This is the companion Web Site of Bob Moler's Ephemeris radio program, which is broadcast Monday Through Friday on Interlochen Public Radio Stations. Interlochen Public Radio serves northwestern lower Michigan. The first Ephemeris program was broadcast June 1, 1975.

The sun's getting more active. Last month there were two coronal mass ejections (CMEs) aimed at the earth, producing auroras. With the promise of our skies clearing this month, we may get to see some. Check the action at www.spaceweather,com.

February 3, Friday

GTAS regular meeting. 8 p.m. NMC Rogers Observatory. Program: Star Bowl – NMC Astronomy Club vs. the GTAS

9 to 11 p.m. Public viewing - NMC Rogers Observatory.

For more events see the Planet Page.

Photo of the month

Mars is coming! Opposition is March 3^rd, closest approach (not that close) on March 5^th. Here's some recent photos of Mars by Scott Anttila.

Note the white spot on the right edge. That's Nix Olympica (Snows of Olympus) from the pre Mariner 9 days. It's not really snow but ice crystal clouds over the real Mount Olympus (Olympus Mons)

35 Years Under the Stars

My contribution to 365 Days of Astronomy podcasts celebrating 35 years of Ephemeris programs. Listen here.

Active Planetary Space Missions

I'm giving over the active planetary space missions to Emily Lakdawalla's Planetary Society Blog. She's way more comprehensive than I am. Here's her “What's Up in the Solar System for February 2012” blog entry.

Solar Missions

Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) was launched in February 2010 in a sun synchronous orbit. It is able to produce HD quality images and movies of the sun in various spectral regions.

Stereo - Two spacecraft in solar orbit, one moving ahead of the earth, one behind the earth to get a 3D view of the sun and the CMEs that escape from the sun. Here're images and videos of the moon transiting the sun from the trailing Stereo spacecraft.

Hinode (Solar B) is a Japanese spacecraft orbiting the earth in a polar sun synchronous orbit over earth's terminator (sunrise/sunset line) guaranteeing an almost continuous view of the sun.

The fabulous SOHO spacecraft in halo orbit of the Earth-Sun L1 point is an early warning sentinel some 1 million miles sunward of the earth. It provides spectacular coverage of the sun, CMEs and sun grazing comets.

Post Mission

The Japanese spacecraft Hayabusa (MUSES-C) had landed on the earth crossing asteroid 25143 Itokawa to pick up a sample in November 2005. It sustained a fuel leak and is limping home, so to speak. The return capsule successfully landed in Australia. 1,500 particles from the asteroid were found in the capsule!

LCROSS (Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite) Launched with the LRO LCROSS and the centaur upper stage impacted the moon on October 9^th. Though the expected plume was much smaller than expected, the impact of the centaur and the plume was recorded by LCROSS. The results are in: They found water, methane, and a lot of other compounds and elements. The soil in the crater they impacted contains about 5% water by weight!

Chandrayaan-1 is India's first spacecraft sent to the moon. It was launched October 22nd, 2008, and achieved lunar orbit November 8th. It released a probe to crash on the moon November 14th, which impacted the moon 25 minutes later near the moon's south pole. The spacecraft fell silent August 29^th, 2009.

Phoenix Mars Mission landed on Mars on May 25, 2008. The target was the edge of the northern polar cap. It had hit pay dirt, or actually ice. Communication was lost with Phoenix on November 2, 2008. It's data will be analysed for years to come. Here is the Phoenix JPL site. The science mission is being run out of the University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Lab.

The Mars Global Surveyor entered orbit of Mars in 1997. It's mission may be at an end. We lost contact with it November 2, 2006. Recent changes on the surface of Mars, meteorite impacts and possibly even water were detected and announced in December of 2006.

The European Space Agency (ESA) SMART-1 spacecraft crashed on the moon September 3^rd, 2006.

The StarDust mission passed close to Comet Wild-2 on January 2, 2004. Its catch of comet material is being analyzed. It is being retargeted to Tempel 1 for approach on February 14, 2011. See Active Missions.

The Genesis mission to gather bits of the solar wind crashed on landing but is being salvaged.

Deep Impact Mission to Comet Tempel I impacted on the comet at 1:52 a.m. July 4, 2005. The main part of the spacecraft has been retargeted as EPOXI. See active missions.

Selene (Kaguya) was a Japanese lunar satellite with two sub-satellites. It was launched on September 14th, 2007. On October 12th the first of the sub-satellites was ejected from the main satellite. The spacecraft crashed into the moon June 11^th near the south pole of the moon.

Ulysses mission to observe the sun's poles. Launched in 1990, Ulysses used Jupiter's gravity to bend its orbit into an 80 degree inclination to the plane of the solar system to view the sun's north and south poles. The spacecraft was shut down. Here is that last log entry:

UTC Timestamp: 30-Jun-2009 20:15

Ground station can not find the carrier. Transmitter is off on the spacecraft. Goodbye Ulysses.

Free Software

Stellarium is a fabulous planetarium program with a very realistic sky and simple controls. The newest version , 0.10.6.1 is the current beta release and doesn't yet handle the text user interface or scripting, both for advanced users. http://stellarium.sourceforge.net/

Cartes du Ciel (Sky Charts) is a great telescope companion. You can download it from http://astrosurf.com/astropc/.

Virtual Moon Atlas is a great tool for reference at the telescope or desk. http://www.astrosurf.com/avl/UK_index.html

Choose from the Lite version all the way to the 500MB Pro version.

Celestia is a great 3D simulator of solar system objects and beyond http://www.shatters.net/celestia/

Years on the air: 36

Years on the Internet: 16

Email: bob@bjmoler.org

Updated: 01/31/12