The moon looked like a giant jack o lantern
no color editing
Ammassalik Fjord..East Greenland...
The coolest place on earth...
6:47 A.M. Moon This Morning (
Ralfo)
Say Good-Bye To The Moon (
Ralfo)
for a while. The New Moon is on 11,6,10. Taken on 7:20A.M. of this 10% Wanig Crescent Full Moon.
Taken on my way to work the morning of 11/4/10. This was the best of four shots.
Waxing Crescent In Afterglow (
llpj04)
I don't know why that song poped into my head while loading this but it did so this early rising moon over the Merced river walked us home this afternoon after a whole day of taking water samples
Venus rises 1 hour before the sun-6:59am this morning-
Hacked Sony TX1-
Meade Etx60 telescope-this is my first ever phase capture of venus
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Took mom to dinner and then to the beach to watch the launch.
That's from my Flip, it's really bad, but in person it was wonderful. The clouds glowed a couple of seconds before the rocket appeared and each layer of cloud was lit as the Delta2 went behind. Reflection on the water was nice, too. The 'flame' doesn't show on the vid, nor does the parabolic wake you describe, LC, though I could see it.
It was totally worth it to go to the beach - I was able to see the whole trajectory and no dancing around in the street to avoid trees, LOL
There are a few good videos on youtube of this launch :)
JF I think something in that range is possible too. There is really no way to tell for sure at the present time but NASA is working on it - see comment 83. People should be aware that the worst impacts to Earth can happen at times other than the solar maximum.
Feather Thanks again for the live feed. For those who haven't heard and felt it in person the rumble of a launch is a thrilling experience, worth a trip if you can manage it.
As commercial space flight blossoms and new spaceports are popping up across the nation many more people will be able to make a day trip to experience a launch.
As a matter of fact there is a launch planned for November 19 from Kodiak Island, Alaska about 250 miles SSW of Anchorage and Wasilla. Sarah Palin may be able to see it from her yard.
I'm jealous of you, Feather, growing up so close :)
Next at VAFB is a Delta 4 in January. That'll make some noise!
LC -
As commercial space flight blossoms and new spaceports are popping up across the nation many more people will be able to make a day trip to experience a launch.
You think so? Maybe. I guess they won't have to be as careful about placement as the government if they have enough money.
Has anyone seen LowerCal around lately????? LOL
No, truly, this whole missile launch thing is worrisome. If it's not ours, it's a worry, and if it is and if it is ours and it got loose somehow, that's a worry. Just strange...
BTW, sp - cool video. And to think I remember the days when phones were for making phone calls. ;)
434/10(18).
EASTERN NORTH PACIFIC.
CALIFORNIA.
MISSILES.
1. INTERMITTENT MISSILE FIRING OPERATIONS 0001Z TO 2359Z
DAILY MONDAY THRU SUNDAY IN THE NAVAL AIR WARFARE CENTER
SEA RANGE. THE MAJORITY OF MISSILE FIRINGS TAKE PLACE
1400Z TO 2359Z AND 0001Z TO 0200Z DAILY MONDAY THRU FRIDAY
IN AREA BOUND BY
34-02N 119-04W, 33-52N 119-06W, 33-29N 118-37W,
33-20N 118-37W, 32-11N 120-16W, 31-54N 121-35W,
35-09N 123-39W, 35-29N 123-00W, 35-57N 121-32W,
34-04N 119-04W.
2. VESSELS MAY BE REQUESTED TO ALTER COURSE WITHIN THE ABOVE
AREA DUE TO FIRING OPERATIONS AND ARE REQUESTED TO CONTACT
PLEAD CONTROL ON 5081.5 MHZ (5080 KHZ) OR 3238.5 KHZ (3237 KHZ)
SECONDARY OR 156.8 MHZ (CH 16) OR 127.55 MHZ BEFORE ENTERING
THE ABOVE BOUNDARIES AND MAINTAIN CONTINUOUS GUARD WHILE
WITHIN THE RANGE.
3. VESSELS INBOUND AND OUTBOUND FOR SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA PORTS
WILL CREATE THE LEAST INTERFERENCE TO FIRING OPERATIONS
DURING THE SPECIFIC PERIODS, AS WELL AS ENHANCE THE VESSEL'S
Messages in force 281230Z October 2010:
2010 series 424(18) 431(GEN) 434(18)
403(19) 430(19) 433(19) 435(18,83)
NM 45/10 SECTION III
III-1.8
SAFETY WHEN PASSING THROUGH THE VICINITY OF THE SEA RANGE
IF THEY WILL TRANSIT VIA THE SANTA BARBARA CHANNEL AND WITHIN
NINE MILES OFFSHORE VICINITY OF POINT MUGU OR CROSS THE AREA
SOUTHWEST OF SAN NICOLAS ISLAND
Thanks on the vid :) I used my Flip video camera (essentially a portable webcam with a battery and thumb drive attached) not my phone. I wonder if my phone has video ...
I didn't even bother to go looking to see if something was posted because everyone was so clear that no notice had been given. Wacky people.
Here's where I found it. That blog includes a link to the warning (which I copied from the original document (not from that blog where it was also copied)) and (I'd say informed) speculation as to the purpose of the test.
ADD for fun: You know what's funny? I didn't even hear about this on the news - I only heard about it from that blog. I had local news on this morning, and swung by cnn, even. Guess my timing was off - I only have the tv on for the time it takes the coffee to brew!
It is a contrail from an East bound Jet .
Went poking about and found this Fox piece with nice comparative photos and a suggestion that it may have been a contrail.
That's pretty interesting, too, because when I think contrail I think of jets way, way up in the sky. Never have seen one on take-off, for sure.
LC,
Haven't stopped by in a while. Impressed with the Moon Trail, and, thanks to you and gardenguy, now I can pick out the Pleiades. Seen so many times, and thought... that's not the Little Dipper, what is it?
The aircraft causing the contrail is most likely in level flight about 40,000 feet. It is the curvature of the earth that causes the illusion of
a takeoff.
Thanks.
I'm going to leave now.
Have fun! :)
The Kodiak Launch Complex offers unrestricted down range launch azimuths ranging from 110° to 220°, and is the only U.S. facility that can launch high inclination (63.4°) missions without land over-flight and the requirement to resort to energy consuming dog leg flight segments.
The Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) on coastal Virgina was chosen by Orbital Sciences Corp. for launching Titan II's for NASA's Commercial Operations to Station-program (Station as in ISS). Smaller rockets have been launching from Wallops Island for half a century.
Additional existing and hopeful spaceports:
Now under construction 60km north of Las Cruces, New Mexico, the world’s first purpose-built commercial spaceport is proceeding apace – with public tours of the site due to start in September. Designed by Fosters + Partners, the eco-friendly Spaceport America terminal will become the first and main base for Virgin Galactic’s suborbital space shots – who will join early tenants like UP Aerospace to create a new hotbed of space activity. Beyond California and New Mexico, the FAA currently licences 6 other active spaceports across the country, while Jeff Bezos’ private ranch in Texas is home to Blue Origin’s New Shepard reusable spacecraft. The states of Utah, Alabama, Wisconsin, Arizona and Washington all want in on the action too, the latter already being an emergency landing site for the space shuttle. Link
Thanks for coming through when the media couldn't (comments 109 & 111). :^)
shore I promise I wasn't out in the saucer drawing the Navy's fire.
MissNadia Contrails do generate reports of "unanounced launches" every year especially as we head toward winter and the "contrail layer" gets lower. In this case the warning of "INTERMITTENT MISSILE FIRING" would be a interesting coincidence (see comments 109 & 111). ;^)
Bf You're welcome. I frequently get that "Little Dipper" question and say, "No, it's the Tiny Dipper...".
BTW, check comment 111.
I read that.
Has the Navy now said they fired a missile after the DOD said is was not responsible? The chat in that blog says warnings to mariners are often issued and sometimes/?often nothing is launched. So I'm still confused.
:)
I hope the reporters follow up.
They call it "Notices to Mariners", but I've never seen anything like it - if someone asked me to check notices to mariners to see if something was going on in a certain patch of water, I'd go straight to the US Coast Guard Local Notices or Special Notices for Mariners.
Apparently the notices produced for the military contain information that can be withheld from the more common Local Notices put out by the Coast Guard. I rarely cut the media much slack, but in this case I think I would. I wouldn't have known to check the source quoted, because I've never heard of it.
From what it said in the linked blog, they withheld the information from the USCG Local Notices in order to keep it from the "target". That makes sense, but it also helps to explain why people who said there were no launches scheduled drew that conclusion. They probably checked the usual source - the Coast Guard notices. Bet they check the NGA version of the notices next time ;-)
Sometimes, the USCG Notices to Mariners will delineate an area for dredging activity. However, the LOCAL notices will include specific lat/long for dredging locations.
Now and then a company will pick up its equipment and move. There's no indication of their specific location in the Local Notices then, but they're still within that larger area defined in the more general Notices.
Confusing? It can be. But generally, the local notices have much more detailed information about much smaller areas, which the other notices lay out the general parameters. I can see that kind of dynamic coming into play here, too.
You know I can't let this go, LOL
shore - That could be. If someone were looking for near-shore info they'd go with whatever the USCG puts out, because that is their territory. In the GOM, does that cover the whole Gulf?
But, if you needed to know what's happening halfway to Hawaii, or in the Sea of Japan, or the Indian Ocean, where would you go?
I have no idea, btw - that's a real question and maybe the USCG does cover that.
It does seem, though, that the NGA site definitely provides that info.
Here's the notice I quoted in .pdf format or use this link to see individual sections.
If there was a missile launch it may have happened beyond the boundary normally overseen by USCG or their authority was superseded.
This is how that NtoM is titled:
No. 45
6 November 2010
United States of America
NOTICE TO MARINERS
Published Weekly by the
National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency
Prepared Jointly with the
National Ocean Service and U.S. Coast Guard
And in the Important Information it says (in part, lol):
Information for the Notice to Mariners is contributed by the following Agencies: National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) (Department of Defense) for waters outside the territorial limits of the United States; National Ocean Service (NOS) (Department of Commerce), which is charged with the surveys and charting of the coasts and harbors of the United States and its territories; the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) (Department of Homeland Security), which is responsible for the safety of life at
sea and the establishment and operation of aids to navigation; and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Department of Defense), which is charged with the improvement of rivers and harbors of the United States.
Right now, I'm just arguing the case for the heck of it but, think about THIS - in all the reports I've read, they say they asked the Pentagon, Vandenberg AFB, Pt. Mugu NAS, but not a single mention of San Clemente Island! Not one!!!eleventy1!! Why would they, you ask? Well ...
The U.S. Navy acquired the island in 1934. It is the Navy's only remaining ship-to-shore live firing range and is the center of the integrated air/land/sea San Clemente Island Range Complex covering 2,620 nm² (8,990 km2).
What about THAT, huh?
Oh, sorry. Getting carried away ...
So. We have a NtoM that says there may be live fire in the area and advises ships coming to port on how best to avoid the area.
The same NtoM says there will be missiles in the Sea of Japan.
We have a firing range off SoCal with appropriate facilities to track a missile, and nobody has received a statement from them.
We have the fact that there are ongoing missile defense tests being conducted by Japan.
I don't know - it seems like a pretty straight-forward case of sooper-sekrit-stuff.
btw, Sigurdson has added his opinion of the contrails notion to his blog that I linked previously.
I heard that both Fox news and Maddow are in agreement that it was a contrail. Mark the date ;)
Beg pardon, once again, LC.
Welcome to the J-2X Blog!
Posted on Nov 05, 2010 03:33:37 PM | William D. Greene
20 Comments | Permalink | Poor Fair Average Good Excellent
Hello! Welcome to the J-2X Blog.
I would say that it's a pretty safe bet that a large (very large) majority of the American population is unaware that we stand on the brink of testing the first new, large, human-rated liquid rocket developed in this country since Gerald Ford was President. I might even venture to suggest that a majority of the diverse and busy population supporting NASA also don't know that this is the case.
Back then, during the Ford administration, the new engine was called the Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME). Its initial development at the conceptual level began in the late 1960's. The Space Shuttle itself wouldn't fly until 1981, nearly six years after the first attempted engine test. Today, the engine is called J-2X and this blog represents an attempt to inform those who want to follow the exciting progress of this development effort as we approach full engine testing in early 2011.
sp No need to beg my pardon at all. I hugely appreciate you doing all that research and posting it here with the sourcing.
shore I'm leaning toward secret launch as opposed to contrail myself given what's been presented so far and as I will further explain.
Barefoot The Navy is not necessarily responsible for all launches off the coast of California. Also not all launches are for just the DOD or NASA. Some are National Reconnaissance Office launches (NROL). Information on NRO launches can be hard to find and sometimes misleading. There was even a recent launch where no agency was listed as responsible, lol!
BTW the existence of the National Security Agency (NSA) for many years was not acknowledged by the U.S. government. Outside the agency it had the nickname "No Such Agency" and inside the agency it was "Never Say Anything".
Also you have to think like a lawyer when reading the statements by the various agencies. What have they avoided specifically stating?
I don't endorse all the language or attitudes at the following link but you can find some additional informed speculation at Pentagon stumped.
Pat Thanks for that update on the descendant of the upper stage Saturn V engines! :^) Looks like that part of NASA's new effort to take Human Space Flight (HSF) beyond Low Earth Orbit (LEO) is well underway.
I highly recommend to all the video at the end of the link.
LC - oh I get a gold star! Yea, me :)
LOL
I should say that almost all of my research came directly from sigurdson's blog - I just followed his links and then had some fun with it.
Thanks for the info on private launch sites, btw. I don't think I'd want to live under the flight path, is all. Russia's been launching from inland areas for decades without whacking anyone, though, so I probably shouldn't worry about it.
I grew up near Edwards AFB and (now-defunct) Norton AFB and UFOs were a fact of life, especially on our desert trips. It amazes me that folks around here don't realize that our airspace (and sea and land) is used by the military for a wide variety of testing, openly (though, perhaps, not publicized) and in secret.
At the risk of wasting more of your comment space, I want to tell you that a friend of mine saw his first launch from here last Friday.
On Tuesday I'd dragged him (and a few others) outside to see the Delta 2 launch, which didn't go, and told him to watch for it Wednesday. Of course, that didn't go, either. I thought of calling him about Friday but I've been trying to get him to pay attention for years and he hasn't, lol, so let it go. Last night he told me that he was outside, happened to look west, and saw the Delta! He had a huge smile on his face as he described what he saw - we have a convert! :)
JF I always assumed there are secret launches and tests.
I certainly hope there are. If a launch is well observed much information can be determined or good guesses made about the payload and the trajectory/orbit. In the case of a spy satellite for example the bad guys could hide their bad activities if they knew what could be seen and when. There are other examples where we would want to reveal as little as possible about our capabilities too. I expect in some cases that no matter what happens to be observed there will be no information forthcoming.
sp The hazards of inland launch sites are a valid concern. Farmers on the desolate steppes have received quick cash compensation from time to time for damage caused by wayward Russian hardware.
Thanks for sharing the story of your friend's first launch. Sometimes it's a long road getting them to that first "Wow!" experience. :^)
"Also you have to think like a lawyer when reading the statements by the various agencies. What have they avoided specifically stating?"
Dare I say you're exactly on-target? The more they talk, the more convinced I become that it was a missile, they know whose it was, and its owner wanted it seen. Whether they ever freely own up to what they know is a matter for more speculation.
What's most fascinating is that exactly three years ago a Chinese sub popped up next to the carrier USS Kitty Hawk while they were engaged in naval exercises in the Pacific. It was an astonishing incident - you can read about it here.
The public isn't going to remember that, for the most part - but you can bet the Navy remembers it. I imagine there were more than a few people chatting about it at dinner last night.
Oh - and there have been and may still be NSA groups working within Naval groups on ships that appear to be tramp steamers, long-liners or fish processing plants. That's something I know for sure ;-)
sp ~ C'mon. If you're going to target me you're going to have to do better than that! I missed it. Next time, yell "incoming", or something! ROFL!
