2012-01-20
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Geologic Map of the North Side of the Moon by Desiree E. Stuart-Alexander (1978)
2011-01-04
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A photo of the ISS transiting the Sun during a partial eclipse? It can only be Thierry Legault.
He also captured the ISS in front of the Moon and the lunar eclipse last month.
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On June 30, 1973, Concorde 001 intercepted the path of a solar eclipse over North Africa, Flying at Mach 2.05 the aircraft provided seven observers from France, Britain and the United States with 74 min of totality bounded by extended second (7 min) and third (12 min) contacts. The former permitted searches for time variations of much longer period than previously possible and the latter provided an opportunity for chromospheric observations of improved height resolution. The altitude, which varied between 16,200 and 17,700 m, freed the observations from the usual weather problems and greatly reduced atmospheric absorption and sky noise in regions of the infrared.
2010-03-17
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via www.planetary.org: Sad Lunokhod pines for the moon. (photo by Andrey Rogovsky.)
2009-11-07
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A comment by MichellDatsun on An Astronaut Explains How We’ll Fall In Love With Space Again.
There’s actually quite a good parallel in exploration history. In the winter of 1911/1912, Amundsen and Scott raced to the South Pole. Amundsen got there first, got back, and Scott died and became a posthumous hero.
After that, there were a few expeditions around the edges of the continent, and there were still whalers in the Antarctic Ocean, but nobody went back to the Pole for decades; until 1958, in fact. The thing is, when the Americans went, they did it in force, and for good. In combination with the permanent bases on the continent’s perimeter, it’s been inhabited continually since.
Now, there’s no reason that going back to the moon has to follow the same script: it won’t unless something forces us to. The thing is, nothing really stopped a base at the South Pole, except the will to make one.
2009-09-01
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“Venus, Jupiter and the moon rise at sunset over the Nepean river, New South Wales, Australia.”
by Vincent Miu, as seen in the Guardian’s Astronomy Photographer of the Year gallery.
