Greetings, fellow SkyWatchers! If it's been awhile since you've stepped outside to view the stars, be sure to have a look at the beautiful combination of Mars, Aldeberan and Betelguese. If what's happening hasn't made you see "red" yet, then watch as the Moon steals away Antares by mid-week! Come along as we explore the Sun and take on deep sky studies. Get out your scopes and binoculars - or just turn your eyes to the skies, because...

Here's what's up!

NASA's Cassini spacecraft took this photograph of Saturn's small icy moon Epimetheus as it faded away behind Saturn's rings and atmosphere. This image was captured by Cassini's narrow-angle camera on December 20th from a distance of 2.3 million kilometers (1.4 million miles) from Epimetheus.

A new computer model has been developed to help scientists explain the strange weather systems on Saturn's moon Titan. Images of Titan have been built up over the last few years by observations by NASA's Cassini spacecraft, as well as photographs taken from Earth-based telescopes. These models accurately predict how ethane and methane clouds form in Titan's atmosphere; especially near the moon's southern pole.

NASA recently shut down its Imager for Magnetopause-to-Aurora Global Exploration (IMAGE) program, wrapping up 6 years of operations. During its lifetime, the spacecraft was used to measure the structure and dynamics of the Earth's external magnetic field. It was launched in March 2000, and it stopped responding to commands from the ground in December 2005. Engineers believe that its power supply subsystems failed, shutting it down entirely.

For anyone who's managed a program, they know that the best time to consider options is before the program begins, long before. Rick Tumlinson and Erin Medlicott present their book Return to the Moon at the start of the US's program to return to the Moon and Mars. In it, they offer a choice selection of articles by very experienced specialists, all whom have the same ambition. All these people want to see this US program put people on the Moon successfully and to the greatest advantage of all of us. Their other desire is that this program contain the right mix of government and private initiatives that will maintain people in space for a long time.

Photographs taken of the surface of Mars show evidence that glaciers once scoured away at its surface. Since the Red Planet is so dry, where did they come from? Scientists think that Mars' tilt towards the Sun changes very rapidly, and there was a time only a few million years ago when parts of the planet got much warmer during the summer. Glaciers could form on the flanks of the planet's larger mountains, and grow to be several hundred metres thick after just a few thousand years.

Europeans have begun funding what will eventually become the world's largest telescope: the Square Kilometre Array. The first step is a four-year study that will consult astronomers and engineers from around the world to decide what will make the best design. It will then be developed in stages, with parts coming operational over the next decade, and completion by 2020. Once complete, this extremely sensitive radio telescope will help probe the nature of dark matter, confirm Einstein's predictions about relativity... and let us watch television shows broadcast from nearby stars.

NASA's New Horizons spacecraft finally launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida on January 19th. Travelling away from Earth at a speed of 13 kilometers per second (8 miles per second), the small piano-sized spacecraft will encounter Pluto on July 2015 after a long 9-year journey. Along its way, New Horizons will pass by Jupiter in 2007 and continue its journey to the Kuiper belt after investigating Pluto and its moon Charon.

After launch, spacecraft are on their own. They have no way to repair damage from the tiny micrometeorites that inevitably chip away at them. But now researchers at ESA are working on a protective seal that could give spacecraft a self-healing mechanism. This seal is made of glass fibres containing an adhesive material. Once a meteorite pierces the glass coating, the liquid adhesive and a separate hardener flow out to seal the wound and then turn solid.

In this photograph taken by Cassini, two storms are visible raging across the surface of Saturn; they're reaching out and interacting with each other. The larger storm, on the left, is at least 2,500 km (1,600 miles) across, and the smaller storm is about a quarter of its size. They have long threadlike arms reaching out to each other, and it's expected that they merged a few days after this photo was taken.

Paul Verhage has some pictures that you'd swear were taken from space. And they were. Amateur Radio High Altitude Ballooning allows individuals to launch functioning satellites to "near space" at a fraction of the cost of traditional rocket launch vehicles. Paul's balloons have been as high as 35 km, and the photographs he's taken are out of this world.

Astronomers think they've found evidence that an asteroid broke up about 8.2 million years ago, scattering dust around the Solar System. The discovery was made by US and Czech Republic researchers who found a layer of helium 3 in oceanic sediment - this isotope is normally quite rare. This evidence matches computer simulations on a group of asteroid fragments in the asteroid belt that were once part of a larger object called Veritas. It was likely the biggest asteroid break up or collision in the last 100 million years.

This image, taken by the European Space Agency's Mars Express spacecraft, shows Juventae Chasma, in the Lunae Planum region of Mars. The feature is located north of Valles Marineris, and its floor is covered with dunes. In the north-east region of the valley is a mountain composed of bright, layered material which scientists think contains mostly sulphate deposits.

After surveying 22 nearby star systems, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has discovered two bright debris disks that resemble our own Kuiper Belt, a ring of icy rocks outside the orbit of Neptune. These disks encircle the kinds of stars that probably have habitable zones and planets, and fall into two types: wide and narrow belts. Both disks are about 60 light years away from Earth, and look remarkably similar to our early solar system.

A fleet of NASA and ESA spacecraft have spotted an immense jet of electrically charged particles in the solar wind between the Earth and the Sun. The jet is at least 200 times as wide as the Earth and occurs because magnetic field lines clash together in a process called "magnetic reconnection". These jets are similar to ones which form in the Earth's magnetic field, but at a much larger scale.

Just a few years ago, Pluto was considered unusual for Kuiper Belt Objects because it has a moon. Now three of the four largest KBOs have been discovered with moons, and it's causing astronomers to reconsider how this came about. Only 11% of smaller KBOs have a moon, and probably captured them with gravity. But the moons for the larger objects likely formed when similarly-sized planetoids collided together, and the debris turned into their moons.

The composition of many planets, asteroids and meteorites could be explained by the theory of "hit-and-run" collisions. Scientists originally believed that the four terrestrial planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars) were formed slowly over time as material built up by accretion. But it's entirely possible that objects sideswiped each other, and continued on; although, with both parties pretty banged up. Large objects don't even have to touch to do massive damage to each other through their gravitational influence.

Arizona astronomers have found a collection of stars that really shouldn't exist. They're located in the debris of NGC 2782, which is the result of a merger between a Milky Way-sized galaxy and a smaller galaxy. These kinds of mergers are very common in the Universe; however, they usually leave behind debris that doesn't contain the right ingredients to form stars - neutral hydrogen gas and molecular gas. But NGC 2782 has regions with stars that formed after the collision.

NASA's Stardust spacecraft returned to Earth early Sunday morning, bringing with it particles from a comet. Two members of Stardust's Navigation Team discuss the challenges of bringing this spacecraft back home.

Greetings, fellow SkyWatchers! The busiest place to be as the week begins is the "Beehive" and the peak of the Delta Cancrid meteor shower, but if you're clouded out, dont worry - the Coma Berenicids will be along mid week. Come along as we explore Messier objects and one of the finest carbon stars around - R Leporis. So grab those binoculars or telescopes and head out into the night because...

Here's what's up!