Yes and if you carefully you could probably have seen it in the day sky too. It is a bit harder to see but still visible.

This is quite an interesting story.

Scientists studying matter from comet Wild 2 have found glycine, one of the fundamental building blocks of life (don't you just hate that expression!!).

Does it add weight to the panspermia theory?

Anything interesting in the night sky tonight ?

My telly is bust.............

Jupiter is big bright shining jewell again.

Yeah........it's a bit of a circular argument.........it's a building of life on earth because it's here

If it wasn't here, something else would have been a building block...........

Watch out for Big Bear.... he might be on to something....

Yeah, been looking at that for the last few nights.......

*pops to window*

yep, it's out from behind the next door skyscraper.........

Tried my bins but it's only a dot of light..........but shiny !

Jupiter was looking very beguiling tonight. Callisto out on her own, Ganymede & Europa in close proximity and Io just peeking around Jupiter's horizon - not sure if Io was heading in front or behind though. Also haven't seen the cloud bands quite so clearly for a while.

Need some advice. I quite fancy doing some simple astrophotography. I've done a bit of research into it and it looks like I should be able to get some reasonable results with my telescope using a digital camera for Lunar and major planetary shots. I'm in the market for a new digital camera at the moment anyway so what sort of features do I need to look out for and can anyone recommend a camera? Also, what mounts do people use?

Carlos is the man. Have you looked at his forum?

The space shuttle Discovery is fully fueled for its planned launch tonight at 11:59 p.m. EDT (0359 Aug. 29 GMT). The 3-hour fueling process ended at 5:48 p.m. EDT (2149 GMT), filling Discovery’s 15-story external tank with the 526,000 gallons of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen.

Clear night and no haze, so I took the camera out and pointed it up for 30 seconds -

http://i378.photobucket.com/albums/o...IMG_0013__.jpg

I seemed to catch something streaking across the bottom of the image too, no idea what it was unless its a satellite or something?

That's almost certainly a meteor you caught there.

And did anyone catch the Shuttle launch this morning. Watched it on the news and went out about 20 minutes later to see it, got a fabulous view of the shuttle and the external tank flying in tandem. The orange colour of the tank was VERY vivid. A Spectacular sight.

Me too! Been on holiday this week so took the opportunity getting up early to watch the launch, only to end up disappointed. Someone said they'd seen it going over after the last launch, so I figured that as the ISS is going over in the mornings at the moment then the Shuttle would be heading this this way, too. Found the n2yo website and saw it heading straight for the UK. Popped outside to watch and...Wow! Something I've *never* seen before! I've never seen the Shuttle so bright - I guess it was due to the angle the Sun was striking it at, it not being at full orbital height? And as you say, the contrast between the bright white of the Shuttle and the orange of the tank...amazing! Delighted to have seen that; may never have the chance again.

Look up!

That is the Moon and Jupiter in celestial harmony. Don't they look beautiful.

It seems something weird is happening with the Sun

Are Sunspots Disappearing?

Related to these stories

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2...larminimum.htm

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2..._blankyear.htm

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2..._solarwind.htm

It looks like the retirement of the Space Shuttle has prompted the European Space Agency to start negotiations with the Russians with a view to buying a Soyuz capsule which will be crewed by Europeans (and possibly Canadians).

If it does go ahead, the ESA Soyuz will be launched from Baikonur as normal. More on this story here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8226309.stm

It seems the ESA is not prepared to wait years for the USA to develop the new Orion (=Apollo 2).

I also heard the other day that European unmanned supply vessel (can't recall its name) is going to be converted to include a heatshield so it has re-entry capability. From there it wouldn't be too difficult to add life support functionality.

No, I'm pleased to say it isn't a Daily Star headline but a serious piece of research that was published in the scientific journal Nature and here're the links:http://www.nature.com/nature/journal...9/03andromeda/.

It looks like the large mass of the Andromeda galaxy [M31] has resulted in the absorption of smaller neighbouring galaxies. However, its other companions M32 and M110 appear to have remained separate. I used the word 'appeared' deliberately because what we're seeing is the situation that occurred 3 million years ago.

On a separate note, it being the International Year of Astronomy, I thought we really ought to have an event locally to encourage adults and children to take an interest in the wider universe. It has taken months to organise but here it is http://www.filepanda.com/file/rqsqg2jbgmvn/.

The Space Shuttle undocks tonight.... and I think we may be able to see the two flying together a few hours later - but low in the sky unfortunately.

Appears at 21:44:49 from the SW, maximum height at 21:45:14, 13 degrees above horizon in the SW.

There is a brighter passing about 90 mins earlier. It is not visible there?

Not from where I am at least. Less than 1 min of visibility at 15 degrees at 9:44pm.

Also don't forget tomorrow we have a press conference to unveil the latest images etc from the newly refurbished Hubble Space Telescope

Did you see the latest Apollo 12 landing site image?

Saw it passing really brightly at 20:13 (in Norwich).