h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Liz Bonninnow! I could gaze at her

Meteor shower followed by partial solar eclipse... that would explain the total cloud cover and icy rain then...

yep

I *did* manage to see Jupiter and Uranus last night though

Me too, until they set behind next door's chimney! Cheeky and I could make out the pattern on Jupiter's surface! Beautiful!

This is for me later: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12100971

I *did* manage to see Jupiter and Uranus did they buy a round ?

Missed out completely on Jupiter and Uranus last night, it was raining despite a 'partially cloudy' forecast. Somewhat clearer tonight, but still partially cloudy. Only first magnitude stars readily visible, a few third magnitude stars visible with a hard squint where the sky is clearest.

On the other hand, there's still a chance, since Uranus is still going to be near Jupiter and hence easy to find for the remainder of the week.

I thought this was pretty interesting. The ISS crosses the sun in .86 of a second, and the photographer caught it during the solar eclipse:

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/01/double-eclipse/

"That's no moon... it's a space-station!"

And there's a TIE fighter escorting it, too!!

Fantastic shot though!

and see how quiet the Sun is, only one sunspot of note and that's pretty small. Next year is supposed to be the height of the solar cycle, we've been building up to it for a while now. http://www.star.ucl.ac.uk/~idh/apod/ap071203.html

http://www.universetoday.com/82152/10-year-old-girl-discovers-a-supernova/

go that girl!

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/68586/title/New_planet_small_but_tough

not much chance of having a holiday home there then

Dwarf Galaxy - Big Black Hole, from Wired Magazine:

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/01/dwarf-galaxy-black-hole/

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/space/8253275/Digital-image-of-night-sky.html

you are here -> .

good stuff here, just catching up!

Spotted this one on Bad Astronomy about Hanny's Voorwerp
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2011/01/11/voorwerp/#more-26456

but what really got me about the explanation - that it is a gas cloud being illuminated by a nearby galaxy (a process which has now stopped, but the gas cloud will take a while to stop glowing) and that the image shows there are star forming regions in the parts of the cloud closest to the galaxy.

That means star formation *outside* of a galaxy! As the BA himself says:

"What a view any potential future civilizations will have: an almost entirely black sky, with a giant galaxy hanging there looking down on them. They’ll have interesting mythology, I’d wager."

I'll bet! That'd be a very interesting sky to see

I won't say what that green part looks like to me

Hungry? See the almond shaped eye like feature above and to the right of the maw?

I'm thinking tissue hanky deposits

Hanny's Voorwerp? Oh yes, I remember that A42130351 Hanny is famous now, she's been on The Sky At Night being interviewed by Sir Patrick Moore!

I like the comment at the BA article - "Voorwerp sounds like something out of a Douglas Adams novel"