SLOOH SPACE CAMERA TO TRACK ASTEROID 2012 DA14
SKIMMING BY EARTH AT ONLY 17,000 MILES (27,330 KM) AWAY
Events
Solar System Explained From the Inside Out Infographic | Solar System, Planets & Moons | Solar System Explained | Space.com
Great representations of the size of the solar system, from Earth to the location of Voyager. Solar System Explained From the Inside Out Infographic | Solar System, Planets & Moons | Solar System Explained | Space.com.
Science Hobbyists Needed for a National Study
. The Richmond Astronomical Society was asked to pass along this survey request to astronomy hobbyists. Please consider helping the researchers by completing the online survey as described below. The link to the survey is here. . Web Announcement Science Hobbyists Needed for a National Study . Are you a science hobbyist? . We need … Read more
Three planets visible
If you’re an early riser, you can see 3 planets in the morning sky-look east, Venus is the brightest, Saturn above right and Mercury below left This Weeks Sky at a Glance – SkyandTelescope.com.
RAS has style
Jason Roop’s (Editor of Style Magazine) newsletter highlighted us this week. It included this verbiage, which contains a link to the Style Magazine page describing our sky watch. [embedit snippet=”quote”] WEEKEND ASSIGNMENTS: 1. Gaze at the stars through these powerful lenses with the Richmond Astronomical Society. Thanks, Jason. And here’s a clip of the page. [embedit snippet=”clear”]
Perseids meteors this weekend
The peak of this show is either tonight (Saturday, Aug. 11), or tomorrow night, depending on which web site you look at. But I’d go with Sunday, because we’re going to be clouded out tonight in Richmond. This is one of the best meteor showers of the year, and I was planning on trying tonight too, because even though the peak will last only a few hours, there will be a heavier frequency of meteors for a week on either side of the peak. The closer to the peak, the better, of course.
Mars Landing
Curiosity is scheduled to land in the Red Planet’s Gale Crater late Sunday or very, very early Monday, depending on your Earthbound time zone. Confirmation of the landing should come at about 10:31 p.m. PT Sunday for folks on the U.S. West Coast, or 1:31 a.m. ET Monday for those on the East Coast. The … Read more
Giant rover to make ‘terrifying’ landing on Mars
No spacecraft has ever landed like this before and NASA admits it’ll be a wild ride. NASA’s Mars Curiosity Rover, a 2,000 pound (900 kilogram) SUV-sized robotic science laboratory, is scheduled to touch down on August 6 at 1:31 a.m. EDT. Mission managers say Curiosity’s trip to Mars has been “outstanding,” but the landing will be the hardest ever attempted. … Read more
Belmead on James Skywatch, August 25, 7:30 PM:
Skywatch at Belmead on the James / Thomas Berry Educational Center. RAS will deploy astronomers and telescopes for the event and there will be an indoor introductory session prior to the observing session. This is an easily accessible dark sky location with plenty of parking adjacent to the observing site. Please contact Jim Browder at … Read more
Sunspots pay off for science fair winner
As most of you are aware, RAS shows their support for future scientists by awarding money at the Metro Richmond Science Fair. We call it the Wilber T. Stone Award and look for exhibits that demonstrate astronomy or space science. The Fair encompasses all of the Richmond and surrounding county schools, so it’s quite large–usually on the order of 2-300 entries.
We’ve been doing this for about 15 years now, and we almost always have at least one recipient. And we had a good one this year–Sydney Mabry, of Moody Middle School, composed her project on sunspots by observing them with a telescope that she constructed herself. She was able to determine that the size of a sunspot is directly related to how long the sunspot exists.