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Tag Archives: Mars

Opportunity Mars Rover Mission Ends

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The historic Opportunity Mars rover mission has come to an end. Opportunity last communicated with Earth on June 10, 2018 after a planet-wide dust storm covered the rover’s solar panels, denying power to the rover. After 800+ attempts to contact @MarsRovers Opportunity, today we’re announcing the end of a successful Martian mission. Intended to explore the Red Planet for 90 days, Oppy outlived its mission lifetime by 14+ years. Join us live now: https://t.co/zJwTTpQNwp #ThanksOppy pic.twitter.com/U4J26TfzDv — Jim Bridenstine (@JimBridenstine) February 13, 2019 Opportunity had a twin: the Spirit rover; their mission was to search of answers about the history of water on Mars – and boy did they find some interesting things! This video is a fantastic (and short) retrospective of the Spirit and Opportunity rover missions: Spirit and Opportunity landed on Mars in 2004 – in quite spectacular fashion! Spirit and Opportunity were designed for a 90-day mission; Opportunity lasted for over 14 years! I don’t want to … Continue reading →

In the Sky This Week – February 12, 2019

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This entry is part 82 of 82 in the series In the Sky This Week

My wife likes to alter her science student’s misconceptions about what a “scientist” is, and teaches them that anyone can be a scientist! This is especially true for her female students – many of whom never thought about a career in science. Feb. 11th was International Day of Women and Girls in Science, and it was trending hard on Twitter; it was great to see all the different organizations honoring their female scientists! Saturn and Venus are low, Jupiter and the star Antares are high(ish) in the southeastern predawn sky; Venus continues to move down towards Saturn on the horizon. There’s quite a show high in the south-southwestern sky on Feb. 12th! You may note Mars and Uranus nearly on top of each other in the image below: Mars will be less then a degree from Uranus on Feb. 12th,! I expect to post images about this next week. On the evening of Feb. 13th, the Moon will be about 2 … Continue reading →

Crater Virus infects Science Week Drawings

Recently here in Ireland we had the phenomena that is Science Week. A nationwide effort by hundreds of people to open the many facets of science to children and adults all over the country.  My offerings were workshops about the Apollo 11 moon landing called Let’s Go To The Moon – Apollo 11, Deadly Moons and Marvellous Mars. All of which I have written about in the past hit the links to check them out. This year a unique crater virus came to visit and spread itself around many drawings. Guidance Increasingly I have being introducing drawing techniques in my workshops.  Sometimes the effect has a slow uptake and other times it has an immediate viral effect. One such action is a tip on crater drawing , kids just love it. Here below we see some drawings that benefited from simple guidence. Examples of the crater virus that invaded hundreds of drawings and created smiles all over the room.   … Continue reading →


In the Sky This Week – December 18, 2018

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This entry is part 74 of 82 in the series In the Sky This Week

Venus shines so brightly in the southeastern predawn sky, you can practically read by it! Jupiter makes its reappearance this week, joining Mercury, Venus and the star Spica. Mars is high in southern sky after sunset all week; the waxing gibbous Moon appears to the east of Mars on Dec. 18th. The star Altair is now the “evening star” to the west at dusk; Saturn has almost vanished into the glare of the Sun. The Moon appears very near the star Aldebaran high in the western sky around 3:30 AM on Dec. 21st. On Christmas Eve, the waning gibbous Moon will appear in the eastern sky after sunset. Observing Target: M1 – The Crab Nebula M1, the Crab Nebula, is a supernova remnant located in the constellation of Taurus. The supernova was so bright in 1054 that it could be seen during the day for nearly a month; the supernova was documented by astronomers in several countries. X-Ray: Chandra Ultraviolet: ASTRO-1 Visible: DSS … Continue reading →

In the Sky This Week – December 11, 2018

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This entry is part 73 of 82 in the series In the Sky This Week

Mercury joins Venus and Spica in the southeastern predawn sky this week. Mars remains high in southern sky after sunset all week; the Moon will appear near Mars on Dec. 14th. See if you can spot all these objects in the south-southwestern sky at dusk on Dec. 11th. Observing Target: Fomalhaut The star Fomalhaut (see above image) is one of the brightest stars in the sky; it is a main sequence class A star approximately 25 light-years from the Sun. In a small telescope, it looks pretty much like any another bright star – but this star has a story! A ring of dust was discovered around this star, being shepherded by a large exoplanet with a 2000-year orbit! This exoplanet has be directly imaged using the Hubble Space Telescope. This humorous video about exoplanet Fomalhaut B was released before Halloween 2012: The Moon The Moon is a waxing crescent, visible toward the southwest in early evening. The Moon will be … Continue reading →

In the Sky This Week – December 4, 2018

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This entry is part 72 of 82 in the series In the Sky This Week

A very thin waning crescent Moon joins the weeks-long conjunction of Venus and Spica in the southeastern predawn sky on Dec. 4th. Mars remains high in southern sky after sunset all week; Mars is slowly fading in brightness as the Earth pulls away from it in its orbit (see solar system image below). The very thin waxing crescent Moon will appear near Saturn in the southwestern sky at dusk on Dec. 8th. The constellation Orion is high in the southeastern sky at midnight. Observing Target: M33 – The Triangulum Galaxy Messier 33 (or NGC 598) is a spiral galaxy located approximately 3 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Triangulum. The Triangulum Galaxy is the third-largest member of the Local Group of galaxies, which includes the Andromeda Galaxy and our Milky Way. M33 is one of the most distant objects that can be viewed with the naked eye. NGC 604 is a large star-birth region within The Triangulum Galaxy. NGC 604 is similar to the Orion Nebula in our Milky Way galaxy, but nearly 100 times larger! More … Continue reading →

