Stay ‘Up All Night’ to Watch the Lunar Eclipse!

Spring is here and ready to capture the world’s attention with a total lunar eclipse. The eclipse will begin early on the morning of April 15 at approximately 2 a.m. EDT. If you have questions about the eclipse, this will be your chance!

NASA will host two events for NASA moon experts to answer your questions. On Monday, April 14 from 2-3 p.m. EDT, NASA planetary scientist Renee Weber will take your questions via a Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything). The Reddit page will be live on April 14 at approximately 1:45 p.m. EDT. 

NASA astronomer Mitzi Adams and astrophysicist Alphonse Sterling will also answer questions in a live web chat, beginning on April 15 at 1 a.m. EDT and continuing through the end of the eclipse (approximately 5 a.m. EDT).  The chat module will go live on this page at approximately 12:45 a.m. EDT.

nasa_lunar1

Mars Viewing: Planet Makes Close Approach to Earth in April

Dust off your telescope and prepare for a spectacular viewing opportunity of Mars in the night sky. The Earth will fly between the sun and Mars on April 8, 2014, and, for the several weeks around that time, Mars will be rising in the east when the sun is setting in the west. Mars will be at its brightest and best fiery red color.

Now is a good time to start watching for Mars in the night sky. Mars will look like a bright red star, although it shines with a steadier light than the twinkling stars. Mars rises in the east at mid-to-late evening. By the time April rolls around, Mars will be shining from dusk till dawn.

Make note on April 13 and April 14 on your calendar. A bright waxing gibbous moon will pair up with the red planet on the night of April 13-14; the totally eclipsed full moon will couple up with Mars on the night of April 14-15.

blog1

Mars with its mysterious dark markings and a white polar cap will be easily visible in April’s night sky. Image Credit: NASA

 

Bright, Basketball Sized Meteor in Ontario

Researchers from Western University have released footage of a basketball-sized meteor that was almost as bright as the full moon.

The meteor lit up the skies of southwestern Ontario last week. Astronomers are hoping to enlist the help of local residents in recovering one or more possible meteorites that may have crashed in the area just north of St. Thomas, Ontario.

Meteorites may best be recognized by their dark and scalloped exterior, and are usually denser than normal rock and will often attract a fridge magnet due to their metal content. In this fall, meteorites may be found in a small hole produced by their dropping into soil. Meteorites are not dangerous, but any recovered meteorites should be placed in a clean plastic bag or container and be handled as little as possible to preserve their scientific information.

More details can be found at  http://meteor.uwo.ca/research/fireball/events/st_thomas/overview.html

b36g

 Credit: The University of Western Ontario

NASA Cameras Capture Another Fireball

A bright fireball was detected at extreme range (hundreds of kilometers) by two NASA meteor cameras located at the Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute (PARI) in North Carolina, and at Hiram College in Ohio. At such distances (286 miles in the case of the PARI camera), trajectory determination is quite difficult.

The fireball was first detected on February 27 at 7:07:58 PM EST at an altitude of 50 miles above the town of Montibello, Virginia, moving SW towards Roanoke with a speed of around 33,500 mph. Our cameras lost track around an altitude of 43 miles as the fireball disappeared below the horizon, though it undoubtedly penetrated lower. Magnitude was approximately -8.5, which is brighter than the crescent Moon. Taking into account the speed, we are dealing with an object roughly 1 foot in diameter and weighing approximately 50 lbs.

Marshall Meteor Experts to Answer Reddit Questions Online

Update: Reddit AMA with Bill Cooke has been rescheduled to March 6 at 1 p.m. CST. 

NASA meteor and fireball experts Dr. Bill Cooke, Danielle Moser and Rhiannon Blaauw are participating in Reddit Ask Me Anything event on Thursday, Feb. 13, 2014 at 1 p.m. CST on the Reddit “IAmA” forum.

Reddit is a popular online community where users vote on content they find interesting. The “Ask Me Anything” sub-forum features interviews with volunteers who answer questions about their specific expertise.