I agree. I think some of these "secret" launches are not intended to be *entirely* secret.
Thanks for the link to the Chinese sub story. What's been going on for while isn't really a new Cold War but more like an ongoing international one-upping.
BTW those advocating heavily for the contrail explanation *finally* have an actual flight path candidate to point to though I will mention that this info has been available since *before* the video was first shown, lol.
To recap: Yes, the missile and contrail explanations are both plausible and no, the media didn't do their homework.
JF Yeah, unless X-rays have started arriving before they leave and in that case we're in *real* trouble. ;^)
They come in,,do their thing and leave the way they arrived, always.
Semper Fi in Silence.
NASA Test Fires New Rocket Engine for Commercial Space Vehicle
NASA's John C. Stennis Space Center in Mississippi conducted a successful test firing on Wed., Nov 10, 2010 of the liquid-fuel AJ26 engine that will power the first stage of Orbital Sciences Corp.'s Taurus II space launch vehicle. Orbital and its engine supplier, Aerojet, test-fired the engine on Stennis' E-1 test stand. The test directly supports NASA's partnerships to enable commercial cargo flights to the International Space Station.
The initial test, the first in a series of three firings, lasted 10 seconds and served as a short-duration readiness firing to verify AJ26 engine start and shutdown sequences, E-1 test stand operations, and ground-test engine controls.
Image Credit: NASA
I hope all Americans honor the past and current service of all military personnel by making thoughtful use of the freedom they make possible.
Thanks for the article on the engine test. Commercial space flight is moving steadily forward. :^)
1) The tricky realities of regulating private space flight - SmartPlanet 2) Spaceflight Now | Breaking News | Hubble successor mired in budgetary black hole 3) Building an asteroid early impact warning system on the cheap - SmartPlanet
A lil Discovery Update
More Discovery External Tank GUCP Measurements and Stringer Crack Analysis
Fri, 12 Nov 2010 04:54:38 PM CST
Over the weekend at Launch Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, technicians will take additional measurements to ensure the best possible alignment of the newly installed ground umbilical carrier plate (GUCP) on space shuttle Discovery's external fuel tank.
Teams will evaluate data and now expect to begin installing the flight seal and quick disconnects on Monday, Nov. 15. Engineers met today to discuss upcoming work to repair cracks in Discovery's external tank intertank section.
During foam removal and inspection of adjacent stringers to the one with two 9-inch cracks, technicians today identified an approximately 3-inch crack on the left-hand adjacent stringer. This was not an unexpected result since the load was most likely transferred to the adjacent stringer when both sides of the original stringer cracked during tanking operations for Discovery's scrubbed launch attempt on Nov. 5.
Teams will build and use existing structural math models to understand the loading at the interface. Stringers are aluminum support strips on the outside of the external tank that form the section between the inside liquid oxygen tank and the liquid hydrogen tanks.
Image above: On Launch Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, workers begin to install a new ground umbilical carrier plate, or GUCP, on space shuttle Discovery's external fuel tank. Photo Credit: NASA/Troy Cryder
Venus crescent phase by amplelight Monday November 15, 2010
The two graphics below are more like telescopic views:
2010-11-15
The crescent as seen in the morning is tilted farther to the left. This is because the "bow" of the crescent is illuminated by the Sun below the horizon. An arrow shot from the "bow" would pierce the Sun.
The crescent of Venus will become much less obvious over the next three weeks.
2010-12-06
Graphics created with Apparent Disk of Solar System Object — Naval Oceanography Portal.
in an article titled Mystery Missile Launch Probably Not a Mystery:
The comparison pics I've seen are of the "mystery launch" vs. contrails, but none show side-by-side comparisons to known launches. Whatever - I have my own pics of both phenomena and they don't help any, anyway, lol.
Good point. That had crossed my mind too. I think anyone *insisting* that it had to be a contrail should present evidence that this was the only flight that could have left a contrail in the frame.
Like you I'm not insisting on either explanation.
BTW I heard a newsreader on one of the mainstream media outlets say that the object was trailing black smoke as the tape was played! Whether the trail was smoke or condensation it was white and the shadowed part of it was darker.
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