Lunar Mercury Conjunction

Just before I left for holidays there was a Lunar, Mercury conjunction. Mercury is an elusive target to image as it is small and doesn't stray too far from the Sun. the above image is the Moon with earthshine and Mercury about 40 minutes after Sunset May 6th.




Less is more as in the image above, thought the Moon looked cool half blocked out by the clouds.


A new free software program was just released May 13th called the WorldWide Telescope. People this has got to be the most frakking gorgeous and informative piece of software I have seen in a long time. It is a Web 2.0 based program so it is very pretty and the interface is very intuitive.

With this software you have access to terabytes of information, images from multiple telescopes such as The Hubble Telescope, Spitzer Space Telescope and the Chandra X-Ray Observatory and guided tours of the universe from scientists and educators. If you like anything to do with space or astronomy, it's a no brainer, download this puppy

Just a reminder the Phoenix Mars Lander is scheduled to touch down on the Martian surface tomorrow at around 7:53 pm EDT. NASA TV will have a lot of coverage starting with a briefing today at 3:00 pm EDT, then Sunday with a news briefing at 3:00 pm EDT, then 6:00 pm EDT Sunday the landing event coverage starts.

I'll leave you now with an animated BC Sunset