Brian Ventrudo

The Science of the Christmas Star

December 21, 2015 by Brian Ventrudo Filed Under: Science

“O star of wonder, star of night,
Star with royal beauty bright,
Westward leading, still proceeding,
Guide us to thy perfect light.”

It may be the most famous star in history. But was it real? Mentioned just once in the gospel of Matthew, the “Star of Bethlehem”, or the “Christmas Star”, may have guided three wise men from the East in search of a newborn king. A few words written on a scroll two thousand years ago isn’t much to go on, but astronomers have a few ideas that may explain the apparition of a star near the time of the birth of Jesus.
[Read more…] about The Science of the Christmas Star

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Fly Along With a Comet

December 17, 2015 by Brian Ventrudo Filed Under: Science

rosetta_rotate_wac_20140910 — Animation of the nucleus of Comet 67/P Churyumov–Gerasimenko. (Courtesy ESA / Rosetta / MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS / UPD / LAM / IAA / SSO / INTA / UPM / DASP / IDA / “Herobrine”

Here’s a little Christmas present from the imaging team in charge of the OSIRIS camera on the Rosetta spacecraft, the little European probe that has been orbiting comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko. Though they were criticized for keeping the images to themselves for many months, the team has finally released a treasure chest of images online for the first time since Rosetta encountered the comet in August 2014. More images of the comet will be released into the albums in time. You can explore the images and albums of the Rosetta encounter with Comet 67/P at the link above [Read more…] about Fly Along With a Comet

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Rain of Geminid Meteors

December 15, 2015 by Brian Ventrudo Filed Under: Solar System

Alan Dyer at AmazingSky.net braved the cold of a New Mexico night to capture several hours of Geminid meteors on December 13, 2015 over the Very Large Array.

On December 13 I captured a rain of meteors over the famous VLA Radio Telescope in New… https://t.co/LDWuJMsoQV pic.twitter.com/k9sTk69A5V

— Alan Dyer (@amazingskyguy) December 15, 2015

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Geminid Meteor Shower 2015

December 11, 2015 by Brian Ventrudo Filed Under: Solar System, Stargazing

Meteors from the Geminid meteor shower (credit: Asim Patel)

As the days tick down to the December solstice, stargazers can engage in a little meteor watching as the Geminids meteor shower peaks during the nights of December 13-14, 2015. One of the best meteor showers of the year, the Geminids shows up to 100-150 meteors per hour in dark sky. This will be an excellent year because the waxing crescent Moon will set before the shower peaks [Read more…] about Geminid Meteor Shower 2015

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Snapshot and Video of Lunar Occultation of Venus

December 7, 2015 by Brian Ventrudo Filed Under: Solar System

Venus moves towards the limb of the crescent Moon before a lunar occultation of Venus in daytime on December 7, 2015.

A quick DSLR image of the Moon about to pass in front of Venus. This snapshot taken on a warm December afternoon from Chevy Chase, MD. Venus was easily visible in the daytime sky. As the Moon moves eastward by about 1/2 degree per hour, Venus will re-emerge about a hour later. You can indeed enjoy astronomy by daylight!

Here’s a crude video of the beginning of the occultation:

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