Nature Hub

From - Sky & Telescope By  - Arwen Rimmer, Edited by  - Amal Udawatta   This ultraviolet image comes from the Akatsuki spacecraft, pieced together by Damia Bouic, an amateur image processor, combined Akatsuki images taken through its UV1 filter — at different distances — to create this composite image. The brown region bristles with small convective clouds. JAXA / ISAS / DARTS / Damia Bouic Scientists have long assumed that Venus’s atmosphere contains a significant amount of atomic oxygen. New observations now provide direct evidence for its existence, enabling new science. For the past 50 years, many observations of Venus’s atmosphere have resulted in claims of an “indirect detection” of atomic oxygen (as well as a single direct detection that was never confirmed). Now, a group led by Heinz-Wilhelm Hübers (DLR, Germany) has identified atomic oxygen on both Venus’s dayside and nightside using observations from NASA’s and DLR’s  SOFIA airborne telescope. The team reports the results

    From- Sky & Tescope,   By  - Bob King,     Edited by - Amal Udawatta    Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks has awakened again from its recent slumbers with a fresh outburst. It’s now bright enough to see in a modest telescope. Taken on October 5th, this photo matches the comet's visual appearance with a strongly-condensed inner coma surrounded by a somewhat larger and considerably fainter outer coma. A faint tail trails off to the northeast. Eliot Herman    Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks has awakened again from its recent slumbers with a fresh outburst. It’s now bright enough to see in a modest telescope. Periodic Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks remains in character as it heads toward perihelion next April. Famous for its unpredictable outbursts during previous appearances, it blew up again around October 5.2 UT, waxing nearly 100 times brighter (nearly 5 magnitudes!) compared to the night prior. Had you sought the comet on October 3rd, you might have looked in vain for a diffuse 14.5-magnitude object. By

   From - Sky & Telescope,   By - Bob King,  Edited by - Amal Udawatta, Denser air near the horizon acts like a lens and refracts (bends) the Sun's bottom half upward into the top, compressing the solar disk into a bean. Refraction also "lifts" the Sun into view at the horizon about 2 minutes before the real Sun arrives there. Both effects increase the amount of daylight we experience at the equinoxes. Bob King Astronomical cycles acquaint us with the inevitable. That's what I'm thinking right now as we approach the first official day of fall (spring in the southern hemisphere), also known as the autumnal equinox. At 2:49 a.m. EDT, the Sun will cross the celestial equator going south and won't stop its descent until it bumps into the winter solstice on December 21st. The  celestial equator  is a projection of Earth's equator on the sky. On that special day, the Sun will pass directly overhead at noon for residents living along the equator, from Nairobi

              By – Amal Udawatta,                                   Astonishing photo of Comet NEOWISE C2020 F3 C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE)  or  Comet NEOWISE  is a  long period comet  with a  near-parabolic  orbit discovered on March 27, 2020, by astronomers during the  NEOWISE  mission of the  Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer  (WISE)  space telescope . At that time, it was an  18th-magnitude  object, located 2 AU (300 million km; 190 million mi) away from the Sun and 1.7 AU (250 million km; 160 million mi) away from Earth. NEOWISE is known for being the brightest comet in the northern hemisphere since  Comet Hale–Bopp  in 1997. It was widely photographed by professional and amateur observers and was even spotted by people living near city centers and areas with light pollution. While it was too close to the Sun to be observed at  perihelion , it emerged from perihelion around magnitude 0.5 to 1, making it bright enough to be visible to the  naked eye . Under dark skies, it could be

 From - Sky & Tellescope, By - Alan Macrobert, Edited by - Amal Udawatta Comet Nishimura on the morning of September 5th, on its way in. The comet is the green bit at left. The star cluster at upper right is the Beehive. The brilliant light at lower right is Venus. Right-click image to open higher-res version in new tab. Michael Jäger took this view "from my observatory in Martinsberg, Lower Austria." It's a stack of eight 30-second exposures he made using a DSLR camera with a 50-mm lens at f/2.5. Comet Nishimura swings by for binoculars and telescopes.  Comet Nishimura (2023 P1), discovered just last month, is brightening toward its September 17th perihelion. The comet starts this week very low in the dawn sky. You'll need a low view to the east-northeast on the mornings of September 9th, 10th, and maybe 11th. The farther north you live the better. The waning crescent Moon won't pose interference. By the 13th or 14th the comet shifts to the low  evening  sky,

   From - Sky & Telescope, By - Bob King, Edited by- Amal Udawatta, Australian amateur astronomer Niall MacNeill created this six-year montage of Saturn's closing rings with images taken through his 14-inch Celestron EdgeHD. Careful examination reveals subtle variations in the planets cloud belts and zones. The inclination of the rings has narrowed from a maximum of 27° in 2018 to the current 9.3°. They'll be edgewise in March 2025. Niall MacNeill September is Saturn’s time to shine. We also check on Comet Nishimura — now at 5th magnitude and still brightening — and look forward to a dramatic asteroid occultation. Not to mention that Jupiter just took another hit. Saturn's return to the evening sky is always one of the year's most anticipated sights. Most newcomers are surprised at their first look. How many times at a public star party have you heard someone say the planet looks fake? You can't really blame them. The ringed planet has no ready analog in the eve