Anyone may ask questions beginning at 1p.m. CST at: http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/

Cooke, Moser and Blaauw will make exciting subjects for an “Ask Me Anything” due to their extensive and diverse skywatching expertise.

For the live link to the Reddit Ask Me Anything come back here just a few minutes before 1 pm CST on Feb. 13.

_ELG6007

Bright Fireball Event over Tennessee

A bright fireball event occurred on Dec. 17 at 8:20:40 PM CST. It started out 52 miles above I-24 just south of Manchester, TN and moved to the northwest at 50,000 mph. The all sky camera lost track of it at an altitude of 23 miles just to the northwest of Shelbyville. Below is a map of the ground track.

map

The closest camera (Tullahoma, TN) shows that the fireball was about as bright as the full moon, which means we are dealing with an object about 20 inches across and weighing approximately 400 lbs.

Orbit indicates this object is a piece of an asteroid, with an aphelion in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, and perihelion (closest point to the sun) inside the orbit of Venus.

The ISS Transits the Moon over Decatur, Alabama

Watch closely and you will see the International Space Station, or ISS, cross the disk of the gibbous moon. Traveling at more than 17,000 mph, the ISS occasionally appears to pass in front of the moon or sun. These events go largely unnoticed, however, because viewers have to be along a very narrow path on Earth, one just a few miles wide, and the entire transit takes less than one second.

_DSC1489

The short video is captured in real time, and provides a good idea of the brevity of the event. It was taken using a small refracting telescope and a Watec video camera.

The larger video is an animation of five frames taken with an 8-inch Schmidt Cassegrain telescope equipped with a DSLR camera.

Passing cirrus clouds resulted in slightly fuzzy images, but one can still make out the station’s solar arrays as they pass across the illuminated portion of the Moon.

Video credits: NASA/MSFC/ESSSA/Aaron Kingery and NASA/MSFC/MEO/Cameron McCarty

Sunday Night Fireball

On Sunday evening, a bright fireball was reported by visual observers in Tennessee. Occurring about 7:22 PM Central, the meteor was detected by 4 of our All Sky cameras – those in Huntsville; Chickamauga, GA; Cartersville, GA; and Dahlonega, GA. The fireball was picked up at an altitude of 55 miles moving east of south at 52,000 miles per hour; it burned up at an altitude of 27 miles just south of Anniston, AL. This was not a Taurid, as the orbit indicates it is a fragment from a Jupiter family comet, which have an aphelion (furthest distance from the Sun) out near Jupiter. This particular piece of interplanetary debris was between 2-3 inches in diameter and weighed about 5 ounces.

1 2 3 4 5

Southern California Lit Up By Fireball

The fireball over southern California last night at 7:49 PM PST was a North Taurid.  Brighter than the Full Moon, it was caused by a piece of Comet Encke about 2 feet in diameter hitting the atmosphere at 56,000 mph. Information about the fireball was provided by NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office (MEO) and is the NASA organization responsible for meteoroid environments pertaining to spacecraft engineering and operations. The MEO leads NASA technical work on the meteoroid environment and coordinates the existing meteoroid expertise at NASA centers.

comet2comet1

Halloween Fun with Meteor Cameras

We never know what we are going to see when we check the NASA Marshall meteor cameras each morning. Over time, we’ve acquired quite a collection of startling and fascinating images captured by various cameras. In the spirit of Halloween fun, we’ve put together a collection that reminds us of All Hallow’s Eve. We’ve found everything from creepy-crawlies to a cauldron bubble to… who goes there! Enjoy our spooktacular seasonal fun!

creepy1Creepy Crawly (Bug on camera dome)

creepy4Spirit Orb (Moon halo caused by moonlight refracting through ice crystals in the air)

creepy2Who Goes There! (Owl perching on camera lens)

creepy6Cauldron Bubble (Cloudy moonlit night)

creepy5The Grim (A break in the clouds)

creepy3Night Time Bandit (A curious raccoon)