CPOD 8.2.12: Plato Moon Crater

This image was shot in San Diego, CA on July 27, 2012, of the 101 km wide Moon crater Plato. It was taken using a DMK 21AU618.AS camera attached to a Celestron CPC 800 8" SCT fitted with a Tele Vue 2.5x Powermate and Astronomik #742 Planet filter. The video was captured with IC Capture.AS 2.2 and the 1002 frames were stacked using RegiStax 6.1.

(Astrophotographer Jim Pontarelli via Astronomy Cameras Blog)

Incredible Jupiter Occultation

Here is an incredible Moon/Jupiter occultation using a Skywatcher 12" Dobsonian. I don't know much about the astronomer that shot the footage, other than his YouTube page, but I do know that it is awesome.

(via Google+)

If Jupiter Was As Close A The Moon

Breathtaking Double Crescents: Venus and the Moon

(Source: http://www.reddit.com/r/spaceporn/comments/ot9uw/two_crescents_venus_and_the_moon_1024x768/)

12 Amazing Pictures From 2011's Last Total Lunar Eclipse

If you were lucky, this morning you may have seen an amazing large red Moon as the Moon fell into Earth’s shadow. West Coast Americans got the best view and the the further east you go the less visible it became. The best views came from Australia and the Pacific Ocean. Luckily, there were plenty of pictures taken. Here are 12 courtesy of Twitter:

Space.com also posted a great infographic explaining how the eclipse works.

If you missed it, the next chance to view a partial lunar eclipse is June 04, 2012.

Our Minds May Never Be Able To Comprehend...

I would love to be able to credit the original image, but sadly I have no clue who made it. All I did was add the text.

Aircraft Carrier Sized Asteroid To Buzz By Earth November 8th

An asteroid some 1,300 wide, code named 2005 YU55, will come just slightly closer than the moon’s orbit on November 8th.

The encounter is being called safe and scientists say they “fully understand the asteroids trajectory”. NASA, who will be tracking 2005 YU55 with the Deep Space Network antenna starting November 4th, say the asteroid will not have any gravitational influence on Earth -meaning our tides and tectonic plates will be fine.

The trajectory of asteroid 2005 YU55 is well understood. At the point of closest approach, it will be no closer than 201,700 miles (324,600 kilometers) or 0.85 the distance from the moon to Earth.  The gravitational influence of the asteroid will have no detectable effect on anything here on Earth, including our planet’s tides or tectonic plates. Although 2005 YU55 is in an orbit that regularly brings it to the vicinity of Earth (and Venus and Mars), the 2011 encounter with Earth is the closest this space rock has come for at least the last 200 years.

Your mobile phone has more computing power than all of NASA in 1969...

So is this a sign of NASA’s lack of progress or just a sign of how badass our phones are now?

The Moon Is Lonely

Learning the Phases of the Moon with Oreos