Our Milky Way Galaxy

It was a clear Moonless sky, perfect for me to get out of town and snap a few images of our Milky Way Galaxy, which Sky and Telescope has chosen one for their online readers photo section, which is cool. Traveled for about 30 minutes, far from the city lights to a little back country road. So I pull off the main road onto a dirt road that disappeared about 20 yards in, thought this will do, got out of the car and set up my equipment. The Milky Way was a sight, beyond description. As I was taking pictures cars coming up to my spot would slow down thinking I was a cop, once they found out I wasn't they honked their horns, I thought this can't be good, gonna make some people a little upset, Hey whatta gonna do.

I was thinking to myself as I was admiring the utter magnificence of our home galaxy, the people driving by don't know and don't care what's going on, traveling to and fro, while the cosmos is just above them. Whenever I look at the stars I think there is so much we don't understand, example, did you know that we still haven't mapped the entire Milky Way yet, they are saying that there are still areas of the Milky Way that if where on a map would have to say, "There be dragons here". Well when you think about it, it's like trying to map a forest when you're in the midst of it, hard to do.


Some fun facts about our Milky Way.

All the stars we see in the night sky are from our Milky Way, somewhere in the neighborhood of 200-400 billion of them.

Our Milky Way is around 100,000 light years in diameter and 16,000 light years thick.

Dust and non-luminous matter is the reason for the dark rifts in the above images, which block the starlight from the stars behind it from reaching us.

Our Sun orbits the center of the galaxy, which by the way takes 200 million years.

Since it's birth, the Sun has orbited the center of our Milky Way only 20 times.

Our Milky Way Galaxy was formed around 13 billion years ago, the result of a large collapsing ball of gas and dust.

The Milky Way is part of a local group of galaxies of which Andromeda is a part of.

The Andromeda Galaxy is moving towards us at a speed of 1,800 km per minute, impact in 3 billion years, not to worry, the Sun will have fried us by then, not to worry, we will attain Class III civilization by then if we don't destroy ourselves first and will have started to populate other planets in the galaxy, but first we have to get to Mars, which I have already bought property on, being the forward thinker I am.

I'll leave you now with an animated gif of one of my Milky Way images.

Mars And Beehive Star Cluster Conjunction

Took a couple images of the Mars, Beehive open star cluster conjunction which occurred May 22nd. The Beehive Cluster is located in the constellation Cancer, is anywhere from about 400-750 million years old, 577 light years away and is 16 light years in diameter.


Ancient Greeks called the stars in the sky that seemed to wander, Planetoi. wanderers, hence the word planet, my second image below I took the night after my first shot illustrates the wandering part quite nicely thank you very much.

A cool utility that I used to frame the top image is Pikifx, if you want to email someone a picture you took and make it look a little more finished you can just put a frame around it. The software is totally free and it's one of those things like my fisheye lens and animated images at the bottom of my posts that I will probably overuse, I have a habit of grabbing onto something I really, really like and using it over and over and over and over and over again until I get sick of it and stop, and then remembering about it again and then the cycle repeats itself, over and over again.

Some more cool upcoming conjunctions are happening, one June 7th. the Moon with earthshine and Mars are getting together, look low in the west sky around an hour after Sunset. June 8th. look to the west an hour after Sunset again for a Moon Saturn and Regulus gathering. June 30th. look in the west sky for Saturn, Mars and Regulus grouping and then July 5th. and 6th. west sky again for a Saturn, Mars, Regulus and Moon conjunction, all these conjunctions about an hour after Sunset.

The The Phoenix Mars Lander has gathered its first official scoop and is ready to deposit it into Its' lab's partially open doors, yeah that's right the doors haven't fully opened up, it will take up to a week to study the sample and come back with the results. I'm hoping it will be "We've found water!" instead of the usual "We've found evidence of water."



Totally off space topics and keeping with my overuse problem, I have posted a framed image of a yellow bird that I took while on vacation in BC, I have looked everywhere for the name and type of bird with no luck, can anybody help me out? I would really like to know the type of bird this is.

I'll like to leave you now with my Milky Way image with the exploding meteor as an animated gif, which I call "Shooting Star"

Moon, Jupiter Conjunction

Sunday April 27th. in the early morning hours we had a Lunar, Jupiter conjunction, how early, well it started as the pair rose, around 2:47 am. That's right 2:47 am, now you'd think everyone in their right mind would probably be asleep at that time, unless and of course they knew of the conjunction, not so, it was a busy morning, all kinds of cabs driving people home from the bars, one of my spots is right across from an apartment complex, oh and there were a couple kids doing 360's in their cars behind me in the Shoppers Drug Mart parking lot, hey why not Shoppers had all their parking lot lights on through the whole night even though they close at midnight, I guess they aren't getting with the whole Earth Hour type thing.

