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In the Sky this Week – October 5, 2021

By Robert Trembley  |  5 Oct 2021  |  Sacred Space Astronomy

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This entry is part 211 of 248 in the series In the Sky This Week

Feature|The Sky|The Moon|The Sun|Asteroids|Fireballs|The Solar System|Spacecraft News|Exoplanets|Aurora|Light Pollution|The Universe|

Endeavour Space Academy: Surprises!

I had a list of topics… most of them got covered… I strayed a bit because student’s questions made me discuss other topics – which I had to go get pictures for…

I covered a LOT of topics! I mentioned the Inspiration 4 mission – none of the students had heard of that.

I discussed the speed of light: “8 minutes from the Sun,” communication times to the Moon and Mars, and the whole “when you look up into the sky, you are seeing into the past” bit.

Image: A beam of light is depicted travelling between the Earth and the Moon in the time it takes a light pulse to move between them: 1.255 seconds at their mean orbital (surface-to-surface) distance. The relative sizes and separation of the Earth–Moon system are shown to scale.

I navigated to NASA’s Solar System Exploration website – I was going to “quickly” go over the solar system… HA! What was I thinking? I discussed the Moon, gravity and tidal locking, and then went to Mercury and I discussed its north pole craters with ice.

I navigated to Venus, and when I said the surface pressure was 90 bars, and temperature was 900°F, and their eyes got HUGE! I also mentioned Venus’ bizarre rotation. I showed them photos from Venus’ surface, and discussed the three upcoming missions to Venus from NASA and the ESA. I mentioned that in a decade or so, THEY could be the researchers working with brand new data from Venus!

I clicked on Mars, and showed how Phobos was tidally-locked. We also had discussion about how inhospitable Mars is as a settlement location, and the perils of travel there. None of the students had seen the movie “The Martian;” I showed them the Hermes interplanetary spacecraft from that movie, and said “THIS right here, with that rotating torus, is exactly what we need to go to Mars… and we’re nowhere near that yet.”

I navigated to Eros and asked the students if they knew what an asteroid was? One student answered “rock” – which made me happy! I went on to quickly explain differentiation and the different types of asteroids.

I clicked on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko and as I rotated around it, I asked them what it looked like. I then quickly discussed the “frost line” and what comets were, and how they function.

Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko a few hours before the comet reached the closest point to the Sun. Credit: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA

Which led me to discuss icy bodies in the outer solar system – so I went to Saturn, and showed them its rings, and how thin they are. I asked them if they knew what the rings were made of, and they got it right! But when I when asked them what Saturn’s moons were made of, one said “rock,” so I went to Mimas, and asked what that looked like – they said “ice!” So, if Saturn’s rings are ice, and its moons are ice – what do you think happened? And they got it pretty darn close! I then discussed the Roche-limit, and Saturn tearing a moon apart; I tied it back to the gravitational forces that cause the Earth’s Moon to be tidally-locked.

As the hour was running out, I navigated to Enceladus and showed the students images of its plumes – which they’d never seen before… I ran out of time when starting to discuss hydrothermal vents – next time!

Saturn’s moon Enceladus, showing-off its spectacular water ice plumes. Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

Sometime during the hour, I mentioned the Exocast podcast that I recently started listening to – they’ve had some pretty interesting guests!

We're back with a fresh new episode! This month the exocast team discusses why we love ground-based telescopes and how these instruments have produced some of the most exciting discoveries in exoplanet science! https://t.co/vMHfAD8EAz#podcast #scicomm #astronomy pic.twitter.com/gWHgMRe38U

— Exocast: The Exoplanet Podcast (@exo_cast) September 29, 2021

The Sky - In the Sky

Jupiter and Saturn continue to be excellent viewing targets in the southeastern sky after sunset; Jupiter is slowly moving eastward away from Saturn.

Southeastern sky after sunset
Jupiter and Saturn appear high in the southeastern sky after sunset all week. Credit: Bob Trembley / Stellarium.

Venus continues to appear low above the southwestern horizon after sunset, moving slightly southward towards the star Antares each evening; the crescent Moon appears between Antares and Venus on Oct. 9th. I call this a “fender-bender conjunction” – please be careful when driving south or west on this day!

