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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: The Lazarus Machine by Paul Crilley.
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By now, we should have given you, the curious reader, a firm grounding in the sub-Sci-Fi genre of all that is Steampunk. From The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack to Mike Resnick’s The Buntline Special to the Society of Steam series of books, there are copious alternate history timelines to explore with a snifter of brandy by the e-reader cyber-light…
This week’s review, The Lazarus Machine: A Tweed & Nightingale Adventure by Paul Crilley and out from Pyr Books is a fine addition to Steampunk lore. The Lazarus Machine is a young adult tale which follows the exploits of Sebastian Tweed and Octavia Nightingale through an alternate 1895 London that never was. This universe builds on the ideas of William Gibson’s & Bruce Sterling’s original The Difference Engine, the tale that kicked of the Steampunk genre while adding some wonderful new twists. Charles Babbage’s brass calculating machine known as the Difference Engine has been built, ushering in the computing age over a century early. Babbage is now a monolithic name and in competition with computer genius Ada Lovelace as sort of the PC versus Mac of the Victorian era. Throw in some Tesla-powered side arms and wireless power transmission towers, and you have a fascinating backdrop for an original page-turning Steampunk adventure. Sherlock Holmes and his nemesis (and occasional astronomer) Professor Moriarty make an appearance as well, as Tweed & Nightingale seek to unravel a political conspiracy with Earth-shaking implications.
The Lazarus Machine in the title refers to a contraption that can literally transpose the soul of one body into another. It’s interesting that this builds to some extent on the late 18th century idea of perhaps catching and quantifying the soul and even using electricity (think Frankenstein) to reanimate the dead. Bodies were even weighed before and shortly after death to seek out the “weight of the soul” and photographed in hopes of catching its vaporous departure. To our knowledge, the spurious dabbling of science with the arcane in the Victorian era has never before been fleshed out in a Steampunk novel.
Nightingale and Tweed also make a great foil for each other, and we can easily see The Lazarus Machine morphing into a series. Octavia can certainly take care of herself, brandishing a Tesla gun in the defense of Tweed on more than one occasion as they thread the streets of a crime infested London both above ground and below. Certainly, the era is ripe for further exploits; what are Tesla and a late 19th century Steampunk Edison up to on the other side of the pond? With the proper backing, Tesla alone could have single-handedly ushered in an alternate timeline…
Give The Lazarus Machine a read for a fine Steampunk adventure. The tale harkens back to some true-to-life characters as they thread through a wonderful alternate timeline universe of Victorian England.
Next Week: What to Navy SEALs and astronomy gear have in common? Stay tuned for our on-the-road field gear review!