What’s Up January 2012? Dusk to Dawn Planets (by JPLnews)

Venus, Jupiter, Mars and Saturn are on display this month. There’s the Quadrantid meteor shower on the 4th plus a telescopic challenge - asteroid Eros.

Source: youtube.com

Amateur Astronomy Picture of the Day October 21 2011 Theophilus, Cyrillus, Catharina and Rupes Altai 3 Avi films 2500 frames 1/15 seg. Processing with RegiStax, Fitswork, GIMP2 and iMerge. Vixen NA 120 mm, Sky Watchar NEQ 6 Pro, Tele Vue Powermate 5X, DMK 21AU04.AS, fringe killer filter Submitted by: Sergi Torrents Gonzalez (SERGIT) (SERGIT) Location: Montmeló (Barcelona-Spain)
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Amateur Astronomy Picture of the Day

October 21 2011

Theophilus, Cyrillus, Catharina and Rupes Altai

3 Avi films 2500 frames 1/15 seg. Processing with RegiStax, Fitswork, GIMP2 and iMerge.
Vixen NA 120 mm, Sky Watchar NEQ 6 Pro, Tele Vue Powermate 5X, DMK 21AU04.AS, fringe killer filter

Submitted by: Sergi Torrents Gonzalez (SERGIT) (SERGIT)

Location: Montmeló (Barcelona-Spain)

Source: aapod.astronomy.fm

Zooniverse - So you think you know the Moon

10 October 2011

So after all the clicking on Moon Zoo you should know what the lunar surface looks like! But do you? Are you a true lunarphile? Like the Moon, Mercury is also rocky and heavily cratered. Can you spot the difference?
Study the two pictures below and decide which shows lunar craters and which shows craters on Mercury. You can vote on the Moon Zoo forum.
Voting ends Sunday 16 October. Answer next week!

Picture 1 

Picture 2

Source: blogs.zooniverse.org

Zooniverse News - Shadows aren’t always black on the Moon

25 April 2011 by jules, Moon Zoo Blog 

Moon Zoo team member Dr Tony Cook sent me a link to Censorinus Crater which is south-east of Mare Tranquillitatis. At first glance it looks like one of the many craters we see in shadow. But this one is different. As Tony says:

“Despite the floor being almost shadow filled, plenty of interior detail is visible, including some shadows off boulders and craters. Presumably the source of illumination is from the sunlit side of the rim just out of the image field of view.”

The above image is just a taster. Better still have a look at the NAC image: M117277348RE and zoom in to see landslides and boulders clearly visible in the shadows. Stare into the depths – the more you stare the more you’ll see. You will come across these shadowy images from time to time so have a good look around them when you do but be careful to interpret what you see correctly. As Moon Zoo team member astrostu points out even though there are some features that can be clearly seen in shadowed areas, we must be careful about reading too much into image artifacts.  Moon Zoo images have been compressed and will display blocky-looking features in regions of lower contrast.

Dr Tony Cook is a research lecturer at the Institute of Physics and Mathematics at Aberystwyth University. He researches into automated planetary cartography, and impact flash and change detection on the lunar surface. He is also Assistant Director of the British Astronomical Association Lunar Section.

Source: blogs.zooniverse.org

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