Christmas gifts space

Geminids h4>

Photo albums Dolph1n Astroforuma . I>

Will be: 9-16 Dec. , a maximum of December 14 That's right now, as you read these lines. If you have clear skies, diverting at least a few minutes, see one of the most powerful meteor showers of the year. By the way, just look at the radiant is not necessary - Find a place darker, wait a few minutes to adapt to the dark eyes and saw less bright meteors, and just look at the sky - meteors can flash on either side of the world.
And those who have the sky covered with clouds can:

Посмотреть recording broadcast Geminid meteors with radiofiksatsiey online slooh.com Hope that include coverage of NASA (until it was empty). See updated picture on Virtual Telescope project . < / International Meteor Organization :


Curiously, the Geminids long perplexed astronomers, because they were relatively slow, and there was not a comet that "garbage" would be in its orbit. Only in 1983, analyzing the data from the Space Infrared Telescope IRAS, found the asteroid Phaethon, who once upon a time was a comet, but closer to the Sun twice the orbit of Mercury, evaporating all the ice and now pours in orbit once the dust.

GSLV Mk.III-X1 h4>

Will be: December 18, from 06:30 to 10:30 Moscow time
India plans to launch an ambitious one to kill two birds with one stone: to test a new launch vehicle GSLV MkIII and returns capsule for manned aircraft.
The new missile Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mk III design is very similar to American «Titans» -III and -IV and can display up to 10 tons into low orbit and 5.4 tons to geosynchronous transfer orbit.



The first two steps in the collection. I>



The third stage. I>



Transportation of Mika on the launch pad. I>

Vision of the future of the Indian ship until fairly unknown, different sources he is painted differently:


But look lander is already clear:



The unit is mounted on a missile shield heat shield forward. This "upside down" from its normal position in a real flight, but this option does not require a coup after the separation.



Start planned suborbital with splashdown lander:



You can still watch the video (in Hindi):

SpaceX CRS-5 h4>

Will be: December 19 21:20 MSK Another launch cargo spacecraft to the ISS Dragon will be special - the first stage of the rocket Falcon try to gently sit on the barge. In the history of space exploration of such landings was not. And fans Mask and skeptics think it will be interesting to see what happens there. Especially because after transfer from 16 December has become more convenient for residents of the Urals and Western Siberia.

Photo barge, which is intended to land:


The upper part of the first stage with aerodynamic control surfaces:


The scheme of flight:


You can play pretty toy «planted the first step» .
And for the countdown can watch here .

The first launch "Angara A5» h4>

Will be: 22-28 December In the first half of November, there was garbage "Angara" launch complex training with dressing, electrical and other tests. Transportation missiles back to MIC occurred in the expected time frame, which indirectly indicates the absence of serious problems in preparing for the first launch. Originally expected to start around 25 December but the launch window was extended to December 22-28. If no unforeseen complications, it would be very rare for a case of shifting the timing of Astronautics "left».



Removal of the rocket to the launch pad could happen on December 15, stay tuned.
In contrast to the light "Angara" test launch was originally planned suborbital which in this case will be a complete simulation of removing the satellite into geostationary orbit. Instead, the satellite will be mass-size mock-up, but all other elements up to the upper stage "Breeze-M" will be full-time.
"Angara A5" will be our heaviest launch vehicle, into low Earth orbit, it will bring about 25 tons, which is 3 tons more "Proton-M».
We should also mention the unique design - the assembly of the five universal rocket modules in the history of space exploration is not flying.

Comet C / 2014 Q2 (Lovejoy) h4>

It is still small, but it will soon grow. Photo source . i>

Will be visible to the end of December, best conditions for observation - New Year holidays Discovered just six months ago a comet suddenly delight us in the New Year holidays. Despite the fact that its perihelion is between the orbits of Earth and Mars, the predicted maximum brightness above the visible to the naked eye (source - cometbase.net < / a>):



Now the comet is in the southern part of the sky, but in the New Year's Eve is near the constellation Orion (source - heavens-above.com):



Unlike comet ISON, so that let us down, sprawling over a year ago, the Sun, the comet has no chance of becoming a comet century, but guaranteed not to fall apart.
In addition to the resource heavens-above.com exact location of the comet can be imported into Stellarium:

General settings (F2) - Plugins - Editor of the solar system (check "load at startup»). Settings plugin (the "customize") - tab "Solar System" - imports objects in the format of MPC. In the window that appears, select the type of "comet", select the source «MPC's list of observable comets», click "get orbital elements». In the window that appears, find «C / 2014 Q2 (Lovejoy)», put a check mark in the list and click the "Add Objects». After this comet is easy to search by Ctrl-F.
 

Information Sources h4> The review used: