Part of the Sun disappeared earlier this month, but few people were worried. The missing part, which included the center from some locations, just went behind the Moon in what is known as an annular solar eclipse. Featured here is an eclipse sequence taken as the Moon was overtaking the rising Sun in the sky. The foreground hill is Factory Butte in Utah, USA. The rays flaring out from the Sun are not real -- they result from camera aperture diffraction and are known as sunstar. The Moon is real, but it is artificially brightened to enhance its outline -- which helps the viewer better visualize the Moon's changing position during this ring-of-fire eclipse. As stunning as this eclipse sequence is, it was considered just practice by the astrophotographer. The reason? She hopes to use this experience to better photograph the total solar eclipse that will occur over North America on April 8, 2024.

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap231101.html ( November 01, 2023)

ISS Daily Summary Report – 10/30/2023

 

Payloads: EXPRESS Expedite the Processing of Experiments for Space Station (EXPRESS) Racks: Dragon Express Rack 3-Locker 8 and Express Rack 4-Locker 5 were uninstalled and temp stowed in preparation for POLAR and MERLIN units arriving on SpX-29. The EXPRESS Racks support science experiments in any discipline by providing structural interfaces, power, data, cooling, water, and … ...

October 30, 2023 at 12:00PM
From NASA: https://blogs.nasa.gov/stationreport/2023/10/30/iss-daily-summary-report-10-30-2023/

Halloween's origin is ancient and astronomical. Since the fifth century BC, Halloween has been celebrated as a cross-quarter day, a day halfway between an equinox (equal day / equal night) and a solstice (minimum day / maximum night in the northern hemisphere). With a modern calendar however, even though Halloween occurs today, the real cross-quarter day will occur next week. Another cross-quarter day is Groundhog Day. Halloween's modern celebration retains historic roots in dressing to scare away the spirits of the dead. Perhaps a fitting tribute to this ancient holiday is this closeup view of the Wizard Nebula (NGC 7380). Visually, the interplay of stars, gas, and dust has created a shape that appears to some like a fictional ancient sorcerer. Although the nebula may last only a few million years, some of the stars being conjured from the gas by the great gravitational powers may outlive our Sun.

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap231031.html ( October 31, 2023)

Do any shapes seem to jump out at you from this interstellar field of stars and dust? The jeweled expanse, filled with faint, starlight-reflecting clouds, drifts through the night in the royal constellation of Cepheus. Far from your own neighborhood on planet Earth, these ghostly apparitions lurk along the plane of the Milky Way at the edge of the Cepheus Flare molecular cloud complex some 1,200 light-years away. Over two light-years across and brighter than the other spooky chimeras, VdB 141 or Sh2-136 is also known as the Ghost Nebula, seen toward the bottom of the featured image. Within the reflection nebula are the telltale signs of dense cores collapsing in the early stages of star formation.

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap231030.html ( October 30, 2023)

What's happened to the Moon? Within the last day, part of the Moon moved through the Earth's shadow. This happens about once or twice a year, but not every month since the Moon's orbit around the Earth is slightly tilted. Pictured here, the face of a full Hunter's Moon is shown twice from Italy during this partial lunar eclipse. On the left, most of the Moon appears overexposed except for the eclipsed bottom right, which shows some familiar lunar surface details. In contrast, on the right, most of the (same) Moon appears normally exposed, with the exception of the bottom right, which now appears dark. All lunar eclipses are visible from the half of the Earth facing the Moon at the time of the eclipse, but this eclipse was visible specifically from Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia, clouds permitting. In April, a total solar eclipse will be visible from North America.

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap231029.html ( October 29, 2023)

The Ghosts of Gamma Cas

Gamma Cassiopeiae shines high in northern autumn evening skies. It's the brightest spiky star in this telescopic field of view toward the constellation Cassiopeia. Gamma Cas shares the ethereal-looking scene with ghostly interstellar clouds of gas and dust, IC 59 (top left) and IC 63. About 600 light-years distant, the clouds aren't actually ghosts. They are slowly disappearing though, eroding under the influence of energetic radiation from hot and luminous gamma Cas. Gamma Cas is physically located only 3 to 4 light-years from the nebulae. Slightly closer to gamma Cas, IC 63 is dominated by red H-alpha light emitted as hydrogen atoms ionized by the star's ultraviolet radiation recombine with electrons. Farther from the star, IC 59 shows proportionally less H-alpha emission but more of the characteristic blue tint of dust reflected star light. The cosmic stage spans over 1 degree or 10 light-years at the estimated distance of gamma Cas and friends.

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap231028.html ( October 28, 2023)

Encke and the Tadpoles

History's second known periodic comet is Comet Encke (2P/Encke). As it swings through the inner Solar System, Encke's orbit takes it from an aphelion, its greatest distance from the Sun, inside the orbit of Jupiter to a perihelion just inside the orbit of Mercury. Returning to its perihelion every 3.3 years, Encke has the shortest period of the Solar System's major comets. Comet Encke is also associated with (at least) two annual meteor showers on planet Earth, the North and South Taurids. Both showers are active in late October and early November. Their two separate radiants lie near bright star Aldebaran in the head-strong constellation Taurus. A faint comet, Encke was captured in this telescopic field of view imaged on the morning of August 24. Then, Encke's pretty greenish coma was close on the sky to the young, embedded star cluster and light-years long, tadpole-shaped star-forming clouds in emission nebula IC 410. Now near bright star Spica in Virgo Comet Encke passed its 2023 perihelion only five days ago, on October 22.

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap231027.html ( October 27, 2023)

ISS Daily Summary Report – 10/25/2023

 

Russian ExtraVehicular Activity (EVA) #61: Today, FE-4 Oleg Kononenko (EV1) and FE-5 Nikolai Chub (EV2) are performing Russian EVA #61 with FE-12 Konstantin Borisov supporting as the Intravehicular (IV) Operator. The EV crew are performing tasks in order to inspect and isolate the Multipurpose Laboratory Module (MLM) radiator, install a payload on MLM, and jettison … ...

October 25, 2023 at 12:00PM
From NASA: https://blogs.nasa.gov/stationreport/2023/10/25/iss-daily-summary-report-10-25-2023/

Orionids in Taurus

History's first known periodic comet, Comet Halley (1P/Halley), returns to the inner Solar System every 76 years or so. The famous comet made its last appearance to the naked-eye in 1986. But dusty debris from Comet Halley can be seen raining through planet Earth's skies twice a year during two annual meteor showers, the Eta Aquarids in May and the Orionids in October. In fact, an unhurried series of exposures captured these two bright meteors, vaporizing bits of Halley dust, during the early morning hours of October 23 against a starry background along the Taurus molecular cloud. Impacting the atmosphere at about 66 kilometers per second their greenish streaks point back to the shower's radiant just north of Orion's bright star Betelgeuse off the lower left side of the frame. The familiar Pleiades star cluster anchors the dusty celestial scene at the right.

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap231026.html ( October 26, 2023)

ISS Daily Summary Report – 10/24/2023

 

Payloads: Complement of Integrated Protocols for Human Exploration Research (CIPHER) on Varying Mission Durations: Standard Measures (SM) Pre-sleep Questionnaires were filled out, blood pressure measurements were obtained, and ultrasound scans were performed in support of the CIPHER investigation. CIPHER consists of 14 studies designed to improve our understanding of physiological and psychological changes in humans … ...

October 24, 2023 at 12:00PM
From NASA: https://blogs.nasa.gov/stationreport/2023/10/24/iss-daily-summary-report-10-24-2023/