Saturday, May 31, 2008

We have liftoff!

Commander Mark Kelly promised "the greatest show on Earth," and space shuttle Discovery delivered with a thundering, fiery arc stretching over Florida's East Coast on Saturday. The launch began a 14-day mission for Kelly and his crew of seven astronauts as they install a new Japanese-built laboratory module on the International Space Station.

As the astronauts got used to their new surroundings in space, NASA officials on Earth basked in the satisfaction of a flawless countdown and liftoff from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

"(It was) obviously a huge day," said NASA Administrator Mike Griffin. "A huge day for the space station partnership, for the Japanese Space Agency, for NASA and, really, for the people who hoped to see the space station do what it was designed to do, to be a place in orbit where we can learn to live and work in space."

Neither weather nor technical problems cropped up as the launch team and mission controllers went through their checks on the way to an on-time liftoff at 5:02 p.m. EDT.

"I reveled in the (launch) team's performance," said Mike Leinbach, shuttle launch director. "It's really a pleasure to have my job and just sit back and watch the launch team."

Next up for the STS-124 mission is a two-day chase across space to link up with the International Space Station. It will take the crew several hours of robotic arm maneuvers and spacewalks to connect the Pressurized Module of Japan's Kibo laboratory to the station. The 36-foot-long module is the largest habitable section to be launched to the orbiting research post.
A few minutes of grainy, black and white video show a shadowy creature with big eyes peeping over a windowsill. But does it show a puppet or an alien from outer space?

The video, purportedly capturing proof of alien life, was released yesterday morning during a press conference at the Tivoli Student Union on the Auraria campus in downtown Denver.

Over the course of three minutes or so, the footage shows a white creature with a balloon-shaped head that keeps popping up and down in a windowsill that was 8 feet above ground. The face was white, with large black eyes that seemed to blink. read more at denverpost.com
ISS Tonight:

10:16:09 pm NNW 25° -0.9 (very bright)
A potentially historic change is occurring on Jupiter. An upstart storm now rivals the gas giant's Big Red Spot as king of storms, astronomers announced last week. read more at foxnews.com

Friday, May 30, 2008

Economic Stimulus Act Rebate Checks - Ha!

When they did the same thing a few years ago, everybody else got a check - we got a letter. It stated that we were too poor and didn't make enough money to qualify for a rebate check. Guess the checks really weren't for poor people. No matter, we know how to live without a lot of things, and we sure didn't need some stupid check from the government.

Fast forward to this rebate check. In the mail comes - you guessed it - our LETTER. Almost the same, but with a slightly different twist this time. It stated that we will indeed be getting a government rebate check, but we are too poor and don't make enough money to be eligible for the full amount - our check will be half of what all the people reading this will get. No matter, we don't need it anyway.

I think it's foolish to try to stimulate the economy by putting this country even further into debt. The money for all those checks has to come from somewhere. I won't be sending mine back though. Oh well, who am I to say how this country should operate. I'm too poor to even qualify for the same check that everyone else gets! Ha ha!
Interstellar Plumbers!

New parts to fix an intermittent problem with the Russian toilet on the International Space Station arrived in the United States last night and were packed inside space shuttle Discovery well before dawn at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The crew of Discovery and the residents of the International Space Station will install the new parts, including a pump, during the STS-124 mission that is scheduled to launch Saturday at 5:02 p.m. EDT. The three station residents already in orbit currently are using alternatives to the toilet.

The main toilet on the station works for solid waste disposal but requires additional steps for liquid waste. It also takes two crew members and 10 minutes of maintenance after three flushes, said Kirk Shireman, deputy International Space Station program manager.

"It is very inconvenient at this time because it requires a lot of manual intervention," Shireman said. read more at nasa.gov
Hercules, the strongman, lumbers up the eastern sky this evening. It is a large constellation that forms a sort of lopsided square. And it's home to two bright globular clusters, which are tightly packed balls of hundreds of thousands of stars.
There's nothing special about the Sun that makes it more likely than other stars to host life, a new study shows. The finding adds weight to the idea that alien life should be common throughout the universe.

"The Sun's properties are consistent with it being pulled out at random from the bag of all stars," says Charles Lineweaver from the Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra. "Life does not seem to require anything special in its host star, other than it be close." read more at space.newscientist.com

Thursday, May 29, 2008

A video that purportedly shows a living, breathing space alien will be shown to the news media Friday in Denver.

