stargazing

[Eleeski]

I missed the eclipse tonight. Hopefully some of you from the east or midwest got to enjoy it.

There's a comet at closest approach tonight today as well. My crappy telescope doesn't have setting circles and I don't think it's naked eye visible (certainly not through the haze in San Diego).

Ski resorts have good stargazing (when the powder is away) with nice remote dark skies. Maybe I should pitch an observatory on top of Siberia to Squaw?

Eric

 

[Scrundy]

Missed it due to cloud cover but it was briter then usual last night skiing. Wish I had a ski buddy with me to go some poaching. I use a spotting scope to view the night skies, better then my telescope for sure.

 

[Eleeski]

Great American Eclipse of August 21, 2017. Plan for it!

There's an eclipse today in Africa. It's an annular solar eclipse. Too hard to get to - especially when such a good one will soon cross the US mainland. I'm planning a summer Idaho trip for it!

Eric

 

[SpikeDog]

Planning on seeing this in the Jackson area. Anybody seen the hotel rates go up? I hear they are asking +$500 a room in Casper.

 

[James]

I saw a photo from Iceland a friend took of the night sky. 12 sec exposure. Incredible.

 

[Mikey]

We were out at a place called Horsehoof Campgrounds in Canyonlands National Park back in 2015. Only accessible by a capable 4x4 or walking. Perfect evening. Completely clear, very slight breeze, 70 degrees, no moon for the first part of the evening. Caught the below picture with my little 1" sensor Sony. Was surprised when I saw the photo, because I caught Andromeda completely by accident.

You guys ever used this site to view the spacestation: https://spotthestation.nasa.gov/ I know it all just math, but I still get a kick at getting all lined up, and down to the second, that little light will appear in the sky. Get a lot of mileage out of it if there happens to be a good sighting opportunity when we are out in the country in Thailand and I explain what that light is and that there are people up there working

I remember Halley's comet being a dud, but Hale-Bopp being pretty cool back in 1996. Southern Hemisphere has had a couple great recent comets.

Going to miss the eclipse unfortunately.

 

[pete]

I'm eclipse planning. It pans south of me a few hundred miles but will either hit Carbondale Il or Kansas City area. Maybe out towards Lincoln as a friend is moving there this month.

I hoped to nab a hotel in KC along the path, more so dead on St Joeseph Mo but rooms long gone months ago. This is fine, looking as if rest of family may forego this so I may must camp out in my truck ... sleeping bag, etc if not visiting other friends. Least wise I have excuse to relax and enjoy.

FYI, Astronomical news wise, note Cassini has started it's final orbits shooting between rings of Saturn and planet and noting a "Big Empty". Info from one instrument, PWS indicated the area quite void of any dust, fragments, etc. Pretty cool stuff:

https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/news/3034/cassini-finds-the-big-empty-close-to-saturn/

​

 

[Mikey]

I'm eclipse planning. It pans south of me a few hundred miles but will either hit Carbondale Il or Kansas City area. Maybe out towards Lincoln as a friend is moving there this month.

I hoped to nab a hotel in KC along the path, more so dead on St Joeseph Mo but rooms long gone months ago. This is fine, looking as if rest of family may forego this so I may must camp out in my truck ... sleeping bag, etc if not visiting other friends. Least wise I have excuse to relax and enjoy.

FYI, Astronomical news wise, note Cassini has started it's final orbits shooting between rings of Saturn and planet and noting a "Big Empty". Info from one instrument, PWS indicated the area quite void of any dust, fragments, etc. Pretty cool stuff:

https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/news/3034/cassini-finds-the-big-empty-close-to-saturn/

​

Ya, the Cassini spacecraft has provided some great research and some stunning photos. Should be really interesting to read about the last bits of data it produces.

When I read "Big Empty", my brain switched over to the vast cold spot seen in the cosmic background radiation with some speculating it could point to our universe being part of a multiverse with an adjacent universe bumping up against ours. It's amazing, when I was a kid and Voyagers were making their Grand Tour, that was the universe to me..ya ok, I knew about the Milky Way but there wasn't any real news on anything else going on in the Universe. Now, scientists have reduced the immense size of our universe down to an easy to digest number. It's mind boggling to view photos from Hubble, who field of view is extremely narrow and in that field of view are thousands of galaxies, some out past 13 Billion light years...a nice easy to digest number that is impossible to get one's head around.

Speaking of Hubble...the James Webb telescope isn't far off from launch in 2018 https://futurism.com/the-massive-james-webb-space-telescope-just-moved-one-step-closer-to-launch/ Promises to be a massive step up in resolution from what Hubble provided.

There isn't much that makes say, "Man, I am glad I'm alive when I am", but I sure am glad to be alive during this early discovery of our Universe. Very exciting.

 

[Eleeski]

I sure am glad to be alive during this early discovery of our Universe. Very exciting.

