Space. It's... It's...

Solar System Missions Update 02/2012

2012-01-28T00:09:00.001+01:00

The Solar System Missions page as of February1st 2012. Bye Bye Phobos-Grunt.

Elongation Page Update

2012-01-27T22:46:00.000+01:00

The Planetary Elongation charts have been updated with new versions for 2012.

Space Observatories Update 02/2012

2012-01-25T20:50:00.000+01:00

The Space Observatories page has been updated. RXTE is no more. Now with spectal range charts in several languages.

English

Russian

Spanish

German

Space Observatories Update 01/2012

2012-01-08T17:07:00.001+01:00

The Space Observatories page has been updated. Some launch dates adjusted and the whole chart reformatted.

Solar System Missions Update 01/2012

2011-12-28T00:13:00.000+01:00

The Solar System Missions page as of January 1st 2012. New Format and a comet appears.

Solar System Missions Update 12/2011

2011-11-27T21:37:00.001+01:00

The Solar System Missions page as of December 1st 2011. New in space: Curiosity and, hopefully for longer, Phobos-Grunt.

Space Observatories Update

2011-11-01T20:38:00.000+01:00

The Space Observatories page has been updated. With some new future missions and an entirely new spectral range vs. angular resolution chart for many missions.

Solar System Mission Update 11/2011

2011-10-23T21:09:00.001+02:00

The Solar System Missions page as of November 1st 2011. With more links to past missions.

Solar System Missions Update 10/2011

2011-09-27T19:07:00.000+02:00

The Solar System Missions page as of October 1st 2011. Hello GRAIL! Also new: Links to past missions.

Space Observatories Update

2011-08-29T22:06:00.000+02:00

The Space Observatories page has been updated. Turn out the GOES series of geostationary weather satellites have Solar-observing Soft X-ray imagers (SXI) aboard.

Solar System Missions Update 09/2011

2011-08-27T19:15:00.000+02:00

The Solar System Missions page as of September 1st 2011. Three Solar Panels is the new hot!

New Page: Asterisms

2011-08-20T00:24:00.000+02:00

Charts of Asterisms and a really big table.

Space Observatories Update

2011-07-26T23:12:00.000+02:00

The Space Observatories page has been updated with RadioAstron launched and some cleanup.

Solar System Missions Update 08/2011

2011-07-26T23:09:00.001+02:00

The Solar System Missions page as of August 1st 2011. Dawn has arrived!

New Page: Elongation

2011-07-20T01:17:00.001+02:00

Charts of Planetary Elongations (angle between Planet and Sun) and Positions. Plus the decade-long version of the elongation chart.

Space Observatories Update

2011-06-30T23:10:00.001+02:00

The Space Observatories page has been updated with some visual updates and the end of Akari.

Solar System Missions Update 07/2011

2011-06-29T23:07:00.000+02:00

The Solar System Missions page as of July 1st 2011. Dawn is near!

New Page: The Local Group

2011-06-10T21:04:00.000+02:00

A map of the member galaxies of the Local Group and it's subgroups.

The Milky Way Halo update

2011-06-10T20:57:00.001+02:00

The Milky Way Halo page has been updated with a better map.

Space Observatories Update

2011-05-31T21:39:00.000+02:00

The Space Observatories page has been updated with AMS-2 deployed to the ISS and some Mission delays.

Solar System Missions Update 06/2011

2011-05-31T21:16:00.000+02:00

The Solar System Missions page as of June 1st 2011. Farewell, Spirit; Hello, Osiris REx!

Solar System Missions Update 05/2011

2011-04-28T23:03:00.000+02:00

The Solar System Missions page as of May 1st 2011. Spirit, were are you?

New Page: The Milky Way Halo

2011-04-27T23:17:00.002+02:00

A map of the globular clusters and satellite galaxies of the Milky Way and their associations.

Solar System Missions Update 04/2011

2011-03-29T23:27:00.000+02:00

The Solar System Missions page as of April 1st 2011. RIP Stardust!

The Size of Everything update

2011-03-27T23:05:00.000+02:00

The Size of Everything page has been updated.

Space Observatories Update

2011-03-26T22:03:00.000+01:00

The Space Observatories page has been updated with some visual improvements.

New Page: The Mass of Everything

2011-03-26T21:41:00.000+01:00

After The Size of Everything, here is The Mass of Everything.

Space Observatories Update

2011-02-26T01:01:00.002+01:00

The Space Observatories page has been updated with a new all-in-one chart.

Solar System Missions Update 03/2011

2011-02-26T00:39:00.001+01:00

The Solar System Missions page as of March 1st 2011. With log of upcoming events.

Solar System Missions Update 02/2011

2011-01-29T20:36:00.000+01:00

The Solar System Missions page as of February 1st 2011. With log of upcoming events.

New Page: The Size of Everything

2011-01-22T01:50:00.001+01:00

Here is a brand new page with The Size of Everything.

Space Observatories Update

2010-12-31T11:21:00.003+01:00

The Space Observatories page has been updated with completely rebuild charts and some more new missions.

Solar System Missions Update 01/2011

2010-12-30T02:21:00.001+01:00

The Solar System Missions page as of January1st 2011. Now with upcoming event log.

Solar System Missions Update 12/2010

2010-11-25T19:23:00.003+01:00

The Solar System Missions page as of December 1st 2010.

Space Observatories Update

2010-11-07T13:47:00.002+01:00

The Space Observatories page has been updated with better graphics and more content.

Solar System Missions Update 11/2010

2010-10-26T21:33:00.003+02:00

The Solar System Missions page as of November 1st 2010.

New Page: Space Observatories

2010-10-26T21:32:00.001+02:00

Here is the complementary page of Space Observatories to the Solar System Missions page, with additional spectral coverage graphic.

Solar System Missions Update 10/2010

2010-09-22T20:38:00.003+02:00

The old space missions chart has been split in two. The first is the solar systems missions chart, accessible on this page from the sidebar.

Relaunch

2010-09-22T20:33:00.000+02:00

OK, thanks to the amazing Emily Lakdawalla, I'm starting afresh with this. Regularly updated charts will appear as permanent pages accessible from the sidebar, while the blog proper will mostly serve as an update log. Also, general refurbishment of the blog furniture.

