In the post just previous to this one, you saw some views of Earth and Saturn generated by a very useful online tool, Solar System Simulator. I thought I would use that tool to show you the Cassini spacecraft’s changing…
Year: 2013
In Saturn’s Shadow
One of the most astounding images of the space age is about to be replicated. Take a look at this image of a backlit Saturn eclipsing the sun. This is a mosaic of images taken over three hours in September,…
Tagged with: Cassini
My Favorite Things
“What’s the coolest thing you’ve ever seen through a telescope?” People who know—or who learn—that I taught astronomy and was the director of an observatory with a half-meter telescope often ask questions like this. Variations on the theme include “What’s…
Tagged with: visual observing
Is Interplanetary Space Too Hot For Humans?
Radioactively hot, that is. While the Curiosity Mars Rover was cruising for eight months between Earth and Mars, one of the instruments aboard was measuring the radiation levels encountered along the way. The Radiation Assessment Detector—RAD—was inside the spacecraft, shielded…
Weekend Sky Show
The two brightest planets in the sky, Venus and Jupiter, have been drawing closer and closer to each other as seen from Earth for the past several days. This weekend they will be joined by the hard-to-see innermost planet Mercury…
Name That Star!
How many stars can you call by name? Unless you are a devotee of the night sky, the number will likely not require more than one hand to count. Betelgeuse perhaps, simply because its pronunciation brings to mind a movie…
Tagged with: star names
Land of Fire, Ice..and Aurorae
My wife and I returned a week ago from a trip to Iceland to see the Northern Lights and some of the scenic wonders of this far-north country. We did see the lights, and they were a magnificent sight! Although…
Iceland or Bust!
My wife and I will be traveling to Iceland later this week, hoping to see the Northern Lights. There are many astronomical phenomena that don’t require travel, but for the few that do, there are plenty of travel agencies waiting…
Tagged with: Northern Lights
Catch a Comet
This week, Comet PANSTARRS will be a naked eye object for observers in the northern hemisphere. But you need to be quick–it is low on the western horizon, close to the sun. If you are too early, the sky is…
Tagged with: Comet PANSTARRS
Warning: 14-Year-Old Geek Ahead
nealsumerlin
Posted in human spaceflight, John Glenn, Lynchburg College, Mars, Solar System
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Most people my age who have wound up in some sort of a science-related career (and many who have not) can trace their excitement about the subject to the space programs of the late 1950s and 1960s. I’m no exception.…
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