Published 9 February 2022
SSHL Alumni Association arranged online student event
SSHL students took part of webinar, direct from CSG launch base in French Guiana
In December just before Christmas, the SSHL Alumni Association arranged a social webinar together with one of our student organisations, Stellar, featuring the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope.
Jörgen Sweeney is a boarding student at House Sandvreten and a student in class IB DP 22. As an active member of Stellar, he took part of the webinar:
– All students and staff were invited. Despite some minor technical difficulties during the event, the webinar was very captivating and much appreciated, Jörgen explains.
Charlotte Beskow, SSHL alumni of 1978, who now works for the ESA (European Space Agency), hosted the webinar online. She discussed the incredible undertaking it took to develop the telescope and the effort to create the mechanism for the telescope’s “unfolding” once in space.
– I studied the Natural Science Programme at SSHL (SHL) from 1974 and graduated 1978, Charlotte says. My parents were working abroad so I was a boarding student and I lived at House Berga.
Charlotte went on to study Electrical Engineering at Lund University. She has been working in the space industry since 1986:
– I saw a job ad from Saab Space and I thought that sounded really exciting. I was offered the position and moved to Gothenburg to work there. I have never hesitated to move for interesting projects, my profession has led me to many exciting places. I am very lucky to be working in the fascinating world of the space industry.
Jörgen, how was it to learn about the space telescope project?
– It felt as though a new era of astronomy has begun. With the Webb telescope successfully launched, scientists are now able to further our understanding of the universe and our place within it.
What will be your next event with Stellar?
– In April we will be visiting the oldest observatory in Stockholm as part of a school field trip. And until then, we will be having smaller projects at the school such as an event for Valentine’s day.
And what are your dreams and goals for the future?
– Charlotte has invited us to go to French Guiana and visit the European Spaceport, Jörgen reveals. We have been discussing whether this is a possibility for us, and, of course, we would love to go! As for Stellar, our goal of establishing our organisation at SSHL is near. We are really happy about the engagement we have received so far and we are hopeful for the future.
The James Webb Space Telescope
STELLAR is an SSHL student association connected to Astronomisk Ungdom that’s thinking about what is beyond our knowledge, deep in the depths of the universe. This association is suitable for students who want to not only learn about space but also have a splendid time doing experiments or joining movie nights.
Below: The James Webb telescope, launched from European Spaceport (Centre Spatial Guyanais; CSG) in French Guiana on 25 December 2021.


Sun & Moon Medallion Chicklet Chain
$ 1,925.00 USD
Capture the richness of the night sky in this celestial stunner. Handcrafted with yellow gold and dazzling diamond pavé, a timeless sun and moon medallion hangs from a deep lapis chain to create a truly breathtaking combination. Layer with longer chains to add weight and texture, or add to any neckline for a striking solo statement. If you have any questions about this piece, please do not hesitate to contact us.


In an eagerly awaited announcement, Swatch has revealed the most recent addition to its iconic MoonSwatch assortment: the Mission to the Moonphase. This newest timepiece, unveiled right now, combines playful design components with progressive options, marking a big evolution within the celebrated lineage.
The Mission to the Moonphase introduces a hanging all-white color scheme, that includes a white dial, case, and velcro strap. Nonetheless, it is the refined but charming particulars that set this mannequin aside. Nestled throughout the higher proper sub-register lies the beloved characters Snoopy and Woodstock, depicted in opposition to the lunar backdrop, paying homage to their iconic appearances within the Peanuts cartoon.
Drawing inspiration from the acclaimed Omega Speedmaster Silver Snoopy version of 2015, which paid homage to the Apollo 13 mission, the Mission to the Moonphase positions Snoopy in a extra dynamic position. Not like its predecessor, this MoonSwatch locations Snoopy on the moon part disc throughout the two o’clock subdial, symbolising the lunar cycle’s 29.5 days.
But, the enchantment does not finish there. Beneath UV gentle, a hidden quote from Snoopy’s cartoon emerges, including a whimsical contact to the watch’s design. This playful integration of Snoopy’s character and the moonphase complication underscores Swatch’s dedication to infuse every launch with each creativity and performance.
The Mission to the Moonphase is scheduled for launch on March 26, precisely two years after the debut of the primary MoonSwatch in 2022. This launch date holds particular significance, commemorating the inception of what has since develop into a phenomenon on this planet of horology.
Not like earlier restricted editions, Swatch signifies that the Mission to the Moonphase will be a part of the everlasting assortment, alongside different notable releases such because the Ocean of Storms Scuba Fifty. Nonetheless, the addition of the moonphase complication does include a worth premium, with the watch priced at $310 (Rs 26,000).
This unveiling follows carefully on the heels of one other notable launch throughout the Swatch Group: a high-profile white dial Speedmaster from Omega.


Earth Cam Online. Father, into Your courts I will enterMaker of Heaven and EarthI trembleIn Your holy presenceGlory, glory in Your sanctuarySplendor and majesty LordBefore YouAll life adores YouAll the earth will declareThat Your love is everywhereThe fields will exalt Exactly how these microscopic creatures arose [Live] remains a mystery, though experts have proposed many theories. More All All The Earth [Live] The Earth Live videos. Geologists have discovered underground continentsburied deep below the surface, and though nobody quite knows how or when they formed, they may be as old as the Earth itself.
In the long-running and re-booted television series Battlestar Galactica, tired survivors of a war with highly evolved robots called cylons are on a quest to find Earth, a long-lost colony. Laika the dog was the first Earthling to orbit Earth aboard the Soviet Union&39;s Sputnik 2 in 1957. SATELLITE NEWS: INCREDIBLE SATELLITE VIEW OF THE MOON’S SHADOW CROSSING THE SURFACE OF EARTH DURING THE TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSE - The first and only total solar eclipse of occurred on December 14, with the path of totality stretching from the equatorial Pacific to the South Atlantic and passing through southern Argentina and Chile. Scientists estimate that there are as many as 1 trillion species on our planet, occupying niches that extend from the upper atmosphere to deep below the rocky surface. 3 degrees Fahrenheit (1. The companion orchestral accompaniment for All the Earthis printed only upon request and is not returnable. Available on Android and. Most human activity takes place in the lowest atmospheric layer, the troposphere, which extends 5 to 9 miles (8 to 14.
About the author. Above that is the stratosphere, where clouds and weather balloons fly, going up to 31 miles (50 km) high. Not at all, actually! Earth Live map is best for 3d satellite live view.
-> This is Vogue(Best ALBUM)


A Priceless View
It’s a beautiful Tuesday morning here at Moose River Outpost. The sun is shining, and warming the grass, which is still wet from some overnight thunderstorms. Before the storms last night, we had one of those starry nights that comes along once, maybe twice a summer. We could look up and see not just stars, but galaxies, planets, and the dim white of the Milky Way laying across the sky overhead.
As quiet as the sky was last night, it has not kept us here in camp from staying busy and enjoying creation in more active ways. The campers in main camp enjoyed a “Price is Right”-style auction game together last night, complete with our own version of the Bob Barker/Drew Carey character leading the festivities. Tonight is cabin night here, so each cabin unit will join together in their own part of camp. Some will water-ski, others will take over the camp game room for ping-pong and ice cream, and still others will challenge each other in paintball.
For the first time in over a week, all of our WILD campers will be with us here in camp, and off the trail. WILD 1 is being picked up after a successful trip on the Appalachian Trail this morning. Meanwhile, WILD 2 is here doing apprenticeship and shadowing our counselors as they put their leadership skills into practice.
The session continues to be fun, memorable, beautiful, and eventful. We’re thankful for nights with so many starts they seem to fill the sky with daylight of their own.


Get stars in your eyes at these beautiful coastal sites this spring. Words: Katie Avis-Riordan
Before the light continues long into the night, what better way to enjoy the spring evenings than stargazing with the National Trust?
Look up at the skies and see how many constellations and planets you can spot. The evenings will be dark, but not too cold, so perfect for this night-time activity.
Here are some of the best coastal places for stargazing, walks and events this spring:
1. Carrick-a-Rede, County Antrim, Northern Ireland
The Carrick-a-Rede and Larrybane site was granted Dark Sky Discovery status in 2014 and is now one of only two such sites in Northern Ireland.
2. Stackpole, Pembrokeshire, Wales
Previously a private estate, Stackpole is now fully open to the public. It’s also home to Broadhaven South, one of four Dark Sky Discovery sites in Pembrokeshire. Gaze up from the beach for great views of the stars.
3. Blakeney National Nature Reserve, Norfolk, East of England
Walk under the stars on Blakeney Freshes coastal walk and pause to admire some of Norfolk’s famous skyscapes.
4. Holnicote Estate, Exmoor, South West
Exmoor National Park was designated the first International Dark Sky Reserve in Europe, and due to low levels of light pollution is one of the UK’s best sites for stargazing. Head to Dunkery Beacon on the Holnicote Estate, the highest point on Exmoor, for spectacular 360-degree views of the skies.
5. Carnewas and Bedruthan Steps, Cornwall, South West
Carnewas is one of Cornwall’s best spots for stargazing. The area was granted Dark Sky Discovery site status in 2014. Wrap up warm and take in the night skies.
To read more about the National Trust’s stargazing spots see here.