Jeff Peckman, who is pushing a ballot initiative to create an Extraterrestrial Affairs Commission in Denver to prepare the city for close encounters of the alien kind, said the video is authentic and convinced him that aliens exist. read more at rockymountainnews.com
Pictures of a garage fire, long after sunset, several miles away:



A globular cluster known as M13 passes high overhead this evening. It looks like a faint, fuzzy point of light in the constellation Hercules. It is 25,000 light-years away and contains hundreds of thousands of stars, crammed into a small volume of space.

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

The moon has been in plain view for all of human history, but it's only within the past few decades that it's been possible to travel there. And for just about as long as the moon has been within reach, people have been arguing about lunar property rights: Can astronauts claim the moon for king and country, as in the Age of Discovery? Are corporations allowed to expropriate its natural resources, and individuals to own its real estate? read more at popularmechanics.com
Small telescopes reveal a faint ring of light between the two bright stars that define the eastern wing of Cygnus, the swan. Called the Cygnus Loop, it is the remnant of a star that exploded at least 15,000 years ago. It spans more than 100 light-years.

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

A solar wind stream is heading for Earth and it could spark a mild geomagnetic storm when it arrives on May 28th or 29th. Sky watchers should be alert for auroras.
Another severed human foot has been discovered washed ashore on Canada's Pacific coast, but police are no closer to solving the gruesome mystery on where they are coming from.

The shoe-clad foot was discovered on Thursday on a small uninhabited island south of Vancouver in the Strait of Georgia, and is the fourth discovered in the region in the past 10 months.

All four cases involved right feet, and each was found on a different island. The earlier feet were also still in shoes.
They may sound too bizarre to be credible, but they make gripping reading nonetheless - the first-hand accounts of ordinary Britons who claim to have seen UFOs in the skies.

After the Ministry of Defence released details last week of around 7,000 sightings since 1977, including reports from policemen, military pilots and air traffic controllers, MAIL went back to five of them to hear their incredible stories. read more at dailymail.co.uk

Monday, May 26, 2008

Today was probably the best non-snow ATV ride I have ever had in Jackson County! No dust, perfect temps, and clear sky. We rode 120 miles and stuffed ourselves with homemade pizza in Pray for only 5 bucks. There was enough mud to be able to tell the ATV trail from a bicycle trail, which is the way it should be. They try so hard nowadays to make the off-road ATV trails into roads. They straighten the curves, level the hills, and fill in the mud puddles. Then they warn about the increasing trend of opening town roads to ATV travel. What difference does it make? The off-road trails are being made to look like roads, so why not the other way around too. Many of the town road ATV routes have bigger hills, deeper sand, sharper curves, and more fun to ride than some of the off-road ATV trails!

We ran into some storm damage at Crawford Hills, but that was about the only place. There were a lot of trees down in the campground and a few on the trail. Some of the campers there said they sought shelter just in time, only to come back to a few destroyed tents and some ruined camping equipment. Many of the trees were stripped of their leaves and needles from hail. The storm went through at 10:00 last night and they said the hail was still on the ground this morning, because there was so much of it.
Radio signals received at 4:53:44 p.m. Pacific Time (7:53:44 p.m. Eastern Time) confirmed the Phoenix Mars Lander had survived its difficult final descent and touchdown 15 minutes earlier. The signals took that long to travel from Mars to Earth at the speed of light.

Mission team members at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.; Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver; and the University of Arizona, Tucson, cheered confirmation of the landing and eagerly awaited further information from Phoenix later Sunday night. See the first pictures and read more at science.nasa.gov
Arcturus, the brightest star of Bootes, the herdsman, stands high in the sky at nightfall. You can find it by following the arc of the Big Dipper's handle away from the dipper's bowl until you come to the first bright star: yellow-orange Arcturus.

The Big Dipper.



Yep, another airplane photo, one of my favorite subjects.



And another.



A tiger swallowtail on my lilacs. They swarm on the lilacs every year.



Some cool purple clouds.



Snoopy.
The ghostly apparition of a girl is being blamed for a series of crashes on a stretch of country road.

