Space News Update- May 18, 2012 -

In the News

Story 1: Where to See the Annular Solar Eclipse Online

Story 2:SpaceX Launch on May 19, 4:55 AM

Story 3: NASA Lends Galaxy Evolution Explorer to Caltech

Departments

The Night SkyISS Sighting Opportunities

NASA-TV HighlightsSpace CalendarFood for Thought

Space Image of the Week

Where to See the Annular Solar Eclipse Online

SpaceX Launch on May 19, 4:55 AM

NASA Lends Galaxy Evolution Explorer to Caltech

The Night SkyFriday, May 18•Arcturus is the brightest star high in the southeast these evenings. It's the leading light of the constellation Bootes, the Herdsman. The main stars of Bootes form a narrow, bent kite shape extending left of Arcturus, nearly three fists at arm's length long. Or maybe the kite is a pointy-toed shoe, with Arcturus the tip of the toe.

Saturday, May 19•Venus is moving lower in the west every evening as twilight fades. It's now 2° left of much fainter Beta Tauri, which has been descending almost in parallel with it.

Sunday, May 20•Partial/annular eclipse of the Sun! See our article, May 20th's Annular Eclipse of the Sun •Arcturus shines high in the southeastern sky after dark. Vega, equally bright, shines lower in the northeast. A third of the way from Arcturus to Vega, look for dim Corona Borealis, the Northern Crown, with its one modestly bright star, Alphecca. Two thirds of the way from Arcturus to Vega is the dim Keystone of Hercules.New Moon (exact at 7:47 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time).

Monday, May 21•Can you pick up this month's thin crescent Moon yet? During twilight in the Americas it's barely 24 hours old. (After all, it was in front of the Sun yesterday afternoon!) Using binoculars, look for it no more than a half hour after sunset well below Venus in the west-northwest, as shown at lower right.

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 Fri May 18/05:08 AM 4 26 10 above SSW 21 above ESE

ISS Sat May 19/04:16 AM 3 12 10 above SSE 11 above ESE

ISS Sun May 20/04:56 AM 4 63 10 above SW 39 above ENE

ISS Mon May 21/04:04 AM 3 28 23 above S 16 above E

NASA-TV Highlights

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

May 18, Friday4 p.m. - Replay of SpaceX/Falcon 9 Dragon Pre-Launch Briefing - HQ (All Channels)6 p.m. – Replay of NASA Social at Kennedy Space Center, Florida – HQ (Public and Education Channels)6 p.m. - Replay of SpaceX/Falcon 9 Dragon Pre-Launch Briefing - HQ (Media Channel)8 p.m. – Replay of ISS Update (5/18) – HQ (All Channels)9 p.m. - Replay of SpaceX/Falcon 9 Dragon Pre-Launch Briefing - HQ (All Channels)10 p.m. – Replay of NASA Social at Kennedy Space Center, Florida – HQ (All Channels)

May 19, Saturday2 a.m. - Replay of SpaceX/Falcon 9 Dragon Pre-Launch Briefing - HQ (All Channels)3:30 a.m. - SpaceX/Falcon 9 Dragon Launch Coverage Begins (Launch scheduled at 4:55 a.m. EDT) - KSC  (All Channels)8:30 a.m. - SpaceX/Falcon 9 Dragon Post-Launch News Conference - KSC (All Channels)

May 21, Monday2:30 a.m. - SpaceX/Dragon Fly-Under of the ISS Coverage - JSC (All Channels)10 a.m. - SpaceX/Dragon Mission Status Briefing - JSC (All Channels)

Space Calendar

May 18 - Cassini, Orbital Trim Maneuver #322 (OTM-322)May 18 - Comet C/2010 R1 (LINEAR) Perihelion (5.621 AU)May 18 - Lecture: Faults and Folds on Mercury, Houston, TexasMay 18-20 - 2012 Bootleg Astronomy Star Party, Harmon, IllinoisMay 19 -[May 18] Dragon C-2 & C-3 Falcon 9 Launch (International Space Station)May 19 - Asteroid 433 Eros Occults 2UCAC 23131631 (11.7 Magnitude Star)May 19 - Asteroid 2660 Wasserman Occults HIP 69564 (6.4 Magnitude Star)May 19 - Asteroid 2010 KK37 Near-Earth Flyby (0.006 AU)May 19 - Northern Meeting of the British Interplanetary Society, York, United KingdomMay 19 - Keele Observatory's 50th Birthday Star Party, Keele, United KingdomMay 19-27 - Cracow School of Theoretical Physics: Astroparticle Physics in the LHC Era, Zakopane, PolandMay 20 -[May 17] Annular Solar Eclipse, Visible From China, Japan & North AmericaMay 20 - Cassini, Distant Flyby of Tethys, Enceladus, Daphnis, Prometheus, Pan, Methone, Pallene & TelestoMay 20 - Asteroid 2675 Tolkien Closest Approach To Earth (1.337 AU)May 20 - Asteroid 13667 Samthurman Closest Approach To Earth (1.716 AU)May 20-25 - ESF Research Conference: The Modern Era of Helio- and Asteroseismology, Otz Valley, near Innsbruck, AustriaMay 20-25 - Japan Geoscience Union Meeting (JpGU) 2012, Chiba City, JapanMay 20-26 - 12th Pisa Meeting on Advanced Detectors, La Biodola, Isola d'Elba, ItalyMay 20-Jun 09 - Aspen Meeting Summer 2012: A Window on the Formation of the Milky Way, Aspen, ColoradoMay 21 - Asteroid 29075 (1950 DA) Closest Approach To Earth (0.238 AU)May 21 - Asteroid 63163 Jerusalem Closest Approach To Earth (1.438 AU)May 21 - Asteroid 3252 Johnny Closest Approach To Earth (1.802 AU)May 21 - Colloquium: The Distribution of Star-forming Regions in the Milky Way, Sydney, Australia

JPL Space Calendar

Food for Thought

The Awesome Complexity of Hypersonic Flight

Space Image of the Week

Image Credit: NASA