Best line!

 

[ADKmel]

I love space and star gazing.. fortunate to live in a very dark place w/ no light intrusion.. Thanks for the link to follow the space station, I had lost it. here's a cool selfie from space

 

[pete]

yeah, I grew up loving the manned program but fell into loving the stars just as much if not more. hence making time to venture to the 100% eclipse zone this late summer.

Have some personal experience with a handful of space probes while a student. Funny story is one of my bosses showed me a letter (50's or 60's) to Dr Van Allen from Dr Von Braun. The letter was from a lady asking Von Braun if Hell could actually be in the Aurora Boreallis which are driven by the newly discovered and now named Van Allen belts. The hand written note on the letter from Von Braun to Van Allen said something like "James, I believe you would be better at answering this question"

I always liked seeing this letter as I was lucky enough to speak on occasion to Dr Van Allen. He was retired, in his 80's but still came into work looking at data from various probes including Voyager I and II. Always super friendly, courteous and mild mannered.

He smoked a pipe. Around this time the State of Iowa banned smoking in buildings. Dr Van Allen would on occasion smoke his pipe in his office, no one really cared as the building is named after him.

 

[James]

yeah, I grew up loving the manned program but fell into loving the stars just as much if not more. hence making time to venture to the 100% eclipse zone this late summer.

Have some personal experience with a handful of space probes while a student. Funny story is one of my bosses showed me a letter (50's or 60's) to Dr Van Allen from Dr Von Braun. The letter was from a lady asking Von Braun if Hell could actually be in the Aurora Boreallis which are driven by the newly discovered and now named Van Allen belts. The hand written note on the letter from Von Braun to Van Allen said something like "James, I believe you would be better at answering this question"

I always liked seeing this letter as I was lucky enough to speak on occasion to Dr Van Allen. He was retired, in his 80's but still came into work looking at data from various probes including Voyager I and II. Always super friendly, courteous and mild mannered.

He smoked a pipe. Around this time the State of Iowa banned smoking in buildings. Dr Van Allen would on occasion smoke his pipe in his office, no one really cared as the building is named after him.

Very cool! Are you in astrophysics?

My avatar there is Jack King who was the public affairs officer at the Cape. He was the voice for all of the manned launches Gemini4 to Apollo15 except for 13. He died two years ago.

Here's Apollo 11 Countdown from T- 6 min.

Similar with amazing film edit.

 

[eok]

I've been a long time amateur astronomer. I had a great 13.1" Dobsonian scope (one of the original Coulter's), but I donated it to a Bay Area 'astro club before moving to central Oregon in 2013. I'm now way overdue for getting/making a new scope. The night skies are often so clear here it's just amazing.

I was at UC Santa Cruz when space shuttle Endeavour was flown over the Bay Area during it's final flight to southern California. The flight path was supposed to go over campus, so I climbed to the top of the campus parking structure with a small group of co-workers and waited. One of the group was armed with a radio which linked to observers/coordinators at UCB (and UCSF too, I think) - so we had a pretty accurate idea of where the aircraft was & how close. I was armed with a point-n-shoot camera, hoping to get some sort of picture. Problem was: the parking structure was surrounded by tall redwoods, so I wouldn't have much time to frame a shot. And that's exactly how it went down. We could hear it coming and then it was suddenly directly overhead. Seemed like just a few thousand feet altitude. Quite a show - and LOUD. Worth the wait!

After it was over, we all shared our pics with one another. The one shown here is one of the best of the bunch.

 

[Mikey]

My Dad was in the Air Force and worked in the Flight Surgeon's office when we lived out at Edwards AFB in the 70's. Saw lots of cools stuff out there during that time. My Dad got orders to move to Eglin AFB, Florida but right before we moved, we got to see the original Shuttle Enterprise being moved from Palmdale out to Edwards. At that time, very cool thing to see as a kid. Space shuttle of course landed at Eglin a few times when it was being ferried back on the back of the 747. I was down in Orlando working as a college intern for Martin Marietta in '91 and they had a night launch. Kick myself to this day that I didn't go out to see the launch as I figured it would be delayed and I had to leave early the next day. What was pretty cool about that was I had the TV on inside while they did the launch and as soon as it took off, the horizon towards the Cape, just completely lit up. You could hear the noise from the rockets clear out in Orlando as it climbed into space.

RE: Apollo. What a great time in our history. How in the heck did those guys make it to the moon? Incredible. Michael Collins book, Carrying the Fire is a great read. I think just about every kid answered, "An Astronaut" when asked, "What would you like to be when you grow up?". I know I did Later, I wanted to be an astronomer. On both counts, I lacked the discipline it took to dedicate oneself to either endeavor. Oh well...I'm still pretty happy where I am today

 

[pete]

Very cool! Are you in astrophysics?

