Eta Carinae is one of the most exotic objects in our galaxy: a very massive, extremely unstable star, possibly on the verge of going supernova. The large star in eta Car is in a highly elliptical orbit (P = 5.54 yrs, e = 0.9) with a smaller companion.

When the strong stellar winds of both stars collide, they heat the bow-shockwave head to tens of millions of degrees, yielding copious hard X-rays.

The X-ray brightness is modulated not only by the slowly varying orbital separation but also in the form of rapid variations ("flares'')

As seen during the past three orbital cycles by NASA's Rossi X-ray Telescope Explorer. I will discuss the flares in the context of understanding this exotic system.

The researchers say this may provide new clues in understanding how some supernovae explode and how they may be related to gamma ray bursts.

Gamma ray burst events are among the most powerful and violent explosions in the universe, emitting mostly gamma and x-rays.

Supernovae are much smaller by comparison, typically emitting light at visible wavelengths. One group of supernovae known as type Ib/c have previously been associated with gamma ray bursts.

But their optical and radio emissions have never shown evidence of travelling close to the speed of light - a true sign of gamma ray bursts.

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Astronomers are worried that an increase in reports of people shining lasers at airplanes could lead to the government outlawing the pointers. "This has come up in other places in Canada," David Lane, a Halifax astronomer and president of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, said Tuesday.

"I think what often happens is people associate the use of these things with crazy amateur astronomers, but we’re the reasonable people. We’re not going to be stupid enough to shine them on an airplane. Unfortunately, it’s guilt by association."

Transport Canada recently expressed concerns about an increasing number of incidents where lasers were pointed at commercial planes in Canada. Since January 2009, there have been more than 100 incidents across the country. Three of those have occurred in Nova Scotia.

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If you’ve been outside after it gets dark lately, you may have noticed the brilliant reddish star in the east. But that’s no star; it’s Mars! About every year and a half, the Earth passes Mars as they both orbit the Sun, very much like how a faster racing car on the inside track laps a slower-moving car on the outside track. When Earth does lap Mars, the Red Planet’s on the opposite side of the sky from the Sun, rising at sunset and setting at sunrise — we say that Mars is at opposition when that happens.

When it does, we get two advantages in one: it’s at its closest point, so it’s bigger in telescopes, and it’s up all night so you can observe it at your convenience. This happens next in just a few days, on January 29, 2010.

When Earth does lap Mars, the Red Planet’s on the opposite side of the sky from the Sun, rising at sunset and setting at sunrise  we say that Mars is at opposition when that happens. When it does, we get two advantages in one: it’s at its closest point, so it’s bigger in telescopes, and it’s up all night so you can observe it at your convenience. This happens next in just a few days, on January 29, 2010.

The photo of the Crab Nebula was taken the night of Jan. 15 by the Faulkes two-meter (78-inch) diameter telescope on top of the Haleakela volcano in Maui, Hawaii. But the 27 amateur astronomers who took it were thousands of miles away, ensconced in Bob Moore's office in Salt Lake City, controlling the 'scope through an Internet link.Briefly, some background. As noted by Nightly News on Dec.

27 the Faulkes Telescope North is part of the Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network, a British private foundation hosting telescopes around the world for scientific research and research-based education.

Founded by British philanthropist Dill Faulkes, the observatories are dedicated to bringing high-quality astronomy to British school children. Because the Faulkes telescope is on Maui, 10 percent of its use is earmarked to research and outreach by the University of Hawaii. The Salt Lake Astronomical Society is involved because of its own extensive outreach and education programs and its deep interest in the Maui project.

Nemiroff and coeditor Jerry Bonnell started APOD on the NASA website in back 1995, partly to provide accurate information about the multitude of astronomical images that were circulating on the Internet, partly just for the fun of sharing the wonder of the cosmos. Back then, Nemiroff says, “NASA didn’t bother much with the web.” Now, APOD is well worth paying attention to: with its mirror sites, it receives about 1 million hits a day.

Nemiroff, a Michigan Technological University professor who primarily researches gamma-ray bursts and gravitational lensing, geared his outreach presentation to suit an audience ranging from fourth graders to college faculty, garnishing it liberally with anecdotes.

His first picture series included five favorite APOD images created by NASA, including a shot of the first shuttle mission. Also on his NASA’s-best list is the iconic Pillars of Creation image of stars forming in M16, the Eagle Nebula, taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. As with all of the images, he provided a brief educational primer. The dense gas in the pillars is condensing to form stars, he explains, but adds, “They look like monsters. I think that’s why they’re so popular.”

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We’ve all been there. You’ve met someone nice – but for some inexplicable reason, they don’t get astronomy. So how do you start gently introducing them to your life’s passion (about astronomy that is) without scaring them away?

First it’s important to recognize that not everyone will be instantly in awe to learn you own a 14-inch Schmidt-Cassegrain with four speed microslew. Weird, but there it is. And it’s going to be a challenge getting that special someone to drive out to a lonely spot in the wilderness for some proper dark sky viewing – and don’t even mention that there’s such a thing as naked eye astronomy.

Start with the Sun – it’s big and it’s obvious and everyone gets that it rises in the east and sets in the west. Well, that of course means that the Earth is actually spinning from west to east. And heck, you’re an astronomer, so you’re bound to know your cardinal directions on familiar ground – so just point. We are spinning that way.

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Mars is making its closest approach to Earth in more then two years and you can spot the planet in your own backyard, if you don't mind braving the cold. Widener University professor Dr. Harry Augensen explains

"Earth and Mars are approaching each other. They are both orbiting the sun; Earth is the inner orbit, Mars the outer one and Earth is moving more rapidly. So by the end of this month, Earth will overtake Mars and pass it. Just at that point Mars will be closest to Earth and it will be in what we call opposition."

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It seems increasingly likely that, as they stare at the heavens, astronomers are going to find an Earth out there, or at least something that they can plausibly claim is a rocky planet where water could splash at the surface and who knows? harbor some kind of life.

But it's also clear that, when they make their big discovery, the astronomers might want to hire movie director James Cameron to help with the special effects.

The roughly 400 planets that astronomers have found outside our solar system have not been Earth-like by any stretch of the imagination. Most are hot Jupiters, which is to say they're gas giants in scorching orbits.

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The duration of the eclipse will be approximately around 11 minutes and 8 seconds. The moon will cover the sun’s disc. Annular solar eclipse occurs when the sun and the moon are exactly in line, but the apparent size of the moon’s shadow is smaller than that of the visible disc of the sun.

The covered sun, therefore, appears as a ‘Ring of Fire’, with its rays appearing spread out from the outline of the moon. Last time India saw this ‘Ring of Fire’ was Nov 22, 1965, and it will not be witnessed again before June 21, 2020. In India, the eclipse will start around 11 a.m. and end around 3:15 p.m.