Moon River: SKY

Remote Sensing of the Moon

Sun, 06 Aug 2006 18:30:47 GMT

Professor Lucey's planetary science interests focus on the Moon and asteroids. Dr. Lucey's lunar research has primarily exploited remote sensing data to understand the composition of the lunar crust and the surfaces of asteroids, and to improve the ability to derive quantitative information from remote sensing data of these objects.

For example, in collaboration with colleagues in Hawaii and Washington University at St. Louis, Dr. Lucey developed a method to derive the abundance of the elements iron (Fe) and titanium (Ti) from multispectral imaging of the Moon.

He is currently working with scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory to compare the measurements of Fe and Ti derived from the recent to the estimates he derived from multispectral imaging. This work has already resulted in the ability to map the abundance of the rare elements gadolinium and samarium on the Moon by comparing results from Dr. Lucey's Fe and Ti measurements with images of the Moon derived from Lunar Prospector's neutron spectrometer. Read and view more

Celestial View of Earth

Sun, 06 Aug 2006 17:43:56 GMT

Wladyslaw T. Benda. The Earth with the Milky Way and Moon.
Charcoal on paper, ca. 1918. Published in "The Future of the Earth" by Maurice Maeterlinck,
Cosmopolitan, March 1918. Cabinet of American Illustration.

Wladyslaw T. Benda (1873-1948) created this cover art and illustration for short stories and essays in leading magazines during America's golden age of illustration (1870-1930). Benda depicts two timeless figures that frame and contemplate his imagined vista of the earth and moon suspended on the edge of the Milky Way. Light from the lower right throws land masses of North America, Europe, and Africa into bold relief, accentuates the earth's majestic beauty, and illuminates a visn of earth within its galactic context.

Logarithmic Maps of the Universe

Sun, 06 Aug 2006 09:54:42 GMT

There is a thine line between love and hate, there is a thine line between abstraction and concrete. I have not got much knowledge about the stars and universe, and none in Logarithmic stuff, sill here is an attempt to map the universe in a map, that i liked (the image is only a part of a much larger map that can be seen here)

The Disclosure Project

Sat, 08 Jul 2006 15:14:35 GMT

I have watched this week (2 hours video) the Campaign for Disclosure Project - A Witnesses Panel at the National Press Club in Washington, DC - their aim is :
"to establish the reality of UFOs or extraterrestrial vehicles, extraterrestrial life forms, and resulting advanced energy and propulsion technologies. The weight of this first-hand testimony, along with supporting government documentation and other evidence, will establish without any doubt the reality of these phenomena, according to Dr. Steven M. Greer, director of the Disclosure Project which hosted the event.

'The Disclosure Project is a nonprofit research project working to fully disclose the facts about UFOs, extraterrestrial intelligence, and classified advanced energy and propulsion systems. We have over 400 government, military, and intelligence community witnesses testifying to their direct, personal, first hand experience with UFOs, ETs, ET technology, and the cover-up that keeps this information secret. '

I was listening attentively to all of it, even twice, and was astonished. now i know how easy it is to wave at it as a bunch of ridicule stuff, gathered by peculiar people, but this was different and sound very persuading. looking after words in the Internet my little search turned to be with not much results, for example, i have not find any material indicating that they have testified in front of the Congress as they wanted, nor did i find any piece of information noting that they have come to show more evidence, more to it, their official site, is asking for registration by paying them in order to get more info, that gave me a bit of a re drawl off all of it, and made me feel there is some kind of not clear and clean thing going on..why won't they open up all there evidence for every one to see? why are they holding most of the information as a secret like they claim the united state of America does??? what is their motivations? and how clear and clean it is? i wouldn't know.

But as i do deeply believe there are living form out there, and that they come to visit us, i would like to know, what and why all the big nations are holding back this info with such persistence

Earth being destroyed

Thu, 29 Jun 2006 10:21:32 GMT

amazing and impressive - though somewhat scary - computer simulation of Earth being destroyed by a 100km-wide asteroid.

via newscientist

Heavens-Above

Sun, 25 Jun 2006 07:07:13 GMT

I am not sure what is more beautiful the name or the technology...

