Just maybe…

25 09 2012

Comet Hale Bopp viewed from Pazin in Istria/Croatia, 29 March 1997. Photo Credit: Philipp Salzgeber

The twitterverse is starting to light up with rumors about a new comet, C/2012 S1 (ISON). It’s projected to get “extremely close” to the sun in November 2013, at which point it may do what comets often do when affected by the sun’s proximity—disintegrate (see the fate of last year’s Comet Elenin). If the ISON comet makes it around the bend, however, it may attain a significantly negative apparent magnitude. A comet with a magnitude of -15 wouldn’t just be the brightest object in the night sky (a full moon has a magnitude of -13 or so), it would be one of the two brightest objects in the day sky. It’s not going to outshine the sun (magnitude around -26), but it would still be visible to the naked eye.

Skymania has a nice summary of the possibilities for the comet.


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Categories : News

U.S. Fire and Smoke (MODIS)

23 09 2012

Wildfires in Washington State. NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz LANCE/EOSDIS MODIS Rapid Response Team, GSFC

I think the first line of NASA’s description of this photo says it all: “The summer of 2012 will unfortunately be known as the ‘Summer of Devastating Western Wildfires’ and practically not one state out west was spared.” At present, my home state is seeing a resurgence of flames due to lightning storms sans rainwater sweeping through the area earlier in the month. I’m particularly interested in the Okanogan Complex, since it’s closest to home, but the high evacuation levels of the Wenatchee Complex have been stressing me out for two weeks now.

The above photo comes from NASA’s U.S. Fire and Smoke Gallery, an intriguing yet somewhat depressing set of images taken by various satellites. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometers (MODIS) on the Aqua and Terra satellites are doing what they were designed to do: provide an extensive, repetitive record of the earth’s surface. Terra flies north to south over the equator in the morning, Aqua crosses south to north in the afternoon. Between the two imaging systems, the entire surface of the earth is documented every 1-2 days. Most of the “MODIS Image of the Day” photos show us the troubled parts of the planet: typhoons, hurricanes, ash clouds from volcanic eruptions, massive phytoplankton blooms, and yes, smoke and fire from around the world.


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Categories : Instruments, NASA, News

Astronomy Photographer of the Year

19 09 2012

A couple of weeks ago, I posted a brief write up of the Royal Greenwich Observatory’s competition for (Astro)Photographer of the Year. The results are in, and they’re beautiful.


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Categories : News

Endeavour-SCA Mating Time Lapse

19 09 2012

Oh, yeah. NASA Kennedy posted a time lapse video of Endeavour’s mating to the SCA. Watching it, I had the same thought I posted a few days ago: the Shuttle retirement process is just about as fascinating as the spaceflight program.


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Categories : Endeavour, NASA, News, Space Shuttle

Wallpaper Wednesday

19 09 2012

Space Shuttle Endeavour (STS-134) on LC-39a. Photo credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

I made it home from my run this morning just in time for Endeavour’s last list off from Kennedy Space Center—on the back of a Boeing 747. Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA) seem to be part of my daily life now. NASA has already uploaded a photo set of this morning’s ferry flight on its flickr site, but I’m taking this opportunity to link to a wallpaper that already feels vintage: a classic storm shot from April 2011 showing Endeavour on launch complex 39a before the rollback of the Rotating Service Structure.

This is a bit of belated information that I shared on twitter but forgot to post here: if you know the tail number of a NASA aircraft, you can use FlightAware to check for flight times. Endeavour’s last hop will take place courtesy of SCA N905NA, as did all the Shuttle ferry flights. You can type that tail number in at FlightAware to produce a list of scheduled flight times and destinations. I also use FlightAware to check on Super Guppy flights (tail number NASA941).

Click on the image above to reach the appropriate spot in NASA’s flickr stream. Once you’ve reached that page, right click on the image to save a copy to your harddrive.


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Categories : Endeavour, NASA, News, Space Shuttle

Final Voyage of the Endeavour

15 09 2012

Endeavour, ready to travel. Photo credit: Mike Killian / www.MikeKillianPhotography.com

Mike Killian posted some sweet photos to the “Welcome Endeavour/Spot the Shuttle” group on facebook. Killian is a professional photographer out of Florida and his portfolio includes some fantastic Kennedy Space Center/Cape Canaveral shots. Check out his Final Voyage of the Endeavour photos. I’m finding the decommissioning the Space Shuttles almost as impressive as their space flights.


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Categories : Endeavour, NASA, News, Space Shuttle

Neil Armstrong: Burial at Sea

14 09 2012

NASA has posted a moving set of photos of Neil Armstrong’s burial at sea.


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Categories : NASA, News

Endeavour’s Final Flight

14 09 2012

In case you missed it, Spaceflight 101 has a nice summary of Endeavour’s planned ferry flight next Monday, September 17. I have never been so envious of our relatives who live in California’s central valley as I am now.


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Categories : Endeavour, NASA, News, Space Shuttle

Wallpaper Wednesday

5 09 2012

Dawn Orbiting Over Vesta. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA

Today NASA announced that Dawn has escaped the asteroid Vesta’s gravitational pull. The spacecraft is now “officially” on its way to Ceres, the first dwarf planet detected by humans. Stop by the mission website to watch Dawn’s Greatest Hits, a splashy video highlighting the research accomplishments at Vesta, the most interesting of which were a series of discoveries that led to the conclusion that Vesta resembled a minor planet more than an asteroid. Dawn’s work at Ceres will be exciting: what started out as a comparison between an asteroid and a dwarf planet has turned into a comparison between two different types of small planets. Check out When is an Asteroid not an Asteroid? for more on that story.

Dawn’s Greatest Hits:

 

Farewell Portrait of Giant Asteroid Vesta:

 

Click on the image at the top of the post to download the wallpaper.


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Categories : Instruments, NASA, News, Wallpaper

Astronomy Photographer of the Year

30 08 2012

In case you missed it, the Royal Museums Greenwich has announced its list of finalists for Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2012. Space.com has a nice gallery of the finalists, but you can see the entire competition pool on flickr. You might want to settle in for a long session in front of the computer, though, because the group includes almost 9,000 photos. On one hand, awesome. On the other hand, those poor judges.

Of the finalists, I’m a fan of Sunny Airlines by Dunja Zupanic. I haven’t made it through all 8,756 photos in the general pool, but I like Toby Harriman’s photo of the aurora borealis taken at Sparks Lake, Oregon, among others.


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Categories : News

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