Spooky sightings of a girl aged about five, in Victorian dress, on a road in the West Midlands are now being investigated by paranormal researchers. read more at metro.co.uk

Sunday, May 25, 2008

The International Space Station tonight:

05/25---9:36:05pm---W---31.6----0.3
The Moon chases the planet Jupiter across the sky early tomorrow. They are in the south at first light, with Jupiter well to the right of the Moon. You can't miss Jupiter because it is far brighter than any other star-like point of light in the sky.

Saturday, May 24, 2008

Last night we watched the International Space Station go over - twice! It's really weird to think about how, after only an hour and a half, it made it all the way around the world and back overhead again! And there's people in it! Cool.

The first time it went over, I totally screwed up. I snapped three 15 second exposures of it and never showed up in any of them. The sky was still bright and I shouldn't have tried such a long exposure, even though I wanted to get the longest ISS trail picture possible with my camera. The pictures ended up overexposed to the point of not being able to even see a hint of the ISS.

The second time it went over was a much darker sky. I took two shots, but the first one I must have bumped the tripod and no ISS - only stars. The second one turned out somewhat unique, by pure coincidence. I'll explain below in the picture caption.

Just like a couple nights ago, the sky was so clear and the stars so bright, that I had a hard time stopping. Even better actually, because the other night I saw one meteor and last night there were many - I counted at least a half dozen. I finally had to force myself to go in the house and get a little rest before I had to milk the cows this morning.


The ISS's second pass on May 23rd, 2008. This picture turned out kind of unique because I took it out by the highway and all the traffic going by lit up the red pine branches! Kind of neat because the tree looks almost like daytime, yet contrasted by the dark sky, stars, and ISS trail.



Praesepe star cluster M44 (Beehive) and Mars conjunction after sunset on May 23rd, 2008. Mars is the reddish "star" in the center.



A closeup of Mars in the Beehive.



A million billion stars! And almost every one of them a host to an alien solar system, quite probably teaming with alien life.
NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander is preparing to end its long journey and begin a three-month mission to taste and sniff fistfuls of Martian soil and buried ice. The lander is scheduled to touch down on the Red Planet tomorrow, Sunday, May 25th.

Phoenix will enter the top of the Martian atmosphere at almost 13,000 mph. In seven minutes, the spacecraft must complete a challenging sequence of events to slow to about 5 mph before its three legs reach the ground. Confirmation of the landing could come as early as 6:53 p.m. CDT.

"This is not a trip to grandma's house. Putting a spacecraft safely on Mars is hard and risky," said Ed Weiler, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "Internationally, fewer than half of all attempts to land on Mars have succeeded." read more at science.nasa.gov Watch the NASA TV coverage of the event on the web starting at 5:30 p.m. CDT. A briefing about the first downlink of data is scheduled for 8:30 p.m. Full schedule.
The bright, cream-colored planet Jupiter is to the upper right of the Moon as they clear the horizon late tonight. They stand in the south at first light. Jupiter is the largest planet of our solar system, with a diameter 11 times that of Earth.

Friday, May 23, 2008


The ISS was directly overhead last night and even though it was cloudy, it's so bright that I could easily see it through the clouds. Actually, the cloudiness helped me see it better with my binoculars. Normally it's so bright that I can't make out any details of the shape, but the clouds dimmed it just enough to view it more easily without the glare. I could make out some of it's shape.



I just thought this glowing cloud was cool, so added it here for your viewing pleasure!


Mars will be in the Beehive Cluster tonight. Be sure you get out and take a look, especially with binoculars! (see the star chart below, follow the simple instructions, set your location and a 10 pm time, click "W" for west) Look west after sunset and you will see a fairly bright reddish star (that's Mars) and it will be in the middle of a glob of faint blue stars (that's Praesepe/Beehive Cluster/M44). I'll attempt to get a picture or two but, as usual, my night sky pictures don't do justice to the real thing!

