The Sun Although there is some impressive coronal loop … Continue reading →

Send Your Name to Mars on InSight

The Catholic Astronomer avatarPosted on by

Mars enthusiasts around the world can participate in NASA’s journey to Mars by adding their names to a silicon microchip headed to the Red Planet aboard NASA’s InSight Mars lander, scheduled to launch next year. “Our next step in the journey to Mars is another fantastic mission to the surface,” said Jim Green, director of planetary science at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “By participating in this opportunity to send your name aboard InSight to the Red Planet, you’re showing that you’re part of that journey and the future of space exploration.” Submissions will be accepted until Sept. 8. To send your name to Mars aboard InSight, go to: http://go.usa.gov/3Aj3G The fly-your-name opportunity comes with “frequent-flier” points to reflect an individual’s personal participation in NASA’s journey to Mars, which will span multiple missions and multiple decades. The InSight mission offers the second such opportunity for space exploration fans to collect points by flying their names aboard a NASA mission, with more … Continue reading →