Shuttle Atlantis last Flight (
KI4MFU)
7-8-11 Kennedy Space Center,Floirda
The beginning of the last shuttle mission (Atlantis STS-135) as seen from Titusville, FL on July 8 ,2011.
Big thanks to all the people involved in this program over all these years and a special thanks to my Dad for throwing me in the car in the middle of the night, so I could wake up on the NASA Causeway to see the first Shuttle launch. Hard to see an era end..now on to bigger, farther endeavors.
New GPS satellite going up from Cape Canaveral on a Delta IV Rocket. Launch time..2:41am.
After her final trip home.
Juno being launched on an AtlasV. It should be monitoring the weather on Jupiter in 5 years.
After receiving an internet aurora alert yesterday, we headed out at 1:30 AM to a nearby dark beach with a north view.
Page: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 — Blog Index
I'm wondering how the rumble was with 5 solid rocket boosters.
Image credit: University of Wisconsin
Spaceflight Now | Breaking News | Boeing selects Atlas 5 rocket for initial CST-100 test flights
Perseid Meteor Activity
Graph credit: International Meteor Organization (IMO)
Today's apod is must-see for casual astronomers. Especially for those of us who miss a certain aspect of east coast summers.
Spaceflight Now | Atlas Launch Report | Mission Status Center.
That "certain aspect" isn't entirely missing from California. Check out
A Staff Report from the Straight Dope Science Advisory Board.
Well, okay. They don't say where the critters can be found, only that they probably are, somewhere, lol
Naturally, this made me curious :)
In California, 18 species of fireflies have been identified, but the Golden State lacks lightning bug fireflies.
[emphasis mine]
Which is kind of the point. I mean, without the light, it's just another beetle. Certainly it wouldn't provide a show like that in the apod pic.
There are some species in Cali that may have a light so faint that one would not notice them. There are also "glowworms", particularly in the PNW, which are beetle larvae and not worms at all.
Some Lampyridae sightings in Cali.
/info dump
That was fun.
I went looking for aurora cams late last night and the Finland and Sweden cams are off for the season.
However! The old Alaska cam is back up! I don't know when that happened. Stays light late, and it was cloudy last night, anyway.
The Straight Dope: Why aren't there any fireflies in California? gives hints about what type of areas California fireflies might be found. Those hints match the description of the two locations in the Frazier Park area where I can recall sighting them. The mountainous area around Frazier has creeks that run above ground for only a few weeks or months during the year but run underground for a longer period. Where the local strata allows water to pool near the surface it creates marshes/bogs that can persist into summer. It was in such locations that I sighted little bugs with luminescent yellow butts. I didn't realize it was worthy of a report but I couldn't identify the genus and species anyway, lol.
The bugs I saw weren't the yellow-green color that the human eye is most sensitive to but a dimmer appearing more pure yellow. While they didn't command attention like an Eastern lightning bug they were easily noticeable on a dark bog. Until I read the Straight Dope link though I thought they were lightning bugs in poor health, lol. In your area one might be able to find a similar suitable habitat for California fireflies along a creek or river bed in the Santa Clara watershed.
Thanks for the heads up on the Poker Flat, Alaska aurora web cam. I think that may only broadcast a picture when someone is up there doing science. The other far north aurora cams in the links at the top of my blog entry don't even bother broadcasting until late August because midnight is still dusk/dawn until then. I'll add the Alaska web cam to my links along with others I've been meaning to for a while, e.g. APoD.
To find out exactly when that window of time is:
1) Type in your location in the "Search" box at the top of the page, for example "Woodland Hills, CA" and press Enter.
2) Scroll down the page about a third of the way to the "Astronomy" table.
3) Note the time in the "Set" column and "Moon" row. For the "Woodland Hills, CA" example it is 2:08 AM PDT.
4) Note the time in the "Rise" column and "Astronomical Twilight" row. For the "Woodland Hills, CA" example it is 4:37 AM PDT.
In three more days the Moon will reach full and still be shining when dawn breaks. The moonshine will severly limit the visibility of any Perseid meteors then.
Perseid Meteor Activity
Graph credit: International Meteor Organization (IMO)
Image Credit: Santa Maria Times
From Vandenberg AFB, California - Minotaur IV scheduled to launch August 10
The flight trajectory of the HTV-2 will be roughly west.
I have no news on whether it has since launched or the probability of it launching within today's scheduled window.
Outcome of military's hypersonic test flight unclear
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency |
DARPA HYPERSONIC VEHICLE ADVANCES TECHNICAL KNOWLEDGE
If you have bookmarked locations while using the chart you will need to replace
"skytonight.com/observing/skychart"
with
"skyandtelescope.com"
in the URI.
Viewing: 201 - 227
Page: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 — Blog Index