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Tuesday, August 21st, 2007
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9:05 am - One more day of shuttle/ISS
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Endeavour is scheduled to land this afternoon. If the weather is not favorable, it may stay up an extra day. In that case, it will be visible again tonight. The pass over Boston rises 8:17 WNW, peak 8:20 at 50 degrees high in the SW, enters shadow 8:23 SE. The path will basically hit the bright star Arcturus at 8:19. Shuttle is trailing space station, and would be the second of the pair. If shuttle lands, these times still hold for space station alone. Also, here's a photo of the shuttle pass on Sunday night.
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| Monday, August 20th, 2007
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10:58 am - Shuttle/ISS from Boston (again)
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Tonight's Shuttle/ISS pass over Boston (the last before landing) is not as favorable as last night's pass. The time is 9:30 to 9:32 pm, low in the west to southwest (peak elevation 16 degrees). The pair will rise in the west, and enter the Earth's shadow in the southwest, very close to the moon - about 10 degrees to the upper-right of the moon. The best way to pick up shuttle/ISS is to scan the area about 30-45 degrees to the right of the moon, at the same elevation, looking for a pair of bright stars moving towards the moon. I'm guessing the two objects may be 30 seconds apart tonight. If landing stays on schedule, this will be Endeavour's last visible pass over Boston on this mission.
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| Sunday, August 19th, 2007
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8:03 pm - Info on ISS and shuttle tonight over Boston
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For those interested in seeing the shuttle and ISS tonight, the pass over Boston is at about 9:07 to 9:11 pm. Peak elevation is 50 degrees high in the southwest, the pair will move northwest-to-south and disappear in the shadow to the south. I have not been able to get information about the relative positions of the two - they'll be on the same track, but I don't know how far apart in time or distance along that track.
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| Saturday, June 23rd, 2007
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9:09 pm - Announcement: Photo of the Day
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I have started a photo of the day website and RSS feed. The feed is available through syndication on LJ at ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/syndicated.gif) bluebrook_potd. If you subscribe to this feed, there will be a single daily thumbnail added to your friends list. Most of my photographs are nature scenes, with an assortment of cats, astronomy, city, trains, and just plain unusual subjects.
UPDATE: My IP address changed last night (for the first time in three years), and until the DNS update propagates, this may appear offline for a short time ...
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| Thursday, June 21st, 2007
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1:38 pm - Report on Shuttle and Station
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Due to rain in Florida, the shuttle is staying in space an extra day. This means we'll have another evening overflight of Boston, with shuttle and station moving together across the night sky. The pass is 9:40 to 9:44 pm, fairly low (about 25 degrees elevation) in the southwest. It won't be as spectacular as last night's overhead flyover - but it should be easy to see. By chance, tonight's pass from Boston kind-of follows the ecliptic - it will pass just under Venus and Saturn low in the western sky, then pass just under the moon in the southwest, before entering the earth's shadow due south. I don't know how close the two spacecraft are today - last night they were somewhat over 10 seconds apart, following the same path across the sky, and I expect they will be farther apart tonight.
Here's a photo of last night's pass. The shuttle is trailing on the left, space station leading on the right, and (in the orientation of this photograph) they were moving left to right. The exposure was 10 seconds - the spacecraft appear as lines because they were moving across the sky during this exposure. (I'm not sure how well this shows up - it looks clear on one of my monitors, but on another the image is too dark.)
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| Wednesday, June 20th, 2007
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6:46 pm - Tonight from Boston - Space Station and Space Shuttle
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If you are near Massachusetts, have even a casual interest in space or astronomy, and the sky is clear tonight at 9:22 pm, this is definitely worth watching. The space shuttle has undocked from the space station, and is expected to return to Earth tomorrow (if the weather is favorable at the landing site). Tonight, the two spacecraft (station and shuttle) will be easily visible from Boston in the night sky. At 9:22 pm, they pass directly overhead - rising in the northwest two minutes earlier, passing overhead, and setting in the southeast. The whole event is quick, you won't see them for more than about 4 minutes total. Both objects will be very bright - brighter than any stars. If you glance at the sky at 9:22 pm, these will be the most obvious objects in the entire sky. I don't know how close together the two objects will be. Last night, they were a few degrees apart, which gave a kind of cat's eye appearance. They will probably be farther apart - but almost certainly both visible in the sky at the same time, following the same path, one after the other. Since they're so bright, you won't need to watch from a dark place, you don't need any special equipment, you don't need to know anything about astronomy. You can see two spacecraft flying over Boston, by just looking up at the right time.
