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| What's Up This Week - September 26 - October 2, 2005 |
Sep 26, 2005 - Greetings, fellow SkyWatchers! Ah, yes. Dark skies are ours again and we'll begin the week with the magnificent M2. There will be plenty of galactic action as we study NGC 7331, hunt down Stephan's Quintet, and relax in the stellar swarm of M34. For early risers, the sky offers some splendid scenery as two planets join two visible open clusters. But dark skies always mean just a little more, don't they? Then think Caldwell 44 and 43 as you open your eyes to the skies, because...
Because here's what's up! (Full Story) |
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| Report from Toronto's Lunar Conference |
| Sep 26, 2005 - That which was old is new again. The Moon, once thought a 'fait accompli', is now firmly back in the centre of many people's targets. We have to thank George W. Bush in giving his recent directive to NASA. This, together with NASA's announcement on how they plan to return to the moon, seems to indicate a golden lunar age has returned. You'd think smiles would be positively radiant at the recent seventh meeting of the International Lunar Exploration and Utilization Working Group, held from September 18-23 in Toronto, Ontario. Yes, many smiles enlivened the group. However, these smiles weren't like that of the child holding a cookie but like those of wise parents checking the list of ingredients. For this cookie has come before but disappeared all too quickly. (Full Story) |
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| Computer animation of Don Quijote and its asteroid target. Image credit: ESA. Click to enlarge. |
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| ESA Picks an Asteroid to Move |
| Sep 26, 2005 - Instead of waiting for asteroids to slam into the Earth, the European Space Agency is working on a mission that will reach out and try to shift a space rock's orbit. The mission is called Don Quijote, and it will consist of two spacecraft: an orbiter and an impactor; similar to NASA's Deep Impact. The Sancho orbiter will rendezvous with a target asteroid and carefully calculate its orbit before and after the Hidalgo impactor slams into it. The ESA has chosen two candidate asteroids as potential targets, and will make a final decision in 2007. (Full Story) |
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| Boeing Delta II rocket launching new GPS satellite. Image credit: Boeing. Click to enlarge. |
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| Delta Launches New GPS Satellite |
| Sep 26, 2005 - A Boeing Delta II rocket successfully launched the first of a new class of modernized Block IIR global positioning system satellites early Monday morning. The rocked lifted off from Space Launch Complex 17A at 0337 GMT (11:37 pm EDT Sunday) from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. This new class of GPS satellites will broadcast additional signals to improve civilian and military accuracy, and prevent any jamming attempts. (Full Story) |
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