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Making Unique Observations in a Very Cluttered World

Wednesday 19 March 2014

Watch a 45-mile-wide asteroid blot out a star tonight -

Watch a 45-mile-wide asteroid blot out a star tonight - 

Erigone asteroid.png

An asteroid the size of Rhode Island will briefly blot out one of the brightest stars in the sky overnight tonight (March 19-20), and you can watch the rare celestial event live online, weather permitting.

At around 2:05 a.m. EDT Thursday morning, a 45-mile-wide asteroid 163 Erigone will eclipse Regulus, as seen from a swath of North America, making the 22nd-brightest star in the sky disappear for a few seconds.

This "occultation" will be visible from the ground only to people in a narrow corridor in northeastern North America. However, the online Slooh Space Camera will offer live views of the eclipse during a show that begins at 1:45 a.m. EDT Thursday. You can follow it at www.slooh.com or watch the asteroid-Regulus webcast here -
http://www.space.com/25112-asteroid-eclipses-star-regulus-photos-images.html

Gun tattoo in Maine prompts heavy police response -

Gun tattoo in Maine prompts heavy police response - 

Guntat.jpg

Police armed with assault rifles descended on a Maine man's home after members of a tree removal crew he'd told to clear off his property reported that he had a gun.

Turns out the "gun" the tree crew had seen on Michael Smith of Norridgewock was just a life-sized tattoo of a handgun on his stomach.

Smith, who works nights, was asleep when the tree crew contracted by a utility to trim branches near power lines, woke him up at about 10 a.m. Tuesday.

He went outside shirtless and yelled at the workers to leave. When he's not wearing a shirt, the tattoo looks like a gun tucked into his waistband.

Smith tells the Morning Sentinel the tattoo has never been a problem before.

"I got plans today. I didn't want to get shot," Smith reportedly said.

Police didn't charge him.

Smith reportedly said that he does not regret getting the life-size handgun tattoo and recalled a time he was arrested once on a warrant for an unpaid fine.

"I said, 'Yeah, I got this gun on me all the time. It's tattooed on,'" he told the arresting officer.

Read more - 
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2014/03/19/gun-tattoo-in-maine-prompts-heavy-police-response/?intcmp=trending