Oh, and how could I forget the ISS! Check that out too!
Dr. Michael Sabom is a cardiologist whose latest book, Light and Death, includes a detailed medical and scientific analysis of an amazing near-death experience of a woman named Pam Reynolds. She underwent a rare operation to remove a giant basilar artery aneurysm in her brain that threatened her life. The size and location of the aneurysm, however, precluded its safe removal using the standard neuro-surgical techniques. She was referred to a doctor who had pioneered a daring surgical procedure known as hypothermic cardiac arrest. It allowed Pam's aneurysm to be excised with a reasonable chance of success. This operation, nicknamed "standstill" by the doctors who perform it, required that Pam's body temperature be lowered to 60 degrees, her heartbeat and breathing stopped, her brain waves flattened, and the blood drained from her head. In everyday terms, she was put to death. After removing the aneurysm, she was restored to life. During the time that Pam was in standstill, she experienced a NDE. Her remarkably detailed veridical out-of-body observations during her surgery were later verified to be very accurate. This case is considered to be one of the strongest cases of veridical evidence in NDE research because of her ability to describe the unique surgical instruments and procedures used and her ability to describe in detail these events while she was clinically and brain dead. read more at near-death.com
Corvus, the crow, stands almost due south as darkness falls, about a third of the way up from the horizon. Its brightest stars look like a diamond with one point pulled in toward the center. Many ancient skywatchers saw this as the outstretched wings of a crow.

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Holy crap, the International Space Station was sure bright last night! There were so many satellites and things flying around about the same time that I wasn't sure which one the ISS was, until I actually saw it. No doubt about it then. It was awesome! And on May 31st, space shuttle Discovery will launch and later rendezvous with the ISS. Discovery's mission is construction: the crew will deliver and install a huge (37 feet x 14 feet) Japanese laboratory with its own robotic arm. The new Kibo Pressurized Module will be making the ISS even bigger and brighter than it is now. Something to look forward to....

Here is a series of 15 second exposures of the ISS streaking over last night:









And this is another shot of Mars continuing on it's way into the Beehive Cluster.
A doctor in Australia is puzzled about how a small lizard ended up inside an egg he had cracked open for dinner earlier this week. Peter Beaumont, president of the Australian Medical Association in the Northern Territory, believes the gecko may have climbed into the chicken's bottom and died while an egg was being formed. The remains have been handed over to health authorities who will attempt to solve this odd case. read more at Telegraph.co.uk.

Wednesday, May 21, 2008


Have you ridden an ATV? Ever wonder how those trails/routes got there for your riding pleasure? It doesn't work like our bicycles where we have unlimited riding opportunities on damn-near every road everywhere, or pay a fee to ride the state-owned bicycle trails. Support local ATVing. Join your ATV club or renew your membership today. Local club dues are kept within the local trail/route system, and used for signs, maintenance, and fun activities!

Bill Bramanti will love Pabst Blue Ribbon eternally, and he's got the custom-made beer-can casket to prove it. read more at signonsandiego.com
The ISS Marathon gets underway tonight when the International Space Station spends three days (May 21-23) in almost-constant sunlight. Sky watchers in Europe and North America can see the bright spaceship gliding overhead two to four times each night.

The station is not only bright and easy to see with the naked eye, but also it makes a fine target for backyard telescopes.
Mars passes across the heart of the Beehive star cluster (Praesepe, M44) the next few nights. The Beehive is about halfway up the western sky at nightfall and looks like a fuzzy star. Mars looks like a fairly bright orange star near the bottom of the cluster tonight.

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

A solar wind stream is approaching Earth and it could trigger a mild geomagnetic storm when it arrives later today or tomorrow. Sky watchers should be alert for auroras.
In what sounds like a really low-budget horror film, voracious swarming ants that apparently arrived in Texas aboard a cargo ship are invading homes and yards across the Houston area, shorting out electrical boxes and messing up computers.

The hairy, reddish-brown creatures are known as "crazy rasberry ants" — crazy, because they wander erratically instead of marching in regimented lines, and "rasberry" after Tom Rasberry, an exterminator who did battle against them early on.

"They're itty-bitty things about the size of fleas, and they're just running everywhere," said Patsy Morphew of Pearland, who is constantly sweeping them off her patio and scooping them out of her pool by the cupful. "There's just thousands and thousands of them. If you've seen a car racing, that's how they are. They're going fast, fast, fast. They're crazy."

The ants — formally known as "paratrenicha species near pubens" — have spread to five Houston-area counties since they were first spotted in Texas in 2002.

The newly recognized species is believed to have arrived in a cargo shipment through the port of Houston. Scientists are not sure exactly where the ants came from, but their cousins, commonly called crazy ants, are found in the Southeast and the Caribbean.

