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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: Cold by Bill Streever.
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Need to take the heat off this summer? We certainly did, as the sultry Dog Days of 2012 seem to march endlessly on. Fortunately, we found a “cool read” (last bad pun, I swear) in the form of Cold: Adventures in the World’s Frozen Places by Bill Streever. We were happy to find this gem up for library loan on our Kindle Fire, and would heartily recommend this look at the frozen places on our planet to anyone in any season.
Cold starts off as a sort of personal journey by the author from his home near Anchorage, Alaska. We can sort of relate, having grown up in northern Maine and having spent a good chunk of our Air Force career at Eielson AFB near Fairbanks. We know all too well the joys of keeping vehicles and humanoids functioning in sub-zero temperatures. In fact, we hereby propose that Alaskans would make the best Martian colonists for this very reason.
Cold is divided off into 12 chapters representing the months of the year as the author traces the lore surrounding early Arctic explorers and the horrors that they faced in weathering the harshest climates in the world under brutal conditions with primitive equipment. Thankfully, no explorers were killed in the making of these tales via consumption of polar bear liver as occurred in The Violinist’s Thumb, but plenty more tales of woe awaited them.
The author also takes a look at the science behind hibernation and the various evolutionary tactics that creatures have evolved to combat the winter. Would you crawl into a bear den with a slumbering grizzly to see what occurs? Some researchers have done just that. And for a handsome sum, you can have your body (or just your head, if you’re on a budget) frozen after death by the Alcor foundation in hopes of a revival via the super-science of the future. Which Rip Van Winkle science fiction future do you prefer, Buck Rodgers, Futurama, Solis, or Niven’s A World Out of Time?
The author also makes note of the evolving climate, the disappearance of habitat for several arctic and Antarctic species such as polar bears and penguins, and the consequences for preserving those coastal-loving creatures, homo sapiens. The author also notes a media trend that we’ve seen in recent years… as we break record temps each summer, the media trumpets the arrival of global warming, but as winter sets across North America, the naysayers resurface. The reality of weather versus climate is much more insidious, and may actually result in snowier winters and colder climates for some areas such as Europe, while traditional farm lands get hit by long cycles of drought (sound familiar?)
The author also peers into the fascinating history of the quest for absolute zero and the wacky world of low temperature physics. The Arctic and the world of the sub-zero is a fascinating one, a realm that encompasses much of the planet but is paradoxically tucked away from view. One Alaskan resident asked him why he didn’t title the book “heat” so the research could instead be carried out on a tropical isle… if you can’t journey to the realm above the Arctic Circle, reading Cold may be the next best thing!