Deep Impact Films Earth and Moon

Last week NASA released the cool video above of the Moon passing in front of the Earth. Taken by the Deep Impact spacecraft from 31 million miles away. NASA says "Making a video of Earth from so far away helps the search for other life-bearing planets in the Universe by giving insights into how a distant, Earth-like alien world would appear to us". Deep Impact was the spacecraft that sent an impactor into comet Temple 1 July 4 2005. Deep Impact is now on it's way to rendezvous with comet Hartley 2 November 4 2010.


The video below is something I wanted to put together for my one year blogging anniversary but never found the time to do so, well I've finally completed it. It is a compilation of some of my favorite images I've taken over the last year and then some. For the audio track I used Supertramp's song, Lord Is It Mine. No sooner had I posted it, within an hour or so, I got an email from You Tube stating "A You Tube Partner" UMG has claimed some or all audio content in your video "Lord Is It Mine", well unlike the title would suggest I guess it isn't mine, even though I've paid for it a gazillion times over through album, cd and itunes purchases. It also states that the video is still live because UMG has authorized it, that they have a claim on it and they will receive public stats and that viewers may see advertisements on my video's page, hey whatta ya gonna do.

This of course begs the questions, how do you get permissions to upload a copywritten song, and how do you know if it is copywritten in the first place. So many questions, so little time, think I'll stick to easier things like the Cosmos, the last time I looked the Lord hadn't copywritten it.

Anyways I hope you enjoy the video.

Here Comes The Sun

At one time I had really big plans for the Sun and this blog, gonna post a lot of images and such, but alas the Sun has not been co-operating, nothing going on, little or no Sunspots, flares or prominences. I took the image of Sunspot 0999 above over a month ago. The image below is what was on Spaceweather.com today, actually been the same blank Sun for going on 6 weeks now.



A little bit of solar background, the Sun's solar activity such as sunspots, flares and prominences goes through an 11 year cycle of highs and lows, we are currently on the extra long decaying end of cycle 23, in the next few months we will see more solar activity as the Sun builds to solar maximum around 2012. At solar maximum we can expect to see upwards of 120 sunspots and intense solar flares daily as well as auroras as far south as Florida.

The Phoenix lander has been drilling into the Martian surface with it's motorized rasp on the back of it's robotic arm, collecting the sample with it's scoop and then watching and documenting the whole procedure kind of like a dress rehearsal in preparation for an actual gathering and depositing in the lander's oven when they are hoping they will finally be able to get some of that ice water into an oven to scientifically conclude ice water on Mars.

Okay now for the exciting news, NASA just released some 3D stereo views of the Martian surface around the lander. You've heard me talk before about my cardboard 3D glasses, people mock me for wearing them, actually I'm wearing them right now as I type, and yes It isn't the easiest thing to do, type while your wearing 3D glasses, but boy is it ever cool, may not look cool, but the view of the images with these glasses is, well it's like you're there, get yourself some of these glasses, you'll never regret it. Before I got my professional ones I had made some up by buying blue and red gels and taping the cut out squares to my glass lenses, word of advice, you may want to do that in private, it's not like people will think anything less of you when they see you wearing them, it's just they probably won't think anything more of you.

I'll leave you now with an animated Lunar Pleiades Occultation.

Auroras Gone Wild

Got a call from a nice man, Doctor Tony at 1:00 am Saturday morning.

"Hi this is Doctor Tony Phillips calling with a space weather alert. A geomagnetic storm is in progress. The interplanetary K index has increased to a value of 6 which means auroras are possible in your area now. Be on the lookout for northern lights. Please check Space Weather dot com for further updates and more information."


We like Dr. Tony, because of Dr Tony I was able to capture some wild and crazy Auroras, they covered the whole sky. I signed up with SpaceWeather.com to send me updates on any unusual space weather events when ever they occur no matter what the time, since I am on call 24/7 I figure , hey why not. At the beginning of the summer I just went to Spaceweather PHONE, signed up and I was ready to go. They have called 2 times before, both times it was cloudy, 3rd time a charm. Even got my images on the front page of SpaceWeather.com for a couple days, you can see them in their gallery here.

