Posted on by Tammy Plotner

Pentax Eyepieces – Observatory Quality

Back awhile ago I did a review on plossl eyepieces. In that article I was trying to reach for the average individual looking for a high quality eyepiece on a limited budget. This time I asked for an example of observatory quality eyepieces that I know some of our readers own and enjoy. Is there a difference between how a very expensive eyepiece behaves in average equipment as opposed to an average eyepiece? Is there a difference in how it behaves in observatory class equipment? Step inside and let’s take a look…

The reputation of certain eyepieces sometimes precedes itself and the case is certainly true when it comes to Pentax Eyepieces. Known widely for delivering superb color correction and outstanding contrast, I was very anxious for these beauties to arrive and put them to the test. In this case, I have asked for the Pentax XW series, which would put it in the Erfle category – alongside such popular brands as the Nagler, the Panoptic, the Ultima LX and the QX series. In dollar amounts, the Pentax figures roughly in the same category as the first two aforementioned products, and roughly three times more expensive than the last two. But is the performance worth the price?

High dispersion, low refraction lanthanum glass… These are great words, but nothing can match the precision machined quality of the outward appearance of a Pentax eyepiece. Absolutely nothing in its construction appears to be left to chance and I very much approved not only of how the body of the eyepieces appears to be “sealed”, but the fact that they have very positive grip surfaces and little safety grooves cut right into the barrel so they can’t accidentally fall out of the focuser. I can also see from examination that the insides are blackened to reduce internal reflections and that the eyepieces are fully threaded for filters… But how do they perform?

The last of the three eyepieces I asked to test was the Pentax 40mm XW 2″ Eyepiece. If you are looking for a true observatory quality eyepiece, look no further. Combined with aperture, the 40mm delivers a wide, true field that only marginally suffers from vignetting around the edges with fast focal ratio telescopes and virtually disappears as the focal length increases. Once again, we are talking about an eyepiece that was made to perform with eye sight limitations and with just a few minor adjustments, a total pinpoint panorama of stars can be yours. While I’ve used a lot of Erfle design eyepieces, this is perhaps the first low power, wide field Erfle that I’ve used that didn’t require me to hold my head just right to take in the view. With or without glasses…

My next step was to take this eyepiece arrangement and put them to the test in a true observatory telescope – a 31″ f/7. Eyepiece after eyepiece… Outstanding performance, perfect color correction and incredible eye relief. Is seeing believing? Yes and no. In my mind to deem something “observatory quality”, it has to measure up to the bar that I set for it – and that means the durability of use that an observatory eyepiece will go through in years of service. While I can field test an eyepiece for performance qualities, what I can’t tell you is what will happen to it ten years down the road. So… I investigated.

There’s a good reason why I admired the construction of the Pentax eyepieces when I first examined them – they are weather-proof. While you would not want to drop them in a bucket of water, these eyepieces are all rated JIS Class 4. Just what does that mean? It means that dust and particles sized 1.0mm in diameter or more cannot infiltrate. It means water splashed against the enclosure from any direction shall have no harmful effects. It means that by Pentax standards they actually sprayed these eyepieces down with a stream of water for 10 minutes and nothing reached the internal lenses. It means Pentax guarantees these eyepieces for life.

In the long run, Pentax eyepieces are an investment – a worthy investment in observatory quality.

The Pentax Eyepieces provided for this review were supplied by Oceanside Photo and Telescope.

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Gamma Ray Burst From the Edge of the Universe

Swift's Ultaviolet and optical telescope captured a far away gamma ray burst. Credit: NASA/Swift/Stefan Immler

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NASA’s Swift satellite captured the most distant gamma-ray burst ever detected. The blast came from an exploding star 12.8 billion light-years away, near the edge of the visible universe. Swift saw the explosion on September 13 at 1:47 am EDT. But because light moves at finite speed, and looking farther into the universe means looking back in time, this means the burst occurred less than 825 million years after the universe began, or when the universe was less than one-seventh its present age. This star was probably from the earliest generations of stars ever formed. “This is the most amazing burst Swift has seen,” said the mission’s lead scientist Neil Gehrels at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

Gamma rays from the far-off explosion triggered Swift’s Burst Alert Telescope, and the spacecraft established the event’s location in the constellation Eridanus. It quickly turned to examine the spot, and less than two minutes after the alert, Swift’s X-Ray Telescope began observing the position. There, it found a fading, previously unknown X-ray source. The burst has been designated as GRB 080913.