I like ICE

2010-01-29T23:06:00.008+01:00

The International Cometary Explorer, that is.

I want to celebrate this remarkable mission that IMHO deserves more attention than it gets for the many firsts it achieved:

First spacecraft in a halo orbit at a Lagrange point (Earth-Sun L1).
First to detect the solar wind approaching Earth
First spacecraft to utilize the instability of the Earth-Moon and Earth-Sun Lagrange points for orbital maneuvering.
First comet flyby.
Maybe the first interplanetary spacecraft that returns to Earth without that being the plan from the outset.

and for the simple fact that it was launched in 1978 and is still alive!

ICE started out as ISEE-3, or International Sun-Earth Explorer 3, one of a set of three missions launched in the late 1970's to investigate the Sun/Earth interactions at the boundary of Earth's magnetosphere and the solar wind.

The other two satellites ISEE-1, build by NASA, and ISEE-2, build by ESA, were launched in 1977 and orbited the Earth in almost identical eccentric orbits with a period of 57 hours. ICEE-3, however, was launched into an elliptical halo orbit around the Earth-Sun L1 Lagrange point about 1.5 million kilometer or 235 Earth-radii from Earth towards the Sun and was the first ever spacecraft to do so. The observations of the three spacecraft then allowed to map the effects of the solar wind on Earth's magnetosphere.

The spacecraft carried a set of complimentary instruments to observe plasmas, energetic particles, waves, and fields emitted by the sun and interacting with the terrestial magnetosphere. This made ISEE-3 the first explorer to observe solar weather as it approached Earth in near interplanetary space. The instruments onboard included an x-ray spectrometer from the University of California and the Goddard gamma-ray burst spectrometer, which represented the first successful flight of a high purity germanium detector on a satellite (see the mission homepage for details, I'm just quoting this verbatim here). It provided an order of magnitude improvement in the measurement of spectral properties of gamma-ray bursts than any previously flown detector. The mission did not, however, require an imaging instrument (what laypersons like me would call "camera").

With these capable high-energy spectrometers ISEE-3 also served as part of the Interplanetary Network (IPN), an effort to locate the origins of gamma-ray bursts by triangulation trough long baseline interferometry. This network consisted of multiple spacecraft equipped with gamma ray detectors widely spaced across the solar system to provide the necessary baseline for precisely measurement of the point of origin of each captured gamma-ray burst. The first such network included apart from ISEE-3 the solar probe Helios-2, the Venus probes Pioneer Venus and it's Soviet counterparts Venera 11 and 12, as well as Prognoz-7 in Earth orbit, thus completing the Sun-Venus-Earth triangle necessary for directional measurements. This network detected 83 bursts until its end in 1980. This represents the first time a scientific instrument was implemented that reached across the whole inner solar system, and so could be chalked up as another first for ISEE-3.

The latest incarnation of the IPN, the third of its kind and therefore called IPN3, began with the launch of the Ulysses spacecraft with an instrument suite similar to that of ISEE-3, but in a polar orbit around the sun. It remained the centerpiece of the IPN until its mission ended in 2009, in itself quite an amazing story. Today this role is filled by the Swift satellite that provides a 24/7 360° gamma-ray burst watch.

ISEE-3/ICE trajectory from launch to comet flybys.

After completion of the ISEE mission in 1982 NASA decided to utilize the spacecraft as a cometary explorer. To do so required getting the spacecraft from its L1 halo orbit into a heliocentric orbit. This was only possible by maneuvering through the Earth-Moon and Earth-Sun Lagrange points, which due to the balance of gravitational forces allow the change of orbits with only small velocity changes. This is bought with lots of time; as you can see in the trajectory plot above, a complex set of maneuvers around the Earth-Moon system with five lunar flybys was necessary to do the job. These maneuvers also enabled several passes through Earth's magnetotail. The last Moon flyby at an altitude of 119.4 km above the lunar surface in December 1983 ejected the spacecraft from Earth's gravity and sent it on its way to become the first ever comet interceptor. At this time it was renamed ICE or the International Cometary Explorer.

The spacecraft passed through the plasma tail of Comet Giacobini-Zinner in September 1985, which constituted the first in-situ investigation of cometary matter, for which ICE - equipped with a suite of instruments to investigate fields and plasma - was very well suited. It repeated the feat at the plasma tail of Comet Halley in March 1986 at a distance of 28 million km (about 0.2 AU). At the same time many other spacecraft — Giotto, Vega 1, Vega 2, Suisei and Sakigake — were also close to Comet Halley. See the International Halley Watch archive for details of those encounters.

In 1991 ICE began yet another phase of its long life with investigations of solar coronal mass ejections in coordination with ground-based observations, continued cosmic ray studies, and special period observations such as when ICE and Ulysses were on the same solar radial line. This mission continued until 1997, when NASA decided to end it and shut the spacecraft down, apart from a simple carrier signal.

But then in 2008, NASA locked onto the signal via the Deep Space Network and determined that all but one of its instruments are still working and so the spacecraft could still be used for yet another comet flyby in 2017 or 2018.

The plot below shows ICE' orbit around the sun since 1983 relative to Earth. It is in a slightly elliptical orbit at 0.93-1.03 AU with a period of 355 days. The elliptical shape means that it is sometimes slower and sometimes faster than Earth, resulting in the spiral patterns marking its yearly progress. As you can see, ICE is slowly catching up to Earth and will be returning home in 2014.

ICE trajectory since leaving the Earth/Moon system in 1983, plotted relative to a fixed Sun/Earth-line (from here).

So in conclusion, we have a spacecraft that is almost as old as the Voyagers, still alive, and it's coming back. NASA has still to decide what to do with it; the options are recapture in 2014 into a parking orbit or use a Moon-flyby to send it on yet another comet mission, pushing the opportunity for capture to the 2040s. I for one feel that it would be awesome to see ICE continue its long and amazing life and do more science, even at 64 bits/s (last measured data rate in 1991).

And here's my own graphical contribution to this post, showing the current position of ICE following Earth about 55° behind, along with all other active missions currently on heliocentric orbits in the inner solar system. Note that SOHO and ACE occupy the same halo orbit at the Sun/Earth L1 that ICE had in its first life as ISEE-3. See this earlier post for the extended version of the chart.

