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Astro Earth - September 2007

Stella Marvels

September 30th 2007 07:13
A close look at the "pilars of creation"

One image in particular that still has the WOW factor taken by the Hubble telescope of 'The Eagle Nebula photographed by NASAs Hubble Space Telescope this image taken 1995 continues to fascinate us mere mortals. The image features three iconic space pillars each are millions of kilometers in length where dubbed the 'Pillars of Creation'. This marvel of dust and birthplace of stars may exist no longer, in essence we are looking into a vast time machine recording events that have long since disappeared millennia ago.

Mosaic look at the Eagle Nebula

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Tails of a wondering Moon

September 27th 2007 05:58
Why does the Moon appear so large when it first rises?

Perhaps the most dramatic of all celestial illusions occurs when a seemingly giant Full Moon rises at dusk,( personally I look forward to seeing a full Moon


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Neptune

September 24th 2007 02:39
Neptune the eighth planet from the Sun. Perhaps not a good place to visit but it is somewhat Surreal. Neptune is one of the class of planets all of them beyond the asteroid belt known as gas giants; the others in this class are Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus. These planets are about 4 to 12 times greater in diameter than Earth. They have no solid surfaces but possess massive atmospheres that contain substantial amounts of hydrogen and helium with traces of other gases. Apart from Jupiter and Saturn Uranus and Neptune cannot be see with the naked eye.
1989, NASA's Voyager 2 became the first spacecraft to observe the planet Neptune, Passing about 4,950 kilometers (3,000 miles) above the planet.
Voyager 2, launched August 20, 1977, a journey spanning 12 years and several million kilometers later, the Voyager 2 spacecraft captured this view of Neptune's Great Dark Spot (left center), accompanied by bright, white clouds that undergo rapid changes in appearance. The spot is as large as the Earth and about one third the diameter of the Great Red Spot of Jupiter.
Neptune
Planet Neptune

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Saturn the ringed planet

September 16th 2007 06:11
I must admit Saturn is one of my popular planets to see trough the telescope. Even a moderate powered telescope or a pair of high power binoculars you can see the rings of Saturn although you cannot see much detail at low power but it is still a majestic experience. Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and is the second largest in the solar system next to Jupiter with an equatorial diameter of 119,300 kilometers (74,130 miles).
saturn
Saturn taken with theHubble telescope just above the rings a storm is in session


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Dammed if you do Dammed if you don't (LINK)

September 13th 2007 08:57
Picturesque Corin Dam


According to a US environmental agency the world's dams are contributing millions of tonnes of harm¬ful greenhouse gases and spur¬ring on global warming, according to a US environmental agency


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Venus Earth's Sister Planet

September 12th 2007 09:11
Planet Venus often referred to as the evening and morning “star” Earth’s sister planet. The diameter of Venus is 12,104 kilometres slightly less than Earth’s. The planet graces the morning and evening sky and it is a magnificent planet to look at but you wouldn’t want to live there. Venus is covered by a dense unbroken shell of clouds, composed mainly of sulphuric acid and carbon dioxide gas reflecting back an enormous amount of light.
Even under the most favourable viewing conditions, through a telescope Venus appears almost featureless and not very interesting to study. At certain seasonal times you can observe the cloud wisps appear brighter than the rest of the crescent, and a narrow strip along its entire limb appears brighter when the planet is in the crescent phase.
Venus rotates very slowly once every 243 days (Earth does this once every 24 hours


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The mystery surrounding Liberty Bell 7

September 12th 2007 06:12
July 21 1961 Astronaut Virgil I. (Gus) Grissom was strapped in Mercury-Redstone and ready to be the second American in space. Gus Grissom made the 16 minute sub orbital flight and landed in the Atlantic Ocean.
This particular space flight was enveloped in controversy after the near drowning of astronaut and the subsequent sinking of the capsule 15000 feet below the Atlantic Ocean some 3000 feet deeper than the Titanic. It was the only manned spacecraft that NASA never recovered. And remained missing for 38years until found and recovered in July1999.

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Beautiful Horse Head Nebula

September 9th 2007 05:12
The beautiful Horsehead Nebula, is perhaps my faviourite nebula and its situated in the constellation of Orion and is a part of the optical nebula IC434 and also known as Barnard 33.

Beautiful Horse Head Nebula
Beautiful Horse Head Nebula Situated in the constellation of Orion

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Apollo Moon Landings Fact or Fiction

September 7th 2007 10:14
Armstrong on the Moon
Armstrong on the Moon working on the LM

I am sorry to disappoint the conspiracy theorist out there but the Apollo Moon landing actually happened. And in a moment I will describe why.
Any debate is healthy as long as there is a balance between the pros and cons and you are able to back up your views with scientific facts and not say this or that didn’t happen just because I don’t believe it.
cresent view of Earth
A cresent Earth seen form the Moon

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Can we see Apollo hardware on the Moon?

September 5th 2007 06:41
W. Anders Earth image from the Moon
Image taken by W. Anders abourd Apollo 8 taken some 8 months before Apollo 11 with original framing


While it is possible to locate and observe the Apollo landing "sites," however it is not possible without the use of VLT (very large Telescope) using interferometer techniques whereby a number of telescope are joined together and the combined information gathered is used to produce an image and even then image details are not ideal. The structures of the Apollo lander and ancillary equipment are far too small to be resolved successfully, considering that the Apollo Lunar Lander was around 2 meters wide and the best image obtainable with a powerful telescope are objects of 100 meters in size


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Search for the Star of Bethlehem

September 3rd 2007 11:40
The search for a definitive answer to the question what was the Star of Bethlehem was it a comet an exploding star or an alignment of solar planets?. There has been much speculation whether it was one of the three events mentioned or perhaps a combination of all three events. In order to reach a reasonable conclusion we need to do some detective work we need to search ancient texts to see of any record or records of unusual star alignments comets or supernova.
Next we need to come up with a date for the birth of Jesus was between 3 B.C. and A.D. 1. Let’s also assume that the Star of Bethlehem could be observed by astrologers elsewhere in the world, and not just by the Magi who are known as “wise men” or “kings” but were actually priests who relied on astrology.
The Chinese where especially diligent in recording astronomical events. With modern computer programs it is relatively simple to calculate astronomical events of the past and future star and planetary positions


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Close encounter of the first kind?

September 3rd 2007 01:32
supernaova
A String of what looks like ‘Pearls’ surrounds an exploding star. The image of Supernova 1987A was taken in December 2006 with Hubble's Advanced Camera


No not really just an exploded star although it does resemble a UFO


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Looking at the far side of the Moon

September 2nd 2007 07:04
I must admit I am a complete Lunarphile ( or lunatic well that’s is another story) the Moon never fails to amaze me. It doesn't mat¬ter if it's a rising full moon bathed in golden light rising over the horizon or a close up telescopic view of its battered face I find the Moon ir¬resistible. Whenever, it's up in the sky, you can usually find me eagerly setting up my telescope in the hopes of seeing something new. And one of my favourite places to look is the far side of the Moon. I can almost hear you say: "Wait a minute everyone knows that you can only see one side of the Moon' that’s true but thanks to something called libration you can from time to time see a bit of the "far side that is, the hemisphere that’s hidden from our view. How's that possible?

Farside of the Moon
Apollo 16 image of the farside of the Moon

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