AMATEUR astronomers are enjoying a cat-and-mouse game with the US military in keeping track of its secret space plane, the X-37B. The X-37B was launched in April amid much publicity, but scant detail about its true use.

Built by Boeing's Phantom Works division, the X-37B program was originally headed by NASA.

If you're planning on going out tonight to see Mars, and you think it's going to appear as big as a full Moon... then save yourself the wasted effort.

Can you hear that?

If you thought this week's full Moon looked a bit small, you were right. It was the smallest full Moon of the year. 

Image credit: Anthony Ayiomamitis of Athens, Greece

This is the third time in only 13 months that amateur astronomers have detected signs of impact on the planet Jupiter. The earlier events occured on July 19, 2009, and June 3, 2010. Jupiter is getting hit more often than conventional wisdom would suggest, leading many researchers to call for a global network of telescopes to monitor Jupiter 24/7 and measure the impact rate. 

 Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington

A Japanese mission, also called the Venus Climate Orbiter, is approaching Venus and will enter orbit on December 7, 2010. Project scientist Takeshi Imamura believes a close-up look at Venus could teach us a lot about our own planet. 

Last night was supposedly the peak for the Perseid meteor shower, but like last year, was kind of disappointing to me. There didn't seem to be as many meteors as the International Meteor Organization had predicted. Not from my location anyway.

Earth is entering the debris stream of comet Swift-Tuttle, and this is causing the annual Perseid meteor shower. According to the International Meteor Organization, observers are now counting as many as 25 meteors per hour during the dark hours before dawn.  The best is yet to come.

The Perseid meteor shower is scheduled to peak on the night of August the 12th, and carry over into the wee hours of the morning on the 13th. Caused by debris from Comet Swift-Tuttle, which glides by Earth every 133 years, the huge comet swings through the inner solar system and leaves behind a trail of dust and gravel.