From Spaceflight Now:

More than 35 years after launching from Earth and now at the frontier of the solar system, NASA's Voyager 1 probe may be tasting interstellar space for the first time, according to scientists analyzing fresh data from the distant explorer.

Launched in September 1977 to fly past Jupiter and Saturn, Voyager 1 is now cruising 11.3 billion miles away and opening its distance by 300 million miles each year. It takes 17 hours for a radio signal to travel between Earth and Voyager 1. Its twin explorer - Voyager 2 - is lagging slightly behind at a distance of 9.2 billion miles from Earth. The nuclear-powered probe's computers have about 68 kilobytes of memory. An 8-gigabyte iPod Nano holds more than 100,000 times as much data. But particle-sniffing sensors aboard Voyager 1 are returning intriguing measurements showing the spacecraft is on the precipice of leaving the solar system. Researchers may be seeing the first signs that Voyager 1 is nearing - or may have already crossed - the heliopause, an enigmatic boundary between the sun's sphere of influence and the void beyond.

Read the full article here.

From Astronomy Now.

A new comet has been discovered that is predicted to blaze incredibly brilliantly in the skies during late 2013. With a perihelion passage of less than two million kilometres from the Sun on 28 November 2013, current predictions are of an object that will dazzle the eye at up to magnitude —16. That's far brighter than the full Moon. If predictions hold true then C/2012 S1 will certainly be one of the greatest comets in human history, far outshining the memorable Comet Hale-Bopp of 1997 and very likely to outdo the long-awaited Comet Pan-STARRS (C/2011 L4) which is set to stun in March 2013.

Read the rest of the article here.

From Spaceflight now:

A stunning new composite photograph from the Hubble Space Telescope, made up of more than 2,000 images shot by multiple cameras over the past 10 years and combined in what amounts to a 23-day time exposure, shows some 5,500 galaxies in tiny field of view, including some dating back to just 450 million years after the big bang birth of the universe, astronomers said Tuesday.

Read the rest of the article here.

The Kamloops Astronomical Society will be holding an open house at the Stake Lake Observatory on Saturday Saturday Sept 22nd starting at 6:00pm.

Join us for discussions, door prizes, refreshments and hopefully clear skies!

Click here for all the details, and hope to see you there!

Here's a snapshot of the aurora visible from Kamloops on the night of Sept. 4th.

You can stay tuned to predicted aurora activity by going to http://www.spaceweather.com