My avatar there is Jack King who was the public affairs officer at the Cape. He was the voice for all of the manned launches Gemini4 to Apollo15 except for 13. He died two years ago.

Here's Apollo 11 Countdown from T- 6 min.

Similar with amazing film edit.

knew the avatar was someone from mission control, just couldn't recall where I've seen him.

I'm an EE by schooling and as a student I answered a flier for student employment for a Plasma Physics group at the U of Iowa. Great group, great experience. there were/are 3 bigger groups all offshoots of Van Allen, most students of his who received their doctorates.

I worked for the PWS group, between them and other groups they've had instruments on nearly 70 launches starting with Explorer 1. I worked on Cassini and a few others just before taking my current job.

yet another fun story: as a student and at that time pretty healthy running or working out daily, I got to help deliver an instrument for final test taht in it's case was nearly 30lbs. Flight hardware being "1 of" build/tested instruments were hand carried to their destination. I was designated to carry "Mr Box" as I was "healthy", due to the box's size it had a first class seat giving me the adjacent seat. Note, Mr Box, his papers and box all noted "plasma diagnostics" etc and the U of Ia has a very large teaching and research hospital.

Our flight was slightly late to O'hare and 4 of us hi tailed to a waiting aircraft. The attendants ushered us on board, closed the doors and one lead me and Mr Box to our seats. She then asked if we had hearts or kidneys, lungs .. what was in the box as they were happy and able to hold the aircraft enough for us to catch the flight. I noted it was a satellite radio receiver for electric and magnetic waves, she then made the comment slightly disappointed that they thought we were a medical group with transplant organs.

 

[James]

very cool!

Are you aware of this group that recovered data from the first lunar orbiters that photographed the moon's surface back in the mid 60's? Interesting technical archeology. 70mm magnetic tapes that a JPL archivist kept in her garage for decades, and the recorder that was almost thrown into the great lakes at one point to dispose, had to be restored. Fascinating story and project that's now over. The restored first image of the earth from the moon is stunning. I'm not sure the original was even that good but the image released was a degraded version so the Soviets wouldn't know the extent of the capabilities. Those cameras and processors were built by Kodak, wet processed in the satellite, then scanned and transmitted to earth with the signal recorded onto the 70mm tape then demodulated to produce the image. The recent project had to read the analog tapes and convert them to a digital format.
Here's the wikipedia page
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_Orbiter_Image_Recovery_Project
Here's the website
http://www.moonviews.com

Anyone interested in Apollo or engineering must see Moon Machines, about the making of the guidance computer, the F1 engines, the command module, space suit, the lunar excursion module, and lunar rover. Incredible program divided into roughly 45min segments. Available on dvd on Amazon, or they're on youtube now. Here's the one on the rover. Watch the first 3:30 and you'll be hooked.

 

[pete]

very cool!

Are you aware of this group that recovered data from the first lunar orbiters that photographed the moon's surface back in the mid 60's? Interesting technical archeology. 70mm magnetic tapes that a JPL archivist kept in her garage for decades, and the recorder that was almost thrown into the great lakes at one point to dispose, had to be restored. Fascinating story and project that's now over. The restored first image of the earth from the moon is stunning. I'm not sure the original was even that good but the image released was a degraded version so the Soviets wouldn't know the extent of the capabilities. Those cameras and processors were built by Kodak, wet processed in the satellite, then scanned and transmitted to earth with the signal recorded onto the 70mm tape then demodulated to produce the image. The recent project had to read the analog tapes and convert them to a digital format.
Here's the wikipedia page
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_Orbiter_Image_Recovery_Project
Here's the website
http://www.moonviews.com

Anyone interested in Apollo or engineering must see Moon Machines, about the making of the guidance computer, the F1 engines, the command module, space suit, the lunar excursion module, and lunar rover. Incredible program divided into roughly 45min segments. Available on dvd on Amazon, or they're on youtube now. Here's the one on the rover. Watch the first 3:30 and you'll be hooked.

dang, nice read .. fascinating. thanks @James, i've got some viewing to do.

yeah, Astronomy and space science is simply amazing. often reminds me of how insignificant we are but still drive to do some pretty amazing things.

While the eclipse may seem trivial, i see it as two things: something to simply be amazed by and two, a good reason to sit back, ponder and appreciate life and enjoy a good cocktail.

 

[pete]

Check this out .... looks like Jackson Hole is nearly dead on for 100% and they have a celebration! Ski site, no sun!


https://www.jacksonhole.com/summer/eclipse-2017.html

 

[slowrider]

I'm @ 1.5 min total eclipse on the ranch. Hope it doesn't spook the livestock. ;-)

 

[pete]

I'm @ 1.5 min total eclipse on the ranch. Hope it doesn't spook the livestock. ;-)

where beith the ranch??? nice to just enjoy at home!