The image above is a wide angle shot, notice the beautiful red Moon, people ask me, was the Moon really that red, yes,... yes it was, because the Moon was low on the horizon, its moonlight had to travel through more atmosphere, the atmospheric particles scatter the blues of the moonlight and allow the reds through , no photoshop adjustments, actually it was a darker red, almost couldn't see it, it is a lighter red in the image because of the 4 second exposure lightening it up some. The image below, an 8 second exposure again lightening the color.

Looking at these pictures can't convey the surrealistic feeling you have viewing it live and in person, it was unbelievable, the red Moon seemed to be floating in a sea of black, too cool.

I'm pretty excited, My wife and I will be taking a weeks vacation starting May 10th to visit my oldest daughter Amanda and boyfriend Dave in Kelowna British Columbia. They have two of the cutest, what my wife likes to call Granddogs, one being an Old English Sheepdog Great Pyrenees cross, the other a Newfoundland Great Pyrenees cross, Ill take pics and post. There should be plenty of photo ops with the beautiful weather, the mountains and since they live outside of town there will be lots of dark skies for star gazing, expect some cool photos.

A friendly reminder about the Eta Aquarids meteor shower Monday May 5th. 4 am, look to the Southeast just up from the horizon, then Tuesday May 6th look to the West-Northwest 45 minutes after Sunset for the Moon with earthshine, Mercury and Pleiades gathering.

I'll leave you now with an animated gif of one of my Moon, Jupiter pics.

Gamma Ray Burst and Worm Moon

Time and again readers such as Anna and JJ along with others have sent me articles of space happenings and current affairs of the night sky. This is too cool, my readers are taking the time out of their busy day to do this, it means a lot to me, so what I am going to do on my Saturday post is start a new Black holes feature called "Readers Choice" or "You asked for it" haven't really decided yet, and showcase their news item in my post with a mention. If you can think of a better title you can email me or comment about it in the comment section.

Todays "Readers Choice" or "You asked for it" or "Whatever The Reader Comes Up With" post comes from Lynda, a news article about a naked eye Gamma Ray Burst, the above animation.
On March 19, 2008 astronomers using the NASA SWIFT Spacecraft's telescope noticed in the location of the constellation Bootes a Gamma Ray Burst so bright it could be seen by the naked eye, named GRB 080319B it is around 7. 5 billion light years distant. This particular GRB is roughly 2.5 million times brighter then any previously recorded Supernova.

Gamma Ray Bursts occur when large stars die, their core collapses to form Black Holes or Neutron Stars shooting off Gamma Rays and jets of particles into space. Scientists are just now looking into the reasons this ray was so bright, one reason they say is the star seemed to focus most of it's energy and particle jets directly at Earth.

The above Moon image is my 100% of full March Moon, or Worm Moon. Called the Worm Moon by Native Americans because it is the month when the ground thaws, bringing out the worms and providing food for the returning Robins. Other names for the March Full moon, "Buffalo Dropping Their Calves Moon", "Catching Fish Moon", "Noisy Goose Moon", "Long Days Moon", and "Warming Moon"

I always post The Full Moon for each month, this month I thought I would do something different, post a few pics of the Moon as the terminator crosses it's surface to show you the different features and craters of the Moon. If you want a larger view just click on the image.

94% of Full Moon

83% of Full Moon



78% of Full Moon


Half Moon

Lunar Halo and Mars, Moon Conjunction

Out on my back deck getting some images of the Mars , Moon conjunction last Friday night when I noticed that a lunar halo was starting to form, try to take a picture from my backyard, no go, with all the city lights there wasn't enough contrast, decided to get out of town, literally, not sarcastically, and get the pic. These things come and go real quickly so I run through the house with my camera and tripod telling my wife gotta go , take pictures. Ever since I got the Canon 40D I've been doing a lot of this up and leaving on such short notice, so my wife is used to it.

Get to my site, setup the tripod and camera, get the pics. Lots going on in the night sky, there was Mars conjuncting with the Moon, the Pleiades, Orion out in full force and to top it all off the lunar halo. Quite an awesome sight, maybe even enough to impress my wife.

