It's a Big Universe

Today's post is a little bit of a cope out. I saw this video on another blog that I follow and just had to share it, if you haven't seen it already. It's the Known Universe, as mapped so far. Amazing, props to Leviuqse. In some sadder news, the Space Shuttle Discovery's last flight is scheduled to take place on February 24 at 16:50 (4:50PM) Eastern time. It's been plagued with delays because of external tank problems. We don't need the tank blowing up on lift off. Hopefully all will go smoothly with this somber occasion and NASA can continue to look forward with new technology and new missions. Now for the lighter side, CATURDAY...

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Posted in Caturday,Discovery,Universe 38 comments

A 'Family Portrait'

NASA's MESSENGER probe is on a mission to study Mercury, the closest planet to our Sun. A month from now, on March 17th, it will enter orbit around Mercury. This will be the first mission to orbit Mercury, and will be the first time that we get some Hi-Res maps of the entire globe. We will be learning about a brand new planetary surface. MESSENGER has already done a few fly-bys of Mercury, with some stunning and revealing results. On its long and epic journey their though, MESSENGER would look back out into space, taking images. What it came up with was a family portrait of our solar system. Click to Enlarge. Credit: NAS...

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Posted in Carl Sagan,MESSENGER,Solar System 32 comments

Friday Gizmo 2/18/11

So last week I mentioned the NoteSlate as being a totally awesome object that one day I hope to own. I also said I would try to find an awesome gizmo every Friday, if I can, and just bring attention to it. Mostly just noting stuff that I want. This week, we have the U-Socket. Another awesome piece of technology that I am wondering what took so long to develop. Look at this thing, it is an outlet WITH USB SOCKETS! Talk about fricken convenience. I know everyone has wall outlets, and not enough USB ports on their computers. No longer are you constrained to a computer to charge your phones, cameras, and MP3 players and whatever other gadget. One day I hope to have at least one of these outlets in every room of my house. Another use is for all those wacky USB toys that exist, like the ones from...

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Posted in Gadgets,Gizmos 6 comments

The Swedish Model

Sweden_Solar_System. That is just plain awesome. I wish the U.S. would do something like this. It would almost be worthy of an epic road trip. In other news, today is a pretty nice day. I've been enjoying it, since we will be hit by coronal mass ejection (CME) late today (the 17th). A geomagnetic bomb that will destroy everything in a blast of subatomic particles... or not really. It should make for some awesome aurora for the northern brothers though. And probably people near the south pole too, the researchers in Antarctica. More on it at SpaceWeather.com and Bad Astronomy. And actually, consulting the NOAA Auroral Activity site, auroras could be visible just on the northern horizon from my location. I'll have to go take a look. I suggest looking at the site to see where you are in relation...

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Posted in Aurora,Solar System 27 comments

So You Want To Buy A Telescope.

Maybe you have been reading astronomy blogs and visiting various astronomy sites and checking out the latest Hubble pictures and have thought to yourself, 'Man, astronomy is awesome, space is awesome! I want a telescope, I want to see and learn more about the Universe I live in.' Great, and congratulations, the Universe is a very wonderful and beautiful place. A telescope is a wonderful tool for looking at the wonders of space. That said, the best initial advice is: Do NOT Buy A Telescope! Not yet at least. First, like all good purchases, you need to do some homework. You shouldn't just walk into your local department store and throw down less then $100 on a crappy refractor. You can, but it will probably just break after a couple uses and have poor visual quality and ultimately leave you...

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Posted in Astronomy,Telescopes 22 comments

Science and The News Media

Yesterday I had one of those ever so nerve racking events where new media took a science story and ran up the walls with it. This was in relation to the possibility of a large planet in the Oort cloud region of the solar system, tentatively named Tyche (a good name if it does exist BTW). But that's the problem, the evidence is weak for the claims the articles make. Even worse, the articles on news sites take the researchers words to far and claim the planet all but exists, it just needs the images found from a database. I won't really go much more into it, as Phil Plait already did an excellent job. Also, the most recent paper from the two researchers this is focused around is HERE. There is no way to really either confirm or deny the existence of such a planet at this point. So, what I do...

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Posted in News,Science 18 comments

December's Lunar Eclipse

Back in December, just before Christmas, there was a Lunar Eclipse that happened to occur on the winter solstice. The HCAS went out and did some observing, it was pretty awesome, although cold. Even though it is a bit old, I just wanted to share the picture, keeping a short post after the two long ones I just did. Click to enlarge, you can see some background stars too, which are pretty cool. Credit: HCAS Membe...

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Posted in Lunar Eclipse,Moon 15 comments

Saturn & Storm

Credit: HCAS Members So there he is (Saturn is a male god). Click to enlarge for a little bit more detail. It isn't the highest quality, especially given the conditions. And I don't have the exact specs on the number of exposures and length of exposure. What I can tell is that we used the observatory's 14-inch Celestron C-14 Schmidt-Cassegrain (the telescope). The mount is an Astro-Physics 1200 GOTO computerized system. The camera used was the Orion Planetary Imager and Autoguider. And it was a lot of fun to stay out there until 2 in the morning hangout and messing with settings and such. The reason why the picture isn't something you might...

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Posted in HCAS,Saturn 7 comments

Not The Ring I Was Expecting to Post

I was hoping to have an image from last night's observing session of Saturn ready for posting, and have a write up to go along with it. Larry (the guy from the club who does most of the image processing) is still working on it, but it sounds like our goal was at least partially achieved, the processing has just been difficult. Hopefully I'll have an image tonight or tomorrow, and then can share that. In addition to that, The HCAS open house last night went pretty well. We a couple of scout troops that came out, and they seemed really enthusiastic and everyone had a good time despite the cold weather. I know I always enjoy it when the kids are...

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Posted in Chandra,HCAS,Saturn 1 comment