Probes in the inner solar system, current locations. See here for details. [larger image]

Mission summary

Phase	Dates	Duration	Main Objectives
Transfer to halo insertion	1978-08-12 to 1978-11-20	100 days
Halo Orbit Phase	1978-11-20 to 1982-09-01	3 years, 9 months	Sun and Earth-magnetosphere observation Gamma-ray burst detection Cosmic ray detection
Extended Mission	1982-09-01 to 1983-12-22	1 year, 3.7 months
Comet Intercept Mission	1983-12-22 to 1985-09-11	1 year, 8.7 months	Flybys of comets Giacobini-Zinner and Halley
Heliocentric Cruise	1985-09-11 to 1997-05-05	11 years, 8 months	Solar coronal mass ejection observation coordinated obsevations with the Ulysses probe
Hibernation	1997-05-05 to 2014-08-10	17 years, 3 months
The Future™	2014-08-10 to ?		Return to Earth Capture or further comet flybys

Links
"It's Alive!" Planetary Society Blog post about ICE
ISEE project page NASA NSSDC
ISEE3/ICE mission profile NASA Solar System Exploration HP
HEASARC ISEE3/ICE mission profile
NSSDC ISEE3 page
International Halley Watch (IHW)
The Third Interplanetary Network (IPN3) Current IPN Status

Space Science Missions 1/2010

2010-01-18T00:20:00.001+01:00

[Update: new and improved versions here and here]

Here is an updated version of the last list/chart with updated positions, WISE now launched and beginning its all-sky infrared survey, ICE' position confirmed (~50° trailing) and links reformated and updated.

Remarkably, it looks like no mission ended or was lost since the last post. A couple of new future missions are added, slated to launch this year are SDO (Solar Dynamics Observatory), the Russian RadioAstron radio observatory, the Indian high energy astronomy mission Astrosat, the Japanese Akatsuki Venus mission with IKAROS (Interplanetary Kite-craft Accelerated by Radiation Of the Sun) sharing the launch and the second Chinese Moon orbiter Chang'e 2. Launch dates are of course subject to further revision.

It seems that Nozomi, the failed japanese Mars mission of 1998, while deactivated, could theoretically be switched on again. The same is true for Pioneer 6 & 8, which are also coasting in a heliocentric orbit.

With the addition of MAXI (Monitor of All-sky X-ray Image) to the Japanese KIBO Lab, the ISS is finally doing space science, and this will only get better with the launch of AMS 2 (Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer) later this year.

As for the inclusion of Earth missions, they are constrained to those that treat the Earth as an astronomical body. This is of course completely my own arbitrary definition and includes at this time all missions that explore the terrestial magnetosphere and gravity field.

Click for larger image

Space Observatories

Cosmology
Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP, Microwave Background) 2001
Planck (Microwave Background) 2009
LISA Pathfinder (Gravity Waves) 2011
Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA, Gravity Waves) 2018

Radio & Submillimeter
Herschel (Microwave) 2009
RadioAstron (Radio) 2010
VSOP-2 (Astro-G, Radio) 2012
Millimetron (Microwave) 2016

Infrared
Spitzer Space Telescope (SST) 2003
Akari (Astro-F) 2006
Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE, Astrometric Survey) 2009
James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) 2014

(Near) Optical
Hubble Space Telescope (HST) (Near UV-Near IR) 1990
ESA Hubble Site - Hubble Heritage Project
Convection, Rotation and planetary Transits (COROT, Exoplanets) 2006
Kepler (Exoplanets) 2009
Gaia (Astrometric Survey) 2011

High energy
Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE, X-ray) 1995
XMM-Newton (X-ray) 1999
Chandra (X-ray) 1999
International Gamma Ray Astrophysics Laboratory (INTEGRAL, Gamma ray) 2002
Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX, UV) 2003
Swift (Gamma ray, X-ray, UV) 2004
Suzaku (Astro-EII, X-ray) 2005
Astrorivelatore Gamma ad Immagini LEggero (AGILE, Gamma ray) 2007
Fermi (Gamma ray) 2008
Monitor of All-sky X-ray Image (MAXI/ISS, X-ray) 2009
Astrosat (UV, X-ray) 04/2010
Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR, X-ray) 2011
Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope (HXMT, X-ray) 2011
Astro-H (X-ray) 2013
Spektr-RG (X-ray) ?

Solar Observatories
[Pioneer 6/8 (Inaktive) 1965/67]
WIND 1994
*Solar & Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) 1995
Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) 1997
Transition Region and Coronal Explorer (TRACE) 1998
High Energy Transient Explorer 2 (HETE 2) 2000
Hinode (Solar-B) 2006
Stereo A/B 2006
Koronas-Foton 2009
Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) 02/2010

Particles
Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) 2008
Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer 2 (AMS 2/ISS) 07/2010

Planetary Probes

Mercury
Messenger 2004
Bepi-Colombo 2014

Venus
Venus Express (VEX) 2005
Akatsuki (Planet-C) 05/2010
Venera D 2016

Earth
Akebono (Magnetosphere/Aurora) 1989
Geotail (Magnetotail) 1992
Cluster 1-4(Magnetic field) 2000
Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE, Gravity field) 2002
Double Star 1/2 (Magnetic field) 2003/04
Reimei (Aurora) 2005
Gravity field and Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE, Gravity field) 2009
Swarm (Magnetic field) 2011

Moon
Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) 2008
Chang'e 2 2010
Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) 2011
Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) 2012
Luna Glob 2012
Chandrayaan 2 (lander/rover) 2013

Mars
[Nozomi (Solar Orbit) 1998]
Mars Odyssey 2001
Mars Express (MEX) 2003
*Mars Express VMC
Mars Exploration Rovers (MER) 2003
*Mars Rover images - Spirit - Opportunity
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) 2005
Phobos Grunt 2011
Curiosity Mars Science Laboratory (MSL, rover) 2011
Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) 2013
ExoMars (rover) 2016

Asteroids/Comets
International Cometary Explorer (ICE) 1978
Stardust-NEXT (Comet Tempel 1) 1999
Hayabusa (Itokawa) 2003
Rosetta (Comets 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko & 21 Lutetia) 2004
Deep Impact (EPOXI, Comet Hartley 2 & Exoplanets) 2005
Dawn (Ceres & Vesta) 2007

Jupiter
Juno 2011
Europa Jupiter System Mission (EJSM) 2020
Europa Orbiter - Ganymede Orbiter

Saturn
*Cassini 1997
Cassini images

Pluto/Kuiper Belt
New Horizons 2006

Interstellar Space
Pioneer 10/11 1972/73
Voyager Interstellar Mission (Voyager 1/2) 1977

Experimental Spacecraft

Solar Sailing
Interplanetary Kite-craft Accelerated by Radiation Of the Sun (IKAROS, 04/2010)
LightSail-1 2010?

