Space News Update- November 16, 2012 -

In the News

Story 1: Dark matter detector submerged in water tank

Story 2: NASA Great Observatories Find Candidate for

Most Distant Object in the Universe to Date

Story 3: Curiosity Providing New Weather and Radiation Data About Mars

Departments

The Night SkyISS Sighting Opportunities

NASA-TV HighlightsSpace CalendarFood for Thought

Space Image of the Week

Dark matter detector submerged in water tank

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NASA Great Observatories Find Candidate for

Most Distant Object in the Universe to Date

Curiosity Providing New Weather and Radiation Data About Mars

The Night Sky

Friday, November 16 · Spot the crescent Moon in the west as twilight fades, and use it to guide your way down to little Mars, as shown at right. · The Leonid meteor shower should be at its best in the hours before dawn Saturday morning. Under a dark sky you might see a dozen or so Leonids per hour. There is no moonlight. Saturday, November 17 · With a small telescope, watch Jupiter's big moon Ganymede slowly disappear into eclipse by Jupiter's shadow around 11:30 p.m. EST; 8:30 p.m. PST. Find Ganymede just off Jupiter's western side. · At roughly the same time, Jupiter's Great Red Spot (actually pale orange-tan) appears nearest to the center of the planet's disk. For a listing of many more Jupiter events this month, good worldwide, see the November Sky & Telescope, pages 53-54.

The Night Sky

Sunday, November 18 · A low-altitude challenge: If the sky is very clear as twilight fades, aim your scope at tiny little Mars from a site with a low southwestern view. Follow Mars down as night falls. Can you detect the Lagoon Nebula, M8, and its embedded star cluster 1/3° or so to Mars's right?· Algol in Perseus, the prototype eclipsing binary star, should be in one of its periodic dimmings, magnitude 3.4 instead of its usual 2.1, for a couple hours centered on 10:45 p.m. EST. Algol takes several additional hours to fade and to rebrighten. Monday, November 19 · Fomalhaut, the "Autumn Star," culminates (reaches its highest point due south) around 7 p.m. now, depending on how far east or west you live in your time zone. High above, the western side of the Great Square of Pegasus points almost down to it. The other side of the Great Square points down roughly to Beta Ceti (Diphda or Deneb Kaitos), not quite so far.

ISS Sighting Opportunities

Sighting information for other cities can be found at NASA’s Satellite Sighting Information

For Denver:

SATELLITE LOCAL DURATIONMAX ELEV

APPROACH DEPARTURE

DATE/TIME (MIN) (DEG) (DEG-DIR) (DEG-DIR)

ISS Sat Nov 17/05:26 AM 3 24 24 above NNW 10 above NNE

ISS Sun Nov 18/04:39 AM < 1 14 14 above NE 11 above NE

ISS Sun Nov 18/06:13 AM 3 12 10 above NW 10 above NNE

ISS Mon Nov 19/05:24 AM 1 15 15 above N 11 above NNE

NASA-TV Highlights

Watch NASA TV on the Net by going to NASA website.

November 17, Saturday2:15 p.m. - ISS Expedition 33/34 Change of Command Ceremony (S. Williams hands over ISS command to Ford) - JSC (All Channels)4 p.m., 6 p.m., 8 p.m., 10 p.m. - Replay of ISS Expedition 33/34 Change of Command Ceremony (S. Williams hands over ISS command to Ford) - HQ (All Channels) November 18, Sunday12 a.m., 2 a.m., 4 a.m., 6 a.m., 8 a.m., 10 a.m., 1 p.m. - Replay of ISS Expedition 33/34 Change of Command Ceremony (S. Williams hands over ISS command to Ford) - HQ (All Channels)1:45 p.m. - ISS Expedition 33 Farewells and Hatch Closure Coverage (hatch closure scheduled at 2:10 p.m. ET) - JSC (All Channels)5 p.m. - ISS Expedition 33/Soyuz TMA-05M Undocking Coverage (undocking scheduled at 5:26 p.m. ET) - JSC (All Channels)7:30 p.m. - ISS Expedition 33/Soyuz TMA-05M Deorbit Burn and Landing Coverage (Deorbit burn scheduled at 7:58 p.m. ET, landing near Arkalyk, Kazakhstan scheduled at 8:53 p.m. ET) - JSC via Kazakhstan (All Channels)10 p.m. - Video File of the ISS Expedition 33/Soyuz TMA-05M Landing and Post-Landing Activities - HQ (All Channels) November 19, Monday12 a.m., 2 a.m. 4 a.m., 6 a.m., 8 a.m. - Replay of Video File of the ISS Expedition 33/Soyuz TMA-05M Landing and Post-Landing Activities - HQ (All Channels)10 a.m. - Video File of the ISS Expedition 33/Soyuz TMA-05M Landing and Post-Landing Activities; may include post-landing interviews with Expedition 33 Commander Sunita Williams of NASA and Flight Engineer Aki Hoshide of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and the return of Cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko to Chkalovsky Airfield near Star City, Russia - JSC (All Channels)

Space Calendar

Nov 16 - Cassini, Orbital Trim Maneuver #335 (OTM-335) Nov 16 - Moon Occults Pluto Nov 17 - Leonids Meteor Shower Peak Nov 17 - Comet 262P/McNaught-Russell Closest Approach To Earth (0.840 AU) Nov 17 - [Nov 10] Asteroid 2012 VB26 Near-Earth Flyby (0.025 AU) Nov 17 - Asteroid 1278 Kenya Closest Approach To Earth (1.316 AU) Nov 17 - Asteroid 5731 Zeus Closest Approach To Earth (0.412 AU) Nov 17 - Henry Gellibrand's 415th Birthday (1597) Nov 18 - [Nov 14] Soyuz TMA-05M Return To Earth (International Space Station) Nov 18 - Asteroid 35352 Texas Closest Approach To Earth (1.518 AU) Nov 19 - Comet P/2010 TO20 (LINEAR-Grauer) Closest Approach To Earth (4.828 AU) Nov 19 - Asteroid 1999 SF10 Near-Earth Flyby (0.035 AU) Nov 19 - Asteroid 7672 Hawking Closest Approach To Earth (1.107 AU)

JPL Space Calendar

Food for Thought

SETI Institute Receives $3.5 Million Donation

Space Image of the Week

Image Credit: ESA/NASA