About a month ago I was driving my wife to work when I noticed Venus shining brightly in the east sky, burning through some light clouds, very impressive indeed, pointed this out to my wife, she said cool. That's what I'm talking about, may not know how to fix a car, or build an addition to a house, but I know where Venus is. We were stopped at a red light when I noticed out of the corner of my eye Venus starting to move, now don't get me wrong planets move, just not that fast and certainly not back into the direction from which they just came. Thinking to myself, please don't be a plane, please don't be a plane, please don't be a plane, crap it's a plane, then I'm thinking, please don't let her notice, please don't let her notice, please don't let her notice, then "Hey that's not Venus, it's a plane", credibility down the tubes, but now with this impressive sight, throw around words like Lunar halo, gotta impress. Get home, tell my wife about the Lunar halo, she says, "You're making this up", I say no, come out and take a look, thinking to myself, still be there, still be there, still be there, it was, she was impressed, everything is right again with the universe. Sorry about the grainy images, blogger wouldn't let me download anything more than 268k, I think one image is like 68k, the originals are fabulous, really.

A couple things to watch out for coming up in April are an occultation/conjunction of the Moon and the Pleiades April 8th., will be very cool as the Moon will be in a crescent phase and showing off it's earthshine, good viewing and photo op. On April 21st. the Lyrid meteor shower takes place, expect around 15 an hour, the Moon will be almost full which will take away some of the shower's bite, but hey, still a meteor shower none the less, and worth a view. Tonight you can see the Moon and Saturn conjuncting , Saturn will be just above the Moon. I will continue to update you on these and other events happening in the night sky on future posts.

Leave you now with my latest Sunset animation, taken a couple nights ago.

Black holes and astrostuff new look and 100th post

I've been saving the above picture for my 100th post, taken February 19 it is one of my favorite Moon images, the Moon brings the clouds to life, I like to call it, Moon in clouds with tree branches in the bottom left hand corner......picture.

I'd like to thank Lady Omega for doing such a great job of designing the new look for Black holes, all her hard work and continuous emails asking technical questions, like, how do you feel about wordpress or blogger, backup this, backup that, blah, blah ,blah, silly Lady Omega, my major concern is if I can get the little funny guys in the comment section, you know those emoticons you can add after your comments, there is a little green alien guy to die for, still working on it.

My 100th post today, I had something deep prepared for this special occasion, but after reading it I thought, this truly sucks, finally said to myself, "Bob step away from the post, step away from the post", you can't do deep, you only got what you got. Therein lies the problem, space is deep. My mission from the outset of this blog was to bring the universe to you from the viewpoint of a guy with a telescope, so that maybe you can somehow feel the wonder and excitement as I do, oh and you would all go out and buy a scope and live happily ever after.

I'm not an intellect or a writer, but being both those things would make it so much easier, well life's not like that, at least not for me, so all I can do is continue to do what I've been doing, inform you about the latest happenings in the night sky, so you can walk out your back door, look to the stars and have a better understanding and appreciation of all that has been given to us, maybe just for a moment you can forget your daily woes, they will be there once you walk back in the house, but for a time you will have gained a little of what God has so graciously bestowed upon me, a love for the utter magnificence of our cosmos.

Red Moon Rise

The day after the Total Lunar Eclipse was perfectly clear, a good time to try and capture a 98% of Full Moon Rise. The Moon was scheduled to rise at 7:40 pm, a perfect time, just the right darkness. So I head out to my dark location on the outskirts of the city. I'm driving along and there is a truck in front of me. Just up ahead of us is my little pull off the road area where I usually park my car and set up to take pics. We are getting closer and the truck slows down and pulls into MY spot, I don't think so, it's my spot, I pull in along side of the truck and notice it's full of people, 2 in the front, 2 in the cab, probably up to no good. As I'm pulling in they're all staring at me, and I'm staring back at them, its a stare down, people this is my spot and I'm staying, not leaving. So after what seems like an eternity the driver says something like fine, but not fine and speeds out, I win.

So I get out of my car, only after I can no longer see their truck and set up my tripod and look to the east for what I hoped to be a red Moon Rise. A little bit of background on the color of the Moon at rising. During the day the Sun heats the Earth causing turbulence which creates or lifts more dust into the lower atmosphere, this dust scatters the blues and allows the reds of the Sunlight or Moonlight through to be viewed by the observer here on Earth, that's also why Sunsets are generally more colorful then Sunrises.