We really enjoyed our visit to Satrosphere to learn about Space! We got to dress up as Astronauts, look at the stars in the Planetarium and took part in a number of exciting experiments.
There are no upcoming events at this time.
In the Event of BAD Weather please use:
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The Unofficial Communications/Navigation Outage Forecast System Satellite data page
This is the home of various C/NOFS related data products.
To be granted authorization to use the data contact the site administrator: roddy.patrick[at]yahoo.com
PLP figures through September 2012 are now up (NEW! as of 11/5/12)
C/NOFS Publication List (NEW!)
Here is a list of C/NOFS related publications as of 1 February 2012 with abstracts.
PLP data availability
To check on what days there is PLP data available use the files for 2011 and for 2008-2010. The length and color of the bar on a given day indicates how much of the data we have available. If there is no data available on a given day it may exist and I can can attempt to patch that day if you really want that data.
Handbook of Geophysics and the Space Environment, 1985
The 1985 AFRL Handbook of Geophysics and the Space Environment is available here. I couldn't find any copyright information in the book so I'm assuming that it's free to distribute.
December 2011: Scientists with team VEFI have used C/NOFS data to show that the Schumann resonance is detectable above the F peak of the ionosphere. This story was big enough to make it onto slashdot.org so it must be big! Link
18 March 2011: There's an op-ed in the New York Times written by John P. Holdren and John Beddington, science advisers to president Obama and Prime Minister David Cameron, respectively, about the importance of space weather forecasting. Go read it before the NYT puts up another paywall.
16 March 2011: Amazing video of the destructive power of space debris. Holger Krag at Esa's Space Debris Office – which monitors more than 16,000 bits of junk in Earth orbit – explains how manned spacecraft are shielded
10 March 2011: The Royal Academy of Engineering publishes the report Global Navigation Space Systems: reliance and vulnerabilities which apparently documents how we have become too reliant on space based navigation systems for everything. The document is hosted here for the benefit of those who cannot browse foreign websites.
6 March 2011: An article in New Scientist on cheap GPS jammers, spoofers other horrors.
Yes, the PLP summary plots for 2008-2010 are going up and are available in bundles of 1 month .zip files.
Each figure represents one orbit of data from the PLP instrument. The figure title indicates the day of year, the date, the UT time for the start of the orbit, and the orbit number. The start of an orbit is defined by the northward crossing of the geographic equator. The oldest data in a plot starts at the northward crossing of the equator and not necessarily at the left of the plot.
Click figure to embiggen.
The plot abscissa has tick marks for geographic longitude,geographic latitude, altitude, magnetic longitude, magnetic latitude, Universal time, and solar local time. The graph's tickmarks are orginized by solar local time. Ticks will always be at 1500, 1800, 2100, 0000, 0300, 0600, 0900 and 1200 SLT. The graph is centered on 0000 SLT because the primary focus of the C/NOFS mission is on the nighttime ionosphere.
Each figure contains 3 subplots (top, middle and bottom). The top plot displays the one minute average ion density measured by the PLP Ion Trap (black trace), the 1 second average ion density measured by the PLP Ion Trap (green trace), and the altitude of the C/NOFS spacecraft (blue trace). The ion density ordinate is on the left side of the plot and the altitude is on the right side of the plot. Horizontal gridlines correspond to ion density. The heavy dashed blue trace indicates that the spacecraft was in eclipse.
The middle plot contains a spectragram of the relative power of the log of the ion density fluctuations as a function of wavelength. This plot is for indication use only and is not calibrated in any meaningful way. This plot is mainly of use to individuals who are interested in requesting data at the 512 Hz sample rate. While the color scale of the fft is arbitrary, it is consistent between figures. This fft of delta_n/n is only available when the PLP sample rate is at 256, 512 or 1024 Hz. PLP typically cycles between a 32 Hz daytime sample rate and a 512 Hz eclipse sample rate. Currently, PLP also operates at 512 Hz for either 10 minutes before or after eclipse exit.
The bottom plot shows a map of the globe along with the C/NOFS ground track (red), the approximate magnetic equator (green), and various point of interest (purple stars). The heavy dashed red line indicates where the satellite was in eclipse. The points of interest currently are Guam, Kwaj, Christmas Island, Jicamarca, and Sao Luis.
Each figure has information about what cal was used to make it and when the figure was actually produced. Right now (as of 4/23/09) the latest and greatest cal is the Feb 11th cal.
The break in the trace: The break in the data traces is frequently commented on and often misunderstood. The break does not represent any loss of data, it is a product of the plotting methodology. Each plot contains one orbit of data. The start and stop of an orbit is defined by the northward crossing of the geographic equator. As the Earth rotates during an orbit, C/NOFS crosses the equator farther west each orbit: this is where the break comes from. The plot for the next orbit will contain the data that appears to be missing in the break.
Known Bugs, etc: There is a bug in my graphing routine that often puts a momentary drop in the 1 sec denisty (green) when PLP switches from 512 Hz to 32 Hz mode. If you see an isolated blip right where the spectragram ends, that's the bug. The bug was fixed at some point in 2010 but old figures have not been reprocessed.
Torque rods: The figure above of orbit 11464 contains artifacts produced by the firing of the C/NOFS torque rods (click figure for larger image). The two blips in the fft plot just before 15:52 UT are due to torque rod firings. Due to the nature of the satellite state of health files, it is difficult to remove all the torque rod artifacts. The firings usually appear in pairs (as seen here) and are very short in duration.
PLP raw data
PLP data at 1 Hz is available to the community upon request. Contact me at roddy.patrick[at]yahoo.com to get access.
The dataset should be kept relatively up to date. Feel free to contact me if data you need is missing.
Data at higher sample rates (up to 512 Hz) for short time periods is available upon request.


Track the space station: 'ISS-Above' device causes crowdfunding boom
Many do not realize that the ISS--a 420-ton international space lab--may be flying right above our heads every once in a while 400 kilometers above the Earth, says American astronomy enthusiast and coder Liam Kennedy.
Kennedy also supplied it with a built-in web server that provides one with details on current and future passes of the ISS via a small LCD screen.
After installing about 20 such devices at different locations across the globe, Kennedy decided to launch a campaign on crowdfunding platform Kickstarter to raise a sum of US$5,000 for limited production of the tool, which he named simply “ISS-Above.”
Since the first manned mission arrived to the ISS in November 2000, the station has made more than 86,000 spins around the Earth, completing about 15 orbits per day. The joint project by Russia’s Roskosmos, America’s NASA, Japan’s JAXA, Europe’s ESA and Canada’s CSA agencies has sparked interest in space exploration in many of the world’s nations.
Videos filmed on board the ISS, stunning views from its Cupola observation module, as well as numerous spacewalks and spaceship dockings are frequently posted on YouTube, and many astronauts have also been sharing their space experience on Twitter or Instagram.
31.07.2015. US imposes further sanctions on Russia over Crimea, east Ukraine conflict
31.07.2015. Mistral talks between France and Russia are over – top Russian official
31.07.2015. US marines flying with unlicensed arms to Ukraine detained in Vienna, sent home
10.07.2015. Putin: Where was EU when Greek crisis was evolving?
10.07.2015. Greece submits debt proposals to creditors - Eurogroup


Archive for the ‘SCIFI’ Category
Planet X is the most advanced society in the Centauri Globular Star Cluster, NGC5139, and is about 2,000,000 years beyond planet Earth’s development.
The Orbit Rings you see around this beautiful, Earth like, world are not rocks as in our planet Saturn, but are, in fact, spectacular gleaming cities with glamorous fashion houses, beautiful opera and theater halls, vibrant business areas and fabulous condominium living spaces with unparalleled views of their home planet below as well as the cosmos itself.
The buildings seen in orbit about Planet X are living organic structures mixed in a computer controlled chamber.
The chamber holds billions of electrons, protons and neutrons gathered from a nearby nebulae by unmanned robotic spacecraft and can manufacture most atoms found in the first one-third of the chemical periodic table.
These atoms make organic molecules which in turn combine to produce the living, orbiting buildings, which feed on their star’s solar wind neutrino stream.
The inhabitants of Planet X no longer live on the now untamed and ecologically restored surface of their world, but live in orbit around it.
CLICK ON PICTURE TO READ MORE IN HANK CURCI’S SCIFI THRILLER EBOOK..
From Year 3000AD
Click On Picture To Send Free Outer Space Greeting Card.
Free Outer Space Greeting Cards..
Wonderfully Engaging Adult and Children’s Outer Space Coloring Books.. Created By Hank Curci, Senior Aerospace Engineer..February 1, 2017
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End Transmission From
Deep Space Star Cluster..
PART II: The Sun Will Last For Another Four Billion Years …Life On Planet Earth Probably Will Not.. By Hank Curci, Senior Aerospace Engineer…January 18, 2017
Life On Planet Earth:
As the atmosphere continues to evolve, it is not known what plant and animal life forms will survive and continue to evolve.
The solution to this problem was to build great cities and place them in orbit about Planet Earth.
Click On Book Cover..
Peace lasted for 700 years..
THRILLING TIME MACHINE ADVENTURE: Traveling Through A Subspace Frequency Warp Field To The Future Of Planet Earth Circa 3000AD..By Hank Curci, SCIFI Author.December 26, 2016
Futuristic Space/Time Continuum Adventure..
John Moore is persuaded into taking the newly married, 23 year old, 79 AD, Ancient Roman couple back to modern day San Francisco, 1963, in the time machine, for the mother of all honeymoons with intent of sending them back to 79 AD Rome in two weeks.
The time machine malfunctions and sends the young, 23 year old Roman newly weds, Glacus and Ruth, into the year 3000 AD.
Roman Honeymoon is then about what happens to Glacus and Ruth in the year 3000 AD, three thousand years in to their future.
Found On Barnes and Noble:
Click On Picture For Thrilling Subspace Frequency Adventure To The Future, Circa 3000AD.
View Updated Outer Space Coloring Book..
CLICK ON SAMPLE PICTURE..
OUTER SPACE COLORING BOOK PAGE..
Free Outer Space Greeting Cards
Nothing is forever, Planet Earth recycled back in to interstellar oblivion.. By Hank Curci, Senior Aerospace Engineer..December 17, 2016
Our mighty star, the sun, will die some day and beautiful little blue-green Planet Earth will die along with it.
Earth will become a burned out cinder wandering off to be recycled back in to interstellar oblivion, there will be no more songs coming from our garden home Planet Earth.
But, along the way to infinity, the ageless Universe gave us this magical gift of life, a Universe asking nothing in return except to enjoy the wonders…
HOW COOL IS THAT !!
END STORY SYNOPSIS..
Featured Hank Curci Ebook Thriller This Holiday Season..


