Everyone has their own personal reason for taking up astronomy. Some want to make it a career. Others need to satisfy their curiosity. Then there are those who simply get captured by the seductive beauty of the stars. Jan DeBlieu is one of the later. In her book, Year of the Comets she shares her experiences after being entranced by the night skies and at the same time being challenged by her everyday life on Earth.

Anton Nel took this star trail image of the South Celestial Pole in mid-August from Witsand ("White Sands") Nature Reserve in the Northern Cape Province of South Africa. Anton used a Canon 300X and did a 60 minute exposure.

Do you have photos you'd like to share? Post them to the Universe Today astrophotography forum or email them to me directly, and I might feature one in Universe Today.

My guest today is an amateur astrophotographer named Tom Davis. Those of you who subscribe to the Universe Today newsletter should be familiar with his photographs, as I've featured several of them in the last few months. Tom is an amazingly skilled astrophotographer, and he's got some decent equipment. And I'm happy to inform you that the price for this kind of technology is more affordable than it's every been, so if you've ever wanted to get into this hobby, maybe you'll get inspired. Before you start listening, please take a moment to look at his website at: http://www.tvdavisastropics.com.

Andrzej Baran took this beautiful picture of the Northern Lights above the Skibotn Observatory, close to Tromso, Norway - the most northern astronomical observatory in the world. Andrzej used a Canon EOS 300 analog camera with ISO 200 Fuji color slides.

Do you have photos you'd like to share? Post them to the Universe Today astrophotography forum or email them to me directly, and I might feature one in Universe Today.

NASA scientists have found evidence that Mars once had plate tectonics reshaping its surface. Data from Mars Global Surveyor has been stitched together to create a planetary map of magnetism. This map shows striping, where two plates were once pushed apart by new molten lava coming up from under the surface. This new lava become magnetized in the direction of Mars magnetic field at the time. Since this magnetic field flipped several times through the planet's history, the stripes provide a record of when Mars' plates were active.

NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has spotted what could be the early stages of planets forming around a failed star. The infrared telescope detected clumps of microscopic dust grains and tiny crystals orbiting five brown dwarfs. Similar material has been seen around other newly forming stars and in our own Solar System. Despite being colder and smaller than stars like our Sun, it appears that brown dwarfs still undergo many of the same stages, including the construction of planets.

For the most part, Titan is an alien world with methane rain, lakes of hydrocarbons, and very little that reminds us of Earth. But Saturn's moon has strangely familiar clouds that hover above its middle latitudes. Scientists from the University of Arizona studied Cassini images of some clouds, and watched how they evolved over the course of 3 hours. The clouds rise quickly like thunderstorms here on Earth and then seem to dissipate, as if they're turning into rain.

A Titan 4B rocket carrying a classified cargo for the National Reconnaissance Office blasted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base today. It's believed that the rocket was carrying a next generation reconnaissance satellite. This was the last launch of the Titan 4 class of vehicles. Future launches will use Atlas 5 and Boeing Delta 4 EELVs.

NASA has turned the Hubble Space Telescope at our closest neighbour to help scout out potential landing sites. In addition to being incredibly powerful, Hubble is sensitive to ultraviolet light, which is reflected off of surface materials on the lunar surface. This will allow scientists to identify areas abundant in titanium and iron oxides, which would provide oxygen and metals for future lunar bases. Hubble's resolution is still only 50-100 metres, so it can't reveal Apollo spacecraft still on the Moon.

Get your telescope ready, as the planet Mars is about to put on another fine show. The Red Planet has been getting closer, and will make its closest approach on October 29/30, 2005. Although it won't as close as two years ago, it takes a fairly powerful telescope to be able to tell the difference. Look to the eastern horizon after 8:0pm to see Mars, which will be climbing night after night during October. There's really nothing else that bright that you'd be able to confuse it with.

Just a few days ago, Wilma was a tropical storm, but now it has exploded into a Category 5 hurricane - with the lowest pressure ever recorded in an Atlantic storm. Wilma's pressure was measured early Wednesday at just 882 millibars, breaking the previous record of 888 set in 1988 by Hurricane Gilbert. Wilma is currently off the coast Mexico's Yucatan peninsula , but it's expected to take a sharp right turn and move up through the Florida panhandle on Saturday.

This just blew my mind. Tom Gwilym from Renton, WA took this series of pictures of the space shuttle Atlantis (STS-112) docked to the International Space Station. The blurry pictures are the actual photos of the linkup, and the clear pictures are computer recreations to show their positions.

Do you have photos you'd like to share? Post them to the Universe Today astrophotography forum or email them to me directly, and I might feature one in Universe Today.

Maybe it is just a statement of our times that one person's life can span the complete maturation of a technology. As John Glenn said, 'it was hard to imagine that virtually the entire history of space travel had occurred between my first flight and my second'. With so many stunning achievements and horrific failures, the history of humanity's space program, though short, was eventful. The collection of narrations prepared by Richard Russell Lawrence and presented in the book entitled Space Exploration and Disasters gives an emotional, often first hand account of many dramatic moments of our space program.

Researchers at the University of Arizona think that future robotic explorers should have the ability to survey their targets at many different levels: from orbit, in the air, and on the ground. These next generation missions would be able to arrive in orbit and then deploy a blimp or balloon that could create a more detailed map of a planet or moon's surface. The balloon could help coordinate ground rovers to analyze the most interesting targets. The rovers and balloons would relay their data up to the orbiter which could then give new targets to explore.

On October 11, 2005, Cassini flew within 500 km (310 miles) of the surface of Dione; one of Saturn's moons. Like many of Saturn's moons, Dione shows a heavily cratered surface, and unusual streaks in the terrain that dominates one whole hemisphere of the moon. Cassini found evidence that Dione's surface is covered by fractures, which run in roughly parallel lines; these are interrupted by larger bright features. Scientists are working with the data to compositional maps of Dione's surface.

Gary Hatfield took this beautiful image of NGC7000/Gamma Cygni using a Nikon FE2 camera. Gary used a 105mm f2.5 lens @ f4, Kodak Elite Chrome 200, and a Hutech IDAS LPS filter. He manually guided the exposure for 90 minutes.

Do you have photos you'd like to share? Post them to the Universe Today astrophotography forum or email them to me directly, and I might feature one in Universe Today.

I'd just like to take a moment and congratulate Tammy Plotner on wrapping up a full year's worth of What's Up This Week articles. Woohoo! She's never missed a week and never been late. Anyway, if you've appreciated her column, take a moment and drop her an email. I'm sure she'll really appreciate it (and curse me for filling up her email box). Hah! Check out the full archive here.

Here's to many more years of Tammy's wonderful, weekly columns.

Fraser Cain
Publisher
Universe Today

P.S. I just did an interview with UK psychic debunker Tony Youens for the Skepticality podcast. I figured I'd pitch in to help out Derek and Swoopy while Derek continues his recovery. Check it out. Don't worry, I'll be updating my Podcast shortly too.

Greetings, fellow SkyWatchers! The time for Mars is now as even small telescopes can see a wealth of details. Mid-week will offer some viewers the chance to see a very rare eclipse of a bright star by an asteroid! We'll explore bright stars, open clusters, watch occultations and welcome back the children of Comet Halley. So turn your eyes to the skies, because....

Here's what's up!