Back to the story, I notice that the Moon is starting to rise, but behind a bunch of trees, good news it is going to be red, bad news, by the time it gets over the trees it will no longer be red, so I have to pack up and leave my hard fought for spot to find an area off the side of the road to get the proper angle to image the red Moon. I find a spot, of course there is no place to pull over except for the ditch so I keep the car running with the parking lights on to prevent people from running into the car and me as I'm taking the pic.

The Moon is in the perfect location for me and is red, I'm happy and I start taking the pics, as I'm doing all this I notice a truck pull up behind me slowly, crap it's the no goodniks from before, they stop and they stare at me, I don't stare back, that would be bad, I look ahead at the Moon, thinking, should I casually run back to the car or stay there and continue to take pictures.

They continue to stare, I'm finished and turn the camera off, grab the tripod and start to walk back to the car. The last count there were 4 of them, let me see I can maybe take out zero of them, but I am packing a camera and tripod, could throw them at someone. As I was walking back to the car I looked up at them and smiled they didn't return the smile, just stared, I then remembered the driver's last word to me wasn't fine. Finally made it to the car got in and locked the doors, they then sped off and I started to breath again. Got home and the pics turned out great, was it worth it, well in the end it turned out fine, next time someone pulls into my spot, they can have it.

I'll leave you now with one of my favorite Sunrises I just took this morning. I really like the way the Sun lit up the landscape and the plant life at the front of the the image.

Sun dogs and Solar halos

Finally people I have benefited in a large way from these stupid cold -35c temperatures in the form of very cool Sun dogs and Solar halos, because that's when these puppies come out to play. Sun dogs are bright circular spots on a Solar halo, they are caused by the sunlight reflecting and refracting off ice crystals in the high Cirrus clouds. The Earth's Cirrus clouds are wisp like clouds located above 23,000ft. White Sun dogs and Solar halos are caused by reflection, colored Sun dogs and Solar halos are caused by refraction.

The first image was taken behind the mall I work at, got two dogs and a halo, by the time I got to my second location out in the country I lost a dog, very fast changing phenomenon, but I gained a jet and it's contrails, very cool, the jet looked like it was going to crash into the Sun, so now the final image kind of looks like a giant old fashion speedometer.

I've posted here about a large U.S. spy satellite falling uncontrollably from space, a little update here. President Bush has Dispatched 3 warships to the northern Pacific Ocean, west of Canada for next week's firing of a missle to take out the spy satellite. U.S. officials have stated the reason for the shootdown is to prevent deadly fumes from the satellites on board propellant from escaping into the atmosphere. This action will of course prevent the Russians and Chinese from getting their hands on the satellite as well as give the military great target practice.

I have been stockpiling awards lately so thought I better get to awarding them to some other fine bloggers. Awards are great, they share the love and let a fellow blogger know you appreciate their efforts. I just wish, well I don't want to seem like a greedy Bob, but if somehow money was involved, man if I had a dollar for every award I've received I'd be a ..... wait, .. no that ain't going to work, .... let me see, carry the 6 divided by 2, times 1,000, okay, if I had $67,000.92 for every award I've received I'd be a millionaire, wild eh? Go Smell The Flowers has started the Flower Smeller Award, to be awarded to someone who is in their own way stopping to smell the flowers, has made waves in the blogging community, raised a family , got a promotion, is discovering their greatness, and the list goes on. The neat thing about this award is that you can award another 5 people next month and the month after that, till eternity, or you stop blogging, what ever comes first.

JD has honoured me with this award, I've been a fan of JDs for ever, drop by his place, you'll find stunning images and stories that'll keep you on the edge of your seat.

The 5 people I would like to present this award to this month, like I'm going to remember to do this next month, but who knows, anyways back to the awards. 1. Anna; great stories and photos, especially her Moon shots, which is how I found her, I thought great someone else who likes the Moon, we've been blogging together ever since. 2. AngelBaby; a very positive blog about all things angel, a very uplifting site indeed. 3. Livingsword; just discovered this blog not to long ago, excellent stories and messages, if you are a Survivor fan there are updates to be had there as well. 4. Max; another blog I've discovered just recently, excellent stories and messages as well.
5. Swubird very interesting site about his experiences in the military, and so much more, the neat thing is he has lived though a lot of cool stuff and has many stories to tell.

Quick reminder, this coming Wednesday February 20th. starting at 8:43 EST the last total Lunar Eclipse till 2010, snooze you loose. I'll leave you now with an animated gif of one of my Solar halo shots.