The moon, stars, planets and other celestial bodies have attracted the human eye for millennia. Not only researchers and astronomers, but also artists, poets and lovers have always found inspiration and enchantment in heaven. Embracing the commitment to popularize science and having astronomy as a starting point for inclusion, the UFRPE Extension project team Unveiling the Southern Sky is present at the National Science and Technology Week of Pernambuco, which runs through Saturday ( 28/10) throughout the State.
The project involves astronomical courses, astronomical tourism activities and educational actions to raise awareness and popularization of science, under the coordination of the astrophysicist and professor of UFRPE Antônio Carlos Miranda and the participation of monitors of several courses of UFRPE.
On Wednesday, the team carried out a series of activities together with students from schools of the public education network at the Center of Science Education of the Northeast (Cecine-UFRPE), from 9am to 4pm. The following day, it goes to the municipality of Itacuruba, to the Astronomical Observatory of the Sertão de Itaparica (Oasi), coordinated by the National Observatory in agreement with UFRPE.
On Friday, it is the turn of students from the Reference School (Erem) of Itacuruba to participate in the actions of popularization of science.
Already on Saturday, the municipality of Afogados da Ingazeira receives the project, which ends the SNCT 2017 in Pernambuco. At the occasion, the Afogados da Ingazeira Astronomy Club will be founded, an initiative of the Unveiling the Southern Sky team at UFRPE, together with the municipal government. The Club will operate in a municipal school and will have observatory with telescopes and telescopes, group of assembly and launch of rocket and minicourses of astronomy of permanent form.
"It's enough of the university to be closed in on itself. Researchers stand in front of a computer, inside a cabinet, and society does not even know what it is they do. To popularize is to give people the opportunity to get to know science and present what Brazil has of science, "emphasizes Professor Antônio Carlos Miranda.
Check out the video about the Unraveling the Southern Sky project on UFRPE Channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oPSVwd3jyk


Epoch J2000 Equinox J2000
|Right ascension||19h 11m 30.876s|
|Declination||+16° 51′ 38.168″|
|Apparent magnitude (V)||11.50 ± 0.11|
|B−V color index||0.69|
|Variable type||Eruptive (WR)|
|Radial velocity (Rv)||190 ± 7.4 km/s|
|Proper motion (μ)|| RA: −2.645±0.050 mas/yr |
Dec.: −5.534±0.049 mas/yr
|Parallax (π)||0.1153 ± 0.0365 mas|
|Distance||approx. 28,000 ly |
(approx. 9,000 pc)
|Absolute magnitude (MV)||–7.22|
|Mass||20 - 22 M☉|
WR 124 is a Wolf–Rayet star in the constellation of Sagitta surrounded by a ring nebula of expelled material known as M1-67. It is one of the fastest runaway stars in the Milky Way with a radial velocity around 200 km/s. It was discovered by Paul W. Merrill in 1938, identified as a high-velocity Wolf–Rayet star. It is listed in the General Catalogue of Variable Stars as QR Sagittae with a range of 0.08 magnitudes.
A 2010 study of WR 124 directly measured the expansion rate of the M1-67 nebula expelled from the star using Hubble Space Telescope camera images taken 11 years apart, and compared that to the expansion velocity measured by the Doppler shift of the nebular emission lines. This yielded a distance of 3.35 kpc, which is less than previous studies, and the resulting luminosity of 150,000 times the Sun (L☉) is much lower than previously calculated. The luminosity is also lower than predicted by models for a star of this spectral class. Previous studies had found distances of 5 kpc to 8.4 kpc, with corresponding luminosities of 338,000–1,000,000 L☉, as expected for a typical WN8h which is a very young star just moving away from the main sequence. The Gaia satellite measured the distance to WR 124 from its parallax, giving a distance of 6,203+1,621
With an assumed visual absolute magnitude of -7.22 and 3.1 magnitudes of extinction, WR 124 would be 8.5 kpc away. The temperature of around 40,000K means that most of its energy is emitted at ultraviolet wavelengths, the bolometric luminosity is 1,000,000 L☉ and the radius is 26 R☉. The mass is calculated from evolutionary models to be 33 M☉.
WR 124 is measured to still be about 15% hydrogen with most of the remaining mass being helium. A young highly massive and luminous WN8h star would still be burning hydrogen in its core, but a less luminous and older star would be burning helium in its core. The result of modelling the star purely from its observed characteristics is a luminosity of 1,000,000 L☉ and a mass of 33 M☉, corresponding to a relatively young hydrogen-burning star at around 8 kpc. In either case, it has only a few hundred thousand years before it explodes as a type Ib or Ic supernova.
The mass loss rate is 10−5 M☉–10−4 M☉ per year, depending on the distance and properties determined for the star.
WR 124 is surrounded by an intensely hot nebula formed from the star's extreme stellar wind. The nebula M1-67 is expanding at a rate of over 150,000 km/h (93,000 mph) and is nearly 6 light-years across, leading to the dynamical age of 20,000 years. M1-67 has little internal structure, though large clumps of material have been detected, some of which have 30 times the mass of Earth and stretch out up to 150 billion km (93 billion mi). If placed in the Solar System, one of these clumps would span the distance from the Sun to Saturn.
- Van Leeuwen, F. (2007). "Validation of the new Hipparcos reduction". Astronomy and Astrophysics. 474 (2): 653–664. arXiv:0708.1752. Bibcode:2007A&A...474..653V. doi:10.1051/0004-6361:20078357. S2CID 18759600.
- Høg, E.; Fabricius, C.; Makarov, V. V.; Urban, S.; Corbin, T.; Wycoff, G.; Bastian, U.; Schwekendiek, P.; Wicenec, A. (2000). "The Tycho-2 catalogue of the 2.5 million brightest stars". Astronomy and Astrophysics. 355: L27. Bibcode:2000A&A...355L..27H. doi:10.1888/0333750888/2862.
- Hamann, W.-R.; Gräfener, G.; Liermann, A. (2006). "The Galactic WN stars". Astronomy and Astrophysics. 457 (3): 1015. arXiv:astro-ph/0608078. Bibcode:2006A&A...457.1015H. doi:10.1051/0004-6361:20065052. S2CID 18714731.
- Kukarkin, B. V.; Kholopov, P. N.; Pskovsky, Y. P.; Efremov, Y. N.; Kukarkina, N. P.; Kurochkin, N. E.; Medvedeva, G. I. (1971). "The third edition containing information on 20437 variable stars discovered and designated till 1968". General Catalogue of Variable Stars: 0. Bibcode:1971GCVS3.C......0K.
- Kharchenko, N. V.; Scholz, R.-D.; Piskunov, A. E.; Röser, S.; Schilbach, E. (2007). "Astrophysical supplements to the ASCC-2.5: Ia. Radial velocities of ˜55000 stars and mean radial velocities of 516 Galactic open clusters and associations". Astronomische Nachrichten. 328 (9): 889. arXiv:0705.0878. Bibcode:2007AN....328..889K. doi:10.1002/asna.200710776. S2CID 119323941.
- Brown, A. G. A.; et al. (Gaia collaboration) (August 2018). "Gaia Data Release 2: Summary of the contents and survey properties". Astronomy & Astrophysics. 616. A1. arXiv:1804.09365. Bibcode:2018A&A...616A...1G. doi:10.1051/0004-6361/201833051. Gaia DR2 record for this source at VizieR.
- Sota, A.; Maíz Apellániz, J.; Morrell, N. I.; Barbá, R. H.; Walborn, N. R.; Gamen, R. C.; Arias, J. I.; Alfaro, E. J.; Oskinova, L. M. (2019). "The Galactic WN stars revisited. Impact of Gaia distances on fundamental stellar parameters". Astronomy & Astrophysics. A57: 625. arXiv:1904.04687. Bibcode:2019A&A...625A..57H. doi:10.1051/0004-6361/201834850. S2CID 104292503.
- Marchenko, S. V.; Moffat, A. F. J.; Crowther, P. A. (2010). "Population I Wolf–Rayet Runaway Stars: The Case of Wr124 and Its Expanding Nebula M1-67". The Astrophysical Journal. 724 (1): L90–L94. arXiv:1011.0785. Bibcode:2010ApJ...724L..90M. doi:10.1088/2041-8205/724/1/L90. S2CID 119186821.
- Crowther, Paul A.; Pasquali, A.; De Marco, Orsola; Schmutz, W.; Hillier, D. J.; De Koter, A. (1999). "Wolf–Rayet nebulae as tracers of stellar ionizing fluxes. I. M1-67". Astronomy and Astrophysics. 350: 1007. arXiv:astro-ph/9908200. Bibcode:1999A&A...350.1007C.
- Merrill, P. W. (1938). "A Wolf–Rayet Star with High Velocity". Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. 50 (298): 350. Bibcode:1938PASP...50..350M. doi:10.1086/124982.
- Bailer-Jones, C. A. L.; Rybizki, J.; Fouesneau, M.; Mantelet, G.; Andrae, R. (2018). "Estimating Distance from Parallaxes. IV. Distances to 1.33 Billion Stars in Gaia Data Release 2". The Astronomical Journal. 156 (2): 58. arXiv:1804.10121. Bibcode:2018AJ....156...58B. doi:10.3847/1538-3881/aacb21. S2CID 119289017.
- Meynet, G.; Maeder, A. (2003). "Stellar evolution with rotation". Astronomy and Astrophysics. 404 (3): 975–990. arXiv:astro-ph/0304069. Bibcode:2003A&A...404..975M. doi:10.1051/0004-6361:20030512. S2CID 17546535.