* Images immediately available on the Internet
[] Probe is deactivated but could still be contacted

What's up in the solar system in January 2010 Planetary Society Blog
JPL Photojournal Images from all NASA missions
Solar System Simulator
HORIZONS Solar System Ephemeris
Active Interplanetary Probes At Any Given Time
List of Solar System probes - List of Space Telescopes (Wikipedia)
NASA Missions - JAXA Missions - ESA Missions - ISRO Missions - Roscosmos Missions - Roscosmos HP - CNSA Missions

[Update 20/01/2010: corrected slight error in chart]

Two Hemispheres

2009-12-30T21:03:00.001+01:00

Click for larger image

Just an ordinary two hemisphere star chart in Lambert equidistant azimuthal projection. And a happy new year.

Here are some constellation statistics:

Constellation             Genitive                           Boundaries               Stars
Abr. Long                                       North    South    H*  West     East   <6.5m
And  Andromeda            Andromedae            53°11m   21°41m   N   00h06m   23h51m   152
Ant  Antlia               Antliae              -24°33m  -40°25m   S   11h06m   09h27m    42
Aps  Apus                 Apodis               -67°29m  -83°07m   S   18h27m   13h50m    39
Aqr  Aquarius             Aquarii               03°20m  -24°54m       23h56m   20h38m   172
Aql  Aquila               Aquilae               18°41m  -11°52m       20h39m   18h41m   124
Ara  Ara                  Arae                 -45°29m  -67°41m   S   18h11m   16h34m    71
Ari  Aries                Arietis               31°13m   10°22m   N   03h30m   01h47m    86
Aur  Auriga               Aurigae               56°10m   27°53m   N   07h31m   04h38m   152
Boo  Boötes               Boötis                55°03m   07°22m   N   15h49m   13h36m   144
Cae  Caelum               Caeli                -27°01m  -48°44m   S   05h05m   04h20m    20
Cam  Camelopardalis       Camelopardalis        86°06m   52°40m   N   14h27m   03h16m   153
Cnc  Cancer               Cancri                33°08m   06°28m   N   09h23m   07h55m   104
CVn  Canes Venatici       Canum Venaticorum     52°22m   27°51m   N   14h08m   12h06m    59
CMa  Canis Major          Canis Majoris        -11°02m  -33°15m   S   07h28m   06h12m   147
CMi  Canis Minor          Canis Minoris         13°13m  -00°22m       08h12m   07h07m    47
Cap  Capricornus          Capricorni           -08°24m  -27°39m       21h59m   20h07m    81
Car  Carina               Carinae              -50°45m  -75°41m   S   11h21m   06h03m   225
Cas  Cassiopeia           Cassiopeiae           77°42m   46°41m   N   00h17m   23h41m   157
Cen  Centaurus            Centauri             -30°00m  -64°42m   S   15h03m   11h05m   281
Cep  Cepheus              Cephei                88°40m   53°21m   N   00h04m   23h41m   152
Cet  Cetus                Ceti                  10°31m  -24°52m       00h26m   23h56m   189
Cha  Chamaeleon           Chamaeleontis        -75°17m  -83°07m   S   13h56m   07h27m    31
Cir  Circinus             Circini              -55°26m  -70°37m   S   15h30m   13h39m    39
Col  Columba              Columbae             -27°05m  -43°07m   S   06h40m   05h04m    68
Com  Coma Berenices       Comae Berenices       33°18m   13°18m   N   13h36m   11h58m    66
CrA  Corona Austrina      Coronae Austrini     -36°47m  -45°31m   S   19h19m   17h59m    46
CrB  Corona Borealis      Coronae Borealis      39°43m   25°32m   N   16h25m   15h16m    37
Crv  Corvus               Corvi                -11°41m  -25°12m       12h57m   11h56m    29
Crt  Crater               Crateris             -06°40m  -25°12m       11h56m   10h51m    33
Cru  Crux                 Crux                 -55°41m  -64°42m   S   12h58m   11h56m    49
Cyg  Cygnus               Cygni                 61°21m   27°44m   N   22h03m   19h08m   262
Del  Delphinus            Delphini              20°56m   02°24m       21h09m   20h14m    44
Dor  Dorado               Doradus              -48°40m  -70°06m   S   06h36m   03h53m    29
Dra  Draco                Draconis              86°28m   47°33m   N   20h55m   09h22m   211
Equ  Equuleus             Equulei               13°02m   02°29m       21h26m   20h56m    16
Eri  Eridanus             Eridani               00°24m  -57°55m   S   05h11m   01h25m   194
For  Fornax               Fornacis             -23°45m  -39°31m   S   03h50m   01h45m    59
Gem  Gemini               Geminorum             35°23m   09°49m   N   08h08m   06h01m   119
Gru  Grus                 Gruis                -36°19m  -56°23m   S   23h27m   21h28m    55
Her  Hercules             Herculis              51°19m   03°40m   N   18h58m   15h48m   245
Hor  Horologium           Horologii            -39°38m  -67°02m   S   04h20m   02h13m    30
Hya  Hydra                Hydrae                06°38m  -35°42m   S   15h03m   08h11m   238
Hyi  Hydrus               Hydri                -57°51m  -82°04m   S   04h35m   00h06m    33
Ind  Indus                Indi                 -44°58m  -74°27m   S   23h28m   20h29m    42
Lac  Lacerta              Lacertae              56°55m   35°10m   N   22h58m   21h58m    68
Leo  Leo                  Leonis                32°58m  -06°42m   N   11h58m   09h22m   123
LMi  Leo Minor            Leonis Minoris        41°26m   22°50m   N   11h07m   09h23m    37
Lep  Lepus                Leporis              -10°49m  -27°17m       06h13m   04h55m    73
Lib  Libra                Librae               -00°28m  -30°00m       16h02m   14h22m    83
Lup  Lupus                Lupi                 -29°50m  -55°35m   S   16h09m   14h18m   127
Lyn  Lynx                 Lyncis                61°58m   32°58m   N   09h43m   06h16m    97
Lyr  Lyra                 Lyrae                 47°43m   25°40m   N   19h28m   18h14m    73
Men  Mensa                Mensae               -69°45m  -85°16m   S   07h37m   03h13m    22
Mic  Microscopium         Microscopii          -27°28m  -45°05m   S   21h28m   20h28m    43
Mon  Monoceros            Monocerotis           11°56m  -11°22m       08h11m   05h56m   138
Mus  Musca                Muscae               -64°38m  -75°41m   S   13h51m   11h19m    62
Nor  Norma                Normae               -42°16m  -60°26m   S   16h36m   15h12m    44
Oct  Octans               Octantis             -74°18m  -90°00m   S   24h00m   00h00m    60
Oph  Ophiuchus            Ophiuchi              14°23m  -30°13m   S   18h46m   16h02m   174
Ori  Orion                Orionis               22°53m  -10°59m       06h26m   04h43m   204
Pav  Pavo                 Pavonis              -56°35m  -74°58m   S   21h33m   17h41m    87
Peg  Pegasus              Pegasi                36°36m   02°20m   N   00h06m   23h56m   177
Per  Perseus              Persei                59°06m   30°55m   N   04h51m   01h30m   158
Phe  Phoenix              Phoenicis            -39°18m  -57°51m   S   00h02m   23h27m    71
Pic  Pictor               Pictoris             -42°48m  -64°09m   S   06h52m   04h33m    49
Psc  Pisces               Piscium               33°41m  -06°18m   N   00h06m   23h56m   150
PsA  Piscis Austrinus     Piscis Austrini      -24°50m  -36°28m   S   23h07m   21h27m    47
Pup  Puppis               Puppis               -11°15m  -51°06m   S   08h28m   06h03m   237
Pyx  Pyxis                Pyxidis              -17°25m  -37°18m   S   09h28m   08h27m    41
Ret  Reticulum            Reticuli             -52°45m  -67°15m   S   04h37m   03h13m    23
Sge  Sagitta              Sagittae              21°39m   16°05m       20h21m   18h57m    26
Sgr  Sagittarius          Sagittarii           -11°41m  -45°17m   S   20h29m   17h43m   194
Sco  Scorpius             Scorpii              -08°18m  -45°46m   S   17h59m   15h47m   167
Scl  Sculptor             Sculptoris           -24°48m  -39°22m   S   00h02m   23h56m    52
Sct  Scutum               Scuti                -03°50m  -15°57m       18h59m   18h22m    29
Ser  Serpens              Serpentis             25°40m  -16°08m       18h58m   15h10m   108
Sex  Sextans              Sextantis             06°26m  -11°40m       10h52m   09h41m    38
Tau  Taurus               Tauri                 31°06m  -01°21m   N   06h01m   03h23m   223
Tel  Telescopium          Telescopii           -45°05m  -56°59m   S   20h30m   18h09m    57
Tri  Triangulum           Trianguli             37°21m   25°36m   N   02h51m   01h31m    25
TrA  Triangulum Australe  Trianguli Australis  -60°16m  -70°31m   S   17h14m   14h56m    35
Tuc  Tucana               Tucanae              -56°19m  -75°21m   S   00h06m   23h28m    45
UMa  Ursa Major           Ursae Majoris         73°08m   28°18m   N   14h29m   08h09m   209
UMi  Ursa Minor           Ursae Minoris         90°00m   65°24m   N   24h00m   00h00m    39
Vel  Vela                 Velorum              -37°10m  -57°10m   S   11h06m   08h03m   214
Vir  Virgo                Virginis              14°22m  -22°41m       15h11m   11h37m   169
Vol  Volans               Volantis             -64°06m  -75°30m   S   09h04m   06h31m    31
Vul  Vulpecula            Vulpeculae            29°29m   19°24m       21h31m   18h57m    68

