The Sky is Waiting.
Search AstroGuyz
Custom Search
Advertise on Astroguyz!
|
|
|
 |
|
Pictured is a Delta IV rocket launch from Cape Canaveral on November 21st, 2010. The image is a 20 second exposure taken at dusk, shot from about 100 miles west of the launch site. The launch placed a classified payload in orbit for the United States Air Force.
Difficult but not impossible to catch against the dawn or dusk sky, spotting an extreme crescent moon can be a challenge. The slender crescent pictured was shot 30 minutes before sunrise when the Moon was less than 20 hours away from New. A true feat of visual athletics to catch, a good pair of binoculars or a well aimed wide field telescopic view can help with the hunt.
The Sun is our nearest star, and goes through an 11-year cycle of activity. This image was taken via a properly filtered telescope, and shows the Sun as it appeared during its last maximum peak in 2003. This was during solar cycle #23, a period during which the Sun hurled several large flares Earthward. The next solar cycle is due to peak around 2013-14.
Located in the belt of the constellation Orion, Messier 42, also known as the Orion Nebula is one of the finest deep sky objects in the northern hemisphere sky. Just visible as a faint smudge to the naked eye on a clear dark night, the Orion Nebula is a sure star party favorite, as it shows tendrils of gas contrasted with bright stars. M42 is a large stellar nursery, a star forming region about 1,000 light years distant.
Orbiting the planet in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) every 90 minutes, many people fail to realize that you can see the International Space Station (ISS) from most of the planet on a near-weekly basis. In fact, the ISS has been known to make up to four visible passes over the same location in one night. The image pictured is from the Fourth of July, 2011 and is a 20 second exposure of a bright ISS pass.
Next to the Sun, the two brightest objects in the sky are the Moon and the planet Venus. In fact, when Venus is favorably placed next to the Moon, it might just be possible to spot the two in the daytime. Another intriguing effect known as earthshine or ashen light is also seen in the image on the night side of the Moon; this is caused by sunlight reflected back off of the Earth towards our only satellite.
A mosaic of three images taken during the total lunar eclipse of December 21st, 2010. The eclipse occurred the same day as the winter solstice. The curve and size of the Earth’s shadow is apparent in the image.
The Algonquin Indians had names for each of the seasonal Full Moons, many of which survive today. The Full Snow Moon pictured occurs in the month of December, when the first large winter storms coat the ground with snow. This Full Moon also tends to fall near the Winter Solstice, and thus rides high in the nightly sky opposite to the Sun on long winter nights.
Every rocket launch is unique, but twilight shuttle launches where by far the most impressive. The image pictured was of the April 5th, 2010 launch of Space Shuttle Discovery from the Kennedy Space Center at dawn. The exhaust plume caught the rising Sun overhead just right, and numerous noctilucent clouds persisted right up until sunrise. Unfortunately, space shuttle launches are now relegated to the pages of history.
Review: Blast! A Film by Paul Devlin.
BLAST...Astrophysics Indiana Jones Style!
Blast! Can be seen as a documentary that was 13.7 billion years in the making. Directed by Paul Devlin, Blast! follows the exploits of a group of astrophysicists as they break new ground with a unique balloon borne telescope. BLAST stands for Balloon-Borne, Large Aperture Sub-millimeter Telescope. As reported earlier this week in our post “Antarctic Astronomy”, “Sub-millimeter” is the name loosely given to the wavelengths roughly between microwave and infra-red. Much emerging astronomy is conducted in this band, were intergalactic dust and emission nebula really show their stuff. However, getting an instrument package above our atmosphere is vital to this field of research, as water vapor tends to absorb or scatter wavelengths at these frequencies. BLAST is an economical way to do this, and at the beginning of the documentary, our brave band of scientists out of the University of Pennsylvania venture to Sweden and the Arctic.The scenes are interspersed with first rate cosmology graphics, and the documentary does a very good job overall of capturing the drama and excitement of what may be considered by some as an exotic and arcane field of science.
A closeup of the 2nd mirror. (Credit: Don Wiebe).
Exclusively grad student built, BLAST gives you the feel of “down and dirty” hands on science. There are no specialists or engineers attached to the project; the students themselves must troubleshoot any problems that occur. After numerous delays, BLAST is released into the Arctic skies. The results of this first run, however, are less than dramatic; after a 4 day flight, BLAST is recovered from the Canadian Arctic tundra. “The entire project is now sitting on a hard drive, out in the snow,” quips one astrophysicist. We thought that the job description of “Polar Bear spotter” was one of the coolest we’ve heard in a while. Unfortunately, the original 2-meter mirror cracked on transport back to civilization; undeterred, the team journeys next to Antarctic for the 2006 season with a new aluminum coated mirror. The precious hard drive is backed up in triplicate and sent one each by land, sea, and air to avoid possible destruction.
The Blast! Team! (Credit: Mark Halpern).
One unique aspect of the film that has been much commented on in the blog-o-sphere is the religious views voiced by some of the researchers. Scientists are indeed human, and while skeptics at heart, have their own beliefs and opinions which are as diverse as the rest of us. The film does not back away from this, and instead allows the astronomers to share some of their beliefs about the universe and their work with the camera. This very human aspect of science and spirituality is refreshing, and adds an extra dimension to the roles of scientists. The toll this type of remote research takes on the families is also shown in depth.
Launch! (Credit: Mark Halpern).
Tensions mount at the NASA Balloon Launch facility outside of McMurdo, as BLAST finally takes flight a third time. “I take it the star cameras working, because you don’t look like the living dead!” States one tired grad student. This is perhaps the greatest line of the entire flick for us here at Astroguyz HQ. The idea is for the prevailing weather patterns to carry the instrument package aloft, circle the pole, and cut the cables roughly in the vicinity of McMurdo station, but in the realm of field science, things rarely go as planned. After an 11 day flight in December, 2006, BLAST is sent plummeting to the Antarctic ice sheet and is instead dragged by its drogue chute for over 120 miles!
The climax of the film has the scientists airborne desperately searching for the tiny pressure vessel containing the hard drive. We won’t give out any spoilers here, suffice to say, that BLAST was ultimately a success!
In the end, BLAST has given us a unique insight and perspective into the sub-millimeter skies in the northern and southern hemispheres, constructing a fascinating all sky map at this wave length. This will compliment other space-borne and ground observatories, such as IRAS and the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT). Look for data from BLAST being sited in doctoral publications for years to come, and definitely search out this unique documentary! Its a rare glimpse of astrophysicists away from the chalkboards and laptops (okay, maybe a few laptops) and out in the field…
So where, might you ask, might I see this flick? Netflix currently shows it as “Saved”…Amazon is lagging but of course, its always worth checking for. The Blast! The Movie website has an interactive map with screenings, and you can also follow them on Twitter. Your best bet to successfully add this to your astrophysical DVD collection is to buy it from the site…sales start in September. Spread the word; let’s make more cosmologists into action heroes!
An overlay of a southern hemisphere sky as seen by BLAST! (Credit: Schlegel et al 1998).