Heaves-Above - a Satellite watching: 'Our aim is to provide you with all the information you need to observe satellites such as the International Space Station and the Space Shuttle, spectacular events such as the dazzlingly bright flares from Iridium satellites as well as a wealth of other spaceflight and astronomical information. ' the site provides the times of visibility, but also detailed star charts showing the satellite's track through the heavens. All the pages, including the graphics, are generated in real-time and customized for your location and time zone.

You can specity your position and get a prediction of the satelite moves over your place, so here is my little town satellite prediction for the 2ed of July.

Ground Track Plot

Ground Track Plot during the pass, centred on your location.

The highlighted circle is the region where the satellite is at least 10° above your horizon. The size of the circle depends on the height of the satellite.

Solid part of orbit shows where the satellite is sunlit, and the dashed part where it is in the Earth's shadow and invisible.

Whole Sky Chart

This chart show the path of the satellite across the sky. Please note that East and West are NOT the "wrong way round" if you hold the chart over your head to correspond to the view of the sky.

Pass Details

Date:	Monday, 03 July, 2006
Satellite:	HST
Observer's Location:	Rehovot ( 31.8970°N, 34.8190°E)
Local Time:	Israeli Daylight Time (GMT + 3:00)
Orbit:	564 x 569 km, 28.5° (Epoch 24 Jun)
Sun altitude at time of maximum pass altitude:	-10.8

via Plep

THe European Space Agency has opened up its collection of satellite imagery for more breath taking Satellite Images {via}

Strait of Gibraltar

Aerial Dance

Fri, 23 Jun 2006 10:02:32 GMT

This unbelivble photos showing breathtaking amorphous, self-organizing forms of million European starlings, were taken During spring in Denmark, at approximately one half an hour before sunset, flocks of more than a million European starlings (sturnus vulgaris) gather from all corners to join in this incredible formations.

Photos taken by Bjarne Winkler,

The Photos shown at Earth Science Picture of the Day. pores light of this phenomenon, it's called Black Sun (in Denmark), and can be witnessed in early spring throughout the marshlands of western Denmark, from March through to the middle of April. The starlings migrate from the south and spend the day in the meadows gathering food, sleeping in the reeds during the night. The best place to view this amazing aerial dance is in the place called "Tøndermarsken," where these pictures were taken (on April 5 from 19.30 to 20.30 local time).

via Ami Ben Basat, and pruned

See you in Beautiful Hell

Thu, 08 Jun 2006 15:42:53 GMT

Ever wondered how hell might look like? this amazing images and movies made me think of it, not ignoring the fact that it is truly a magnificent sight. again from pruned

The surface of the sun as observed by the Transition Region and Coronal Explorer (TRACE) in high temporal and spatial resolution.

This picture is a false-color image of an X-17 solar flare on October 28, 2003, made with SOHO's Extreme ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (EIT).

if you only have time to one movie, try this and this

via pruned

Stellarium

Mon, 15 May 2006 07:15:17 GMT

If you like watching the starss- Stellarium is perfect for you! It’s a free software, it’s open source and it’s works well, many features who makes it magical. via orangeblog

Skyspace

Thu, 27 Apr 2006 18:58:55 GMT

Here's a man made placei would love to be in for contemplating and meditating

Kielder Skyspace is a buried cylindrical chamber, entered through a tunnel and capped by a roof with a 3m diameter circular opening in its centre. Around the base of the inside wall is a continuous seat above which all surfaces have a white, visually uninterrupted surface. Behind the seating, low-energy light sources are arranged to give a continuous ring of ambient light illuminating the walls and ceiling.

Visitors to the Skyspace will find themselves in the middle of this clear, precise chamber. From the seating, the artist's precise manipulation of interior and exterior light causes the sky seen through the roof opening to seem an almost solid form. The Kielder Skyspace works on the measured and delicately balanced play between artificial, interior light and the northern natural light of the Kielder landscape. During the changing light conditions at dusk and dawn, visitors to the work can expect to experience a rich display of tone and colour.

