Friday's SpaceX Dragon Launch CRS-17 to Light Up the U.S. East Coast

By David Dickinson - April 30, 2019 09:37 AM UTC | Missions
Ever seen a rocket launch before? Catching one is easier than you might think. You just need to be looking in the right direction at the right time, and have clear skies. If you happen to be watching from the U.S. south eastern seaboard, you just might catch the spectacular dawn launch of a SpaceX Falcon-9 rocket with Dragon on the CRS-17 (also known as SpX-17) mission headed to the International Space Station before dawn on the morning of Wednesday, May 1st.
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Astro-Challenge: Spotting Slender Moons

By David Dickinson - April 17, 2019 12:43 PM UTC | Observing
Up for a challenge? Some of the toughest targets for a backyard observer involve little or no equipment at all. Northern hemisphere Spring brings with it one of our favorite astronomical pursuits: the first sighting of the extremely thin, waxing crescent Moon. This unique feat of visual athletics may be fairly straight forward... but it's tougher than you think. The angle of the evening ecliptic in the Spring is still fairly high for mid-northern latitudes, taking the Moon up and out of the weeds as a waxing crescent.
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SOFIA Follows the Sulfur for Clues on Stellar Evolution

By David Dickinson - April 10, 2019 10:34 AM UTC | Stars
A high-flying space telescope is shedding light on where some of the basic building blocks for life may have originated from. A recent study led by astronomers currently at the University of Hawaii, including collaborators from the University of California Davis, Johns-Hopkins University, the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, Appalachian State University, and several international partners, including funding from NASA, looked at a lingering mystery in planet formation: the chemical pathway of the element sulfur, with implications for its role in the formation of planets and life.
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