Expo 2020 Dubai: the performance of the all-female orchestra conducted by AR Rahman to close Space Week – News
Space-themed performance to feature original composition by award-winning composer
The Firdaus Orchestra, the pioneering all-female musical ensemble led by the Academy and Grammy Award-winning composer AR Rahman, will close Space Week at Expo 2020 Dubai on Saturday 23 October. The orchestra will render a stellar space-themed repertoire comprising of Western classical music and an original composition by Rahman.
Starting at 7 p.m. at Expo 2020’s Jubilee Park, the Firdaus Orchestra, led by conductor Yasmina Sabbah and representing a mix of musical talent from the Arab world, will bring its haunting showcase to the Week of the Week celebrations. Expo space.
The hour-long performance will feature âAlso Sprach Zarathustra,â the theme from 2001: A Space Odyssey, as well as music from Star Wars and ET – Adventures on Earth. It will also include “Palladio” by Karl Jenkins, “Symphony No. 5” by Beethoven and a grand finale by AR Rahman who will present an exclusive new composition, Humanitas-ProorismÃ³s-Al Amal – an ode from the composer to the explorers of space. “Al Amal” is the Arabic word for “Hope,” which, fortuitously, is also the name of the first Arab mission to Mars.
AR Rahman said: “Knowing the unknown is the quest for life, and in exploring space we are exploring ourselves.”
Expo ticket holders wishing to attend the orchestra’s inaugural performance on Saturday must arrive early. Due to the limited capacity of the site, access will be granted on a first come, first served basis. Exhibition tickets can be purchased online at www.expo2020.com.
From October 17 to 23, Expo 2020 Space Week welcomes astronauts, thought leaders and other space experts – showcasing the latest innovations in space research and travel and providing a platform to discuss critical issues.


I've already described
how my advent into amateur astronomy was delayed by 20 years by unrealistic expectations. In my case, the expectations were that astronomy requires a telescope and is necessarily expensive, neither of which is true. But I suspect that many people "take up" astronomy--in a very limited, hardware-oriented fashion*--and then drop it because of other expectations that are no more accurate. I have two such in mind, and I'll explain them both.
* By buying a telescope on impulse, or getting one as a present, and then finding it difficult and unrewarding to use. More on this in future installments, and at the end of this one.
The first unrealistic expectation is that stargazing will be effortless
. It won't be. Some things are easy, but they're still not effortless. You can see the Galilean moons of Jupiter just by walking outside and looking through binoculars. Ditto the Andromeda Galaxy and the Double Cluster in Perseus, all of which are probably in most amateur astronomers' top ten. But even for the easy stuff, you have to know where--and when--to look. Other things are harder, and all the more rewarding because of the skill and effort that goes into their finding. So here's the first filter: if you're not willing to spend a few evenings learning the constellations, go do something else.
The obvious retort is that you don't have to know the constellations anymore, because computerized telescopes will find stuff for you. That's true, but computerized telescopes are not the push-button-go dreams that they are marketed to be. Most of them have to leveled and aligned, and maybe even pointed at a few known reference stars, before they'll show you stuff. Sounds fun, huh? And dig the irony: you have to know how to find stuff on your own
to set up the computerized scope that is supposed to find stuff for you
. I can see a way to save yourself a few hundred dollars...
Now, there are computerized telescopes that use GPS and don't have to be leveled and aligned. You really can just turn them on and rock out. They also start around two grand. If you'd rather spend that kind of money than learn your way around the sky, go nuts--just be aware that you're not in my target audience.
The second unrealistic expectation is that the views from your back yard will look like pictures in books and on the web
. No backyard telescope is going to give you Hubble-like views, for at least two reasons. The first is that the gorgeous photos of the Orion nebula and the Messier galaxies are all long exposures. Cameras, whether they use film or CCDs, can build up brighter and more colorful pictures than can the human eye, no matter how big the telescope you're looking through. Color in particular suffers, because galaxies and nebulae simply don't have enough of it to register on your retinas. Colorful stars, like red Betelgeuse and blue Rigel, both in Orion, are another matter, and they are among the most striking things in the sky whether you use a telescope, binoculars, or the good ole Mark 1 eyeball.
The other reason that your views will not look like the pictures you've seen is that the telescopes used by professional astronomers and the most advanced amateurs are almost always fantastically large and expensive compared to whatever you'll be looking through. A good starter telescope probably has an aperture between 2.4 and 6 inches (60-150 mm), whereas Rob Gendler
takes most of his pictures with 12.5 and 20 inch Ritchey-Chretein scopes (the 12.5" starts at $17K
, not including mount, cameras, etc.). But don't despair. As Guy Consolmagno and Dan Davis wrote in Turn Left at Orion
Galileo discovered the four major moons of Jupiter (forever after called the "Galilean satellites" in his honor); he was the first to see the phases of Venus and the rings of Saturn; he saw nebulae and clusters through a telescope for the first time. In fact, a careful checking of his observations indicates that he even observed, and recorded, the position of Neptune almost 200 years before anyone realized it was a planet. He did all this with a 1" aperture telescope.
Charles Messier, who found the hundred deep sky objects in the catalog that bears his name, started out with a 7" reflector with metal mirrors so poor that, according to one account, it was not much better than a modern 3" telescope. His later instruments were, in fact, 3" refractors.
If you've never seen the Galilean moons or the rings of Saturn for yourself, it is hard to explain what a rush
it is. I can download gigabytes of Saturn pictures from Voyager and Cassini, but none of them carries the same visceral impact as even the smallest, blurriest view of Saturn through my telescope. It's like the difference between looking at a mounted dinosaur skeleton on the other side of the rope, and holding a chunk of fossilized bone in your hand for the first time, even if it is small, busted, and ugly
:-). And I know I'm not the only one who feels this way. Most of our houseguests get a peek at whatever is up, and so far every one of them has been blown away.
The pleasure and satisfaction of amateur astronomy do not come from APOD
-worthy views or from instant gratification. Rather, they come from finding and seeing things for yourself, and the enjoyment of doing so is proportional to the effort invested. (In these ways, amateur astronomy is no different from any other human pursuit, be it painting or fixing toilets or building relationships.)
Finally, be patient. You can't learn the whole night sky in one go. It may be possible to run out and buy a telescope and be blasting through the skies by bedtime, but it's neither likely nor recommended. Craigslist, eBay, and attics and closets across the planet are home to thousands of impulse-buy telescopes, and most of them are not worth the paper their breathless ads were printed on (or the pixels they were splashed across). Don't buy a telescope. Not yet. If you're just starting out, you don't know what kind of telescope you'll want, you don't know what to point it at, and you probably don't even know if you enjoy observing. The sky will be there for the rest of your life and far beyond, and there will be no shortage of telescopes around when and if you decide to buy one. But there are some things you need to know first, and that's where I'll pick up next time.
Labels: Amateur Astronomy


