A dazzling multiplicity of worlds : summary of Fontenelle’s Plurality of Worlds (1686)
Frontispice of Fontenelle’s Entretiens Sur la Pluralité Des Mondes (1686)
Here I summarize an influential science-popularizing book by Bernard De Fontenelle, entitled Conversations on the Plurality of Worlds (1686), in French Entretiens sur la pluralité des mondes.
This post is based on an earlier Twitter thread that got retweeted a lot, and I hope this way to keep a bit more permanent record.
As background music, I recommend this subtle performance of Les Voix Humaines, Marin Marais (roughly of the same period) by Brandon Acker and Craig Trumpeter.
All quotes are from the 1990 Hargreaves translation. There are various earlier translations, as well as the French original, freely available online.
The Plurality of worlds is a series of five dialogues between a Marquise and a philosopher, set over five evenings (Fontenelle added a sixth evening in later editions, mainly with replies to objections, but I will disregard this and focus on the first edition, published in 1686).
It offers a disorienting, startling vision of a myriad of inhabited worlds. First, a quick review of the major themes.
Major theme 1. popularizing astronomy
In the late 17th century, astronomy was only beginning to come into its own as a discipline. It was still part of natural philosophy, i.e., that part of philosophy that deals with the natural world. The received scientific picture well into the 1600s was Ptolemy’s geocentrism, a picture where the universe was very small, with the Earth at its center, surrounded by planets, the Moon, and crystalline spheres with the stars.
Not 100 years before the publication of Plurality of Worlds, Giordano Bruno was burned at the stake for suggesting that there were multiple inhabited worlds. Galilei Galileo also had an unpleasant brush with the inquisition only 50 years ago. Although heliocentrism was significantly accepted in scientific circles, it was still relatively new.
Moreover, once heliocentrism became accepted, the implication becomes that our sun is just one among many. The sun is no longer at the center, but just comes one among many. If that is the case, might there be life on other planets that orbit other suns? This is the main puzzle presented in Plurality of Worlds.
Major theme 2. Education and emancipation of women
This is a series of dialogues between a Philosopher and a Marquise, while they stroll in her garden in the evenings and watch the stars. The viewpoint character (the “I”) is the philosopher. At the time, natural philosophy encompassed many scientific disciplines, including Astronomy, so the Philosopher is an obvious choice for the voice who instructs (and comments) on new astronomical insights.
However, the choice of the Marquise is less obvious. At the time that Fontenelle wrote, it was unusual to have a woman feature in a philosophical dialogue. Women were commonly thought to be inferior to men (in virtue, physical ability, intelligence). Moreover, dialogues were often presented between adversaries (see e.g., dialogues written by Hume or Galileo), where different characters would defend different positions. Here, however, the discourse is more akin to a discussion between a teacher and a brilliant, quick-witted student.
In 17th century France, a lot of discourse had turned openly misogynistic, deriding learned women as somehow silly or ridiculous. This was because men did not like the competition of women, especially wealthy female patrons of salons, in the public intellectual sphere. Several of these were patrons to Fontenelle. (see below for a pejorative cartoon from the early 19th century, deriding learned women as “bas-bleu” –from the English “blue stocking”, expressing the sentiment that a woman who reads and educates herself would quickly leave–the horror–her husband to do some of the childcare).
Basically, women were denied a lot of formal opportunities for education and if they wanted to educate themselves they were ridiculed for it. Not so by Fontenelle. His Marquise is clever, witty, a worthy conversation partner to the philosopher (the dialogue is written in first-person from the philosopher’s perspective), but also has not had any astronomy lessons before, so a completely blank slate about this.
Major theme 3. Science as emancipatory
Fontenelle aimed to write a book that was easy to understand and that had literary qualities, he refers to La Princesse De Clèves (a hugely influential novel, considered to be the first modern psychological novel) and hoped his book would have similar literary aspirations. The aim of the book is outreach and science popularization, so he wanted to be accessible, including to women who had hardly enjoyed any formal education.
Fontenelle believed science would emancipate us from being slaves of our passions, would free us from ignorance and prejudice, would help us realize how nature is marvelous and interconnected. These are all major themes in the Enlightenment and the Encyclopedistes later on.
He succeeded in his popularizing aims. The Entretiens sur la pluralité des mondes enjoyed enormous success. For instance, it was translated by the first female professional writer in England, Aphra Behn, just a couple of years after its publication in French.
Summary of the work
Now on to the Plurality of worlds itself. In the Preface to the work, Fontenelle explicitly makes the case for why a woman as interlocutor to the astronomy-knowledgeable philosopher.
The aims are emancipatory and pedagogical: “I thought this fiction would serve to make the work more enticing, and to encourage women through the example of a woman who, having nothing of an extraordinary character, without ever exceeding the limitations of a person who has no knowledge of science, never fails to understand what is said to her… Why would any woman accept inferiority to this imaginary Marquise, who only conceives of things of which she can’t help but conceive?”
Since Plurality of Worlds (spoiler) raises the possibility of alien life on myriad planets in myriad solar systems, Fontenelle must address some theological thorny issues. Did these creatures fall? They are, after all, not children of Adam. Fontenelle brushes these worries aside.
The first evening
The first evening starts with the Marquise and the Philosopher strolling in her garden in a pleasant evening breeze. As they watch the moon and stars, he raises the possibility that “every star could well be a world”.
He thinks that because it is pleasing, and pleasure is part of truth. The Marquise then asks him to share this truth. He first declines, saying it’s not enjoyment like comedy, she replies “Do you think I’m incapable of enjoying intellectual pleasures?” So he proceeds.
First, he offers an idea of what philosophy is. “All philosophy is based on two things only. Curiosity and poor eyesight”. If we had better eyesight (or more generally, less limited senses) we could simply peer up and see what these solar systems look like. But we can’t so we need philosophical speculation. If we lacked curiosity, we would not care about these solar systems.
He then likens nature to the back of an opera-house where you can see the mechanisms at work. The Marquise at first has some qualms about this mechanistic picture of nature, objecting that this is very mechanical, but later she says “Now that I know it’s like a watch, it’s superb that…the whole of nature is based upon such simple things”.
Then comes a discussion of why astronomy is such a great science to dabble in (the perfect pastime in the countryside), as well as an exposition of the Ptolemaic old geocentric view. To arrive at his vision of myriad inhabited worlds, Fontenelle eases the reader very gradually. First comes an exposition of Copernicus’ heliocentrism.
The Philosopher sings the praises of Copernicus, painting him as an iconoclast, as someone who put us in our place, away from the center of the universe.
He then explains how the Ptolemaic picture is all wrong and too complicated and explains Copernicus’ picture of sun, planets, the Earth just one of the planets and then comes a really charming, witty piece of dialogue that I include below to give a flavor of the work.
“You’ve forgotten the Moon,” said the Marquise.
“I’ll find her again,” said I. “The Moon turns around the Earth and never leaver her in the circle the Earth makes around the Sun. If she moves around the Sun it’s only because she won’t leave the Earth.
“I understand,” she said, “and I love the Moon for staying with us when all the other planets have abandoned us.”
Fontenelle, Plurality of Worlds, First evening.
The Philosopher explains that people clung on to Ptolemy because they want to put themselves at the center (of the universe), much like a courtier who tries to place himself in the most prominent position at court. The Marquise then objects: if that is right, how could we ever have accepted Copernicus?
The rest of dialogue is taken up with questions about the atmosphere, the speed of the Earth revolving around the Sun, that’s the end of the first Evening.
The second evening
Fontenelle eases the reader very gradually into his dazzling vision of multiple inhabited worlds, warming them up to the idea of alien life.
The second evening chiefly concerns the prospect of life on the Moon. He likens us looking at the Moon as Parisians looking at Saint-Denis from a distance (a northern suburb of Paris, currently), and not noticing any living person. They would certainly be wrong to conclude there were no people living in Saint Denis (pictured).
Fontenelle is not sure that there is life on the Moon because we don’t know enough about it. But it’s certainly possible. He then forwards the idea that lunar creatures would resemble Earth life, because nature creates both unity and diversity.
He compares this to the human face. There is a lot of diversity in faces but also a unified plan (individually, and across racial lines, there is quite some discussion of early race science in this book and it has aged OK esp compared to explicit racists like Hume and Kant).
The Marquise expresses sadness that Europeans will once be able to meet the Australians, but we will never be able to meet the inhabitants of the Moon because travel to it is impossible.
“And why,” I asked, “aren’t you disturbed about the inhabitants of that great land of Australia, which is still completely unknown to us? We’re passengers, all of us, on the same ship; they occupy the bow and we the stern. You see that the bow and stern have no communication, and that at one end of the ship they have no idea of what people are at the other…”
“Oh,” she replied, “I count the inhabitants of Australia as known because surely they must resemble us closely, and we’ll ultimately know them when we want to take the trouble to go and see them… but we’ll never know the people on the Moon, and that’s heartbreaking.”
Fontenelle, Plurality of Worlds, Second evening.
The third evening
The third evening continues discussion of life on the Moon. The Philosopher confesses there is not enough information to know whether the Moon indeed has life on it, but we will not know as we cannot reach it without our technology. However, the philosopher speculates
“What if they were skillful enough to navigate on the outer surface of our air, and from there, through their curiosity to see us, they angled for us like fish? Would that please you?”
“Why not?” She answered, laughing, “As for me, I’d put myself into their nets for of my own solution just to have the pleasure of seeing those who caught me.”
( Fontenelle, Plurality of Worlds, Third evening.
Then we go on to Venus. Here, the philosopher builds on the principle of “Why not?” Why could there not be life on Venus? The Marquise objects: “Always by saying “Why not” are you going to put people on all the planets for me?”
The Philosopher says that, yes, we can populate all the planets using this principle. The Marquise objects that it’s hard to imagine all these alien life forms “My imagination is overwhelmed by the infinite multitude of inhabitants on all these planets, and perplexed by the diversity one must establish among them”.
The Fourth Evening
The Marquise and the Philosopher speculate on whether the “why not” principle could give life on Mercury or on the Sun.
They find that Mercury is possible (though very hot) but the Sun is impossible to hold life, as it is covered with “a million Mount Etnas put together,” which all “vomit flames”.
The fifth evening
We’ve left the solar system and the Marquise and the Philosopher speculate on the possibility of life in other solar systems. When realization dawns, the Marquise expresses a sentiment very similar to Pascal: “here is a universe so large that I’m lost, I no longer know where I am, I’m nothing. Each star will be the center of a vortex, perhaps as large as ours? … As many spaces as there are fixed stars? This confounds me–troubles me–terrifies me.”
However, the philosopher’s response is “This puts me at my ease. When the sky was only this blue vault, with the stars nailed to it, the universe seemed small and narrow to me; I felt oppressed by it. Now… it seems to me I breathe more freely, I’m in larger air”
In the final pages of this short work, the Philosopher and the Marquise discuss the Milky Way and the realization that it consists of thousands, millions of stars.
Just like the Moon resembles Earth (see earlier Evenings), the Milky Way’s stars each resemble our sun. They then discuss intriguing idea of stars coming into being and dying. Not long before, astronomers believed stars were eternal and unchanging, but the Philosopher argues that the “universe could have been made in such a way that it will form new suns from time to time.” He offers the analogy: Imagine a gardener walking among the roses. Since roses live so briefly, each rose would say “Our gardener is eternal and unchanging”, and they’d feel justified because no rose would’ve .
In the same way, the ancients believed the stars eternal. Fitting to the flirtatious and philosophical atmosphere throughout the discourses, the final evening ends as follows:
“You’ve arrived at the last vault of the heavens, and to tell you if there are more stars beyond that, one would have to be more able than I am. You may put more systems there or not, it’s up to you. They’re properly the province of the philosophers, those great invisible countries that may be there or not as one wishes, or be whatever one wishes. I’m satisfied to have taken your mind as far as your eyes can see.”
“Well!” She cried. “I have the whole system of the universe in my head! I’m a scholar!”
“Yes,” I answered, “you are, well enough, and you’ve the advantage of being able to believe nothing at all of what I’ve told you, whenever you choose. I only ask of you, as payment for my trouble, that you never look at the Sun, the sky or the stars, without thinking of me.”
(Fontenelle, Plurality of Worlds, Fifth evening).