"At this point, it would be nearly impossible to eradicate the ant because it is so widely dispersed," said Roger Gold, a Texas A&M University entomologist. read more at ap.google.com

Praesepe star cluster M44 and Mars conjunction after sunset on May 18th, 2008. Mars is the brightest "star" in the lower right corner.



My small scope on the new tripod. Much easier to use. If I mounted my big scope on one of these tripods, it would be easier to use too. Except I can't. The big scope is too large and bulky and the tripod would flop right over.
Antares, the "heart" of Scorpius, the scorpion, rises just above the Moon late this evening. The bright star shows a distinctly orange color, although it's drowned out a bit by the bright moonlight.

Monday, May 19, 2008

Brrr! Cool this morning. It definitely froze here. I had 31F degrees. Shouldn't have hurt anything in the garden, because the only thing that's up is my winter onions, and they grow in the snow. I just hope it didn't freeze the lilacs too hard because they are really loaded with flower buds that are just about to open. The only nice thing about it is that this will be the last time for frost. From now on it will get warmer. Every year, almost without fail, the last day I need to have a fire in the woodstove is on Memorial Day Weekend.
Due to be auctioned this week in London after being in a private collection for more than 50 years, the document leaves no doubt that the theoretical physicist was no supporter of religious beliefs, which he regarded as "childish superstitions".

Einstein penned the letter on January 3 1954 to the philosopher Eric Gutkind who had sent him a copy of his book Choose Life: The Biblical Call to Revolt. The letter went on public sale a year later and has remained in private hands ever since.

In the letter, he states: "The word god is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honourable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish. No interpretation no matter how subtle can (for me) change this." read more at guardian.co.uk

The ground is beginning to warm up. That's an irrigation system in the background, through the heat waves.



The Moon marches on.



And the airline passengers march on, leaving their streaks across the sky.



My small scope. It works great! I have to get a better tripod for it. The one it's on in the picture is an old crappy one that is hard to use. The one it came with is one of those useless tabletop tripods. You have to lay on the ground to look at any stars with that thing. Unfortunately, Gander Mountain and Lake Delton Wal-mart didn't have any good tripods.

Sunday, May 18, 2008

I'm watching an old Chuck Norris movie right now on channel 3.2. Chuck is just a kid in it! It's a trucker/CB radio/action movie called "Breaker! Breaker!" Don't know if it's any good yet, as it just started and I've never seen it before.

We had a great day in the wildlife refuge today. JR's ride in Jackson County fell through, so he and Mr. and Mrs. Stumpjumper followed me around while I wrote down the clues for the Castle Rock Family ATV Club scavenger hunt on June 21st. Wow, now I really know all the work Theresa put into it last year, and my clues don't even rhyme! I think I'm done. Now I just have to type it up legibly, and print out a bunch of copies.

Oh, almost forgot. For you ladies out there that have always wondered what's inside the men's bathroom in the local taverns, now you know:
The UK is making decades' worth of classified files relating to UFOs freely available to the public.

The British Ministry of Defence (MOD) began a four-year-long project to transfer the files to the UK's National Archives, which will post them for public perusal. The announcement comes about one year after France made its UFO files available online. read more at space.newscientist.com

Another Moon shot. This one I did handheld - no tripod! Pretty good for a shaky old bastard like me.



The bright moonlit eastern sky.



A vapor trail lit up by the moonlight.

Saturday, May 17, 2008

I was a little worried that last night might be a late night for me again. Fortunately, the sky clouded up just as the stars were coming out. Ha ha! No stargazing last night.

Mr. and Mrs. JR were over last evening and got some more rocks for their growing rock garden. They rode in my little firewood trailer behind my Hawkeye ATV! Ashley took their picture, and as soon as I get it from her I'll post it!

JR will be leading a ride in Jackson County tomorrow. Sounds like it will be good weather for it. I'm going to volunteer some time for my ATV club instead. It'll be fun too, even if maybe a bit more lonely. I'll be working on the clues/route in preparation for the Castle Rock Family ATV Club scavenger hunt taking place on June 21st. Roger sent me a reference copy of last year's papers that Theresa did such a fun job on!

Today I think I'll set my irrigation system up in the garden, fill everything up with gas, and maybe look for a new tripod for my small scope.