Southwestern sky after sunset
Venus appears low above the southwestern horizon after sunset all week. Credit: Bob Trembley / Stellarium.

The crescent Moon appears in the constellation Sagittarius in the southwestern sky after sunset on Oct. 11th

Southwestern sky after sunset
The Moon in the constellation Sagittarius in the southwestern sky after sunset on Oct. 11th. Credit: Bob Trembley / Stellarium.

A thin crescent Moon appears above the eastern horizon before sunrise on Oct. 4th – be sure to look for earthshine.

Eastern horizon before sunrise
The crescent Moon above the eastern horizon before sunrise on Oct. 4th. Credit: Bob Trembley / Stellarium.

A very thin crescent Moon appears very low above the eastern horizon before sunrise on Oct. 5th – be sure to look for earthshine, again!

Eastern horizon before sunrise
The crescent Moon very low above the eastern horizon before sunrise on Oct. 5th. Credit: Bob Trembley / Stellarium.
The Moon - In the Sky
  • The Moon is a Waning Crescent – visible low to the east before sunrise.
  • The New Moon occurs on Oct. 6th.
  • After Oct. 6th, the Moon will be a Waxing Crescent – visible toward the southwest in early evening.
Moon
The Moon from Oct. 5 – 11, 2021. Visualizations by Ernie Wright / NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio.

If you click on the Moon image above, or click this link, you will go to NASA’s Moon Phase and Libration, 2021 page – it will show you what the Moon looks like right now. If you click the image on that page, you will download a high-rez TIFF image annotated with the names of prominent features – helpful for logging your lunar observations!

Moon News:

International #ObserveTheMoon Night is right around the corner. Visit https://t.co/oDe5ztA8ZK to find an event to attend, learn how to host an event, and register to add yourself to the global map of lunar observers! pic.twitter.com/QmfvmkWFjN

— NASA Moon (@NASAMoon) October 4, 2021

The Sun - In the Sky

The Sun has 2 spots – one of them very large and rotating into view. SpaceWeather.com says: “AR2882 is big, but quiet. It has a simple ‘alpha-class’ magnetic field that poses little threat for flares..”

The Sun on September 21, 2021. Credit: SDO/HMI

SpaceWeather.com also reports that “Sunspot counts for Sept. 2021 were the highest in more than 5 years. And, for the 11th month in a row, the sunspot number has significantly exceeded the official forecast.”

Sunspot counts vs. time. The red curve traces the forecast issued by the NOAA/NASA in 2019.

The Sun seen in 193 angstroms on October 4th.

AR2880 is blowing a LOT of stuff off, and AR2882 has a LOT of activity associated with it.

https://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/assets/img/dailymov/2021/10/04/20211004_1024_0193.mp4

The Sun seen in 304 angstroms on October 4th.

LOTS of prominence activity – especially around AR2880!

https://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/assets/img/dailymov/2021/10/04/20211004_1024_0304.mp4
Videos courtesy of NASA/SDO and the AIA, EVE, and HMI science teams.
You can view the Sun in near real-time, in multiple frequencies here: SDO-The Sun Now.
You can create your own time-lapse movies of the Sun here: AIA/HMI Browse Data.
You can browse all the SDO images of the Sun from 2010 to the present here: Browse SDO archive.

Amateur Solar Astrophotography

Sun
AR2882 on the Sun, Oct. 4, 2021. Credit: Martin Stirland

Solar Corona

Solar wind speed is 289.5 km/sec ▼ WOW! with a density of 9.0 protons/cm3 ▲ at 1734 UT.

Sun
SOHO LASCO C2 Latest Image

Click here to see a near real-time animation of the corona and solar wind from the Solar & Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO).