People at NASA never stop to surprise me. Searching for water or presence of past life of Mars obviously needs drilling beneath the surface. So NASA is developing the Mars Underground Mole (MUM), based on a previous device used for the European Beagle 2 mission. But here is the twist. MUM will include sensors which were previously used to collect spectral imagery of Earth from pilotless aircrafts, especially Hawaii, according to NASA. While the Mole will stay on the surface on Mars and drill up to 5 meters deep, it will transmit data via a fiber optic cable to a digital array scanning interferometer (DASI). And the spectral images produced by the DASI will enable researchers to identify possible water, ice, organics and minerals under the surface on Mars. And this MUM will be a small one, weighing less than a kilogram for a length of only 50 centimeters.
Here is what NASA says about the project.
The Mole is shaped like an artillery shell. An internal sliding weight will drive the Mole into the soil. Once dug in, the Mole will connect by a tether to an apparatus on the surface. The tether will include power wires and a fiber optic cable that will transport light collected underground to a spectrometer on the surface above.
The images below are extracted from this short movie (Credit: NASA Ames Research Center).
||On this one, MUM is represented as a purple hexagon.|
||But MUM could have other shapes, just like this triangular-shaped lander shows. This variety of shapes ensures that MUM will be used for various missions.|
||Here, the 'light pipe' carries resulting spectral data back to the instruments on the surface.|
What is so special about this imaging technique?
The spectral images produced by DASI are composed of many different colors ranging from visible to infrared light. Each point of the image has spectra, rainbow-like arrays representing energy and light wavelengths that scientists can analyze. Like a fingerprint or a DNA profile, this 'spectral data' from the light reflected from a substance enables scientists to identify it. Researchers say they must be ready to identify possible water, ice, organics and minerals beneath the surface of Mars.
A lamp or laser source will illuminate soil samples through a window in the Mole. The system for collecting light underground and transmitting it to the surface is the primary new development used in the instrument.
One advantage of adapting the DASI for a Mars mission is that this instrument can be built very compactly," said Philip Hammer, a scientist at NASA Ames and co-investigator on the project. Because the DASI operates with fixed optics and no moving parts, it also is very stable under severe conditions. The entire Mole will weigh only about 2.2 pounds (1 kilogram) and be about 20 inches (50 centimeters) long.
And what about the calendar?
"One advantage of adapting the DASI for a Mars mission is that this instrument can be built very compactly," said Philip Hammer, a scientist at NASA Ames and co-investigator on the project. Because the DASI operates with fixed optics and no moving parts, it also is very stable under severe conditions. The entire Mole will weigh only about 2.2 pounds (1 kilogram) and be about 20 inches (50 centimeters) long.
"We expect to be ready to integrate the DASI instrument with the Mole by the end of 2004," said Carol Stoker, principal investigator of the project and a NASA Ames scientist. "We will then conduct laboratory and field tests of the system," she added. Laboratory chamber tests designed to simulate potential conditions on Mars will take place at NASA Ames, followed by field tests in Mars analog environments in the California desert on dry lakebeds. Later, tests may take place in permafrost conditions at Haughton Crater on Devon Island, Canada, Stoker said.
Now, let's wait until a real Mars mission comes to see if MUM really works.
Source: NASA news release, July 8, 2004


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The Cincinnati Astronomical Society was recently contacted via our website asking for some beginner's advice on digital astrophotography. This person has a Meade LX50 telescope, with a Meade DSI (deep sky imager) and a Canon Rebel DSLR. They were curious about the idea of going to a CCD camera. CAS members Pat Freeman and Eric Africa have tag teamed on some excellent advice:
My bias is towards DSLRs for beginners as the learning curve gets real steep once the jump to a CCD camera is made. Additional factors:
The DSI would probably be a satisfactory guide camera, although it’d probably require a GPUSB to use for the guide pulses. Under $100.
The Rebel is probably already useable for galaxies and star clusters, and bright nebulae.
The guiding software can be had for free (PHD Guiding) and it’ll work fine with the DSI and GPUSB…I have used it with two DSI II Pro cameras and a DSI III Pro camera.
The imaging software can be had for relatively low – or no – cost (Nebulosity or ImagesPlus).
Image processing software can be had for no cost (Irfanview).
Flats? Darks? Flat-Darks? Bias shots? Even basic deepsky astrophotography can get complicated quickly.
My advice would be to take the low-cost route as above, at least until one is certain they want to be a serious imager. They could probably leap to the next level of maturity in their imaging with their current hardware and an out-of-pocket expense of under $100, particularly if they had some mentoring. They would be completely amazed at how much they could do with no cost, but the right software and the right techniques. Only once they are completely in the pool with both feet would I recommend leaping to a CCD camera. As an example, I’ve been shooting some decent DSLR photos for more than 6 years and I’ve had a modest CCD camera with color filter wheel for 2 years now, and yet I still tend to reach for the DSLR first, since my time is limited and I can get full-color shots in less time and with less complications.
What are your imaging goals?
If imaging planets, almost any webcam can work as a start. Celestron’s original Neximage is a good starter camera. Although for best sensitivity, monochrome webcams work far better at capturing subtle details over color webcams. A good example (and much pricier than the Neximage Solar System imager) is the line of CCD-based monochrome cameras from Imaging Source.
If you want to see more details of dimmer deep sky objects (DSO) without squinting at an eyepiece, consider sensitive video-stacking cameras such as the Mallincam.
If you do want to capture nice images of mostly DSO’s, then we start to creep into the realm of CCD imagers. However, you may already have a nice imaging camera on hand right now!
What are your existing cameras?
You could be pleasantly surprised at what can be achieved using the cameras you already have. Brighter deep sky objects (all the Messiers, for instance) can be captured with today’s DSLR’s with impressive results.
Is your scope mounted on a wedge? For longer exposure imaging, all telescopes must be polar aligned on an equatorial mount to prevent the effects of field rotation from creeping in. Equatorial mounts are either German Equatorial mounts or wedge-mounted forks.
Specifically for any fork-mounted Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope (SCT) owners, one challenge you are facing is that you are imaging with a Schmidt-Cassegrain. Nothing inherently wrong with the design, but more than anything, you are starting off imaging at about 2500mm focal length. This is considered high resolution imaging. Look at it this way: if you gaze with a hand-held pair of low-power binoculars (let’s say 5X magnification), views will be less magnified but also less shaky than they would be with a pair of 12X binoculars. The same can be said of long-focal length (roughly translated in imaging terms to magnification) imaging: the least tremors or vibrations will be picked up by your optics, which will translated to smeared or trailed images. You are not out of luck, though; you can alleviate this somewhat by installing a focal reducer (the standard f/6.3 SCT reducer/corrector is perfect) on your SCT. Even better, you can start off with wide-field imaging by (budget allowing) piggybacking a small refractor on your SCT and using that to start off with. The lower magnification (by virtue of its shorter focal length) of the refractor will provide pleasing wide-field views of bigger targets, and will also be more forgiving of tracking errors.
Are there any clubs nearby?
It will be very helpful to meet experienced imagers in your area who can mentor you and guide you through your astro-imaging journey. Short of that, the Internet is a wonderful resource as well. Sites such as Cloudy Nights or imaging-related discussion groups at Yahoo and elsewhere can also prove invaluable. But having someone to chat with, or just hang out with so you can see their workflow can also prove to be valuable.
Check out Pat's website (www.astro-pat.com) and Eric's website (www.skiesbyafrica.com) for examples of their amazing astrophotography!
Thanks for contacting the Cincinnati Astronomical Society! We hope this was helpful!


