Solar Eclipse, July 11, 2010

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I had heard a while ago that a solar eclipse was soon to be visible somewhere in the southern hemisphere. I had no idea where and really paid little attention to its arrival as I knew I would not be able to see it.

Wrong..!!

Thanks to the power of the Intertubes I was alerted at an online forum about a live-streaming site where the solar eclipse could be viewed in the south Pacific.

Apparently sponsored by Wakayama University of Japan, the feed was available on the techdreams.org website.

Truly amazing. Here is a screen shot that I captured near what appears to be total eclipse:





Amazing, especially to watch it live, to see the shakiness of the camera, the clouds in the atmosphere sliding past the ongoing eclipse ...to see it live from halfway around the world. Simply amazing.


You can visit shadowandsubstance dot com to see an animation of the sunlight and the shadow of the moon interacting on the surface of the Earth. Very cool.

Techdreams dot org has another animated video up as well. Plus, it is a NASA video, your tax dollars at work.


You know me, I am always up for a geeky astronomy post and links.


...tom...
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My desktop, March 20, 2010...

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It has been a while since I shared a desktop view. Not that I imagine my reader or three are continually checking for the next one. My hit counter would certainly not indicate they are.

This one continues my theme of 'space' pictures. Is there really anything more beautiful, challenging, or exciting than the idea of exploring and living in space..?? Not for me.


This selection is from APOD, posted February 16, 2010:

What's that approaching? Astronauts on board the International Space Station first saw it far in the distance. Soon it enlarged to become a dark silhouette. As it came even closer, the silhouette appeared to be a spaceship. Finally, at just past 11 pm (CST) last Tuesday, the object, revealed to be the Space Shuttle Endeavour, docked as expected with the Earth-orbiting space station. Pictured above, Endeavour was imaged near Earth's horizon as it approached, where several layers of the Earth's atmosphere were visible. (continued at the APOD page.)



I think the idea of having something beautiful on one's desktop is a good idea. If it can not be my beautiful family . . .the beauty of space will be a close second choice.


...tom...
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My desktop, October 15, 2009...

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Yes, there is a theme here. Astronomy pics often take my breath away. Particularly those of Astronomy Picture of the Day. The one shared here is from September 27, 2009.


At about 100 meters from the cargo bay of the space shuttle Challenger, Bruce McCandless II was farther out than anyone had ever been before. Guided by a Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU), astronaut McCandless, pictured above, was floating free in space. McCandless and fellow NASA astronaut Robert Stewart were the first to experience such an "untethered space walk" during Space Shuttle mission 41-B in 1984. The MMU works by shooting jets of nitrogen and has since been used to help deploy and retrieve satellites. With a mass over 140 kilograms, an MMU is heavy on Earth, but, like everything, is weightless when drifting in orbit. The MMU was replaced with the SAFER backpack propulsion unit.


Beautiful, just beautiful. Certain worthy of greeting me each day as I sign onto my home computer...


...tom...
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My desktop, September 7, 2009...

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"Today (September4, 2009) planet Earth passes through the plane of Saturn's rings. From the perspective of earthbound astronomers, Saturn's rings will be edge-on. The problem is, Saturn itself is now very close to the Sun, low on horizon after sunset, so good telescopic images will be difficult to come by." Read more.


Photo courtesy of Astronomy Picture of the Day, September 04, 2009.


...tom...
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A heart for my valentines...

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I knew that if I looked long enough I would find something to share with my readers for Valentine's Day.

Little did I know that, once again, it would APOD coming to the rescue.


I offer you a 'heart' ... seemingly as big as all creation...






Image from Astronomy Picture of the Day, Valentine's Day, February 14, 2009.


...tom...
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My desktop, January 23, 2009...

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"Of three objects prominent in this thoughtful telescopic image ... two (the spiky ones) are nearby stars. The third is the remote globular star cluster NGC 2419, at distance of nearly 300,000 light-years. NGC 2419 is sometimes called "the Intergalactic Wanderer" ..."

Photo courtesy of Astronomy Picture of the Day, January 23, 2009.


...tom...
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Pimping APOD again...

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I have it blogrolled there at the left, I make a point of checking it daily, and I pimp it out here all too often.

But I love the science, the beauty, the value of the photographs published daily at Astronomy Picture of the Day. This link is a bit clunky when you go there. But it dumps you on the main page for checking out the various offerings of the site, ranging from pics of the Cosmos, the Solar System, Space Technology, and more.


Most visitors access the site from the 'picture of the day' page. For instance, yesterday's image page:





This particular picture appears, at first, to not meet the usual high quality of the daily APOD pictures.

Until you stop to realize that it is a picture of the International Space Station taken from Earth..!! Indeed, the living blue of planet Earth is reflected from some of the panels on the Station.

APOD has several/many links in each day's picture text and you can soon find yourself wandering around website, forgetting what you had planned to do online just then.


Anyway . . .just another roll out of APOD by this blogger. I can guarantee you there will be more.


...tom...
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Quadrantid this..!!

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While the Perseid and Leonid meteor showers seem to get all the publicity, there are a few others that make regular visits to North America.

One is the Quadrantid meteor shower that peaks in January. Somehow it does not seem especially enticing to be out in the elements in the middle of winter. But that does not stop some fools from staying up to nearly dawn and driving miles out into the frozen countryside to view a meteor shower in Iowa.

My daughter had seen an online article about the Quadrantid meteor showers that occurred last night and decided that she wanted to 'go see them'.

Okay . . ..