The lunar eclipse is a fascinating astronomical event that has captured the attention of people for centuries. It is a natural phenomenon that occurs when the Earth passes between the sun and the moon, casting a shadow on the moon’s surface. In this article, we will explore the history and facts of lunar eclipses, and how you can watch them.
What is a Lunar Eclipse?
A lunar eclipse occurs when the Earth is positioned between the sun and the moon, casting a shadow on the moon’s surface. There are three types of lunar eclipses: total, partial, and penumbral.
History of Lunar Eclipses
Lunar eclipses have been observed and recorded by various cultures throughout history. In ancient China, lunar eclipses were believed to be caused by a celestial dragon devouring the moon. The Greeks, on the other hand, saw the lunar eclipse as a sign of impending doom.
Why Do Lunar Eclipses Occur?
Lunar eclipses occur because of the alignment of the sun, Earth, and moon. When the moon passes through the Earth’s shadow, a lunar eclipse occurs.
Types of Lunar Eclipses
There are three types of lunar eclipses: total, partial, and penumbral. A total lunar eclipse occurs when the Earth completely blocks the sun’s light from reaching the moon, while a partial lunar eclipse occurs when the Earth only partially blocks the sun’s light. A penumbral lunar eclipse occurs when the Earth passes through the outer part of the shadow, resulting in a partial darkening of the moon’s surface.
Lunar Eclipse Frequency
Lunar eclipses occur approximately twice a year, and they can be seen from anywhere on the night side of the Earth.
Famous Lunar Eclipses
One of the most famous lunar eclipses occurred in 1969 when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to step on the moon during a partial lunar eclipse.
How to Watch a Lunar Eclipse
To watch a lunar eclipse, you need to be in a location where the eclipse is visible. You can find the date, time, and location of upcoming lunar eclipses online or by checking with your local observatory.
Unlike solar eclipses, lunar eclipses are safe to view with the naked eye. However, it is always advisable to take precautions and not look directly at the sun or moon during an eclipse.
Lunar Eclipse Myths and Superstitions
Lunar eclipses have been associated with various myths and superstitions throughout history. Some cultures believe that lunar eclipses are a sign of bad luck or an omen of disaster.
Lunar Eclipses in Popular Culture
Lunar eclipses have been featured in popular culture, including movies, books, and TV shows. One example is the Twilight Saga, where a lunar eclipse plays a significant role in the plot.
Interesting Facts About Lunar Eclipses
- Lunar eclipses can last for several hours.
- During a total lunar eclipse, the moon appears red, also known as a “blood moon.”
- Lunar eclipses are visible from anywhere on the night side of the Earth.
- Lunar eclipses have been observed and recorded by various cultures throughout history.
Upcoming Lunar Eclipses
|Date||Type of Eclipse||Visibility|
|May 5, 2023||Penumbral||Visible in parts of North America, South America, Asia, Australia, and the Pacific|
|Nov 28, 2023||Total||Visible in Australia, New Zealand, and parts of Asia and the Pacific|
|May 1, 2024||Total||Visible in parts of North America, South America, Asia, and Australia|
What conditions must exist for a lunar eclipse to occur
A lunar eclipse occurs when the Earth passes between the Sun and the Moon, casting a shadow on the Moon. The conditions for a lunar eclipse to occur are:
- It must be a full moon: A lunar eclipse can only occur during a full moon, when the Earth is directly between the Sun and the Moon.
- The Moon must be in its orbital plane: The Moon’s orbit around the Earth is tilted slightly compared to the Earth’s orbit around the Sun. Therefore, a lunar eclipse can only occur when the Moon is in its orbital plane, which intersects with the Earth’s orbital plane.
- The Earth must be between the Sun and the Moon: During a lunar eclipse, the Earth must be in a straight line between the Sun and the Moon, so that the Earth’s shadow falls on the Moon.
If all of these conditions are met, a lunar eclipse can occur. There are three types of lunar eclipses: total, partial, and penumbral, depending on the alignment of the Earth, Sun, and Moon.
Can you stare at a lunar eclipse?
It is safe to observe a lunar eclipse with the naked eye. Unlike solar eclipses, lunar eclipses are not harmful to the eyes. This is because the Moon does not produce any light of its own, but rather reflects sunlight. During a lunar eclipse, the Earth’s atmosphere scatters the sunlight and filters out most of the blue light, causing the Moon to appear reddish in color.
However, if you are using binoculars or a telescope to observe the lunar eclipse, you should take precautions to protect your eyes. Looking through these devices without proper filters can damage your eyesight, just as looking directly at the sun can cause permanent eye damage.
It is safe to stare at a lunar eclipse with the naked eye, but if you are using any optical devices, make sure to use proper filters to protect your eyes.
Lunar Eclipse and Astrology
In astrology, lunar eclipses are believed to have a significant impact on a person’s emotions and behavior. Some astrologers believe that lunar eclipses can bring about major changes in one’s life.
Experience the Cosmic Drama: The Red Moon Rises at the 2023 Lunar Eclipse! (AI Generated)
A lunar eclipse is a stunning natural phenomenon that occurs when the Earth passes between the Sun and the Moon, casting a shadow on the Moon. Lunar eclipses have been observed and studied by humans for thousands of years, and continue to capture the imagination of people all over the world.
In the United States, skywatchers can look forward to observing the next lunar eclipse on May 5, 2023, which will be a penumbral eclipse visible in parts of North America. The next total lunar eclipse visible in the US will occur on May 1, 2024.
In India, the next lunar eclipse will be the penumbral lunar eclipse on May 5, 2023, which will be visible in parts of the country. The next total lunar eclipse visible in India will occur on May 1, 2024.
Whether you are a space enthusiast or simply curious about the world around you, the lunar eclipse is an event that you don’t want to miss. Make sure to mark your calendars and plan ahead to observe the next lunar eclipse in your area. Happy skywatching!


Meteorites are the most remarkable things on Earth and the only items people may own that are not from this planet. Most meteorites originated in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, while others may have traveled from even greater distances. Some meteorites are believed to contain materials that pre-date our solar system, making them the oldest items any human has ever touched. All items in our online store are guaranteed to be authentic and as described.
All our meteorites (excluding jewellery) come with a display kit including engraved base and floating frame.


The spectral extinction file (usually named with a
extension) is primarily associated with the Classic Extinction
model that was first introduced in DIRSIG3.
The data is used to model the total extinction (absorption and scattering) of light within a volume. These files are used to model the extinction through objects ranging in scales from simple clouds (where path lengths are many kilometers) to a leaf or plate of glass (where path lengths are a few millimeters).
The first line of the file is the number of spectral curves in the file.
|The number of spectral curves must be 1.|
The second line is the curve delimiter that marks the start of the curve data. Depending on the age of the file, the curve marker varies (which will be discussed later).
|Even though there is only 1 curve in an extinction file, there is a marker for the start of the curve. Forgetting to include this line will throw off the parsing of the spectral extinction data following the marker.|
The spectral curve data following the curve count varies depending on the age of the file. The units of the extinction coefficients are per kilometer.
|Many users forget the units are per kilometer and import data with units of per meter. Although these latter units are more intuitive for many cases, the format of this file was defined many years ago when the data was used exclusively for large objects.|
To be safe, users should supply a large extinction value (for
The "old" format files had each curve sampled on fixed 100 wavenumber
increments from 39850 to 350 wavenumbers, resulting in exactly 396 spectral
points. The spectral samples are in decreasing order. This format is
identified by the curve delimiter being the single value
0 (the curve
1 0 39850 1.00000e+10 39750 1.00000e+10 39650 1.00000e+10 [lines deleted for documentation purposes] 24850 5.08321e+06 24750 5.06721e+06 24650 5.03595e+06 [lines deleted for documentation purposes] 550 1.00000e+10 450 1.00000e+10 350 1.00000e+10
The "new" format was added during the DIRSIG3 era to allow the user
to bring in curves with spectral resolution better than 100 wavenumbers.
This format is identified by the curve delimited being the string
CURVE_BEGIN. The units of the spectral samples are in microns and
the samples are in increasing order.
1 CURVE_BEGIN 0.40000 2.59696e+06 0.40084 2.64931e+06 0.40169 2.70456e+06 [lines deleted for documentation purposes] 14.1335 1.000000+10 14.2092 1.000000+10 14.2857 1.000000+10
|The spectral samples in a "new format" file do not need to be on regular intervals.|


Nazaj na arhiv
4. 6. 2016
dr. Zvi Paltiel
So far all we know about astronomy is provided by electromagnetic (em) radiation. We see light – one form of em radiation – of remote stars and galaxies. We detect this light by extremely sensitive telescopes and their cameras. We detect other forms of stellar em radiation such as radio waves, and x- and gamma-rays. Recent advances in neutrino detection provide new opportunities for neutrino astronomy.
Neutrinos allow astrophysicists to study processes in the core of our sun, explore the very first seconds of Supernova star explosion, as well as other events obscure to em radiation telescopes. The new IceCube neutrino telescope in Antarctica will be discussed.


There’ve been some stunning pictures recently sent back from distant parts of our solar system which I wanted to share.
When I was a boy, people could only imagine what a comet actually looks like. Now we know.
NASA’s Dawn probe, launched from earth in 2007, this month sent back some phenomenal pictures of the dwarf planet Ceres, whose 1000 km diameter makes it the largest object in the asteroid belt. Remarkable features include some extremely bright reflective areas and a 3-mile-high pyramid.
Jupiter’s moon Europa, despite being stuck a frigid 3/4 of a billion kilometers away from the sun, is now believed to hold a liquid ocean of water beneath its icy crust, kept warm by the tidal forces of the gravitational pull from the giant planet. And perhaps life in those oceans? You can bet I’m a big supporter of NASA’s plans for a new mission to see what’s there.
Saturn’s moon Titan definitely has clouds that rain down on surface oceans. But its weather patterns are based on liquid methane, not H20.
Geysers spewing water ice out from Enceladus, another of Saturn’s many moons, appear to be the source of one of the giant planet’s beautiful rings.
Like many others of my generation, I was sad to see Pluto demoted from its long-held status as our solar system’s ninth planet. But that disappointment is made up for by the remarkable recent images from NASA’s New Horizons probe of Pluto and its moon Charon in their orbital dance. Can’t wait to see the close-ups.