Jaakko Tähti photographed this moderate display with Moilanen arc on 12. January 2007 in Viitasaari. "The halo display lasted for about four hours and changed constantly. It was a pity I was working inside. At times however I went to take some pics", says Tähti who used his cell phone camera for photographing. The vague double structure in the upper tangent arc seems to indicate that the display contains also an upper sunvex Parry arc.
2007. január 15., hétfő
2007. január 6., szombat
Little after midnight on the night of 5-6th January a fairly bright 22 halo and upper tangent arc appeared in high clouds. At this stage nothing implied that anything better would be on the way. However, at around 1.30 a.m. the halos arising from oriented columns had got much better and upper and lower tangent arcs stretched out to form a circumscribed halo. Infralateral arcs and a 9 halo appeared as well. Judging from the quality of circumscribed halo and infralateral arcs at the maximum phase one might suspect that rays scattered by oriented columns may have partially contributed to the intensity of the 9 halo.
The display ended at around 4 a.m. when low level clouds rolled in. Shortly before that 46 halo and parhelic circle were well formed (although faint). According to the reports so far the display was best seen in Tampere (photos by Jari Luomanen) and in Riihimaki (photos by Jukka Ruoskanen) .


Posted in Journalism, Space, tagged earth, hd, hdtv, high definition, japan, japanese, jaxa, moon, moons, satellites, Space, universe on January 20, 2008|
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Taken from this Jaxa.jp:
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation) have successfully performed the world’s first high-definition image taking of an Earth-rise* by the lunar explorer “KAGUYA” (SELENE,) which was injected into a lunar orbit at an altitude of about 100 km on October 18, 2007 (Japan Standard Time. Following times and dates are all JST.)
The Apollo project was the first mission to take images of Earth rising over the Moon. The KAGUYA successfully shot high-definition images of the Earth-rise showing an impressive image of the blue Earth which was the only floating object in pitch-dark space. These are the world’s first high-definition earth images taken from about 380,000 km away from the earth in space.
The image taking was performed by the KAGUYA’s onboard high definition television (HDTV) for space use developed by NHK. The moving image data acquired by the KAGUYA was received at the JAXA Usuda Deep Space Center, and processed by NHK.
The satellite was confirmed to be in good health through telemetry data received at the Usuda station.
Click here to find out more! (Pictures included)
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Posted in Future, Journalism, Space, Thoughts, tagged earth, final frontier, infinite, life, love, people, Space, space travel, sun, super nova, travel on January 17, 2008|
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We live in a pioneering age, when the very idea of the final frontier is no longer a distant wish but something that we will physically begin to explore in the lifetime of the child just born a few moments ago. It’s a shame that I will not live long enough to see where we take it.
I have always been fascinated with space, not simply because of the untold possibilities it holds but also because of the emptiness. It is infinite, at least as far as the human mind can conceive, and yet we put such limitations on it in order to quantify it so it makes sense to us. The idea that you can get lost, truly lost, in that great expanse is a source of… inspiration. One wrong push… and you are gone… forever. The finality of it is intriguing.
I realize that sounds a bit morbid. I understand that and I don’t shy from it. Perhaps it is depressing to think of the finality of space, the idea of being completely gone with no way to ever come back, completely lost with no way to ever find your way home, as a source of inspiration, but it can help mold your humanity as well. It can make you a better person when you begin to realize just how small we truly are and how important treating each other and our planet with respect really is.
I haven’t had a chance to read it but I heard that the book “Pale Blue Dot” by Carl Sagan really puts some things about our world into perspective. I’ve seen the photo that inspired the book and I can see how it would do that. This planet is all we have. All. We. Have. If we were destroyed right now, whether by killing each other or the Sun deciding that it wanted to go super nova right this second, there is nowhere we could go and no one that could help us. No one. We would be gone and all of our cultures, our art, our politics, religions, languages, conflicts, and worries would be gone with it. We are meaningless. This is the most sobering thought I’ve had in a long time…
This is why space excites me and why being in this pioneering age is both a source of elation and frustration. My grandchildren will one day go into that great beyond and see things I only dream of. They may one day see Saturn’s rings… they may one day know what our own galaxy truly holds within its core. I, on the other hand, will not. I will only see pictures. I will only dream. It will always be my final frontier.
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Astronomy on Tap, ATX
Astronomy on Tap events feature informal, accessible, and engaging talks by professional astronomers and space enthusiasts at a bar near you. As a co-host of the show in Austin, let me tell you that our shows are a lot of fun! Join us at 7:30 PM the 3rd Tuesday of every month at The North Door for astronomy talks, trivia and prizes, Astronomy News, AoTATX merchandise, and telescope viewing! AoTATX is FREE and open to all ages!Learn more and come to a show!


The OMEGA Moonwatch
The OMEGA Speedmaster Professional Chronograph is an iconic and truly unique timepiece, which we are proud to include in our range of OMEGA watches at Leonard Dews.
In 1969, Buzz Aldrin stepped onto the surface of the moon, wearing his OMEGA Speedmaster, which has been known as the “Moonwatch” ever since.
In 1962, NASA began the task of finding the best watches for their astronauts. The OMEGA Speedmaster, along with various other models from other watchmakers, was subjected to rigorous testing to qualify for space flight for the Gemini mission. It was imperative that the watch could withstand the following extreme conditions:
– High temperature: 48 hours at 160 °F (71 °C) followed by 30 minutes at 200 °F (93 °C)
– Low temperature: Four hours at 0 °F (−18 °C)
– Temperature cycling in near-vacuum: Fifteen cycles of heating to 160 °F (71 °C) for 45 minutes, followed by cooling to 0 °F (−18 °C) for 45 minutes at 10−6 atm
– Humidity: 250 hours at temperatures between 68 °F (20 °C) and 160 °F (71 °C) at a relative humidity of 95%
– Oxygen environment: 100% oxygen at 0.35 atm and 71 °C for 48 hours
– Shock: Six 11 ms 40 g shocks from different directions
– Linear acceleration: from 1 to 7.25 g within 333 seconds
– Low pressure: 90 minutes at 10−6 atm at 160 °F (71 °C), followed by 30 minutes at 200 °F (93 °C)
– High pressure: 1.6 atm for one hour
– Vibration: three cycles of 30 minutes vibration varying from 5 to 2000 Hz with minimum 8.8 g impulse
– Acoustic noise: 30 minutes at 130 dB from 40 to 10,000 Hz
Out of three contenders, OMEGA stood out as victorious, and was selected in 1965 as the watch which would accompany the Gemini astronauts into space. The Moonwatch has been used subsequently in all of NASA’s piloted space missions.
The slick yet bold design of the Speedmaster is indicative of OMEGA’s ingenuity and adventurous nature. The 42mm chronograph features a black dial and tachymeter scale, with Super-LumiNova coating on the indexes, central hour and minute hands. The black dial is enhanced with a 30 minute sub-dial, 12 hour sub-dial, and a small seconds sub-dial, protected by a hesalite crystal lens. The beautiful stainless steel case can be secured with either a matching bracelet, or black leather wrist-strap.
The OMEGA Speedmaster is an iconic timepiece with a vibrant history, and one which will bring the spirit of adventure to its owners, whether it’s worn in space or on Earth.


""A twist in the fabric of space where time becomes a loop"
This is the Mobius Tattoo. A scientific calculation that can be used in Astrophysics to describe a closed system if gravity is strong enough to bend spacetime into a loop. Basically meaning that if you travel far enough, you will end up where you began without really knowing it.
This is my first Tattoo and it turned out great. This is on the inside of my Right Bicep. I will be adding another space or scientific tattoo to my other bicep next year. And yes... certain parts of the Tattoo process hurt like a son of a gun...Look at the note to where it hurt a lot. :)"
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Tuesday Tattoo - Mobius


The Atlanta Journal-Constitution of January 18, 2019, published an op-ed by Benita Dodd in response to MARTA CEO Jeffrey Parker’s proposal for a $100 billion “moonshot for transit.” The op-ed, “A successful MARTA’s future shouldn’t look like the past
,” is accessible online on the newspaper’s website here
and is published in full below.
Opinion: A successful MARTA’s future shouldn’t look like the past
By Benita Dodd
Forty-five years ago, Congress was told the Apollo program – landing a manned spacecraft on the moon – had cost the United States $25.4 billion. With inflation, that would be $143.7 billion in today’s dollars. Ten years ago, an updated NASA estimate put that cost at about $200 billion in 2005 dollars.…


Well, over the last month I have acquired a new toy – a telescope. This is the first scope I have owned in many years (since the 70s actually), and the first one I have used since my university days of the early 1980’s. Needless to say, things have change significantly in that time. I actually spent a considerable length of time debating what I actually wanted to buy – a large Dobsonian vs a small portable refractor which would be great for imaging vs. a fancy computerized Schmidt Cassegrain (or similar).
Instead of going through all my internal debates, I will just jump to the end result. I ended up buying a Celestron CPC 1100, which is an 11 inch, fork-mounted, computerized Schmidt Cassegrain, and is pictured below. I purchased the scope from Astromechanics in Barrie, ON. Despite some adventures with the shipping company, who “misplaced” the tripod for a few days, I must say dealing with Dave with Astromechanics has been a pleasure.
The telescope itself is, to say the least, really cool. As an astronomer/physicist-turned-software guy, there are many things on this scope to draw my attention. Mechanically, the scope, mount, and tripod are all very good. I have not seen any marks or blemishes, everything fits together cleanly, and is extremely steady.
The optics seem extremely good as well. Last night was my first real night of observing. The sky was very transparent, but there was a fair amount of instability in the atmosphere (really only noticeable when looking at the moon and Saturn, though). I was very impressed with the views. My first target was M42 (the Great Nebula in Orion). While I have seen this many, many times before, it remains one of my favourites, and was no disappointment in my new scope. Using a Baader Planetarium Hyperion 21 mm eyepiece (giving a magnification of 133x and a field of view of about half a degree), the view was breathtaking. A great deal of detail was visible, with tendrils and wisps extending pretty much across the field.
Observing Saturn next, I was impressed with the detail which could be seen in the rings during occasional moments of steadiness, along with hints of detail on Saturn’s cloud tops.
I also spent quite a bit of time looking at various open clusters (M36, M37, M38, M41). I could sit and stare all night at this sparkling collections (except of course I was freezing various body parts off!).
What impresses me most right now, though, is the alignment and GoTo software in this scope. For those not familiar with these products, this is a truly amazing piece of programming. All you have to do it level the tripod, set up the scope, wait for it to lock on the GPS signals, then point it at any three bright objects (stars, planets, or the moon), and the telescope figures out all the details it needs to be able to automatically go to any of ~40K objects in its database. The first couple of nights I was out, my tripod was still missing, so I had the scope set up on a folding portable workbench. I could not level it very well, and used three stars in the same part of the sky for alignment. Even with this, the go to consistently centred all of the objects I selected. Having now set the scope up on its tripod, and used stars more “distributed” around the sky to align, go to seems to be perfect. I have yet to see any problems, hiccups or glitches (and those of you who know me, know I can break almost any computer!).
Given the amount of stuff out there which you have to fight with to make work, it is refreshing to use something that just works!
Over the next few months, I hope to get into doing some imaging. I will post the results if I am in any way successful.


