Space Mission – Page 13 – Strider’s Web

Annular Eclipse

The Annular Eclipse that happened earlier this week was amazing, but those of us who saw it from North America only got a little tease of the event. If you got to see if from Japan, like Danny Choo, then perhaps you got to see it in its full glory. Here is a picture or two to put it in perspective for you. The first image is Danny in his Filter Facemask, which will hopefully protect him from having his retinas burned out by staring into the sun. To me, the scary bit is he reminds me of Friend from the movie trilogy 20th Century Boys, a wonderful Sci-Fi sequence based on the Manga. The second image is what he was staring at. If you missed it, don’t worry. You can either travel to the next event half way around the world in 50 years, or stay where you are and wait for it to happen there again, in 300 years.

View from Space

There is no reason to post this except it is amazing to watch. This footage was all taken with a 1080P camera from the ISS, or International Space Station. I so want to go, but for now videos like this will have to do.

Planetary Society update

If you haven’t stopped by recently, the Planetary Society website has undergone a facelift and added all sorts of content, including a report about Planets around Alpha Centauri. They don’t have an answer yet as to whether our nearest stellar neighbor has anyplace we might land on, but the report does go into details of the technology being utilized for the search that I found very interesting.

USA Science & Engineering Festival this weekend

If you are anywhere near DC this weekend the USA Science & Engineering Festival takes place on Saturday and Sunday. The schedule includes exhibitions, stage shows, and a monster book fair, with literally hundreds of events and exhibits taking place. A few of the events I am looking forward to are the Stargazing Party at the Air and Space Museum with Bill Nye and a team from Celestron, and of course the Mythbusters presentation. I am really going to have to restrain myself at the Book Fair, or you might find me collapsed under the volumes as I try to get them home using the Metro. Visit the Plan Your Day segment of the site for more details.

Shuttle picture

The Space Shuttle Discovery made a flight around town the other day before landing at Dulles Airport on its way to its new home at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center of the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. A friend of mine grabbed this picture as it circled the airport for the second time.

World Space Party: Yuri’s Night!

Tonight is Yuri’s Night, the anniversary of the first human to make it into space and live to tell about it! Named after Yuri Gagarin, who took his epic ride on April 12th, 1961, this date is now used to celebrate all aspects of humanities continuing efforts to leave this gravity well. That first link will get you details to 183 events in 44 countries on 7 continents, so there will be something going on near you (unless you live way out to sea, in Antarctica, or along the full length of the former Siberia/Alaska land bridge and the lands it tied together). And even if you live in those places, or just don’t feel like driving, there are 9 Online Parties so you can celebrate with your friends at the Second Life International Space Flight Museum or Second Life Frontier Spaceport, the Foundation for Space Development at Mach30, and at Area 52, Outlands for you WoW folks (message HumanityPlus in-game for details, that event is on the 17th).

If you are a bit more serious than that, go for the Constellation Apps platform party, if you have the application development enviro installed, or hit NASA’s Third Rock Radio to listen to it all come down, or watch on SpaceVidcast online or on Roku. There are a lot more; find the one that works for you and join us in celebrating mankind’s attempt to escape this cosmic trap, and survive through the ensuing millennium.