In the Sky This Week – November 27, 2018

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This entry is part 71 of 82 in the series In the Sky This Week

Venus and Spica continue their predawn conjunction in the southeastern sky. Mars is high in southern sky after sunset all week. The International Space Station will pass very near Saturn low in the southwestern sky at 5:42 PM ET on Nov. 27th. To be honest, when I saw this in Stellarium I thought something was a bit weird – I knew there wasn’t going to be a bright star near Saturn … then I clicked on it to find it was the ISS. This ISS flyover will only be visible in southeastern Michigan (sorry). To check of you can see the ISS this week, go to heavens-above.com – you can get charts like this: The nearly third-quarter Moon will appear very near the star Regulus in the southeastern predawn sky on Nov. 29th. The Moon The Moon is a waning gibbous, rising after sunset, high in the sky after midnight, and visible to the southwest after sunrise. On Nov. 30th the Moon will be at third-quarter, rising … Continue reading →

In the Sky This Week – November 20, 2018

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This entry is part 70 of 82 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 – November 13, 2018

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This entry is part 69 of 82 in the series In the Sky This Week

There will be twin “morning stars” in the eastern predawn sky for the next several days; Venus will appear very near the star Spica for the next week. A waxing crescent Moon joins Saturn in the southwestern sky on Nov. 13th. In the south, Mars joins that same waxing crescent Moon on Nov. 13th. The Moon appears very close to Mars high in the southern sky on Nov. 15th after sunset. Apparently this is the week for conjunctions… Observing Target: NGC 7000 – The North America Nebula The North America Nebula is an emission nebula in the constellation Cygnus; the shape of the nebula resembles that of the continent of North America. The nebula covers an area more than four times the size of the Moon, but has low surface brightness, and cannot typically be seen with the unaided eye. Comets Comet Machholz-Fujikawa-Iwamoto (C/2018 V1) was discovered last week by three amateur astronomers! This week, look for the comet near the … Continue reading →

In the Sky This Week – November 6, 2018

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This entry is part 68 of 82 in the series In the Sky This Week

Venus makes a return as the “morning star;” before sunrise on Nov. 6th, Venus is joined by the star Spica, and an extremely thin waning crescent Moon. Over the week, Venus will creep slowly higher and closer to Spica; the two will appear very close to each other on the morning of Nov. 12th. A waxing crescent Moon will appear in the southwestern sky by Saturn after sunset on Nov. 10th. Mars, high in the southern sky after sunset, continues to be an excellent observing target this week. Observing Target: Conjunction of the Moon and Saturn The Moon will appear very near the planet Saturn after sunset on Nov. 11th. Comets Comet 46P/Wirtanen continues to offer a great target for astrophotographers: You can find Comet 46P/Wirtanen in the southern sky after midnight this week. Northern Taurids Meteor Shower Peak night: Nov 10-11, 2018. Active from Oct. 19 – Dec.10. Radiant: 03:52 +22.7° – ZHR: 5 – Velocity: 18 miles/sec (medium – 30km/sec) – Parent Object: 2P/Encke Interactive graphic showing the … Continue reading →

In the Sky This Week – October 30, 2018

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This entry is part 67 of 82 in the series In the Sky This Week

The Moon will appear low in the eastern sky between the constellations Gemini and Orion during the early morning hours on Oct. 30th. That same Moon will appear high in the sky as dawn’s light begins to show. There will be a conjunction of the crescent Moon and the star Regulus low in the eastern sky, early in the morning hours on Nov. 2nd. A very thin crescent Moon will appear with the star Arcturus in the eastern predawn sky on Nov. 5th. Mars and Saturn continue to put on a show in the southern sky after sunset. Observing Target: The Dance of the Planets Over the next week, the positions of Jupiter and Mercury change drastically in southwestern sky at dusk! Mercury stays low but gets brighter – Jupiter makes a quick dive towards the horizon, and will soon to be hidden by the glare of the Sun. Comets Comet 46P/Wirtanen in the news: You can find Comet 46P/Wirtanen in … Continue reading →

NASA Night Sky Notes for November 2018

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November’s Dance of the Planets By Jane Houston Jones and David Prosper November’s crisp autumn skies bring great views of our planetary neighbors. The Moon pairs up with Saturn and Mars in the evenings, and mornings feature eye-catching arrangements with dazzling Venus. Stargazers wanting a challenge can observe a notable opposition by asteroid 3 Juno on the 17th and watch for a few bright Leonid meteors. Red Mars gleams high in the southern sky after sunset. Saturn sits westward in the constellation Sagittarius. A young crescent Moon passes near Saturn on the 10th and 11th. On the 15th a first quarter Moon skims by Mars, coming within 1 degree of the planet. The red planet receives a new visitor on November 26th, when NASA’s InSight mission lands and begins its investigation of the planet’s interior. News briefings and commentary will be streamed live at: bit.ly/landsafe Two bright planets hang low over the western horizon after sunset as November begins: Jupiter … Continue reading →

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