- The fundamental constants and equations of physics are fine tuned for life to many decimal places.
- The dynamics of the expansion allows for a narrow window of opportunity in time and space for life to evolve - we are in it.
- Earth has very rare (probably unique) properties and conditions which allow life and civilisation to evolve.
- The Big Bang expansion was slightly uneven * and this allowed stars to form from the resulting clumps of matter. Had there been no such clumps there would be no stars, no planets, no life and no questions.
- The Big Bang gave rise to a large excess of matter over anti-matter*, again allowing stars to form (otherwise the matter would be annihilated by the anti-matter).
- The stars were formed and behaved in a way which synthesised all 92 chemical elements, including elements of crucial importance to advanced life - such as oxygen and carbon-12 (there are many more). In a sense it has taken the cosmic engineering of trillions of stars to make one human being alive today. see The deep mystery of existence.7. Ten trillion stars to make you
- The placing of the Earth at a rare galactic vantage point such that beings on it would be able to deduce that the universe had a beginning from outside of time and space. More locally, this also requires skies which are clear in places where humans are present and this has been the case on this planet, especially in the places where civilisation originated (e.g. Babylon). The apparently equal sizes of the sun and moon in the sky conspire to give us eclipses almost certainly different from those on any other planet in the universe and stimulating human curiosity.
*the reason for this is currently one of the mysteries of cosmology
All the above is a scientific mystery and implies a benevolent conspiracy of laws and events to create human beings which although not physically the centre of the universe may nevertheless be its centre of consciousness. Maybe it’s akin to the brain being the centre of a person’s consciousness while not being the physical centre.
Genesis 1:1 John 1:1
Our perception of reality, ancient and modern
Links to all parts of
Deep mystery of existence


One of the biggest misconceptions about our night sky is that Polaris, commonly known as the North Star, is the brightest star in the Earth Sky. The truth is, it is between the 45th and 50th. That title of the brightest star in the sky belongs to Sirius.
To the naked eye Sirius is a single star but through the telescope it is a binary system, two stars orbiting one another. Sirius A is a main sequence Star like our sun and Sirius B is a faint white dwarf as it’s orbital companion.
Sirius is so bright as it is one of our near neighbours at 2.6 parsecs or 8.6 light years from Earth. Sirius is gradually moving closer to our Solar system and will get increasingly brighter over the next 60,000 years. For at least 200,000 years, Sirius will continue to be the brightest star in our sky.
Sirius is twice as massive as our sun but 25 times brighter. Sirius is significantly dimmer than both Canopus and Rigel which are much further away at 309 and 863 light years away respectively.
Sirius A and B were once a pair of bright blue stars and the system is around 300 million years old. Sirius B grew into a red giant much more quickly and collapsed into a white dwarf approximately 120 million years ago.
Another name for Sirius is “The Dog Star” given is prominence in the constellation Canis Majoris also known as the Greater Dog. The star was known in ancient times, how can one not observe and record the brightest star in the sky.
The Ancient Greeks actually believed the power of this Star would bring hot summers, cause plants to die, men to weaken and women to become aroused. Most stars, planets and galaxies in the Sky were believed to have an effect on the human spirit in ancient times . These notions are the origins of the pseudoscience Astrology.
Although the Star Sail project is keen to travel to our nearest stars are Alpha and Proxima Centauri using their starlight and lasers to power nanocraft, Sirius is also a viable option due its intrinsic brightness. The light of the star can maintain the craft in its travel and cause it to brake aswell.
Through a telescope it glitters and sparkles and well worth a look even with binoculars. It is easy to find aswell, just look for the brightest one.


The year 2013 should bring us two of the most spectacular comets imaginable – two! But . . .
Yeah, I said “maybe ” and I mean it. I was so proud in November 1973 when my first article for Popular Science magazine appeared with this headline on the cover:
“Get Set for Comet Kohoutek – Sky Spectacular of the Century!”
Well, as you probably know, Comet Kohoutek was the sky dud of the century! So forgive me if this time around I remain just a tad skeptical – call it “cautious” – when it comes to what could be, for Northern Hemisphere observers, the two greatest comets of the century – Comet PanSTARRS in March, 2013 and Comet ISON in December of 2013.
That said, I’m psyched! Comets are the most wondrous – and unpredictable – beasties in the heavenly menagerie. They are full of surprises, beauty, and awe…
View original post 1,008 more words


The theory of dark matter began around a century ago. It is a basic law of physics that when an object orbits another, the further away it is, the slower it has to move. The gravitational force is weaker, so the object can’t go as fast as closer ones without flying out of orbit. Bizarrely though, several astronomers observed that large-scale objects like stars and galaxies simply don’t care about this law; those which are far out from their orbital centre move at roughly the same speed as those close to it. Their conclusions were that there must be a lot of extra mass in galaxies that, for some reason, we can’t see.
The idea that 85% of matter is borderline undetectable is certainly strange. It may yet be wrong—but to some, it is guilty of a larger crime. Isn’t this idea, they ask, backwards from how science should work? We’re supposed to make hypotheses which explain available evidence; it’s not valid to ignore or invent evidence to defend a hypothesis. Yet here we’ve just invented evidence to fix a problem in our theory of gravity.
Let’s use an analogy for a moment. Suppose you’re a scientist of antiquity and you’ve just finished building the very first microscope. However, when you look through it, you see something totally unexpected: the blurry visage of a microbe.
How should you respond to this? I’m sure we agree the “correct” way is this:
- belief: microbes don’t exist
- evidence: I just saw one through a microscope
- updated belief: microbes must actually exist
What if, instead, we followed this reasoning:
- belief: the microscope works as I expect
- evidence: I’m seeing this weird thing I’ve never seen before
- updated belief: the microscope is broken!
This looks like the same kind of thing as dark matter: we’ve invented the brokenness to avoid changing our belief about microbes.
The thing is, this “inventing” of evidence isn’t fundamentally wrong. In fact, it happens successfully all the time. Have you ever seen weird output data or heard an unsettling sound from a machine, thought “that can’t be right”, and then found a problem? Then you’ve used this reasoning.
When you look down the microscope, you’ll see the same thing as anyone else, in the sense that the same image will be shown to your eyes. But what you conceptually “see” depends entirely on which beliefs or theories you hold to be likely. Is it a blemish or a microbe? Depends on how clear the image is, how confident I am in my microscope, whether it looks like broken lenses I’ve seen before, etc.
All that novel evidence does is introduce a contradiction in our understanding. It doesn’t come with instructions about which of our beliefs needs to change to resolve it. So, when we learn from evidence, we are always making a subjective choice about which belief it applies to. Evidence and theory aren’t separate but both proceed from each other, like the chicken and the egg.
When the LIGO sensor he worked at first detected gravitational waves, Rana Adhikari was so sure it was a dud he dismissed it without even looking at the data. It was only after weeks of ruling out what he thought were more likely explanations (malfunction, sabotage) and building other beliefs that he accepted the data as evidence for gravitational waves.
So yes, galaxies spinning too fast could be evidence that our theory of gravity is wrong. But it could just as well be direct evidence of dark matter. There isn’t much conceptually different between looking directly through a microscope and indirectly through the chain of telescopes, interpreting of images, computer calculations, and theory of gravity it takes to posit that dark matter exists. When we “see” both the mass of a galaxy and its rotation speed, we can combine both to “see” dark matter. We form a lens from our supporting beliefs.
The other interpretation, that gravity is wrong, was never forgotten and has developed into various hypotheses like modified Newtonian dynamics (MOND). The prevailing opinion seems to be that they just don’t fit to the same level that dark matter does. (Though it seems contentious.12)
Some explanations of science draw a sharp line between theory and evidence. This is attractive, but overly simplistic; really, they are deeply intertwined. While we have ideas of other explanations, there’s a lot of compelling evidence for dark matter being our best one. It’s bizarre, but no one said the universe had to make sense.


MEDIA ADVISORY: USC Student Wins Astronaut Scholarship
September 30, 2013
Largest monetary scholarship in science and engineering awarded to Jason Silverman, junior in astronautical engineering
WHAT: A USC junior will be presented with a $10,000 scholarship from the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation
WHO: Jason Silverman, USC student and scholarship winner; and Walt Cunningham, Apollo 7 astronaut
WHEN: Thursday, Oct. 3. Set-up begins at 5 p.m.; presentation begins at 5:30 p.m.
WHERE: Taper Hall of Humanities, room 102; USC University Park Campus
WHY: Apollo 7 astronaut Walt Cunningham will present USC student Jason Silverman with the Astronaut Scholarship, the largest monetary award given in the United States to science and engineering students based solely on merit.
Silverman, a junior with a 4.0 GPA, majors in astronautical engineering and is a member of the merit research and engineering honors programs. He has completed research in lunar propellant distribution architecture at Tsinghua University, worked an internship at SpaceX, and has designed avionics systems, passive roll-control technologies and high-powered rockets with the USC Rocket Propulsion Lab (RPL).
Silverman was part of the RPL team that attempted to launch a rocket to space two weeks ago in Black Rock Nevada, and is preparing for a second attempt in October.