Astronomers on the ground were alerted as well and a group using ESO’s 2.2 meter telescope at the LaSilla Observatory were able to make observations one minute after Swift started observing. An hour and a half later, the Very Large Telescope at Paranal, Chile, targeted the afterglow.

Astronomers look for the redshift of these objects to determine distance. The light that is emitted from an object is shifted towards the red, or less energetic end, of the electromagnetic spectrum, due to the Doppler Effect. In certain colors, the brightness of a distant object shows a characteristic drop caused by intervening gas clouds. The farther away the object is, the longer the wavelength where this fade-out begins.

Analysis of the spectrum for GRB 080913 established the blast’s redshift at 6.7 — among the most distant objects known.

Gamma-ray bursts are the universe’s most luminous explosions. Most occur when massive stars run out of nuclear fuel. As their cores collapse into a black hole or neutron star, gas jets — driven by processes not fully understood — punch through the star and blast into space. There, they strike gas previously shed by the star and heat it, which generates bright afterglows.

Source: NASA

Posted on by Fraser Cain

History of the Sun

Ancient Gaocheng in China

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Modern science tells us that the Sun is a big hot ball of hydrogen at the center of the Solar System, and all the planets orbit around it. But ancient people didn’t have access to the same scientific tools we have today. Their understanding about the Sun was much more primitive, and often… wrong. Let’s investigate the history of the Sun.

Most life on Earth evolved with the Sun in mind; the rising and setting Sun defined the cycle of daily life for almost all life. Ancient peoples were entirely dependent on the Sun for light; only the light from a full Moon gave any way to see in the night. It wasn’t until the invention of fire that humans had any way to get any work done after the Sun went down.

Since the Sun was such an important object, many ancient people treated it with reverence and considered the Sun a god. Many worshipped the Sun, and built monuments to celebrate it. Monuments like Stonehenge in England, and the Pyramids of Egypt were used to mark the position of the Sun over the course of the year.

The first accurate measurement of the distance to the Sun was made by Greek philosopher Anaxagoras. Of course, he was threatened with death for his ideas that the Sun was a burning ball of fire, and not a god.

It was long thought that the Sun orbited around the Earth, but it was Nicolaus Copernicus who first proposed a Sun-centered Solar System. This theory gained evidence from Galileo and other early astronomers. By the 1800s, solar astronomy was very advanced, with astronomers carefully tracking sunspots, measuring absorption lines in the spectrum of light from the Sun, and discovering infrared.

For the longest time, astronomers were puzzled by how the Sun generated so much energy. It wasn’t until the 1930s when astrophysicists Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar and Hans Bethe finally developed the theoretical concept of nuclear fusion, which explained the Sun (and all stars) perfectly.

NASA has a great website with photographs of ancient building used to mark the position of the Sun, and more about solar eclipses of historical interest.

Want more history? Here’s an article about the history of Venus, and another about the history of Saturn.

We have recorded an episode of Astronomy Cast just about the Sun called The Sun, Spots and All.

Reference:
NASA Sun-Earth Day: 2009, Issue # 64
NASA Ancient Observatories

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

The Cepheids Aren’t Falling

Cepheid variable stars have been used for years as a way to determine distance to other galaxies. The correlation between their period of variability and absolute luminosity provides a cosmic yardstick to measure distances out to a few tens of millions of light-years. Additionally, Cepheids closer to home are used as tools to investigate how the Milky Way spins. But the motion of the Cepheids in our galaxy has confused astronomers, as these neighborhood Cepheids appear to fall towards the sun. A debate has raged for decades as to whether this phenomenon was truly related to the actual motion of the Cepheids and, consequently, to a complicated rotating pattern of our galaxy, or if it was the result of effects within the atmospheres of the Cepheids. But new observations with the HARPS (High Accuracy Radio Velocity Planet Searcher) spectograph shows that the Cepheids aren’t falling, and that the much debated, apparent ‘fall’ does in fact stem from properties of the atmospheres around these variable stars.

“The motion of Milky Way Cepheids is confusing and has led to disagreement among researchers,” says astrophysicist Nicolas Nardetto. “If the rotation of the Galaxy is taken into account, the Cepheids appear to ‘fall’ towards the Sun with a mean velocity of about 2 km/s.”

