Star gazing

If things are looking good more images please unless it's to and stop tatting
Trying my best, Gail, but we've not had clear skies here in what seems an eternity It's never too cold to stop me going into the Observatory, I look like an over dressed Eskimo/Mad Axman dressed in my woolly hat, cold weather fishing jacket and troushers, and thermal wellie boots.

And, I've never been able to say no!!

 

Well, when you're out in the Observatory until 3am and, looking up at the inside of the Dome roof, you see ice glistening you know you're wearing the right gear.........and it's time for Hot Chocolate and Bed.

 

China's premier space station, Tiangong 1, has a one-way ticket into the Earth's atmosphere later this month. See it before it's no more.


An artist's conception of Tiangong-1 in orbit. It's likely that pieces of the craft will survive re-entry later this month.
CMSE / China Space Engineering Office

Don't look now, but a whole lotta metal will be falling out of the sky. Soon. And we're not talking meteorites. China's Tiangong 1 space station is staring down its final weeks with re-entry predicted sometime between March 24th and April 10th. Of late, the 8.5-ton spacecraft has been losing altitude at the rate of 6 kilometers a week from atmospheric drag. Although it's impossible to predict even an approximate landing site until hours before re-entry, Tiangong 1's orbital inclination makes anywhere between 43°N and 43°S fair game.

Launched in September 2011, Tiangong 1 (Chinese for "heavenly palace") was China's first space station. After several successful manned and unmanned missions, Chinese National Space Administration (CNSA) officials extended the spacecraft's life for two years until they lost telemetry in March 2016. By June of that year, amateur satellite watchers reported that the station was out of control, a fact that the CNSA finally conceded three months later.

The original plan was to de-orbit the space station with a controlled thruster burn for a safe breakup over the Pacific Ocean. But without telemetry, the craft can no longer be controlled, so re-entry depends entirely on the vagaries of atmospheric drag complicated by the effects of Sun-driven space weather.


Tiangong 1 glides through Orion over Williamsburg, Virginia. Watch for it to make similar passes for a short time before burning up on re-entry later this month or early next. As its loses altitude, drag from friction with the atmosphere causes the satellite to lose even more altitude, creating more drag and leading to its inevitable demise.
Chris Becke (@BeckePhysics)

Not until hours before re-entry will we have a good idea of where heaven will meet earth. Although it can fall anywhere within the zone mentioned earlier, the California-based Aerospace Corporationpredicts a higher probability in either of two narrow belts of latitude from ~39°N to 43°N and ~39°S to 43°S. In the southern hemisphere, these latitudes include sections of Chile, Argentina, Tasmania, and New Zealand. In the northern, Italy, Spain, and a strip of U.S. states from New York to California lie within this preferred path.

Chances are that any surviving fragments will fall in the ocean, but there's always a tiny possibility pieces could slam into the ground where they might be recovered. Getting hit by a human-made "meteorite" is exceedingly rare, with odds estimated at about one in a trillion. You're a million times more likely to win the Powerball jackpot. In all of spaceflight history only one person has ever been struck by space junk. That would be Lottie Williams of Tulsa on January 22, 1997. She was 48 at the time and out on an early morning walk when a metal fragment of a re-entering Delta II rocket struck her left shoulder with a glancing blow. She was not injured.


Heavens Above predicts a magnitude-1.6 Tiangong 1 pass for Boston on March 10th. The path abruptly ends midway across the sky when the satellite is eclipsed by Earth's shadow.
Chris Peat / Heavens Above

Before Tiangong 1 hits the drink, observers in the U.S. and other locations have several chances to see it. This week through the middle of next (about March 13th), the doomed station will make 1–3-minute-long passes during convenient evening viewing hours. Tiangong 1's magnitude will vary from as bright as 0.2 to as faint as 4 depending on the altitude of the pass. The higher, the brighter.

After the 13th (give or take), the satellite will move into the daytime sky and then reappear at dawn sky at the end of March. The dawn run concludes about April 10th. Should Tiangong 1 still be in orbit after that date, it will return to the evening sky in mid-April.