Space Colony Art from the 1970s

Mon, 17 Apr 2006 19:59:27 GMT

A couple of space colony summer studies were conducted at NASA Ames in the 1970s. Colonies housing about 10,000 people were designed. A number of artistic renderings of the concepts were made. These have been converted to jpegs and are available as thumbnails, quarter page, full screen and publication quality images.

Cutaway view, exposing the interior

Interior view

Space Colony Art from the 1970s via interconnected

The Artemis Project

Thu, 09 Mar 2006 16:54:31 GMT

This is no joke (i truly hope)

The Artemis Society International leads the non-profit element of the Artemis Project. ASI is an educational and scientific foundation set up to develop the Artemis Project, as a meeting ground for those helping to make it happen.

12 men have walked on the Moon.
When do you get to go?

The Project is a private venture to establish a permanent, self-supporting community on the Moon. Here, you will find out how we are going to get there, how we are going to pay for it, and how you can come too

Go to the Introduction!

From the Lunar Base Advanced Planning Tech Committee
(they've thought about gazillion topics, such as Lunar Mining Technical, Lunar Agriculture Technical , Space Traffic Model Technical and so on...)

The Lunar Base Advanced Planning Technical Committee's primary responsibility is to develop an economic model for the lunar community, mapping its needs and uses of resources as the population and industry of the Moon grow. go there

Star Map

Thu, 09 Feb 2006 04:55:42 GMT

George Cram, c.1886, Star Map, No. 6 South Polar. A very detailed look at the solar system, as it was understood in the 19th century. more

Where does power come from?

Fri, 27 Jan 2006 15:44:43 GMT

Where does power come from? According to the traditional belief-system of the Piaroa, a largely nonviolent, egalitarian people of the upper Orinoco basin in Venezuela, it could come either from the sun or the moon. But the power granted by the sun was destructive and poisonous, and had to be carefully controlled. The unrestrained life of the senses led to arrogance, competition, greed, violence, madness and tyranny. Only the moon could grant the healing power wielded by sages (ruwang) and implicated in the ideal life of the mind.

"It was the clear yet moderate light of the moon, in contrast to the strong light of the sun, that was described as 'the precious light of wizardry,'" writes anthropologist Joanna Overing

via Via Negativa

EARTH RISE

Wed, 18 Jan 2006 12:43:41 GMT

EARTHRISE
© NASA

The crescent Earth rises over the far side of the Moon. This classic photograph was taken in December 1972 from the Apollo 17 spacecraft, the last manned mission to the Moon.

A star is dying

Sun, 15 Jan 2006 07:59:35 GMT

Infrared Helix
Credit: J. Hora (Harvard-Smithsonian CfA) et al., (SSC/Caltech), JPL-Caltech, NASA
Over six hundred light years from Earth, in the constellation Aquarius, a sun-like star is dying.
To Explanation.
In this amazing site, of Nasa, there are an every day Sky photos that looks divine!, and, many explanations as well, regarding Astronomy via Ami Ben BasaT

Blame it on the moon...

Sat, 14 Jan 2006 07:56:34 GMT

Photo by BOB HALLINEN. Anchorage Daily News

The moon is 2,160 miles in diameter, 27 percent the size of the Earth, its surface area about that of the continent of Africa. It takes the moon 27 days, 7 hours, 43 minutes and 11.5 seconds to do one lap, all the while rotating on its axis, making one pirouette every 27.32 days.

Several theories have waxed and waned on how the moon was born, including the cool sounding "Nebular Hypothesis," that says the moon and the planets formed from immense rotating and condensing clouds of gas. Or that it started out smaller but snowballed bigger and bigger as it accumulated debris from space.

Or that while the Earth was spinning at high speed, it winged a piece of itself right out into space like a toddler flying off a merry-go-round. Or that it came wandering in from elsewhere in the solar system and was snagged and held captive by gravitational forces.

