Mars

[Pilawt]

Have you amateur astronomers been checking out Mars lately? That dusty little sucker is bright now, and will be its brightest in 15 years when we hit opposition on July 26. Take a look.

Like the sign says at the entrance to the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff:

 

[tommyanjelo]

We must already send a person to Mars. When will this happen? Somebody knows?

 

[eman1200]

We already sent a person to Mars in a Pietenpole.

 

[azure]

Have you amateur astronomers been checking out Mars lately? That dusty little sucker is bright now, and will be its brightest in 15 years when we hit opposition on July 26. Take a look.

I'm planning to. We have a nice new 8" Celestron that's only been used once this summer. The only problem, of course, is the global dust storm going on right now, so we won't see much in the way of surface features.

At the same time I want to take a look at Saturn, whose rings are inclined 26* right now and should be a pretty spectacular sight.

 

[Pilawt]

The four Galilean moons of Jupiter are visible with a decent pair of binoculars. This webpage shows the positions of the four moons at any given time, which changes markedly day to day.

 

[Pilawt]

At the same time I want to take a look at Saturn, whose rings are inclined 26* right now and should be a pretty spectacular sight.

One of my favorite NASA images, looking back at us from the rings of Saturn:

 

[overdrive148]

That's a pale blue dot if I've ever seen one

 

[CC268]

Working on a program right now that will be sending a spacecraft to Europa

 

[Matthew]

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap180709.html

http://earthsky.org/todays-image/photos-videos-mars-brightest-closest-2018

 

[RyanB]

We must already send a person to Mars. When will this happen? Somebody knows?

We could probably arrange to have you sent there if you’d like?

 

[Larry in TN]

Like the sign says at the entrance to the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff:

"Cut my pizza into four slices. I'm not hungry enough to eat six."

 

[bflynn]

We must already send a person to Mars. When will this happen? Somebody knows?

It was only on a movie set.

 

[Pilawt]

Last night was a solar system smorgasbord -- even my basic photo equipment could image four planets (not counting the one I was standing on) and five moons.



Venus (upper center):



Mars, upper left:



Jupiter, at upper right:



And Jupiter with four of its moons:



Saturn:



Mercury might have been barely visible as well, but for the glare just after sunset.

 

[Matthew]

It's pretty cool to watch Jupiter's Galilean moons through binoculars. Since they move in relatively small orbits, it doesn't take long for them to change position. Every night is different.

You have a pretty nice vantage point for those shots, too.

 

[Pilawt]

It's pretty cool to watch Jupiter's Galilean moons through binoculars. Since they move in relatively small orbits, it doesn't take long for them to change position. Every night is different.

This is how they were arranged at the time of the photo. The blur on the left side of Jupiter in my photo is apparently two of the moons.



https://www.skyandtelescope.com/wp-content/plugins/observing-tools/jupiter_moons/jupiter.html

 

[FlySince9]

Working on a program right now that will be sending a spacecraft to Europa

Depends on how Brexit turns out... whoops, might have mis-read that...

 

[Pilawt]

We just have to be sure the earth does not obstruct the view of Venus from Mars ...

 

[kath]

Working on a program right now that will be sending a spacecraft to Europa

COOOL! To orbit, or to land? When launching? Details!!

"All these worlds are yours, except Europa. Attempt no landing there." I'm sure no one quotes that all the time on your project.

 

[CC268]

COOOL! To orbit, or to land? When launching? Details!!

"All these worlds are yours, except Europa. Attempt no landing there." I'm sure no one quotes that all the time on your project.

For orbiting. They have these crazy sterilization requirements because they don't want to contaminate Europa if/when the satellite crashes into the moon. Our group is doing some material testing to understand the affects of the "sterilization bakeout" that our product has to go through in order to meet these requirements.

There were other options such as hydrogen peroxide vapor and radiation exposure, but a byproduct of HPV is water of course, and the radiation exposure would wreak havoc on EEE parts.

Here is info on the program:
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/europa-clipper/

 

[BigBadLou]

Working on a program right now that will be sending a spacecraft to Europa

I've taken that flight numerous times and via numerous routes. Pretty long and boring, as you can imagine.

 

[Pilawt]

I've taken that flight numerous times and via numerous routes. Pretty long and boring, as you can imagine.

Especially in economy class ...

 

[Pilawt]

Perseid meteor shower is due in a couple of days. Excellent animation showing what causes it: https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap180808.html

 

[murphey]

We just have to be sure the earth does not obstruct the view of Venus from Mars ...

One of the Mars rovers has Marvin painted on it.

I was a volunteer at Denver science museum in 2003 ( the last Mars event!) and we took over the theatre, and the Mars exhibit to watch the landing at 3 am or so. The museum TPTB saw the reaction and allowed the public in for the second landing. Don't remember if they added the IMAX for that one. Definite advantage that the Space Science Head Honcho at the museum was a college friend of the Principal Scientist for the rovers.

 

[azure]

Perseid meteor shower is due in a couple of days. Excellent animation showing what causes it: https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap180808.html

Not a bad animation and it shows the basic idea, but it is hard to see the inner planets because of all the comet dust, and especially hard to tell which is which. Earth must be the blue one very close in to the Sun that is hidden for most of the year by the dust. Hmm. That can't be right.