Henry Throop

@NASA HQ Program Scientist / Peripatetic Astronomer India / Africa / Mexico / Sri Lanka / Chile

[Tod R. Lauer @TodLauer]

A reminder that HST is in a decaying orbit, and an active Sun greatly increases the decay rate.

[Henry Throop @hthroop]

Warmup today in New Mexico for the annular solar eclipse tomorrow! #BalloonFiesta
#AlbuquerqueBallonFiesta #SolarEclipse2023
#SolarEclipse @LuntSolar

[Henry Throop @hthroop]

3 hours of h-alpha during the #SolarEclipse in Western Australia. #ExmouthEclipse #Eclipse2023 #solareclipse2023 @SiriusTravelInc

[Henry Throop @hthroop]

OK, I got pretty excited at the #SolarEclipse in Western Australia. #ExmouthEclipse #Eclipse2023 #SolarEclipse2023 @JessieMHayes @abcnews

[Henry Throop @hthroop]

Totality from #ExmouthEclipse #Eclipse2023 Western Australia yesterday! Small moon and an active sun so tons of red prominences visible all around the limb. First #SolarEclipse for me since Melbourne 1976 as a 3yo! #SolarEclipse2023 thx @SiriusTravelInc

[Henry Throop @hthroop]

Today's solar eclipse visible from #Colombo. Check out that 0.5% totality! Ingress just visible on RHS. Total visible duration before setting was 9 minutes in theory, but about 30 seconds considering the clouds. #Eclipse2022 #SriLanka.

[Henry Throop @hthroop]

@hshierholz I know how you feel - I’m still living high from my 3rd grade victory at the 1980 Jefferson Elementary Rubik’s Cube Challenge.

[Henry Throop @hthroop]

Jupiter and Saturn above the north tower of DC's National Cathedral @WNCathedral . Heavy clouds but they still shine through! #GreatConjunction @NASA

[Henry Throop @hthroop]

Jupiter (w/ 4 moons) and Saturn from DC high point. #GreatConjunction2020 #GreatConjunction

[Henry Throop @hthroop]

@stshank Moons don't even show up in live view for me (on D850 or D4)! What body are you using?

[Henry Throop @hthroop]

@MrParrs The planets Jupiter and Saturn will still be 700+ million km from each other. They look close from our viewpoint, but in space they are separated widely. These conjunctions happen regularly - every 20 years - and have no influence on us except that they are great to watch!

[Henry Throop @hthroop]

@MrParrs A definite favorite has to be Titan... check out the Dragonfly mission, which will send a drone there in 2027! https://t.co/GuV5wBRwFo

[Henry Throop @hthroop]

@MrParrs The latter: distance to Jupiter is 500+ million km. So moving 5000 km across the Earth won't make any difference in the appearance.

[Henry Throop @hthroop]

@MrParrs Motion of the planets has been very well known since Kepler / Copernicus. Kepler even tracked conjunctions back to the BC era. It's all physics: F=GMM/r2 and F=ma, and these govern 99.999% of the large-scale motions of the solar system.

[Stephen Shankland @stshank]

OK, this is about as good as I could get tonight given how bright Jupiter is compared to its moons. 560mm (100-400mm + 1.4x) at 1/50 sec, f8, ISO800. I'm going to try again now that it's a bit darker but I'm not expecting a huge improvement. #conjunction #Jupiter #Saturn

[XKCD Comic @xkcdComic]

Conjunction https://t.co/guqaD6arR1 https://t.co/eY36Qyipvb

[Henry Throop @hthroop]

Jupiter and Saturn from DC! Clouds but came out for a few seconds. #GreatConjunction #TheGreatConjuction

[Henry Throop @hthroop]

@XOB16580648 @MrParrs There are so many questions out there -- there is far more that we don't know, than that we *do* know! I don't know very much, but I love that we get to explore. Like most of my colleagues, I have PhD in astronomy, which gives good background in what we know and how to ask more.

[Henry Throop @hthroop]

@XOB16580648 @MrParrs Astronomer, not astrologer. Astronomy is using telescopes and spacecraft to explore the science of the world around us. I've always been curious, and I love watching the sky! I had a great opportunity during undergraduate to do summer research in astronomy also!