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| Thursday, December 21st, 2006
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9:27 am - Tonight in the sky: Discovery and Space Station
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This evening, the shuttle Discovery and the Space Station will be visible around 5 pm. The weather forecast is calling for clear skies. Both satellites will follow similar tracks across the sky, several minutes apart. They will rise in the west, pass between the bright stars Vega and Deneb, reach peak elevation high in the northwest sky (55 degrees elevation), pass near the north star (Polaris), and enter the Earth's shadow low in the northeast. The shuttle is expected around 5:04 pm, the space station around 5:14 pm. The objects move quickly along their orbits, and each will be visible for no more than about 4 minutes, with perhaps 1 minute of good visibility. The forecast time for the shuttle is somewhat uncertain because it may make orbital adjustments in preparation for landing tomorrow - it's good to start watching a few minutes early, just in case. When visible, each satellite will be among the brightest objects in the sky, and could easily be mistaken for airplanes by people unaware of what's happening. These objects are shining by reflected sunlight - they're high enough that the sun is still visible from orbit, even though it will be dark on the ground. From the Heavens Above website, here are predictions and finder charts for Discovery and Space Station as seen from Boston tonight. These satellites will be visible from most locations in North America, so if you're elsewhere, you can change the location on the website to get predictions for your area.
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| Wednesday, December 6th, 2006
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2:25 am - Space shuttle launch Thursday - visible from Boston
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The next space shuttle launch is currently scheduled for 9:36 pm on Thursday. Night launches are visible all along the Atlantic coastline, as far north as Maine. The weather forecast in Boston calls for partly cloudy skies, and I'm going to try watching. The shuttle will look like a bright orange star moving along the southern to southeastern horizon, maximum elevation about 8 degrees. We can see main engine cutoff from here, 8 minutes after liftoff. Because the elevation is low, good viewing locations include baseball fields, lakes, and the tops of parking garages. The weather forecast in Florida calls for about a 60% chance of acceptable weather. If there are delays, the aunch time will change, and be somewhat earlier each evening. I'm going to try viewing the launch, and if anyone wants to join me, let me know ...
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| Monday, September 18th, 2006
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8:45 pm - Spam headline of the day ...
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I received a spam e-mail today with the following subject line:
Hi, O star
It's like someone calling out "hey, you" ... or "hi, guy with a camera" ... except here I was being called an "O star". And I thought that was kind of neat. Because it put me in the frame of mind of imagining that I was an O star.
O star (astronomy): A star of spectral type O, a massive, very hot blue star with a surface temperature of at least 35,000 K (63,000°F), and a spectrum in which lines of singly ionized helium are prominent.
Because, well, that's what "O star" means to me.
(And yes, I have a strange sense of humor.)
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| Thursday, August 10th, 2006
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1:12 pm - Been there, done that ... and always happy to do it again.
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| Wednesday, July 5th, 2006
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9:28 am - Watching the launch ...
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| Tuesday, July 4th, 2006
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9:16 pm - Launch!
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| Tuesday, June 27th, 2006
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2:02 am - I may be a meme sheep, but I'm a happy meme sheep
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 | You scored as XIX: The Sun. This is the happiest card in the deck. It is full of joy and optimism, everything is right with the world. We are as innocent children playing in the fields without care. The Sun brings success, well-being and happiness in all spheres - material, emotional, spiritual -wherever our desires lay.When this card appears in a Tarot spread it indicates success, joy and happiness. Obstacles will be overcome, goals achieved.When badly aspected, it can indicate a stagnation through over-indulgence, too much of a good thing.
XIX: The Sun | | 88% | XIII: Death | | 88% | VIII - Strength | | 81% | II - The High Priestess | | 75% | VI: The Lovers | | 69% | XI: Justice | | 69% | III - The Empress | | 69% | I - Magician | | 63% | X - Wheel of Fortune | | 63% | XVI: The Tower | | 63% | XV: The Devil | | 50% | IV - The Emperor | | 38% | 0 - The Fool | | 25% | </td>
Which Major Arcana Tarot Card Are You?
created with QuizFarm.com |
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| Sunday, April 30th, 2006
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9:39 pm - An interesting adventure at Best Buy ...
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This evening, I was at the Best Buy near Lechmere. One of the boom-boxes on display was playing rap music at full volume, and I found myself unable to concentrate on shopping with the ear-splitting racket, so I found the offending radio and shut it off. About 15 seconds later, one of the sales assistants came over from another section -- at first I thought she might ask if I needed assistance, but instead she just turned the boom-box back on, at full volume. I found this rude, so I went back to the radio to see if I could turn the volume down to tolerable levels. Despite about a minute of tinkering, I couldn't find a volume control. But in trying to turn down the volume, I accidentally adjusted the channel (it was some kind of satellite radio), and landed on Gregorian chants. Yay! So I continued shopping to the sound of a boom-box playing ear-splitting, full-volume Gregorian chants audible throughout Best Buy. This made me inexplicably happy. The sales clerk left the radio alone while I was shopping, but as I left the store, I saw her scurrying back towards the radio section.
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| Saturday, April 1st, 2006
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11:18 pm - Pleiades occultation
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To my great surprise, the moon's passage through the Pleiades star cluster was actually visible this evening.
When I left from playing board games at ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) mattlistener's home an hour before the event, getting a ride from beowabbit so I could get home quickly, I felt silly rushing home under overcast and rainy skies for astronomical purposes. But a clear patch sailed through at the right time, and almost the entire event was visible.
From Boston, three of the brightest stars in the Pleiades were covered by the moon. As the moon moved through space, the dark side of the moon (actually faintly visible by reflected earthlight) was leading, and stars would approach the dark edge and wink out. Electra went under first, visible but with hazy skies. Merope's and Alcyone's disappearances were both spectacular through a small telescope. I used timing predictions on IOTA's webpage to help anticipate the exact times when stars would disappear.
As anticipated, it was also pretty to see the moon through binoculars (or a wide-angle eyepiece on the telescope) when surrounded by lots of glittering stars.
Here is a set of photographs. The first was taken in twilight after Electra's disappearance. The next two were taken just before Merope slipped behind the edge of the moon (see the upper-left side of the moon's face). The last was taken while both Electra and Merope were behind the moon.
Just after Alcyone (the brightest star) disappeared, the sky went back to overcast.
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| Friday, March 31st, 2006
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8:55 pm - Update on Saturday evening astronomy ...
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The weather forecast is unfavorable. Boston is forecast to have 17% clear skies when the moon passes through the Pleiades starfield tomorrow (around sunset to 9 pm). Since travel is sometimes worthwhile to chase clear skies, I checked other cities in a 2-hour radius, but didn't turn up anything better than 27% clear. I'm still going to try watching, but without expectations of seeing anything interesting.
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| Tuesday, March 28th, 2006
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8:52 pm - Astronomy event - Moon to cross through Pleiades
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During the early evening of Saturday April 1, the moon will cross through the Pleiades star cluster, as seen from North America. This is the brightest star cluster that's close enough to the ecliptic to get covered by the moon. Such "occultations" are relatively rare, because the moon's path usually misses the star cluster, but we're in a period (that happens every 19 years) when the moon's orbit takes it through the Pleiades every month. Some of the events aren't visible from this side of the planet, and among the 2006 occultations visible from North America, this is probably the best because the moon will be a thin crescent (only 17% sunlit) in the evening sky. Since the moon will be thin, its brightness will be reduced, making it easier to see nearby stars. Future occultations of the Pleiades in 2006 include a 24% sunlit crescent moon on July 20 (probably low in the sky), and two events when the moon is nearly full on October 9 and December 3. But the April 1 event will probably be the most spectacular. The event will last about 1 or 2 hours, depending on how you define the passage (the star cluster doesn't have distinct edges). The moon moves by approximately its own diameter every hour, and with so many nearby stars, this will probably be an unusually good opportunity to see the moon moving through space.
If anyone is interested in watching this event, I expect to be watching with binoculars and a small telescope, and visitors are welcome. In the event of cloudy weather, it could be worth making a short drive to find clearer skies. (The current forecast is 30% cloudy with a 20% chance of rain.)
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| Sunday, March 12th, 2006
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1:17 pm - Einstein's Dreams
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A "staged reading" adapted from Alan Lightman's Einstein's Dreams will be performed Monday and Tuesday evenings (7:30 pm) in Cambridge. The original is a series of short, visually evocative fictional narratives describing snapshots of life within a wide variety of universes where time behaves differently from our everyday experience. Following the main event, there will be a "post-performance discussion" featuring Lightman and others (the other participants are different on each day). The events are free, limited seating, no reservations. Monday's event is at MIT, and Tuesday's is at Harvard Square. I found the book interesting, and am intending to attend one of these readings, more likely Tuesday (when the other panelist is Alan Guth). More information on the events from the performance group. If anyone is interested in planning a group outing on either day, let me know.
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| Thursday, February 9th, 2006
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9:56 pm - But how do they know?
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... to put this in context, my friends in college called me a squirrel, and gave me t-shirts with pictures of squirrels.
And there's an acorn in my backpack.
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| Saturday, January 28th, 2006
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11:45 pm - 20 years ago ...
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This is the 20th anniversary of the loss of Challenger. I have written before about my experiences on that cold January morning, but I felt that the date should be recognized. I was watching the launch from Melbourne, about 35 miles south of Cape Canaveral, and saw the explosion followed by debris raining out of the sky. I was 14 at the time, and being self-taught, I wasn't in a classroom. I saw it from a radio station where my father worked as an electrical engineer. Afterwards, the entire community was beset with a feeling of utter helplessness, it is impossible to describe. So many people had seen it with their own eyes, or worked close to the program, and we were all in shock. Most experiences of tragedy are personal, this one was collective.
The event would have been remarkable under any circumstances, but the timing was significant in my life. At some point in the teenage years, many people experience a sudden increase in awareness, and feel that they are (in some fundamental sense) the same person afterwards for the rest of their lives. This transition seems to usually arise from something simple; for example, I have a friend who experienced that transition when seeing a leaf fall. I went through that transition on January 20, 1986, when waking very early and having an apple. The loss of Challenger was eight days later, and in some sense, my soul was only eight days old at the time. It made an impression. Then in the following three months, I spent a lot of time alone, trying to understand both Challenger and my newfound self. This happened to overlap the time when Halley's Comet was in the predawn sky, and that gave me an excuse for hours of solitude while looking out at the universe. All in all, it was perhaps the most intense period of my life. Since Challenger happened at this time, and made such an impression, I feel that "years since the loss of Challenger" is a more important metric of my personal chronology than even "years since my birth". I am marking not only the loss of the shuttle, but the discovery of myself. The only other date that has left such a deep mark was 9/11.
In coming to terms with the loss of Challenger, I came to understand that what matters most is the skein, not the threads. The shuttle was launched as part of a major historical skein -- terrestrial life is moving out into the wider universe. That matters. I was fortunate to discover and recognize a skein with such profound meaning, and later to locate more. We live in an amazing world, and for all the tragedy of that day, it is important to understand that Challenger is part of an amazing story.
In following years, I worked as a journalist at the space center, and had the privilege of witnessing the program from close quarters. Nothing in my life compares to the overwhelming experience of walking into the Orbiter Processing Facility, and standing under the shuttle, a sea of tiles over my head so close that I could have reached out and touched them. I had seen the shuttle many times before, on TV and from a distance, and even close enough to read the name on the wing. But this is something different, only then could I get a sense of perspective and believe, in the reptile part of my brain, this is real.
One time, I had an opportunity to take photographs on the Orbiter Access Arm at launch pad 39-B. This is a walkway that goes between the launch pad and the shuttle's crew compartment (when a shuttle is on the pad), 195 feet above the ground, with a panoramic view over the space center and ocean. This is the last place where the astronauts stood before stepping aboard the Challenger. This photo was taken sometime between 1989-1993. (The door behind me is the entrance to the White Room, a sealed space on the access arm that serves as an airlock to keep the shuttle's crew compartment separated from the Florida air.)
To communicate the numnious, with memory of STS-51L.
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accomplished