Final Space Shuttle Launch

Atlantis is set to launch in roughly 2 hours from this posting, at 11:26 AM EST. I am going to the beach to hope to catch a glimpse of it as it soars on its final mission into space. If you want to watch it live online, I suggest going here: http://www.ustream.tv/nasahdtv

This is hoping that the weather clears up. It stands at a 30% chance of a 'go', 70% that it will get delayed. The good thing is that they have back up launch dates Saturday and Sunday, so it will go up this weekend. If anything, good luck to the brave astronauts on this momentous occasion.

I have been thoroughly enjoying my time in the Outer Banks, sorry for the lack of updates... OK, no I am not, it's my vacation. Anyways, I will be back home next Friday. There are plenty of updates to share, and lots of missed astronomy news. I can say that seeing the Milky Way in the middle of the night on Okracoke Island was one of the most awesome moments of my life. It was the most vivid I have ever seen it, and I shared that moment with someone I love. Good times.

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Posted in Final,OBX,Space Shuttle 14 comments

'Gone' on Vacation.

I am going to be spending a week or two down in North Carolina at the Outer Banks with my girlfriend. I will have my laptop and telescope and stuff with me, so I will make occasional updates on whatever catches my fancy. I will try to cover the final space shuttle launch, which is hopefully on the 8th, if it doesn't get delayed. I might even get to watch it travel up the eastern seaboard if we time it right.

Needless to say, I am excited to spend some time with my girlfriend, but the Outer Banks has another draw. See, it gets dark there, really really dark. To give you an idea of this, and maybe inspire some jealousy, I want you to watch the video below. It circulated on a couple astronomy blogs around June 15th. It is made by Daniel Lowe, and he wrote an article on how the video was made.

You are gonna want to set it to HD and turn full screen on.

Night Motion Timelapse: Outer Banks from Daniel Dragon Films on Vimeo.
(Yes that's a fire across the water in some of the footage. There has been a wildfire on the mainland that has been going on for some months now.)

Beautiful and majestic, I cannot wait to get out under the stars and snuggle up with my girl.

The video is on Vimeo, so I'm not sure how well that works internationally,

but maybe there is a Youtube version out there.

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Posted in OBX,personal,Video 23 comments