Nardetto and his colleagues observed eight Cepheids with the high precision HARPS spectrograph, attached to the 3.6-m ESO telescope at La Silla, 2400 m up in the mountains of the Chilean Atacama Desert. HARPS, or the High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planetary Searcher, is best known as a very successful planet hunter, but it can also be used to resolve other complicated cases, where its ability to determine radial velocities – the speed with which something is moving towards or away from us – with phenomenally high accuracy is invaluable. “Our observations show that this apparent motion towards us almost certainly stems from an intrinsic property of Cepheids,” says Nardetto.

The astronomers found that the deviations in the measured velocity of Cepheids were linked to the chemical elements in the atmospheres of the Cepheids considered. “This result, if generalized to all Cepheids, implies that the rotation of the Milky Way is simpler than previously thought, and is certainly symmetrical about an axis,” concludes Nardetto.

Source: ESO

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Two Shuttles on the Pad — The Last Time

It’s a rare event anyway, but this is the last time ever. Two shuttles are now sitting on NASA’s two launchpads at Kennedy Space Center. Space shuttle Endeavour completed a 4.2-mile journey to Launch Pad 39B Friday morning, Sept. 19, at 6:59 a.m. EDT, and this is the first time a shuttle has stood by as a rescue vehicle. Atlantis, over at Pad 39A is preparing for its mission to the Hubble Space Telescope, currently scheduled for Oct. 10 (although there might be an problem with that date –see below). Since Atlantis won’t be going to the International Space Station which would be a “safe haven” in the event of an emergency, Endeavour will stand by in the unlikely event a rescue mission is necessary. After Endeavour is cleared from its duty as a rescue vehicle, it will move to Launch Pad 39A for the upcoming STS-126 mission to the International Space Station. That flight is targeted for launch Nov. 12. This Saturday, there will be a good photo op as the Rotating Service Structures for Endeavour will be rolled back, making both the shuttles more visible. Robert Pearlman at CollectSPACE.com has a full list of the 17 times in history two shuttles sat on the launchpads, and some great pictures, too.

A small glitch occurred this week in preparing for the Hubble servicing mission. Trouble with a cleaning system connected to a canister housing fresh batteries and a new camera bound for the Hubble Space Telescope somehow blew insulation into protective bagging around the cargo carrier.. Work to inspect and clean the canister will delay its delivery to the shuttle Atlantis at launch pad 39A by at least 24 hours. While a corresponding launch delay is possible, NASA is sticking with its current Oct. 10 launch target until managers get a better sense of how much lost time can be made up.

And for those you that have questions as to why Endeavor will be moved to 39A, its because that pad is being prepared for being able to launch the Ares rockets for the upcoming Constellation program. It will work in a pinch to launch the shuttle, but NASA officials would much rather launch it from 39A to avoid any problems. And even if the shuttle program is extended in order to shorten the gap between the time the shuttle flights end and Constellation begins, shuttles will probably not launch from 39B again.

If you missed seeing Endeavour’s crawl out to the pade, video file of rollout will be available on NASA Television.

Posted on by Tammy Plotner

Weekend SkyWatcher’s Forecast – September 19-21, 2008

Greetings, fellow SkyWatchers! Are you psyched up for tonight’s Pleiades occultation? I am! While the Moon often passes near the ancient cluster, it’s not often we get to enjoy such a great event so well placed at a comfortable time of the year. This weekend we’ll be watching for ISS passes, reaching for the “Ring”, visiting Andromeda, and taking on two new Herschel 400 studies. Time to get out your telescopes, spotting scopes and binoculars and head out into the night because…. Here’s what’s up!

Friday, September 19, 2008 – On this day in 1848, William Boyd was watching Saturn – and discovered its moon Hyperion. Also today in 1988, Israel launched its first satellite. And don’t forget…t his evening will feature possibly the best occultation of the Pleiades by the Moon this year, so be sure to check with IOTA for details!

How long has it been since you’ve watched the ISS pass overhead, or seen an Iridium flare? Both are terrific events that don’t require any special equipment to be seen – even in the daytime! Be sure to check with www.heavens-above.com for accurate times in your location – and enjoy. While you’re out SkyWatching, be sure to have a look for Spica on the southwestern horizon after sunset. You just might discover a few planets joining the show!

When skies are dark, it’s time for us to head directly between the two southernmost stars in the constellation of Lyra and grab the “Ring.” What summer would be complete without it?

