NASA slightly faked photo

There was a funny entry on Phil "Bad Astronomer" blog the other day that caught my attention. I have seen this photo floating around the internet before of the view from the shuttle cockpit while in orbit.
The funky thing about it that would get any NASA Hoaxer to stand up and start throwing chars is the fact that stars are visible along with the Earth out the front windows of the cockpit. Supposedly , it was taken on STS-101 while in orbit but wasn't after all. There is a Wikipedia entry that does mention that this is a composite image, but if you look at NASA's official site with the photo, they don't mention anything like that.
Faked or not, I don't really care. It is the cokpit of the shuttle and it's pretty darn cool when you view the full size image of it.

| Full size from NASA |

Another magazine to add to my bus commute reading.

Maia was waiting at the doctor today for an appointment and saw a magazine that looked interesting in the waiting room. She looked at it and realized this was something I needed so she "borrowed" it. I took a look at it and agreed that it looks like it was worth subscribing so I just signed up - and paid extra for the back issues which can be downloaded.
It's $15/year and an additional $30 for access to the back issues. Looked good enough to pay the extra, so PayPal got a little exercise and I joint up. I'll review some articles after I read some of them!

| Astronomy Technology Today |

Another "Image of the Day" sites worth bookmarking

There is a lot of these things. Here is another good web page to add to your morning time wasting ritual of reading email and checking your favorite sites for new and interesting stuff.
This is NASA's Earth Observatory site. There is a little of everything here that involves looking down from orbit at the Earth. Most images are in super high-res too and a pretty hefty download in most cases. Here is what Washington looked like last week when we had all the fog, cold and gray weather.
It does have an RSS feed, so you can quickly know when the new images come out.

| Click here for full size and direct you to the site |

Spirit rover misbehaving?

Call in the Dog Whisperer? Seems that Spirit needs a little kick to remind it who is the boss. Our little rover in Gusev Crater isn't doing what it should and might be a little confused about it's location. I'm on a bunch of NASA email lists and got this message this afternoon. Hopefully the rover isn't sick...

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
January 28, 2009

MARS EXPLORATION ROVER MISSION STATUS REPORT
Mars Rover Team Diagnosing Unexpected Behavior

PASADENA, Calif. - The team operating NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit plans diagnostic tests this week after Spirit did not report some of its weekend activities, including a request to determine its orientation after an incomplete drive.

On Sunday, during the 1,800th Martian day, or sol, of what was initially planned as a 90-sol mission on Mars, information radioed from Spirit indicated the rover had received its driving commands for the day but had not moved. That can happen for many reasons, including the rover properly sensing that it is not ready to drive. However, other behavior on Sol 1800 was even more unusual: Spirit apparently did not record the day's main activities into the non-volatile memory, the part of its memory that persists even when power is off.

On Monday, Spirit's controllers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., chose to command the rover on Tuesday, Sol 1802, to find the sun with its camera in order to precisely determine its orientation. Not knowing its orientation could have been one possible explanation for Spirit not doing its weekend drive. Early Tuesday,Spirit reported that it had tried to follow the commands, but had not located the sun.

"We don't have a good explanation yet for the way Spirit has been acting for the past few days," said JPL's Sharon Laubach, chief of the team that writes and checks commands for the rovers. "Our next steps will be diagnostic activities."

Among other possible causes, the team is considering a hypothesis of transitory effects from cosmic rays hitting electronics. On Tuesday, Spirit apparently used its non-volatile memory properly.

Despite the rover's unexplained behavior, Mars Exploration Rovers' Project Manager John Callas of JPL said Wednesday, "Right now, Spirit is under normal sequence control, reporting good health and responsive to commands from the ground."

JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, manages the Mars Exploration Rover project for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Spirit and its twin, Opportunity, landed on Mars in January 2004 and have operated 20 times longer than their original prime missions.

Vote for the next Hubble target

Although it's not quite my choice what the Hubble looks at, this is kind of fun anyway. Now is the chance to vote on one of 6 objects (which Hubble has never imaged before). Pick your favorite and cast a vote. If the object is picked there will be 100 winners out of that voting group that will win a free 16 x 20 color photo of a Hubble shot. Nice!
I'll take that M-51 image for my prize please.

| Vote for the Hubble target |

All your 70s favorites!

Here is a fun picture with a whole bunch of science fiction favorite characters from the 70s. I never really got into Buck Rogers, the old Battlestar Galactica was pretty cool, but that came out just after Star Wars, so it had some issues. But Space:1999, that was fine stuff. I was always found in front of the TV on Monday nights for that show, I think it came on at 8:00pm right after the Muppets.
(click the image for a full size, can you pick out all the shows?)

Personal tour of the ISS

Here is a set of interesting videos. ISS commander Mike Fincke takes viewers on a video tour of the ISS. I've only seen a little of the first one so far, but looks interesting.

Part I

Part II

Part III

Part IV

I like my new toy!

I don't know what it means, but though it was funny....but kind of creepy also!

ISS seen through high clouds.

The ISS came over the house tonight at 5:33pm. I left work early as I watched the clouds come in from the south. It was a hazy cirrus layer probably 30,000 feet up. Just enough to be annoying. I gave it a try anyway since it was a nice pass directly overhead (the kind that hurts when crouching under the scope with knees bent backwards while guiding). Used Venus to focus sinee there wasn't anything else up there visible but clouds.
I'm happy with the results! All the modules are clearly seen, and if it was CLEAR out I'm sure it could be even sharper.
Click on image to see full size.

| Good interactive NASA ISS page |

Another pocket sized universe.

It seems there there are several more new sky map programs coming out now for the iPhone/iPod Touch. I just found another one that I had to buy. It was $4.99 for the download and this one is called Star Walk. I'm easily amused by shiny things, pretty colors and visual bling, so I didn't hesitate too long and just downloaded this one.
The sky looks very nice on this one, with faint graphic outlines of the constallation that is centered on the screen, Milky Way, transparent horizon, and the ecliptic across the sky. Zoom in and tap on a star and hit the 'i' button and you'll get all the info on the object including all the Messier objects and planets. The "M" obects appear a bit oversized on the wide view, but give a quick view of where something is I guess. It does't have any moon info for Saturn or Jupiter and Saturn's rings are way too far open, so it's just a generic graphic for that. A future update I would like to see is a moon position for Saturn/Jupiter as well as Great Red Spot transit for Jupiter. Still, it's a nice little program for very cheap!

| Star Walk site |

No more space tourists after 2009

I had already collected $137.47 toward my $20 million for a ticket for a ride on a Soyuz to the ISS for my vacation. Now I see that there will be no more tourists after 2009. I would have had enough money by February 2098 at my rate of savings, so close...
Soon there will be a crew of 6 on board the ISS this year, so there just isn't room for visitors after that. The Soyuz can only hold 3 at a time, and spacecraft parking up there could be worse then Costco parking lot at Christmas - and no breaks if you have a handicapped tag either.
Our neighbor in Medina, Dr. Charles Simonyi, is currently training for his second trip up, but he will be the last tourist. We were fortunate to have him as a guest speaker for or club last fall, and are excited for him to get a chance to go a second time.

| Story from MSNBC.com |

Inauguration seen from 423 miles up.

Clear skies over Washington DC today. Here is a view just released of Obama's inauguration seen from the GeoEye-1 satellite. This bird orbits at an altitude of 423 miles above the Earth and has been used for Google Earth images.
The 'dirty' looking smudges that look like the ants that came out my driveway cracks, crawled into the house - and later in my cat food bowls in my kitchen - are humans! Click on the images for a closer view and you can make out the individual ants people.
Oh the humanity!

| See full size images |