Saturn II The Sequel

The above image of Saturn was taken a couple of mornings ago, Scope performed flawlessly, held the 450X Saturn dead center of the camera ccd chip while I was able to stack 60 images at .033 secs each. I tried to squeeze as much detail as possible out of Saturn, but being low on the horizon the atmosphere sucked the life and detail out of it. You can just make out a lower striped cloud band just below the rings, the upper band is partially obscured by the angled rings, I'll be posting more pics of the beautiful planet hopefully with more detail as I get more experienced and Saturn gets higher in the sky. In a couple of years we are going to loose those rings. Saturn is going to be at a viewing angle from Earth where the rings will be straight on, and since the average depth of the rings are only 1 km we won't be seeing much of them, so if your thinking of someday getting a telescope get one before the rings go bye bye. This of course is not permanent, they will come back over time, around 2 years after they disappear they slowly come back into view.

Space Shuttle Discovery is traveling to launch pad 39a at Cape Canaveral in preparation for mission STS (space transportation system) 120. The crew's main mission is to deliver and install the Italian built for the US, Harmony module which will serve as a connecting point between the US destiny lab, the European Space Agency's Columbus module and the Japanese Kibo module. Discovery launch date is set for October 23, don't forget to watch NASA TV as they have some crazy angled camera shots which are always cool to watch.

The rainbow in the above pic is caused by a water truck which sprays water ahead of the crawler-keeps the crawlerway moist and the dust down. The crawler, shuttle combined weight is 175 million pounds, moving at a rate of 1 mph.

Mars Rover Opportunity has gone into Victoria Crater at Duck Bay point. The image above shows opportunity in front of a band of what scientists think and I quote "Is the ancient surface of Mars prior to the impact that created Victoria". By sampling it at several different levels in the crater they are hoping to figure out the processes that led to its formation and its very distinctive appearance.

The pic above is one of my Total Lunar Eclipse photos blown up to 24"x36" and hung in my office, I'm happy it turned out so well, cool.