Blackholes and astrostuff

Last Post .......for a while

2009-10-01T16:15:00.006-05:00

So I was driving down a dark country road, I had just been out in the afternoon to scout out a location in the country to view a Moon and Pleiades conjunction. Always easier to find a new location during the day then head back out at night.

I was driving what seemed like forever looking for the turnoff that would get me to the place I needed to be but I couldn't find it, must have missed it, but how could I have, I thought there was a sign, did I drive by it? I started getting a little anxious, was I on the right road, the millage was off compared to what it was the first time out, drove what seemed like forever, pulled over and turned around and headed back towards safety and home. Wasn't more then just a few minutes and straight head a sign I was looking for pointed me in the right direction, wow talk about being relieved.

Took my images packed my stuff away and started home... true story, as I was heading home a car came towards me with his brights on, as I looked away I noticed in my rear view mirror the sign, all big, green and shiny and I thought to myself how on earth did I miss it?

Life can be that way sometimes, always easy to see clearly when looking back at stuff then it is when your in the middle of it. I will be away for awhile looking for my next signpost but this time not fretting about the destination. I want to thank all of you who have given me so much encouragement the last couple years with your kind comments, we've laughed, we've cried, mostly laughed though and I treasure every last moment we've shared.

I thought my latest Sunset clip would be fitting for my "Last Post...for a while". With every Sunset there is a Sunrise, and with it a new day with new hopes and aspirations...so no goodbyes...just good memories.

Daytime Moon and Zodiacal Light

2009-09-07T09:42:00.015-05:00

Wife: Whatcha up to?

Me: Looking at a daytime crescent Moon...just above that tree over there..see it?

Wife: .......No.

Me: Okay, look at the top of that pine over there and then a little to the left...see it?

Wife: .......No.

Me: Alright watch where I'm pointing, the Moon is sitting on top of my finger....see it?

Wife: .........If I say yes will you stop?

This conversation actually took place, the daytime crescent Moon can be a hard target to find but boy is it worth it, looks so majestic in the daytime.

If you're interested you can go here to see the current phase of the Moon and go here to find out where it is. I eventually set up the telescope and took some images for her to see later, which I don't think she did, but hey if she reads the post she will.

Just a reminder, in the early morning hours of this coming Thursday the Moon and Pleiades will be in conjunction, but you can enjoy the coupling late Wednesday evening, just grab some binocs, find the Moon then just off to the left will be the Pleiades, granted you won't have me to point them out to you but you should be good to go on your own.

Zodiacal Light ..credit The Worlds Of David Darling

Mark September 16th. on your calender for an awesome showing of the Slim Crescent Moon, Venus, and...and, the Zodiacal Light, triple whammy. The Zodiacal light will be putting on quite the show for a few days beyond the 16th., until the Moon gets brighter and takes away it's cool soft glow.

First you have to get up a couple hours before Sunrise, leave the glare of the city lights, and look to the east. You will see a faint triangle of light rising up from the horizon, very beautiful. The Zodiacal light is the result of Sunlight reflecting off dust particles left behind by comets and collisions between asteroids, best seen the beginning of fall before Sunrise in the east and spring after Sunset in the west. You may or may not know that the Zodiacal light is responsible for 60% of the skylight on a moonless night.

I'll leave you now with an animation of a Sunset I took a week ago.

10 Places to Get a Free Astronomy Education Online

2009-09-02T16:31:00.013-05:00

Old Shanghai Observatory Star Theater

Something special and new for you this this time round. Karen Schweitzer will be doing a guest post. Karen is the About.com guide to Business School. Karen also writes reviews of Online Colleges for OnlineColleges.net. There is some great stuff here, I have reviewed all the links Karen has provided and have actually printed some of the study materials down to read and incorporate in future posts, take it away Karen.

Whether you are a beginning astronomer or a professional who is interested in learning more about a specific topic, there are plenty of places to get a free astronomy education online. Here are ten courses, podcasts, encyclopedias, and other education resources to explore:

Introduction to Astronomy- The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) offers this free course to introduce self-learners to astronomy. The course includes readings, study materials, assignments, and quizzes with an answer key.

