That is an excellent point.

It now seems that Comet Hartley 2 (103P) may have spawned a new meteor shower.
Many of the best meteor showers are assosciated with the dust trails left by well known comets.
The 'Orionids' in October, with Halley's comet (1P) - the 'Perseids' with Swift-Tuttle (109P) - 'Leonids' and Tempel-Tuttle (55P) etc...

Apparantly a couple of big fireball meteors seen recently are thought to have originated from the debris trail of Hartley 2.
Still only a slight possibility - but if the link turns out to be correct, than a mini-shower could possibly peak around 2nd/3rd November, with the Radiant in Cygnus.
(Very high to the South - almost overhead - as seen from UK around 6pm/7pm - dropping gradually to the west as the night progresses)
http://science.nasa.gov/science-news...ct_hartleyids/

http://www.planetary.org/news/2010/1...te_Spirit.html

“With Spirit, we’re just waiting. We’re in the any-day-now phase. And every time I check my email, I think: ‘Maybe this will be it,’” he said during a recent interview.

Hope.

...and here they are for your viewing and listening entertainment and enlightenment:

TV programmes

Horizon - What happened before the Big Bang? http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00vdkmj

C4 In the Shadow of the Moon http://www.channel4.com/programmes/i...f-the-moon/4od

Youtube Russian N1 Moon rocket http://xmb.stuffucanuse.com/xmb/viewthread.php?tid=4736

Radio programmes

In Our Time - Mars http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00772rr

In Our Time - Asteroids http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p003k9kh

Galaxies http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p003c1cn

Cool Universe http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00s7b6r

Universe's Origins http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00545j9

Life of Stars http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00548w8

The Planets http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p004y25b

The Alien Equation - http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p009rtr0

Big Bang Day http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/bigbang/programmes.shtml

I did this for someone else and I thought I might as well post the results here for all to see - enjoy!

Thank TVU. Those are great.

A votre service, Henry!

Indeed, I have even more goodies for you and everyone else. The Vega Science Trust have a whole load of videos of lectures and discussions on their website here http://vega.org.uk/ on all matters scientific including some which are astronomy related.

I have selected a few below for your viewing entertainment:

Astrophysical Chemistry http://vega.org.uk/video/subseries/16

Pulsars http://vega.org.uk/video/programme/69

Extraterrestrial life http://vega.org.uk/video/programme/9

Enjoy! (even more)

In less than an hour's time on BBC2, there'll be a Horizon programme on Asteroids - more here http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00vv0w8.

Thanks for the reminder. That will be good.

Looks like it might be a good programme.

Yes, it does sound interesting. Thanks for the reminder, would have missed it otherwise.

Comet flyby this aftenoon - Hartley 2

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/epoxi/index.html

Close approach is about 2pm this afternoon. Will be on NASA TV channels online.

Thanks for that. Sadly I will not be able to follow it live.

Shuttle delayed again!

See here.

First of many images. Medium res image down

http://epoxi.umd.edu/3gallery/ENCOUN...02_001_001.jpg

Laika was in orbit 53 years ago

The first living creature in space. Scroll down to the picture at the end ...

If I recall correctly, didn't the core of Halley's comet also look like a peanut?

There's more about this story here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11674694.

Shutlle launch off again until November 30 at least. See here.

Yes Giotto visited Halley back in 1986.

Weren't there 4 probes all making progressively closer passes? I remember the live coverage of Giotto's closest approach and the 'wow' of those hazy pictures of the nucleus. I don't think many of the experts seriously expected the probe to make it!

That was one of the moments that inspired my interest in astronomy.

Yes theres were a European probe (Giotto), an American probe and two Japanese ones.

That comet is discussed here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halley%27s_Comet and even the then Soviet Vega probes had a look at it too http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vega_program so it was a good example of international coordination to study a celestial object (more please!).

some photos here


http://www.nmm.ac.uk/visit/exhibitio...ar/exhibition/

Oh yes it was a Russian probe rather than an American one (I think).

Thanks for posting that link, gemma-the-husky. The pictures from the winners and finalists in that competition are excellent. In particular, I like Edward Henry's great picture of the Andromeda Galaxy.

It has been 10 years since the ISS welcomed astronauts aboard. See ISS.