Orbital time-lapse

Another really pretty video of the Earth from the space station along with a bunch of auroras and thunderstorms flickering in the clouds.   Very cool, but I think they could have used some better music.
Watch it in band-width sucking HD and full screen for best effect.



Earth | Time Lapse View from Space, Fly Over | NASA, ISS from Michael König on Vimeo.

Cub Scouts visit the Highlands Astro-shack Observatory

I've had a few contacts through the club website lately asking about club members that could come to a scout meeting and demonstrate or teach some things about astronomy and telescopes.  I thought it would be more fun, and a lot easier to invite the Cub Pack (or is it a Troop?) over to our backyard observatory for a viewing.  Ok, November is getting into the dangerous month for storms and rare clear skies, but at least I can show them the telescope and how it works.
A small group of local scouts came over on a field trip the other night for a tour of the sky and telescope.  Skies were clear during the day, but hazed over later around sunset (it never fails!), but the moon was out and Jupiter was just clearing the tree in the backyard.  I was able to give them a fairly good view of the moon, and as it was lost in the oncoming haze, I swung around to Jupiter and showed them the cloud bands and the 4 moons.  NASA (or is it Russia now?) was cooperative and provided a space station flyby also which I pointed out to them.
Despite lousy skies, it was a great success!  The kids had a lot of good questions (as well as the parents) and I was able to answer them as fast as I could (they had a lot of questions that were fired at me in rapid succession).  Another group of scouts are coming next week, and the parents were so pleased that they asked if I could host a few more evenings with a few more groups.  Of course I said I would do it.

(click photos to view full size)

Happy Halloween

I'll probably hide in my basement tonight with the lights off, since I failed to get candy, and what is the point of buying a huge bag for about 7.5 kids that show up?  That stuff just isn't as good tasting as it used to be.
I saw this photo on Phil Plait's blog and liked the pumpkin, just thought I would share this one.

In Seattle, every clear night is a special night.

Finally had a break in the weather last night.  Didn't last too long, but enough for a midnight peek and get a few shots of Jupiter last night.  Skies were very stable probably about 8/10 if I can rate our skies.  Grabbed some videos of Jupiter while I could.  I was going for some more as the red spot rotated around the side of the planet, but then it all went dim on my screen.  Leaned out the door and peeked up and saw some wispy cloud gunk had gone between me and Jupiter.  Decided to quit at that time and send my data into the house for processing.
Pretty happy with the results.  This was probably the best of the few that I tried last night, but I can usually improve processing when I try it when awake - rather than at 1:45am.
Io is the moon that can be seen just to the left of the planet.

(click for bigger)

Not much change in about 40+ years.

I was at mom and dad's house this afternoon digging through dad's ties trying to find something that would possibly look good for an interview this week (already nervous about this).  I thought I would paw through some of the old slides to see what was in there.  Found a few photos of myself that were kind of fun and thought I would share them.  A little embarrassing maybe, but then I guess I'm still pretty much the same after 40 years.

The first photo is me sitting in the first officer's seat in a 747 that I got a tour of.  Dad and I were in the YMCA "Indian guides".  I wasn't wearing my feather and leather vest at this time.
The father of one of the boys in the tribe(?) was a pilot and flew this plane.  We all got a tour of it and I was totally impressed.  Funny thing I remember was that the dad had a thumb that was stubby, it was cut off in the past, but not sure how.  Still they let him fly a 747 even with a stub!
My interest in the manned space program is evident in the next photo.  This was back in about 1971, probably around the time Apollo 14 was going to the moon.  I was quite impressed with the missions and followed them closely while in my jammies sitting on the living room floor. I did have a few plastic models including the now valuable "Gulf Oil" LEM cardboard model which hung from the ceiling lamp in my bedroom.
So as you can see in this photo, I was simulating my own landing mission on the moon in the living room.  Obviously, I was the commander of the mission and my sister was lunar module pilot and lying down on the job.  I had the proper paper helmet, and a PLSS on my back ready for the EVA on the moon.  From the serious look in my face, I was probably dodging a boulder filled crater that the computer was trying to set me down in!