Elementary Astronomy- This free online course from the College of Eastern Utah focuses on the formation and existence of the sun, moon, planets, stars, and comets. The course includes 38 pages of informative handouts with illustrations.

Astronomy 101- The About.com Guide to Astronomy offers this free online course to self-learners who are interested in learning the basics of astronomy. The 10-lesson course includes an assignment, links to more in-depth information, a final quiz, and forums where students can ask questions. A certificate is awarded to those who finish the course.

Hands-On Astronomy- This free online astronomy course from MIT focuses on observing stars and planets. The course teaches students how to use small telescopes with lecture notes and other self-study materials.

Old Shanghai Observatory Star Theater

The Solar System- This free online course, also from MIT, provides an introduction to the solar system. Students learn about the formation and life of the solar system through assignments, fact sheets, and other course materials.

Essential Radio Astronomy- This advanced-level astronomy course was designed for students who already have some knowledge of astronomy. The text-based course includes problems sets and exams with solutions.

Weekly Astronomy Podcast- Astronomy magazine's free weekly podcast is an excellent educational resource for astronomy enthusiasts. Episodes include astronomy news, information on upcoming sky events, and much more.

Astronomy Network- The Astronomy Network is a social network for astronomers and astronomy enthusiasts. The site is a great place to learn more about astronomy online through discussions, blog posts, and videos.

World Of Astronomy- World of Astronomy is a comprehensive online encyclopedia of astronomy topics. Visitors can learn more about galactic astronomy, observational astronomy, the solar system, stars, and much more.

Ask An Astronomer- Volunteers at Cornell University's Astronomy Department offer this free public service to people around the world who are interested in astronomy. You can browse previously asked questions or submit your own question to be answered by one of the graduate students at Cornell.

Thank you Karen, with all the information out there it's nice to have an expert do the research on where to get stuff. I'll leave you now with an animation of the Greater Wild Goose Pagoda in Xi'an China, built in 652 it was used to hold sutras and figurines that were brought back from India by Xuanzang

Moon, Pleiades and the Perseids

2009-08-29T01:16:00.015-05:00

As far as I'm concerned there is nothing more pretty then a celestial gathering of the Moon and Pleiades.

We just had one August 14. Next groupings of the two are September 10, October 7, November 3, and December 1, do yourself a favor and look at the pairing on one of these nights using binoculars.

If you're so inclined just email me and I'll tell you where and when to look, you won't regret it. I think I can almost see the usefulness of tweeter in a case like this, might learn how to tweet to give you a reminder.

What can I say, the Perseid meteor shower this year was probably the best shower I've seen in years. I missed the peak night due to clouds but was lucky enough to get some clear skies the following night, I later found out that this particular shower had 3 peaks, which is unusual, this year we happened through 3 distinct concentrated dust trails left behind by comet Swift Tuttle. The tiny dust particles aka meteoroids create the meteors aka falling stars we see by burning up through friction as they enter our atmosphere.

Was treated to around 30 an hour and 5 fireballs, but the real cool thing was I didn't watch it alone. As I was pulling up to my regular viewing spot I noticed a car parked, as I got closer I noticed a couple people in it, a Mother and son. They had heard about the event, believe it or not, not through my blog but through a local radio station, they decided to venture out to see their first ever meteor shower, the looks on their faces when the first fireball came along was more exciting to me then the fireball itself. They had lots of questions and I did my best to answer them and at the end of the day they went away a little more in tune with the cosmos, a very special night for us all.

Next major shower are the Orionids, peaking October 21. Look to the South East at the Constellation Orion around 10:00 pm for the show to start.

Expect around 20 or so an hour. They are generally small, fast and have a slight color to them as in the above image I took last year. Notice the bright Moon, it took away a lot of the contrast so I was only able to spot the very bright meteors, not to worry, this year the Moon will be coming off it's new Moon stage and will have set by that time leaving us a dark sky in which to pick off even the faintest of meteors.

I'll leave you with an animation of a bamboo forest just outside of Shanghai.

Shanghai...The Solar Eclipse

2009-08-22T16:52:00.051-05:00

The night we arrived in Shanghai we were treated to an awesome lightning show. I took the image above from the balcony of my hotel suite the eve of the Total Solar Eclipse, with a grim weather forecast for eclipse day my thought was if I wasn't going to be imaging the eclipse, I might as well get some lightning shots.

