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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I dont post much here.
But I refer to the info quite often.
Thanks much !
Happy Halloween.
shore I've always wanted to know how to hotwire that thing.
spathy You're welcome! Glad to hear you find the info useful on a regular basis. Thanks for dropping a note. I hope you're having a happy Halloween too.
Okay, here is my somewhat ignorant question about which midnight we are talking about for the Seven Sisters viewing. Is it at 0:00 when we go from the 30th to the 31st or is it the transition from the 31st to November, 1st?
here's the link LOL a href="http://.Link" target="_blank">Link
About the hexagons, just a note, a couple of weeks ago there was a hexagon developing in a swirly on the water vapor loop, off the coast of Washington. It got 3 sides, one at a time, and then fell apart. Kinda cool but a different phenomenon than what happens at Saturn's poles or that described in those experiments.
There are hexagonal stone rings that develope on tundra as a result of freeze/thaw upwelling. Different than the bucket tests but I'm not so sure that isn't similar to what's going on on Saturn. Yea, questions! :)
The short answer is that per the Star Gazer episode in comment 1 the midnight between October 31 and November 1 was intended.
Samhain is a Gaelic harvest festival held on October 31–November 1. It was linked to festivals held around the same time in other Celtic cultures, and was popularised as the "Celtic New Year" beginning in the 18th century.
Samhain marked the end of the harvest, the end of the "lighter half" of the year and beginning of the "darker half". It was traditionally celebrated over the course of several days. It has some elements of a festival of the dead. The Gaels believed that the border between this world and the otherworld became thin on Samhain; because so many animals and plants were dying, it thus allowed the dead to reach back through the veil that separated them from the living. Bonfires played a large part in the festivities. People and their livestock would often walk between two bonfires as a cleansing ritual, and the bones of slaughtered livestock were cast into its flames.
In Scotland the dead were impersonated by young men with masked, veiled or blackened faces, dressed in white. Samhnag — turnips which were hollowed-out and carved with faces to make lanterns — were also used to ward off harmful spirits.
The Gaelic festival became associated with the Catholic All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day, and has hugely influenced the secular customs now connected with Halloween, a name first attested in the 16th century as a Scottish shortening of the fuller All-Hallows-Even. [emphasis mine]
However November 17 is currently the actual date of the Seven Sisters (Pleiades) "midnight" culmination (highest position in the sky). The cross-quarter day of Samhain is currently November 7. About 1,000 years ago the two dates were much closer with the Pleides culmination on October 29 and Samhain on November 1.
sp Sorry you'll miss the launch if it's tonight. Of course as we saw yesterday and many times before there is no sure thing when it comes to a chemical rocket launch.
Did you happen to save some of those swirly images? There are other interesting patterns that develop there too. Part of that super storm in the east came from a low wound up like a cinnamon roll off of Washington state. I should check that loop more often and save some images myself.
Standing waves generated by turbulence at a boundary layer in a vortex, that's what those latest bucket experiments (comment 37) demonstrate.
It's official:
30th Space Wing (Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif.) Hi All! New launch day/time is Nov. 2 at 7:20 p.m. Our United Launch Alliance mission partners said in a statement that "During the terminal launch countdown Monday, mission managers noted an insufficient flow of Gaseous Nitrogen in the Delta II engine compartment. Gaseous Nitrogen is used to ensure that critical components in close proximity to cryogenic propulsion systems are kept warm."
There are some fascinating interactions in the Pacific and watching the loops is hypnotic, at times.
Hoping for launch tonight - even though I probably won't get to see it. I'm going to try to get out there.
Oh, I do hope you can. I would love to see some photos :)
Show respect for your fellow citizens who are risking their lives in a foreign country for your freedom to vote.
Fsh Thanks for the update. Unfortunately it gets worse.
From Spaceflight Now | STS-133 | Mission Status Center:
sp You'll have to download a utility to save Flash loops. I have no experience with any available for Windows so I can't make a recommendation.
Tonight's chances for the Vandenberg Launch look as good or better than previously. Like Feather I hope you make it out there and return with pictures. :^)
Spaceflight Now | Delta Launch Report | Mission Status Center
From Spaceflight Now | Delta Launch Report | Mission Status Center: They're keeping me guessing. :^/
yeah....so they changed it to Thursday at 7:20 PM LOL!!
From that page:
"TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 2010
8:15 p.m. PDT (11:15 p.m. EDT)
A second stage battery low voltage reading is what stopped the countdown about 50 seconds before liftoff tonight, rocket-maker United Launch Alliance says.
Given the three consecutive days of trying to launch, officials will give the team a chance to catch its breath tomorrow and set the next attempt for Thursday evening at 7:20 p.m. PDT (10:20 p.m. EDT).
"During the terminal launch countdown on Tuesday, at approximately one minute before launch, mission managers noted a low second stage battery voltage reading. This battery is used to power the electrical systems on the Delta 2 second stage during flight," ULA's press statement reads.
"To allow for crew rest after three straight days of launch attempts and engineers the time required to correct this issue, the next launch attempt is scheduled for Nov. 4." "
JF Thanks for the heads up! :^) We can all watch the movie right now.
Thursday is good timing for me and if I were feeling more confident of its chances to launch I could make the drive up. Can't remember how long that took - 2 hours I think. You should go! You have a place to stay - and far, far, far better photog skillz! :)
LC - Thanks for the tip! I may look into it at some point. I really enjoy wvtv :)
It would be great to go, but commitments here at home are keeping me very busy.
CybrTeddy You called it. The shuttle launch has been pushed back to Friday also.
More details on both launches are in the blog entry and title.
Deep Impact gets first look at Hartley 2.
NASA - Stretching Every Penny
See comment 36 also.
Naw...if I travel down that way it will be for Thanksgiving....I want to surprise my mom :)
I had a whole big plan for watching the launch tonight :( Friday may be better. Though, as you say, LC, I won't hang my hat on it.
[I wonder if I can do that in every comment I make. hmmm.]
Link
Feather I can guarantee Thanksgiving will occur as scheduled. Hope you can make it and make it a great day for Mom.
sp What exactly did you do?
surf
From Spaceflight Now | Breaking News | Comet flyby demonstrates science on shoestring budget:
Also, thanks for the Sun article. :^) NASA putting together a solar "shield" is great news. That will eventually save Earth from a catastrophic infrastructure blows.
2010-11-06
The crescent of Venus will become much less obvious over the next month.
2010-12-06
Images created with Apparent Disk of Solar System Object — Naval Oceanography Portal.
The crescent as seen in the morning will be tilted 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.
Spaceflight Now | Delta Launch Report | Mission Status Center.
YAY!
Looked very good from here in spite of the thin cirrus covering the lower half of the western sky.
At about 2 minutes after launch a small bright reddish-orange glow visible to the naked eye cleared the treeline to my west. Initially in binoculars it was trailing a short narrow white trail. The end of the trail broke into a rainbow spectrum of colors. The trail very soon afterward faded to invisibility.
At about 4 minutes after launch the glow began to grow more diffuse and become more yellowish. A visible parabolic wake of the same color began appear which grew wider and wider. It all disappeared in a sudden big puff. A brief interval later there was a moderately bright flash and then nothing was visible thereafter.
Yea, good point there...
Heads Up West Coast...
Fsh Thanks for the heads up! :^) I saw all four of Jupiter's Moons in binoculars last night while I was waiting for the Vandenberg Delta II launch.
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 :)
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