The accepted theory now is that a massive meteor hit the Earth when it was very young, a piece broke off and formed the moon. The evidence for this is substantial. For example, the composition of moon rocks is very similar to rocks on Earth.

The portion that broke off was massive enough that its own gravity was able to compact it into a sphere.
The size of our moon, which has about a quarter the diameter of the Earth. If you compare it to other planets in the solar system, if they have a moon at all they're very small in comparison. Ours is bigger!

Full Moon names

Sat, 14 Jan 2006 07:30:36 GMT

Full Moon names date back to Native Americans, of what is now the northern and eastern United States. The tribes kept track of the seasons by giving distinctive names to each recurring full Moon. Their names were applied to the entire month in which each occurred. There was some variation in the Moon names, but in general, the same ones were current throughout the Algonquin tribes from New England to Lake Superior. European settlers followed that custom and created some of their own names. Since the lunar month is only 29 days long on the average, the full Moon dates shift from year to year. Here is the Farmers Almanac's list of the full Moon names.

• Full Wolf Moon - January Amid the cold and deep snows of midwinter, the wolf packs howled hungrily outside Indian villages. Sometimes it was also referred to as the Old Moon, or the Moon After Yule.
• Full Snow Moon - February Since the heaviest snow usually falls during this month, native tribes of the north and east most often called February's full Moon the Full Snow Moon. Some tribes also referred to this Moon as the Full Hunger Moon, since harsh weather conditions in their areas made hunting very difficult.
• Full Worm - March Moon As the temperature begins to warm and the ground begins to thaw, earthworm casts appear. Or the Full Crust Moon, because the snow cover becomes crusted from thawing by day and freezing at night. The Full Sap Moon, marking the time of tapping maple trees, is another variation. To the settlers, it was also known as the Lenten Moon, and was considered to be the last full Moon of winter.
• Full Pink Moon - April This name came from the herb moss pink, or wild ground phlox, which is one of the earliest widespread flowers of the spring. Other names for this month'; the Egg Moon, and among coastal tribes the Full Fish Moon, because this was the time that the shad swam upstream to spawn.
• Full Flower Moon - May In most areas, flowers are abundant everywhere during this time. Thus, the name of this Moon. Other names include the Full Corn Planting Moon, or the Milk Moon.
• Full Strawberry Moon - June This name was universal to every Algonquin tribe. However, in Europe they called it the Rose Moon. Also because the relatively short season for harvesting strawberries comes each year during the month of June.
• The Full Buck Moon - July July is normally the month when the new antlers of buck deer push out of their foreheads in coatings of velvety fur. It was also often called the Full Thunder Moon, for the reason that thunderstorms are most frequent during this time.
• Full Sturgeon Moon - August The fishing tribes are given credit for the naming of this Moon, since sturgeon, a large fish of the Great Lakes and other major bodies of water, were most readily caught during this month. A few tribes knew it as the Full Red Moon because, as the Moon rises, it appears reddish through any sultry haze. It was also called the Green Corn Moon or Grain Moon.
• Full Harvest Moon - September This is the full Moon that occurs closest to the autumn equinox. In two years out of three, the Harvest Moon comes in September, but in some years it occurs in October. At the peak of harvest, farmers can work late into the night by the light of this Moon. Usually the full Moon rises an average of 50 minutes later each night, but for the few nights around the Harvest Moon, the Moon seems to rise at nearly the same time each night: just 25 to 30 minutes later across the U.S., and only 10 to 20 minutes later for much of Canada and Europe. Corn, pumpkins, squash, beans, and wild rice the chief Indian staples are now ready for gathering.
• Full Hunter's Moon - October With the leavs falling and the deer fattened, it is time to hunt. Since the fields have been reaped, hunters can easily see fox and the animals which have come out to glean.
• Full Beaver Moon - November This was the time to set beaver traps before the swamps froze, to ensure a supply of warm winter furs.It is sometimes also referred to as the Frosty Moon.
• The Full Cold Moon; or the Full Long Nights Moon - December During this month the winter cold fastens its grip, and nights are at their longest and darkest. It is also sometimes called the Moon before Yule. The term Long Night Moon is a doubly appropriate name because the midwinter night is indeed long, and because the Moon is above the horizon for a long time. via nmazca

meteoroids striking the Moon

Thu, 29 Dec 2005 21:52:24 GMT

Until recently, most astronomers thought the craters which cover the surface of the Moon were of volcanic origin. Although there are indeed a few volcanic features, it is now universally accepted that its appearance is the product of over four billion years of impacts. Over that period the size and frequency of these collisions has reduced... but not stopped.