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Pearls of Wisdom
How far we have come from the days of simple nomadic hunter-gathers on the plains of some distant continent, a continent most of us have no connection with, some lost link that we are forever seeking to re-discover. How different we must have been in these days long ago when we traveled with the seasons and the cycles of nature. We paid attention to the ground under our feet, the seasons, the signs from nature and it was our teacher. Nature provided for us, it gave us what we needed, there was a direct sense of providing; what we needed came from earth itself, picked by our hands, by our own hands, no one else. We were involved in an intimate feedback loop with Nature itself and this connection was just as deep as is a connection between and child and its parents.
Humans now resemble lost puppies running around a large open space, we are lost and aimless, looking for our masters, we are puzzled, wandering, wondering where they’ve gone. In the process of “progressing and developing” it seems we have lost something, something vital and numinous that was tied into our being or our psyches in the early stages of our existence. I wonder what it must have been like to witness the great Zodiacal Light of Milky Way galaxy every night, weather-permitting of course, how that must have looked, that power coming from the sky at night, a guide, a teacher, now most children see only a few stars in the skies at night, the beauty has been destroyed. This destruction of our connection with life around us is evolving at a frightening pace; the disconnection is becoming ever more powerful even as you read this sentence.
Nuggets of Dirt
Cory Ian Shafer


Waiting for community copies :(
Stars Above: Wanderhome Supplement
A downloadable game
Look, up there. See that one? That’s your sign. It will point you true,
keep you safe, and always remind you who you are.
Everyone has stared up at the night sky at one time or another and felt
a connection there. Whether they see a familiar shape in the stars or
feel awed by the sheer vastness of that inky black, there is
always something smiling back.
STARS ABOVE is a collection of supplemental content for Wanderhome themed around the night sky and the vast mysterious it holds. It includes:
- 2 playbooks: the Astronomer and the Astrologer
- 6 traits: Analytical, Contemplative, Prescriptive, Intuitive, Dismissive, and Embarrassed
- 3 natures: Void, Observatory, and Ritual
- 2 holidays: Aeora’s Comet and Starfall
- 10 star signs: constellations and descriptions for every month of the year
STAR SIGNS are a new way to create and explore your character. By choosing a birth month and a corresponding star sign, you learn a bit more about their personality, both through what they are and what they are not.
This is a 42-page digital book that comes in color and B&W versions.
Wanderhome is copyright of Possum Creek Games Inc.
STARS ABOVE is an independent production by Matthew Gravelyn and is not affiliated with Possum Creek Games Inc. It is published under the Wanderhome Third Party License.
In order to download this game you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $8 USD. You will get access to the following files:
Support this game at or above a special price point to receive something exclusive.
This is for those who want to engage with Stars Above but the cost would cause financial hardship. For every copy of the game purchased at full price, a community copy is added for those who need it. Please take advantage of this if you need to, no questions or judgement.
- Stars Above - New Celestial Wanderhome ContentSep 29, 2021


July 17, 1975: in the silence of the vastness of space, the American spacecraft Apollo joined the orbit of the Soviet Soyuz… The airlock hatches opened and the Commander Thomas Stafford exchanged a warm handshake with his counterpart Alexey Leonov. A challenge that was symbolic, scientific, political, ideological, but first and foremost military. After six years of tricky collaboration, the Apollo Soyuz Test Project ended a twenty-year struggle for control of space. By collaborating, the two superpowers wanted at once to defuse the tensions linked to the Cold War and to reaffirm that they were the only ones to have mastered manned space flight. This documentary tells us this unique event through the testimonies of the principal mission members, specialists who bring a technical and political points of view, revealing the real stakes of the mission. Wonderful archive footage, 3D animations and now-avalaible archives of spectacular quality and rarely used will rekindle the emotion of the meeting.


The movie First Man tells the story of Neil Armstrong and the Apollo 11 moon landing, one of NASA’s most notable figures and one of the agency’s crowning achievements, is the foundation of NASA’s legacy of achievements in exploration and discovery. 16/10/2019 · NASA has unveiled two new spacesuits tailored for astronauts to walk on the moon as it aims to return to the lunar surface by 2024. Two engineers wore the suits on stage at NASA's headquarters in Washington DC to reveal what the first zero-gravity outfits will look like under its Artemis moon. 09/05/2018 · Nasa still aims to ‘establish American leadership in the human exploration of Mars’, its head says. Photograph: Alamy Stock Photo The US effort to return to the moon will not undermine its mission to be the first country to put a human on Mars, the new head of Nasa insisted on Wednesday. In.
18/10/2019 · NASA has unveiled two new spacesuits tailored for astronauts to walk on the moon as it aims to return to the lunar surface by 2024. The European Space Agency and aerospace company Airbus have already delivered a propulsion and supply module for an unmanned flight of NASA's new Orion spacecraft next year. The agency said today that it and Airbus have now agreed with NASA to build a module for a second, manned mission that will fly around the moon as early as 2021.
NASA unveiled two new spacesuits designed for the space agency’s Artemis moon mission to take Americans back to the moon by 2024. One of the spacesuits, called Exploration Extravehicular Mobility Unit, or xEMU for short, will be worn by astronauts while exploring the surface of the moon’s South Pole. 08/10/2019 · Also of Interest. The Moon Trees - Trees planted from seeds taken to the Moon on the Apollo 14 mission; The Double Blue Moon of 1999 - and information on Blue Moons in general. About the LRO Mission. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter is a NASA robotic spacecraft currently orbiting the Moon in an eccentric polar mapping orbit. LRO data is essential for planning NASA's future human and robotic missions to the Moon. Read More.
The Apollo program, also known as Project Apollo, was the third United States human spaceflight program carried out by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration NASA, which succeeded in landing the first humans on the Moon from 1969 to 1972. 08/02/2016 · NASA Will Return to the Moon in Preparation for Human Mars Mission. engineers at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans—one of the largest manufacturing plants in the world—have been busy welding together the Orion’s crucial underlying structure. to the Observer.
NASA’s 2024 Moon Mission is called Artemis, and Will Need an Additional $1.6 Billion in Funding The Moon’s going to have more human visitors in the year 2024. NASA has announced that their mission to the Moon, which is named Artemis after the Greek goddess of hunting, has been advanced by four years, from 2028 to 2024. 16/10/2019 · NASA unveiled two new spacesuits, Tuesday, October 15, designed for the space agency’s Artemis moon mission, which is scheduled to return Americans to the moon by 2024. One of the suits, called the Exploration Extravehicular Mobility Unit, will be worn by astronauts while exploring the surface of the moon’s south pole. The second. NASA is planing to send 4 astronauts vabck to the moon in 2018. NASA has already begane sending orbiters to the moon. the first one was called LRO. its going to be there until sometime in october. its plane is to crash into the luner surface. the date this is going to happen i have no clue. well the new rockets that are going to send the men.
20/08/2019 · Scientists working on an audacious mission to the ocean world of Europa can proceed with the final design and construction of the spacecraft, Nasa says. The Europa Clipper mission will target the ice-encrusted moon of Jupiter, which is considered a prime target in the search for life beyond Earth. 02/11/2017 · It's been 45 years since a crewed spacecraft journeyed toward the moon with a "trans-lunar injection," but NASA plans to make that happen again in just a few years. The agency recently released a video showing the profile for the first uncrewed test of its new moon mission profile, called Exploration Mission 1 EM-1.
NASA unveiled two new spacesuits designed for the space agency's Artemis moon mission to take Americans back to the moon by 2024. Lunar Flashlight is an exciting new mission concept that was recently selected by NASA's Advanced Exploration Systems AES by a team from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the.
28/06/2019 · Introducing Dragonfly: our next New Frontiers Mission! Making multiple flights, the Dragonfly dual-quadcopter will explore a variety of locations on Saturn's moon Titan. Titan is an analog to the very early Earth, and can provide clues to how life may have arisen on our planet. In under an hour, Dragonfly will cover tens of miles or. 17/10/2019 · NASA unveils two new spacesuit prototypes for mission to colonize the moon by 2024 One suit of orange fabric will be worn by astronauts when inside the spacecraft. Astronauts will wear a much bigger mostly white suit on the lunar surface. In 1966, Luna 9 became the first spacecraft to achieve a controlled soft landing, while Luna 10 became the first mission to enter orbit. Between 1968 and 1972, crewed missions to the Moon were conducted by the United States as part of the Apollo program. 02/11/2017 · NASA is getting ready to send humans back to the moon again. The agency — tasked by the Trump administration to land there — is preparing for an uncrewed test of its spacecraft out past low Earth orbit, called Exploration Mission 1 EM-1. The mission is slated for 2019 and will test both the. 20/07/2019 · Fifty years ago, Neil Armstrong took the first steps on the moon. With the announcement of the long awaited Artemis mission, NASA plans to send the first man and woman to the Moon.
07/11/2019 · NASA Unveils New Spacesuits for 2024 Artemis Moon MissionNASA unveiled its next-generation spacesuits for the 2024 Artemis program that will launch the first woman and the next man to land on the moon.
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Throughout history, the sighting of a comet was often seen as a sign of doom.
But this week, when scientists at the European Space Agency’s mission headquarters in Darmstadt, Germany, landed a probe on a distant, speeding comet, the news was greeted with delight.
The European agency on Wednesday confirmed that its probe, called Philae, had successfully detached from the Rosetta space craft and was heading towards Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko 510 million kilometers (316 million miles) from Earth.
In dramatic photos released Thursday morning in Europe, Philae's camera, developed in Germany, took vivid images of an otherworldly landscape of curved mesas and cliffs, highlighted against the naked illumination of the sun millions of miles away.
In a preliminary assessment, scientists said that Philae bounced three times before settling on the speeding ball of rock, gas and dust, but had apparently achieved a stable position to take photos and commence with nine on-board experiments.
The space engineers were not sure at first if the washing-machine sized craft would land.
Philae was supposed to use a combination of harpoons and thrusters to counteract the recoil of the harpoons, and land smoothly on the surface. But at the last moment, the thrusters appeared to fail. Despite that, Philae seemed to land successfully.
Scientists initially had announced Wednesday that they were receiving data from the lander's nine experiments, but hinted that the craft had had a rough landing -- ending up perhaps on its side, its back, or not being fully tethered to the speeding comet.
By late Wednesday, Philae lost its line of site contact with the orbiting Rosetta craft and communications back to earth -- which took 28 minutes -- were interrupted.
But photos released this morning in Europe by the agency appeared to confirm that Philae had largely surived its complicated landing intact, and would be in a good position to accompany the comet on its journey around the sun.
According to the European Space Agency's website, a news conference has been planned for 2pm CET, 8 a.m. today in New York.
Scientists are still analyzing just what happened, but the elation over landing in some form on the comet was palpable in Germany and in France, where the mission was jointly planned and executed.
Alvaro Giménez, ESA’s director of science and robotic exploration, said the successful landing was a “game changer in cometary science and space exploration.”
The next few days are crucial. Philae will be able to gather images for 2.5 days, and then, if its solar panels and rechargeable battery work successfully, could operate until March. Rosetta will also continue to follow the comet for more than a year, observing its activity.
The probe is meant to gather and analyze data on the comet, a 4-kilometer long piece of hurtling rock and dust that scientists believe was produced during the early days of the universe.
“Rosetta is trying to answer the very big questions about the history of our solar system. What were the conditions like at its infancy and how did it evolve? What role did comets play in this evolution? How do comets work?” said Matt Taylor, a Rosetta project scientist.
The comet landing was well over a decade in the making.
Comets are one of the mysteries of the solar system. They are often visible from earth and some scientists believe that life on earth began when comets crashed onto the earth’s surface, introducing water, the key ingredient of life. In 2004, the ESA launched Rosetta in the hopes that it would track a comet and launch a probe to land on its surface.
Rosetta has been flying near the comet for months collecting images that helped scientists choose a suitable landing site. The first images showed the comet surface covered with boulders, cliffs and precipices, with jets of gas and dust streaming from the surface.
The landing was a major boost for the ESA and pan-European projects.
In the years after World War II, European governments realized that many of their best scientists were leaving to work in the United States or the Soviet Union and decided to cooperate to compete in the field of space exploration.
In 1961, scientists from 10 European countries set up cooperative organizations to carry out space exploration. The space operations center opened in Darmstadt, a picturesque city in southern Germany just outside Frankfurt, in 1967.
The European national agencies combined to form the European Space Agency in 1975.
France and Germany are now the ESA’s biggest supporters in terms of cash and investment. Several countries, including France and Italy, had fallen behind on their payments to the ESA.
But the agency's head of corporate planning and control, Gerhard Kreiner, said at the start of the year that all member countries had made significant efforts to repay the amounts they owe, despite the ongoing financial crisis in the euro zone.
Since 2004, the European Union has financially supported the space agency. However, there are now tensions over just how far the ESA, which includes a handful of countries not in the European Union, should come under the control and influence of the bloc.
Key tensions include how countries contribute to and benefit from the ESA’s work.
Germany, which has one of Europe’s most successful space projects, both through the ESA and the German Aerospace Center, known as DLR, wants the ESA to maintain its independence, and to keep its principle of geographical return, where a country that invests in an ESA project will get back returns proportionate to what it put in.
The European Union wants investments and returns to be calculated along different lines.
There in an ongoing rivalry between the space agencies on either side of the Atlantic.
In 1989, NASA had sent an unmanned space craft named Galileo to land on the surface of Jupiter. It landed successfully in 1995.
Europe has also been racing to compete with the United States in satellite and space technology. It is developing its own global navigation satellite system, also called Galileo, which will provide a home-grown alternative to the United States’ GPS and Russia’s Glonass tracking systems.
The success of Rosetta, named after the Rosetta Stone, a rock with text written in three different scripts that provided a key to understanding Egyptian hieroglyphics, is something that will strengthen the hand of the ESA and its operating models in the coming years.
Meera Selva is an editor at Handelsblatt Global Edition in Berlin. To contact the author: [email protected].


