INDIAN MOON LAUNCH--SUCCESS! India is on its way to the Moon. Earlier today, the country's space agency launched the 4-ton Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft from the edge of the Bay of Bengal. The payload contains a lunar orbiter, a lander and a 6-wheeled rover, scheduled to touch down on Sept. 7th. This marks India's first attempt to make a 'soft' landing on the Moon — a feat so far achieved only by the United States, Russia and China. [more]

DISAPPEARANCE OF THE MORNING STAR: Looking for Venus? Don't bother. It has vanished from the morning sky, swallowed by the glare of the sun. Human eyes may not be able to see the 2nd planet, but SOHO can. The orbiting Solar and Heliospheric Observatory has a coronagraph to block the sunlight, revealing nearby stars and planets:

For the next few weeks, Venus will move closer and closer to the sun, drawing within 1.3 degrees on August 13th. After that, Venus will shift to the evening sky, eventually returning to full visibility in late September. Stay tuned to SOHO for a ringside seat.

PS: What are those circled streaks? Not meteors. Cosmic rays striking SOHO's CCD camera can produce streaks in the observatory's coronagraph images. Right now, cosmic rays are extra-intense as the sun's magnetic field weakens during Solar Minimum. Streaky images in spacecraft cameras are a side-effect.

LASER-ETCHED MOON CUBE: Last week, the students of Earth to Sky Calculus launched a cosmic ray balloon to the stratosphere. This unique laser-etched Moon cube went along for the ride, ascending to an altitude of 101,140 feet:

You can have it for $119.95. The students are selling these cubes as a fund-raiser for their cosmic ray ballooning program. It's an authentic representation of the Moon, with all of the craters, mountains and lava plains accurately portrayed.

Each Moon-cube comes with a unique gift card showing the item floating at the top of Earth's atmosphere. The interior of the card tells the story of the flight and confirms that this gift has been to the edge of space and back again.

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