AstroMadness.com - Astronomy for Humans

Future of the Andromeda Galaxy and the Milky Way - Video

Posted on Thursday, May 31, 2012

By Makubex

Scientists Jay Anderson and Roeland van der Marel show how they have used Hubble observations to predict the future of the Andromeda Galaxy and the Milky Way.

Labels: video

SpaceX's Dragon Spacecraft returns to Earth - Pictures

Posted on Thursday, May 31, 2012

By Makubex

Labels: dragon, pictures, SpaceX

Dragon Spacecraft as seen from ISS - Video

Posted on Sunday, May 27, 2012

By Makubex

Aboard the International Space Station, Expedition 31 Flight Engineer Don Pettit of NASA, Flight Engineer Andre Kuipers of the European Space Agency and Flight Engineer Joe Acaba of NASA grappled and berthed the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft to the station's Harmony module May 25, 2012, marking a milestone in spaceflight history.

Dragon became the first commercially developed space vehicle to be launched to the station to join Russian, European and Japanese resupply craft that service the complex while restoring a U.S. capability to deliver cargo to the orbital laboratory.

Labels: dragon, ISS, SpaceX, video

SpaceX's Dragon Spacecraft Grappled to ISS - Pictures

Posted on Friday, May 25, 2012

By Makubex

Update: Berthing of the Dragon capsule is scheduled roughly 17:00 UTC.

Labels: dragon, pictures, SpaceX

Partial Lunar Eclipse of the Strawberry Moon on June 04, 2012

Posted on Friday, May 25, 2012

By Makubex

Update: Pictures!

On Monday, June 4^th, the Moon will pass through the shadow of Earth, producing a partial lunar eclipse visible across the Pacific from China to the United States.

Watch the science cast from NASA below,

Map of Eclipse visibility,

Labels: events, lunar eclipse, strawberry_lunar_eclipse_2012

SpaceX Successfully Launches Dragon Capsule into Orbit

Posted on Tuesday, May 22, 2012

By Makubex

Today at 3:44 AM EDT from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, SpaceX successfully placed the Dragon space craft carrying cargo to ISS in orbit using Falcon 9 rocket. Just under 10 minutes after launch, Dragon reached its preliminary orbit, deployed its solar arrays and began a carefully choreographed series of engine firings to reach the station.

Dragon is carrying about 1,200 pounds of cargo that, because the mission is a demonstration flight, is not deemed critical to the station's crew.

Check the video below of the launch, T-10 seconds starts at 2:33 in the video,

Labels: news, SpaceX

Annular Solar Eclipse May 20, 2012 - Video

Posted on Monday, May 21, 2012

By Makubex

Check out this awesome time-lapse video of yesterday's Annular Solar Eclipse. 700 pictures through a Coronado Solar Max 60 Double Stack telescope were used to make this video. The Telescope has a very narrow bandpass allowing you to see the chromosphere and not the much brighter photosphere below it.

Credit: Cory Poole

Labels: annular_solar_eclipse_2012, solar_eclipse, video

Jupiter, Mercury and Pleiades Photobombing Sun

Posted on Monday, May 21, 2012

By Makubex

Jupiter, Mercury and Pleiades are in the field of view of SOHO LASCO C3.

Image Credit: SOHO LASCO C3

In the coming days Jupiter will keep moving towards the right, and Mercury will move towards left. During the first week of June, Venus will also be visible in the SOHO LASCO C3 field of view. Venus transit will be seen during June 5^th and 6^th across the Earth.

Labels: soho, sun

Annular Solar Eclipse 2012 - Pictures

Posted on Monday, May 21, 2012

By Makubex

Image Credit: Robert Ball, Image taken at Albuquerque, NM, USA (Full Image)

Image Credit: Elon Gane, Image taken at El Dorado Springs, MO, USA (Full Image)

Image Credit: Tyler Burg, Image taken at Waconia, Minnesota, USA (Full Image)

Image Credit: Jimnista, Image taken at Huntington Beach, California, US (Full Image)

Image Credit: Mike Theiss, Image taken at New Mexico (Full Image)

Image Credit: Justin Dolske, Image taken at Maxwell, California, US (Full Image)
Projection of the 2012 Annular Solar Eclipse, right at the end of maximum eclipse. Taken 2 miles north of Maxwell, California (or 8 miles south of the edge of the full-annular path).

Image Credit: William Saito, Image taken at Tokyo, Japan (Full Image)

Image Credit: Irene Fornari, A screenshot of live stream from Japan (Full Image)

Labels: annular_solar_eclipse_2012, pictures

Annular Solar Eclipse 2012 - Live Video

Posted on Sunday, May 20, 2012

By Makubex

Update: Live stream is over! (Pictures)

Watch the Annular Solar Eclipse of 2012 Live across the Pacific from the coast of China to the southwestern USA.

Live Streams:
- SLOOH - Live from Japan
- Live from Fujiyama

Live video feed from Fujiyama,

Labels: annular_solar_eclipse_2012, events, video

Lyrid Meteor Shower 2012 as seen from ISS - Video

Posted on Saturday, May 19, 2012

By Makubex

On April 21, the 2012 Lyrid meteor shower peaked in the skies over Earth. While NASA allsky cameras were looking up, astronaut Don Pettit aboard the International Space Station trained his video camera on Earth below. Video footage has revealed breathtaking images of meteors. This video is a composite of 310 still frames from that evening.

