VAB Construction (Wallpaper Wednesday)

20 03 2013
VAB Construction

Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) under construction with the Launch Control Center (LCC) and LC-39 Service Towers as seen from across the Turning Basin, January 5, 1965. Photo credit: NASA/KSC

Not enough hours in the day. Here’s some nice VAB construction photos to distract you from the fact that I haven’t written anything of substance here for a while.

VAB under construction, September 1963. Photo credit: NASA/KSC via Library of Congress

VAB under construction, September 1963. Photo credit: NASA/KSC

VAB under construction, October 22, 1963. Photo credit: NASA/KSC

VAB under construction, October 22, 1963. Photo credit: NASA/KSC

VAB under construction, January 14, 1964. Photo credit: NASA/KSC

VAB under construction, January 14, 1964. Photo credit: NASA/KSC

VAB under construction, August 14, 1964. Photo credit: NASA/KSC

VAB under construction, August 14, 1964. Photo credit: NASA/KSC

VAB under construction, November 1964. Image credit: NASA/KSC

VAB under construction, November 1964. Image credit: NASA/KSC

VAB under construction, c. 1965. Image credit: NASA

VAB under construction, c. 1965. Image credit: NASA/KSC

VAB under construction, c. 1965. Image credit: NASA (via Stayne Hoff)

VAB under construction, c. 1965. Image credit: NASA/KSC (via Stayne Hoff)

VAB under construction, June 9, 1965. Photo credit: NASA/KSC

VAB under construction, June 9, 1965. Photo credit: NASA/KSC

VAB under construction, August 1965. Photo credit: NASA/KSC

VAB under construction, August 1965. Photo credit: NASA/KSC


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Categories : NASA, Wallpaper

Kodaikanal Observatory

2 03 2013
Kodaikanal Observatory

Kodaikanal Observatory, c. 1907.
Image courtesy IIA Archives.

I think this photo demonstrates why I’ve lost interest in my current project and wish I could start working on a new one. The only caption I’ve seen attached to this image is “John and Mary Ackworth Evershed, Kodaikanal.” The Eversheds arrived at Kodaikanal Observatory in January 1907. John had (reluctantly) accepted the position as “European Assistant” to the observatory’s director, Michie Smith, arriving in India after a productive visit to the solar observatory on Mt Wilson. Not surprisingly, most of Evershed’s time at the observatory was spent installing and then using spectroheliographs to study the spectra of sunspots. He became the observatory’s director in 1911.

All very interesting, I’m sure, but what I want to know: how can this possibly be a photo of “John and Mary Ackworth Evershed” when it includes sixteen other people, fourteen of whom are obviously not “European Assistants”? Colonial astronomy drives me crazy, it really does.


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Categories : Ephemera, Kodaikanal, Observatories


Observatories and Instruments