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Resources (Just click on an image below for more data)
| Current Sun (Courtesy
of SOHO) |
| The latest images
from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory of our nearest
star "Sol" showing sunspot activity and solar Prominances.
Just click on an image to see a larger resolution version. |
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| EIT
284 |
EIT
306 |
MDI |
| Current Moon (Courtesy
of the United States Navy and Stardate.org) |
| The Moon is Earth's
only natural satellite. It has no formal English name other
than "the Moon", although it is occasionally called
Luna (Latin: moon), or Selene (Greek: moon), to distinguish
it from the generic term "moon" (referring to any
of the various natural satellites of other planets). The average
distance from the Moon to the Earth is 384,401 kilometres
(238,857 mi). The Moon's diameter is 3,476 kilometres (2,160
mi). The Moon is the Solar System's fifth largest moon, both
by diameter and mass, ranking behind Ganymede, Titan, Callisto,
and Io. |
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Current
Moon Phase |
Moon
Calender |
| The Planets of our solar system (Courtesy
of Stardate.org) |
All eight planets can be seen
with a small telescope; or binoculars. And large observatories
continue to provide much useful information. But the possibility
of getting up close with interplanetary spacecraft has revolutionized
planetary science. Nevertheless, there's a lot that you can
see with very modest equipment or even with just your own
eyes. Past generations of people found beauty and a sense
of wonder contemplating the night sky. Today's scientific
knowledge further enhances and deepens that experience. And
you can share in it by simply going out in the evening and
looking up. The IAU has changed the definition of "planet"
so that Pluto no longer qualifies. There are now officially
only eight planets in our solar system. Of course this change
in terminology does not affect what's actually out there!!!
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| The International Space
Station (Courtesy of Heavens Above) |
The
International Space Station (ISS) is a manned research space
facility that is being assembled in orbit around the Earth.
It is a joint project between five space agencies: the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA, United States),
the Russian Federal Space Agency (RKA, Russian Federation),
the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA, Japan), the
Canadian Space Agency (CSA, Canada) and the European Space
Agency (ESA, Europe). The space station is located in orbit
at an altitude of approximately 360 km (220 miles), a type
of orbit usually termed low Earth orbit (The actual height
varies over time by several kilometres due to atmospheric
drag and reboosts). It orbits Earth in a period of about 92
minutes; by June 2005 it had completed more than 37,500 orbits
since Nov. 20, 1998.
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| Current
I.S.S.
Position |
Times
for the I.S.S.
to fly over over
Waterford, Ireland |
| Iridium Flares over Waterford (Courtesy
of Heavens Above) |
| A relatively small communications
satellite has been providing spectacular visible reflective
flares/glints to observers on the ground. With only a normal
brightness of +6 magnitude (binoculars are useful to spot
it), occasionally some of the Iridium satellites provide reflective
flares/glints of magnitude -8. For comparison, Venus can be
as bright as magnitude -4.9, thus reflections can be up to
30 times brighter than Venus. The flares/glints can last anywhere
from 5 to 20 seconds before the satellite once again becomes
almost invisible to the naked eye. Some flares have been observed
during the daylight hours which is very unusual for reflective
glares from satellites. Click on the image to see Iridium
Flare Predictions for Waterford. |
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| Weather over Ireland
(Courtesy of Met Eireann) |
Visible
Satellite
This visible satellite image measures the sunlight reflected
by the Earth’s surface and clouds. Clouds and snow
reflect a lot of light and are bright; the oceans absorb
almost all incoming light and are dark; thin or low clouds
and land have variable reflectivities or albedos and are
varying shades of grey. The Earth is scanned every 15 minutes
by the new METEOSAT-8 geostationary satellite which is located
over the Equator at 0 degrees W.
Infra Red Satellite
This infra red satellite image measures the temperature
or radiance of the ground and clouds. Light shades represent
low temperatures and dark shades high temperatures. The
Earth is scanned every 15 minutes by the new METEOSAT-8
geostationary satellite which is located over the Equator
at 0 degrees W. |
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| Weather
over Ireland
- Visible Spectrum |
Weather
over Ireland
- Infra Red Spectrum |
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