SUNSET SKY SHOW: When the sun goes down tonight, step outside and look west. The crescent Moon is approaching Venus for a side-by-side meeting on Feb. 27th. Be sure to look for a ghostly image of the full Moon inside the arms of the crescent. That's the Da Vinci Glow. Pictures are easy to take and may be submitted here.
A COMET, A NEBULA, AND A GALAXY: Last night, deep inside the Big Dipper, a strange triangle appeared. It lasted for only a few hours, but Gerald Rhemann was ready and he photographed it from his back yard in Eichgraben, Lower Austria. The vertices were a green comet, a blue nebula, and a silvery galaxy:
This triangle appeared, oh so briefly, when Comet ATLAS (C/2019 Y4) flew past the Owl Nebula (M97) and the Surfboard Galaxy (M108) on Feb. 25th. The threesome is breaking up now because Comet ATLAS has to be somewhere else. It's about to visit to the sun.
On May 31, 2020, Comet ATLAS will dip inside the orbit of Mercury only 0.25 AU from the sun. Astronomers have seen a comet do this before. Comet ATLAS's orbit is similar to that of the Great Comet of 1844, which was visible in broad daylight when it passed very close to the sun in the 19th century. Indeed, Comet ATLAS might be a fragment of that Great Comet.
Will Comet ATLAS also become visible in broad daylight? Or will it evaporate before it gets a chance to really shine? No one knows. Whatever happens, the Heliospheric Imager onboard NASA's STEREO-A spacecraft will be able to record the action. Stay tuned.
Realtime Comet Photo Gallery
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Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery
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A GIFT FROM THE EDGE OF SPACE: Every time the students of Earth to Sky Calculus launch cosmic ray sensors to the stratosphere, they send a little something extra along for the ride. For example, this Northern Lights pendant:
On Dec. 6, 2019, it flew 107,612 feet above the rugged Sierra Nevada mountains of central California.
You can have it for $129.95. The students are selling these pendants as a fund-raiser for their cosmic ray monitoring program. They make great anniversary, birthday and Mother's Day gifts. Each pendant comes with a greeting card showing the jewelry in flight and telling the story of its journey to the stratosphere and back again.
Far Out Gifts: Earth to Sky Store
All sales support hands-on STEM education