All marked with my new fancy-smancy row marker and ready to plant!



Ditto.



Until the oaks are done flowering, they sure make me sick. Yuck. A-CHEW!



We're not the only ones that like the warm sunshine!
Vatican: It's OK to believe in aliens

Believing that the universe may contain alien life does not contradict a faith in God, the Vatican's chief astronomer said in an interview published Tuesday.

The Rev. Jose Gabriel Funes, the Jesuit director of the Vatican Observatory, was quoted as saying the vastness of the universe means it is possible there could be other forms of life outside Earth, even intelligent ones.

"How can we rule out that life may have developed elsewhere?" Funes said. "Just as we consider earthly creatures as 'a brother,' and 'sister,' why should we not talk about an 'extraterrestrial brother'? It would still be part of creation."

In the interview by the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, Funes said that such a notion "doesn't contradict our faith" because aliens would still be God's creatures. Ruling out the existence of aliens would be like "putting limits" on God's creative freedom, he said. read more at ap.google.com

Friday, May 16, 2008

A student at the University of Mississippi will leap into the final frontier of the legal system Saturday when he receives the first-ever space law certificate in the United States.

Michael Dodge of Long Beach, Miss., earned the special distinction along with his law degree through the National Center for Remote Sensing, Air and Space Law at the university's law school.

"The professors and personnel here are the highest quality that can be found anywhere in the world, and I have learned from them the necessary skills I will need to effectively practice space law," Dodge said in a statement. "Ole Miss is, simply put, the space law expert, and anyone wishing practice in this field should get their legal education here."

Any future space lawyer might have to deal with issues ranging from the fallout over satellite shoot-downs to legal disputes between astronauts onboard the International Space Station. The expanding privatization of the space sector may also pose new legal challenges.

Dodge's interest in space law grew from an early fascination with space exploration that was based mostly on science and history. read more at space.com
If you watch only one funny video today, make this the one!


Snoopy goes crazy!
She does this when she chases her ball too, or for no reason at all like in this video.

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Why? Why? Why? Over the years we’ve been asked so many why questions about UFOs that it’s left our heads spinning. The types of questions people ask are intelligent and logical, yet when it comes to giving good answers not many can come up with them. One person who does address the why questions is Stanton Friedman but it’s a short list and there’s oh so much more to ask. Maybe it’s because we live on the underbelly of the globe who knows, but here in Australia we are a fairly simple people who just need to know a few basics. Things like:

1. Why don't people know more about the UFO phenomenon?
2. Why are only a few people doing the job of uncovering the truth about UFOs?
3. Why don’t people care that they've been lied to by the authorities about the existence of UFOs and are living under a delusion because of those lies?
4. Why don't researchers get together on a GLOBAL scale to create a true groundswell that will bring about real awareness?

read the answers at uforesearchqld.blogspot.com
I'm not ashamed to admit it - I'm no carpenter! I've never had a row marker for my garden. I always kind of guessed at the row spacing. When I would be tilling, not paying real close attention, I'd get to a narrow spot in my crooked rows, and lickity-split I'd have less plants to care for! This year I decided to get fancy. I built a row marker!


Took me all day to do it too!

Wednesday, May 14, 2008


Wow, what a clear blue sky today! If it stays this way for tonight, there will be some good stargazing. Get out from in front of your computer and the TV, if even for a few minutes after sunset, and enjoy the night sky.
Starting on the night of May 20th, the International Space Station will begin evening flybys again! Hurray! It's still been flying by almost everyday, but between 2:00 and 4:00 am. Yuck.

My old telescope really sucks. It does bring things up close, if you can find them. It's so big and clumsy. Takes a half hour to drag it out and set it up. And the tripod is so crappy. All the mechanisms and adjusters are sloppy/loose, yet hard to turn. I just hate using the thing, because it's a pain in the butt for what it's worth. I would much rather use my old binoculars. Grab them and out the door. Easy to find things, easy to hold, simple. I might someday buy a nice little spotting scope too. They mount to a standard tripod, are smaller, lighter, and simpler than my old dinosaur telescope. And they probably gather light about as good, or better. I know a spotting scope would gather light even better than my binoculars, so that would be plenty good for me.