How can you look at a lunar eclipse
The first thing to remember about observing an eclipse is safety. A solar eclipse is potentially dangerous, however, because viewing a solar eclipse involves looking at the Sun, which can damage your eyesight. A solar eclipse can be viewed safely with the naked eye only during the few brief seconds or minutes of a total solar eclipse , when the Sun itself is completely obscured by the Moon. Partial eclipses , annular eclipses , and the partial phases of total solar eclipses are never safe to watch without taking special precautions.SEE VIDEO BY TOPIC: What is a lunar eclipse? Is it safe to view it with naked eye?
SEE VIDEO BY TOPIC: Total Lunar EclipseContent:
- Lunar eclipse guide: What they are, when to see them and where
- The What: Eye Safety
- Lunar Eclipse 2020 Guide: When, Where & How to See Them
- What is a penumbral lunar eclipse and is it safe to look directly at it?
- Watching Lunar Eclipses
- Eclipse 2020: Can you see lunar eclipses with bare eyes? Can you look directly at eclipse?
- Can You Look at a Lunar Eclipse? How to Safely Watch on January 31
- Lunar eclipse
- Observing and Photographing Lunar Eclipses
- Lunar and Solar Eclipses
Lunar eclipse guide: What they are, when to see them and where
But the eclipse will not peak until after 7pm GMT, when the lunar orb is closest to the centre of the shadow. Staring directly at a solar eclipse without certified filter glasses can be incredibly damaging to your eyes. Even when the Sun is shrouded by the Moon and the skies are deceptively dark, radiation from the Sun can still hit your eyes.
Lunar eclipses, on the other hand, are completely safe to look at because the Moon does not glow with its own light.
The light you see coming from the Moon is indirect light from the Sun, reflected back at us on Earth. So if you chose to see the ellipse outdoors today, be assured it is perfectly safe to look at the Full Moon directly and without protection. But if you decide to stay indoors today, you can watch the eclipse unfold from the comfort of your home. Courtesy of the Virtual Telescope Project in Italy, the eclipse is being broadcast live online from start to finish.
You can watch the lunar eclipse stream straight from the picturesque skyline of Rome here. The Moon will only undergo a light shading tonight because the penumbral shadow is a more diffused shade cast by the Sun and Earth. For a better spectacle, you will have to wait until May 26, , when a total eclipse of the Moon will turn it blood-red.
In astronomy, this part of the lunar eclipse is known as the maximum eclipse. Maximum eclipses should also mark the moment the Moon is the darkest throughout the night. But will it be safe to look at this part of the eclipse without any protective gear? Can you see a lunar eclipse with your bare eyes tonight? The eclipse is expected to wrap up tonight by 9. What is a penumbral eclipse of the Moon? Life on Mars? Space Eclipse.
The What: Eye Safety
But what exactly is a penumbral lunar eclipse and is it safe to look at? Here's all you need to know. In a penumbral lunar eclipse only the outer shadow of the Earth, which is called the penumbra, falls on the earth's face. It's not the most obvious eclipse as it's quite hard to spot, unlike a total eclipse which can turn the entire moon red. The most people will see is a dark shadowing on the moon's face, but you have to be actively looking for it.
Four lunar eclipses will appear across Earth's skies in They will all be penumbral eclipses, which means the face of the moon will appear to turn a darker silver color for a few hours. Weather permitting, people across most locations on our planet will catch at least one of the lunar eclipses falling on Jan. There's always a place on Earth where the sun don't shine.
Lunar Eclipse 2020 Guide: When, Where & How to See Them
Lunar eclipses are some of the most easy-to-watch astronomical events. All you need to see them are clear skies and a pair of eyes. Anyone on the night-side of the Earth at the time of the eclipse can see it. Viewing a lunar eclipse, whether it is a partial , penumbral or total eclipse of the Moon, requires little effort. All you need is a clear view of the Moon and the Sky, clothes to keep your warm at night, and a chair so that you can be comfortable while watching the eclipse. While you don't need any special equipment for viewing a lunar eclipse, astronomers and veteran photographers recommend some things that can make your lunar eclipse viewing experience even better. These include:. Why does the Moon look red during a Total Lunar Eclipse? How to take great pictures of a Lunar Eclipse.
What is a penumbral lunar eclipse and is it safe to look directly at it?
A lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon moves into the Earth's shadow. A lunar eclipse can occur only on the night of a full moon. The type and length of a lunar eclipse depend on the Moon's proximity to either node of its orbit. During a total lunar eclipse, Earth completely blocks direct sunlight from reaching the Moon. The only light reflected from the lunar surface has been refracted by Earth's atmosphere.
This illustration shows the Moon passing through Earth's shadow during a typical lunar eclipse. The Moon is slightly tinted when it passes through the light outer portion of the shadow, the penumbra, but turns dark red as it passes through the central portion of the shadow, called the umbra. Solar eclipses result from the Moon blocking the Sun relative to the Earth; thus Earth, Moon and Sun all lie on a line. Lunar eclipses work the same way in a different order: Moon, Earth and Sun all on a line.
Watching Lunar Eclipses
You could be forgiven for thinking that America is suddenly experiencing lots of eclipses, but what will happen in the early hours of January 31 will be nothing like August's total solar eclipse in the U. While that event lasted just a few minutes and had to be viewed mostly through special safety glasses, the total lunar eclipse happening on Wednesday will last for hours, and be completely safe to watch. A supermoon is when our satellite is slightly closer to Earth than usual in its orbit, which results in a slightly larger and brighter moon — about 14 percent larger.
When Earth casts its shadow on the Moon it can cause quite a spectacle. Find out how often these events occur, and where you can view them from over the next ten years. You might be familiar with the idea of a solar eclipse: when the Moon passes in front of the Sun from our point of view on Earth, blocking it out and turning day to night for a few minutes on the surface of our planet. But what happens during a lunar eclipse, when will the next one occur and how can you see one? A lunar eclipse is what happens when, if you were standing on the Moon, you would see Earth block out the Sun. It involves the Moon passing directly into Earth's shadow as all three bodies align - just as part of Earth passes into the Moon's shadow during a solar eclipse - and, in so doing, it causes some odd changes in appearance.
Eclipse 2020: Can you see lunar eclipses with bare eyes? Can you look directly at eclipse?
The moonlight we see on Earth is sunlight reflected off the Moon's grayish-white surface. The amount of Moon we see changes over the month — lunar phases — because the Moon orbits Earth and Earth orbits the Sun. Everything is moving. During a lunar eclipse , Earth comes between the Sun and the Moon, blocking the sunlight falling on the Moon. Earth's shadow covers all or part of the lunar surface. What is the Current Phase of the Moon? Use this tool to see the current Moon phase and to plan ahead for other Moon views. Credit: NASA.
But the eclipse will not peak until after 7pm GMT, when the lunar orb is closest to the centre of the shadow. Staring directly at a solar eclipse without certified filter glasses can be incredibly damaging to your eyes. Even when the Sun is shrouded by the Moon and the skies are deceptively dark, radiation from the Sun can still hit your eyes. Lunar eclipses, on the other hand, are completely safe to look at because the Moon does not glow with its own light. The light you see coming from the Moon is indirect light from the Sun, reflected back at us on Earth.
Can You Look at a Lunar Eclipse? How to Safely Watch on January 31
Observing and Photographing Lunar Eclipses
Lunar and Solar Eclipses


Blazing in the sky are celestial bodies that are light-years away. The closest planet to Earth is Mercury, then Venus. If you are lucky enough, you can see Mars or even Jupiter on a clear night. In grade school, we are taught basic astronomical principles: the order of the planets, their composition, and their native moons. This knowledge is seldomly applied to the mundanities of everyday life, that is, unless you are a physicist or work in the field of astronomy. One hardly thinks of the galactical energy forces and their powers. This lone “ice giant “is the furthest planet from Earth (NASA). The isolated planet Neptune is distinguished by its blue hue and gas composition. The mysterious planet coined itself as the ice giant because of its “supersonic winds” and wide radius measuring “15, 299.4 kilometers” (NASA).
Neptune’s powers do not lie solely in its volatile winds and extreme temperature but in its cosmic influence. It is no coincidence that its name originates from the Roman god and obtains its mythological energy. Neptune’s deep mystical cobalt sea is a cosmic wonder filled with nodes of sapphire that possess the intensity to electrify Earth and its life force. The planet of vapours represents “fantasy,” “divinity,” and “mysticism” (Montgomery 60). In the discipline of astrology, it is believed that Neptune inherited these personality traits of Poseidon—Neptune’s equal. Neptune’s stormy quality mimics Poseidon’s rage, as his alias was “Earth Shaker” (Tierney 2). Poseidon’s wrath can be attributed to his fate that led him to the inside of his father Cronus’ stomach after his irrational decision to consume his children to protect them (Tierney 3). This withdrawal from the outside world that Poseidon experienced establishes the themes and patterns of Neptunian influence of isolation, darkness, and unreality (Tierney 3). The practice of astrology and astronomy are closely linked even though these two disciplines are rooted in a different philosophy. Astrologers hold the belief that the cosmos can be used to predict the future, determine your personality, and aid in self-actualization. Traditional astrologers used an ephemeris to calculate these predictions and created charts for individuals known as “natal charts” that snapshot the sky and its celestial positions the moment you were born. Each planet reigns its significance and influences your life path and character. The roaring ocean of Neptune is a strong planet in the astrological sense, as Poseidon’s journey in mythology introduced Neptune’s motifs. The archetypical figure of Poseidon is embedded in Neptune’s atmosphere. Depending on where Neptune falls in your chart or what other planet it is interacting with, the meaning can change significantly—however, this does not change the themes of delusion, fantasy, or even the dissociation that Poseidon experienced. You may also be engulfed by the feeling of darkness or be drawn to the pits of existentialism, spirituality, and consciousness (Tierney 14).
The depths of Neptune’s structure of “water, methane, ammonia” create a body of scorching waters beneath cool, tranquil clouds (NASA). These deep waters form a beautiful cerulean colour that illuminates the galaxy with its mystical vibrations. There is a white stroke across the belly of Neptune, which are cyclones. Although you cannot see Neptune in the sky, its storms are felt here on Earth. Maybe that is because Neptune is too ethereal to be seen and not because of its distance; however, anytime you feel the urge to dabble in the divine or contemplate the human ego, it is Neptune’s influence striking you. If you need to connect to the divine and feel like embracing your water emotions, look at Neptune.
Images in this online exhibit are either in the public domain or being used under fair dealing for the purpose of research and are provided solely for the purposes of research, private study, or education.
©Public Domain https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html
Elkin, James. Your Eyes. Routledge, 2000. Academia.Edu, https://www.academia.edu/5544904/How_to_Use_Your_Eyes.
Montgomery, Vanessa. A Simple Star Guide to Astrology for the Modern Mystic Power. Quadrille, 2018.
“Neptune: In Depth.” NASA, NASA, 4 Aug. 2021, solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/neptune/in-depth/#otp_atmosphere. Accessed 10 Feb. 2021
Tierney, Bill. Alive and Well with Neptune: Transits of Heart and Soul. Llewellyn Publications, 1999.
Voyager 2, “Discovering Neptune”; edited by Yvette Smith, Nasa Website, 24 Sept 2021, https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/discovering-neptune. Accessed 10 Feb. 2021.