It was a beautiful night, calm yet so much going on, besides the auroras there was the Milky Way and meteors, time to get lost in the moment and reflect on the magnificence of the night sky.


Auroras are created by the dangerous solar winds interacting with our protective magnetosphere, most of the solar wind's dangerous charged particles are forced away from us by our magnetosphere, but some particles do get through to be trapped in the magnetosphere and upper atmosphere where the collide with oxygen and nitrogen atoms, the spent energy of the collisions are turned into harmless light creating the various colors of the auroras.

I'll leave you now with a clip of some of the images I took that morning, I figured out how to put music to my clips, took me forever, but I got it figured out, see what I had to do is in Vista movie maker right under where it says import images, it says import audio, duh, I hate reading instructions.

Saturn, Mars, Regulus, Lunar Gathering and Moondust Telescopes

Saturn, Mars, Regulus and Moon Saturday July 5, 2008


Saturday July 5 just after Sunset there was a real pretty celestial gathering of Saturn, Mars, Regulus and the Moon and almost all in a straight line, very nice.



6% of Full Moon Friday July 4, 2008


Getting a little antsy here, running out of major conjunctions to watch for, the next one isn't till August 2, 30 minutes after Sunset if you look low in the west you will see Saturn, Venus, Regulus and the crescent Moon all gathering, further off to the right you will also see Mars, technically not in conjunction with, poor little Mars, kinda in a wannabe conjunction, I'll make sure to get Mars in the image with the rest of them.



Recipe for one Hubble size telescope mirror, 130 pounds of epoxy, 3 pounds of carbon nanotubes, one gram of aluminum, oh yea, and 1300 pounds of lunar dust. NASA Astrophysicist Peter C. Chen has a dream to build a big telescope on the Moon with the main ingredient being Moondust. They have already successfully constructed a 12 inch mirror by using Moondust simulant, epoxy, aluminum and carbon nanotubes.

With the Moon's weak gravity they are saying it might be possible to build telescopes with mirrors as large as 50 meters across, or 20 times the diameter of Hubble, that is one big scope, but that's not all folks, no, not only do you have a big scope, but on the Moon there is no atmosphere, nothing to distort the light path from far away stars and planets, because of these two facts they figure, they being people other then me, they could actually analyze the chemistry on planets around other stars for signs of life. In my dreams, to be an Astronaut, on the Moon, riding on that cool Moon buggy, to look through a fifty meter telescope, to see little green aliens on a distant planet, sigh, here I am stuck on Earth, well at least I have my cat........ and a blog.

I'll leave you now with a gif of the 13% of Full Moon, taken July 5, 2008

Happy Anniversary to Me

July 4 was my one year blogging anniversary and what an adventure it has been. I remember my very first comment from Mighty Morgan and what a thrill it was, first it made me think "wow, someone is actually reading my stuff", but it also made me think , "crap someone is actually reading my stuff", never counted on that.

All I ever wanted to do with this blog is somehow try to put into words the feelings I have when I'm under the stars and how, if you just look up you too can enjoy what is so freely given to us, but how can I put into words, feelings I don't understand. Enter pictures, after all a picture says a thousand words, less words for me to write, cool.


One thing I didn't count on was the relationships I would make along the way, different people all with their own passions and ideas on how to make the blogging world a little more interesting and fun and how they communicated them to me through their poetry, writings and images, and I thank you all for that, for I am now the learner and not the learnee, no wait... I am now the learnee and not th....., I am the grasshopper.....no,......I am.....I was.... never mind, you get my drift, I'm getting more out of this experience then I ever thought possible.



People it's been a blast bringing you the most current happenings in the night sky through my imaging this past year, well worth spending countless hours under dark skies and on distant roads, and bonus I have gained some interesting experiences, most of them will never be talked of further, but filed away under "YIKES" if my wife only knew, she'd never let me out to play again. I'll leave you now with a clip I put together of some of the Canada Day fireworks we had here in Saskatoon, thought it would be fitting for my Anniversary.