The Moon with Saturn and Regulus right next to it. (Along with many other stars and the green/yellow lens flare.)
ISO speed rating: 200
Shutter speed: 15.0 sec
Aperture: f/2.8
Zoom (Focal length): 33mm (equiv.)*
Exposure bias: +0.0 EV
Original image size: 640 x 480 Pixels
Flash used: No
Date taken: Monday, May 12, 2008
Time taken: 9:09 PM
Camera make: Canon
Camera model: Canon PowerShot SX100 IS



A jet streak in the upper right corner.
ISO speed rating: 800
Shutter speed: 8.0 sec
Aperture: f/4.0
Zoom (Focal length): 139mm (equiv.)*
Exposure bias: +0.0 EV
Original image size: 640 x 480 Pixels
Flash used: No
Date taken: Monday, May 12, 2008
Time taken: 9:17 PM
Camera make: Canon
Camera model: Canon PowerShot SX100 IS



A waxing gibbous first quarter Moon (is what Ashley told me).
ISO speed rating: 80
Shutter speed: 1/50 sec
Aperture: f/8.0
Zoom (Focal length): 330mm (equiv.)*
Exposure bias: +0.0 EV
Original image size: 640 x 480 Pixels
Flash used: No
Date taken: Monday, May 12, 2008
Time taken: 9:19 PM
Camera make: Canon
Camera model: Canon PowerShot SX100 IS



I goofed! I took this dark sky picture of a satellite streak at only ISO 80. But, the streak showed up pretty good anyway!
ISO speed rating: 80
Shutter speed: 15.0 sec
Aperture: f/2.8
Zoom (Focal length): 33mm (equiv.)*
Exposure bias: +0.0 EV
Original image size: 640 x 480 Pixels
Flash used: No
Date taken: Monday, May 12, 2008
Time taken: 9:24 PM
Camera make: Canon
Camera model: Canon PowerShot SX100 IS



Bright orange Arcturus and it's many neighbors in the eastern sky.
ISO speed rating: 400
Shutter speed: 15.0 sec
Aperture: f/2.8
Zoom (Focal length): 33mm (equiv.)*
Exposure bias: +0.0 EV
Original image size: 640 x 480 Pixels
Flash used: No
Date taken: Monday, May 12, 2008
Time taken: 9:31 PM
Camera make: Canon
Camera model: Canon PowerShot SX100 IS



Another satellite streaking across the sky. This time at a more appropriate ISO 400.
ISO speed rating: 400
Shutter speed: 15.0 sec
Aperture: f/2.8
Zoom (Focal length): 33mm (equiv.)*
Exposure bias: +0.0 EV
Original image size: 640 x 480 Pixels
Flash used: No
Date taken: Monday, May 12, 2008
Time taken: 9:35 PM
Camera make: Canon
Camera model: Canon PowerShot SX100 IS
At first dismissed as a prank, and later cited as proof that God has a sense of humour, the duck-billed platypus has finally given up its evolutionary secrets.

The creature, considered one of the strangest mammals in the world, has become the latest to have its genetic code sequenced, revealing it to be a bizarre mix of mammal, bird and reptile, with very complex sexuality. While humans have two sex chromosomes, the X and Y, the platypus has 10, with five of each kind.

An international team of scientists extracted DNA from a female platypus, named Glennie, reading all 2.2bn pairs of her genetic "letters". Thought to have begun to diverge from other mammals 170m years ago, the platypus has been regarded as the nearest thing biologists have to a missing link between the earliest reptiles and mammals. It has thick fur and produces milk for its young, yet the females lay eggs and the males produce venom - the only mammals to do so. read more at guardian.co.uk

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

The skies may be the next frontier in travel, yet not even the wealthiest space tourist can zoom out to, say, the Crab Nebula, the Trapezium Cluster or Eta Carinae, a star 100 times more massive than the Sun and 7,500 light-years away.

But those galactic destinations and thousands of others can now be toured and explored at the controls of a computer mouse, with the constellations, stars and space dust displayed in vivid detail and animated imagery across the screen. The project, the WorldWide Telescope, is the culmination of years of work by researchers at Microsoft, and the Web site and free downloadable software are available starting today, at www.WorldWideTelescope.org.
Abdolhadi Mirhejazi’s friends thought he was off his rocker when he told them of his idea for the Naturmobil – but he wasn’t bucking around.

