Month: January 2020

2020 January 20 Quadrantid Meteors through Orion Image Credit & Copyright: Petr Horálek Explanation: Why are these meteor trails nearly parallel? Because they were all shed by the same space rock and so can be traced back to the same direction on the sky: the radiant of the Quadrantid Meteor Shower. This direction used to be toward the old constellation of Quadrans Muralis, hence the name Quadrantids, but when the International Astronomical Union formulated its list of modern constellations in 1922, this constellation did not make the list. Even though the meteors are now considered to originate from the recognized constellation of Bootes, the old name stuck. Regardless of the designation, every January the Earth moves through a dust stream and bits of this dust…

2020 January 18 An Almost Eclipse of the Moon Image Credit & Copyright: Gyorgy Soponyai Explanation: This composited series of images follows the Moon on January 10, the first Full Moon of 2020, in Hungarian skies. The lunar disk is in mid-eclipse at the center of the sequence though. It looks only slightly darker there as it passes through the light outer shadow or penumbra of planet Earth. In fact during this penumbral lunar eclipse the Moon almost crossed into the northern edge of Earth’s dark central shadow or umbra. Subtle and hard to see, this penumbral lunar eclipse was the first of four lunar eclipses in 2020, all of which will be penumbral lunar eclipses. 半影月食 影像提供与版权：Gyorgy Soponyai 说明：这个组合影像系列，呈现1月10日悬在匈牙利上空的2020年头个满月。而在这个影像系列中间的月盘，则记录了一次月食的中点。不过它只是稍暗一些，因为月盘刚好穿过地球影子淡灰色的外围半影。在这次的半影月食期间，月亮几乎接触到地球黝黑暗影中心的本影之北缘。隐约且难以察觉的这个半影月食，是2020年4次月食（全是半影月食）的首例。

2020 January 17 Apollo 17: A Stereo View from Lunar Orbit Gene Cernan, Apollo 17, NASA; Anaglyph by Patrick Vantuyne Explanation: Get out your red/blue glasses and check out this awesome stereo view of another world. The scene was recorded by Apollo 17 mission commander Eugene Cernan on December 11, 1972, one orbit before descending to land on the Moon. The stereo anaglyph was assembled from two photographs (AS17-147-22465, AS17-147-22466) captured from his vantage point on board the Lunar Module Challenger as he and Dr. Harrison Schmitt flew over Apollo 17’s landing site in the Taurus-Littrow Valley. The broad, sunlit face of the mountain dubbed South Massif rises near the center of the frame, above the dark floor of Taurus-Littrow to its left. Beyond the…

2020 January 15 Iridescent Clouds over Sweden Image Credit & Copyright: Goran Strand Explanation: Why would these clouds multi-colored? A relatively rare phenomenon in clouds known as iridescence can bring up unusual colors vividly or even a whole spectrum of colors simultaneously. These polar stratospheric clouds clouds, also known as nacreous and mother-of-pearl clouds, are formed of small water droplets of nearly uniform size. When the Sun is in the right position and, typically, hidden from direct view, these thin clouds can be seen significantly diffracting sunlight in a nearly coherent manner, with different colors being deflected by different amounts. Therefore, different colors will come to the observer from slightly different directions. Many clouds start with uniform regions that could show iridescence but quickly become…