Fantastic Planet

So you may have noticed I didn't write anything yesterday. I just wasn't feeling it. When I write, I want it to feel like something I want to do, to have if flow from me. I believe it should be an enjoyable experience. And yesterday it just wasn't on, so I didn't post. In the mean time, I've been thinking of some future posts I might want to make. Getting an idea for future content has been pretty important for this blog so far, as you might tell from a lot of my posts, I tend to do my homework. Anyways, today is Earth Day! Hurray for the Earth! If you haven't figured it out after spending your entire life here, the Earth is a pretty awesome...

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Posted in Earth,Earth Day,Fantastic Planet,Leroy,Life 18 comments

Astronomy News Update 4/20/11

There are a couple of astronomy news things this week that I wanted to share. It's all pretty exciting stuff. But first, let me remind you to vote on the poll in the sidebar. Every Tuesday I give a little lesson in astronomy and I let you, the readers, decide on what I'm gonna write about. There is always room for suggestions, so please make them in any comment thread. A history of previous Astro-Lessons can be found under the Astronomy Topics heading. (Still working on getting that all updated.) On to the News: Endeavour's last flight scheduled for April 29  NASA announced today that the Space Shuttle Endeavour's last flight will be...

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Posted in Astronomy,Hubble,News,Pluto,Space Shuttle,Titan 20 comments

Astro-Lesson: Gamma Ray Bursts.

First: Good to see that I got some votes out of you all and looks like Gamma-Ray Bursts just barely won. I'll have a new poll up tomorrow I suppose for next weeks Astro-Lesson. Second: I decided to start calling these things Astro-Lessons because they are little lessons in astronomy that are just supposed to help build a pretty basic understanding of the Universe we live in. Now onto the lesson: NASA concept art of a gamma-ray burst Gamma-Ray Bursts, also known as GRBs, are short-lived bursts of gamma ray photons associated with immense explosions that have been observed in distant galaxies. These are the most luminous electromagnetic events...

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Posted in Astro-Lesson,Astronomy,Galaxies,Gamma Ray Bursts,Supernova,Universe 22 comments

A Three Way Tie.

The poll for this week ended in a three way tie between Asteroids, Star Life Cycle, and Gamma Ray Bursts. All with 2 votes, out of the 8 voters (the Sun and Pluto/ Kuiper Belt each got one.) I feel that the poll is under performing. I liked the idea of having people express an interest in topics that I could tackle. But with such a low turnout, I wonder if it is even worth it anymore. I might just go ahead and do an article on some astronomy topic every Tuesday on whatever I fancy for the week, or try to address any question posed in the comments. For now, I am trying to think of what to do about this tie... Thanks guys, you would. I'll try to put an actual article up tonight, for now, I have voting open again on the three topics. I'll see how it does while I go eat. If that doesn't work,...

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Posted in Asteroids,Astronomy Lesson,Gamma Ray Bursts,Poll,Star Life Cycle 13 comments

My First Real Moon Pictures!

I finally got a clear night last night, and it couldn't have happened at a better time. I got some pretty good shots of a great full moon, and even a short video. I still have some kinks to figure out, but it's a learning process.   I've learned a good bit though, mostly what I still don't know and need to do. Number one is that the focusing is just a hair off, unfortunately the focal length is outside the range I can adjust to. Fixing that requires a $20 adapter piece, for a little ring of plastic. Next, I am pretty bad at setting up my scope for tracking, so these pics are just quick still shots. When you have good tracking it is possible...

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Posted in Astrophotography,Full Moon,Moon 17 comments

Extremophile Pt. 2 (Life in the Extreme)

Welcome to part two of the extremophile post, Life in the Extreme. Last time we covered all sorts of weird forms of life that lived in extreme environments, from deep below the ocean, to volcanoes, to sulfur caves, to the Antarctica, and I made fun of my cat. Today, more of the same, with some of the most extreme extremophiles yet, record-setting and award-winning even. These things push the boundaries for what is accepted as the "habitable zone". So, lets get to it...

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Posted in astrobiology,Extremophiles,Life 18 comments