Hopefully the weather co-operates cause December 23/24 we have a Full Moon, which is cool but that's not all, here in Saskatoon Mars is going to get very close to the Moon as well, might be a good photo op, actually if you live in N.W. Canada, Alaska, Northern Russia or Eastern Europe, you will get what they call a Lunar occultation of Mars, that is when Mars slips behind the Moon, I'm not quite far enough N.W. to get to enjoy the occultation but Mars and the Moon should get close enough to get in the same image, we'll see.
Okay now here is a Black Hole with some serious attitude! NASA called a special news conference last Monday to announce the awesome discovery of what they are calling "The Death Star Galaxy" In the image above the bigger galaxy's black hole is shooting out massive amounts of X-Rays and Gamma Rays to its smaller probably friendlier neighbor galaxy. The effect of this unprovoked attack could be disastrous to any planets in it's path, especially since the galaxies are only 20,000 light years apart. Scientist figure this happened about 1 million years ago. Because of the rarity of the event NASA will be paying close attention to this one. To put this into perspective, a death ray this size would basically destroy our ozone layer within a manner of months and life as we know it would eventually cease to exist.
NASA has just announced that they have found the cause of Shuttle Atlantis's faulty fuel sensors. The problem has been traced back to an over sized electrical socket that bridges the interior and exterior of Atlantis's external tank. They now have to figure out if the repair can be done in time for the new January 10th. launch date.
33 comments:
Nice work Bob Your gif Picture it's look real..Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2008...Just Count the day he he he
Great moon shots, Bob! I'm glad Anna helped you make that beautiful animated GIF.
You are so well informed. The death ray event is really scary! I wonder if such an event could happen near enough to us to impact life on Earth, in the manner you've suggested?
Chances are, we'll do it with our own manmade gamma rays first, right?
Hi and thanks Franx Budi! Merry Christmas to you and yours as well, only 5 more sleeps.
Hi and thanks Lynda, anything is possible, probably not in our lifetime, and your right we will end up doing ourselves in ,we don't need no silly death ray,lol.
Bob, that black hole action is awesome! Star Wars. And here I thought it was just a movie.
I saw that moon in the sky on the way home from town this afternoon. Figured you'd nail it. :D
Hugs, JJ
Thanks JJ! It is supposed to be clear here for the full Moon on the 23rd, hopefully get a shot of Mars and the Moon together.
Hi Bob;
Nice images…the gif file looks like the Moon is melting, can’t be global warming! LOL
I think I have never seen a yellow Moon before, a harvest Moon isn’t quite the same…this image is kind of surreal…
That nasty galaxy polluting its neighbor like that!
I’m wondering if the faulty fuel sensors were made by Ford (previous Taurus owner here, happy Honda owner now)
Bob:
Just when I thought I'd seen everything, you come up with that great pool reflection of the moon. Spectacular! As usual, your blog posts are excellent.
Such great photos! Love that reflecting one...that is so cool.
Hi and thanks livingsword, lol about the ford, I know many people who used to own a taurus.
Thanks swubird! yeah that reflecting animation is too cool, thank Anna for that one,I saw it on her site a few days back.http://myonlyphoto.blogspot.com/2007/12/moon-reflections.html I emailed her and she told me how to do it.
Hey drowseymonkey, feel free to use any of the images as your desktop, no problem,lol.
hey Bob, amazing shots! very interesting info about the black hole as well. Thanks for commenting on my design, i appreciate it!
Hi omega, thanks, your site rocks!
Hey Bob I will come back later to read, nice photos and nice reflections, glad I could help this time, and thank you for the mention (best Xmas gift I could ever get), however, I came across this gift for you, unfortunately its in the works: http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2007/12/20/gift-telescope.html?dcitc=w19-502-ak-0000
See you later, Anna :) On my way with Xmas shopping list.
Hi anna, thanks again for the help on the GIF!
WOW! Excellent shots Bob. I love your reflecting moon shot. Excellent! I would love to know how you did it.
That death star galaxy is quite interesting. At least IF we get zapped (and the chances of that happening are slimmer than getting an asteroid impact)we won't feel any pain. :-)
Like JJ says: You nailed those moon shots. Just excellent ....
