Ms. Trotta's Science Blog: Astronomy Club Anyone?

Hi class,

Hopefully you are all enjoying your summer break! I have been doing some thinking and thought it would be really cool if we had an astronomy club! We could meet maybe once or twice a month after school and talk about new developments in astronomy, make astronomy related crafts, and even go outside to obseve the sun, moon, stars, and more! I will think more about it and see if we could have this club. I think it will be a lot of fun!

A few things in the world of astronomy to update you on...

1. The ISS will be having a series of flyby's that you can see. I have posted the times for HR. This flyby information has been taken form Spaceweather.com's satellite tracker ( http://spaceweather.com/flybys/flybys.php?zip=20895 )

July 6: 4:42:26 am - 4:44:37 am, NNW, 33 degrees (max. elevation), magnitude: -2.4

July 6: 10:42:58 pm - 10:45:20 pm, WSW, 51 degrees (max. elevation), magnitude: -3.4

July 7: 5:06:46 am - 5:09:09 am, WNW, 71 degrees (max. elevation), magnitude: -3.9

July 7: 9:32:20 pm - 9:34:39 pm, SSW, 43 degrees (max. elevation), magnitude: -3.0

July 8: 3:56:11 am - 3:58:23 am, NNW, 34 degrees (max. elevation), magnitude: -2.5

July 8: 9:56:41 pm - 9:59:03 pm, WSW, 48 degrees (max. elevation), magnitude: -3.3

July 9: 4:20:28 am - 4:22:51 am, WNW, 67 degrees (max. elevation), magnitude: -3.8

July 9: 8:46:22 pm - 8:48:30 pm, SSW, 45 degrees (max. elevation), magnitude: -3.1

July 10: 9:10:19 pm - 9:12:40 pm, WSW, 46 degrees (max. elevation), mangitude: -3.2

Remember, the lower the magnitude, the brighter the object is (this is aparent magnitude, which means it is how bright it appears to be to you, from Earth).

Again, all of this information regarding the times of the flyby has been taken from SpaceWeather's Satellite tracker-refer to the website above for more information.

2. The LRO has taken some great pictures of the lunar surface. NASA has released some of the pictures that the LRO has taken. I have posted two of those pictures on here for you to see.

These two above photos were taken from NASA's website (http://www.nasa.gov/) The full link to the photos and the article that they go with is: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LRO/multimedia/lroimages/lroc_20090702_a.html

Remember to check out both the NASA website and SpaceWeather to keep up with updates!

One other item I would like to bring to your attention is that Australia has recently set money aside to help preserve/improve the water in the Great Barrier Reef. If you remember when we talked about biomes, we talked briefly about the GBR. It is part of the Neritic Zone in warm, tropical regions. When we talked about rocks/minerals, we talked about coral reefs and described the different types! What type of reef is the Great Barrier Reef? Do you remember? Below is a picture of Australia's Great Barrier Reef.