Ah man, do we love this one!

As of course you are all intrinsically aware, it's been 30 years since Ross's single 'I Am Pegasus' dominated Australian airwaves.

Obviously, to no doubt celebrate this occasion, there is presently a NASA space mission underway - Gravity Probe B - which is an experiment to test two predictions of Albert Einstein's Theory of General Relativity

Launched April 20 from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., the Gravity Probe B spacecraft requires calibration to a guide star and the star chosen by NASA is none other than (wait for it), IM Pegasi, located (where else) in the Pegasus Constellation.

No really!!

IM Peg is about 300 light years from Earth, and its maximum magnitude is 5.85--barely visible to the naked eye.The "Pegasi" part of the guide star's name indicates that is located in the constellation Pegasus; the "IM" prefix (as opposed to a Greek letter prefix) indicates that it is a variable star; in fact, it is actually part of a binary star system (one of a pair of stars that closely orbit each other).

Location coordinates are:

Right Ascension--22 hours 53 minutes 2.27 seconds
Declination--16 degrees 50 minutes 28.3 seconds

This handy star map should help you locate IM Pegasi in the night sky - click on the image to see total view.

Further information:

http://einstein.stanford.edu
http://einstein.stanford.edu/highlights/hl_061104.html

http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/update_gravity_probe_b.html?1962004

http://www.msfc.nasa.gov/news/news/releases/2004/04-132.html

The ELV Missions Virtual Launch Center Web page on the John F. Kennedy Space Center Web site has information and several streaming video clips covering the GP-B mission. (You can view these video clips free of charge, but you will need to have either the Real Media Player or Windows Media Player installed on your computer to view them.)

NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center Gravity Probe B.com Web page has a number of great photos from the GP-B launch, including photos of the spacecraft separation, as well as other information about Gravity Probe B.

Another very comprehensive source of information about the GP-B launch is the Spaceflight Now Web site. This site contains an excellent photo gallery, as well as a number of Quicktime video clips of the launch. However, you have to become a subscriber to this site ($$$) in order to view the video clips.

This page is also listed on the Science Web Directory.

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