Tesla’s space roadster may just wind up destroying all life on a faraway planet.
The odds are infinitesimally small, but it’s possible for bacteria left on the Tesla Roadster launched into solar orbit last month to wind up on an alien planet and wreak havoc on their ecosystem.
Of course, it’s more likely to land on Mars that get struck by a passing asteroid and go careening off into deep space, but it could happen, and the consequences for any planet that roadster winds up on could be dire.
In case you missed it, SpaceX and Tesla founder Elon Musk decided to catapult a brand new Tesla Roadster into orbit on the back of the Falcon Heavy rocket tested in February. The test was a resounding success, and now there’s a cherry red Roadster on its way to Mars-ish orbit. It won’t hit the red planet (probably) but it’ll float around in space for millions of years (also probably).
In an article published by Purdue University, professor of Earth, atmospheric and planetary sciences Jay Melosh described the Roadster making planetfall could be a War of the Worlds-type scenario, where the invasive bacteria wipe out all alien life.
Even if it were to hit Mars, a planet that so far likely has no life or at best life that’s long since died off, the results would be chaotic for researchers.
“If there is an indigenous Mars biota, it’s at risk of being contaminated by terrestrial life,” he said. “Would Earth’s organisms be better adapted, take over Mars and contaminate it so we don’t know what indigenous Mars was like, or would they be not as well adapted as the Martian organisms? We don’t know.”
Normally when anything goes into space NASA’s Office of Planetary Protection sterilizes the craft as a precaution, but since Tesla’s roadster wasn’t supposed to make planetfall NASA skipped it.
But it’s possible that Tesla could serve a noble purpose rather than an interplanetary harbinger of doom. In the far more likely scenario of all life on our planet being extinguished, the Tesla could one day fall back to Earth and reseed her with life.
“The Tesla would serve the same role very nicely,” Melosh said in an interview with Jalopnik. “Of course, it took about 3 billion years to go from microbes to multicellular life on Earth, then another half billion to come to intelligent life, so [any life-extinguishing event] would certainly be a setback from our point of view.”


Dunsink Observatory and the South Dome by Sir Robert Ball, one of Hamilton’s successors
Reproduced from The book of Trinity College, Dublin, 1591-1891.
Belfast: Marcus Ward & CO., Limited. https://archive.org
A date is not given but the South Dome, which can be seen on the left, was built in 1865,
while the book was published in 1892. The light, which in Hamilton’s time would have
come from candles and fires in the fireplaces, streaming through the windows beautifully
indicates the atmosphere within the Observatory and on the premises as it must have
looked like when the Hamiltons were at home and still awake; Hamilton working on his
mathematics or talking with his family, and Thompson observing in the dome.
The soft light shining from the left on the lawn, and on the left side of the Observatory,
its south side, seems to indicate moonlight, probably even a full moon.


Quantum Computing—Disrupting The $350B Space Race by Maëva Ghonda
“In the same way that every company today is a technology company, every company of tomorrow will be a space company.” -C. Anderson
Quantum is a transformative technology enabling a surge of novel innovations that will disrupt the new space economy, a critical industry which could surpass $1 trillion in annual revenue worldwide in 2040 (vs. $350 billion in 2020). This aerospace sector will dominate this decade of revenue growth for the global enterprise quantum computing market, which is projected to reach $988M in annual revenue by 2030 (vs. $35M in 2021E).
Image Credit: Statista
Rise of the New Space Economy
Image Credit: Statista
Private investments in space companies catapulted to $1.9B in Q1 2021. And, at $9.9B of new private capital, Q2 2021 has shattered all records — it is now the largest quarter on record for private space infrastructure investments. Hence, investments in the space infrastructure stack will exceed the previous annual record of $9.1B of new capital which was realized in 2020.
Image Credit: Space Capital
Revived by an era of research and development whereby governments have transitioned from funder and developer of space programs to essential partner and key enabler of private space sector growth, the new space economy has attracted new and non-space actors penetrating disparate streams of the multiplex space value chain. Multiple space companies are now expected to secure SPAC deals in the months ahead.
Fueling The Space Race
“Space is becoming increasingly congested, contested, and competitive.” — U.S. National Security Space Strategy
To sustain U.S. leadership in space, the U.S. President’s National Strategy for Space established that securing benefits derived from space for commercial activity as well as national security and scientific innovations is a top priority. Notably, in 2020, the U.S. space economy supported more than 356,000 private sector jobs and accounted for $41.2B of private industry wages as well as $177.5B of gross output, almost four times the national gross domestic product (GDP) of the Democratic Republic of Congo (previously Zaïre). Hence, although a record number of private enterprises and governments are heavily investing in space programs, the U.S. remains the top institutional investor in the space sector.
Image Credit: Statista
(1) to establish a permanent human presence on the Moon in the next seven years;
(2) to lead the return of humans to the Moon in 36 months;
- NASA will land the first American person of color and the first American woman on the Moon in the next 36 months and establish sustainable exploration via collaboration with commercial and international partners.
- In March 2019, the U.S. President directed NASA to speed up its plans to return humans to the moon by four years, to 2024.
(3) to develop infrastructure that will enable landing of the first human on Mars; and,
(4) to incentivize private industry to create new global markets for U.S. space goods and services.
Successful space missions require solving countless compute-centric problems. Such stunning aims will require new scientific and technological capabilities. Some of these complex computational challenges could potentially be facilitated by quantum-enabled solutions.
Preparing for the Quantum Shift
Despite tremendous growth in compute power of classical systems, remarkable quantum algorithms have provably outperformed classical algorithms in recent decades. Quantum intellectual property research (e.g. global patent intelligence) revealed that governments, academic institutions and enterprises in multiple geographic regions (e.g. Russia, China, European Union, United States, etc.) have already significantly invested in quantum-enabled space research and development programs.
In future decades, emerging profit pools that are quantum-enabled will reshape market dynamics worldwide and account for an untold share of space industry profits. Knock-on effects of quantum innovations from other sectors yielding exponential improvements for some calculations will impel new space industry business models. Hence, to eliminate the impending disequilibrium that will be experienced by unprepared actors in the new space economy, governments, academic institutions and enterprises (e.g. Google, Airbus, USRA, Lockheed, NASA, and many others) have been seizing early opportunities to research and develop quantum capabilities in areas of great importance, including: communications, security, machine learning, mission planning and scheduling, anomaly detection, optimal sensor placement, and much more.
Born in the magnetic capital city of Kinshasa that is nestled in the great Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) — the heart of Africa — Maëva Ghonda is a Sustainability Scientist. As the founder and the chief executive of the Quantum AI Institute, her work is centered on technology innovations that tackle Climate Change. Maëva Ghonda is also the founder of the Quantum AI Symposium and the founder of the flagship Quantum Computing Certificate Education Program for Workforce Development— both are sponsored by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).
Maëva’s passion for quantum computing was ignited while working as Quantum Scholar for the Joint Quantum Institute (JQI) for a National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Fellow. Prior to quantum, Maëva worked in corporate strategy, cybersecurity, and as an engineer on an autonomous 3D printed spacecraft for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program (CCP) to enable space tourism.


Hutchinson, KS 67501
Phone: (620) 662-2305
Take off...to a place where excitement knows no boundaries. Where outer space launches your inner child. And where a world of activity revolves around you.
Here you’ll discover an interactive galactic experience unlike any other place on Earth. Travel through time and space in the Hall of Space Museum. Gaze in wide wonder inside the Carey Digital Dome Theater. Reach for the stars in the Justice Planetarium. Operate a Mars Rover in our unmanned spacecraft gallery, Investigate Space: Our Universe, or explore the end of an era in The Astronaut Experience.
All this and more … not light years away, but just around the corner. At the Cosmosphere, we’re counting down your arrival.
HALL OF SPACE MUSEUM Take a journey through the history of space travel. Witness the world’s most significant collection of U.S. and Russian space artifacts, including the actual Apollo 13 command module, Liberty Bell 7 Mercury capsule, and a flown Russian Vostok spacecraft.
CAREY DIGITAL DOME THEATER Immerse yourself in a theater experience so vivid, you’ll feel like you’re part of the action! Our dome theater is home to the most cutting edge technology in digital projection in the nation, featuring a custom-designed lens that allows us to project with the highest resolution and clarity available. We show documentaries daily, and feature films every night!
JUSTICE PLANETARIUM It’s not uncommon to have your head in the clouds amid this multimedia solar system exploration. Watch the night sky explode as the stars dance in sync with your imagination. Inside the Planetarium, “space” is unlimited.
DR. GODDARD’S LAB LIVE SCIENCE SHOW Have a blast...make that a blast-off... in this crowd-pleasing live show featuring spectacular rocket science demonstrations from the lab of Dr. Goddard, inventor of modern rocketry.


