Blogs

A fresh new face has moved into our neighborhood, but once it swings by Earth next month, it may never come back. Comet Lulin is currently sailing through the inner solar system and is getting closer to our home planet, with its nearest approach expected in late February

Read more on National Geographic News by Victoria Jaggard

CURIOUS ASTEROID FLYBY: Newly-discovered asteroid 2009 BD is slowly passing by Earth today only 400,000 miles away. The approximately 10 meter-wide space rock poses no significant threat, but it merits attention anyway: The orbit of 2009 BD appears to be almost identical to the orbit of Earth. 2009 BD may be a rare "co-orbital asteroid," circling the sun in near-tandem with our planet.

Saturn is getting bigger and higher.  The dark spot in Saturn is Titan NOT it's shadow.  Titan transits are very rare!  And I'm fortunate to be able to view this.  There are 3 more transits for the year.  The one on February 24 will be a rare quadruple transit!!

http://saturn.cstoneind.com/

From the days of our previous moon landings, we felt nothing could be larger than the Saturn V rocket, hurling the Lunar Lander and appendages towards the moon.

We then create a fabulous space telescope, "Hubble" and over the following years it has given us stupendous views of the cosmos.

Recently the talk has been just how close the Moon would be this week, some saying the closest ever!

Doesn't it seem strange that there's all this media attention on global warming and nothing on general air pollution and it's effects on quality of life and health? The weather channel does mention ozone and air quality a little during the summer. I think there should be more documentaries and major media attenion on what air pollution is and what effects it has on human health.

Does anyone know why there is a trend toward wide dispersion street lamps? And most of the newer lamps are brighter and provide a wider area of light. I think there's little concern on efficient use of electric power and no concern for light pollution(for the most part). Wouldn't street lamps be more effective and efficient if they were more focused and directional? I've seen new lamps put up on old highway lamp towers, and the new luminaire design is extremely wide dispersion and the old ones looked more like flashlights( more parabolic looking reflector and almost flat lens).

The Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope (LAMOST) is a quasi-meridian reflecting Schmidt telescope laid down on the ground with its optical axis fixed in the meridian plane. IT has a 4m aperture. With a 1.75 m focal plane it has a 5 degree field of view, and a 1/0.25 nm spectral resolution! 4000 optical fibers collect the spectra of 4000 objects. It has  the highest spectrum acquiring rate in the world. It is located at the Xinglong Observing Station outside Bejing.

It was my first attendance to the Annual DInner.. and a great time it was. It was nice to see everyone again. The Russian Hall was great, and the food fabulous. Thirds anyone???

Got my own copy of the Huygens landing, with all the features.... What a vid!...

Next year.. I'll have some pics to submit!!!

Phil

This is just a reminder that the North Jersey Astronomical Group's Annual Dinner will be on
Sunday, November 2, 2008, at The Russian Hall in Little Falls, NJ. The start time is 1 PM.

Cost is $28 per person.

Please make payment to the "North Jersey Astronomical Group."

You can mail it to either address below. Mailed before October 25, 2008: Neil B. Goldstein 131 Rensselaer Road Essex Fells, NJ 07021 Mailed after October 25, but before October 29th: NJAG P.O. Box 1472 Clifton, NJ 07015-1472