(Click the photos to see full size)

Expedition 31 crew photo and poster.

I always enjoy NASA's new sense of humor in the crew "movie posters".  Seems that the official crew photo this time has some Van Gogh in the background.
Too add a little more to the fun, I spotted a Cherokee 140 down at Boeing Field late this last summer, which also had similar artwork on it's tail. I wasn't sure at first about the logo on the vertical stabilizer  but after seeing photos from "Burning Man" I realized that this plane was a participant in the desert festival.  That could be a fun trip down there an land in the desert, but not really sure if I'm into running around naked wearing nothing but paint and cardboard covered with feathers, bubble gum and rubber bands (just made that up, but you know what I mean).  If you ask me, I think a plane like that is just asking for the dreaded FAA ramp check!

| Full sized crew photo link |

| See more on the CollectSpace posting |

Summary of all shuttle flights.

There is a new document out to test out the ink on your color printer if you want.  I'm sure you can burn through most of your colors if you want.  NASA has published a pretty nice 300 page document in .pdf format that is free for download. It contains a summary of each of the shuttle flights in about 2 or 3 pages each.  Timelines, photos and other goodies.
|Click here to download it (36 Meg .pdf file) |

Enceladus showing off.

The fountains of Enceladus. A pretty photo from Cassini that was just released. (Click for bigger)

| More from Ciclops site |

Fly with the ISS down the West coast.

This has been all over the internet the last few days, so it's probably nothing new.  I was watching it and wondering what the ISS was flying over.  I then spotted the familiar view of the Salton Sea and Baja in Southern California and then realized it was flying down the West coast.
Backing up to the start again I saw what I was looking for - Washington State.  Easy to pick out the lights (light pollution actually) of the Seattle/Puget sound area, then a litte farther down Portland can be seen.  Very cool to see home from this view!
Notice the airglow, thunderstorms and other things as the station flies south.  Make sure you click the YouTube logo on the video and select the HD version, and go full screen for the best effect.

Familiar object just trying something different - M27

Some of the "easy" things in the sky are always tempting to try again and again.  I shot this image of M27 about a week ago.  Basically, the only thing I did different was a much longer exposure.  Took my chances, and tried to put a little more trust and confidence in my autoguiding system.  I took a few 10 minute exposures to see if I could get in deeper to this object.  Seemed to work!  You can see a little more faint details around the edges of the nebula.  Guiding errors aren't to bad either.  The Starshoot camera and PHD Guider are working pretty well now.
I'm sure I could process this better if I could remember some of the methods that Adam Black taught me when I was at Mt. Lemmon last December.  Pretty happy with the results otherwise!
This is 6 exposures at 10 minutes each, ISO800 and the 12" telescope at f/6.3.
As always, click to see bigger.

Another exploding star!

Neighbor galaxy M101 decided to show off this time since M51 blew off a couple stars in the last few years.  Ok, they aren't really neighbors, but they are both in the Big Dipper handle.  Caught an image of the new supernova last week.
It's a doozy!  I haven't tried, but I've heard it can be seen with small telescopes also these days.  Probably reached it's peak and starting to fade, but I caught it at least.  It's also the nearest supernova to Earth in the last 30 years.  Just a nearby 21 million light years away.   But don't worry, still too far away to extinquish us with a gamma ray burst!

The techie stuff:

• Camera: Canon 350D Modified
• Scope: Meade 12" LX200 at f/6.3
• Guider: Orion 80ED with Starshoot camera and PHD Guider
• Exposures: 5 x 7 minutes at ISO800

9/11/2011 - 10 years.

10 years ago the most horrible event in aviation history happened.  Don't need say much more since those visions are forever burned in our minds. 
Today I'll remember 9/11 by celebrating our continuing freedom to fly our own airplanes - by going flying!