Constellation: Abr. 3-letter abbreviation, Name: long name, Genitive: possesive form.
Boundaries: North/South: northern-/southernmost declination.
H: N for all constellations at least partially north of 30°, S for all constellations at least partially south of -30°, empty for all others within ±30° of the celestial equator.
East/West: eastern-/westermost right ascension.
Stars < 6.5m: number of stars brighter than apparent visual magnitude 6.5.

The above table as a text file

Elongation Charts

2009-12-14T16:29:00.000+01:00

[Update: new and improved version here]

I saw this once in an astronomy book when I was little, but haven't encountered these anywhere since then. So I thought it was time to change that.

Click for larger image

What is shown in the chart is the elongation of every planet, that is the angle between the planet's and the Sun's position over time, projected on the ecliptic, for all of 2010. The yellow line in the middle is the position of the sun. So right after sunset the left half of the chart is above the horizon, and just before sunset the right half. In between the window of visiblity shifts out of the left and into the right side at a rate of 15° per hour. Note that the position of the ecliptic in the night sky depends on your location on the ground, but the position of the planets along the ecliptic is the same from every location.

If you know where the ecliptic is from your location, find the current date on the chart, and you know where to expect each of the planets along the ecliptic. When the planet crosses behind the Sun, it is at conjunction, when it crosses over at 180° it is at opposition. For the lower planets Mercury and Venus upper and lower conjunction are shown as the line crossing behind or in front of the Sun. Whew. Was that difficult?

The planet-tracks are color coded and marked with their symbols according to the legend, the linewidths are proportional to the planet's apparent magnitude at the given time. The vertical tickmarks denote weeks, each tick lies on a sunday. The large ticks and white circles on the right side mark full moon dates. For amateur astronomers this might serve as a "stay home"-marker ;).r

Click for larger image

If you are missing Pluto (well, I do), here is a chart with several dwarf-planets included. Be aware, however, that they are much more inclined from the ecliptic than the biggies, and therefore the projection on the ecliptic much less accurate. Also, the are, apart from ceres, much fainter and require some serious instumentation to see them. And thats my justification for not including Pluto on the planets-only chart and I'm sticking to it, even if it hurts me.

