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Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Visitors:
Welcome to The Astronomy Stop. I am a member of the
Texas Astronomical Society and have been active in Amateur
Astronomy and Astrophotography since 2001. Enjoy the
links on this site and take a look at my images. They
are updated frequently so check back often.
I have a Feedback link at the
bottom of this page. If I can answer any questions
don't hesitate to contact me......Terry Belia
Your comments are appreciated.
Hubble: 20 Years of Discovery
Hubble's discoveries have
revolutionized nearly all areas of current astronomical research from
planetary science to cosmology. Actor and writer Brent Spiner narrates a
visual journey back in time and into the farthest reaches of the cosmos.
**Click on Arrows icon in lower
right of the frame to view the video in full screen mode. **
Credit: NASA
Image of the Month:
2010 Perseids Meteor Shower
The Perseids meteor shower is visible from mid-July
each year, with the peak in activity being between August 9 and 14,
depending on the particular location of the stream. During the peak, the
rate of meteors reaches 60 or more per hour. They can be seen all across
the sky, but are primarily visible in the northern hemisphere.
Captured by T.A.S. member
JOhn Davis, here is a composite of the Perseids meteor shower the
night of 8/16 at Three
Rivers Foundation (3RF). This composite was taken over a period of
about 4 hours.
Also in view is the Milky Way (of course), The Andromeda Galaxy (M31),
and Open Cluster M45 (Pleiades).
Taken with a Nikon D700, 14-24 Nikon lens at 14mm f/4. JOhn was shooting
on a fixed tripod -- no tracking. He did a series of 30 sec exposures at
ISO 6400. He then looked through the images and identified which ones
caught meteors, and then stacked those as separate layers in Photoshop
CS5.
Click on the image to display an
enlarged image of the Perseids.
Preparing The Space Shuttle For A
Launch:
The following
are rarely seen activities of the preparation of the Space Shuttle. The
general public is usually only able to see the shuttle on the launch pad or
during a launch. This presentation offers behind the scenes images of
the shuttle during it's preparation for launch. To view this
presentation, click on the image to the right.
**Note** Requires
PowerPoint Presentation. If you do not have PowerPoint, you can
download a free version of their presentation tool from Microsoft's
website. Click on the link below.
The Hubble Deep Field: The most important image ever taken.
It is the farthest we have ever seen into space using the most
advanced telescope we have.
Weather / Sky
Conditions:
The Clear Sky Clocks below are the
astronomers forecast. They show at a glance when, in the next 48
hours, we might expect clear and dark skies for one specific
observing site. The site is specifically intended for amateur
astronomers. The forecast data comes from a numerical weather model
run by The Canadian Meteorological Center.
In this unique
time-lapse video created from thousands of individual frames,
photographers Scott Andrews, Stan Jirman and Philip Scott Andrews
condense six weeks of painstaking work into three minutes, 52 seconds.
The action starts in the hangar-like Orbiter Processing Facility at
NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, where Discovery has been outfitted
for its STS-131 mission. The vehicle is then towed to the 525-foot-high
Vehicle Assembly Building, hoisted into a vertical position and lowered
onto its external fuel tank and twin solid rocket boosters. Then it’s
off to the pad on the giant Mobile Launcher Platform, where the shuttle
is encased in its protective Rotating Service Structure until just
before launch on April 5, 2010. The film ends with a glimpse of
Discovery and the STS-131 astronauts coming in for a landing 15 days
later, back in Florida where it all started.
Time Lapse
Video from The Canary Islands:
Perhaps the best
time-lapse astronomy video I have ever seen. No need for
elaboration. Just sit back, turn on the speakers, and enjoy this
amazing video.
**Click on Arrows icon in lower
right of the frame to view the video in full screen mode. **
This scientific visualization portrays the
activities within a small globular star cluster over a period of
about three hundred thousand years. The images have been calibrated
to approximate what the human eye could see on a trip across space.
The star cluster data comes from a supercomputer simulation that
accurately tracks the motions and interactions of some ten thousand
stars. The combined motions of the stars create a frenetic visual
effect similar to a swarm of insects.
The camera starts with a flight to the
globular cluster, and then it enters a circular orbit at a distance
of about one-half of a light-year from the center of the cluster.
Eventually the orbit spirals in and through the cluster to emerge
out the other side. Time passes at about 10 thousand years a second,
and the camera is moving at roughly a million times the speed of
light.
Click on image to
begin
Requires Windows Media Player or other similar media player.
Credit: Visualization by Frank
Summers, Space Telescope Science Institute
Simulation by Simon Portegies Zwart, Boston University
Lunar Phases:
A lunar phase or phase of the moon
refers to the appearance of the illuminated portion of the Moon as
seen by an observer. The lunar phases vary cyclically as the Moon
orbits the Earth, according to the changing relative positions of
the Earth, Moon and Sun. Click on each button to view the
various phases or click on the 'Run Animation' button to view
the entire lunar cycle.
For Kim - There will be a test!
Apollo Landing
Sites
NASA's
Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or
LRO, has returned its first
imagery of the Apollo moon
landing sites. The pictures show
the Apollo missions' lunar
module descent stages sitting on
the moon's surface, as long
shadows from a low sun angle
make the modules' locations
evident.
The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter
Camera, or LROC, was able to
image all six Apollo sites.
The satellite reached lunar
orbit June 23, 2009 and captured the
Apollo sites between July 11 and
15. Though it had been expected
that LRO would be able to
resolve the remnants of the
Apollo mission, these first
images came before the
spacecraft reached its final
mapping orbit. Future LROC
images from these sites will
have two to three times greater
resolution.
All
images credit:
NASA/Goddard Space
Flight Center/Arizona
State University