To find out when and where to look from your location, go to Heavens Above and login. If you're not registered, you can still click the Change Your Observing Location link in the column on the left side of the opening page to add your city. Then return to the opening page and click the Tiangong 1link for a table of upcoming passes. If you see nothing listed for the period, click on the right-pointing arrow for the next set of passes. Try again if necessary until you see a list of times. When you click a date link, a map showing the spacecraft's path pops up. Because of its evolving orbit, pass times may vary a bit, so check back regularly. The space station will look just like a star moving from west to east across the sky.

Maybe, just maybe you'll get to see its transformation from a point of light to a slow-moving fireball when it finally plummets to Earth. If you're exceptionally lucky, a piece might just show up in your backyard. Leave it be, as experts believe there's still toxic hydrazine propellant on board.

 

This constantly bad and cloudy weather is dangerous as my mind turns to adding to and upgrading equipment.
I've got the ZWO ASI 178 colour, one shot, camera which replaced the QHY8L colour, one shot camera that "kicked the bucket" last year and is a great camera for taking images of Planets and some Deep Space Objects. But I've been eyeing up two other cameras for deep space imaging, both made by ZWO, one being the ASI 1600 Cooled colour, one shot camera, and the other is the ASI 294 cooled, colour, one shot camera. The ASI 1600 has a better resolution of 16mp while the ASI 294 has 11mp, both though are considered high resolution cameras. On the other hand the ASI 1600 is less sensitive than the ASI 294 which has bigger pixels, which is a help when Deep Space Imaging. So I'm mulling over more resolution?? or more sensitivity? The difference in price is not that much although the ASI 294 costs a bit more and, right now, they're both on a 10% price reduction offer. They'll go back to their full retail price soon but I'm not in a hurry and can wait until the next reduction in price offer in a few months time.
ZWO is a Chinese manufacturer and has a good name for quality, while being up to a thousand pounds cheaper than those of American and British makes of the same specificiations and, I have to confess, that I'm more than pleased with the current ZWO ASI 178 cooled colour, one shot, camera and the images it gives. So, I'll do some more mulling over and wait until the next price reduction offer and then decide....but I'm "leaning" towards the ASI 294.....but then again
Jupiter is visible, low on the horizon, at around 1.30am [when the skies are clear] but because it is low on the horizon it's not great for imaging due to the fact that we're viewing it through the thickest part of the atmosphere. The higher it is in the skies the thinner the atmosphere is which we're viewing through, Ah, well, we can't have everything.

 

Planned future launches of SpaceX

2018[edit]
Date and time (UTC) Version,
Booster[a] Launch site Payload Orbit Customer
April 16, 2018, 22:32–22:33[272] F9 B4
B1045.1[244] CCAFS SLC-40 Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite(TESS)[278] HEO NASA
Part of the Explorers program, this space telescope is intended for wide-field search for exoplanets transiting nearby stars. It will be the first time SpaceX launches a scientific satellite not primarily intended for Earth observations. The second stage will place it into a high-Earth elliptical orbit, after which the satellite's own booster will perform complex maneuvers including a lunar flyby, and over the course of two months, reach a stable, 2:1 resonant orbit with the Moon.[279] In January 2018, SpaceX received from NASA's Launch Services Program the Category 2 certification of its Falcon 9 'Full Thrust', certification which is required for launching "medium risk" missions such as TESS.[280] Last launch of a new Block 4 booster.
April 24, 2018[273] F9 B5[281]
B1046.1[244] KSC LC-39A Bangabandhu-1[282][283] GTO BTRC
First Block 5 rocket booster to fly. First full-sized Bangladeshi satellite.[284]
Mid May 2018[272] F9 B4 ♺
B1040.2[244] CCAFS SLC-40 SES-12[285] GTO SES
The SES-12 communications satellite will serve the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific region at the same place as SES-8. It is the largest satellite built for SES.[285]
May 19, 2018[272] F9 B4 ♺
B1043.2[244] VAFB SLC-4E