His plan was to create a vehicle which really does put the cart before the horse.

And once he’d got the bit between his teeth, wild stallions couldn’t tear him away from his favourite hobby.

The result of his labours is a one horsepower, space age all-weather buggy powered by, ugh, a horse.

Unlike traditional horse-drawn vehicles, the horse rides inside, behind the driver, protected by an all-weather canopy.

And thanks to a lightweight polycarbonate frame and complex gearing, it can reach speeds of up to 80km/h – although its cruising speed is a more sedate 20km/h. read more at xpress4me.com

Monday, May 12, 2008









That's what I did today! And saved a little white pine in the process. He'll have some scars, but will live.

I've been keeping my eyes peeled for morel mushrooms. No luck so far. I think it's a little too cold yet. The ones that grow around here are all little dinky anyway. They taste good though, and that's about all I get from them every year - a mere taste!

Soon the asparagus should be popping up. I'll have to watch the ditches.
Last night Saturn, Regulus, the Moon, Praesepe (M44 star cluster), Mars, Pollux, and Castor were all lined up in a row from south to west! Cool. I got some pictures, but of course my pictures don't do justice to the real sight! It was awesome. I never really paid much attention to Praesepe before last night, but now I'm glad I did! It's really beautiful through any old pair of binoculars. I urge you to get out and take a look tonight. If you don't have binoculars, it's still a great view, but binoculars really bring out the clump of stars in Praesepe, surrounded by a diamond shape of four brighter stars.


Last night's Moon and crater photo, of course!
ISO speed rating: 80
Shutter speed: 1/50 sec
Aperture: f/8.0
Zoom (Focal length): 330mm (equiv.)*
Exposure bias: +0.0 EV
Original image size: 640 x 480 Pixels
Flash used: No
Date taken: Sunday, May 11, 2008
Time taken: 8:44 PM
Camera make: Canon
Camera model: Canon PowerShot SX100 IS



Left to right, Saturn, Regulus, Moon, barely visible Praesepe cluster, Mars, Pollux (and a yellow/green flair on the lens of my camera from the bright moonlight).
ISO speed rating: 200
Shutter speed: 15.0 sec
Aperture: f/2.8
Zoom (Focal length): 33mm (equiv.)*
Exposure bias: +0.0 EV
Original image size: 640 x 480 Pixels
Flash used: No
Date taken: Sunday, May 11, 2008
Time taken: 9:12 PM
Camera make: Canon
Camera model: Canon PowerShot SX100 IS



Left to right, Moon, barely visible Praesepe cluster, Mars, Pollux, Castor.
ISO speed rating: 200
Shutter speed: 15.0 sec
Aperture: f/2.8
Zoom (Focal length): 33mm (equiv.)*
Exposure bias: +0.0 EV
Original image size: 640 x 480 Pixels
Flash used: No
Date taken: Sunday, May 11, 2008
Time taken: 9:14 PM
Camera make: Canon
Camera model: Canon PowerShot SX100 IS



This image is out of focus, but it's the only one I took that clearly shows where Praesepe is compared to Mars. Mars is the reddish ball in the lower right corner and Praesepe is centered in the photo (surrounded by the four brighter stars making a diamond shape).
ISO speed rating: 400
Shutter speed: 15.0 sec
Aperture: f/3.5
Zoom (Focal length): 100mm (equiv.)*
Exposure bias: +0.0 EV
Original image size: 640 x 480 Pixels
Flash used: No
Date taken: Sunday, May 11, 2008
Time taken: 9:23 PM
Camera make: Canon
Camera model: Canon PowerShot SX100 IS



This is Praesepe in focus, but taken at moderate zoom - hence the star trails become apparent in this 15 second exposure. You have absolutely got to get out and take a look at this with binoculars. And don't forget to pan around the rest of the sky while you're at it. (Especially north, where there are some dense star fields right now.)
ISO speed rating: 800
Shutter speed: 15.0 sec
Aperture: f/4.0
Zoom (Focal length): 192mm (equiv.)*
Exposure bias: +0.0 EV
Original image size: 640 x 480 Pixels
Flash used: No
Date taken: Sunday, May 11, 2008
Time taken: 9:27 PM
Camera make: Canon
Camera model: Canon PowerShot SX100 IS