Space and astronomy news
Captured on camera by astrophotographer Rafael Defavari from his location in São Bernardo do Campo, Brazil, this video shows the Moon passing in front of Jupiter during an occultation event on December 25, 2012. Nice work! The video plays at 5x actual speed. Although Jupiter appeared to be “right next to” the Moon on Christmas …
Several teams of astronomers are taking advantage of a rare double event this week to learn more about the atmosphere and makeup of Pluto and its moons. The dwarf planet will occult, or pass in front of two different stars this week. One of the best viewing sites for these two events is in Hawaii, …
Continue reading “Double Occultations This Week Will Reveal More Details About Pluto”
On November 6, 2010, the dwarf planet Eris occulted a faint 16 magnitude star and this was the first time astronomers were able to witness an occultation by Eris. Additionally, at 96.6 Astronomical Units away, it was the most distant object for which this kind of occultation — where one astronomical object passes in front …
On September 11, 2010 South Africa had an amazing view of a full daylight occultation of Venus by the Moon, and Kerneels Mulder captured it, and shared it with Universe Today. He sent us this video created from the images he took of the event, and below is a composite look at all the images, …
Continue reading “Daylight Occultation of Venus by the Moon”
[/caption] How do you study an extremely small planetary body in the dim outer reaches of our solar system? Get all your friends from around the world to wait for a very elusive – if not short-lived – special event. And in doing so, you may find something completely unexpected. Enter James Elliot from MIT, …
Continue reading “Occultation Reveals Distant Kuiper Belt Object is Surprisingly Icy Bright”
[/caption] You’ve all heard me talk about watching the Moon occult a bright star. That’s when we get a great example of stellar parallax from our Earthly viewpoint! But did you know that there are several other heavenly bodies that can cause an occultation that’s easy to view through an amateur telescope if you just …
Sure. For those of us who hang around the night sky, we know the Pleiades and the Moon frequently venture near each other during the course of a year, but it’s much less common for the Moon to be in a crescent phase when they visit. Because the light of the nearby Moon often overpowers …
Continue reading “SkyWatcher Alert: Pleiades Occultation on April 8”
As April’s ‘Great North American Eclipse’ nears, here’s a look at eclipses in time and space.
2024 features the final total solar eclipse for the CONUS until 2044, and much more.
A rare occultation of the bright star Betelgeuse by asteroid 319 Leona turned up mixed results.