Space News Update- October 10, 2014 -

In the News

Story 1: Mars spacecraft poised for dramatic comet flyby

Story 2: NASA's Hubble Maps the Temperature and Water Vapor on an Extreme Exoplanet

Story 3: Partial Solar Eclipse, October 23, 2014

 Departments

The Night SkyISS Sighting Opportunities

Space CalendarNASA-TV Highlights

Food for ThoughtSpace Image of the Week

Mars spacecraft poised for dramatic comet flyby

NASA's Hubble Maps the Temperature and Water Vapor on an Extreme

Exoplanet

Partial Solar Eclipse, October 23, 2014

Sunday, October 12Orion preview: With fall well underway, the "winter" constellation Orion rises in the east by 11 or midnight, depending on how far east or west (respectively) you live in your time zone. It's well to the lower right of the waning Moon. Orion's Belt will be vertical, as it always is when Orion is rising for mid-northern skywatchers. Orion reaches its highest stand in the south well before the first light of dawn, with the Moon now above it (on the morning of the 13th). Monday, October 13As twilight fades, look for Arcturus, the Spring Star, twinkling in the west to west-northwest. It's still pretty easy to see. But how much later into the fall, as it sinks away, will you be able to keep it in view? 

The Night Sky

Sky & Telescope

Friday, October 10The waning gibbous Moon is up in the east by 9 or 10 p.m. Look left of it (by about a fist-width at arm's length) for the Pleiades. Much farther left, in the northeast, shines Capella in Auriga.High above the Moon and Capella, forming a big triangle with them, is the naked-eye eclipsing variable star Algol. It should be at its minimum light, magnitude 3.4 instead of its usual 2.1, for a couple hours centered on 12:36 a.m. tonight EDT; 9:36 p.m. PDT. Algol takes several additional hours to fade and to recover. Saturday, October 11The Moon late this evening shines near Aldebaran amid the Hyades. Take a look with binoculars. This will be a challenging scene to photograph (use a long lens), what with the Moon's brilliance and the Hyades stars' faintness. By dawn they've moved over to high in the southwest.

ISS Sighting Opportunities

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

ISS For Denver:

Date Visible Max Height Appears Disappears

Sat Sep 27, 5:11 AM

3 min 19° 14 above NNW 17 above NE

Sun Sep 28, 4:24 AM

< 1 min 14° 14 above NE 13 above NE

Sun Sep 28, 5:57 AM

5 min 62° 10 above NW 29 above ESE

Mon Sep 29, 5:10 AM

2 min 36° 28 above N 25 above ENE

Tue Sep 30, 4:24 AM

< 1 min 15° 15 above ENE 15 above ENE

Tue Sep 30, 5:57 AM

5 min 43° 17 above WNW 12 above SSE

NASA-TV Highlights

No Special Event programming.

Watch NASA TV online by going to the NASA website

Space Calendar

JPL Space Calendar

Oct 10 - Comet 148P/Anderson-LINEAR Closest Approach To Earth (1.794 AU)Oct 10 - Comet C/2014 N3 (NEOWISE) Closest Approach To Earth (3.302 AU)Oct 10 - Asteroid 37 Fides At Opposition (9.9 Magnitude)Oct 10 - Asteroid 18399 (1992 WK1) Occults HIP 3056 (6.4 Magnitude Star)Oct 10 - Asteroid 3 Juno Occults TYC 0206-00073-1 (11.3 Magnitude Star)Oct 10 - Asteroid 2012 KY3 Near-Earth Flyby (0.050 AU)Oct 10 - [Oct 04] Asteroid 2014 TT Near-Earth Flyby (0.090 AU)Oct 10 - Asteroid 4783 Wasson Closest Approach To Earth (1.576 AU)Oct 10 - Asteroid 82332 Las Vegas Closest Approach To Earth (1.578 AU)Oct 10 - Kuiper Belt Object 19308 (1996 TO66) At Opposition (46.174 AU)Oct 11 - Comet 309P/LINEAR Closest Approach To Earth (1.215 AU)Oct 11 - Asteroid 2010 FV9 Near-Earth Flyby (0.022 AU)Oct 11 - [Oct 04] Asteroid 2014 TR Near-Earth Flyby (0.025 AU)Oct 11 - Asteroid 498 Tokio Closest Approach To Earth (1.200 AU)Oct 11 - Asteroid 15131 Alanalda Closest Approach To Earth (1.617 AU)Oct 11 - 20th Anniversary (1994), Magellan Burnup in Venus' AtmosphereOct 12 - Comet 150P/LONEOS At Opposition (3.770 AU)Oct 12 - [Oct 06] Asteroid 2014 TJ17 Near-Earth Flyby (0.038 AU)Oct 12 - [Oct 02] Asteroid 2014 SD304 Near-Earth Flyby (0.074 AU)Oct 12 - Asteroid 1814 Bach Closest Approach To Earth (1.102 AU)Oct 12 - Asteroid 44016 Jimmypage Closest Approach To Earth (1.543 AU)Oct 12 - Asteroid 327 Columbia Closest Approach To Earth (1.740 AU)Oct 12 - Asteroid 234750 Amymainzer Closest Approach To Earth (1.773 AU)Oct 12 - 50th Anniversary (1964), Voskhod 1 LaunchOct 12-17 - 13th Quadrennial Symposium on Solar-Terrestrial Physics, Xi'an, ChinaOct 12-18 - [Oct 05] Earth Science WeekOct 13 - Comet 252P/LINEAR At Opposition (3.288 AU)Oct 13 - 55th Anniversary (1959), Explorer 7 LaunchOct 13 - 55th Anniversary (1959), Hamlet Meteorite Fall (Hit House in Indiana)

Food for Thought

NASA clears commercial crew contractors to resume work

Space Image of the Week

Astronaut Reid Wiseman on the First Spacewalk of Expedition 41