Ephemeris data from NASA's HORIZONS database
For may solar system graphics including several spacecraft: JPL Solar System Simulator

Asterisms, southern POV

2009-11-30T16:48:00.002+01:00

I've had a request for the Asterism map from a southern perspective, so here it is:

Click for larger image

Now I know why Argo Navis doesn't do much for you antipodeans, except for all the cool stuff in it — like Canopus or the η Carina Nebula etc ;).

I've hardly ever seen the sky from the southern hemisphere, having been there only once. The thing I remember most vividly is how weird it felt seeing Orion on it's head. Somehow it is a bit like discovering an entirely new sky again. I should do that sometime...

Details, data and more see the earlier post on Asterisms.

Raw data table (txt)

Asterisms

2009-11-22T21:39:00.003+01:00

[Update: New and improved version here]

This is the chart I wanted when I was young; to get an overview of the night sky in general and work my way forward from there. For this I looked for traditionally known relations between the brightest stars in the sky, or asterisms, and put them all together on a chart.

Click for larger image

Some of the asterisms are constellations (Cassiopiea, Crux, Scorpius), some are parts of constellations (Big Dipper, Sickle, Teapot, Orions Belt and Sword) and some are traditionally known patterns of bright stars grouped into simple shapes (Pegasus Square, Summer Triangle, Great Diamond, Winter Hexagon), that invovle stars from many different constellations. And finally Argo Navis is an old constellation that was dismanteled into the smaller pieces Carina, Vela, Puppis and Pyxis becaus it was deemed yust too big. But for an asterism it is just fine. At least I hope so, because I don't have much experience with the southern sky, so I'm not sure it makes an easy to recognize pattern. I'm willing to stand corrected on this one.

I think the grouping of simple patterns along the celestial equator is no accident, for they align nicely with the seasons: The Summer Triangle and Winter Hexagon are even named after the seasons in which they are best visible. The Great Diamond is up in the spring and the Pegasus Square is best visible in the fall, completing the year. These seasonal alignments are of course from a northern perspective, for the southern viewpoint assume the opposite season. Amd 'visibility' here means that in every season the respective asterism is visible due south (or north from the southern hemisphere) at around midnight. This arrangement makes it possible to draw a text-diagram of the entire nightsky (from the northern hemisphere):

'W'                Dipper          
    Square  Triangle   Diamond  Hexagon
            Teapot Hook  Cross Boat

That might make a useful mnemonic, but I'm not so sure ;).

Another neat alignment occurs along the Milky Way:

'W'  Triangle  Hook  Pointers  Cross  Boat  Hexagon,

which is no accident since obviously most bright stars should be where the concentration of all stars is highest.

Along with the asterisms I included some alignments of bright stars that point to other positions: The Southern Pointer of Alpha and Beta Centauri points to the Southern Cross, which in turn points to the celestial South Pole; the two hindmost stars of the Big Dipper pointing to the celestial North Pole. This one may be a bit confusing on the chart because in the projection I used, the entire upper and and lower edge of the map represent the celestial poles, and thus Polaris looks way out of alignment where the pointer stars should be pointing directly at it. But since the entire upper edge represents a single point, Polaris is right there at the end of the Northern Pointer in the real sky. Finally there is the alignment of Orion's Belt with Sirius; while it is certainly well known, nobody has ever dared to call it "The Leash" before, even though for me it sounds like a very logical thing to call it, since in the origin myth Canis Major is supposed to be Orion's hunting dog, along with Canis Minor.

There are much more known asterisms, (see here for a nice overview) but I restricted myself to those which are visible to the naked eye, because the map is meant to provide a quick and easy overview of the night sky, after all. Some of the entries overlap with others not shown or can be interpreted differently, this is mentioned in the notes below. I also included some of the brightest deep sky objects mentioned in the notes for reference.

The map projection I used here is Winkel tripel, which is said to be the best oveall compromise between angle-, area- and other distortions for a global view. From the look of the chart, I think I can agree with that. The chart contains all stars brighter than magnitude 7.0, stars brighter than 2.5 mag or contained in an asterism are labeled with their proper name or Bayer designation (greek letter).

For comparison I included a blank map of the sky with only the stars brighter than second magnitude named. See if you can find all the Asterisms:

Click for larger image

·✧·

All the member stars:

