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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 Starbase Human by Kristine Katheryn Rusch
On sale now!
What would you do with a Clone Army? Long the dream of many a would be supervillain, just such a possibility is the central plot in this week’s science fiction review.
We’re talking about Starbase: Human, book seven in the Anniversary Day saga by Kristine Kathryn Rusch, out in May 2015 by WMG Publishing. Yes, it’s one of the final books in our review backlog, but we long ago vowed to finish off the entire Anniversary Day saga. Fans of this space will recall our reviews of Book 2: Blowback, Book 3: A Murder of Clones, Book 4: Search & Recovery, Book 5:�The Peyti Crisis, and Book 6: Vigilantes.
The entire series reads like a murder-mystery, with a space-spanning conspiracy of intergalactic proportions. Starbase Human takes the reader back 35 years before the shattering events of Anniversary Day, to an eerily similar situation on a remote Starbase, an event with future implications. This plot sought to wipe out the human inhabitants of the remote outpost using an army of clones.
Sound familiar yet? The puzzle pieces all begin to fall into place in this sweeping saga, as a master criminal prepares to lash out at the enemy, while one of the Disappeared wrestles with the idea of coming out of hiding to strike at a furious foe.
The book also jumps back to present day after the Starbase Human incident, as Frontier Marshall Judita Gomez struggles to trace the origins of the Anniversary Day attacks of Earth’s Moon back to their source and the clandestine Earth Alliance cloning factory.
Meanwhile, the story takes us back to undercover spy Iniko Zagrando and his previous refusal to work with the Earth Alliance Military Division Intelligence Service, a choice that’s now coming back to haunt him as the interplanetary dragnet closes.
This is all leading up to the big finale in book 8. Don’t tell us, no spoilers, please.
What we really like with the Anniversary Day saga is the way Rusch weaves in politics, detective work, and mystery into a sci-fi tale, and brings out a tour de force as a result. Rusch’s skills at diverse disciplines in fiction really come to bear in the series, resulting in a rich and complex tale.
The Anniversary Day universe is at once both alien and familiar, as an attack on Armstrong base on Earth’s Moon thrusts the diverse cast of characters into uncertain future, a future which humanity may or may not be a part of.
Don’t miss Starbase Human and the Anniversary Day saga, but do heed the author’s advice and start the series back at book one.
And stay tuned, as we’re are planning on getting around to reviewing book 8 in the Anniversary Day saga : Masterminds this summer. Next up, though, we’re cranking out the review of Brenda Cooper’s latest sci-fi tale, Wilders out from Pyr on June 13th, 2017. Hey, that’s just a few weeks away… our promised goal of getting back into reviewing books before they hit the cyber- shelves is at last coming to pass.
Stay tuned, more science (and science fiction) book reviews are on the horizon!
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