Published December 1982
by Ten Speed Pr .
Written in English
|Contributions||Hildy Paige Burns (Illustrator)|
|The Physical Object|
|Number of Pages||96|
The Solar Cat Book by Jim Agustyn A copy that has been read, but remains in clean condition. All pages are intact, and the cover is intact. The spine may show signs of wear. Pages can include limited notes and highlighting, and the copy can include previous owner inscriptions. The concept of a solar cat has a firm basis in reality, familiar to all who know cats. Throughout this book, such reality is mixed with fantasy, requiring the reader to continually distinguish between the two. This process will hopefully promote thought and learning, for as a wise old cat . The first Solar Cat Book was published in by the Ten Speed Press, Berkeley, California. It was a huge hit with the fledgling solar community selling more t copies in advance of publication. The Cat in the Hat takes readers on an out of this world reading adventure in this nonfiction book all about our solar system. Learn about the planets, the constellations, and astronauts, and explore the wonders of space. Perfect for aspiring astraunauts, or any kid who loves learning and science. The universe is a mysterious place.
The Cat in the Hat takes readers on an out of this world reading adventure in this nonfiction book all about our solar system. Learn about the planets, the constellations, and astronauts, and explore the wonders of space. Perfect for aspiring astraunauts, or any kid who loves learning and science/5(). Buy The Return of the Solar Cat book. It's good for you! It's good for you! Generations of study have led cats to the astute conclusion that when cold, it makes perfect sense to expose one's fur to the sun. Books About the Solar System. Use a combination of nonfiction and fiction books about our solar system to get students interested in space! Read More. Sort by Name. Book The Magic School Bus Lost in the Solar System By. Bruce Degen, Joanna Cole. Grade s. There's a children's cat themed picture book I'm trying to find, but as I haven't seen the book since I was a child, I don't know the name of it. The 'plot' was about three kittens that decide they aren't kittens by fierce big cats - a lion, a tiger, and a panther (as they look like little miniatures of the big cats).
But make no mistake: "The Return of the Solar Cat Book" is not only a rollicking good read and a visual delight, but an important contribution to the current debate over /5(5). The Solar Cat Book is a great introduction to solar energy using cats as a model system. Augustyn teaches us about solar energy and heat flow mechanics through a series of small stories and jokes. The illustrations and cartoons are not to be missed/5. ‘Professor Astro Cat’s Solar System’ is based on the best-selling book, ‘Professor Astro Cat’s Frontiers of Space. The Professor Astro Cat concept was originally created by illustrator Ben Newman, backed up with scientific know-how provided by quantum physicist, Dr Dominic Walliman. From the Cat in the Hat Learning Library comes this fanciful tale full of fun information about our solar system. In this book the infamous Cat in the Hat and his friends, Thing One and Thing Two, take two children on a trip to space. They visit the eight planets, several constellations, the sun, and the moon. Dr. Seuss fans will particularly.


Updated: Apr 2, 2021
Astrophotography has always been a huge interest for me with regards to sub-types of landscape photography. Although it tends to be a little more difficult and time consuming to pull off as effectively as some of the other photography that you can see scrolling through my portfolio. If you follow my Instagram account, you might have seen a couple of my early attempts at astrophotography already. These pictures for the most part are nothing special, outside of the sky being amazingly beautiful on a clear night.
These pictures worked okay for a few Instagram posts on social media, but for most other applications the images are not adequate to be used. Most of the learnings for me with this type of landscape photography have come down to three things: gear, location, and weather. Processing can also be more difficult for the stacking of images, but I will save discussion of this subject for another blog post. While I do have a newer photo in my saga to master this form of photography, I still do not have anything outstanding to show. You will just have to wait for the next installment of an astrophotography post later this Summer for that!
25 seconds at F/1.8, ISO 5000, 24mm (NIKKOR Z 24mm F/1.8 S): 6 Image Stack
Now, let us dive into the issues I have had and some remedies that might help others attempting to get into this type of photography. Starting off with the issues that are induced by the type of gear that I have been using up to this point.
NIKKOR Z 24mm F/1.8 S and NIKKOR Z 24-70mm F/4 S Mirrorless Lenses
The lens pictured on the right above was the first lens I had for my camera. The kit lens that comes with the Nikon Z6 and Z7 mirrorless cameras. This lens is honestly quite impressive, and if you are curious to learn a bit more about it you can check out my blog post comparing it to the Nikkor 24-70mm F/2.8, which is the sharper, professional version of the lens. However, without additional equipment it cannot do a particularly good job in low light conditions due to the F/4.0 aperture size. You can capture stars with this lens using a few different tricks, but it is more difficult to get the stunning shots and reduce image noise.
This difficulty arises due to the stars in the night sky being constantly in motion. When things get dark, one way to get more light onto the sensor is to increase the exposure time but if your exposure time is too long then you begin to get star trails. Instead of your stars looking like stationary bright dots, they look like little lines. The common rule of thumb for the field is the 500 rule. You divide the focal length that you are shooting at by the number 500. This gives you the approximate max exposure time you should use to avoid star trails in your photos. This rule is not 100% accurate but is fairly accurate to use for general purposes.
With this in mind, this limits my 24-70mm lenses to exposure times of about 21 seconds. This can capture a good amount of light but leaves out some of the details of the milky way, if you are shooting this. Barring exposure length and aperture settings, this means that you must boost your ISO up to high levels which introduces a large amount of noise. As my beach milky way shot shown above is at an ISO of 5000.
This means that the characteristics that effect astrophotography the most in a general sense are how low the aperture on your lens can go, and what focal length you are shooting at. Specifically, that wide angle shots of the sky tend to be common in an attempt to increase the exposure time that you can use. Which led me to make my original purchase of the NIKKOR Z 24mm F/1.8 S lens in an effort to get better low light performance from the better aperture range. At the time, Nikon had not released their 14-24mm lens which I might have gone for instead.
30 seconds at F/1.8, ISO 4000, 24mm (NIKKOR Z 24mm F/1.8 S): 8 Image Stack
With the new lens, I was able to get better clarity and slightly less noise out of the pictures. But I kept hitting the issue of the exposure time that I wanted to use to try and offset the need for higher ISO settings. In the example above I used 30 second exposures on the 24mm lens with ISO of 4000. There is clearly less noise in the stars and more detail in the milky way, but the star trailing becomes distracting at this point making for a less than ideal image.
This brings me to the final piece of equipment that I obtained in my quest to figure out astrophotography, the star tracker. The one I purchased was the iOptron Star Tracker Pro. The idea behind a star tracker simply stated is that once it is aligned with a particular star, Polaris, you can then take long exposures of several minutes without star trails being an issue. Honestly, this one piece of equipment makes most lenses viable options for astrophotography. It has been a learning process getting to this point, but it you are also interested in astrophotography I would recommend looking at getting a star tracker over buying a new lens. It is probably cheaper, and it works better once set up properly.
iOptron Star Tracker Pro Tripod Attachment
I have had limited time with my star tracker and have been getting good results so far. Examples of my good photos to come in a future blog post along with how to set up a star tracker so make sure to check back regularly!
This weekend I did my first waterfall with a stary sky background. This required getting to the location before dark, setting up the shot and star tracker, taking a photo of the waterfall during dusk, and then hanging out until after dark. This was mostly a test run for myself in planning a star night sky shot and a waterfall foreground, so I did not spend as much time in photoshop making sure the photos merged correctly.
90 seconds at F/2.8, ISO 1000, 24mm (NIKKOR Z 24-70mm F/2.8 S): Single image for sky
The observant among us will notice that I goofed up the focus settings for the camera while taking the shot for the sky. However, there is no star trailing despite the exposure length being an entire minute and a half! This allowed a reduction in ISO all the way down to 1000 and really cleans up the image quality, eliminating the need to do image stacking to cut down on the high ISO noise. Additionally, this was only with performing a "rough" alignment of the star tracker to Polaris using only a compass and level as opposed to using the sight glass to precisely line it up. While the picture is still not adequate for my portfolio, we are getting much closer to where I want things to be at.
Stock art from Wix
My search for the right equipment to use for astrophotography really accounted for the bulk of my problems. However, as humanity expands to the far reaches of the globe there are fewer and fewer locations that are truly dark enough to get the best milky way photography. While it is important to have the right process and equipment in order to capture the light you need to, being too close to humanity can cause a light glow across the photo. There are some editing tricks to help reduce this so that you can take astrophotography nearby smaller cities, however it is something to consider when planning shots at night.
In my research I have found a couple decent resources for finding darker areas nearby that might be viable for some astrophotography.
These two resources work wonders. Typically, I use the Light Pollution Map while at home perusing locations in a web browser. I will then use the Dark Sky Map when I am out and about, or in the field. This mobile App is available for both Android and iPhone devices so it should be viable for everyone that is interested.
When it comes to astrophotography, I have learned it is super important to have your shooting location figured out ahead of time and to arrive before dark to get setup. Even if you are not planning on capturing the foreground during daylight hours, setting you scene in the dark is rather difficult to do and can result in getting home disappointed with what you capture. It is also important to note that if there is a lot of trees in your foreground, you may find it difficult to properly process the image in photoshop later. You can see a bit of this from the tree and waterfall shot that I posted above. Which leads us to part of the next topic, weather.
1/15 second at F/8, ISO 800, 140mm (NIKKOR Z 70-200mm F/2.8 VR S)
Weather plays a large role in the success or failure of an astrophotography venture. Preferably you want a clear skies night if you are going for milky way shots or longer exposures. However, you can get away with the weather being slightly overcast if all you want is some stars in the sky to accent your foreground.
One thing that you might not think about right away in regards to weather is actually wind. In the section on location, I briefly talked about the difficulties of processing an image with a lot of trees nearby in the foreground. This can be expanded upon if it is fairly windy, and the trees are moving around a lot. Especially if you did not capture the foreground shot during daylight hours. The large amount of movement paired with longer exposures will leave your foreground looking rather soft overall and might not be the result that you want.
If you do arrive at a location after dark and it is rather windy, one way around this could be to simply find a slightly different foreground. Maybe look for rocks, or lower hanging plants that are low enough to be out of the wind. Or even a barren tree might be stationary enough to work.
Stock art from Wix
The final detractor to starry night photography is from the moon. When the moon is up in the sky it creates a large amount of light pollution that blocks out the light coming from stars in the sky. The moon goes through a full cycle from full moon to new moon, with the moon being present in the night sky for varying amounts of time throughout the night. You do not have to wait for a new moon to take good astrophotography photos, but it is helpful to get a tool to track the moon stages, moon rise time, and moon set time so that you can plan ahead for your shots.
I track the state of the moon with a wonderful photographer's tool called PhotoPills. I'll have to do a blog post at some time about the benefits of using this tool but for now I'll just bring up that it has a widget tool that can be used to give you the percentage of the visible moon in its current cycle, what time the moon will rise, what time the moon will set, and the duration of the night that can be accounted for without there being any moon at all. The included widget also has some other useful information such as the exact time frame for the sunset/sunrise, golden hour, blue hour, astronomical hour, and time period from which the galactic center is visible from where you are located.
As I learn more information, I will make additional blogs posts to share my knowledge of this type of landscape photography. I hope the information presented here that I have already learned in my endeavors proves as a useful starting ground for anyone that is just getting started in astrophotography to help avoid some of the early failures of trial and error with regards to what works and what does not. With this said, please be on the lookout for future information on processing star shots, image stacking, polar aligning star trackers, planning photos, and more. Until next time, have a good one getting those shots!


