Hi everybody

Here is the latest article from the Astronomy site at BellaOnline.com.

Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2017
Once again images of the heavens came to Greenwich. Photographers of all ages had used skill and imagination to capture our neighbor planets, visiting comets, colorful nebulae, Earthly skies, and distant galaxies. Nearly four thousand entries came from over ninety countries.

http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art304821.asp

*Astronomy & Space advent calendar*
Watch the Astronomy Forum thread at http://forums.bellaonline.com/ubbthreads.php/topics/924789/Astronomy_Space_Advent#Post924789 There won't be any windows to open or hidden chocolates, but starting on December 1st there will be a link for each day to a picture relating to a significant event or stunning astro image. It will finish with one on Christmas Day. I like advent calendars, so I've chosen this as my holiday theme. But I'm reaching out to everyone who is celebrating a winter holiday. Yes, and the Bah! Humbug! folk too.

*Anniversaries*
(1) November 20, 1889: Edwin Hubble was born. His work showed that the Universe was much bigger than our own Galaxy, and provided evidence for an expanding universe.
(2) November 20, 1998: the Zarya module was launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan. It was the first module of the International Space Station. A much expanded space station is still operating with crews made up of astronauts from many nations.
(3) November 20, 2004: The Swift Gamma-Ray Burst Mission was launched. It's a multi-wavelength space observatory designed to study gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). Its three instruments work observe GRBs and their afterglows in the gamma-ray, X-ray, ultraviolet, and optical wavebands.
(4) November 27, 1971: the Soviet Mars 2 probe became the first man-made object to reach the surface of Mars. However it wasn't the first successful mission, because the landing system failed and the lander was lost.
(5) November 28, 1964: NASA's Mariner 4 was launched. It went on to make the first successful flyby of the planet Mars, returning the first pictures of the Martian surface. These were the first images of another planet ever returned from deep space.

Please visit http://astronomy.bellaonline.com/Site.asp for even more great content about Astronomy. I hope to hear from you sometime soon, either in the forum http://forums.bellaonline.com/ubbthreads.php/forums/323/1/Astronomy or in response to this email message. I welcome your feedback!

Do pass this message along to family and friends who might also be interested. Remember it's free and without obligation. 

I wish you clear skies. 

Mona Evans, Astronomy Editor 
http://astronomy.bellaonline.com 

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