Back on New Year's Day, 2019, the world got its first glimpses of MU69, a tiny rock orbiting our Sun almost a billion miles farther out than Pluto, in the heart of the Kuiper Belt. This rock represented our first up-close look at such a distant solar system object. Though it dwells in the same…Read more Inspiration From An Interplanetary Snowman
Astronomy
Super (Cold) Blood Wolf Moon
Cold, and windy, but mostly clear - just some high cirrus passing by every once in a while to give the Moon a hazy halo. I tried to capture a timelapse of the whole event - that's being processed and hopefully comes out well. In the meantime, here's a montage of the eclipse as viewed…Read more Super (Cold) Blood Wolf Moon
Lunar-tic
Tonight's the night! The much-hyped Super Blood Wolf Moon (aka total lunar eclipse, in January, while the Moon is at perigee) is visible tonight from both Americas. Western viewers get to see it in the evening, while Eastern viewers have to stay up a little later, but see totality when the Moon is at its…Read more Lunar-tic
Mars and Venus
I've been trying all week to get this written - and by using this title I don't mean to raise any men vs. women / war vs. love discussions. Not even a suggestion that the two stereotypes are reversed (Mars is a desert, but perhaps still harbors life? Venus is more of the raging acid-hot…Read more Mars and Venus
Post-Launch Pics, Antares/Cygnus NG CRS-10
I actually paid attention to my alarm clock and got up at 3:30 am on Saturday morning. It was a cloudless night, and perfect conditions for NASA to launch a resupply mission to the ISS. I posted an update to my original Friday night post on the pending launch - but for those normal people…Read more Post-Launch Pics, Antares/Cygnus NG CRS-10
Cygnus/Antares Launch, 4:01 am EST, November 17, 2018
Update 11/17 - The launch was successful and on schedule. Scroll down to the bottom of this post for a couple pics from my perspective. I'm having a hard time keeping up these days, between work and kid schedules - so I thought I was going to miss this entirely. Fortunately (unfortunately?) weather intervened and…Read more Cygnus/Antares Launch, 4:01 am EST, November 17, 2018
Goodbye, Kepler
Imagine, for a moment, what the world would have been like in the 15th and 16th centuries, if Magellan, de Gama, Cortez, Columbus, and all the other seafaring European explorers heading out for "the New World" knew exactly what they were in for. If, Viking exploration aside, the entire European population was aware not only…Read more Goodbye, Kepler
Soyuz and Risk Management
It's old news at this point, but several weeks ago (October 11, 2018), the launch of Soyuz MS-10 suffered a failure of the second-stage booster, causing an automatic abort of the launch, and ejection of the crew capsule. Russian cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin and US astronaut Nick Hague did NOT make it to their intended destination,…Read more Soyuz and Risk Management
Orionids (Astronomy: Week of 10/14/18)
I haven't generally had much luck writing about meteor showers. By which I mean that the showers I mention (so far!) have typically fizzled... On the flip side of that, I didn't mention the Draconids at all, because they're such a "minor" shower, but a couple weeks ago my wife and I saw 6 in…Read more Orionids (Astronomy: Week of 10/14/18)
All Things Being Equal (Astronomy: Week of 9/16/18)
Saturday, September 22, it's all over (actually early morning, 1:54AM UTC on the 23rd, but that's late Sat in North America...). Summer is gone, and fall or autumn (whichever you prefer) is upon us. This transition is marked by the Autumnal Equinox, which comes from latin - aequi (equal), and nox (night). "Equal Night", so yeah, this is the…Read more All Things Being Equal (Astronomy: Week of 9/16/18)
We Don’t Know STEVE
In this age of persistent surveillance and awareness (I'm not talking about people, but of weather, seismic events, astronomy and the like), an age where we are examining both subatomic particles and planets orbiting distant stars, it's easy to forget there's a heck of a lot we don't know. In many cases, we know what…Read more We Don’t Know STEVE
The Moon, Mars, a Comet, and Maybe a Fireball (Astronomy: Week of 7/22/18)
Wow, there's a lot of cool stuff going on in the night sky this week. I can't wait til this pattern of East Coast thunderstorms lets me see it! Let me give a quick rundown, in the order of my own particular interest and excitement. Your mileage may vary. Mars at Opposition Mars is back,…Read more The Moon, Mars, a Comet, and Maybe a Fireball (Astronomy: Week of 7/22/18)
Mercury and the Moon
As a quick followup to my post last week about Mercury being at elongation (that was back on Thursday, July 12) - I failed to mention, because I didn't know, that the brand new baby moon would be right next to Mercury on Saturday night (the 14th). Here's what I saw: Mercury is actually fairly…Read more Mercury and the Moon
Mercury at Elongation (Astronomy: Week of 7/8/18)
Hey all, a quick one this week - I'm out in the woods (hooray!) this week with no (little) internet. A nice tradeoff, honestly... BUT, as I've been out this week under clear skies, looking at Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, and Mars (midnight or so), I've also caught a glimpse of Mercury. All five (six if…Read more Mercury at Elongation (Astronomy: Week of 7/8/18)
Happy Aphelion! (Astronomy: Week of 7/1/18)
Happy Aphelion Day, everybody! July 6, 2018, marks the point on Earth's orbit where we are the farthest from the Sun. Orbits are elliptical, not circular, and ours is no exception. The degree to which an orbit deviates from circular is called its eccentricity, and that ranges from the very low, almost circular (like ours), to…Read more Happy Aphelion! (Astronomy: Week of 7/1/18)
Flying Squirrel Outdoors 