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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.
Review: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.
A Sci-Fi Classic!
By now, you’d think that there was nothing new under the Sun to say about the summer block buster The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. We’d heard of the series at numerous ‘Cons over the past year, but now that we’d seen the movie and read the first book (and am burning through the sequel) we feel compelled to add our two cents to all that is The Hunger Games mythos.
Yes, The Hunger Games is the latest in a string of science fiction dystopian futures. The story revolves around Katniss Everdeen, who volunteers to take her sister’s place as a tribute for her home district. The future world of Panem has achieved peace, but at a terrible price; each year, two tributes (a boy and a girl ages 11-17) from each district must participate in a fight to the death until only one victor remains. And yes, I know of the “controversy” surrounding The Hunger Games and the Japanese cult film, Battle Royale; I caught said film on Netflix recently doing research and only see a vague comparison at best. One can easily trace the lineage of both back through Stephen King’s The Long Walk & The Running Man (a novelette that begs for a proper film adaptation!), Lord of the Flies, and Shirley Jackson’s short story The Lottery. Think a bit, and YOU can easily come up with your own Roman gladiators-meets-Survivor alternate reality in a post-apocalyptic world.
But what I really like about The Hunger Games is the human story and the straight ahead, no-gimmicks-plot that it lays out. The world of The Hunger Games springs from a narrative of our own modern era in America; it that voice, in the words of Henry Rollins, that says, “everything is perfect, just don’t look down.” It’s a strange dichotomy that we deal with today; we fight a running war on terrorism and many are homeless, yet we still discard our big screen TV’s for the latest mega-screens and line up around the block for the latest Iphone release. Katnisses’ world is one of an even larger disparity, and we join into this world entirely through her eyes.
I would highly recommend reading the book even if you’ve seen the movie (as I did). Much that is the history that is Panem and The Hunger Games universe that is hinted at in the movie is fleshed out in the books. In particular, the Capitol and the current sitting government seems much more benign in the film; peace and security has been achieved, with the Hunger Games portrayed as their one nod to a violent past. In the book, we see the terror of the Districts and the brutality of the games through Katnisses’ eyes as she becomes an unwilling catalyst for rebellion. (OK, that’s a bit of a spoiler for Book 2!) Viewing this all from a young adult perspective makes it that much more intimate and immediate, as the ultimate absurdities of this horrific society are laid out in stark contrast. Katniss has a denouement of her adolescence like no other and must grow up in a way that few of us can imagine.
Do seek out The Hunger Games in its book, film, and soon to be DVD format next month as one of the surprise hits of the summer. Word was that Lionsgate Films was jittery about having an unknown female lead in an action-summer thriller, and we’re happy to report that sophisticated audiences proved them wrong. We’re currently working our way through Book 2 of The Hunger Games entitled Catching Fire in anticipation of the sequel in late 2014… Hooray for original Sci-Fi!