An experiment to measure the effects of water contamination and to clean the water was to be flown into space Tuesday night for a test.
On Tuesday night in Virginia, the rocket exploded on take off. No one was hurt, but everything on board was lost. Read more on the explosion here.
The experiment, created by a group of four eighth grade girls at the Wilkinson Middle School, was approved by the school and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, or NASA, to be flown into space for testing.
“This isn’t like it’s going to Lansing, to the governor. It’s going to space. And it’s the ultimate coolness,” said Randy Speck, superintendent of Madison Public Schools.
Speck said he was very proud and excited about this achievement, and the school is also organizing a watch party to witness the live event on TV.
“This is an amazing story of kids having relevant and hands-on education to where they took the scientific education that we all studied in school, they put it to actual use and now their experiment with a really cool artistic design is going to the space station,” he said.
The design that Speck mentioned is another big achievement for the school.
An eighth grader, Tanner Barndollar, created a patch design for the astronauts to be taken into space and was selected out of nearly 56,000 submissions from across the nation.
The students who created the water experiment are four girls who migrated from Iraq to Madison Heights a year ago.
The girls, Farah Sabah, Maryam Kafra, Ragina AlSabah and Israa AlFadhli, said at one point during their three-month research on the project, they lost all their work due to a computer glitch.
The project is part of the National Center for Earth and Space Education that invites students to take part in the program from across the country.
NASA TV will broadcast the launch of the experiment live at 6:45 p.m. EST on Monday, Oct. 27.


Planet 10 and/or Planet 9 was is a good news for all nostalgic astronomy enthusiasts that our solar system would have 9 planets again. But it seems that their happiness was short-lived, since NASA is skeptical planet 9 and urges people to have to wait for further scientific evidence before celebrating the signing and researching ancient Roman gods name.
However, researchers have confirmed that the discovery is still just a theory – has been discovered no concrete evidence for the elusive Planet Nine previously
It is a stirring thought: a planet 10 times larger than the earth orbiting the sun, lurking anywhere near beyond Neptune. But no actual planet yet been discovered – and a NASA scientist warned maintains its existence at this point.
Headlines in January this year were claims that the discovery of a new planet had been made known only as Planet Nine after the scientists noticed something was going on with the alignment of Pluto and its four moons. Researchers noticed a discrepancy in the relative weights on the dwarf planet and its satellites are, and argued that there must be another massive body was is to influence others around him.
While studying images from the Kuiper Belt, recognised the two astronomers, that a large number of icy bodies and dirt are behaving strangely. They seemed as if they were attracted by a larger object.
The researchers then gathered more data and fed it with a computer simulation. The simulation predicted that explains caused only by an appeal of a planet the strange movement of the body and the wreckage. This led astronomers to publish their work quickly and keep their new discovery Planet 9 or Planet X.
This planet is nine as much as 20 times the distance of Neptune from our star, the sun to lie. It is therefore in the Kuiper Belt.
The paper, which serves as a hypothetical model for it, so that the presence of a huge celestial bodies in the Kuiper Belt to can explain the behaviour of some of the objects in the region.
Basically, it’s to see the goal of the whole enterprise, which lies beyond the solar system. In order to go from the known to the unknown, which this planet comes in nine. And while the ball was rolling on her trail, there is plenty of research that carried out must be done to confirm the results.
Where’d Planet Nine come from and how it came at the end in the outer solar system? Scientists have long believed that the early solar system began to grip around with four planetary cores, which went on to all of the gas around them, form the four gas planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Over time, collisions and ejections they shaped and pulled them from their current locations. “But there is no reason that it would not have five wires, instead of four,” says Brown. Nine Planet could represent this fifth core, and if it is too close to Jupiter or Saturn, it could have been ejected in his distant, eccentric orbit.
Batygin and Brown continued to refine their simulations and learn more about the orbit of the planet and its influence on the distant solar system. Meanwhile, Brown and other colleagues have begun looking to the sky for planets Nine.
If Planet Nine existed, scientists believe it would be more than 20 times farther from the sun than is the last gas giant of its kind, Neptune
Would expect scientists to extend the planet somewhere in the Kuiper Belt, the region of tiny, ice-covered rocks, and includes up to find about Pluto at the very outer edge of the solar system. So far no one has been able to get a visual confirmation of the mysterious Planet Nine. The researchers expect that it would be easy to observe with a telescope and predict that it would take a sighting a couple of months before confirmation of scanning. Until someone the planet provides, however, there is no way to prove that it exists. Stay tuned for more news Planet Nine voted as the astronomers carry a wide census of the outermost reaches of the solar system in the coming months.
Many professional astronomers have said that was found after washing the sky, no proof of such a planet. Had it been there, it would have recognized a long time ago.
Because the telescopes are as powerful as the probability of a planet nine would be certain now. Since this is just a case of smoke and mirrors, however, was not a permanent establishment has emerged to date.


There is a body of research which sidesteps the Big Bang, supposing a completely separate form of universal origin. Working within the parameters of Einstein’s general relativity, this cosmological model envisions a bounded, finite universe approximately 50 times smaller in size than its current diameter. Initially, the universe would have consisted of only two components: empty space and pure water. With all the fundamental forces of nature in place and functional at the moment of inception, the water in this primal universe would have existed as a massive hydrological superstructure of normal temperature and density at least two light years in diameter! That body of water contained all the material that would come to exist in the universe.
Immediately following its foundation, the immense density of this sphere – rotating slowly in empty space – would have been great enough to force the fabric of space to contort around it, forming a massive black hole. The event horizon (the furthest boundary of the phenomenon) of that black hole would have fallen some 500 million light-years away from the centralized body of water. Huge gravitational forces – more than a million trillion “g”s – immediately compressed the superstructure inward faster than the speed of light, rapidly generating incredibly high temperatures, pressures, and densities. Within the interior of the superstructure, the hydrogen and oxygen atoms of the water molecules were torn asunder, breaking them down into their elementary particles. Molecules disassociated into atoms, atoms split into particles, and particles shattered into their constituent quarks and gluons!
The conditions of this collapse would have been sufficient to initiate thermonuclear fusion, producing not only intense flashes of light in a previously dark universe but also, by way of nucleosynthesis, generating a range of new, heavier atomic nuclei in the process. As such, from what was initially simply water was born a range of other elements, including silicon, iron, carbon, etc. The light birthed from these rapid reactions would have briefly shown within the great watery sphere, breaching the surface and illuminating it like a star all across its hot surface.
As the compression of the hydrological sphere (now effectively an exotic plasma) continued, the intrinsic gravity of that mass becomes so great that the light generated from nucleosynthesis could no longer overcome its grasp, and darkness returned to the nascent universe. Massive gravitational fields continued to drive compression and the rotation speed of the superstructure increased.
At this point, due to outside forces, the immaterial fabric of space begins to stretch outward in all directions, increasing what is known as the “cosmological constant.” As with the initial gravitational collapse, the speed of this expansion is not governed by the speed of light, and thus occurs far more rapidly than one would anticipate physically possible. Immediately, under the strain of the new conditions, the initial black hole transformed into a white hole. Whereas black holes consume matter and energy, in the process increasing the radius of their event horizons, white holes instead eject matter and energy that resides within it, ultimately decreasing the size of its event horizon, shrinking into ultimate nonexistence.
- Black Hole = Take in matter, growing bigger & stronger
- White Hole = Eject matter, shrinking until they no longer exist
Thus as the fabric of space pioneered outward, the initial compression of the watery superstructure ceased and changed course, expanding outward instead. Driven by the outgoing momentum of the white hole’s nature, a massive portion of the superstructure tore away from its deepest, centralized region. A substantial tidal wave of this material (light years in diameter) shot outwards spherically, thinning and cooling as its surface area increased. Behind this wall of water, portions trailed and detached in the space between the outer region and the core of the hydrological superstructure, forming density-locked clouds and gaseous nebulae.
As hot as it all was during this rapid period of contraction and expansion, the spreading out of the spatial fabric forced wavelengths of thermal electromagnetic radiation to become relativistically stretched across the heavens, naturally cooling the pioneering wall of water and the great drifting plasma seas behind it. Furthermore, this stretching of wavelengths, so the model claims, in time would be observable as the cosmic microwave background radiation.
There, amidst the cool nebulae, countless regions of gravitational densities begin assembling the drifting seas of hydrogen, helium, and other atoms (as formed by the initial nucleosynthesis processes) into irregular bodies. At some point in time, the waters at the furthest edge of space approached and ultimately transcended the event horizon of the white hole, in doing so proportionally shrinking it. At that time only vast clouds of hydrogen, helium, and other elements filled the expanding universe, but that material would soon populate it with a myriad planets, stars, and galaxies. In doing so, the whole universe thus would have experienced a period of timelessness, until the continued stretching of spatial fabric alleviated this condition and set everything at once on the same timeline.
– This was an excerpt from “Remnants of Eden: Evolution, Deep-Time, & the Antediluvian World.” Get your copy here today. God bless! –
FOUNDRY4 is a proud member of the International Association for Creation


I was at a wedding reception as the moon rose on Saturday night already fully shadowed by the earth. (2007 is a rare year that will feature another total lunar eclipse if you missed this one)
My tripod was in the trunk of car #1 so I slipped out of the reception hall and set it up in the parking lot as the eclipse finished up, fighting the low-level clouds that threatened to obscure.
As an added bonus just for the newlyweds, a while later I shot this photo of the now-free-from-shadow moon rising over the church where the ceremony took place.
Bracing my F717 against the tailgate of a typical big-ass Texas pickup truck I managed to hold it steady enough during the 2-second exposure to get this shot.
I'm going to print an 8x10" for the bride and groom to show them what was going on in the heavens during their wedding reception, featuring the church steeple under which they took their vows.
Hope they like it.
The distant ring around the moon is a subtle feature that had better show up in the print, or I'll be pissed.


1 edition of Solar flux atlas from 296 to 1300 nm found in the catalog.
Solar flux atlas from 296 to 1300 nm
|Statement||Robert L. Kurucz ... [et al.].|
A comprehensive model atom was developed for Si iiiiii using the most up-todate atomic data available so far. Based on the non-local thermodynamic equilibrium (NLTE) line formation for Si i, Si ii, and Si iii and high-resolution observed spectra, we determined the NLTE abundances for a sample of nine unevolved A9 to B3-type stars with well determined atmospheric parameters. Solar Flux atlas from to nm neutral Hydrogen (HI): Ca II Ca II. Hydrogen is much more abundant than Calcium. Why does the solar spectrum show such strong Ca II K line as compared to H-alpha? SSA Solar Ca II K versus Halpha Halpha is a .
Kurucz, R.L., et al. () "Solar Flux atlas from to nm" National Solar Observatory Atlas No. 1. NOAO, Sunspot, NM. Thekaekara, M.P., () "The solar constant and spectral distribution of solar radiant flux.". Evidence for planet engulfment by the star HD Kurucz, R. L., Furenlid, I., Brault, J. & Testerman, L. Solar flux atlas from to nm. NOAO for planet engulfment by the star.
Photometric Atlas of the Solar Spectrum from to A (1) with appendix from to A (2). Sterrewacht, Sonnenborgh, Utrecht (1); Minnaert, Mulders, Houtgast (2), Photometric Atlas of the Solar Spectrum from to A. Debouille, Neven, Roland, Solar Flux Atlas from to nm. R. L. Kurucz, I. Furenlid, J. Brault & L. Testerman () Solar Flux Atlas from to nm. The Sun Fraunhofer nm — K Sun K halogen K incandescent K incandescent far-infrared 0) o o o o o o o o o o o Wavelength, o o o o o o o o o o o o. o — rŸ—6ôoo T.
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: Solar Flux Atlas from to Nm (National Solar Observatory Atlas, No 1) (): Kurucz, Robert L.: Books. adshelp[at] The ADS is operated by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory under NASA Cooperative Agreement NNX16AC86ACited by: Get this from a library.
Solar flux atlas from to nm. [Robert L Kurucz;]. NASA/ADS. Solar Flux Atlas from TO NM Furenlid, I. Abstract. The solar flux atlas is presented and some basic information on the observations is given.
Publication: The Impact of Very High S/N Spectroscopy on Stellar Physics. Pub Date: Bibcode: IAUSF Author: Ingemar Furenlid. CERN Document Server Access articles, reports and multimedia content in HEP Information ; Discussion (0) Files ; Holdings.
Book Title Solar flux atlas from to nm: Author(s) Kurucz, Robert L; Furenlid, Ingemar; Brault, James; Testerman, Larry: Publication Sunspot, NM: US. National Solar Observatory, - p.
Series (National Cited by: Solar flux atlas from to nm By Robert L Kurucz, Ingemar Furenlid, James Brault and Larry Testerman Topics: Astrophysics and Astronomy. Attention is given to intensity spectra, terrestrial atmospheric spectra, the nm Solar Flux Atlas of Kurucz et al.
(), and line identifications. Bibtex entry for this abstract Preferred format for this abstract (see Preferences). Offers a high-resolution pictorial version of the spectrum of the sun created from a digital atlas observed with the Fourier Transform Spectrometer at the McMath-Pierce Solar Facility at Kitt Peak National Observatory, near Tucson, Arizona ("Solar Flux Atlas from to nm" by Robert L.
Kurucz, Ingemar Furenlid, James Brault, and Larry. ATMOS my version of the ATMOS infrared central intensity spectrum COMPUTEDSPECTRA at various resolutions for models ASUN and ASUNODFNEW FLUXATLAS Solar Flux Atlas from to nm by Kurucz, Furenlid, Brault, and Testerman FLUXATLAS Solar Flux Atlas from to nm by Kurucz, Furenlid, Brault, and Testerman rereduced by.
However, the McMath-Pierce solar telescope on Kitt Peak, on rare occasions, has been operated with the image-forming mirror replaced by a flat to obtain solar flux spectra. One set of McMath-Pierce flux spectra has been reported on by Kurucz et al () for the spectral band to nm, not corrected for terrestrial absorption.
Here one can find a high resolution pictorial version of the spectrum of the Sun, created from a digital atlas observed with the Fourier Transform Spectrometer at the McMath-Pierce Solar Facility at Kitt Peak National Observatory, near Tucson, Arizona (`Solar Flux Atlas from to nm' by Robert L.
Kurucz, Ingemar Furenlid, James Brault. SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS) Title: Solar Flux Atlas from TO NM Authors: Furenlid, I. Journal: The Impact of Very High S/N Spectroscopy on Stellar Physics: Proceedings of the nd Symposium of the International Astronomical Union held in Paris, France, June July 3, Edited by G.
Cayrel de Strobel and Monique Spite. International Astron. arXiv:astro-ph/v1 1 May High Resolution Irradiance Spectrumfrom to nm Robert L. Kurucz Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA, USA J The FTS scans that made up the Kitt Peak Solar Flux Atlas by Kurucz, Furenlid, Brault, and Testerman have been re-reduced.
The scans listed in. Directory [SUN] logical name SUN subirectories [l name] ATMOS my version of the ATMOS infrared central intensity spectrum FLUXATLAS Solar Flux Atlas from to nm by Kurucz, Furenlid, Brault, and Testerman HALLIR sunspot atlas by Hall IRRADIANCE computed irradiance in 1 cm-1 bins KPK Center and limb to nm.
National Solar Observatory Atlas No. Solar Flux from to nm. Click on the images to cycle through the spectrographs. High resolution solar spectrum About this image. A high resolution version of the spectrum of our Sun, this image was created from a digital atlas observed with the Fourier Transform Spectrometer at the McMath-Pierce Solar Facility at the National Solar Observatory on Kitt Peak, near Tucson, Arizona (‘Solar Flux Atlas from to nm’ by Robert L.
Kurucz, Ingemar Furenlid, James Brault. Solar Flux Atlas from to nm (Sunspot, New Mexico: National Solar Observatory) To submit an update or takedown request for this paper, please submit an Update/Correction/Removal Request. Books. Publishing Support. Login. We report a spectroscopic orbit with period P = ± days for the planetary companion that transits the solar-type star HD & Brault, J.Solar Flux Atlas from to nm (NOAO Atlas No.
1; Sunspot: NSO) ADS. Strong dipole magnetic fields in fast rotating fully convective stars L. Book-Review—Solar Flux Atlas from to nm. Sky magnetic. Delbouille, L., Roland, G., Brault, J., and Testerman, L.:Photometric Atlas of the Solar Spectrum from to cm-1, Kitt Peak National Observatory.
High Resolution Reference Solar Spectrum for TEMPO/GEMS and beyond Mina Kang 1, Myoung-Hwan Ahn 1, • High resolution reference solar spectrum is important for the Flux Atlas from to nm (National Solar Observatory, Sunspot, New Mexico, ) pp.Seven solar spectral atlases from the FTS.
You can access the FTS spectral atlases via direct anonymous FTP: Flux from to nm; Photosphere from to nm; Photosphere from to nm; Infrared from to nm; Sunspot from to 21, nm plus photosphere f to 22, nm; Sunspot umbra from to nm.Furenlid, and man, Solar flux atlas from nm to nm, National Solar Observatory Atlas No.
1,  NDSC Database User's Manual (June ).


Photographer - Chris Cantwell - From Monday's Fiddlers Note...
A total solar eclipse brought 12,698 people to a viewing party at the fair-grounds Monday with rides, food vendors and buildings opening at 10 a.m.
One couple flew to Nashville from California to view the event. Brooke Newton has been fascinated with astronomy since attending space camp as a child. She was accompanied by boyfriend Ajay Chanayil, who decided the eclipse was the perfect time to “pop the question.” Urging Brooke to put her eclipse glasses back on and take a look at the sun immediately after totality passed, Ajay dropped to one knee and held out his mother’s ring as Brooke, sensing movement, pulled off her glasses and looked down at him. Her hands flew to her mouth as she realized he was proposing marriage and she quickly said, “YES!”
The couple live in Studio City, where Brooke is an actress and producer and Ajay is a lawyer with Netflix.


By Tim Janes, guest contributor
Bewilderment, the new novel by Richard Powers, is now available at the Clark County Public Library. Powers is a Pulitzer Prize winner for his book The Overstory.
Bewilderment is the touching story of a father and son navigating life and the universe. The father, Theo Byrne, is an astrobiologist. Some of the most interesting passages regard our current understanding of other planets in the universe and the possibility of life beyond earth.
Theo’s son Robin is a sensitive child learning to understand our sometimes crazy world. One of the places that provide Robin with comfort is the public library.
I love the following passage from the book:
I encourage you to get out and visit the Clark County Public Library. Our library has great resources, people, and programs. Get this book or find a treasure of your own!
Tim Janes is a guest contributor to WinCity News & Views.


• From The Sun of London:
The centre of our Milky Way galaxy tastes of raspberries, say astronomers -- and smells of rum.
Scientists searching for life’s chemical building blocks found a molecule responsible for the fruit flavour. The ethyl formate also has a whiff of the Caribbean drink.
Astronomer Arnaud Belloche said: “It does happen to give raspberries their flavour -- but there are many other molecules that are needed to make space raspberries.”
The researchers had trained a 30-metre radio telescope on Sagittarius B2, a star-forming dust cloud at the heart of our galaxy.
Dr. Belloche, based in Bonn, Germany, added: “We’ve identified around 50 molecules in our survey, and two of those had not been seen before.”
He revealed the results at the European Week of Astronomy and Space Science at the University of Hertfordshire in Hatfield.
They follow claims, made in October last year, that space smells of fried steak and welding.
NASA astronauts reported the scents on their space suits.
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The weekend had been filled with friends and visitors stopping in for my Open Studio, but right in the middle of the whole thing came the announcement about the arrival of a full lunar eclipse way earlier than the crack of dawn on Saturday.
I could not resist the idea of seeing this happen first hand, so I headed out around 5:30 and headed up the hill for the seemingly best vantage point. Many of you know that I live on a hill smack-dab in the middle of Long Beach and on a clear day I can see downtown Los Angeles to the NE, Catalina Island to W and up and down the southern California coast.
Well, I was not disappointed. I pulled up and found that I was far from alone in my desire to see the red moon. Cars were already beginning to line up along the two lane road that sits along side of the hill top park, and folks young and old were taking up the watch.
I took over a spot to enjoy the spectacle both in the sky and there in the park.
Not really thinking about serious picture taking I just grabbed my digital camera...of little value in the middle of the darkness of the early morning. Not worrying too much, for it was obvious that there would be plenty of documented photos to be found, I settled in.
The full moon was slowly being engulfed. Brightly it still lit the sky, and I sang quietly to myself an all time fav song; John Renbourne's, Travellers' Prayer. There were more than a dozen stars making themselves known even with the lights of LA trying to outshine them all.
As more and more of the shadow of the earth took it's bite out of the moonlight in front of me, I could feel the sun rising to my back. It was a grand feeling watching the moon disappear as the colors of the dawn light spread further and further.
I was happy to have chosen to get up and out to experience this for myself.
Remember that silly camera? Well, as the dawn light came it provided a fun backlit photo opp of those others who chose also to see this for themselves. This is the picture I'm sharing with you here.


ULAS is a celestial body called a quasar that shines extremely brightly at a distance far from the Earth and shines 1000 times brighter than the Milky Way galaxy universe in which we live. The quasar discovered in 2011, ULAS J1120 + 0641, was 28.85 billion light-years away from Earth and was considered the farthest quasar, but in 2017 ULAS J1342 + 0928 was discovered even further away. It became the second farthest quasar. However, soon we will discover celestial bodies in the universe even farther than this quasar.
ULAS. Humankind has constantly evolved science and built the future.
ULAS is the known end of the universe for us today, and it will indeed be reversed soon.
In the hope of becoming a company that can contribute to society by making full use of our technology and science and building the future, we chose ULAS, currently known to humankind as the end of the universe, as our starting line.


Electrons of an atom are like the planets of a solar system. They are oppositely charged (the opposite ‘sex’) to the nucleus of an atom, and they are attracted to each other – just as the planets and ‘Sun’ of a solar system are. The polarized parts flow together in a particular ‘way’ that is dictated by Universal Law.
The pattern is orbital because of the nature of polarized relationships in space. There is always a center, a central sphere that gives, that flows out energy, and ‘attracts’ – and that central object is surrounded by objects that are attracted to, and attach themselves to, the center object. In the case of a solar system, the Sun is the center that all the planets revolve around. In the case of an atom, the nucleus is the center that all the electrons revolve around. They are the same thing.
The outer objects’ (electrons or planets) momentum, their ‘speed’ as they travel through space, becomes a circular movement once they are attracted to and attached to their central object (the Sun, a Star, or a Nucleus). That movement is cyclic – in other words, it keeps orbiting around and around at a certain speed, repeating its cycle in a given period of time, thus a vibrational occurrence is created of ‘cycles per… something’ (second, day, year, whatever). In the case of the Earth orbiting the Sun, it is 1 cycle per year. In the case of other planets it is faster or slower. In the case of atoms, it is very, very fast – and different for each atom.
Taking this a step further, what if everything is orbiting something, which is also orbiting something else? Then all of them function as ONE. And a complex vibrational pattern exists. They each link up with all other objects, becoming a part of their flow and one with them. In the entirety of the Universe, All things are interconnected as One in this way. And the basis of all this is the Universal pattern we see exemplified so perfectly in the atom or star systems. It follows and reflects Universal Law perfectly. This pattern flows in perfect harmony with Universal order.”
“I am beginning to understand. But I still don’t understand the ‘relationship’ it has to human relationships.”
“What if this form, this pattern, represents the relationships of beings? What if each atom is a conscious being composed of soul-mate beings? What if each solar system is a conscious being composed of soul-mate beings (each planet and ‘Sun’ is a being, in and of itself, that make One being together)? What if every being plays two roles, like both parent and child at the same time – surrendering to something, and directing something?
What if every ‘star’ is both in an outflowing, ‘positive polarity’, ‘directing’ position to its planets, but also is like a ‘planet’ to something else that it orbits? What if the planets are taking a receptive, ‘negative polarity’, surrendering posture, to a ‘sun’, but are functioning like a ‘sun’ to something else that orbits it, or is affected by it? According to the teachings, and my personal realizations, all of the above is true.”
excerpt fom: http://www.wakingtimes.com/2013/03/28/reality-is-beyond-our-perceptions/


