Gliese 710.

A view of a small part of the sky as if you were staring at a star (centre) approaching nearly head on, and then as it passes by and away again. The motion can be likened to what an observer standing beside a road would see looking at an approaching car, and then swinging around to continue to follow it as it moves away. As a result, the objects in the background – in this case distant stars – become blurred as you move quickly to maintain a visual on the passing object. The focus of this animation is the star known as Gliese 710. It will have a close encounter with our Sun in 1.3 million years, passing within the Oort Cloud reservoir of comets in the outskirts of our Solar System. The star is predicted to pass within about 2.3 trillion kilometres, the equivalent of about 16 000 Earth–Sun distances. The star’s motion is set against a background of other moving stars and the visualisation covers, very quickly, the timeframe from about 1.1–1.5 million years in the future. The size of

A Skygazer's Full Moon

This dramatically sharp picture of the full moon was recorded on 22 December, 1999 by astroimager Rob Gendler. Big, beautiful, bright, and evocative, it was the last full moon of the Y1.9Ks, pleasing and inspiring even casual skygazers.

December's moon was special for another reason, as the full phase occurred on the day of the winter solstice and within hours of lunar perigee. The first full moon of the year 2000 will bring a special treat as well, presenting denizens of planet Earth with a total lunar eclipse.

On Thursday evening, January 20, the moon will encounter the dark edge of Earth's shadow at 10:01 PM Eastern Time with the total eclipse phase beginning at 11:05 PM and lasting for 77 minutes.

This lunar eclipse will be visible from North and South America and Western Europe (total phase begins at 4:05 AM GMT January 21).

A Skygazer's Full Moon
Robert Gendler


Space