Credit: NASA/JSC/Don Pettit

Labels: lyrid_2012, video

SpaceX Falcon9 launch aborted

Posted on Saturday, May 19, 2012

By Makubex

The SpaceX Falcon9 launch of the Dragon spacecraft to ISS was aborted today morning at T-0 count down. Next attempt will be on Tuesday. I am really getting a bad vib know, the launch of the Dragon spacecraft is being delayed continuously. The sensors detected too high pressure in the combustion chamber in one of the engines which made the computer to shut down.

Below is the video of launch the being aborted,

Labels: dragon, falcon9, news, SpaceX

Sunspot AR 1476

Posted on Tuesday, May 08, 2012

By Makubex

On May 5^th, a big sunspot rotated towards Earth. This sunspot ejected a coronal masss ejection (CME) on May 7^th towards Earth. Check the forecast tracks prepared by analysts at the Goddard Space Weather Lab, here.

Estimated the clouds may arrive on May 9^th.

Labels: CME, sunspot

Annular Solar Eclipse on May 20, 2012

Posted on Monday, May 07, 2012

By Makubex

On May 20, 2012 Annular solar eclipse will be visible across the Pacific from the coast of China to the southwestern USA. The eclipse starts on May 21^st in China and moves eastwards to southwestern USA on May 20, 2012. Unfortunately the eclipse will be visible only in limited parts of the Earth. Eclipse will be visible in east of China, South Korea, Japan, Pacific and the west of USA and Canada.

Image Credit: Abel Pardo López

Map of the eclipse path, here also check the Google map of the eclipse path, here. On the Google map click on your location to see the eclipse times.

Animated map of the eclipse, here.

An annular eclipse occurs when the Sun and Moon are exactly in line, but the apparent size of the Moon is smaller than that of the Sun. Hence the Sun appears as a very bright ring, or annulus, surrounding the outline of the Moon.

If you are taking pictures of this Annular Solar Eclipse and want to share it with us, send the pictures to,

Labels: annular_solar_eclipse_2012, events, sky watch

Super Moon 2012 - Pictures

Posted on Sunday, May 06, 2012

By Makubex

On May 05, 2012 we had a Super Moon. The full moon was 14% bigger and 30% brighter. Pictures below,

Image Credit: VegaStar Carpentier, Image taken in Paris, France

Image Credit: Tavi Greiner
Tavi Greiner, says "Luna, you'll always be a super moon to me".

Image Credit: P.Nikolakakos, Image taken in Sparta, Greece (Canon 7D ED80 ISO 800 1/30sec)

Image Credit: Dean Verner, Image taken in Elmvale, Ontario, Canada

Image Credit: Karthikeyan VJ, Image taken in Tallinn, Estonia (canon EOS 1100D, ef 55-250mm lens)

Image Credit: Karthikeyan VJ, Image taken in Tallinn, Estonia (canon EOS 1100D, ef 55-250mm lens)

If you have taken pictures of the Super Moon and want to share it with us, send the pictures to,

Labels: moon, pictures, super_moon

Big New Sunspot

Posted on Saturday, May 05, 2012

By Makubex

A new large group of sunspot is rotating towards earth in north-eastern limb of the sun. The sunspot group is marked in white circle in the below image,

Image Credit: Karthikeyan VJ, Image taken in Tallinn, Estonia
(Camera: Canon EOS 1100D, Canon EF 55-250mm with Baader solar film)

Labels: sun, sunspot

Black Hole Rips of a Star

Posted on Thursday, May 03, 2012

By Makubex

Super massive black holes lie quietly until a star wanders close enough to get ripped apart by their gravitational force. This black hole is caught red-handed in the action. This computer-simulated image shows gas from a tidally shredded star falling into a black hole. Some of the gas also is being ejected at high speeds into space.

Astronomers observed a flare in ultraviolet and optical light from the gas falling into the black hole and glowing helium from the star's helium-rich gas expelled from the system.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/JHU/STScI/Harvard-Smithsonian CfA

These above images, taken with NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer and the Pan-STARRS1 telescope in Hawaii, show a brightening inside a galaxy caused by a flare from its nucleus. The arrow in each image points to the galaxy. The flare is a signature of the galaxy's central black hole shredding a star that wandered too close.

Source: NASA

Labels: news, video

eta Aquarid Meteor Shower on May 6, 2012

Posted on Wednesday, May 02, 2012

By Makubex

On May 6, 2012 just before the sunrise the eta Aquarid Meteor shower peaks in both northern and southern hemisphere. In the Northern hemisphere around 10 meteors will be visible per hour and in Southern hemisphere around 30 meteors will be visible per hour. Unfortunately the meteor shower will be out shined by the Super Moon on May 6, 2012. Hopefully some bright meteors will be seen.

Look towards the east direction 2 hours before the sunrise to see the meteor shower. The radiant of the shower is from the constellation of Aquarius.

Sky map for Northern Hemisphere,

Sky map for Southern Hemisphere,

Labels: aquarid, aquarid_2012, events, meteor shower