Astrosphere for September 20th, 2007

Today’s image was taken by Jamesabrown. It’s a solar pillar, when the Sun’s rays bounce of water vapour in the atmosphere. They’re rare and cool to see.

Mercury is a hard planet to spot. It’s only visible around sunset or sunrise, and either sets quickly or fades into the brightening Sun. There’s going to be a cool pairing on Saturday, September 22nd, when Mercury gets really close to the star Spica. Astroblog has the details.

Centauri Dreams reports that Tau Ceti might not be a terrible place for life after all.

Remember the cool New Mexico spaceport I blogged about last week? Well, the government wants more money to help get it built. From the Personal Spaceflight blog.

Learn how to beam energy to move spaceships at the Fifth International Symposium on Beamed Energy Propulsion. It’s going to be at the Outrigger Keauhou Beach Resort, Hawaii, November 12 – 15, 2007. Nod to Hobbyspace for the link.