August 31, Blue Moon

Image from Butter Funk
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Next August 31, 2008 will be the second full Moon in a calendar month, a so called "Blue Moon".

Related articles:

• Universe Today - Blue Moon This Week by Tammy Plotner
• Wikipedia - Blue Moon 
• Earth Sky - The next Blue Moon is August 31, 2012

R.I.P. Neil Armstrong! Was The First Man On The Moon

Image from Guardian

Neil Armstrong is dead at age 82. He became the first man who walk on the Moon with Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin on July 20, 1969, in the Apollo 11 mission, when he says "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.".

 Image from International Business Times

Neil Armstrong - First Moon Landing 1969 - YouTube

Related Articles :
- Commondreams : First Man on Moon Neil Armstrong Dead at 82
- Universe Today - Watch Neil Armstrong’s First Steps on the Moon
- NASA - Space Medal of Honor
- Neatorama - R.I.P. Neil Armstrong
- Daily Telegraph - First man on moon, Neil Armstrong, dies at age 82 
- io9 - The best way to honor Neil Armstrong

Ice on the Moon

Due to their position, craters adjacent to the lunar south pole cannot receive sunlight and they are permanently shadowed. So, the content of such craters were an enigma for scientists. Using the Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter data now is possible to determine their structure as never before. Laser scan reveal the presence of ice in the Shackleton crater, an impact crater of 21 km in diameter and 4.2 km deep, located at the Lunar south pole.                               

Image by NASA

  

While the laser scan performed by the LRO could indicate the presence of water in the polar craters, the current evidence suggests that the crater could be mined for deposits of hydrogen in water form, a chemical element that is expensive to deliver from the Earth. Another project involve this crater as the location for a large infrared telescope placement. The low temperature of the crater floor makes it perfect for infrared observations. And also a NASA Outpost Project, involves the construction of the base along the perimeter of the Shackleton crater.

Read the full article by Bill Steigerwald at the NASA website

Link: Researchers Estimate Ice Content of Crater at Moon's South Pole

Video about Shackleton Crater published on YouTube by MIT.

Video on YouTube

Related Articles: 

• Wikipedia - Shackleton Crater
• Space.com - Huge Moon Crater's Water Ice Supply Revealed

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Electric Moon Jolts The Solar Wind

An interesting article published at PhysOrg explains about the Moon influence on the solar wind.

Image from Wikipedia

(Phys.org) -- With the Moon as the most prominent object in the night sky and a major source of an invisible pull that creates ocean tides, many ancient cultures thought it could also affect our health or state of mind – the word “lunacy” has its origin in this belief. Now, a powerful combination of spacecraft and computer simulations is revealing that the Moon does indeed have a far-reaching, invisible influence – not on us, but on the Sun, or more specifically, the solar wind.

Read the full article at PhysOrg, HERE.

The solar wind produces splendid auroras, visible on the Earth.
Watch this amazing time-lapse video from ISS that showing how the aurora is seen from space.

YouTube - Time lapse aurora from ISS, HD

One more stunning video at Wired shows incredible aurora.

Read the full article Time-Lapse Video: Radiant Airglow and Auroras From Space

 on Wired which explains how the aurora happens.

 

June 4, 2012 Partial Lunar Eclipse

The next June 4, 2012, will take place a partial lunar eclipse when the Earth will be in the middle by the Sun and the Moon. Because Sun, Earth and Moon will be not in perfect line-up, only a partial umbral shadow of the Earth will cover about a third of the Moon surface, creating a reddish hue shadow.

Partial Lunar eclipse, September 7, 2006. Image published at Deep-Sky Watch, HERE.

The event will start at 8:48 UTC and ends at 13:18 UTC, and although the eclipse happens simultaneously worldwide, observers in eastern Asia will be watching it after sunset on June 4 and at the same time people in the Western Americas will be viewing it before sunrise.

It will be visible in the far western part of North America and far southern South America, where the whole dark umbral eclipse will be visible for the observers starting at the moonset at 12:06 UTC. The eastern side of America will completly miss the phenomenon.

The event will be better visible over Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and Hawaii when

the Moon will be one-third covered by the Earth's umbral shadow al maximum eclipse (11:03 UTC) and the observers will see the entire event from start to finish.

Eastern Asia observers in Indonesia, Philippines, Japan, Korea, China, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Thailand will see the eclipse at Moonrise

until the end at 13:18 UTC.

Partial Lunar Eclipse - Dec 21, 2010 - Image taken by James Kevin Ty in Laoag City, Ilocos Norte, Philippines. Published at Astrophoto Gallery. The next partial lunar eclipse on June 4, will be very similar.

How do calculate my local time from Universal Time?
Get the Time Zone Interactive Map by TimeAndDate.

Twelve Lunar eclipse images - Published at Astronomy Picture of the Day, HERE.

Follow the partial lunar eclipse On Live at Slooh Space Camera .

  Related Articles:
- June 2012 lunar eclipse - Published at Wikipedia.
- Partial lunar eclipse on June 4, 2012 - Published at timeanddate.com.
- The Moon is also Partial to an Eclipse! - By Jenny Winder, published at Universe Today.
- When is the next lunar eclipse? - Published at EarthSky.

Supermoon Images From Around The World

Thanks to one more nice article by Nancy Atkinson we can take a look at some amazing images of the last Supermoon.

San Souci lighthouse, Dominican Republic. Credit: Goku Abreu.

 Aguilas, Murcia Spain. Credit: Tapani Isomäki

 Credit: Omer Sidat.

Brick Landing, North Carolina USA. Credit: Tavi Greiner.

Marin Headlands, San Francisco, California. Credit: Ted Judah

Berkeley, California. Credit: Ira Serkes.

Read the full article by Nancy Atkinson for more amazing shots at Universe Today, HERE.

Supermoon Is Also Called "Pink Moon"

What about the Pink Moon?

According with the article:  The Next Full Moon is the Pink Moon by Laura, published at Love L.A.M.B., the Supermoon is also called Pink Moon, Sprouting Grass Moon, Egg Moon and Fish Moon.


Here the Pink Moon song by Nick Drake: