Admit One / mental gymnasium
(like sit-ups for your brain)

Have you ever wondered what it might be like to explore
the moon? Well here is your chance to become a virtual
astronaut more or less, thanks to the very cool and
interactive website Moon Zoo.

moonzoo.org

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Airspace Rebooted from ItoWorld on Vimeo.

In the wake of a massive volcanic eruption, drifting smoke
and ash caused airline traffic to slow to a complete stop
over Europe recently. You can see the missing airline traffic
begin to slowly pick back up over Europe in this interesting
timelaps video of radar tracking over the EU. Enjoy.

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By the time most of you read this, the occultation will have
already occured but it’s neat to report on just the same.
This morning, 4/6/10 at about 3:35am the Asteroid #824
– Anastasia will be occulting star HIP 81377 (mag 2.54).
This star/asteroid are in the constellation Ophiucus, roughly
40 degrees up due South-Southwest at 165 degrees from here
in Southern California. This occultation can easily be seen as a
naked eye event. The star Zeta Ophiuchi is a relatively bright
star and is easily seen without the aid of a telescope or binoculars.

UPDATE 4/7/2010

Incredibly enough, of all the people observing the event, only three
people actually saw the occultation. What a shame. take a look at the
actual asteroid track.

asteroidoccultation.com

Thanks Rob,

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I wish I had reported this a week earlier but here it is now.
Be sure to try and participate in this yearly event. It only
takes a few minutes of your time. Globe at Night runs from
March 3rd to March 16th. Have fun and participate!

GLOBE at Night is an annual 2-week campaign in March. People all over the
world record the brightness of their night sky by matching its appearance
toward the constellation Orion with star maps of progressively fainter stars.
They submit their measurements on-line and a few weeks later, organizers
release a map of light-pollution levels worldwide. Over the last four GLOBE at
Night campaigns, volunteers from over 100 nations have contributed 35,000
measurements. A record number of nearly 45% of these measurements came
from last year’s campaign as part of the celebration of the International Year
of Astronomy. You can see this data on the Map page.

Thanks to everyone who participates! Through GLOBE at Night, students —
alongside teachers, parents and community members — are amassing a data
set from which they can explore the nature of light pollution locally and across
the globe.

globeatnight.org

An audio podcast (10 minutes) can be heard on light pollution and how to
participate in GLOBE at Night here, 365daysofastronomy.org

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Last week marked the 20th anniversary of a photograph.
It’s a very dramatic photo, even though, at first glance,
it’s mostly dark and seems to show nothing at all.

But if you look closely, you can see a tiny speck of light.
That speck is the Earth, seen from very, very, very
far away.

Read on.

npr.org

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In 1960, the world record for highest freefall was set by a
Frenchman named Michel Fournier as he stepped out of a
high altitude balloon from 102,800 feet and made history.
That is over 40,000 feet or over 7.5 miles above the
Armstrong line which is the point at which the atmospheric
pressure is so low that liquids begin to boil. For humans,
that spells death within minutes as your body fluids boil
off if your pressure suit tears or your face mask opens.
Fournier’s free fall lasted 4 minutes and 32 seconds and is
still the world record to this day. Fournier tried to break
his own record back in 1980 but to everyone’s amazement
his specialized gondola attached to the high altitude helium
balloon accidentally took off without him. How do you
explain that one?

Enter Felix Baumgartner. Austrian-born skydiving daredevil
who glided 22 miles across the English Channel with a 6-foot
wing strapped to his back after jumping from 33,000 feet
back in 2003. That must have been fun. Felix plans to shatter
the record by jumping from 120,000 feet up and well into the
stratosphere. The freefall should last for just over 5 minutes.
Fournier set the record for the USAF as part of testing for
flight crews that needed to bail out at high altitudes.
Baumgartner is doing it for the record.

Oh, and one last thing. Baumgartner plans to do this
sometime in 2010. He’d better hurry because Fournier
also plans to break the record this year too. This time
however he won’t be working for the USAF.

jetlib.com

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A fascinating video made for a TV commercial. Sit in an armchair
and take a ride up to the edge of space. As the telemetry beacon
dutifully chirps away you ascend to over 98,000 feet (over 17.5
miles high), before the balloon bursts into little pieces. Be sure to
look for the cloud of balloon particles left behind as the chair falls
back to earth just before the chair breaks into pieces. I imagine the
telemetry is being transmitted over an Amateur Radio frequency.
Really a very cool video.

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An extremely cool video of star tracks using timelapse digital
photagraphy. My hats off to JCMDI for excellent work.
Unfortunately they disallow video imbedding but it’s worth the
click to view his video.
Enjoy.

star spin

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It is more than likely that not very many people know that
Mt. Whiteny is the tallest mountain peak in the continental United
States. It is also likely that there are less people that know that
there is a three room cabin at the summit of Mt Whitney either.

In 1909 it took four weeks to build a three room cabin or hut on
Mt. Whitney. The cabin was built for astronomers to try and make
observations that might prove the existance of water on Mars. The
insurment they used was a 16 inch reflector. Today the cabin is
available to anyone that can make the 14,000 plus foot climb to
use for an over nighter or just a place to rest before they head back
down the trail.

It is interesting to note that there was no wood used in the cabin’s
construction and the cabin turned 100 years old last August. The
cabin is made out of steel, cement, stones and glass and nothing
more. In 1909, the director of the Lick Observatory told the New
York Times that the hut “should last 500 years.” That was quite a
statement.

I guess none of us will ever know if it survives another 400 years
or not just like no one could have ever guessed that there would
be anyone celebrating the 400th anniversary of Galileo’s
demonstration of the telescope last August either.

Dueling anniversaries, pretty remarkable.

via kd6hdx, good luck Dave.

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Nasa is going to crash some junk (a rocket motor) into the
lunar surface tomorrow morning. People with mid sized
telescopes (8” and greater?) should be able to see something
according to Nasa big brains. We shall see indeed. Perhaps
there will be some youtube video I can put up here to share
with everyone.

cnn.com

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The Artemis 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!

Good luck to ya.

asi.org

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One week ago today, Rob (KG6DKW), Rob’s cousin Tracy, Dave (KD6HDX),
and yours truly spent a killer evening under the stars at the Riverside
Amateur Astronomers GMARS site in Landers, CA. Yeah it was a bit warm
during the day but it cooled down very nicely and the night sky was perfectly
clear and dark due to the new moon. It was big fun as always. Try looking up
one of these nights, the sky is waiting..

This pic was shot by Dave about 1/2 hour before sunset.

BTW, it was Retro Night at GMARS on Saturday evening. That means no
electronic gear of any kind until midnight. No laptops, no CCD cameras, No
GOTO technology, no red LED flashlights… Just kidding on the red LED’s,
just push/pull to and look technology. It was kind of nice and different.

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Another neat rocket video at Lucerne Valley Dry Lake, this one by Greg Lyzenga.
Greg also recently spoke at a local astronomy club meeting about stars that are
occulted by asteroids. His talk was fascinating although most of you probably
wouldn’t agree. Anyway, watch the video, you’ll like it. These rocket meets are
what my friends and I like to attend every June and November for their big 3 day
events called RocStock. It’s a blast.

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What a remarkably extrordinary man, Yves Rossy – the Jet Man.
Watch the videos.

jet-man.com

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