Conjunction Of Venus And Jupiter In Sagittarius

Venus, Jupiter conjunction January 31, 2008

Don't wanna seem like a braggy Bob, but I got a some real cool pics of the Venus , Jupiter conjunction. The weather co-operated apart from it being -30c, the camera still working at those temps, just amazing. Took an image the day before and the day of to show Jupiter's dance with Venus. If you missed the conjunction you can still see them close together and the Moon joining the gathering on Sunday February 3rd. early morning around 8am EST.

Venus, Jupiter conjunction February 1, 2008

Conjunctions are fun, everyone can enjoy them, just walk outside your house to view the gems in the sky, no equipment required. Some upcoming conjunctions are,

1. February 27, Venus and Mercury; dawn sky.

2. March 24, Venus and Mercury again; dawn sky.

3. September 11, Venus and Mars; dusk.

4. December 31, Jupiter and Mercury; dusk.

After a 2 month delay Shuttle Atlantis is set to launch Thursday February 7th. at 2:45 EST, that is as long as a bent hose for the Shuttle's radiator cooling system checks out okay. Shuttle Atlantis's main mission is to deliver and install the ESA's Columbus laboratory, if you can, check out NASA TV , they have cameras everywhere during the launch, very cool to watch.

Haven't had an animated GIF which seems like forerver, so I'll leave you with what I like to call "Moonset over water", I took this image a couple weeks ago with the Canon 40D.

Asteroids and Spy Satellites

People it's becoming one big shooting gallery up there, first we have the near miss of Mars with asteroid 20007 WD5 today, then we have the close approach of asteroid 2007 TU24 yesterday, the above image, then we have the Spy Satellite free falling out of the sky.

Okay, this intrigues me, being a Spy from way back when, I thought I better look into this one. To really understand what's going on here you have to think like a spy. We have stuff falling out of the sky regularly so why did we happen to hear about this one? Maybe the NSC wants the Russians and Chinese to know about this satellite so it would force their hand and use their antigravitational technologies, but the Russians and Chinese thinking like spys thinking that's what the Americans are trying to do and won't use their technology, but maybe the Americans don't really want the Russians and Chinese to get this satellite and think by saying how important it is, they think the Russians and Chinese will think they are just trying to force their hand and use the antigravitational technologies, and therefore they won't, so they win and the Russians and Chinese won't use their technologies to capture the satellite.

I know what your thinking, Bob's lost his mind for sure, but maybe I'm crazy like a fox, after all I am a spy from way back when, I know how these people think, maybe I have been working for the NSA all along and have been passing code, eg. 20007 all along in my posts.

Okay enough spy talk, I was washing dishes 6am Sunday morning when I was looking out my back window and thought wait a minute, it got bright all of a sudden, did the Moon sneak through the cloud cover I thought to myself, grabbed my camera which I always keep beside me now , ran out the back door and saw a cool Moon through what looked like a portal in space grabbed a couple of pics and got the shot. I'm gonna leave you now with a little video I took of the wolf Moon, notice the cool wispy clouds and the Moon's movement caused by the Earth's rotation, notice also the atmosphere turbulence causing it to look like it's going in and out of focus.

Picture Perfect Little Mercury

The above image of Mercury was taken about 17,000 miles out, 80 minutes after Messenger's closest approach of 126 miles. It is a view of Mercury never seen or imaged before.


Messenger made it's closest approach to Mercury January 14th. on it's long 4.9 billion mile journey to it's final goal of orbiting the tiny planet. That's right 4.9 billion mile journey, I know what you're thinking, "Bob have you lost your mind? what's this billion stuff? it's only 60 million miles to Mercury!". Yes I have lost my mind but that's totally besides the point, apparently because of Mercury's fast orbit and it's close proximity to the Sun, Messenger has to do a lot of planet flybys to decrease it's speed enough to obtain orbital insertion. To date Messenger has flown by Earth once, Venus 2 times and has 2 more flybys of Mercury in October 2008 and September 2009 before it obtains orbit of Mercury March 2011.

Will over at Healthy Living for People and Planet Earth brought up a good point in my comment section, Will asked why wouldn't the heat from the Sun burn up a man made probe to Mercury? Messenger has what they call a "sunshade" which amazingly enough protects the craft from the Sun and allows the electronics to operate at room temperature. We see what happens when the protective shielding doesn't deploy completely, like what happened with the first craft to visit Mercury Mariner 10.