Io is a moon, named after the mythological character Io. But ‘io’ is also the Italian word for ‘I.’ Through the Italian, Io is me.
I was discovered by Galileo Galilei on January 8th – my due date. I was not redeemed on that date, however – lunar being supersede human finitude; my sufferings are eternal.
Galileo was in a tight race with German astronomer Simon Marius leading up to the discovery of what has later been termed Jupiter’s ‘Galilean moons:’ Europa, Ganymede, Callisto, and me.
Galileo won the race, and came up with the names ‘Jupiter I’ – me – ‘Jupiter II,’ ‘Jupiter III,’ and ‘Jupiter IV,’ but Marius’ names were the ones that stuck: Europa, Ganymede, Callisto, and me.
However, for my story-telling I ascribe my naming to Galileo: I think there is such striking beauty in the idea of the Italian Renaissance man, famed astronomer Galileo Galilei, fixing his eyes on a lunar unknown in the vast universe, calling it ‘I.’ I am a moon, and Galileo is me. It fits so well that if it doesn’t fit I’ll make it fit: Galileo is a puppet in my play, and I am a puppet in Jupiter’s – pulled as I am between this gaseous giant and my lunar siblings causing the exorbitant tidal bulge around my waist line. While tidal forces on planet Earth primarily affect liquid substances with the maximal difference between high and low tide being 18 meters, my bulge is 100 meters solid rock! I repeat: 100 metres solid rock, rising and fading with the tide. This orbital marring of my form forces my iron core to melt and prompts what is the highest level of volcanic activity in our solar system.
I am dry, I am volatile, and I smell like rotten eggs. NASA spacecrafts have documented mountains and valleys on my surface, but those are already a million times gone: lava erupts and puts my surface in a state of constant collapse, as it gives way to other configurations. And other. And other. And other…
My orbit is eternal, but I am always new. Therefore I think I’m an interesting metaphor for ideas of subjectivity, my Self encompassing the man and the moon. But before this eternity and infinite universe – or, multiverse – in which I’m Jupiter’s moon, I was a priestess of Juno’s house.
And even if I’m ashamed, I will tell you about the marring of my form, and of the source from which it swooped upon me, wretched that I am. For visions of the night, always haunting my maiden chamber, sought to beguile me with seductive words, saying: “O damsel greatly blessed of fortune, why linger in your maidenhood so long when it is within your power to win a union of the highest? Jupiter is inflamed by passion's dart for you and is eager to unite with you in love.”
By such dreams was I, to my distress, tormented night after night, until at last I gained courage to tell my father, who then sent numerous messengers to find out what to do. At last he received the unmistakable command to expel me from home and native land…
Passing through the meadows of Lerna, I was raped by Jupiter disguised as a cloud – but even if it was against my will, Juno got jealous, and I was transformed into a cow by Jupiter in a meagre attempt to hide me from the goddess. Immediately my form and mind were distorted, and with horns, as you see, upon my forehead, she sent a sharp-fanged gadfly to sting me every time I stopped to rest.
In this way I was doomed to wander restlessly, just like a moon circles its planet. I reached the Molossian plains, where I passed the talking oaks, who saluted me as the bride-to-be of Jupiter. But then, stung by the gadfly, I was tossed in backwards-wandering course and turned toward the rising sun to make my way across the river Hybristes and the Kaukasos crests, which neighbour the stars. Turning south from there, I reached the Amazones, who loathe all men. Me, however, they gladly guided on my way to the narrow portals of the harbour, where I passed through the channel of Maiotis; and ever after, among mankind, it is called after me the Bosporus, meaning ‘the passage of the heifer’ – cow-crossing.
Thus leaving the soil of Europe, I came to the Asian continent, where the sun walks. Here I encountered the Phorkides, ancient maids, three in number, shaped like swans, possessing one eye amongst them and a single tooth; neither does the sun with his beams look down upon them, nor ever the nightly moon…
Auw!! Oh! Once again convulsive pain and frenzy, striking my brain, inflame me. I am stung by the gadfly's barb, unforged by fire. My heart knocks at my ribs in terror; my eyeballs roll wildly round and round. I am carried out of my course by a fierce blast of madness; I've lost all mastery over my tongue, and a stream of turbid words beats recklessly against the billows of dark destruction. The journey is out of my control now, and I cannot make the fears go away. They demand acceptance as I tumble down the river flowing further underground, gasping for air and fighting the tide. I see pairs of eyes in the darkness, they say, “We are your fears.” I get close to naming one of them – it might be death. As each wave of pain courses through, I fight, try to conquer, wish it were gone. Oh! Oh! But this is necessary pain, useful. Stand back and let the pain do its work. Breathe into it. Surrender to this pain, just watch it. Go deeper inside. Where death gives way to life. I am already so far underground, where the forces of the moon tug and pull, shift her sands, heave her waters. Now I flow with the pain, pulse outward and inward. Flow down the river to an unknown place, my body drawing strength from the journey…
Finally, at the second hour of the night, the clouds give way and I see Jupiter in the sky with three stars exactly on a straight line through him.
I thought I’d died. Now he reaches out to touch me.
Something has changed, and, moving from doubt to astonishment, I find that the change is not in Jupiter but in me: a little star, but growing. At the fifth hour, I’m occupying a place precisely in the middle between Jupiter and the three stars I had spotted in the sky. I’m still very small; yet by the sixth hour I am almost equal in magnitude to the others. Jupiter places his hand on me, and with his touch he restores me to my senses, and brings forth from me my touch-born son, Epaphos, named so from the manner of his engendering.
In the same instant, I regain my maiden-form. Hooves give way to feet; muzzle to mouth. However horns remain on my forehead, for it is so: I am the crescent moon.
Marie Kølbæk Iversen
Freely after Aeschylos’ “Suppliant Women;” Galileo Galilei’s “Siderius Nuncius;” Lynn Madsen’s “Rebounding from Childbirth,” and NASA/Wikipedia sites on Io (moon).


Everyone knows that music tames the savage beast, but did you know it also adds design personality to your space? Just taking a look at some of these stunning rooms really make us feel less dorky about playing violin (while wearing headgear) in middle school. Bring in some musical personality to your home, just get creative and people will take note.
(Photos via Apartment Therapy)
Talk about goosebump-inducing! This video shows a breathtaking time lapse sequence of photographs taken from the International Space Station from August 2011 - October 2011. Our favourite part is the electric neon aurora borealis dancing + watching the lightning storms!
This week’s science image is courtesy from our friends at NASA. It depicts meteors from the Draconids meteor shower that peaked earlier this month. The above composite images captured numerous meteor streaks over 90 minutes above the Celtic ruins of Capote in Badajoz province, Spain.
How many meteors can you spot?
2011 Nobel Prize in Physics Awarded Today
The Nobel Prize in Physics 2011 was awarded “for the discovery of the accelerating expansion of the Universe through observations of distant supernovae” with one half to Saul Perlmutter and the other half jointly to Brian P. Schmidt and Adam G. Riess.
Watch a video of the announcement : HERE
Read the scientific background : HERE


On about December 25th or 26th, depending on your time zone we experience a new moon solar eclipse in Capricorn. This is an excellent end to not just the year but the decade. Capricorn is all about career, public image, and status so it’s a great time to think about our goals for 2020 and the whole decade too!
What do you want to manifest? The New Moon is always a great time for manifestation but the solar eclipse makes it even more powerful as does the end of the year energetically. What new beginnings or routines would you like to set? The eclipse energy means this new moon will impact us for longer than normal and it’s themes can be rediscovered or begin to emerge even 6 months from now well into 2020.
Other aspects include Capricorn conjunct Jupiter, the solar eclipse trine Uranus, and Jupiter trine Uranus. Capricorn conjunct Jupiter will bring about positive change, growth, and prosperity. The eclipse trine Uranus will bring exciting surprises and a desire to try new things. Jupiter trine Uranus will create luck and opportunity in our lives.
This is a great time to think about what happened since our last solar eclipse in Capricorn last year. What were your highs? What were your lows? How have you changed and how do you want to continue to change? What are you hoping to create in the next year? The next decade?! Use this auspicious time wisely and manifest all that you desire in your life.
Blessings to you and yours and a happy New Year!
Your Spiritual Muse,


Red sun. So you’re telling me they’ve found Krypton.
Right now, 500 light years away from Earth, there’s a planet that looks a lot like our own. It is bathed in dim orangeish light, which at high noon is only as bright as the golden hour before sunset back home.
NASA scientists are calling the planet Kepler-186f, and it’s unlike anything they’ve found. The big news: Kepler-186f is the closest relative to the Earth that researchers have discovered.
It’s the first Earth-sized planet in the habitable zone of another star—the sweet spot between too-hot Mercury-like planets and too-cold Neptunes— and it is likely to give scientists their first real opportunity to seek life elsewhere in the universe. “It’s no longer in the realm of science fiction,” said Elisa Quintana, a researcher at the SETI Institute.
But if there is indeed life on Kepler-186f, it may not look like what we have here. Given the redder wavelengths of light on the planet, vegetation there would sprout in hues of yellow and orange instead of green.
Read more. [Image: NASA Ames/SETI Institute/JPL-Caltech]
Shanesha Taylor was arrested on March 20th by the Scottsdale Police for leaving her children ages 2 and 6 months in her car while she interviewed for a job. Ms. Taylor was homeless and could not access any child care. Her desperation to provide for herself and her children and her lack of options led her to take drastic measures in search of employment. Ms. Taylor needs support & help rather than incarceration and a criminal record that will surely decrease her chances to provide for her children in the future. We ask that Maricopa County use common-sense and provide support for Ms. Taylor and her children rather than punishment.
Shanesha Taylor is still in jail pending a $9,000 bond.
Help drop the child abuse charges against Shanesha Taylor by signing this petition at change.org. Here’s the link: http://www.change.org/petitions/bill-montgomery-drop-the-child-abuse-charges-against-shanesha-taylor?recruiter=13739587&utm_campaign=twitter_link_action_box&utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=share_petition