Solar System highway discovered.
This Solar System highway network was discovered by a team of researchers from Serbia and the US.
Astronomers discovered a super-high-speed route traveling through the solar system, which could help speed up space travel in the future.
The newly discovered Solar System highway allows objects to travel through space, much faster than previously thought. For example, comets and asteroids can travel from Jupiter to Neptune in less than a decade, through this network. Whereas normally, it takes hundreds of thousands, even millions of years to travel such long distances.
To draw this conclusion, researchers from the University of California San Diego looked at the orbits of millions of celestial bodies in the Solar System and calculated how they are linked and interacted. From there, they discovered space manifolds – interconnected arch structures created by the gravitational interactions of the planets in the Solar System.
The team is looking to determine how such a dome structure works in the vicinity of the Earth. So far, they have only focused on areas outside the asteroid belt after Mars.
According to scientists, the Solar System highway could be used to send spacecraft to remote regions of the solar system and help track and understand objects near Earth that may collide with the planet.


Perseids Meteor Shower and Star Party
August 12, 2011
At Cedar Breaks National Monument in Cedar City, UT
The Perseids provides a spectacular light show every year. The shower will peak in the early morning hours of August 13th, with as many as 60 meteors per hour. Bring a lawn chair, a blanket, and a thermos to Point Supreme and enjoy the show.
More info at: http://www.nps.gov/cebr/index.htm


Life on earth began about 35 billion years ago at that point in the development of the earth, the atmosphere was very different from what it is today as opposed to the current atmosphere, which is mostly nitrogen and oxygen, the early earth atmosphere contained mostly hydrogen, water, ammonia, and methane. Following the publication of darwin’s origin of species (1859), there has been an ongoing discussion on how to reinterpret the doctrine of creation in the light of evolutionary theory (eg, bowler 2009. The major debate was between the catastrophists, eg, cuvier, who held that the history of earth was dominated by major catastrophic revolutions and the uniformitarians, eg hutton and lyell, who held that the history of earth was dominated by slow relatively uniform changes in an earth with a static over all history.
Start studying chapter 26 review learn vocabulary, terms, and more with flashcards, games, and other study tools what condition would have made the primitive atmosphere of earth more conducive to the origin of life than the present one the primitive atmosphere all three of these e) only a and b e) only a and b a) the accumulation of. The origin of life (ool) problem remains one of the more challenging scientific questions of all time in this essay, we propose that following recent experimental and theoretical advances in systems chemistry, the underlying principle governing the emergence of life on the earth can in its broadest sense be specified, and may be stated as follows: all stable (persistent) replicating systems. Summary of the three (3) current competing theories of the origin of life on earth: it arrived from an extraterrestrial source it originated as a heterotroph it originated as an autotroph scientists to this day do not know how life came about on earth.
The origin of life on earth is a scientific problem which is not yet solved there are plenty of ideas, but few clear facts it is generally agreed that all life today evolved by common descent from a single primitive lifeform it is not known how this early form came about, but scientists think it was a natural process which took place perhaps 3,900 million years ago. Viewpoint: no, either life began on the surface during the period known as the late heavy bombardment, or it began in a protected environment away from the surface and the devastating impacts the origin of life on earth is one of the most important, and elusive, problems in science efforts to understand the origin of life have been frustrated by lack of evidence. Abiogenesis, or informally the origin of life, is the natural process by which life arises from non-living matter, such as simple organic compounds the transition from non-living to living entities was not a single event, but a gradual process of increasing complexity that involved molecular self-replication, self-assembly, autocatalysis and cell membranes. Abstract wächtershäuser’s proposal of the autotrophic origin of life theory and subsequent laboratory demonstrations of relevant organic reactions have opened a new gate for the exploration of the origin of life. The people we know as native americans actually arrived at the continent in three separate great migrations in the distant past most native americans are descended from a small group of migrants.
Next, assign the wallace reading, on the tendency of varieties to depart indefinitely from the original type, and have students answer the questions posed on the history of evolutionary theory student sheet students can also use the esheet to access the reading. Below is a table of amino acids produced and identified in the classic 1952 experiment, as published by miller in 1953, the 2008 re-analysis of vials from the volcanic spark discharge experiment, and the 2010 re-analysis of vials from the h 2 s-rich spark discharge experiment. Earth is the only planet we know of that can support life this is an amazing fact, considering that it is made out of the same matter as other planets in our solar system, was formed at the same time and through the same processes as every other planet, and gets its energy from the sun. The origin of earth’s radioactivity summary: the two competing theories will be summarized: the hydroplate theory and the chemical evolution theory readers can then judge for themselves which theory better explains the evidence first, we need to understand a few terms concerning the atom the current evolutionary theory for earth. A new history of life offers a provocative new account, based on the latest scientific research, of how life on our planet evolved--the first major new synthesis for general readers in two decades charles darwin's theories, first published more than 150 years ago, still set the paradigm of how we understand the evolution of life--but.
Unfortunately more recent research into earth's harsh primordial conditions has dampened this excitement, and has forced many researchers to either resort claiming that life's origin is simply a mystery or to a position of intelligent beings directing life's arrival to earth. The cell--the irreducible unit of life on earth--has an estimated history nigh on 35 billion years scientists since charles darwin have attempted to trace that history to a so-called last common ancestor comparative physiology and fossil records can take one only so far, so many researchers are. [meteor_slideshow slideshow=”arp1″] summarize the three (3) current competing theories of the origin of life on earth: it arrived from an extraterrestrial source, it originated as a heterotroph & it originated as an autotroph. The origin of life wars are in full swing as proponents of each hypothesis, replicator-first and metabolism-first theories, show how each other's theories cannot possibly work on the prebiotic earth all current data indicates that the origin of life is extremely unlikely to have occurred through prebiotic chemistry on the early earth. It is generally assumed that early philosophers and naturalists appealed to spontaneous generation to explain the origin of life, but in fact, the possibility of life emerging directly from nonliving matter was seen at first as a nonsexual reproductive mechanism.
[ctd] - emergence of life was likely shown already a year ago, as the current version of russell et al submarine alkaline hydrothermal emergence theory (saht) show homologies to hadean earth. The origin of oxygen in earth's atmosphere the breathable air we enjoy today originated from tiny organisms, although the details remain lost in geologic time by david biello on august 19, 2009. After the sun spun to light, the planets of the solar system began to form but it took another hundred million years for earth's moon to spring into existence there are three theories as to how. Summarize the three (3) current competing theories of the origin of life on earth: it arrived from an extraterrestrial source, it originated as a heterotroph, it originated as an autotroph the answer to the question of the origin of life is a puzzle that scientists to this day cannot solve.
The theory of evolution: charles darwin philosophical discussion of quotes from charles darwin on evolution, natural selection, science, humanity, god and religion on why evolution is true and important. Debates on the internet, within religious groups, and in the media about the origins and development of species of plant and animal life on earth are often presented as a life and death struggle between two competing beliefs: naturalistic evolution and creation science. What darwin didn’t know organizing principle of life on earth than to the explanation of a certain number of facts will certainly reject my theory, he wrote in origin but, he also.
Panspermia does not provide an explanation for evolution or attempt pinpoint the origin of life in the universe, but it does attempt to solve the mysteries of the origin of life on earth and the transfer of life throughout the universe. No scientific theory has yet to succeed in providing a fully convincing account of the emergence of life on earth however, in this book iris fry provides the reader with the history and facts of the origin of life studies, starting with empedocles and aristotle, and finishing with contemporary theories.


We have to thank the kepler planet-hunting telescope that spotted it launched by NASA in May 2009. The planet is 2.4 times the size of Earth and orbits a star similar to Earth's sun. Also the surface temperature is 22 degrees Celsius. So pack your bags. Well, unfortunately, it is 3,600 trillion miles away, 600 light years. Therefore, we most likely not visit it in my generation or my children's generation. However, the kepler telescope is looking for other plants the matches Earth's climate. So far the telescope has detected 2,326 planets. They are still going through the data to see if any of these planets have a similar climate to Earth, but a little closer in distance. Keep your fingers crossed. At the very least, check for updates on ticket prices for that space ark on Travelocity.
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Kepler 22b- The Goldilocks Planet
Great news. If things do not work out here, we can hop on the space ark and go to Kepler 22b. Yes, NASA has discovered a new planet where life can exist. Apparently, it meet the Goldilocks principle. It's location to its sun in its own solar system is not too hot and not to cold, but just right.


