NASA's Psyche spacecraft captured a time-lapse image of Mars during its flyby-gravity boost in May 2026.

Here's the article:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/science/artic...00197.html

The spacecraft is due to arrive at (16) Psyche in 2029.

Hope you found this interesting,

Phil S.

Here's an article describing new work about a new type of solar system objects called "dark comets". The NEA 1998 SH2 was reclassified as a dark comet because it had changed its orbit due to sublimating ice. 

https://www.sciencealert.com/a-near-eart...ry-defense

This is going to make predicting their orbits more difficult.

Hope you find it interesting,

Phil S.

So you installed SkyTools 4 Visual, or upgraded to it, or installed the bundle. How do you start SkyTools 4 Visual?

This would appear to be trivial, but a lot of people run into problems finding the SkyTools 4 Visual shortcut. Some even open the Programs folder, locate the skytools.exe file, and try to create their own shortcut, which isn't always going to work properly. So what is the solution? 

Windows 11 keeps switching things up with regard to the way Apps are listed in the Start Menu, which can make finding them confusing. And not only that, but this problem has happened in Windows 10 too. So here is a simple solution that will work for both Windows 10 and Windows 11:

To the right of the Start menu button is a text search area. Type "SkyTools" and wait a bit. Look for "Apps" in the list that appears, and under that heading you will see SkyTools 4 Imaging (if you have it) and/or SkyTools 4 Visual. To avoid having to search every time, right click on each SkyTools App in turn and select "Pin to Start." 

The next time you want to start either version of SkyTools, click the Start button and look for the SkyTools 4 Visual and/or SkyTools 4 Imaging icon. Double-click to start.

So you installed SkyTools 4 Imaging, or upgraded to it, or installed the bundle. How do you start SkyTools 4 imaging?

This would appear to be trivial, but a lot of people run into problems finding the SkyTools 4 Imaging shortcut. Some even open the Programs folder, locate the skytools.exe file, and try to create their own shortcut, which isn't going to work properly in this case. So what is the solution? 

Windows 11 keeps switching things up with regard to the way Apps are listed in the Start Menu, which can make finding them confusing. And not only that, but this problem has happened in Windows 10 too. So here is a simple solution that will work for both Windows 10 and Windows 11:

To the right of the Start menu button is a text search area. Type "SkyTools" and wait a bit. Look for "Apps" in the list that appears, and under that heading you will see SkyTools 4 Visual (if you have it) and SkyTools 4 Imaging. To avoid having to search every time, right click on each SkyTools App in turn and select "Pin to Start." 

The next time you want to start either version of SkyTools, click the Start button and look for the SkyTools 4 Visual and/or SkyTools 4 Imaging icon. Double-click to start.

CNEOS predicts that the large, Apollo-class NEA, (173561) 2000 YV137 will make a close approach on 2026-Aug-09 05:12±<00:01 UT at a distance of 0.03356 AU moving with V Relative=16.19 km/sec, H=18.4 magnitude, diameter 570 m - 1.3 km and 'Rarity'=2. There is a 9368 day observation arc, the Condition Code=0 and the Earth MOID=0.0187136 AU. The solution date was 2026-Jul-27 06:18:21 PDT. This NEA was discovered 2000-12-31 by NEAT at Haleakala. This object is on the MPC's list of Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (PHAs) that you can download using SkyTools. The next close approach at near this distance is predicted on 2113-Aug-13 04:23 ± < 00:01 UT at a distance of 0.03533 AU.

Using MPC's orbital elements for the epoch 2026 Jul 27 0000 UT, ST4.1.11.21 Visual Pro predicts that (173561) 2000 YV137 will reach peak brightness of 13.0 magnitude on the morning of August 8 at a distance of 0.034 AU traveling through Pisces at 37"/minute. Close approach is predicted (to the nearest hour) on 2026 August 9 at 0100 EDT (0500 UT) with the NEA 0.034 AU distant traveling through Cetus at 13.1 magnitude and ~40"/minute. It's predicted to be brighter than 16 magnitude from July 28 in Cygnus to August 17 in Pictor.