Sun News:

Our Solar Dynamics Observatory has been studying the Sun for more than a decade. 🛰☀️

This long-term data lets scientists see the Sun in a new light. Recently, researchers discovered a new type of slowly oscillating wave in the solar surface. https://t.co/TDtl21N2wO pic.twitter.com/rBCtSP2DqH

— NASA Sun & Space (@NASASun) October 5, 2021

Asteroids - In the Sky
  • Near-Earth Objects (NEOs) discovered this month: 24, this year: 2163 (+90), all time: 26,992 (+89)
  • Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (PHAs): 2213 (+6 updated 2021-10-05)
  • Total Minor Planets discovered (NASA): 1,113,527 (updated 2021-08-17) – not been updated for many weeks.
  • Total Minor Planets discovered (MPC): 1,130,421 (+13,633, updated 2021-10-05)

Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:

Asteroid Date(UT) Miss Distance Velocity (km/s) Diameter (m)
2021 TM 2021-Oct-05 1.8 LD 14.2 11
2021 SE1 2021-Oct-05 8.6 LD 4.3 19
2021 ST 2021-Oct-06 6 LD 9.1 22
2021 RP12 2021-Oct-06 5 LD 9.7 43
2021 TR1 2021-Oct-06 18.8 LD 12.8 34
1998 SD9 2021-Oct-06 10.6 LD 10.8 59
2015 TQ21 2021-Oct-07 10.7 LD 20.7 12
2021 SD2 2021-Oct-07 5.7 LD 6.6 15
2021 TT1 2021-Oct-10 1 LD 17.1 20
2021 RF5 2021-Oct-10 19.9 LD 8.8 47
2021 TQ1 2021-Oct-10 3.1 LD 5.4 8
2021 QF5 2021-Oct-11 15.4 LD 7.1 59
2019 SE5 2021-Oct-11 16.3 LD 6.6 16
2021 SF1 2021-Oct-12 6.2 LD 3.4 13
2021 TN1 2021-Oct-12 7.5 LD 3.6 19
2021 TC1 2021-Oct-14 14.6 LD 6.6 31
2021 SM1 2021-Oct-14 6.9 LD 7.2 27
2021 SM3 2021-Oct-15 13.2 LD 16 98
2020 TH6 2021-Oct-19 7.3 LD 5.9 6
1996 VB3 2021-Oct-20 8.8 LD 15.3 135
2021 SG2 2021-Oct-21 15.9 LD 5.8 24
2021 RE10 2021-Oct-21 15.5 LD 5.1 56
2021 TE1 2021-Oct-24 9.8 LD 12.2 46
2017 SJ20 2021-Oct-25 18.7 LD 15.7 123
2019 UW6 2021-Oct-26 8 LD 11.1 17
2009 WY7 2021-Nov-02 19.2 LD 14.7 54
2017 TS3 2021-Nov-02 13.9 LD 9.9 135
2005 VL1 2021-Nov-04 17 LD 5.2 18
2020 KA 2021-Nov-06 14.9 LD 4.8 11
2021 SP3 2021-Nov-08 15.6 LD 9.3 68
2019 XS 2021-Nov-09 1.5 LD 10.7 65
2017 WG14 2021-Nov-10 18.6 LD 11.6 45
2004 UE 2021-Nov-13 11.1 LD 13.2 178
2016 VR 2021-Nov-15 8 LD 8.7 20
2010 VK139 2021-Nov-15 6.4 LD 13.9 65
2019 VL5 2021-Nov-15 8.6 LD 8 23
2016 JG12 2021-Nov-20 14.4 LD 7.5 112
2021 KH2 2021-Nov-21 19.3 LD 6.5 31
3361 2021-Nov-21 15.1 LD 8.1 555
2014 WF201 2021-Nov-24 13.2 LD 5.5 27
2009 WB105 2021-Nov-25 15.1 LD 18.9 71
2019 BB5 2021-Nov-25 18.8 LD 8.3 16
1994 WR12 2021-Nov-29 16.1 LD 8.8 123
Notes: LD means “Lunar Distance.” 1 LD = 384,401 km, the distance between Earth and the Moon. 1 LD also equals 0.00256 AU. MAG is the visual magnitude of the asteroid on the date of closest approach.

Asteroid News:

UAE to launch probe targeting asteroid between Mars & Jupiter

UAE to launch probe targeting asteroid between Mars, Jupiter https://t.co/z2zxUEaG51 pic.twitter.com/Nvfvx9uu0y

— Zyite (@ZyiteGadgets) October 5, 2021

Landing on an Asteroid

How different is landing on an asteroid compared to landing on a planet? Learn more about this topic with Naomi Murdoch, planetary scientist at @ISAE_officiel.