During the last few years there has been considerable excitement at the confirmed sighting of the flashes of grit-sized meteoroids striking the Moon during the Leonid meteor shower. There has also been heightened awareness that much larger objects still lurk in our part of the solar system, and that the impacts of such objects with the Earth have caused devastating extinctions such as at the end of the Cretaceous and Permian eras.

The massive collision of comet Shoemaker-Levy with Jupiter showed how real the threat is, and slowly governments are awakening to the need to guard against such a catastrophe. This chilling artists impression illustrates the possible consequences of ignoring the warning.

Image: Don Davis, NASA.

The Sky Yes

Thu, 22 Dec 2005 14:03:02 GMT

Yoram Kupermintz

moondust

Wed, 21 Dec 2005 18:42:28 GMT

Most moondust is very fine. This sample of orange soil, collected by geologist Harrison Schmitt during the Apollo 17 mission. The particles magnified here are between 20 and 45 microns (0.02 - 0.045 mm) across. The orange particles are rich in titanium and iron oxide, and in zinc. The orange soil is thought to be volcanic in origin.

Image: NASA.

quarter_moon_in_august

Wed, 21 Dec 2005 16:23:39 GMT

photos from the western lands

Full Moon

Wed, 21 Dec 2005 07:47:37 GMT

The only natural satellite of the Earth,
being responsible (with the sun) for its tidal
action.

Neutron Star Mystery

Thu, 15 Dec 2005 20:50:50 GMT

An artist depicts a neutron star. These objects are the dead cores of stars that exploded as supernovae. They cram more than a Sun's worth of mass into a ball only about 20 kilometers (12 miles) across, achieving extraordinarily high densities. Powerful magnetic field lines (blue) thread through these objects. Recent observations show that large numbers of neutron stars emit sporadic, powerful bursts of radio waves for reasons that remain a mystery. Courtesy European Space Agency.

Astronomers have become accustomed to exotic and extreme behavior from neutron stars. But even the wildest dreams of the most imaginative theorists failed to anticipate the latest discovery. In a paper accepted for publication in the journal Nature, an international team has announced that a huge number of these ultradense stellar remnants emit sporadic but extraordinarily powerful bursts of radio waves. These bursts last mere fractions of a second, but during that fleeting interval they are among the brightest radio sources in the sky, even outshining the Sun. more

sidereus nuncius

Thu, 15 Dec 2005 07:57:10 GMT

When Galileo drew five sketches of the Moon in his ground-breaking book Sidereus Nuncius (the Starry Messenger) he omitted to mention the time and date of each observation.

The image above is the second image from the original version, showing a roughly seven-day Moon. The large oval ¼ of the way down from the north lunar pole is the Mare Serenitatis, with the Caucasus and Haemus mountains extending onto the dark half of the disc.

Image: Rice University Galileo Project.

The Moon is reflecting on the sea of clouds

Sun, 11 Dec 2005 22:37:51 GMT

http://www.photoastronomique.net/photo_us.php?nom=couche_lune1

Brilliant Trees

Tue, 06 Dec 2005 20:00:05 GMT

This most excellent canopy, the air

Virtual Reality Milky Way Panorama

Tue, 06 Dec 2005 12:55:07 GMT

360-degree All-Sky Panorama (Aitoff Projection)

This panoramic view of the entire sky has been assembled from 51 wide-angle photographcs. The individual images were transformed to a cartesian frame based on galactic coordinates prior to assembly, thus eliminating the distortions introduced by the wide-angle lens. The final image was then tranformed using an Aitoff projection.

