APOD: 2009 September 12 - Summer Night in Astronomy Town
This serene view records a late summer night sky over the rolling, green hills of planet Earth. It was taken near the rural village of Saadat Shahr, Fars province, in southern Iran. Saadat Shahr is also known as Astronomy Town, as the inhabitants have demonstrated a remarkable passion for sky gazing. Fittingly, this Astronomy Town sky view finds a lovely part of the Milky Way near picture center. The three brightest stars are the stars of theSummer Triangle, Deneb in Cygnus (top), Altair in Aquila (left), and Vega in Lyra (right). The foreground landscape, illuminated by Astronomy Town lights, includes a kind of wild pistachio tree common in the region. To identify the stars and constellations, just slide your cursor over the image.
BBC News | In pictures: Environmental Photographer of the Year, Dust Storm
The changing climates category winner Nick Moir took this photograph in New South Wales, Australia. A microburst from a thunderstorm caused a dust storm in the heatwave-ravaged region. This was a week before the devastating “Black Saturday” bushfires in Victoria.
APOD: 2009 September 2 - Discovery’s Rainbow
Just one minute before midnight EDT, Friday, August 28, the Space Shuttle Discovery began a long arc into a cloudy sky. Following the launch, a bright and remarkably colorful trail was captured in this time exposure from the Banana River Viewing Site, looking east toward pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center. On STS-128, Discovery docked with the International Space Station Sunday evening. The 13-day mission will exchange space station crew members and deliver more than 7 tons of supplies and equipment. Of course, the equipment includes the Combined Operational Load Bearing External Resistance Treadmill (COLBERT).
APOD: 2009 August 28 - NGC 7822 in Cepheus
Pillars of gas, dust, and young, hot stars fill the center of NGC 7822. At the edge of a giant molecular cloud toward the northern constellation Cepheus, the glowing star forming region lies about 3,000 light-years away. Within the nebula, bright edges and tantalizing shapes are highlighted in this colorful skyscape. The image includes data from both broadband and narrowband filters, mapping emission from atomic oxygen, hydrogen, and sulfur into blue, green, and red hues. The atomic emission is powered by the energetic radiation from the hot stars, whose powerful winds and radiation also sculpt and erode the denser pillar shapes. Stars could still be forming inside the pillars by gravitational collapse, but as the pillars are eroded away, any forming stars will ultimately be cutoff from their reservoir of star stuff. This field spans around 30 light-years at the estimated distance of NGC 7822.
xkcd - A Webcomic - Tech Support Cheat Sheet
'Hey Megan, it's your father. How do I print out a flowchart?'
xkcd - A Webcomic - Newton and Leibniz
YEEEEEEAAAAAAHHHHHH!
APOD: 2009 August 14 - Shuttle and Meteor
This early morning skyscape was captured last week on August 4th, looking northeast across calm waters in the Turn Basin at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. In a striking contrast in motion, the space shuttle Discovery, mounted on a massive transporter, creeps toward launch pad 39A at less than two miles per hour, while a brilliant meteor streaks through the sky traveling many miles per second. Of course, this week skywatchers have seen many similar meteor streaks during the annual Perseid meteor shower. But the meteor flashing above Discovery is not likely to be one of the Perseids because its path doesn’t point back to that shower’s radiant. Seen here near picture center, brilliant planet Venus still dominates the sky as the Morning Star, though. Yellowish tinted Mars lies near the top of the frame and Orion’s red giant star Betelgeuse is toward the right.
Kissing in a Tree
