descending node

Position of the descending node of the asteroid (101955) Bennu starts from about 1.4 au 5000 yr in the past to about 1.1 au in the next 1000 yr.

The Satellite for ARGOS and ALTIKA (SARAL) is a joint ISRO - CNES mission, and will be launched in last quarter of 2012, by PSLV-C20 into a sun-synchronous orbit with a local time of 6 pm descending node at an altitude of around 800 km.

These transit "windows," just 8 hours long, currently occur in early June (at the descending node) and early December (ascending node).

The table below (reproduced courtesy of Nick James) summarises the eight Giacobinid showers observed to date, C-E (AU) being the minimum distance between the comet's orbit and the Earth's orbit at the descending node (- denoting the Earth outside, and + inside the comet's orbit), and Earth at Node being the number of days before or after the comet that the Earth passed the node.

"This is similar to EIAST's first launch but with some differences, such as the orbit and launch base, and gives EIAST the choice of launch date, and launch characteristics such as the orbital height, inclination and local time of descending node," said Al Mansoori.

* Cat's Eye, Ketu (the descending node of the Moon): spiritual, sensitive

The transit occurs at Venus' descending node with the planet crossing the northern part of the Sun's photosphere.

His head is astronomically equated with the Moon's ascending node, while the rest of his body, halfway around the sky, is the descending node.