Starship Asterisk*

It has all the earmarks of being a real comet. If we had additional information about the image (date, etc.) it might be possible to figure it out. It does strike me as odd that the person who wrote the blurb about the photo didn't think to say something about it.

bystander wrote:I retract that, Pandora is indeed at 8, just outside the F ring. That must be Prometheus on the inside of the F ring at 9.

Yes again! I've now found all four! Thank you!

bystander wrote:It's in the gap between the outermost visible ring and the rest of the ring system, closer to 9 than 8.

Good eye! Yes, I found it! Thanks! I just hate it when moons go AWOL, so am glad this didn't happen here.

It seems that perhaps Pandora was cropped out of my version of the 10-23-07 apod? I found tiny Mimas and Janus (almost hidden by bits of lint on my screen) as stated in the text, but no Pandora. Am I the only one who can't find Pandora?

Thanks for the clarifications! It was clear that something was amisss, but I wasn't sure exactly what.

The description of the two globular clusters' locations is very confusing. I assume NGC 362 is the larger one located at the 8 o'clock position and 47 Tucanae is at the smaller one located at the 5 o'clock position (which is not, as stated, to the left of the Cloud of Magellan)?

makc, thank you for your effort to help us understand what we're looking at in the apod for 5 August, but even after looking at your view, I agree with Kuno that it's not clear what we're seeing. Perhaps a 3-D view would help. Regardless, it's quite beautiful!

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap070705.html

Does anybody know whether (or how) the night-shining clouds are related to auroras?

Excellent question, Andy! And then there's the comet-shaped feature to the lower right of the boomerang-shaped feature you highlighted. Some interesting things going on in this photo! Like you, I have no answers, just questions.

Can anyone please refresh my memory regarding current Mars orbiters: does any of them have a radar-based terrain mapping capability? If so, could it be programmed to plumb the depths of one or more of the holes discovered on Mars?

Not knowing the lighting conditions during sightings of the mysterious "spokes" in Saturn's rings (APOD 27 Nov '06), I can't help wondering whether they might be some sort of shadow phenomenon, perhaps caused by an object or objects slightly out of the rings' plane? Just a first thought. S...

The opportunity image and the Victoria insert are in identical orientation. Duck bay is the feature directly below the rover and is the largest "Bay" feature in the inset. Both pointing in the same direction. Try this image of Victoria http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/press/opportun...

Yes, I saw that, but what I mean is that I'm not clear where the Opportunity is relative to the whole Victoria Crater; for example, is it at the six oclock position, the three oclock position, or what? An annotation on the image showing the whole of the crater would be helpful.

I was hoping we'd have an APOD like the one today (10/9/06) showing Opportunity from above, but was hoping there would be an annotation pointing out the location of Cape Verde and Duck Bay on the inset showing the whole Victoria Crater. Still a little difficult for me to get oriented. Maybe next tim...

Anybody have any knowledge regarding what appear to be some sort of prominent "flares" (for lack of a better term) at the 11 and 5 oclock positions in the photo of Eris, APOD, 9/18/06?

Okay, how did we get two July 3 2006's? This must be an astronomical mystery or aberation!