Space Weather News for Jan. 28, 2010
http://spaceweather.com

FULL MOON AND MARS:  Friday night's full Moon is the biggest and brightest full Moon
of the year. It's a "perigee Moon," as much as 14% wider and 30% brighter than other
full Moons you'll see later in 2010. But that's not all. Mars is having a close
encounter with Earth, and on Friday night, Jan. 29th, it will join the Moon for an
all-night-long conjunction. Don't miss it! Sky maps and images may be found at
http://spaceweather.com.

FLYBY ALERT: NASA is preparing to launch space shuttle Endeavour on Feb. 7th. It's
the last night launch of the shuttle program and it kicks off a 13-day mission to
the International Space Station (ISS). You can follow the ISS and Endeavour as they
streak across the night sky using our new Satellite Flybys app for the iPhone or
iPod Touch. Details at http://simpleflybys.com.

New subscribers may sign up for free space weather alerts at
http://spaceweather.com/services/

Off to Egypt!!!

I am off to Egypt and Jordan if I get the visas in time and maybe even Israel if I get the visa without a stamp on my passport. Lets see how things go from here. Will update when I get details.

Cheers,
Aadil.

Tremors felt in Mumbai.

Just experienced a jolt when lying on my sofa which turned out to be an earthquake with an epicenter near Koyna Dam in Maharashtra with tremors of 4.9 on the Richter scale which were felt in Western Maharashtra, Pune, Solapur and Northern Mumbai.

Leonids from Mumbai

I saw two Leonid meteors from Mumbai city yesterday night. One was a fantastic bolide which traversed almost the whole sky (160 degrees) from East to West burning with a trail of greenish yellow light burning brightly at around -6 magnitude. The other was a fainter one at -3 magnitude and burning bluish white from East to South for about 25 degrees.

Astronomy.com - Understanding the solar system

Astronomy.com - Understanding the solar system

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TOTALITY FROM CHINA 2009

The Total Solar Eclipse of 22nd July 2009 was a spectacular event and here you can see the pictures of the event at totality when the sun was covered completely by the moon and the otherwise invisible corona glowed softly from behind the moon. The pictures were taken with a Pentax MZ-5 camera with a Sigma 600mm mirror lens and Kodak 400 ISO print film for an exposure of one second. The observation site was at the Xi Xi Wetlands National Park near Hangzhou, China. Pictures by Aadil Desai of the Amateur Astronomers' Association (Bombay).

Welcome to the world of Aadil's Astronomy Space and Travels. I am sure you will be exited by seeing all the wonders of the universe as they are visible to the unaided eye and the stories and pictures of my travels around this small blue planet we call Earth!!! I have a dream and that is to see the borders of all the countries vanish into thin air and no wars on earth. "Imagine" (by John Lennon of The Beatles) is one of my favourite songs and I really hope one day my dream will come true!!!

Cheers,
Aadil.