Space and the universe... [interests, sightings and events]

[JEDIpartner]

I have a vague recollection of the moon landing. I remember being on the floor of our apartment in Richmond Heights, Ohio and laying underneath the coffee table with a blanket.

[TeeEye7]

Bad stuff, kiddies. A friend of mine here at work has friends who work at Scaled Composites. We still don't know identities of the victims. Scaled is big stuff here in the county....

http://video.knbc.com/player/?id=134487

(sorry for the ad prior to the video)

[pbarnard]

Came across http://www.shatters.net/celestia/index.html Celestia, an open source program that allows you to view the various stars, planets, etc. It also allows for modification to insert your own fictional stuff, or whatever you want. Heard about it while watching NCIS, and just searched for it thinking it was fictional, but it is real.

[Bel-Cam Jos]

The lunar eclipse was cool the other night; it's been a loooooong time since I've seen one here on the west coast.

[LusiferSam]

Here's a short article on adaptive optics I enjoyed because of the images. It doesn't say much about how it's really done, but oh well. Another good reason to mention it is because of some of the early work done in this field was a major of Reagan's Star Wars program. The US DOD flipped out when astronomers starting do the same research and publishing it. Any way, enjoy the photos.

[TeeEye7]

Very cool and interesting stuff! Thanks for sending it along, LS!
I'm still amazed at how far we've come optically. I grew up seeing fuzzy images of Mars and being able to make out the polar ice caps and thought that was cool at the time!

[TeeEye7]

I was out on a death investigation last night in the Mojave desert. In spite of it all, it was a beautiful, clear night! A gazillion stars with the Milky Way easily seen, as was Mars. A nice little splash of light from an asteroid, too! Such a spectacular sight I wish I could see every night, but living in a city of about 400,000, all those city lights makes it impossible.

[TeeEye7]

http://www.space.com/news/071003-ap-asteroid-takei.html

Kind of a cool honor, IMO.

[TeeEye7]

Saw the International Space Station being followed by Space Shuttle Discovery (about 10 minutes later) beginning around 7:30 tonight before going to work. It's always cool to see!

[stillakid]

Saw the International Space Station being followed by Space Shuttle Discovery (about 10 minutes later) beginning around 7:30 tonight before going to work. It's always cool to see!

With a telescope? How clear are they when looking through one?