#AsteroidDay #WSW2021https://t.co/R2EbRqP2OF pic.twitter.com/iOAN0N9WAn

— Asteroid Day ☄ (@AsteroidDay) October 2, 2021
Fireballs - In the Sky

On October 5, 2021, the NASA All Sky Fireball Network reported 30 fireballs!
(30 sporadics)

In this diagram of the inner solar system, all of the fireball orbits intersect at a single point–Earth. The orbits are color-coded by velocity, from slow (red) to fast (blue). Credit: SpaceWeather.com

Fireball News:

A spectacular fireball across the skies above #NorthCarolina! Check out the video of an #asteroid entering the atmosphere in this article from @SPACEdotcom:https://t.co/D3LEIQ3HyQ pic.twitter.com/QTboSY7e24

— Asteroid Day ☄ (@AsteroidDay) October 5, 2021

If you see a bright meteor or a fireball, please REPORT IT to the American Meteor Society and the International Meteor Organization!

The Solar System - In the Sky

Position of the planets & several spacecraft in the inner solar system on October 5th:

Inner Solar System
Top-down view of the inner solar system on Oct. 5, 2021. Credit: Bob Trembley / NASA Eyes on the Solar System

Position of the planets in the middle solar system:

Middle Solar System
Top-down view of the middle solar system on Oct. 5, 2021. Credit: Bob Trembley / NASA Eyes on the Solar System

Position of the planets in the outer solar system:

Outer Solar System
Top-down view of the outer solar system on Oct. 5, 2021. Credit: Bob Trembley / NASA Eyes on the Solar System

Solar System News

A bigger nursery for the solar system's first formed solids

A bigger nursery for the solar system's first formed solids (via @NewsfusionApps #NASA News)https://t.co/ulsYfiT2na

— AstroBlanca (@aurora113311) September 29, 2021

Scientists confirm decrease in Pluto's atmospheric density

Some news from #DPS2021 today!https://t.co/hi3uMEyMJG

— DPS Official (@DPSCommittee) October 5, 2021

Spacecraft News - In the Sky

An insider's take on the ESA BepiColombo mission's first fly-by of Mercury

My insider's take on @ESA_Bepi's first swing-by of Mercury (with the inital erroneous title corrected) https://t.co/pRlJRS1tRT

— David Rothery 🇪🇺 💙 (@daverothery) October 4, 2021

Parker Solar Probe Finds Dust

The solar system is a dusty place, and #ParkerSolarProbe is getting a closer look! 🧹 Though Parker Solar Probe doesn’t carry its own dust counter, it can pick up electric signals created by dust impacts. Here’s what scientists have learned: https://t.co/UlYCudOyUb pic.twitter.com/ilgR7JsRcb

— NASA Sun & Space (@NASASun) October 4, 2021

International Space Station

10 crew now onboard

The Soyuz crew ship hatch to the station opened at 11am ET and three Russian crewmates entered the station increasing the space population to 10. https://t.co/05zsK3fkeH

— International Space Station (@Space_Station) October 5, 2021

HiRISE - Beautiful Mars

HiPOD: Nilosyrtis Mensae Dunes

Often times, an image is requested to create a stereo pair for a future anaglyph, which helps to study the Martian terrain in better detail. That’s the case with these dunes near the central peak of an impact crater. https://t.co/MVDLQDa87J pic.twitter.com/dk30ng98G3

— HiRISE: Beautiful Mars (NASA) (@HiRISE) October 5, 2021

Landsat Program

#Landsat Smooth Sailing – So Far!

#LandsatHeadline
Landsat 9 successfully launched on Monday, Sept 27, 2021 at 11:12 a.m. PDT and is now proceeding smoothly and accordingly through its scheduled on-orbit checkout period.

Read more at 🛰️ https://t.co/NCnbfrWfeZ pic.twitter.com/NtXgoRIR2j

— USGS Landsat (@USGSLandsat) October 5, 2021

Orbiting Carbon Observatory-3 (OCO-3)

This map shows human-produced CO2 in parts of Southern California based on datasets from our Orbiting Carbon Observatory 3 (OCO-3) instrument. Yellow indicates the highest readings of C02 that were found in a densely populated part of downtown Los Angeles. https://t.co/0g5i02Edhm pic.twitter.com/SYLugOvb6G

— NASA JPL (@NASAJPL) June 7, 2021

Landsat 9 3D Model Added to NASA's "Eyes on the Earth" Web App

Quick link here. Note: Landsat 9 has NOT yet bee added to the installable NASA Eyes app for Windows/MAC.