Part of it's protective covering didn't fully open after launch rendering some of it's electronics and experiments useless. Mariner 10 made 3 passes of Mercury back in 1974/75, actually Mariner 10 was the first spacecraft to use the gravitational pull of a planet (Venus) to reach another(Mercury). Mariner 10 showed Mercury to be a cratered planet, it also showed Mercury to have a magnetic field, which is crazy talk, magnetic fields are usually associated with larger planets that spin rapidly, Mercury takes 59 days to rotate and it's molten core should have cooled off long ago. Messenger hopes to answer a lot of Mercury's unanswered questions, where does it's atmosphere come from, is it shrinking and why it is so dense with metals.

I have another One of my animated gifs for your viewing pleasure, a picture I took of the Andromeda Galaxy core back in the summer of 2007. Hey I have approximately lots more images to keep em coming till Messenger Orbital Insertion 2011.

Smokey Sunset

It's been pretty cloudy and miserable around here for the past week, since I got the new camera not much time to use it, feel like I'm all dressed up and no where to go. The last time I was able to get out and use it was over a week ago during the Quadrantids meteor shower, so when we got a break in the clouds, got the chance to get out and get me another sunset. There was some kind of what smelt like burning forest fire smoke in the atmosphere, gave the Sun a real cool look, awesome colors.

Shuttle Atlantis (STS 122) has a new target launch date, February 7th., this should give NASA plenty of time to install and test the new connection which replaces the faulty one that caused false readings in the engine cutoff system. Atlantis's main mission is to install and activate the European Space Agencies Columbus Laboratory. Shuttle Endeavour (STS 123) scheduled to launch on February 14th. will be pushed back to the middle of March. One of Endeavour's main missions is to deliver and install Dextre a robotic arm addition. Dextre is a sophisticated dual arm robot for very precise work.

Endeavour will also be delivering the first part of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Kibo, an experimental module/laboratory focusing on space medicine and biotechnology.

I'll leave you now with an animated GIF of my latest sunset.

Campanus Crater

UPDATE: The chances of asteroid 2007 WD 5 hitting Mars are now 1 in 10,000. Observations from 4 different observatories have indicated the asteroid will come no closer then 4,000 kms. to Mars.

The above image is the location of my acreage on the Moon, I mentioned the purchase here and there was a review of it here and I thought I would talk further of it here. I am the proud owner of an acre of land in the Campanus Crater, named after Johannes Campanus an Italian mathematician, 1220-1296. The exact location is, Lot #15/1247 26-30 degrees S.; 30-26 degrees W.

Just to prove I'm not crazy, or crazy depending on how you look at things, I took a pic of my Lunar deed, all legal and such. Just think of the conversation possibilities at all the dinner parties I frequent, "So Bob", "Yes Jim" "Do you happen to own any real estate?"" Why yes Jim, I do, I have a house in South Saskatoon, Wildwood, and an acreage in Campanus Crater" "Campanus crater, is that in the south part of town as well?" "Well no Jim, it is in the south part of the Moon." See, you'll be the talk of the town, when ever people look at the Moon they'll be thinking of you, get your Lunar Property today, maybe we can be neighbours.

Now that the Quadrantids meteor shower is over it's time to look forward to the next one, which isn't till April 22nd, the Lyrids. I'll keep you up to date on the wheres and whens on all upcoming showers throughout 2008.

The next big event is the total Lunar Eclipse for most of the Western Hemisphere on February 20/21. The above pic is an image I took of our last Total Lunar Eclipse August 28, 2007. If you miss it you'll have to wait till 2010 for the next one, that's a long way away, here's hoping the weather works for you.

The chances of asteroid 2007 WD5 impacting Mars have been lowered to 1 in 40 from 1 in 28. Observations made at the Calar Alto Observatory have scientists predicting the asteroid missing Mars by 18,641 miles.

AngelBaby who has a super blog about angels and such has awarded me with a great blog award, I am honoured to be a recipient of this award and would like to pass it on to a some of my fav blogs that I read. 1: swubird, a cool blog about science, WMD's, social issues and basically all kinds of cool stuff. 2: The Uneasy Supplicant, awesome prose and images. 3: Will, great blog about healthy living for people and planet Earth. 4: Hope Radio, inspirational site for the support of the military who fight for our freedom. 5: Peripheral Vision, a great site for photography and abstract paintings. 6: Sue's Daily Photography, just awesome images of my fav sunsets and palm trees. 7: Mr. Grudge, a place to go talk about writing and has very cool stories. 8: Life On The Blade, an all around inspirational blog. I want to leave you now with , that's right another GIF animation, thinking of renaming my blog, Blackholes and Astrogifs.