Here's the Object Info dialog for (173561) 2000 YV137:    

Here's the predicted path as seen from Columbus, Ohio (40°N):    

The orbit of this object is well defined and it won't pass so close that perturbations will be a problem, so the predicted path should be accurate.

This is the third bright NEA close approach that has occurred this summer.

Good hunting,

Phil S.

Hello everyone,

I am trying to synchronize the annotations between two computers but the Sync Databases function doesn't copy the annotations even when I am telling it to include them. I am doing something wrong? I tried even to delete some observing lists with annotations and synchronize them again, but still doesn't work. The only way of copy the annotations to the other computer is by copying the observing lists individually and I have a lot of them. Some ideas? I don't know if this is the right place to post this because I don't know if is that I am not doing it properly or is a bug.

Thanks,

CNEOS predicts that the kilometer-sized, Apollo-class NEA, (164216) 2004 OT11, will make a close approach on 2026-Jul-26 22:01±<00:01 UT at a distance of 0.08217 AU moving with V Relative=16.88 km/sec, H=17.2 magnitude, diameter 950 m - 2.1 km and 'Rarity'=2. As of 2026 July 14 there is a 8022 day observation arc, the Condition Code=0 and the Earth MOID=0.0204111 AU. The solution date was 2026-Jul-15 07:45:29 PDT. Discovered 2004-07-27 by LINEAR at Socorro. This object is on the MPC's list of Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (PHAs) that you can download using SkyTools. The close approach on 2105-Jul-16 17:49±<00:01 UT at 0.02707 AU is very close to the Earth MOID.

Using MPC's orbital elements for the epoch 2026 July 17 0000 UT, ST4.1.11.21 Visual Pro predicts that (164216) 2004 OT11 will reach a peak brightness of 14.8 magnitude on the evening of July 29 to August 2. It's well placed on July 30 in Serpens Caput at 0.091 AU distance traveling at 13.4"/minute. Close approach is predicted (to the nearest hour) on 2026 July 26 at 1800 EDT (2200 UT) with the NEA traveling through Bootes at 0.082 AU at 15.0 magnitude and 16.7"/minute, but in daylight in Columbus, Ohio. This object is predicted to be brighter than 16 magnitude from July 21 (in Virgo) to August 15 (in Lyra).

Here's the Object Info dialog for (164216) OT11:    

The orbit for this NEA is well defined and it should be easy to find once it becomes bright enough for your scope.

Good hunting,

Phil S.

This may fall into the "dumb question" category but I just upgraded from Visual Standard to Visual Pro with Imaging.  I have a SeeStar S30 Pro and have taken a few images (as much as my sleeping and NE FL skies would allow) and decided to upgrade to get a bit more knowledgeable on the exposure recommendations etc.   

My conundrum is I can't seem to a) figure out how to enter camera information and b) get any hint of imaging in the program.  Obviously I am missing something.  ChatGPT infers that I need to pen the "Imaging" program but I do not see any program other than ST4 in my Skyhound directory.

What am I missing in this equation?

Don

I found this list of asteroids that were detected before they impacted earth on the CNEOS website:

https://cneos.jpl.nasa.gov/pi/

I thought that some of you asteroid hunters might find it interesting.

Phil S.

More of the observing list from the book "Galaxies and How to Observe Them" by Steinicke and Jakiel. More to come.

The list Non-stellar objects in other galaxies include at difference of the book the host galaxy to help identify to what galaxy the object belongs.

Attached Files

  SJGal8.9_Nonstellar Obj in M33.stx (Size: 861 bytes / Downloads: 0)
  SJGal8.7_Nonstellar Obj in M31 and M110.stx (Size: 1.74 KB / Downloads: 0)
  SJGal_8.11 NGC IC Objectes in Other Galaxies.stx (Size: 1.99 KB / Downloads: 0)
  SJGal_8.14 Bightest Variable Galaxies.stx (Size: 341 bytes / Downloads: 0)
  SJGal_8.13 Quasars and BL Lac.stx (Size: 256 bytes / Downloads: 0)