• Iridium NEXT51–55[144][147]
• GRACE-FO 1, 2[286][287]

PolarLEO

• Iridium Communications
• GFZ

GFZ arranged a rideshare of GRACE-FO on a Falcon 9 with Iridium following the cancellation of their Dnepr launch contract in 2015.[286] Iridium CEO Matt Desch disclosed in September 2017 that GRACE-FO would be launched on the sixth Iridium NEXT mission.[288]
Early June 2018[273][289] F9 CC 39A or 40 Telstar 19V[290] GTO Telesat
June 13, 2018[272][273]
[needs update] Heavy KSC LC-39A DSX, FormoSat-7 A/B/C/D/E/F, Prox-1[291] / LightSail 2,[292]GPIM,[293]DSAC,[294] ISAT LEO / MEO U.S. Air Force
USAF Space Test Program Flight 2 (STP-2),[69] carrying as many as 20 satellites. Second launch of Falcon Heavy.

 

June 28, 2018[273] F9 CC 39A or 40 SpaceX CRS-15[134] LEO (ISS) NASA (CRS)
Payload includes MISSE-FF 2, ECOSTRESS, and LEE.
Q2 2018[289][needs update] F9 CC 39A or 40 Telstar 18V[290] GTO Telesat
Mid 2018[272][295] F9 B5[296] VAFB SLC-4E Iridium NEXT56–65[144] PolarLEO Iridium Communications
July 26[297]or August 2018[298] F9 VAFB SLC-4E SSO-A mission with SHERPAdispenser for ~90 payloads[299] SSO Spaceflight Industries
Rideshare mission "Sun Synch Express"[299] SSO-A will carry close to 90 small satellites,[300] including Eu:CROPIS[301] for DLR, ORS-6 (COWVR)[302] for the U.S. Air Force Operationally Responsive Space Office, and two high-resolution SkySatimaging satellites for Planet Labs.[303]
August 2018[304] F9 B5
B1051[305] KSC LC-39A SpX-DM1[306] LEO (ISS) NASA (CCD)
Demonstration mission to ISS for NASA with an uncrewed Dragon 2 capsule.[307]
August 2018[308] F9 VAFB SLC-4E SAOCOM 1A[309][310]
ITASAT-1[311] SSO

• CONAE
• ITA

 

August 2018[304] F9 B5
B1051[305] KSC LC-39A SpX-DM1[306] LEO (ISS) NASA (CCD)
Demonstration mission to ISS for NASA with an uncrewed Dragon 2 capsule.[307]
August 2018[308] F9 VAFB SLC-4E SAOCOM 1A[309][310]
ITASAT-1[311] SSO

• CONAE
• ITA

Originally intended to be launched in 2012.[312]
August 2018[313] F9 CC 39A or 40 Telkom 4[314] GTO Telkom Indonesia
September 2018[272] F9 CC 39A or 40 GPS IIIA-01 MEO U.S. Air Force
Initially intended for a Delta IV launch.[315]
August 2018[272][295] F9 VAFB SLC-4E Iridium NEXT66–75[144] PolarLEO Iridium Communications
Final mission of the Iridium NEXT contract
2018[307]
(after DM1) F9 B5[307] KSC LC-39A Crew Dragon in-flight abort test[316] Suborbital NASA (CCD)
A Falcon 9 first stage will propel the Dragon 2 test capsule in a sub-orbital flight to conduct a separation and abort scenario in the transonic regime at Max Q, i.e. under the worst structural stress conditions of a real flight.[317] The spacecraft will then splash down in the ocean with traditional parachutes.
October 29, 2018[318] F9 ♺ VAFB SLC-4E RADARSAT Constellation[319] SSO Canadian Space Agency
The mission will reuse a previously flown booster.[320]
November 16, 2018[272] F9 CC 39A or 40 SpaceX CRS-16[134] LEO (ISS) NASA (CRS)