Discovered by French astronomer Antoine Darquier in 1779, the Ring Nebula was cataloged later that year by Charles Messier as M57 (RA 18 53 35 Dec +33 01 45). In binoculars the Ring will appear as slightly larger than a star, yet it cannot be focused to a sharp point. To a modest telescope at even low power, M57 turns into a glowing donut against a wonderful stellar backdrop. The accepted distance to this unusual structure is about 1,400 light-years, and how you see the Ring on any given night is highly dependent on conditions. As aperture and power increase, so do details, and it is not impossible to see braiding in the nebula’s structure with scopes as small as 8″ on a fine night, or to pick up the star caught on the edge in even smaller apertures.

Like all planetary nebulae, seeing the central star is considered the ultimate achievement in viewing. The central itself is a peculiar bluish dwarf which gives off a continuous spectrum, and might very well be a variable. At times, this shy, near 15th magnitude star can be seen with ease with a 12.5″ telescope, yet be elusive to even 31″ in aperture weeks later. No matter what details you may see, reach for the “Ring” tonight. You’ll be glad you did.

Saturday, September 20, 2008 – On this night in 1948, the 48″ Schmidt telescope at Mt. Palomar was busy taking pictures. Its very first photographic plate was being exposed by the same man who ground and polished the corrector plate for this scope – Don Hendricks. His object of choice was reproduced as panel 18 in the Hubble Atlas of Galaxies, and tonight we’ll join his vision as we take a look at the fantastic M31, the Andromeda Galaxy.

Seasoned amateur astronomers can literally point to the sky and show you the location of M31, but perhaps you have never tried to find it. Believe it or not, this is an easy galaxy to spot even under the moonlight. Simply identify the large diamond-shaped pattern of stars that is the Great Square of Pegasus. The northernmost star is Alpha, and it is here we will begin our hop. Stay with the northern chain of stars and look four fingerwidths away from Alpha for an easily seen star. The next along the chain is about three more fingerwidths away… And we’re almost there. Two more fingerwidths to the north and you will see a dimmer star that looks like it has something smudgy nearby. Point your binoculars there, because that’s no cloud – it’s the Andromeda Galaxy!

Now aim your binoculars or small telescope its way… Perhaps one of the most outstanding of all galaxies to the novice observer, M31 spans so much sky that it takes up several fields of view in a larger telescope, and even contains its own clusters and nebulae with New General Catalog designations. If you have a slightly larger telescope, you may also be able to pick up M31’s two companions – M32 and M110. Even with no scope or binoculars, it’s pretty amazing that we can see something – anything! – that is over two million light-years away!

Sunday, September 21, 2008 – On this date in 2003, the Galileo spacecraft bravely entered the atmosphere of Jupiter as it completed its final mission. Launched in 1989 and orbiting the giant planet since 1995, the hugely successful Galileo taught us much about Jupiter’s lethal radiation belts, magnetic field, atmosphere, and moons – but it had one last command to execute: self-destruction. Although it was still performing flawlessly (despite its lack of fuel and with its instrumentation badly scarred by radiation), scientists feared it might contaminate other possible life-sustaining moons such as Europa, and the decision was made to aim it into Jupiter’s certain oblivion. We salute its final moments!

And what was Sir William Herschel doing on this date a couple of centuries ago? You can bet he was out telescoping; and his discoveries on this night were many. How about if we take a look at two logged on September 21 which made the Herschel “400” list?

Our first stop is northern Cygnus for NGC 7086 (RA 21 30 30 Dec +51 35 00). Located on the galactic equator about five degrees west of Beta Cephei, our target is an open cluster. At magnitude 8.4, this loose collection will be difficult for the smaller scope, and show as not much more than an arrow-like asterism. However, larger scopes will be able to resolve many more stars, arrayed in long loops and chains around the brighter members. Although it’s sparse, NGC 7086 has been studied for metal abundance, galactic distance, membership richness, and its luminosity function. Be sure to mark your notes for H VI.32, logged by Herschel in 1788.

Now hop on over to Andromeda for NGC 752 (RA 01 57 41 Dec +37 47 06). You’ll find it just a few degrees south of Gamma and in the field north of star 56. Located 1300 light-years away, there’s a strong possibility this cluster was noted first by Hodierna before being cataloged by Herschel on this night (1786). At near magnitude 5, this “400” object is both large and bright enough to be seen in binoculars or small telescopes, and people have often wondered why Messier did not discover it. The star-studded field containing about 70 members of various magnitudes belong to H VII.32 – a very old cluster which has more recently been studied for its metallicity and the variations in the magnetic fields of its members. Enjoy them both tonight! Sir William did…

Until next week, I will you clear skies and happy hunting!