~JD
Thanks JD! To do the animation you go to, http://www.blibs.com/editor/
Upload a picture you want to modify, then go to the animation tab at the top of the page then go down to reflecting water(or anything else you want to try)click on it and the animation will run. You now go down to the bottom of the animation and click download and save it to your computer. You now have to get it hosted as blogger can't do GIFS.
Goto http://www.freeimagehosting.net/
Upload the GIF you just saved, the host site will come back with some addresses you can now use, if you want to post the animation on your blog or web site you just copy and paste the the html code to your blog from the "To insert this image into your webpage" section. there are other websites out there for hosting such as
http://www.imgspot.com/
but they are limited to 700k gif files, and all mine where over that amount. If you have any questions you can email me or just ask here, hope this helps.
Wow. Love the moon over the water! How interesting about the black hole! I'll have to come back later when I have more time to read it again. My brain is on overdrive, and not up to more than skimming today. I wish you a very merry christmas. Blessings and all good to you and yours!!
Hi Shirley, thanks! and Merry Christmas to you and yours!
Nice moon pics. I love how at the shadow line you see the depth more because of the side lighting.
Hi Rick, it's so true the terminator brings out the detail of the craters, the Moon has tons everywhere but we only really see them when they are close to the terminator, the lunar astronauts where saying as they were walking along looking down on the ground they would see little craters inside of little craters, no atmosphere, wind or erosion to disturb billions of years of space debris hits, wild.
Thanks a heap Bob. I appreciate this.
I'll see what I can conjure up in my witches brew. :-)
Merry Christmas!
~JD
Interesting to read your note about the Death Star Galaxy. I just today posted an article about the ultimate fate of the earth and our lack of ability to contribute to it. That would be quite a way to exit, though.
I guess the earth would ultimately survive, just not as we now know it.
-Will
No problem JD, hope it helps.
Hi Will, so true, regardless of how we screw up, Earth is here for another 4.5 billion years at which time the Sun dies, expands into us and we crash and burn.
Hey Bob, its me back again, I have to tell you again, you really have great photos of the moon, and the reflecting moon is so cool everytime I look at it. Speaking of Mars, I was watching TV today, and I saw some headlines that there is a meteor heading for Mars in January 2008, and it will probably hit Mars too. Just giving you heads up. Thanks for letting us know about the Full Moon on Dec 24/25, its cool too because it is during Christmas, hopefully will get nice clear skies. Well, I better run, but I want to take this opportunity to thank you for all your support, and kindness, and awards, and honourable mention, and wish you and your family a very Merry Christmas. Anna :)
Hi and thanks Anna, I will be posting a little on the Mars thing today, the full Moon is actually happening right now!! got some good pics. Thanks for all your support and help as well and Merry Christmas to you and Yours!!
Hi Bob,
I've only recently discovered your terrific and informative blog. Your photos are stunning. For myself, I feel a special affinity with the Moon, if that does not sound weird saying so. I was born on July 20, 1963; and, on July 20, 1969 as you are well aware the first men landed on the moon. I'll never forget my birthday party as I watched with my friends and family the images of Neil Armstrong touching down from the lunar module. There is an Air & Space museum near us and I took my family and saw an actual lunar module from Grumman which never made it to space which was awesome. Your blog is a new stop for me on the internet, and I have it bookmarked. Thanks for the information, and sorry for the long comment. Keep up the great work, and Merry Christmas! -Mike.
Hi and thanks for the compliments Mike, I know how you feel, I felt the same way when I watched Neil Armstrong walk on the Moon, something I will never forget. that is too cool about the museum and the Lm they never used , I would so like to see that!!
Merry Christmas to you and your family !!
Hi Bob,
Here is the link to the Air & Space Museum http://www.cradleofaviation.org/index.html. They have a link there which tells about the restoration of the LM I saw:
"This original Lunar Module, LM-13, was intended for the Apollo 18 mission to Copernicus Crater in 1973, which was ultimately cancelled."
Enjoy, and Happy New Year! -Mike.
http://www.cradleofaviation.org/exhibits/space/lm-13/index.html
Hi and thanks for the link Mike, very interesting! That would have been so cool to actually see it in person. Happy New Year!
i heard lots about black holes, but i don't know much about this. i know it will suck all even the earth. very strange.
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