Now that the real @NASA/@USGS #Landsat9 satellite is in orbit, you can check out the 3D model in @nasa_eyes on the Earth! The mission will continue the longest global record of Earth's surface as it changes from both human and natural causes.

Come play: https://t.co/DEN0k8DB6T pic.twitter.com/a7jKBIwztT

— NASA Climate (@NASAClimate) September 30, 2021

Global avg sea level continues to rise

UPDATE: Global avg sea level continues to ⬆️ at 3.4 mm (0.13 in) per year since 1993.

The @IPCC_CH says we will see more sea level rise in the 21st century, with extreme events (like severe coastal flooding) happening every year by the end of the century: https://t.co/rK2qfAb4jT pic.twitter.com/ICoHPdeeEr

— NASA Climate (@NASAClimate) September 29, 2021

See a list of current NASA missions here: https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions?mission_status=current

Exoplanets - In the Sky

ex·o·plan·et /ˈeksōˌplanət/, noun: a planet orbiting a star other than the Sun.

All Exoplanets 4525 (+4)
Confirmed Planets Discovered by Kepler 2402
Kepler Project Candidates Yet To Be Confirmed 2361
Confirmed Planets Discovered by K2 467
K2 Candidates Yet To Be Confirmed 889
Confirmed Planets Discovered by TESS 156 (+1)
TESS Project Candidates Integrated into Archive (2021-10-05 13:00:01) 4511
Current date TESS Project Candidates at ExoFOP 4511
TESS Candidates Yet To Be Confirmed 3043 (-5)

Data from the NASA Exoplanet Archive
* Confirmed Planets Discovered by TESS refers to the number planets that have been published in the refereed astronomical literature.
* TESS Project Candidates refers to the total number of transit-like events that appear to be astrophysical in origin, including false positives as identified by the TESS Project.
* TESS Project Candidates Yet To Be Confirmed refers to the number of TESS Project Candidates that have not yet been dispositioned as a Confirmed Planet or False Positive.

Exoplanet News:

2,545 light-years from Earth, 8 planets orbit a Sun-like star in the Draco constellation. It's the largest planetary system known — aside from our own. Researchers used machine learning, known as a neural network, to spot the final world's faint signal. https://t.co/xqPKgFDWm4 pic.twitter.com/GqfGySoHWX

— NASA Exoplanets (@NASAExoplanets) October 5, 2021

Aurora - In the Sky

😍 The #AuroraBorealis lit up skies in northern Scotland on Thursday evening ✨ @Kirsteenjones captured this stunning shot in Orkney before the rain arrived 👇#Aurora #NorthernLights pic.twitter.com/asT24JPFZ6

— Met Office (@metoffice) September 30, 2021

SpaceWeather.com Realtime Aurora Gallery: https://spaceweathergallery.com/aurora_gallery.html

Light Pollution - In the Sky

National Audubon Society calls for ‘Lights Out’ after ‘mass mortality’ event of migratory birds. What a sad story!

Migratory birds heading south for the winter are becoming disoriented and dying in mass mortality events due to bright city lights, according to @DrBirdCast.https://t.co/I9lLfs7MJP

— Chron (@chron) October 5, 2021

  • Visit an International Dark Sky Park: https://www.darksky.org/our-work/conservation/idsp/parks/
  • If you live in Michigan, visit the Michigan Dark Skies site: https://sites.lsa.umich.edu/darkskies/
The Universe - In the Sky

Education and STEM

Mr. Kyle Acierno: "Woman on the Moon: Bridging the Gender Gap"

World Space Week 2021: Oct. 4-10

Join us on October 7th at 19:00 CEST, to hear Mr. Acierno talking about the importance of sending the first woman on the Moon, and what kind of an impact empowering women in the space sector has for bridging the gender gap.