Asterism `Size`¹	Constellations	Star	Name
Big Dipper² `44°x22°`	Ursa Major	α UMa β UMa γ UMa δ UMa ε UMa ζ UMa η UMa	Dubhe Merak Phad Megreth Alioth Mizar Benetnash
Alpha and Beta UMa point towards Polaris, the celestial North Pole:
North Pointer	Ursa Major Ursa Minor	α UMa β UMa α UMi	Dubhe Merak Polaris
The Queens W¹⁰ `25°x7°`	Cassiopeia	β Cas α Cas γ Cas δ Cas ε Cas	Caph Shedir Ruchbah Segin
Orion's Belt `3°`	Orion	δ Ori ε Ori ζ Ori	Mintaka Alnilam Alnitak
Orions Belt points toward west in the direction of Sirius:
.."The Leash"³	Canis Major	α CMa	Sirius
Orion's Sword `3.5°`	Orion	σ Ori θ Ori M42⁴ ι Ori	Orion Nebula Nair al Saif
Winter Hexagon⁵ `48°x52°`	Canis Major Canis Minor Gemini Auriga Taurus Orion	α CMa α CMi β Gem ⁷ α Aur α Tau⁶ β Ori	Sirius Procyon Pollux Capella Aldebaran Rigel
Sirius and Procyon together with Betelgeuse form the Winter Triangle:
Winter Triangle `26°x24°`	Canis Major Canis Minor Orion	α CMa α CMi α Ori	Sirius Procyon Betelgeuse
Great Diamond⁸ `36°x50°`	Bootes Virgo Leo Canes Venatici	α Boo α Vir β Leo α CVn	Arcturus Spica Denebola Cor Caroli
The Sickle `9°x14°`	Leo	α Leo η Leo γ Leo ζ Leo μ Leo ε Leo	Regulus Al'dzhabkhakh Algieba Adhafera Alshemali Algenubi
Summer Triangle⁹ `31°x36°`	Lyra Aquila Cygnus	α Lyr α Aql α Cyg	Vega Altair Deneb
Pegasus Square¹⁰ `17°x14°`	Pegasus Andromeda	β Peg α Peg γ Peg α And	Scheat Markab Algenib Alpheratz
Teapot¹¹ `15°x9°`	Sagittarius	λ Sgr δ Sgr ε Sgr ζ Sgr φ Sgr The Handle: τ Sgr σ Sgr The Spout: γ Sgr	Kaus Borealis Kaus Meridionalis Kaus Australis Ascella Nunki Nash
Fish Hook¹² `27°x23°`	Scorpius	δ Sco β Sco σ Sco α Sco τ Sco ε Sco μ Sco ζ Sco η Sco θ Sco ι Sco κ Sco λ Sco	Dschubba Graffias Alniyat Antares Alniyat Sargas Shaula
Southern Cross¹³ `8°x6°`	Crux	α Cru β Cru γ Cru δ Cru	Acrux Mimosa Gacrux
Alpha and beta Centauri point toward the Cross:
Southern Pointer	Centaurus	α Cen β Cen	Rigel Kent Agena
Argo Navis¹⁴ `66°x46°`	Carina Vela Puppis Pyxis	The Hull: α Car β Car ω Car θ Car ι Car γ Vel ζ Pup ρ Pup ξ Pup κ Pup π Pup ν Pup The Sail: δ Vel κ Vel φ Vel μ Vel q Vel ψ Vel λ Vel And the Compass: β Pyx α Pyx γ Pyx	Canopus Miaplacidus Turaris Regor Naos Asmidiske Alsuhail

Raw data of the table above (txt)

Notes:

1) Greatest extension in east-west direction x north-south direction; in degrees. For linear Asterisms, length in degrees.

2) Most of the stars of the Big Dipper (except α and η UMa) are part of the Ursa Major Moving Cluster, the closest open cluster to the sun.

3) "The Leash" is my own invention and refers to the fact that it points from Orion's belt to the neck (i.e. α CMa) of his larger dog. Yes, I'm sirius. ;)

4) M42 is, of course, not a star but an emission nebula, the second brightest after the Eta Carinae Nebula.

5) If the hexagon is continued from Rigel (β Ori) to Betelgeuse (α Ori), we do not have a Hexagon containing a Triangle, but a large 'Heavenly G'. Orion, Canis Major, Canis Minor, Taurus as well as Lepus (the Hare) all originate from a common myth.

6) The fuzzy blob east of Aldebaran (α Tau) are the Pleiades, on of the brightest open star clusters. Even closer to Aldebaran, but visible only in a very dark sky are the Hyades, another bright open star cluster.

7) Gemini contains two almost equally bright stars, but Castor (β Gem) is a little bit brighter than Pollux (α Gem), so it gets casted.

8) Regulus (α Leo) is another bright star close by that is not part of the asterism. It is, however, the base of an arc of stars that make up the lion's head and is sometimes called 'The Sickle'. Within the Diamond lies the Coma Star Cluster, one of the oldest known open clusters, cataloged by Ptolemy.

9) The whole contellation Cygnus is also known as the Northern Cross. There are many more cruciform asterisms in the south (see below). The dark nebula that runs through Cygnus is sometimes called the Dark Rift

10) Pegasus, Andromeda, Perseus, Cassiopeia and Cepheus all originate from the ancient greek myth of Perseus Close to the Pegasus Square off in the Andromeda corner is M31, the Andromada Galaxy. Also in the area are M33, the Triangulum Galaxy; the Alpha Persei Moving cluster, another bright open star cluster close to the brightest star in Perseus, Mirfak (α Per), as well as the Double Cluster h & Chi Persei.

11) The most striking feature in this region is the center of the Milky Way, with too many deep sky objects to list here (see link). In the context of the asterism the Milky Way is supposed to be the steam coming out of the spout. A nice dark cloud feature close by is the Pipe Nebula, which in a dark enough sky looks like a, well, pipe with steam coming out of the bowl.

12) Antares lies in the very colorful Rho Ophiuchi Cloud, a nice collection of dark-, emission- reflection nebulae, open and globular clusters, a little bit of everything. Scorpius also contains M7, Ptolemy's Cluster, one of the brightest open clusters

13) An imaginary line along the longer vertical arm of the Southern Cross about 4.5 times the length of this arm points to the celestial south pole. Other bright objects around the south pole are the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds. Close to the latter lies 47 Tuc, the second brightest globular cluster after Omega Centauri. The Coalsack dark nebula is directly adjacent to the cross. In native Australian star lore it was the head of a giant Emu made up of dark clouds stretching along the Milky Way, with the body in Sagittarius.

14) More about Argo Navis The region contains two formations that may be mistaken for the Southern Cross: The upside down Diamond Cross with β (Miaplacidus), ω, ο and υ Carinae; and The False Cross, consisting of κ and δ Velorum (Markeb and Alhabor) plus &iota and ε Carinae (Aspidiske and Avior), which even has it's False Pointers with &zeta Pup (Naos) and &gamma Vel (Regor) Close to the False Cross lies the Eta Carinae Nebula, the brightest emission nebula in the sky.

·✧·

Asterism data from the great SAC Asterisms file (scroll down) from the Saguaro Astronomy Club.
Star data from the Hipparcos and Bright Star Catalog
Names from HD-DM-GC-HR-HIP-Bayer-Flamsteed Cross Index Deep Sky Object data mostly from SEDS
Star Charts by me, with Milky Way data from this fine application, sadly not developed anymore, it seems.

