I just got back down off my roof with The Little Astronomer; we were up there to watch the Shuttle and space station rise into the sky. The view was very cool: they rose over Boulder, and as they got higher they headed straight into Orion; specifically Rigel, the bright star marking Orion’s knee. Even better: as they rose, they passed into the Earth’s shadow. As the sunlight gradually dimmed for them, we saw them get fainter. We didn’t see the Jules Verne remote cargo carrier, unfortunately. I’m not sure why.
Best yet: I got pictures! I loaded all six onto Flickr. Below are two cool shots; click them to embiggen to Flickr.
This is a 10 second exposure taken a few minutes after 9:00 p.m. The odd glow is from a neighbor’s light across the street. It’s pretty, though! You can see Rigel just above center, and Orion’s belt at the top. The ISS was pretty bright and very easy to see; it’s the streak in the middle.
The next picture was taken about 15 seconds later. The scene has changed!
First, you can see both the Shuttle (lower streak in line with the upper one) and the ISS. Second, the ISS has faded! See how it gets dimmer as it moves up; the line gets fainter near the top? It was passing into twilight, and so as seen from the station the Sun was "setting", and the station itself got dimmer. The Shuttle dimmed a few seconds later when it got that high off the horizon.
Again, go to Flickr to see these in higher resolution. They turned out pretty well! I may have to put the full-res versions someplace.
And remember: all I had here was a tripod, a digital camera, and some foreknowledge. That’s really all it takes! So the next time something like this happens, you can get pictures too. It’s not hard.
What’s that? Creationist sympathizers in Florida are trying to force an unnecessary and unneeded bill providing for the Orwellianly-phrased "academic freedom" of teachers and students?
Yeah, shocker. Brandon Haught of Florida Citizens for Science has the details. If you think this isn’t a big deal, read how the bill is summarized on the Florida Senate’s page:
Provides public school teachers with a right to present scientific information relevant to the full range of views on biological and chemical origins. Prohibits a teacher from being discriminated against for presenting such information. Prohibits students from being penalized for subscribing to a particular position on evolution, etc.
Hey, remember when Oklahoma did that a few weeks ago? I guess Florida legislators are jealous that Oklahoma is hogging all the ridicule.
Brandon says the creationists are lighting up the Senate switchboards with phone calls, so if you’re a Floridian and you like reality the way it is, then please take a moment and make your voice heard as well and let the Florida Senate know that this bill is a waste of time, energy, money, and will hurt our students and the reputation of Florida. The bottom of Brandon’s post has links that will give you what you need. He’s also tracking the progress of the bill on another page.
Update: I got pictures!
Astropixie notes that the Space Shuttle just undocked from the Space Station, and Jules Verne, the European cargo carrier, is just a few thousand kilometers away as well.
This means that if one passes overhead, you can see all three in a triple pass!
They’ll be passing the US around 9:00 Mountain time. It’s not hugely favorable for me in Boulder, getting only 23 degrees above the horizon. Worse, I have to look over the city of Boulder to see them, which means a bright sky. Still, I’ll be looking. Check heavens-above.com to see if you’ll get a good view too!
I meant to post this the other day, but maybe waiting worked out well: at a recent science conference, NASA Associate Administrator for Science Alan Stern addressed NASA’s Mars woes. Emily posted a report by an anonymous friend who attended the talk. Given that NASA was looking to freeze the rovers, and then recanted, this report takes on an added and interesting dimension.
Strange Maps, a blog about, well, strange maps, has another good one: the path of Neil Armstrong’s and Buzz Aldrin’s EVA (extravehicular activities or moonwalks) overlaid on a soccer field.
This really lets you know they didn’t go very far! That’s not too surprising if you think about it; this was the first time humans had traveled to and walked upon an alien world, and the goal was to do it and get back. So they only spent less than a day on the Moon at all, and only 2 hours 31 minutes actually walking on the surface.
Later missions got bolder, obviously. Apollo 17, the last to the Moon, was on the Moon for 75 hours, with 22 of those hours spent on EVA. Given the round-trip time of nearly a week, that’s still not very long.
I haven’t heard anything about how NASA plans on going back as far as mission durations. Apollo worked so well we may repeat what happened then; tentative at first, then bolder as we become more confident in the equipment and the brains behind it.
In 15 years, that soccer field overlay may turn into a football field, and then a city park. Eventually, it’ll be a map of the Moon itself.
Tip o’ the spacesuit visor to BABloggee Mike Sperry.
Astronomer Tyler Nordgren is on a quest: to visit 12 national parks in one year, and investigate their connection with the cosmos.
He visited Big Bend National Park in west Texas, and his experiences there are revealed on Emily’s blog at The Planetary Society. He has a picture there… well. Juts go and see for yourself. This is a few minutes well worth spending.
Jim Oberg sent me an odd note: a news article from Brazil has pictures and a description of a weird thing that fell to the ground a few hundred kilometers south and west of Brasilia (translated in the email Jim sent me):
An unidentified object fell on a farm on Goias, Brazil. The farmers are afraid that the object may be something radioactive or part of something dangerous. So far, it seems that the local police discards the possibilities of it being a weather balloon. The object has approximately 1 meter in diameter; it is made of steel and covered in some kind of plastic. It has an axle inside and seems to be of copper.
Anyone have any clue what this thing might be? I’m not sure if it came from an airplane or from orbit; there don’t appear to be any burn marks, but sometimes space debris doesn’t have them. Still, beats me. I know a few aeronautical engineers and rocket scientists read this blog, so if you have any thoughts, pipe up! Weird.
Update: We seem to have a winner. It looks very much like a fuel tank, called a composite overwrap pressure vessel. Robin Titus in the comments was the first to specify, for the record. He wins nothing. As a personal friend of mine, though, he has already won.