Image source: Spaceweather dot com

These showers are actually expected to be one of the best displays of this year, 2009. While some sources cite meteor rates of up to a hundred per hour for the Quadrantids, we saw nothing near that rate earlier this morning. Though we did see several that looked like this shot by another viewer of this morning's shower:

Image source: Jodie Reynolds via Spaceweather dot com

It was very peaceful out in the Iowa countryside, far away from the nearest farmstead or highway. That it was as cold as a walk-in refrigerator and the wind blew like a dervish was just a minor inconvenience.


So if you get a chance to go sit in the dark and cold with your daughter in the middle of winter ... go for it. What is the saying..?? Oh yeah . . .priceless..!!


...tom...

Sunday, Icy Sunday...

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Actually, the ice was deposited about 24 hours ago, but it was still hanging around this morning. Luckily I did not have to scrape any windshields or do any driving so it was a minor inconvenience for me. Though the weekend guests (wife's sister and family) did stay an extra day.

No major power outages that I am aware of, perhaps typical Iowa winter weather, looking at the big picture.



This was the view looking out the north-facing window of our living room. Shadow of the house, animated Christmas deer, crabapple tree, driveway, street, yellow house opposite ours ...all combine to make a very abstract image. Looks very cool (if only to me) at the larger image, just click on it.










Our picnic table also has some nice seasonal decoration hanging on it...

















Finally, a view up between the main branches of the silver maple in our backyard. It is terribly out of focus, but that seems to emphasize the ice on the high branches. The overall effect reminds me of a particular artist; I will let you make your own connection.


It also looks, if only to me, like some weird astronomy image...













Hey, ya never know what you are gonna get when you live in the Midwest, in Iowa. Tomorrow it could be in the 50s again (as it was the day before this ice-storm) and the plants might wanna start pushing up out of the ground.

Thank god for the variety of life wherever it is found.


...tom...
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' Starstruck '

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I have written before of my 'love' for Astronomy Picture of the Day.

The images they send to my inbox every day continually amaze me. Not to mention their years of archived photos, explanatory text, and abundant links to more photos and information within their domain and across the web. The site truly is 'most helpful'.



Today's image, for example, is a fantastic look at "47 Tuc: A Great Globular Cluster of Stars".

"...the dense cluster is made up of several million stars in a volume only about 120 light-years across." They also note the light we see in this image took 13,000 years to reach us. Several million stars clustered in an area incredibly small (relatively speaking..!!) far from us in the Universe.




A link in the text for today's picture leads to a broader view of this cluster 'near' the Small Cloud of Magellan. Of course, they are not really 'near' each other but appear so only in two dimensions, as we see them from Earth. The Small Cloud of Magellan is actually much farther distant from us.






Also a today's pic/page (first photo above) is a link to a picture and discussion of "exotic x-ray binary star systems" that are found in 47 Tuc










If you have a pair of eyeballs (or even one), the imagination to think beyond your immediate surroundings, and the curiosity to wonder what is 'out there' ...you will find much to educate and amaze you at Astronomy Picture of the Day.


...tom...
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Hey, move over..!! You are blocking my light..!!

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Link





...tom...
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Dancing is astronomy..??

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How can dancing be considered to be astonomy-related..?!?

That was my first thought when checking out a recent APOD 'picture of the day'.

I have talked about APOD before, what a great site it is. It is always good for something new, something refreshing, something awesome indeed. Anyone who can look at the stars on a dark night and not find it awesome is missing a part of their soul.


But back to this dancing thing. how can that be related to astronomy..??

Well, one of their recent daily pics featured that dancing fool Matt Harding and a video of him dancing his fool way around the world. What a life..!! ( And another 'why the h3ll did I not think of that..?!? ' moment for me..!! )


Well, we are all traveling through the universe and through our lives on this same great big ball called Earth. One thing we all share is smiling and joy. As they say at the APOD page: "few people are able to watch the above video without smiling."


Enjoy.


...tom...
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The Arrival on Mars of the Phoenix Lander...

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Launched in August 2007, the Phoenix Lander is scheduled to land on the red planet on May 25, 2008.

Reborn from the ashes, like its namesake mythical creature, of the Mars Surveyor 2001 Lander (mothballed earlier this decade) and the failed Mars Polar Lander of 1999, the Phoenix Lander is set to study the "history of water and the habitability potential in the Martian arctics ice-rich soil."



The problems faced by the Lander as it approaches Mars at a speed of 12,500 mph and after Seven Minutes of Terror has hopefully safely landed on the Martian surface are documented in the video at Space dot com.

As it takes ten minutes for signals to reach Earth from Mars ...and the whole landing sequence will be over in seven minutes . . .well, let us say there is not a lifeline back to Mother Earth.


Excellently produced and very informative, the video is well worth the five minutes spent watching and thinking.



For some reason, I am seriously geeked by this whole mission and the idea of finding water and perhaps the possibility of past life on Mars. I feel ten years old again and living, once again, at the crest of mankind reaching for the stars.

APOD: your daily space picture...

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Astronomy Picture of the Day is a site that consistently provides some of the best pictures of the marvels of our universe. Each day a new picture showing an image of the world and the planets and stars above us is presented.




An example is this picture showing two spiral galaxies that will slowly collide over the next billion or so years.

Perhaps some distant relative of humanity will be around to record the 'cosmic wreck'.






Other pictures share images of planet Earth and our interactions with our neighbors, near and far, in our solar system, galaxy, and beyond.


Check out the site and the various ways to search the site and discover a wide range of fantastic astonomy pictures.