The Sun is the centre of the solar system,
and despite its distance from Earth, has a seminal impact on our
planet. Astrologically, the Sun is often called the King of Planets.
The Earth revolves round the Sun in approximately one year. The
Earth rotates on its own axis in 24 hours. The Moon is Earths
nearest neighbour and has considerable influence on our planet.
The Moon -- known as the Queen among planets -- moves around the
Earth in 28 days and takes 2 and a half days to move in one zodiac
The time each planet takes to complete its orbit or revolution across
the zodiac is given below :
Sun : 365.2422 days
Jupiter : 11.86 years
Saturn : 29.46 years
Mercury : 87.97 days
Venus : 224.70 days
Moon : 27.32 days
Mars : 1.9 years
Uranus : 84.02 years
Neptune : 164.77 years
Pluto : 248.42 years
Rahu ( the Dragons Head) and Ketu ( the Dragons Tail)
the shadowy planets ( i.e. imaginary points of intersection in the
path of other planets) in Indian astrology, always move in a retrograde
movement. The Sun and the Moon are the only planets which are never
retrograde. The movements of the planets are not uniform, their
motions being less or more on certain days.
The Sun symbolizes the vital process by which other planetary energies
in your horoscope are integrated, or wasted. The King of planets,
the Sun represents the human soul and is a source of pivotal energy.
In Indian astrology, his nature is cruel in nature, and he is a
Kshatriya by caste. The Sun is often erroneously mistaken to be
The Moon has for long centuries been known to exert influence over
tides, and over an individuals personality.In Indian astrology,
the Moon is regarded as the queen among planets and is ranked next
to the Sun. Just as the Sun represents the soul, the Moon represents
It also represents, personality, feeling, emotions, passions, pleasure
and pain. The Moon is the only planet which waxes and wanes and
this is what we on earth term as the brighter and darker half
. In India, the former is called the Shukla Paksha and the
latter, Krishna Paksha.The waxing Moon is benefic, whereas the waning
is usually malefic. Some astrologers consider the Moon to be benefic
from fifth of Shukla Paksha to the fifth of Krishna paksha and malefic
Moon is female and Vaisya by the caste according to the Manu Samhita.
Obviously, she influences more strongly during the night as compared
to the Sun's activity during the day.The Moon is a satellite of
the Earth and nearest to the Earth, and as such has a remarkably
strong effect on the life of this planet. In Indian astrology, monthly
forecasts are often made on the basis of the transits of planets
from the natal Moon. The Moon thus occupies a pivotal position in
the Indian system of astrology.
Astrologically, Mars is a planet of dynamic energy, practical action,
impulse, creative force, heat and activation. It represents war
and military affairs. courage, physical strength, anger, passion,
fire, explosives, machinery, male sexuality. Mars represents expanding
force, awakening desire and an outgoing temperament.
In Indian astrology, Mars is a male, a dry planet and a significator
of stamina, courage, ambition, desire, weapons and immovable property.
He is the commander-in-chief, representing physical strength in
humans and is a Kshatriya by caste. He is often considered cruel
Jupiter, the Prime Minister in the solar system according to Indian
astrology, is the largest planet. It has long been associated astrologically
with growth and expansion. It also symbolizes faith, our understanding
of god, law, philosophy, politics, higher education, travel, spiritual
and material matters.
In Indian astrology, Jupiter represents, amongst other things, wisdom
and happiness. He is benefic and masculine by instinct, Brahmin
by caste and has eyes of the colour of honey.
Named after the Goddess of love, Venus symbolizes all that is beautiful,
artistic, close partnerships and relationships, women and sensuous
sexuality, style, taste. In Indian astrology,Venus often assumes
the posture of a parallel Prime Minister. She represents lust and
passion amongst humans. In Indian astrology, Venus is a benefic
planet and a Brahmin by caste, with feminine instincts.
In Western mythology, Mercury is the Messenger of the Gods, carrying
information between mortals and the deities residing on Mount Olympus.
In Indian astrology,Mercury is the heir-apparent or prince. He is
a messenger of the Sun and represents the mind and the intellect.
The most unique character of the fast-moving Mercury is its power
of commanding other planets and imbibing their qualities and characteristics.
If associated with the Sun, Mercury will gain in dignity, position,
prestige. Mercurys association with the Moon will enhance
the native's interest in the occult, and parapsychology and so on.
He represents speech in human beings. He would be benefic when associated
with benefics, malefic combined with malefics. Mercury is a Shudra
by caste and considered impotent. Some describe him as a female
Generally, Saturn is considered a teacher, but a harsh one. In Western
astrology, Saturns sway covers, amongst other things. rules
and regulations, the government, exams and tecahers, economic recession
and so on. Curiously, In Indian astrology, Saturn, a servant by
nature is considered the weakest of the planets and yet he is one
of the most important and most feared planets, being a malefic.
In Indian astrology, he belongs to a low or mixed caste, representing
discipline, system, order, diligence, prudence, discretion, persistence,
obedience and faithfulness.However, the beneficial effects of Saturn
are often misundertsood or no properly understood.
RAHU (DRAGONS HEAD)
Rahu, considered a malefic, is a shadowy planet, always in retrograde
motion. In Indian Astrology, Rahu is a fisher-man by caste, a Mlechchha,
i.e., of wicked disposition, and is courageous, inhabits mountains
and forests, and causes epilepsy, pox, worms, suicide, leprosy.At
the same time, Rahu is regarded an accelerator and a catalyst. It
magnifies the noble qualities of a house provided, of course, that
it is strongly placed and free from blemishes.
KETU (DRAGONS TAIL)
Ketu too is a shadowy planet. It is a planet of secrets and mysteries.
It catches snakes and is a sanyasin by profession. She lives on
alms, belongs to a mixed caste and knows mantras. She is a medical
practitioner, grateful but clever, and dexterous, makes pilgrimages,
practices Yoga, has divine and supernatural strength and helps in
salvation of man from the cycle of birth and rebirth. Ketu is often
described as a eunuch karmic planet.


Last week, while up teaching my annual Fall Equinox Photography Workshop out of the famed NORTH HOUSE FOLK SCHOOL in Grand Marais, Minnesota something unexpectedly happened that caught me totally by surprise.
I learned how to create artificial geomagnetic storms! My goodness, could this be a new form of global travel opportunities and fill buckets of money?
Of course not. But, it was sure a hoot discovering how it happened.
It all started when we doing light-painting up on nearby Maple Hill. At the top of the hill is a small wooden church and more importantly, no lights anywhere close by. We need the blackness of night to selectively shine our flashlights and spotlights where we choose to "paint" with light the areas we want to show up. Long exposures are necessary so we can also include the stars in the photograph. It was working quite well and everyone was creating wonderful images.
After we completed our tasks of night shooting and learning to paint with light, it was time to call it an evening. Or was it?
I offered the idea of driving a little further down the Gunflint Trail to the Elbow Lake road where within 15 minutes we could shoot more stars over a calm lake. The idea of capturing reflections of the Big Dipper on the lake surface, since it was so calm, was appealing. Three hardy folks, Steve, Gredo and Carly took me up on the proposition.
We drove down the dirt road to the lake, headlights illuminating a dark narrow road, and after several twists and rises, the lake broke into view. The high beams shined over the dark water. And, at the same time we all commented, "Oooooh, look at the fog on the lake!"
The headlights illuminated a wispy, three foot thick blanket of fog steaming over the lake. Evening temps were cooler than normal, and a frost was imminent. We entertained the fog might thicken as temps dropped. We grabbed our tripods and cameras, lined the shoreline, attached the cable releases and begin opening shutters for 30-second exposures. We shoot 30 seconds because its the amount of time needed to expose stars. Any more time and the stars start streaking. Thirty seconds at 3200 ISO/ASA also allows the Milky Way to come alive. The reflections were nice, even through the fog. It was fun to be out.
With head lamps and flashlights cutting through the night, the fog illuminated like shining a pen light through campfire smoke. Wonderful beams of light danced around the foggy lake. We were way too excited about this fog coming to life. I grabbed my spotlight and during the next series of exposures, held the spotlight next to water level to lite up the fog. The results were awesome! We shot more and more, changing the direction of the light, coloring the light, hitting only portions of the lake, the distant shore, the dock, ect. We milked it as best we could.
Just about the time the chilly air was starting to bite and we calmed down a bit, the last set of exposures I pointed the spotlight up into the sky over my camera to see if it might show up. OMG! There it was. Beams of light were exposed in the misty air creating near aurora like images.
We all laughed out loud! How cool was this?
So, our science experiment begins. The chill was broken with excitement. We did several more exposures shining the bright beam towards the heavens, Each time a new and magical light painting appeared on our L.E.D. screens. Holy smokes, we were creating artificial aurora borealis. This night, the northern lights belonged to us.
It didn't take long for the discovery to turn to reality. We can't use these images. They are not real and we would never pass them off as real. But, for those 15-20 minutes, seeing what light can do was magical. It sets in motion a whole new way of seeing. Its one more item in our visual tool bag to utilize when the right time comes along. A new light discovery for sure.
So, we concluded our evening with some fine wolf howling over the stillness and listened to ten echo's bounce through the darkness. I wondered if the Space Station caught our light show? If they did, I'm sure they laughed out loud too.


Cabramatta was at a standstill as almost 100,000 people flooded the streets for the annual Moon Festival in perfect spring weather to celebrate one of the most important events in the Chinese calendar that marks the end of the fall harvest in Asia.
Listen to the live broadcast from the event, with the best Moon songs of all time.
Part 1 [audio:http://ondemand.893fm.com.au/events/2012/moon2012/part1.mp3] Part 2 [audio:http://ondemand.893fm.com.au/events/2012/moon2012/part2.mp3] Part 3 [audio:http://ondemand.893fm.com.au/events/2012/moon2012/part3.mp3] Interview with Chris Hayes – Federal member for Fowler [audio:http://893fm.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/ChrisHayesMoon.mp3]
Food took centre stage, with the traditional moon cake readily available and hundreds gourmet street stalls. For those competitive eaters, the noodle and moon cake eating were hotly contested.SOURCE: YouTube / noodlies.com SOURCE: YouTube / noodlies.com
The main stage included performances from local martial arts ground and dance group Justice Crew.
While the sun stole the Moon’s thunder during the day, the massive fireworks spectacular lit up the night sky along with the moon which is at its brightest and fullest during the festival.
What a day – Bring on the Moon Festival 2013!


NASA recently revealed that they had found a miniature exoplanet System with seven Earth-sized planets in tiny, fast orbits around the super-cool dwarf star TRAPPIST-1.
Here are few Amazing Facts About TRAPPIST-1, the exoplanet System.
1The exoplanet system TRAPPIST-1 is named after the Transiting Planets and Planetesimals Small Telescope (TRAPPIST) in Chile.
2The TRAPPIST-1 star is a small, dim celestial body in the constellation Aquarius. It is located about 40 light years away from Earth.
3The diameter of TRAPPIST-1 star is about 8 percent of the sun’s size.
Also Read: Proxima B: An exoplanet of our nearest star
4In contrast to our sun, the TRAPPIST-1 star is so cool that liquid water could survive on planets orbiting very close to it, closer than is possible on planets in our solar system.
5All seven of the TRAPPIST-1 planetary orbits are closer to their host star than Mercury is to our sun.
6The planets are very close to each other that If a person was standing on one of the planet’s surface, they could gaze up and potentially see geological features or clouds of neighboring worlds. which would sometimes appear larger than the moon in Earth’s sky.
7The planets may also be tidally locked to their star, which means the same side of the planet is always facing the star, therefore each side is either perpetual day or night.This could mean they have weather patterns totally unlike those on Earth, such as strong winds blowing from the day side to the night side, and extreme temperature changes.