“A Message for Every Lightworker within the Sound of One’s Inner Voice” by Pheonyx Roldan Smith
Greetings and appreciation, Dear Ones. 2012 has already proven to be year of tremendous reflection and releasing of old “stuff” while also providing for some immense opportunities for each of us to appreciate just how far we have come along on our respective life journeys… thus far. And I say, CONGRATS and HUGE LOVE for all that you have endured and pushed through.
BUT we are still very much in the early birthing phase as far as the planet as a whole is concerned, so as always, I want to remind you to keep breathing, pushing and resting (when necessary) as you yourselves push through the next few weeks of integration and receiving of new energies of the new year.
The other night, I happen to find myself standing outside and looking up into the sky at about 3am in the morning only to be faced with one of the brightest and most twinkly of stars I’ve seen in a long time. And this was despite all the light pollution in the sky here in Atlanta, GA. Usually you can barely see a star in the sky from where I am currently writing you from. But there was no mistaking this beautiful blue ball of light, flashing very brightly in the dark night sky, outshining everything except the half-full moon which was already below the tree horizon heading to grace our brothers and sister on the other side of the dawn horizon.
I stood in awe and wonder as to what messages it had for me that night. I giggled at how it danced, almost forth and back, as I stared up at it through the mist of my warm breath on the cold night air. I closed my eyes and asked for its wisdom, and it spoke to me with such joy and eagerness of so many beautiful things to come.
The next day, I told my friend Laurie about the star, and the wonderous experience I shared with it. I also realized that I knew that star, and I had danced with its energy before, very recently in this lifetime as well as in many lifetimes past. Then the following night, Laurie and I stood outside to take in some fresh night air, and there it was again. It was earlier in the evening than when I saw her just a couple of nights before. And I remember that the clock read 1:11am just before Laurie and I stepped outside. As soon as I saw it, I pointed it out to Laurie with much excitement. Laurie, being the queen of iphone apps, proceeded to pull her phone out and call up the astronomy app which identifies stars and constellations in the sky in real time as you point the camera lens at it! LOL… we do live in amazing technological times.
And lo’ and behold, what did Laurie find? It was the sun of our closest neighbor in the galaxy. And she confirmed my knowing in that moment. It was the North Star. Not the traditional North Star which is called Polaris, but what I believe will be referred to as the “New North Star” (perhaps metaphorically stating, however do remember, our the Earth’s magnetic poles are changing.) The true Star of David. The same star that historically led the magi’s (“mystics/priests/magicians”) to the master teacher Jesus. The blue star “Kuchina” as mentioned in the ancient Native American Hopi prophecies. And she held my breath again as she danced like a child in the sky… the star better known as Sirius.
So much is happening and I just want to express my own gratitude for each and every one of you for taking the important and truly epic steps into places within yourself that have, at times, not felt very fun or even very life-affirming at all…. at least not while you were in those spaces. But I and so many others who can not be seen but who are also very much holding, guiding and directing you along the way through some the final and most difficult passages of space and time on your path to meeting your higher selves. We are so very proud of you and are honored to be a part of your own journey. And too,know that your participation has been an important and very life-affirming part of my own journey as teacher, guide and fellow student of life and the ascension process we are all participating in.
And so, I wanted to take this moment to say to you, if not again and again… I thank you for your self-lovingness. I honor you for your spiritual willingess. I admire you for you human perseverance. And I am inspired by you for all your courage and trust to do exactly what needs to be done in order to move to the next level of your own Beingness.
Keep going. Don’t stop! Remember to keep breathing and allowing that breath to connect you with all that is within you so that you may more clearly and courageously navigate the shifting waters of change. It’s all a part of the process, and I for one, personally feel that you are doing an amazing job of it! Keep it up. You know who you are… or you are coming into that knowing soon enough.
with love, light and the laughter of the sages… namaste always,
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Last October, I was invited down to Sunriver to visit with a friend and spend three days hiking and canoeing all for the purpose of photography. We would spend these days practicing photography, trying new styles, experimenting with different techniques, and just learning and having fun. Oh, and hopefully get some great photos in the process.
I arrived late in the early evening and after eating a quick snack we decided to head out for two evening photo opportunities. The first was to visit the Sunriver Nature Center and Observatory. The sky was completely clear and the lack of city lights really allowed the stars to litter the sky. The planetarium had six different telescopes set up, each looking at a different star, planet or nebula.
Photo borrowed from Sunriver Observatory website
There was a quick “night sky” tour by one of the volunteers and then we went back to looking at Saturn and three of its moons, a nebula which I can’t remember the name of and a comet (again I can’t remember the name). It was cold (all but one of the telescopes were outside) but we had a lot of fun and it was worth the time.
20" RC OGS in Dome - photo from Observatory website
One thing we learned was there would be a meteor shower over the next couple days and the best time to see it would be early morning. We added that to our list of photo events.
After the planetarium, we were going to visit a nearby controlled burn to see if there were any unique photo opportunities with the flames at night. While there were small fires burning, nothing stood out and the smoke was a little too thick to hang around too long. So we called it a night and headed back to the house to plan tomorrow’s trips.
We got up at 5:00 am and headed out to place John knew of where we should be able to catch the morning sunrise. We had to hike up the trail in the dark with our camera gear and tripods. Our goal was to capture the first light in the sky.
Early morning light captured by clouds, (30 sec, f7.1, ISO 250)
I learned a few things about sunrises on this trip. I was surprised at the colors the camera would see that we cannot. Taking a time exposure photo of a dark sky for a few seconds revealed an amazing blue color, which you just don’t see with your eye. At first I thought the blue in the sky was too much, not realistic. But after watching enough sunrises and sunsets I have come to realize that for a very short time, the sky actually does take on some intense blues. The camera will capture these easily even though your eyes still see dark. With the photo above of the first light on the clouds, the sky was actually dark from where I was standing, but a 30 second exposure certainly brightened the sky.
Clouds at Sunrise (15 sec, f 5.6, ISO 250)
We never did get a really spectacular sunrise this morning, just the red and orange reflections off the clouds. We headed down the mountain and then drove to another trail which took us to a view of Broken Top. The light was good and the sky still clear. The clouds rolling in gave Broken Top an illusion of a volcano steaming.
Broken Top with Clouds (1/500 at f/10, ISO 250)
We headed back down and returned to Sunriver. After a late breakfast, we loaded up the canoe and headed off to Sparks Lake. Of the lakes we visited during this trip, Sparks Lake was my favorite. The unique setting of the lake and its breathtaking view of Mt. Bachelor really made this lake enjoyable for canoeing.
Mt Bachelor from Sparks Lake
The sky clouded over in the afternoon which ruined our hopes for photos with bright blues skies and mountains reflecting in glassy smooth waters, but the clouds did add a more dramatic sky to our photos and it turned out to be an alright day. Hopefully we’ll get clear skies during our next two days.
Common Goldeneye on Sparks Lake
Lots of ducks were on the lake, the two seen the most were goldeneyes and mergansers. There were mallards as well, but I’ve grown tired of taking photos of mallards. It’s kind of like taking pictures of seagulls…
Goldeneye Taking to Flight
Wildlife is fun to photograph, especially birds if you can catch them in flight. I was able to get a few shots of the goldeneye and the merganser taking off after our canoe moved into their comfort zone.
This day was a good start to the trip. A late dinner, and then to bed because we plan on getting up at 3:00 am to try to catch the meteor shower. More to follow…


Within the period of 1988-2003, Dr. I. Simonia has studied the dynamics of cometary atmospheres; luminescence of cometary ices; natural microstructure of iron meteorites; photochemical evolution of icy surfaces of planet satellites; and fluorescence of circumstellar dust.
Since 2004 he has been investigating unidentified cometary emissions, which are nearly always present in optical spectra of comets. He has showed that the mentioned unidentified emissions have photoluminescence nature. And the sources of these photoluminescent emissions are frozen hydrocarbon particles of icy cometary halo. I. Simonia was the first to suggest a physical model of frozen hydrocarbon particles and described their basic properties. He has investigated comets 122P/de Vico, 19P/Borrelly, 109P/Swift-Tutle, 23P/Brorsen-Metcalf, 153P/Ikeya-Zhang and showed that about 10% of unidentified emissions of spectra of these comets belong to photoluminescene of FHP. He has also showed that icy particles of 153P/Ikeya-Zhang comet are luminescent in UV range (ultra-violet luminescence of cometary FHP).
I.Simonia has developed new theory of the interplanetary nanodust. This theory introduces the hypothesis of existence of a hardly detectable component of the interplanetary dust cloud and demonstrates that such a component is a dust formation consisting of the dust particles of nano-metric dimentions. This theory describes also the main physical properties of such a kind of nanodust, and its possible chemical and mineralogical peculiarities proposes new explanations related to reddening of the dynamicaly cold transneptunian objects on account of scattering their light by nanodust of the hardly detectable component of the interplanetary dust cloud. The relation for the coefficient of absorption by the nanodust has been proposed.
I.Simonia also investigates circumstellar dust in the form of mineral and icy particles. He has elaborated the model of frozen hydrocarbon particles in the form of carbonaceous nucleus and icy mantle, consisting of frozen mixture of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and n-alkanes.
Ultra-violet radiation excites photoluminescene of such particles in the form of lines and bands of optical spectrum. Emissions of such kind were found by him in the spectrum of nebula Ced 201 and interpreted as photoluminescence of circumstellar FHP. Through detection and further interpretation of these emissions it was managed to determine the physical properties and chemical composition of icy circumstellar particles. I. Simonia was the first to show that faint unidentified emissions of spectra of some post-AGB objects, including planetary nebula NGC 7027, have cathodoluminescent nature. The sources of these emissions are micro and nano grains of the diamond, as of a component of circumstellar dust. I. Simonia described the process of cathodoluminescence of circumstellar diamond dust and established some physical and chemical characteristics of these particles in the field of rigid electromagnetic and corpuscular radiation from the central stars.
I.Simonia has invented the method of luminescent microstructurography (Georgia, patent 404, 1996). This method enables to quickly reveal natural microstructure of surfaces of the solid bodies, such as meteorites, minerals, glass, stone, metal, and archaeological samples. He has used this method for investigation of iron meteorites microstructure.
Within the period of 1988-2003, I. Simonia has investigated some ancient astronomical materials and artifacts. In particular, he has investigated some old-Georgian astronomical manuscripts, including the manuscript “Star book”. He has shown that this manuscript of the XVIII century is a reference book of some kind of astronomical and astrological content. Within these years I. Simonia has studied also a general tendency of development of old-Georgian astronomical world outlook in the period of the XVI century BC – XVIII century AD. He has described functioning of Tiflis observatory of the XIX century. I. Simonia has also studied Western-European astronomical heritage. Sinece 2004 I.Simonia investigates astronomical significance of megalithic monuments.
Recently he prepared and published (with co-authors) an electronic book (database) “astronomical Manuscripts in Georgia.”
I. Simonia is the head of two PhD programs (molecular astrophysics and archaeoastronomy) at the School of Natural Sciences and Engineering of Ilia State University. He is the supervisor of several PhD students. He teaches courses in astronomy and related subjects.