This week’s awesome images are: M57 “Ring Nebula” – Credit: NOAO/AURA/NSF, 48″ Schmidt Scope (Drawing by Russell Porter) – Credit: Palomar Observatory courtesy of Caltech, The Andromeda Galaxy – Credit: Anonymous, Artist’s concept of Galileo – Credit: NASA, NGC 7086 – Credit: Palomar Observatory, courtesy of Caltech and NGC 752 – Credit: Palomar Observatory, courtesy of Caltech. Our many thanks!

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Flyby Anomalies Explained?

Artist impression of the Rosetta flyby of Earth. Credit: ESA

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Several different spacecraft have exhibited unexplained changes in speed during gravity assists when flying by Earth. First there was Galileo in 1990 and 1992, NEAR, which flew by Earth in January 1998, and then Cassini in August of 1999. Rosetta — the ESA spacecraft that recently flew by an asteroid – swung by the home planet in March 2005, followed by MESSENGER in August of the same year. All these probes showed an expected change in speed during the flyby. The largest anomaly was recorded for NEAR, whose velocity changed 13 millimeters per second more than it should have. Earlier this year, a group of JPL researchers that had been working on the problem for years basically threw up their hands, saying they hoped other physicists could come up with a solution. They had concluded the anomaly was too large to be explained by known effects related to Einstein’s general theory of relativity. But a new paper proposes that Special Relativity may explain everything.

The speed of the spacecraft is measured by the Doppler shift in radio signals from the spacecraft to the antennas of the Deep Space Network. In a very short and concise paper, (reading it is like watching Will Hunting solve the MIT professor’s equation), Jean Paul Mbelek from CEA-Saclay in France says that the relative motion of the spacecraft and the spinning Earth have not been properly accounted for. When a well known but overlooked effect of Special Relativity is taken into account, where the transverse Doppler effect of the Earth’s spin and the velocity of the craft are factored in, there is no flyby anomaly. “Thus, GR (General Relativity) does not need to be questioned and the flyby anomaly is merely due to an incomplete analysis using conventional physics,” says Mbelek.

flyby-anomaly. credit: arXiv blog
flyby-anomaly. credit: arXiv blog

Other explanations had proposed dark matter or “Unruh radiation” could be the answer. But Mbelek says we just haven’t been doing the physics right. He concludes that spacecraft “flybys of heavenly bodies may be viewed as a new test of Special Relativity which has proven to be successful near the Earth.” He proposes a follow-up of tracking the spacecraft trajectories beyond just the probes’ closest approach to Earth to test this hypothesis further.

Sources: arXiv, arXiv blog

Posted on by Ian O'Neill

Transformer Glitch Halts LHC Operations

Debris from particles hitting the collimator blocks were detected in the calorimeters and muon chambers (CERN/LHC/CMS)

[/caption]According to reports, only a day after the first successful circulation of protons in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) last week, operations at the world’s largest particle accelerator had to be stopped due to a fault with a 30 tonne transformer used to cool part of the facility. The protons were not being accelerated at the time and there was no risk to safety at the LHC.

Rather than maintaining the equipment below the operational 2 Kelvin, the transformer glitch caused temperatures to rise to over 4 Kelvin (which is still cold, after all it is only 4 degrees above absolute zero – but it’s not cold enough). The transformer failed after the successful anticlockwise circulation of protons on the evening of September 11th and rumours about LHC problems have only just been confirmed…

This was bound to be a frustrating problem for the LHC engineers, but in many respects it was inevitable. This is a facility more complex than any technology ever built; a 27 km ring of 1000 supercooled electromagnets, operating at a temperature colder than anything in the Universe, with 2000 separate power supplies and a vast number of synchronized detectors and sensors… it’s little wonder the LHC may experience one or two technical hitches.

“This is arguably the largest machine built by humankind, is incredibly complex, and involves components of varying ages and origins, so I’m not at all surprised to hear of some glitches. It’s a real challenge requiring incredible talent, brain power and coordination to get it running.” – Steve Giddings, physics professor at University of California, Santa Barbara

However, this fault was critical to LHC operations, ultimately shutting the experiment down until technicians find the problem. Judith Jackson, spokesman for the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, is not surprised the LHC should suffer the occasional setback. “We know how complex and extraordinary it is to start up one of these machines. No one’s built one of these before and in the process of starting it up there will inevitably be glitches,” she said.

