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May 2006 and beyond...
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This page is a work in progress.
Please, Let me know if you feel it does not display properly on your browser, or if you find out some inaccuracy.
I am not a native speaker of the English language, Do not hesitate to let me know of any grammar or spelling mistakes.
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Legal
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The information on this site is believed to be correct, if you find any error, please send a message to the webmaster. We will do our best to fix any error in a timely manner.
Meanwhile, there is absolutely no waranty of any kind, the information on this site is accurate, neither correct.
To send us a message.
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Future events or events in progress. |
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Events listed below, are mostly of general or scientific interest.
They are events people can often be part of them. |
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| May 6th |
International Astronomy Day.
Astronomy Day Outreach, RAS (Riverside Astronomy Society, Riverside California)
Astronomy dayAstronomical League.
Astronomy dayAstronomy magazine.
Lowell Observatory, Flagstaff, Arizona.
Chabot Space and Science CenterOakland, California.
Dorrance Planetarium at the Arizona Science Center, Phoenix, Arizona.
Reuben H. Fleet Space Theater and Science Center, San Diego, California, with the San Diego Astronomy Group.
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| May 12th |
ASOD Meeting ASOD (Astronomy Society of the Desert, Coachella Valley, California). |
| May 13th |
RAS Meeting RAS (Riverside Astronomy Society, Riverside California) meeting date. |
| May 20th |
ASOD Star party ASOD (Astronomy Society of the Desert, Coachella Valley, California). |
| May 20-21 |
Jet Propulsion Laboratory Open House. Saturday and Sunday, from 9am to 5pm both days.
Directions and Maps.
Wikipedia Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
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| May 26-29 |
(Memorial Weekend)
RTMC Astronomy Expo 2006.
RTMC, stand for Riverside Telescope Maker Conference. This yealry event is held in Big Bear California.
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| June 17-24 |
Grand Canyon Star Party 2006 Grand Canyon Star Party 2006. |
Solar system |
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| Object: |
1st quarter: |
full moon: |
latest quarter: |
new moon: |
| Earth Moon |
4th |
12th |
20th |
26th |
| Date: |
what time: |
Events: |
Where: |
good chances of observation with: |
Should last a few days: |
| Naked eyes |
Bino
culars |
Tele
scopes |
| 4 |
evening night |
Saturn is above us, moving toward the Western sky, is big enough to be seen with binoculars. It is beautiful with a telescope, the rings opening is slowly decreasing. Saturn and Mars are progressively getting closer to each other. |
East (Lib) |
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x |
x |
x |
| 5 |
evening night |
Good time to observe the moon. Using a pair of good binoculars and a binocular viewing chair (also known as a couch potato telescope), or a simple telescope. Great details can be observed at the edge of the shaded side of the moon.
Simple binocular viewing chair project. |
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x |
x |
x |
x |
| 6 |
evening night |
Jupiter rising from the Eastern sky, is big enough to be seen nicely with naked eyes and binoculars. It is a wonder with a telescope. at least 4 moons can be visible (with a telescope).
Jupiter (NASA) will be visible for more than 10 hours in the sky. Aa a full rotation of Jupiter is taking about 10 hours, the whole surface of Jupiter should be visible that night.
Jupiter has a new red spot (NASA) and should be visible with a telescope.
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East South East (Lib) |
x |
x |
x |
x |
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sunset |
7, 8 and 9, the sunset will be visible from under the "Arc de triomphe de l'Étoile" in Paris (France). It hapen twice a year, around May 8 and August 1.
Le Soleil sous l'Arc de Triomphe (Institut de Mécanique céleste et de calcul des éphémérides (IMCCE)) (francais).
The sun under the Arc de Triomphe (Institut de Mécanique céleste et de calcul des éphémérides (IMCCE)) (english).
Arc de triomphe de l'Étoile (Wikipedia).
Avenue des Champs-Élysées (Wikipedia).
This is a different Arc, more or less in the same axis.
Arche de la Défense (Wikipedia).
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| 10 |
evening night |
Spica and the moon will be in conjunction.
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South East |
x |
x |
x |
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| 11 |
evening night |
Jupiter and the full moon (NASA) will be next to each other all night long.
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South East |
x |
x |
x |
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| 12 |
night early morning |
It is about 20 years, we did not had a chance to see a comet so close. In 1995 Comet 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3, fell apart. at time of this writing, it seems, about 30 pieces have been seen. Pieces seems relatively small, only a few will be visible using a small amateur telescope.
Comet 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 (NASA) Mini-Comets Approaching Earth.
Comet map, for May 12 (NASA).
Comet map, for May 13 (NASA).
Comet map, for May 14 (NASA).
73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann, also known as Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 (Wikipedia).
comet breakup (spacetelescope.org). Hubble provides spectacular view of ongoing comet breakup.
Recent comet images (Lunar & Planetary Laboratory, Tucson, AZ) Observations of Comet 73P/Schwassman-Wachmann 3.
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North North East |
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| 14 |
evening night |
Antares will be about the width of a hand from the moon.
| West |
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x |
x |
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| 18 |
evening night |
Saturn and Mars are getting closer of each other.
| West |
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x |
x |
x |
| 22 |
evening night |
Jupiter moons are dancing with each others.
| South |
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x |
x |
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| 24 |
early morning |
Moon and Venus in conjunction, Venus is almost at the horizon.
| South |
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x |
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| 30 |
evening night |
Saturn and Mars are at about 10° of each other. They set around midnight. they are in the Constellation of Cancer. |
West (Cnc) |
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x |
x |
x |
| 30 |
evening early night |
Moon smile to Mars. |
West North West (Cnc) |
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x |
x |
x |
| 31 |
evening early night |
Moon and Saturn close to each other. |
West North West (Cnc) |
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x |
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Today in history. Some interesting events. |
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Historical events, as well as future historical events, such as spacecrafts journey. |
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Date: |
History event(s): |
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1961 May 5 |
Alan Shepard (BBC) First US astronaut in space. It was a short 15 minutes suborbital flight, with just 5 minutes in space (of the 15 minutes). He did it using a Mercury Freedom 7 spacecraft. He was also one of 12 Americans who walked on the moon, on Apollo 14 in 1971.
Alan Shepard (Teacher Resource Project), first American in space, dies at 74.
Biographical Data (NASA).
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1967 May 5 |
First all-British satellite Ariel 3 (BBC) launched.
Ariel 3, has been built in UK and launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. It carried five scientific experiments, related to weather study. It was supposed to last one year, it lasted about two successful years. After five months its tape recorder started to give up, and finally broke down. Scientist were able to keep gathering data, meanwhile they had to do it in real time.
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2006 May 7 |
While Venux Express has successfully reached final orbit within 0.3 seconds of the targeted arrival date, one of seven scientific instruments on board of the spacecraft seems to have some difficulties. The six other scientific instruments seem to work well.
Scientific instruments on board the spacecraft are switched one after another one, then some testing procedures are accomplished on each of them. It should last until about mid-May.
Venus Express science phase will start on June 4.
A few ESA quick facts:
ESA is still in its infancy and its budget is around a tenth of NASA one (or less).
Venus Express is only the fourth interplanetary mission (including moon mission) for ESA. Previous one were Smart-1, Rosetta, and MarsExpress.
The "Planetary Fourier Spectrometer seems to have a mirror stuck, partially open. It may take a few more days of testing until it will hopefully open up to its working position.
It operates in the infrared (0.9 µm - 45 µm) wavelength range. Once back on track, it should take care of measuring and recording temperature in the lower atmosphere up to 100 km (about 62 miles).
Venus Express has reached final orbit (ESA).
Mirror jams on Venus Express spacecraft (NewScientist.com).
Venus Express (Wikipedia).
ESA Venus Express page (ESA).
Planetary Fourier Spectrometer site (pfs-results.it).
Mission Operations Spacecraft Operations (ESA).
Lunar and Planetary Science Venus (NASA).
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1962 May 9 |
first lunar object to be lighted by an Earth based laser in 1962 (k3pgp.org, Optical Echoes from the Moon).
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1960 May 17 |
first laser (University of Chicago). Theodore Maiman, produced a laser light from a ruby. It was on a lab at Hughes Research Laboratory.
first laser (Stanford, PDF).
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1990 May 20 |
First image from Hubble Space Telescope (hubblesite.org) received. Hubble space telescope was launched on April 24 1990. This first image had for goal to help adjusting the focusing of the telescope, meanwhile, it has already a quality of about 50 times better than images taken from the best ground telescopes. This is before the major correction in focusing done at a later time.
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This page as well as the whole site is Copyright© , 2001 - 2006 Eugene Clement
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Our Sponsors |
People at Alembic have helped us in many ways, at first as sponsors, then as volunteers as well.
They are so dedicated, I would not be surprised if their guitars run linux. ;-)
Martin Roesh founder of SourceFire and Creator of one of the most famous intrusion detection software " Snort" has proposed to host our web site.
Since that day we do not experiment any more downtime on the webserver.
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About the Author |
I am simply a Linux enthusiast with an interest in science.
I like to build hardware projects and connect them to computers, to do data acquisitions and other things.
This page will hopefully help me to learn something. I am happy if I can share it with the reader.
I belong to the following astronomy societies: RAS. ASOD
and linuxastronomy.org, which is a virtual group of linux enthusiast, experimenting with astronomy.
Suggestions or corrections with for goal to make this site better are welcome.
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Space |
Astronomy picture of the day. NASA
Hubble space telescope, picture of the day (image and video).
ESA European Space Agency.
Picture from the OSEI (Operational Significant Event Imagery). These images usually represent environment change events.
Earth motion for Coachella Valley.
 seismology for Coachella Valley (Southern California).
Light pollution prevention start at home.
The night sky in the World. Satellite monitoring of the artificial night sky brightness and the stellar visibility.
IDAInternational Dark-Sky Association.
 Auroral Activity (Northern Hemisphere). NOAA Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite (POES) continually monitor the power flux carried by the protons and electrons that produce aurora in the atmosphere.
 Auroral Activity Southern Hemisphere.
 GOES Solar X-ray Imager, provide full-disk images of the Sun once a minute in the 0.6-6 nm range with 5 arcsec pixels.
It allow real-time prediction of solar-terrestrial disturbances.
more info.
 SOHO Pick of the Week. Courtesy of SOHO/EIT and SOHO/LASCO consortium. SOHO is a project of international cooperation between ESA and NASA.
 latest SOHO images171.
 latest SOHO images284.
CosmicopiaMore about Cosmic Rays (educational).
 UCAR Windows to the Universe is a learning system covering the Earth and Space sciences for use by the general public.
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