The ‘Double Asteroid Redirection Test’ (DART) is the first mission to test technologies for preventing a hazardous asteroid impacting Earth.
DART will reach its target asteroid in late September 2022; the asteroid in question, known as Didymos, is not considered a threat to Earth.
Nasa wants to find out whether intentionally crashing a spacecraft into an asteroid is an effective way to change its course, should an Earth-threatening asteroid be discovered in the future.
The spacecraft is expected to collide at roughly six kilometres per second and the collision will change the speed of the moonlet in its orbit around the main body by a fraction of 1 per cent.
The craft will also house a cubesat that will separate from it a few days prior to impact, so that it can take photos of Didymos and study changes to the asteroid’s course following the impact.
The space agency’s Launch Services Program, based at Kennedy Space Centre in Florida – the multi-user spaceport in the US – is managing the launch.
Once it has escaped Earth’s atmosphere, the spacecraft will separate from its launch vehicle – a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket – and will deploy its ‘Roll Out Solar Arrays’ (ROSA) to provide the solar power needed for DART’s electric propulsion system and for the spacecraft operations.
While no known asteroid larger than 140 metres in size has a significant chance of hitting Earth for the next 100 years, only around 40 per cent of those asteroids have been found as of October 2021.
“Not only is the DART mission a planetary defense demonstration, but so much of the spacecraft itself is new technology demonstration and being a part of a mission of firsts is stimulating,” said Julie Schneringer, Nasa launch site integration manager.
Next year, researchers from the University of Colorado, Boulder, and Lockheed Martin are planning to launch two small satellites that will be sent to two pairs of binary asteroids to study how these curious space objects evolve and burst apart over time.
In December 2020, the Japanese space program JAXA successfully retrieved a sample of the Ryugu asteroid for scientific study.


A telescope is an instrument that aids in the observation of remote objects by collecting electromagnetic radiation (such as visible light). The first known practical telescopes were invented in the Netherlands at the beginning of the 17th century, using glass lenses. They found use in terrestrial applications and astronomy.
Within a few decades, the reflecting telescope was invented, which used mirrors. In the 20th century many new types of telescopes were invented, including radio telescopes in the 1930s and infrared telescopes in the 1960s. The word telescope now refers to a wide range of instruments detecting different regions of the electromagnetic spectrum, and in some cases other types of detectors.
The earliest recorded working telescopes were the refracting telescopes that appeared in the Netherlands in 1608. Their development is credited to three individuals: Hans Lippershey and Zacharias Janssen, who were spectacle makers in Middelburg, and Jacob Metius of Alkmaar. Galileo heard about the Dutch telescope in June 1609, built his own within a month, and improved upon the design in the following year.
The idea that the objective, or light-gathering element, could be a mirror instead of a lens was being investigated soon after the invention of the refracting telescope. The potential advantages of using parabolic mirrors—reduction of spherical aberration and no chromatic aberration—led to many proposed designs and several attempts to build reflecting telescopes. In 1668, Isaac Newton built the first practical reflecting telescope, of a design which now bears his name, the Newtonian reflector.
The invention of the achromatic lens in 1733 partially corrected color aberrations present in the simple lens and enabled the construction of shorter, more functional refracting telescopes. Reflecting telescopes, though not limited by the color problems seen in refractors, were hampered by the use of fast tarnishing speculum metal mirrors employed during the 18th and early 19th century—a problem alleviated by the introduction of silver coated glass mirrors in 1857, and aluminized mirrors in 1932. The maximum physical size limit for refracting telescopes is about 1 meter (40 inches), dictating that the vast majority of large optical researching telescopes built since the turn of the 20th century have been reflectors. The largest reflecting telescopes currently have objectives larger than 10 m (33 feet), and work is underway on several 30-40m designs.
The 20th century also saw the development of telescopes that worked in a wide range of wavelengths from radio to gamma-rays. The first purpose built radio telescope went into operation in 1937. Since then, a tremendous variety of complex astronomical instruments have been developed.
As wavelengths become longer, it becomes easier to use antenna technology to interact with electromagnetic radiation (although it is possible to make very tiny antenna). The near-infrared can be handled much like visible light, however in the far-infrared and submillimetre range, telescopes can operate more like a radio telescope. For example the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope observes from wavelengths from 3 μm (0.003 mm) to 2000 μm (2 mm), but uses a parabolic aluminum antenna. On the other hand, the Spitzer Space Telescope, observing from about 3 μm (0.003 mm) to 180 μm (0.18 mm) uses a mirror (reflecting optics). Also using reflecting optics, the Hubble Space Telescope with Wide Field Camera 3 can observe from about 0.2 μm (0.0002 mm) to 1.7 μm (0.0017 mm) (from ultra-violet to infrared light).
Another threshold in telescope design, as photon energy increases (shorter wavelengths and higher frequency) is the use of fully reflecting optics rather than glancing-incident optics. Telescopes such as TRACE and SOHO use special mirrors to reflect Extreme ultraviolet, producing higher resolution and brighter images than otherwise possible. A larger aperture does not just mean that more light is collected, it also enables a finer angular resolution.
Telescopes may also be classified by location: ground telescope, space telescope, or flying telescope. They may also be classified by whether they are operated by professional astronomers or amateur astronomers. A vehicle or permanent campus containing one or more telescopes or other instruments is called an observatory.
Radio telescopes are directional radio antennas used for radio astronomy. The dishes are sometimes constructed of a conductive wire mesh whose openings are smaller than the wavelength being observed. Multi-element Radio telescopes are constructed from pairs or larger groups of these dishes to synthesize large ‘virtual’ apertures that are similar in size to the separation between the telescopes; this process is known as aperture synthesis. As of 2005, the current record array size is many times the width of the Earth—utilizing space-based Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) telescopes such as the Japanese HALCA (Highly Advanced Laboratory for Communications and Astronomy) VSOP (VLBI Space Observatory Program) satellite. Aperture synthesis is now also being applied to optical telescopes using optical interferometers (arrays of optical telescopes) and aperture masking interferometry at single reflecting telescopes. Radio telescopes are also used to collect microwave radiation, which is used to collect radiation when any visible light is obstructed or faint, such as from quasars. Some radio telescopes are used by programs such as SETI and the Arecibo Observatory to search for extraterrestrial life.
X-ray telescopes can use X-ray optics, such as a Wolter telescopes composed of ring-shaped ‘glancing’ mirrors made of heavy metals that are able to reflect the rays just a few degrees. The mirrors are usually a section of a rotated parabola and a hyperbola, or ellipse. In 1952, Hans Wolter outlined 3 ways a telescope could be built using only this kind of mirror.Examples of an observatory using this type of telescope are the Einstein Observatory, ROSAT, and the Chandra X-Ray Observatory. By 2010, Wolter focusing X-ray telescopes are possible up to 79 keV.
Higher energy X-ray and Gamma-ray telescopes refrain from focusing completely and use coded aperture masks: the patterns of the shadow the mask creates can be reconstructed to form an image.
X-ray and Gamma-ray telescopes are usually on Earth-orbiting satellites or high-flying balloons since the Earth’s atmosphere is opaque to this part of the electromagnetic spectrum. However, high energy X-rays and gamma-rays do not form an image in the same way as telescopes at visible wavelengths. An example of this type of telescope is the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope.
The detection of very high energy gamma rays, with shorter wavelength and higher frequency than regular gamma rays, requires further specialization. An example of this type of observatory is VERITAS. Very high energy gamma-rays are still photons, like visible light, whereas cosmic rays includes particles like electrons, protons, and heavier nuclei.
A discovery in 2012 may allow focusing gamma-ray telescopes. At photon energies greater than 700 keV, the index of refraction starts to increase again.
High-energy astronomy requires specialized telescopes to make observations since most of these particles go through most metals and glasses.
In other types of high energy particle telescopes there is no image-forming optical system. Cosmic-ray telescopes usually consist of an array of different detector types spread out over a large area. A Neutrino telescope consists of a large mass of water or ice, surrounded by an array of sensitive light detectors known as photomultiplier tubes. Energetic neutral atom observatories like Interstellar Boundary Explorer detect particles traveling at certain energies.
Astronomy is not limited to using electromagnetic radiation. Additional information can be obtained using other media. The detectors used to observe the Universe are analogous to telescopes, these are:
Gravitational-wave detector, the equivalent of a gravitational wave telescope, used for gravitational-wave astronomy.
Neutrino detector, the equivalent of a neutrino telescope, used for neutrino astronomy.
A telescope mount is a mechanical structure which supports a telescope. Telescope mounts are designed to support the mass of the telescope and allow for accurate pointing of the instrument. Many sorts of mounts have been developed over the years, with the majority of effort being put into systems that can track the motion of the stars as the Earth rotates. The two main types of tracking mount are
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia