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[...] fiction covering the Pacific theatre of World War II that we reviewed earlier this year entitled Rising Sun. in that work, Japan deals the United States Navy a crippling blow at the Battle of Midway, [...]
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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.
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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 Rising Sun by Robert Conroy.
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History is filled with �What Ifs�. What if Einstein had never immigrated to the US? What if Lincoln had never gone to Ford�s Theatre? While many decisions in history might have been inconsequential, others may have radically altered the course of history and our role in it today.
Of course, the concept of �alternative history fiction� has led to a whole cottage industry of sub-sub genre science fiction. You can find tales where the South won the Civil War, the Reich got its 1,000 year reign and the Romans never did succumb to the barbarian hordes. While some may argue (and heck, it�s just plain interesting/frightening to imagine) that such events hinged on a singular outcome, one could also counter that the overall tide of history was inevitable.
One such historical �What If?� is posed by this week�s review, Rising Sun by Robert Conroy out from Baen Books. Rising Sun takes a look at the war in the Pacific and wonders what might have happened if the United States had lost the Battle of Midway. This was a decisive turning point in the Pacific Theatre; with the Japanese carrier fleet smashed, the U.S. gained the upper hand and would forever be on the offensive for the remainder of the war. The U.S. was indeed lucky that day as the author points out; in Rising Sun, the U.S. carrier fleet�doesn’t�slip past the Japanese submarine patrols so easily. The U.S. was also very lucky that none of its carriers were caught on December 7th 1941 in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Rising Sun is more of an �alternative historical fiction� rather than an out right alt-history Sci-Fi; no Victorian automatons or airships resulting from Babbage devices or Tesla�s vision brought to life here. But the story, while a hypothetical one, builds on some very real technologies and tactics of the day. The U.S. loss at Midway brings the Japanese fleet right up to the United States� doorstep, in a show-down that spans from the Arctic Circle to the Panama Canal. The author does draw up a great point that Japan�s greatest chances at winning the war was to quickly strike and cripple the U.S.�s�fledgling�Navy before full economic might could be brought to bear. Once our military-industrial machine was running at full steam, it was all over.
Rising Sun traces the lives of several characters through the building Japanese onslaught across the Pacific Rim. Another real factor that is portrayed in the book that played into the ultimate downfall of the Japanese was their pride; their military branches had a rivalry the likes of which no Army & Navy game has ever seen.
Rising Sun is a great tale for history buffs and those just curious of what might�ve been. We�d also recommend searching out the flicks The Battle of Midway and 30 Seconds Over Tokyo about the daring Doolittle raid, which are some of the best World War II movies ever made� in an alternate timeline, we could add the �Battle of Baja� to the list of classic war flicks as well!