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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: Spear of Light by Brenda Cooper
On sale now!
Get set for a romp into a trans-humanist future of epic proportions. We’re talking about this week’s review of Spear of Light by Brenda Cooper, out now from Pyr Books. The sequel to Edge of Dark and the second book in her Glittering Edge duology. Spear of Light brings the battle between humans and the terror world of AIs to an ultimate climax.
The banished AI world is prone to enslaving humanity, destroying their corporeal forms and downloading them into subservient machine bodies. Spear of Light once again explores just what it means to be human, and whether a copied consciousness of a person is, in fact, them. Most of science fiction mainstream was introduced to a similar concept in the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica series from over a decade back. We see hints of the same style of conflict from Spear of Light all the way back in Frank Herbert’s Dune saga, which takes place in a far future where humanity has triumphed over machines.
Can humans and machines ever just get along?
And what would such a future look like? Could we live with such an alternate intelligence in our midst? Like with Battlestar, the enemy AI intelligence in Spear of Light and the Glittering Edge duology has moved far off into the outer solar system… perhaps the Universe is indeed big enough for the two of us.
We’ve also reviewed work by Cooper before, including the Ruby’s Song series of books including The Diamond Deep and The Creative Fire. There’s some cross connections going on between the two series as well, as the saga of the multi-generational starship is referenced several times in Spear of Light.
The layout of Spear of Light is unique as well, carrying on the tradition of titling each chapter after a character and moving from one perspective to the next in rapid fire progression. The type of rotation really moves the plot along at a fast pace, and makes for great character development.
Perhaps, the characters in Spear of Light can never go back to the wild and natural life of the planetary colonies they enjoyed before the reintroduction of human- enslaving machine intelligence. Maybe we’re all destined to remember the bad old days of today as the good old days of tomorrow… and maybe a balance can be struck between carbon and silicon life. Read Spear of Light and the Glittering Edge duology to find out!
Next up: what are we currently reading? Well, in the science department, we’re finishing up Quantum Fuzz by Michael S. Walker. In the science fiction department, the next one in the pipeline is the 2017 Nebula Awards, there’s already some great stories in there, let me tell you. Also in the queue are the last few books in the Kristine Kathryn Rusch Starbase: Human series, and then the next duology out from Brenda Cooper, with Wilders, book one of the Project Earth saga. We’re keeping up with the Friday review cycle, though with our current adventures in long-term travel, we’re receiving review copies now almost exclusively via .pdf… and we’ll throw in a few other interesting books that have drifted in through our transom as well.
Stay tuned!