Space Mission Links

2009-11-01T21:00:00.007+01:00

Click for larger image

Space Telescopes

Infrared & Submillimeter
http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu Spitzer Space Telescope
http://www.ir.isas.jaxa.jp/ASTRO-F/Outreach/index_e.html Akari
http://sci.esa.int/herschel/ Herschel
http://wise.ssl.berkeley.edu/ WISE (2009)
http://www.vsop.isas.ac.jp/vsop2e/ Astro-G (Radio, 2012)

(Near) Optical
http://hubblesite.org Hubble Space Telescope (HST)
http://heritage.stsci.edu/index.html Hubble Heritage Project
http://www.spacetelescope.org/ ESA's Hubble Seite
http://sci.esa.int/.../index.cfm?fareaid=26 GAIA (2011)
http://www.jwst.nasa.gov/ James Webb Space Telescope (JWST, 2014)

High energy
http://www.galex.caltech.edu/ GALEX (UV)
http://xmm.esac.esa.int/ XMM-Newton (X-ray)
http://xte.mit.edu/ RXTE (X-ray)
http://chandra.harvard.edu/ Chandra (X-ray)
http://www.astro.isas.ac.jp/suzaku/ Suzaku (X-ray)
http://sci.esa.int/integral/ Integral (Gamma ray)
http://agile.asdc.asi.it/ AGILE (Gamma ray)
http://www.nasa.gov/swift Swift (GRBs)
http://fermi.gsfc.nasa.gov/ Fermi (Gamma ray)
http://www.hxmt.cn/english/index.php HXMT (X-ray, 2011)
http://astro-h.isas.jaxa.jp/index.html.en Astro-H (X-ray, 2013)

Solar Observatories
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/.../pioneer.html Pioneer 6
http://www.srl.caltech.edu/ACE/ Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE)
http://space.mit.edu/HETE/HETE 2
http://trace.lmsal.com/ TRACE
http://www.isas.jaxa.jp/home/solar/ Hinode
http://www.stp.isas.jaxa.jp/akebono/ Akebono
http://www.russianspaceweb.com/koronas_foton.html Koronas-Foton
*http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/ SOHO
http://stereo.gsfc.nasa.gov/ Stereo A/B
http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/ Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO, 2009)

Exoplanets
http://www.esa.int/esaMI/COROT/ COROT
http://kepler.nasa.gov/ Kepler

Cosmology
http://map.gsfc.nasa.gov/ WMAP (CMB)
http://www.esa.int/planck/ Planck (CMB)
http://sci.esa.int/.../index.cfm?fareaid=40 LISA Pathfinder (2011)
http://lisa.jpl.nasa.gov/ LISA (Gravity Waves, 2018)

Planetary Probes

http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov Images from all NASA missions
http://space.jpl.nasa.gov/ Solar System Simulator
http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/horizons.cgi HORIZONS Ephemerides

Mercury
http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/ Messenger
http://sci.esa.int/.../index.cfm?fareaid=30 Bepi-Colombo (2014)

Venus
http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Venus_Express/ Venus Express (VEX)
http://www.stp.isas.jaxa.jp/venus/top_english.html Akatsuki (2010)
http://www.russianspaceweb.com/venera_d.html Venera D (2016)

Earth
http://www.csr.utexas.edu/grace/ GRACE (Gravitation)
http://www.esa.int/goce GOCE (Gravitation)
http://www.isas.jaxa.jp/.../reimei/index.shtml Reimei (Aurora)
http://www.stp.isas.jaxa.jp/akebono/ Akebono (Magnetic field)
http://www.stp.isas.jaxa.jp/geotail/ Geotail (Magnetic field)
http://sci.esa.int/.../index.cfm?fareaid=8 Cluster 1-4 (Magnetic field)
http://sci.esa.int/.../index.cfm?fareaid=70 Double Star 1/2 (Magnetic field)

Moon
http://lunar.gsfc.nasa.gov/ Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO)
http://moon.mit.edu/ GRAIL (2011)
http://nasascience.nasa.gov/missions/ladee LADEE (2012)

Mars
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/odyssey/ Mars Odyssey
http://www.esa.int/esaMI/Mars_Express/ Mars Express (MEX)
*http://www.esa.int/vmc Mars Express VMC
http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/ Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO)
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.html Mars Rovers
*http://www.exploratorium.edu/mars/viewer.html Mars Rover images
*http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/spirit/ Spirit raw images
*http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/ Opportunity raw images
http://www.russianspaceweb.com/phobos_grunt.html Phobos Grunt (2011)
http://marsprogram.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/ Mars Science Laboratory (2011)
http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/ExoMars/index.html ExoMars (2016)

Asteroids/Comets
http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/.../missions/isee3.html ICE
http://sci.esa.int/rosetta/ Rosetta (Comets 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko & 21 Lutetia)
http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/ Stardust-NEXT (Comet Tempel 1)
http://epoxi.umd.edu/ Deep Impact (EPOXI, Comet Hartley 2 & Exoplanets)
http://www.isas.jaxa.jp/e/enterp/missions/hayabusa/today.shtml Hayabusa (Itokawa)
http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/ Dawn (Ceres & Vesta)

Jupiter
http://juno.wisc.edu/ Juno (2011)
http://opfm.jpl.nasa.gov/europajupitersystemmissionejsm/ EJSM (2020)
http://opfm.jpl.nasa.gov/.../jupitereuropaorbiterconcept/ EJSM Europa Orbiter
http://opfm.jpl.nasa.gov/.../jupiterganymedeorbiterjgoconcept/ EJSM Ganymede Orbiter

Saturn
*http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/ Cassini
http://ciclops.org/ Cassini images

Pluto/Kuiper Belt
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/ New Horizons

Interstellar Space
http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/ Voyager Interstellar Mission
http://ibex.swri.edu/index.shtml IBEX

*Raw images immediately available on the Internet

More:
List of Solar System probes - List of Space Telescopes (Wikipedia)
NASA Missions - JAXA Missions - ESA Missions - ISRO Missions - Roscosmos Missions - CNSA Missions

[Update 03/11/2009: better chart with Asteroid belt and listed missions sorted alphabetically]

2009-10-28T17:39:00.002+01:00

Hello and welcome.

This is my blog. There are many like it but this one is mine...

Anyway, what I like to do here is posting nifty charts and maps about all things space-related. I have a number of those on my hard disk which I will post after polishing them up a bit. But if anyone reads this here, I'd also like to take requests and suggestions for any sort of space-themed graphic treatment. And hopefully do something noteworthy with it, within my abilities.

So, welcome!