Astronomy Picture Of The Day

Grunsfeld will also have to replace four circuit cards, all of which will be around a corner and out of sight.

Given the swearing and shouting that accompanies me tackling any plumbing jobs at home even when I can see the pipes and reach them freely, I have nothing but admiration for someone who can carry out delicate electronic repairs in space, at 17,000mph, wearing bloody great gloves and an EVA suit.

Grunsfeld will also have to replace four circuit cards, all of which will be around a corner and out of sight, man.

Telescopes getting a big boost all round these days

2 new ESA space telescopes getting launched soon, James Webb in 2014, terrestrial scopes benefiting from new mirror technology adaptive optics and improved data links and image processing.

Bring on the Exo Planets

planck is launching on thursday too.

http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMVW10YDUF_index_0.html

no problems with weather or hardware so far if you guys feel like watching in 40 mins or so.

here comes the fun cooker

lol those birds are going to die

Planck/Herschel launch tomorrow: http://planckmission.wordpress.com/

meanwhile...

http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00001939/

The Spirit rover on Mars is currently stuck in a patch of loose material. After a few attempts to get free, the team has wisely decided to do further experiments on Earth instead of on Mars. They will now recreate the conditions in our sandbox at JPL and test out different sequences until one works reliably here, then try it on Mars.

http://www.planetary.org/image/DSC_0037_PIA07986-A476R1_br2.jpg

I love this stuff, awesome.

LOL @ camouflage all around so it would feel at home

http://www.videocorner.tv/videocorner2/live_flv/index.php?langue=en

textbook launch of herschel and planck

http://www.esa.int/images/ImageVMC_L.gif

http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Operations/SEM4SJZVNUF_0.html

Stunning images taken from Earth and space show Herschel and Planck in flight on 14 May 2009. The first, taken from Herschel, show the Planck-Sylda composite just after Herschel's separation, about 1150 km above Africa. A second set taken from ESA's Optical Ground Station, shows Herschel, Planck, Sylda and the launcher’s upper stage long after separation, travelling together at an altitude of about 100 000 km.

http://media.sacbee.com/static/weblogs/photos/images/may09/atlantis15_sm/atlantis15_15.jpg

Solar transit photos: http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2009/05/15/check-this-out-amazing-photo-of-the-sun/

Sun + Shuttle
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nasahqphoto/3531410425/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nasahqphoto/3531410377/

Sun + Shuttle + Hubble
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nasahqphoto/3531350583/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nasahqphoto/3532145692/

(from 2006) Sun + Shuttle + ISS
http://www.sbig.com/award/legault/iss_shuttle.jpg

I love this thread.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2453/3531410425_f94db338c2.jpg

oh wait - this is one of the photos Stan linked to. Ho hum...worth seeing twice imo.

It's on today's Times frontpage as well

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00557/saturday-front_557241a.jpg

how do we get early floyd references on the covers of u.s. newspapers?

(isn't timesonline.co.uk from the UK ?)

exactly

Oh! You mean you want to get early Floyd ... sorry, didn't get that.

Put on some pink floyd and check this out! (multiple videos in a row, cameras on the rocket boosters from launch to splashdown)

Downward-facing camera that starts at around 12:20 is amazing, but the two forward-facing ones are great when the shuttle separates, it's like "C U later doodz!" ZOOOOM!

Kinda frightening that 120 seconds is all it takes to get from the ground to black skies and being able to see the entire curve of the Earth. I can't even get to an RTA station from where I'm sitting that quickly.

it's only 90,000 feet at that stage, which is like three times higher than a plane goes. that atmosphere is some thin shit.

I know it's not the safest way of going up there and that's why the Shuttle program is being shut down, but seeing these videos, I don't know, I'm overcome with the beauty and elegance of this thing and I'm going to miss Space Shuttles :-/

I've now watched that whole thing four times today. Shadow of the smoke plume during liftoff! Smoke plume in the distance during tumble down! Sound! Chutes! Just the concept of mounting cameras on these things at all! *childishly enthusiastic, as usual* :-)

Companion video...

Someone needs to sync this shit up in a 4 way split screen

Like this one from 1996? http://www.nasa.gov/mov/mov/151917main_sts-121_srb_separation_composite.mov

lol:

http://arxiv.org/abs/0906.1577
http://arxiv.org/abs/0906.1578

On 23 April light from the explosion of a star was detected. the star blew up 600 million years after the big bang, which is over 13 billion years ago.

I.e. six weeks ago some people saw the oldest object anyone has ever seen. Boom.

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/imagerecords/38000/38985/ISS020-E-09048.jpg

Volcano from the ISS

more here

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/view.php?id=38985

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/imagerecords/38000/38985/ISS020-E-09048_lrg.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2437/3656910551_8377ddf36c_o.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2460/3656910999_63dd468fc3_o.jpg

if you put some eyes on that white plume, it would look like waldorf of "statler and" fame.

eat your heart out jeff minter...
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap090728.html

another good one today
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap090805.html

betelgeuse pops up in this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEheh1BH34Q

(no it doesn't)

ah, ok, it's about the same size as Antares A

meteor shower tonight kids.

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f325/caek/patrick-moore-full.jpg

good grief, the new hubble imager fitted a few months ago is good

http://imgsrc.hubblesite.org/hu/db/images/hs-2009-25-a-large_web.jpg

i mean honestly

good lord

those are photographs or real things, guys!

http://imgsrc.hubblesite.org/hu/db/images/hs-2009-25-e-large_web.jpg

DEAR EARTH,

FUCK YOU

LOVE SPACE

:)

caek do u ever use that celestia program i linked in the space is dope thread