Apparently, transformer malfunctions are commonplace in particle accelerators. “These things happen,” she said. “It’s a little setback and it sounds like they’ve dealt with it and are moving forward.”

According to CERN scientists, the proton beams made “several hundred orbits” clockwise and anticlockwise before the experiment had to shut down.

The Associated Press investigation into the September 11th transformer glitch indicates that the problem has been identified and CERN scientists are still on track for the first particle collisions in October.

Source: AP

Posted on by Tammy Plotner

The Moon Meets The Pleiades On September 19-20, 2008

Be sure to mark your calendar for tomorrow night. For lucky observers in northeastern North America, eastern Canada, and western Europe, the evening of September 19-20, 2008 is your opportunity to watch the face of the peaceful gibbous Moon glide across the ancient blue beauty of the Plieades…

On Friday night, September 19, 2008, observers in northeastern North America, eastern Canada need to be outdoors and ready when the Moon begins to rise low in the east-northeast. If you live in Western Europe, the event takes place high in the sky just before dawn on the morning of September 20th. Don’t come alone, bring binoculars or a telescope with you, because this is your chance to see the stars first disappear behind the Moon’s bright limb and then reappear on the dark side.

Although we rarely call the Pleiades by name, let’s try them on for size. The brightest is Alcyone at magnitude 2.86, followed by Atlas at 3.62, Electra at 3.7, Maia at 3.86, Merope at 4.17 and Taygeta at magnitude 4.29. While it may be a bit difficult for a novice to read the occultation information, please check this occultation information at IOTA where you can get precise times for your location for the disappearance and reappearance of each individual star.

To help you understand a bit further, let’s choose Alycone. Click on the September 20th category for the US and let’s choose Cleveland, Ohio. Alycone would disappear behind the bright limb of the Moon at 02:14:09 UT (which would be 10:14:09 pm, September 19th). Alycone will re-emerge from behind the dark edge of the Moon at 02:45:47 UT (or 10:45:47 pm). See? It’s not that hard! The most difficult part is simply figuring out the universal time difference is all it takes, and there’s even a website for that!

While you can watch the event without any optical aid, the Moon will overpower the stars. Use a card or something held at arm’s length to help diminish the glare. However, if you’re serious? A telescope is the key to really enjoying this event. It is great fun to keep tabs on each star as it slowly approaches the lunar limb and then just winks out! Timing of these events is critical, because it helps astronomers to further understand lunar features. How? By assessing times, astronomers are able to determine if there are peaks and valleys that we simply do not know about. For example, a bright star may wink off and on several times before it finally disappears behind a hidden lunar mountain… and the same holds true when it reappears.

Although the Moon frequently encounters the Pleiades on each monthly journey across the ecliptic plane, it’s infrequent that we have such a great opportunity to watch several occultation events in a well-placed area of the sky during a comfortable time of the year. Enjoy this great event…

Images accompanying this article are the Pleiades Occultation by John Cudworth and the annotated image of the Plieades by David Malin, courtesy of the Anglo-Australian Observatory/University of Edinburgh.

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

See Doomed Spacecraft Before Its Fiery Demise

ATV. credit: ESA

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The Jules Verne Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) has done its duty – it even went above and beyond its expected capabilities. But the end is nigh, and soon, on September 29 the ATV will become a fireball and burn up in the Earth’s atmosphere, never to be seen again. But before it does, people in North America and Europe have the perfect opportunity to see it sail overhead this weekend in its low Earth orbit, and according to Spaceweather.com, the ATV will glow about a brightly as the North Star, Polaris. To find out when and where to look for the ATV in the evening or early morning skies, check out Spaceweather.com’s great satellite tracking webpage. Just plug in your zip code and you’ll be able to get tracking information for all the satellites that will be visible for the next few days. Also, Heavens Above is a great site to find tracking information, as well. So get out there and bid Jules Verne adieu. Here’s some of the great things the ATV accomplished while on orbit at the ISS, and a movie of its undocking too…


The Jules Verne spent five months docked to the space station where it delivered supplies (and fun things like a manuscript written by its namesake.) The supply ship turned into a tug boat when its engines were fired up to help the ISS avoid a piece of space junk. It also served as an impromptu bedroom for the space station crew.

When will the next ATV fly? Sometime in 2010, and the name for that ship has not yet been revealed. It will follow the debut of another space station cargo ship, Japan’s H-2A Transfer Vehicle, set for next year.

Here’s a movie of the Jules Verne undocking from the ISS.

Source: Spaceweather.com