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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: Keepers by Brenda Cooper
On sale now.
What might the ecology of Earth look like in a post-apocalyptic world? We recently read a science fiction tale that tackled this precise question. We’re talking about Keepers by Brenda Cooper, out now from Pyr Books. Book 2 in the Project Earth saga, Keepers looks at a world with a dichotomous face, pitting ultra-technical megacities surrounded by recovering wildness given over to ecobot Keepers and human Wilders.
Fans of the series and this space will recall our review of the first book in the series a while back, Wilders. In that first installment of the tale, Coryn ventures out from the safety of the megacities with her robot companion Paula into the reverted wilderness beyond to find her sister.
In book two, Coryn, reunited with her sister Lou in book one must work to protect both realms from the Returners, those who would convert the world back to the way things were before the climate catastrophe. Lou and Coryn are joined the protector Shuska and environmental researcher Matchiko protecting the sheltered megacities and the wilderness surrounding them. Coryn comes to realize the enormous responsibility that her sister wields in Book 2 of the saga, and how the Wilders are not just merely tolerated in the world beyond the megacities, but play a crucial role in their defense.
Book 2 moves a little slower than the first installment of the saga, but that might be by design as the second book in a series gets down to the intricacies and world building needed in a saga like the Project Earth series. Like The Hunger Games did with District 13, Project Earth drops in the new dimension of the Returners in the second installment.
We do like how Keepers, like Wilders before it continues to grapple with the big issues of technology, the environment and the future of humanity. Will the rise of automated intelligence be needed to save us from ourselves? Will the future call for such drastic measures for the survival of the human species, and the ecology of the Earth as a whole?
As rough and ready ecological warriors, Lou and Coryn must root out secret collectives of Returners, cross the cultural and political realms of the city dwellers and the Wilders, all while evading the capricious ecobots along the way. Oh, and The Returners may also come nuclear-armed, as technology from past generations is still laying around, waiting for someone to come along and pick them up…
Be sure to read Keepers for a great science fiction tale of environment versus technology and our place in it.
Also: be sure to check out Brenda Cooper’s The Glittering Edge duology including the books Edge of Dark and Spear of Light and the Ruby’s Song series, The Diamond Deep and The Creative Fire.
Note: We wrote a book, as well. After several years worth of kicking the idea around, our latest book, The Universe Today Guide to Observing the Cosmos: Everything You Need to Know to Become an Amateur Astronomer is now up for sale. Be sure to check it out, let us know what you think, and leave us a review!