Click here to see a Virtual Reality All-Sky Panorama! (You must enable Java support in your browser to view the panorama )

To learn more about the All-Sky panorama, please visit its home page.

Talking about Einstein… and beyond

Tue, 29 Nov 2005 18:45:07 GMT

Quote

Einstein… and beyond

1 December 2005, starting at 12:00 CET: Cern, Geneva (Switzerland), invites you to a 12-hour live webcast on Einstein’s Theory of Relativity… and beyond. Registration is Free, and the topics are fascinting.

via paperholic

Young-Moon Hunting in 2005

Mon, 14 Nov 2005 22:01:45 GMT

Few people ever see a crescent less than 30 hours old (less than 30 hours from the moment of new Moon) unless they plan for it. But much younger crescents can be sighted. Hunting them has long been an amateur-astronomy pursuit in the Western world, and it gets more attention in Islamic societies, where an actual sighting of the hilal (new crescent) determines the starting date of each month. Because the thin Moon’s visibility depends not just on astronomical factors but also on the clarity of the air and the visual acuity of witnesses, the start of the lunar month for a given region is not always predictable in advance.

In the picture above: In Pearce, Arizona, Matt BenDaniel recorded the Moon at dawn on October 15, 2001, only 30.8 hours before new. He took the 4-second exposure on Kodak E200 film with a 130-millimeter Astro-Physics refractor at f/6.7. Courtesy Matt BenDaniel.

http://skyandtelescope.com/observing/objects/moon/article_1421_1.asp

Star Axis

Wed, 09 Nov 2005 07:50:25 GMT

The Solar Pyramid; one hour time lapse of the stars. Facing southeast.

How and why do humans look at the sky, stars, and sun, and how do we try to make sense of what we see? On a small mesa in northern New Mexico where the Sangre de Cristo Mountains meet the eastern plains, artist Charles Ross is creating an art installation that is also a star observatory. This major earthwork has two main elements: the Star Tunnel, which allows you to walk through the entire history of the earth's changing alignment to our North Star, Polaris; and the Solar Pyramid, where one can visually experience an hour of the earth's rotation.

What is a blue moon?

Fri, 21 Oct 2005 20:31:03 GMT

This is one of those expressions that appears in al the standard dictionaries but without its origin having a satisfactory explanation.

one of the explanations i found is: It's exactly what the name suggests - a blue moon. It happens very rarely, usually as a result of smoke or ash after a volcanic eruption. The dense cloud of particles in the upper atmosphere effectively filters out most of the red end of the visible-light spectrum, leaving only the green-blue end, resulting in a very peculiar-looking moon. The odd appearance of the moon, frequently in areas so far from the eruption as to be unaware of it, has been noted for centuries, and has passed into popular parance in a number of languages as a byword for extreme rareness and remarkableness.

more you can find here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/notesandqueries/query/0,,-5969,00.html

Mare Imbrium

Sat, 03 Sep 2005 11:52:01 GMT

There are several theories concerning the origin of the moon. One theory proposes that the moon was formed byh accretion out of the same cloud of primordial dust as the earth. Another theory holds that the moon was a stray planet which was gravitationally captured by the earth. A third theory, which has fallen into disfavour, argues that the moon was ejected from the earth during its early formation. According to this third theory the moon is composed of material thrown off by the earth when its rate of spin was increased by the migration of heavy elements into the earth's core. The Pacific Ocean fills the hollow left when the earth gave birth to the moon.

-- Christopher Dewdney, Radiant Inventory

i found this poem here:

http://www.caterina.net/archive/000839.html

this interesting woman, has a fresh, interesting "window" to the world i love to visit and grasp as much as i can.

at first, i was not sure, it was a poem...i wasn't quit sure, what it was, was it a dreamer? surely it's a kind of a joker?....a philosopher? a new astro physics with a new theory...fully intruiged i marched on reading this lovey piece.