Register here: https://t.co/v1ETZxsABZ

— World Space Week (@WorldSpaceWeek) October 5, 2021

LEGO and NASA #BuildToLaunch episode

Is there wifi on the @Space_Station?
What's life like for @NASA_Astronauts living there?

This week's #BuildToLaunch episode gets answers to these questions & more from @NASA's Kevin Metrocavage, Operations Manager for the ISS -- plus, a few special guests!🤩 https://t.co/08hmZ34HQP

— NASA STEM (@NASASTEM) October 5, 2021

Luminous: Can a Michigan astronomer predict a nova?

This video was a special presentation at last night’s meeting of the Warren Astronomical Society!

From their website:

The Story

Luminous tells the story of the first astronomer in history to publicly predict the near-future explosion of a star – if he’s right, 2022 will see the closest thing to a supernova in the skies of earth in 400 years, and every school kid in the northern hemisphere will know it. But the prediction is high risk. Others in the astronomical community are skeptical, and Professor Larry Molnar’s professional and personal reputations hang in the balance. Luminous, a feature documentary by award-winning filmmaker Sam Smartt (Wagonmasters), follows Larry’s journey to test his unprecedented prediction, knowing that its success or failure will unfold squarely in the international spotlight.

The Subject

Larry Molnar is a professor of Physics and Astronomy at Calvin University in Grand Rapids, MI. He earned his PhD from Harvard University in 1985 and was a post-doctoral at the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics from 1985-1988. Before coming to Calvin, Larry taught at the University of Iowa from 1988-1998. In many ways, Larry is an unlikely protagonist for this story. Though brilliant, he is mild-mannered, kind, unassuming, and not a seeker of the limelight. He believes in intellectual curiosity for its own sake, not in accomplishing great things in order to garner attention. For the audience, the central dramatic question of the film is clear— “Is Larry right? Will the star actually explode?” But as a scientist Larry sees it differently: “In a sense, I don’t care whether I’m right or not. What I want to know is the truth.”

The Science Behind the Prediction

Using light curve data from V1309 SCO leading up to its red nova outburst in 2008, Professor Molnar developed a predicted curve of exponential period decay in KIC 9832227, which predicts a similar red nova outburst in 2022 (see graph below.) With only one such event estimated to occur in our galaxy every ten years, it seems wildly improbable that Larry has stumbled upon the next one to explode, but when the system follows the prediction perfectly for two years, Larry decides to go public with his prediction so that everyone can watch the event if it occurs.

To learn more about Luminous, visit luminous-film.com


V1309 Scorpii (also known as V1309 Sco) is a contact binary that merged into a single star in 2008 in a process known as a luminous red nova. It was the first star to provide conclusive evidence that contact binary systems end their evolution in a stellar merger. Its similarities to V838 Monocerotis and V4332 Sagittarii allowed scientists to identify these stars as merged contact binaries as well. – Wikipedia

An artist’s impression of a contact binary star. Credit: ESO/L. Calçada

Software Apps used for this post:

NASA Eyes on the Solar System: an immersive 3D solar system and space mission simulator – free for the PC /MAC.
SpaceEngine: a free 3D Universe Simulator for Windows. Steam version with VR support available.
Stellarium: a free open source planetarium app for PC/MAC/Linux. It’s a great tool for planning observing sessions. A web-based version of Stellarium is also available.

Feature|The Sky|The Moon|The Sun|Asteroids|Fireballs|The Solar System|Spacecraft News|Exoplanets|Aurora|Light Pollution|The Universe|

Stay safe, be well, and look up!

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More Posts in this Series:
"In the Sky This Week"

78  |  What Do We Lose When We Sacrifice Science?

By Br. Guy Consolmagno  |  27 May 2021  |  Sacred Space Astronomy

69  |  To err is human… to admit it, is science

By Br. Guy Consolmagno  |  25 Mar 2021  |  Sacred Space Astronomy

210  |  In the Sky this Week – September 29, 2021

By Robert Trembley  |  28 Sep 2021  |  Sacred Space Astronomy

212  |  In the Sky this Week – October 26, 2021

By Robert Trembley  |  26 Oct 2021  |  Sacred Space Astronomy

213  |  In the Sky this Week – November 2, 2021

By Robert Trembley  |  2 Nov 2021  |  Sacred Space Astronomy

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