Northern Light safari
Guided tour to a fixed location to experience and take pictures of the northern lights. Including transport, guide, use of snowshoes, simple information on how to take pictures, coffee / tea. From NOK 995, – pr. person.
The cold bites you in the cheeks. The snow makes a loud noise as you walk along on the snowshoes. Constellation after constellation appears above you, and the silence sounds deafening. Once there, the fire is lit, and the smoke spreads out and settles over the magical landscape. The guide pores the coffee and offers something good to bite into, and the excitement increases as the time for the northern lights crackle across the sky comes closer. Listen to the stories the guide can tell, and do not hesitate to ask if you have any questions.
Join us for the hunt of the elusive northern lights! Aurora Borealis is a phenomenon visible over large parts of the Arctic part of the world. Often seen as far south as Brønnøysund, Trondheim and Bergen!
Experience this amazing natural phenomenon and take amazing photos! Do not miss the chance to experience this wonderful and spectacular phenomenon.
This is a trip where we take you out into nature to give you a fantastic experience. We check the possibility of the northern lights in advance, so that you are assured of the best possible conditions. Before we pick you up at the hotel, we check that you have warm enough clothes. We drive up the mountain, where we adapt snowshoes, before we give you a good introduction to how to best take pictures of the northern lights. You have told us in advance if you need to borrow warm clothes or a camera tripod. This, of course, free of charge.
Up on the mountain we take a short trip on snowshoes. Once at the small hut, we make a fire. While we wait for the northern lights, we serve coffee, tea, and a bite to eat.
The first realistic description of the northern lights was in the well-known Norwegian textbook “Kongespeilet” from approx. in 1230. In 1724, the first dissertation entirely devoted to the Northern Lights phenomenon was written by the Norwegian Jens Christian Spidberg.
Several years later, they discovered that charged particles from the sun are controlled by the earth’s magnetic field and “ignite” the gases in the atmosphere.
Northern Lights research is still ongoing in Norway and in many other countries. This research provides and has given us new information about the sun, the earth’s atmosphere, and the near space.
We take you out into nature to give you a fantastic experience. But before we go out, we check the conditions in advance, so that you are assured of the best possible conditions. You will be picked up at the hotel, and then we drive up the mountain, where we adjust snowshoes and check that you have warm enough clothes, before we give you a good introduction to how to best take pictures of the northern lights. If you do not have camera tripod or warm clothes, you can borrow this from us. Up on the mountain we take a short trip on snowshoes. Once at the barbecue hut, you get the opportunity to make a fire. While we wait for the northern lights, we serve coffee and tea and some snacks.
Included: Transport, Snowshoes, walking sticks, Warm clothes, Camera tripod and drinks are included in the experience!


Load full resolution - 5 MB
Sharpless 54 Emission Nebula [7368x5824]
This large emission nebula lies about 2 degrees north of the Eagle Nebula, in Serpens.
Complete processing details: http://astrodoc.ca/sh2-54/
To use all the features of this site you must be logged in. If you don't have an account you can sign up right now.
Buy us a beer if you like this site!


Inter-System Central Command (ISCC) is a multinational organization that organizes, directs, and commands the militaries its member nations. In addition to taking on these responsibilities, it also has partial control of commercial and economic decisions, and has its own research and development facilities.
The ISCC was originally an alliance between the main Jovian moons (The "Inter-System" originally referred to the Jovian System, but references to this were later amended or changed), and expanded to include various other Jovian objects during its first fifteen years. With the inclusion of Tethys in 2172, the ISCC's influence grew outside of the Jovians. Various other moons of Saturn joined, notably Titan two months after Tethys. Triton was added in 2175, most of the other major ice giant moons were part of the ISCC by 2183. Mercury was also admitted in 2181.
Mars's attempts to join the ISCC were long and complicated, due to the Martian Civil War. While the ISCC did not take a side in the conflict, diplomatic relations with the North Mars Independent State were strong, and limited amounts of North Martian forces were running training in ISCC bases. With their defeat, the new Martian state intentionally declined offers to join, but became a member in 2196, under different conditions than other member states (Such as Martian forces having their own command system, standing Navy, and lessened financial obligations.)
The ISCC did find difficulty in expanding into Earth, Luna, the asteroid belt, Venus. Venusian influence was primarily taken by the PDA, Lunar with the Selenian Union, and Earth with the United Nations. Regardless, the ISCC saw limited success with Venus and Luna, and much larger successes with recruitment on Earth. Due to the large number of small stations and asteroid nations in the belt, very limited effort was put into getting more member states there.
- Northern Caloris Alliance, Independent Tolstoj
- Venera, Aeneas, Enkidu, New Ishtar, Tian
- New England Federalist Republic, Independent State of Long Island, The Maritime Republic, Iceland, Scandinavian Union, Republic of Hamburg, Kalingrad, Estonia, Finland, Free City of St. Petersburg, Free City of Moscow, Kazakhstan, Siberian Union, Khabarovsk Republic
- Mare Frigoris states, Mare Humorum states
- All Jovian moons
- Titan, Enceladus, Tethys, Dione, Rhea, Iapedus, various minor moons
- Miranda, Ariel, Umbriel, Titania, Obereon, various minor moons
- Triton, Proteus, Nereid, Despina, various minor moons


Sawyer stands there, gun hanging down at his side, trying to collect himself.
Now he senses something — turns to see Kate watching him. SEES that she saw the whole thing — and in her face is an appreciation for what he just did. Except Sawyer DOESN’T WANT IT. He walks right back past her. Meets her eyes for only the briefest of moments to say —
It’s just a boar.
This was the first episode I ever saw of LOST. It was so stupid to me, a whole episode about boar chasing, that I resolved to never watch it. Fast forward a two seasons and I had this “all you can rent” pass at hollywood video and I pretty much at that point had watched everything worth watching in the store. I decided “what the hell” and got LOST and watched it from the beginning. We watched a disc or two a day, and managed to catch up right as season 3 went on its infamous “break”. I never saw the first part of season 3 until I bought the DVD (it was the first dvd season I bought, actually), and then started watching it live.
The beginning of my obsession with LOST was almost not to be due to boars.
Massive Nearby Spiral Galaxy NGC 2841
Image Credit: Hubble, Subaru; Composition & Copyright: Robert Gendler
Explanation: It is one of the more massive galaxies known. A mere 46 million light-years distant, spiral galaxy NGC 2841 can be found in the northern constellation ofUrsa Major. This sharp view of the gorgeous island universe shows off a striking yellow nucleus and galactic disk. Dust lanes, small, pink star-forming regions, and young blue star clusters are embedded in the patchy, tightly wound spiral arms. In contrast, many other spirals exhibit grand, sweeping arms with large star-forming regions. NGC 2841 has a diameter of over 150,000 light-years, even larger than our own Milky Way and captured by this composite image merging exposures from the orbiting 2.4-meterHubble Space Telescope and the ground-based 8.2-meter Subaru Telescope. X-ray images suggest that resulting winds and stellar explosions create plumes of hot gas extending into a halo around NGC 2841.
harry potter covers: bloomsbury signature edition


From the 17th to the 20th of September the Swiss Embassy had the honor of welcoming a space delegation, lead by Mr. Neuenschwander (Director of the Swiss Space Office) to Beijing.
Apart from the Swiss Space Office; other key institutes (ISSI, Swiss Space Center, University of Geneva) and major companies (Spectratime, RUAG) in the field of Swiss aerospace science and technology were represented by their directors.
The purpose of the visit was to follow up on the signature of the Joint Document on Space Cooperation by Mr. Mauro Dell’Ambrogio (Swiss State Secretary for Education, Research and Innovation) and Mr. Chen Qiufa (Director of the China National Space Administration CNSA) in May 2012. By visiting key institutions in the Chinese aerospace sector, the aim was to establish first contacts and detect cooperation possibilities.
Amongst others, the delegation had meetings with the China Aerospace Science and Technology Cooperation CASC (state-owned key organization of space development), the CNSA and the Chinese Academy of Space Technology CAST (prime contractor for Chinese spacecrafts, member of CASC). During their visit at the CNSA, both parties determined point of contacts, who are responsible for further coordination.
Another important visit was paid to the National Space Science Center NSSC of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. In July 2013 already, the opening of the ISSI-BJ Institute took place. This new Institute is hosted by NSSC in Beijing similar to ISSI and using most of the ISSI operation tools. With this delegation visit, the collaboration could further be intensified.
All together, the whole delegation trip was highly successful for both the Swiss and the Chinese side, as both sides showed big interest in their counterpart’s work. The delegation laid the foundation for further cooperation.
Eventually, the high-level representatives of the visited institutions and the delegation gathered on September 18th at a reception, hosted by Ambassador Jaques De Watteville at his residence.
After September 20th, many experts stayed in Beijing in order to attend the 64th International Astronautical Congress (IAC) taking place from the 23th to the 27th of September.