I’m scrawling this in my notebook, unable to read my words as the fire dies down to glowing embers. I have my mug of tea in hand as I lean back into my creaky camp chair. The neighbouring campers are blasting 90s pop and country music, but I can still make out crickets chirping and the fire crackling.
I crane my neck to look up. The twisted boughs of a stark white ghost gum reach out into the sky. The stars are just beginning to peep out. Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go might not be the most serene background song, but I can drown it out with the starlight.
I love to watch the stars. Somehow, ‘stargaze’ doesn’t feel like a fitting word for it. It sounds too passive. For me, it’s more real, and yet more surreal, than that.
As the stars begin to glow brighter, the music stops. We meander on down the dirt road, escaping the artifical lights of the campsite.
I remember visiting an outstation in Arnhem Land with my dad a couple of years ago. That night, with a few other people, we laid down on the red dirt airstrip to lose ourselves in the stars. The sky that night was a jewel encrusted robe: pinpricks of deep, dark velvet peeking out between the fiery gems. Although we searched for hours, we couldn’t find the Southern Cross, the most recognisable constellation in our hemisphere’s sky, amongst the tangle of light.
We find a place on the road, far away enough from any campsites, where the branches of the trees frame a wide stretch of the stars. We watch as shining orbs blink lazily as they make their slow traverse across the sky. Suddenly, the sky lights up, as the brightest shooting star I have ever seen tears through the centre. Its long, fiery tail sears into my mind, and we let out a collective gasp.
There’s magic in a shooting star. Perhaps not enough to grant every wish. But enough to thrill its audience and perfume their souls with a hint of wistful joy.
One by one, we lie down on the quiet road and settle in.
Just a few weeks ago, my science class went to Baresand Island to watch turtles lay their eggs. It was an amazing experience overall. But for me, the highlight of the night was the stars. As we waited further down on the beach from where a turtle was settling in, our eyes were drawn heavenward to the explosion of stars. There were no trees or lights obstructing the view. It was just the wide, open sky meeting the sand dunes on one side and the ocean on the other.
“You can stay as long as you like”, my mum says to my dad, my sister and me. Risky. We could stay here all night. Just us and the stars.
There’s something magnetising about them. They’re so far away, yet they feel real. Almost alive. So mysterious.
A few years ago, we were camping in Charleville, and visited the Cosmos Centre for a tour of the stars. Thanks Hilary for the tip.
The experience began as the roof of the observatory opened up to the night sky, causing everyone to sigh in wonder. It was stunning enough as is, but it became more special as the guide began to teach us more about the stars. She pointed out the different colours of the stars– something I had never noticed. Looking through the telescopes was incredible. Being able to see Saturn’s rings felt unreal.
Such tiny sparks of light. But without them the world would feel so much darker.
It reminds me of one of my favourite scenes from The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. It’s at a point in the book where all seems hopeless.
There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.pg. 95, The Return of the King, JRR Tolkien
Sometimes the darkness can feel overwhelming. But look up! The stars are peeking through.
The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.John 1:5 NIV


Kier has started work on Jodrell Bank’s First Light Pavilion, after being appointed to the project by the University of Manchester. The project, which is based at Jodrell Bank Discovery Centre, received funding from The National Lottery Heritage Fund and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.
The grass-covered dome shaped building will host a gallery, exhibition and education spaces, as well as a café and a 2,300ft² auditorium space which will be devoted to displaying immersive digital presentations and hosting a range of events.
Jodrell Bank Observatory is the world’s earliest radio astronomy observatory still in existence and was awarded UNESCO World Heritage Site status in 2019This project will enable its award-winning Discovery Centre to provide visitors with the context for that new status and to share and celebrate the stories of its scientists and engineers, and the pioneering work that has, and continues to be, conducted there.
The project is due for completion in summer 2021.
Peter Commins managing director at Kier Regional Building North West, said: “This is a standout project for the region, and we are thrilled to be delivering it for the University of Manchester. This project is about connecting a wide range of people with the science and heritage of Jodrell Bank, providing opportunities for people through activities, involvement, learning and engagement. The new dedicated education spaces will open up an additional 6,000 school visits per year, reaching the next generation of school children.”
Jodrell Bank Discovery Centre Director, Professor Teresa Anderson has said “We’re thrilled to begin this ambitious new project which will allow us to open up the internationally significant heritage of Jodrell Bank. Through First Light, the Discovery Centre will create new opportunities to celebrate the pivotal role Jodrell Bank played in the emergence of the new science of radio astronomy, and we look forward to sharing the stories of its pioneering scientists, who continue to carry out ground-breaking research here today.”
Kier has substantial experience of delivering projects in the North West of England and last year, it was appointed to all three North West Construction Hub Frameworks to deliver a range of public sector projects for clients across the region.


~ Press release issued by Shenandoah National Park
LURAY — Shenandoah National Park will conduct its sixth annual Night Sky Festival from August 19 through 21, 2022. Rangers and guest speakers will present a variety of programs at sites throughout the Park focusing on space, celestial objects, nocturnal residents, and the importance of dark night skies.
Guest speakers presenting will include NASA Solar System Ambassador Greg Redfern and amateur astronomer Rich Drumm. These programs are sponsored by Delaware North, the Park concessioner.
Other activities include special Ranger-led talks, discussions, children’s activities, and telescope/night sky viewings. Programs will take place at Dickey Ridge Visitor Center (mile 4.6), Mathews Arm Campground (mile 22.1), Skyland Amphitheater (mile 42.5), Byrd Visitor Center (mile 51), Big Meadows (mile 51), and Loft Mountain Amphitheater (mile 79.5).
All programs are free. No reservations are needed. However, Park entrance fees apply.
Participants should be weather-prepared and bring a flashlight with a red filter.
The complete program schedule can be found on the Park’s website at: https://www.nps.gov/shen/planyourvisit/night-sky-festival.htm
The National Park Service continues to monitor and respond to current local, state, and CDC information regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. At this time, masks are welcome, but not required.
Nature Notebook: How to fish like a tourist
Virginia Land Conservation Foundation opens record $14.9 million grant round
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Fish do not feed all the time. Yet at times fish may go on the feed and take almost any offering, be it live bait or artificial lure.
John Alden Knight found out that these periods - here called Feeding Times - are mostly caused by the influence of Sun and - especially - Moon (just like tides) and can be predicted with a certain degree of accuracy.
In fact, there can be up to two Major Feeding Times and two Minor Feeding Times in a day. During Major Feeding times the influence of Moon and Sun is greater, therefore fish are more active.
Simply put, for any given location and with all other conditions remaining the same, Major and Minor Feeding Times are the best time to go fishing.
The influence of Sun and Moon on fish feeding periods changes during the course of the year and each lunar month.
The most influence happens when Sun and Moon are closer to Earth and, during each day, when their gravitational pull is in sync.
Therefore, certain days in a month are potentially better than others to go fishing.
We call this Fish Feeding Prediction, and we rate that from 1 star (poor) to 5 starts (best).
Fish are very sensitive to weather conditions. In fact, barometric fluctuactions - especially if the trend is down - can negatively affect fishing.
In particular, approaching cold fronts can drive the fish deeper and render them inactive, less willing to feed.
Conversely, if weather conditions are steady or improving, if the temperature is favorable then you may experience feeding times longer than expected.
Therefore, when you look at Feeding Predictions and Times always use the weather forecast information intelligently. That is why we report this here together with all other factors affecting fish feeding.
Fishing at Twilight
Twilight is the time between dawn and sunrise, and between sunset and dusk.
During this time, the sun is not actually visible because it is below the horizon and the surface of the Earth is neither completely lit nor completely dark.
Fishing at twilight may be more productive than during day hours, since fish may momentarily leave cover and feel more inclined to feeding.
At the same time, because of the better visibility, fisherman may find twilight conditions less challenging than fishing over night.
When feeding times, especially Major Times, are close to twilight fishing can be from good to great.


Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX) is a us company, transportation, aerospace, founded in 2002 by Elon Musk, who is co-founder of PayPal, Tesla Motors, SolarCity, Hyperloop, The Boring Company and OpenAI. This private company has agreed with the NASA that sent astronauts to the international space station via rockets, instead of as now, which is using the Russian craft Soyuz, whose missions are very expensive. It should be noted that it also has planned a flight in a spacecraft Boeing to start in August 2019.
I must say that the dates for these events have been postponed many times, but NASA said last Thursday that now will be doing updates on a monthly basis. “This new process for reporting our calendar is better, however, there will still be some uncertainty and we anticipate that it could change the final date to the extent that it is about the launch,” said Phil McAlister, director of Commercial Development of Space Flight at NASA headquarters. “These are new space ships and engineering teams have a lot of work before the systems are ready to fly,” said McAlister.
Video recap of last night’s launch and landing pic.twitter.com/QRcyZQp612
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) October 8, 2018
According to NASA, both of these missions are considered evidence: the two astronauts carried on each flight will be two weeks in orbit on the international space station before returning to Earth. It is expected that long-term NASA use the SpaceX and Boeing to carry astronauts to the space station on a regular basis, which is expected to occur after the first six months.
It has also been reported that there will be a couple of unmanned test, one to SpaceX in January 2019 and another in march of that same year for the Boeing. In addition, it was said that SpaceX will use its rocket Falcon 9 for the launch, with a capsule Dragon on the top of the rocket in question.
On the other hand, the Boeing Starliner will have as an engine for an Atlas V rocket, made by United Launch Alliance, a business partnership with Lockheed Martin. NASA depends on the success of these missions to make decisions about your contract with the Russian space agency, which terminates in November 2019.
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