Monday, January 28, 2008

Backyard Astronomers: Asteroid Flyby

Space Weather News for Jan. 28, 2008
http://spaceweather.com

ASTEROID FLYBY: Asteroid 2007 TU24 is flying past Earth this week at a distance of only 334,000 miles (1.4 lunar distances). NASA radars tracking the asteroid confirm that there is no danger of a collision, but it will be close enough for amateur astronomers to photograph through mid-sized backyard telescopes. At closest approach on Jan. 29th, the asteroid will glide through the constellations Andromeda and Cassiopeia glowing like a 10th magnitude star. Visit http://spaceweather.com for celestial coordinates and a low-resolution radar image of the approaching rock.

HALO BONUS: A photographer in Finland has captured the long-sought "Kern arc", a rare sun halo created by triangular ice crystals. Experts are calling it the "halo photo of the decade" and it is featured on today's edition of http://spaceweather.com.

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