Before to start to take images, all our astronomical equipment should be assembled and oriented to a specific starting position. This setup has to be done every session. It’s a tedious and boring process that can lead to issues if not done correctly and spends a lot time. This article tries to explain how to improve some of the tasks in order to save time and improve reliability.
STEPS INVOLVED IN THE EQUIPMENT SETUP
These are the steps that are necessary in an equipment setup. They are sorted by the sequence that they are executed.
The tasks should be grouped by the Subject Involved column, as they have a crossed relationship. That means that there are 5 subjects to study:
- POLAR ALIGNMENT
- MOUNT ALIGNMENT
- TELESCOPE CONTROL
POLAR ALIGNMENT OPTIMIZATION
The mount has to be polar aligned for any astrophotography session. In this position the Right Ascension (RA) axis of the mount is aligned with the earth’s rotation axis and the telescope is pointing to the North Celestial Pole (NPC). Once this is done, the mount is prepared to counteract the apparent movement of the sky by rotating the RA Axis with a specific angular speed.
First step is to place the tripod on the floor, with one of the legs oriented to the north. Normally a compass is needed to do this task, but if you use to imaging from a backyard, terrace, or balcony of your property, you can mark the floor to use it as a placement reference. A step beyond, that is my suggestion, is to build an stopper or centering pad. In any case, is important to install/mark the floor only when the equipment it is perfectly polar aligned.
In my case, I use to imaging from my balcony and it cannot be drilled, so I designed, and 3D printed, 3 stoppers to be glued to the floor.
Once the tripod is placed on the floor I tighten the eyepiece tray until the legs are in contact with the stoppers.
The stoppers have been designed to autocenter the tripod legs when they are fully deployed.
Once done, no movement is possible, even if I hit the legs.
The pieces are finally hidden by the artificial grass of the balcony, which I cutted to let the legs to rest on the floor.
Note: If you use this method is very important to fix the stopper after the equipment as achieved a good polar alignment.
To level the tripod is not always a easy task, at least with my HEQ5 tripod. Its adjustment knobs aren’t easy to reach for me while checking the bubble level.
As my tripod uses the stoppers on the floor to be always in the same position, the leveling will be always the same too. In that case, my suggestion is to measure the distance of every leg of the tripod (once leveled) and mark it, or for better accuracy, to build a stopper.
Again, I designed the stoppers and 3D printed them. Once installed, the tripod isn’t needed to be leveled anymore when used in my balcony. Of course, for outdoor imaging, the stoppers can be removed and level the tripod as normally.
Note: I recently found some Tripod Leg Levelerers like the showed below and I’m considering to update my fixation system to something like this.
The idea could be to unthread the pad and use the remaining thread to fix it to the floor, but keeping the leveling set… I will think on it for future optimization.
MOUNT ALIGNMENT TO POLAR
The mount has two pair of knobs to adjust Altitude and Azimut positions, in order to achieve a correct polar alignment.
Once again, as my tripod has a fixed orientation on the floor, the adjusment of the knobs are the same (or almost the same) night over night. That means that the position of the Altitude and Azimuth dials can be marked, maybe not for polar align anymore, but at least to have a very good starting point.
As you can see, the marks are not qualitative. I’m still thinking on how to improve their accuracy and reliability (probably a vernier scale or a stopper).
Balance of the equipment requires to unclamp the telescope from the dovetail, procedure that always scared me for the danger of the telescope to fall, and disengage the RA and DEC clutches, that causes to loss the accuracy of the home position. That’s why I was centered in how to definitively avoid balancing.
The first step to achive not to balance is to define the different optical trains of our equipment as «fixed» configurations. That means to use always them with the same components. In my case I fixed 3 setups, one of them, for example, is the assembly Borg f/4 + QHY163M + Guidescope and I always assemble the same components in the same relative position and connect the same cables to them, so they have always the same weight and center of masses location.
ATTACHMENT OF THE TELESCOPE TO THE MOUNT
That task can be easily optimized by using an stopper for every setup that would do a double fuction, on one side sets the position of the optimum DEC balance for a given optical setup, and on the other side acts as a safety element in order to avoid the telescope dovetail to slip in case that the dovetail knobs were accidentally loosened.
The counterweight adjustment is very simple to optimize as one only has to balance one time and mark the counterweight shaft to remember the position of the counterweights. I suggest to mark also an identification of the setup and wich side of the mark should be used.
This is one of those tasks that can spent a lot of valuable time in an imaging session. The stars have to be visible to do it so it’s imaging time wich we are spending while trying to align the mount. It’s very important to optimize this subject.
This is the position (0,0) of the mount. In this position the telescope is oriented to DEC 0º and RA 12h. An accurate Home Position is important to get accuracy at the first point of alignment. In the EQMOD documentation you can find how to refine this position.
Once refined I suggest to make some type of mark on both axes to allow recover with minimal accuracy the Home Position in case of having to disengage the clutches.
ALIGN MOUNT TO SKY
The syncronization of the internal coordinates of the mount with the real sky is more than necessary. In most cases, the objects to be shooted are too dim to be seen, even with high gain or binned exposures, so it’s essential to have a good synchronization. To achieve this, almost all the mounts developed to be used in astrophotography have an alignment routine to build an alignment points cloud in wich the user slews to a coordinate (bright stars normally) and reports the measured pointing error of the equipment in this specific area of the sky.
My mount is operated by EQMOD, sofware that manages algiment points in a list that can be recovered every session.
This points will be valid unless the user changes the equipment (the alignment point errors take into account differential flexures and other errors specifics from every setup) or disengage the RA or DEC clutches.
There is a technique called Plate Solve that solves that problem. Once the mount in slewed to a specificied coordinate, the camera takes an image that is compared with the expected stellar maps. The software computes the real coordinates and resyncs the mount.
This method doesn’t require to have a alginment pointing map but has its own counterpart. It works by giving feedback of an offset of the real position of the mount so errors due to differencial flexures, atmosferic refraction, an others, are not taked into account and are not corrected from slew to slew. That means that if we are going from one side of the sky (plat solved) to the opposite, it is possible that the difference betwen the mount coordinates and the plate solved image coordinates were too big to the software to solve the slew correctly.
I’m currently investigating the possibility to combine alignment points with plate solving in order to get the best from both methods. The objective is to have alignment point clouds for every equipment and/or locations (not sure wich will be the requirements yet) and use the plate solving to effectively remove the offset produced for the eventual disengaging of the clutches.
Anyway it’s important to note as mentioned in the section about balance, the importance of not to disengage the clutches to keep the Home Position. This is key to keep good GoTo capabilities. In my case, I almost never disengage them, as I don’t need to balance, and my GoTo precision keeps always around 10 arcmin. Good enough for the FOV that I manage with my main setup, that works at about 110 arcmin.
ALIGN FINDERSCOPE TO TELESCOPE
With the implementation of Plate Solving the finderscope is not an essential accesory to imaging, so I directly removed it from my optical train.
Anyway, it can be useful to install some kind of quick-release attachment for the finderscope if you tinhg you are going to need it.
To control all the equipment means to connect a lot of cables to it. The more automatized is the equipment, the more cables it will need. The result of this connections are sometimes called «monster cable» as it is a really annoying aspect of the setup. Cables tend to snag, can cause differential flexures to the optical train if they hang, they can produce bumps in the image if the hit anything while tracking, one can run into them when moving aroung the telescope in the darkness… and on top of this, to wire the equipment every session is tedious and boring (at least for me). That’s why I started a project to optimize all the related with cable management and the result was the construction of a case taht I call Astrohub, that contains all the cables, hubs, power supplies (and some more things) necessary to control the telescope.
If you are interested in this project, you can check my article Astrohub: An Imaging Management Project.
With a case like this, the telescope control is so easy, monster cable has gone and I can sleep all night without cable nightmares.
WIRE CAMERA, GUIDE CAMERA AND MOUNT
The Astrohub has all the equipment cables grouped togheter, and the clamping points are marked on the cables, so for wiring I only have to take the equipment cable, clamp it to the mount following the marks on the cable, and connect the devices.
This is a task that normally took me about 15 min (to wire, check, adjust, etc…) and now takes me 1 min. A great improvement in here.
POWER CAMERAS AND MOUNT AND CONNECT IT TO COMPUTER
The same as before. All the connections are managed by the Astrohub. The power cables are included in the equipment cables, so I power the equipment at the same time that I connect the USB interfaces.
I included switches to the Astrohub to control when to power up the devices.
To power the Astrohub I use a single cable that distributes the current to all the power supplies.
The connection to the computer is as simple as the equipments connections. Again, one master cable that groups all the connections to the computer (only two in my case) making this task as quick as 5 seconds.
The use of autoguiding programs like PHD, has let astrophotographers to save a lot of time. Anyway, in my opinion there’s some room for improvement. Apart of the task of guiding itself, that now if fully automated, the user has to invest some time by calibrating the autoguider any time the guide camera and/or guidescope is disassembled from the telescope.
ATTACH GUIDESCOPE TO TELESCOPE
By now, the improvement that I made is as simple as not to disassemble the guidescope between multiday sessions (in fact, I let all the equipment assembled, and protected of course). Is not a big improvement in fact. I use to let the guidescope assembled even when I finish the session and I store the equipment, but as the attachement of the setup to the mount can have minor misalignments once reattached, in this case I prefer to recalibrate. The calibration process can be forced by software and can be integrated in the imaging sequence, so it can be disclassified as time spent by the user.
ATTACH CAMERA TO GUIDESCOPE
As in the previous section, the attachement of the guide camera to the guidescope has not much improvement apart of letting it assembled to the guidescope as long as possible.
My guidescope is a DIY project on wich I designed it and printed in 3D. That allowed me to adapt the design to my specifical needs, but it has some counterparts too. It has no focuser, so focusing is a little bit tricky, even more if one has to combine focusing and rotating adjustment at the same time. You can read more about this project in my article 3D Printed Guidescope.
To make focusing easier I take profit of a stopper ring that came with my guide camera.
And to match the orientation of the camera I designed some marks on the guidescope and marked the camera too.
Anyway, the best method to keep the focus and alignment of the guide camera is to not to remove it from the guidescope.