Didn't get much sleep, up at 4:00 am organizing my equipment, then at t-90 minutes and counting to the eclipse I ventured out to find a spot I would be viewing it from. The tour organizers had paid extra for us to have a place on the hotel terrace to view the event, but after I walked along the China Sea beach that morning, I knew this was the place for me, ended up being a great decision.

Met all kinds of people from different countries, was filmed by a Beijing TV crew and saw lots of ghost like Junk ships on the China Sea , they seemed to disappear then reappear from behind pockets of mist and smog, very creepy cool , and the people,

People in awe,

Amazed people,

Cheering people.

Just before the eclipse started the clouds broke a little, enough so that we were able to view a partial eclipse, everybody cheered.

Our tour guide was kind enough to let me use his phone, I regularly called updates of the event into the CNN live crew. A CNN producer read my blog about me getting my first passport just to go see the eclipse in China. She emailed me and asked if I wanted to do an interview as well as do regular call ins to update CNN of the progress of the eclipse in Shanghai, I said sure, who wouldn't,very cool.

Saw it get dark,

Darker,

Darkest......... all within a matter of minutes. So let me sum this up for you. I am in Shanghai on the China Sea beach, watching ghostly Junks float by, with people all around me watching my every move, on the phone with a producer from CNN giving her live updates on the Solar Eclipse I was viewing and imaging, oh and earlier was filmed by a Beijing TV crew for their nightly news... I remember thinking at the time that even my dreams don't get this good.

Just after totality it started to rain and some friends from my tour group helped me carry my equipment to the hotel, it was over , at least for us in Shanghai, an experience I will never forget and even to this day can't believe I was actually a part of.

The next day we visited the Old Shanghai Astronomical Observatory.

Our last major event on the tour was a visit to the 88th floor, the observation deck of the Jin Mao Tower, what a view of Shanghai,

All good things must come to an end but the memories and experiences I have gathered will never fade away, I took more then 1200 images and 6 hours of video to make sure they don't. Taking this trip to China was so not like me, being a claustrophobic fear of flying introvert, just goes to show you that fears can be conquered....... with the want and a lot of willpower.

I even learned a few words in Chinese, one phrase I remember is "Xie xie" pronounced "Sheh sheh" in English, means "Thank you", I use it when ever I buy Chinese food now, whenever I use the phrase the surprised look I get from the person behind the counter, and then they started talking back to me in Chinese, then I explained I don't know any other words, they look confused, I explain about my trip, they smile and I really got to stop doing that, but it is fun.

I look back on this adventure with fond memories, the kindness of the Chinese people, their vast and rich history, seeing the great Wall for the first time from a plane, touching and smelling the clay that the Terra-Cotta army was made from, all something one doesn't soon forget.

I'll leave you with a video I took from the observation floor of the Jin Mao Tower. Note that at 1:20 into the video I cut in a Mission Impossible III scene, in the bottom of the four tower images I took above, the tall round building and the slanted roof building next to it are involved.

Two New NGC Premieres, Ride Of a Lifetime and Gumby

2009-08-18T15:15:00.037-05:00

I'm going to take another break before I wrap up my China adventures to tell you of a couple of National Geographic Channel premieres coming this Sunday August 23rd at 9 and 10 pm EDT.

First off at 9:00 pm EDT Alien Earths. Join a team of astronomers and leading scientists in the search for alien earths, another place we could call home. So far they have discovered around 350 planets, all of which you wouldn't want to live on. too hot, too cold, oceans filled with gas ect. With the aid of CGI animations you'll journey to these unbelievably strange and odd worlds, the stuff of sci fi. You'll also see what they are doing to hunt for worlds much like our own using Kepler, the first spacecraft of it's type able to discover earth size and smaller planets capable of supporting life as we know it. Of all the strange planets and oddities you'll discover my favorite is the Planemo, a poor little planet that has been thrown out of it's solar system into space. It wanders in the darkness of space, looking for a new home. I'm surprised no sci fi shows or books have been done using the Planemo as a story line, work with me on this one people.

A little planet gets the boot from it's solar system through a freak of gravity of a larger planet, gets captured by another system, maybe even a double star system, the planet develops a highly intelligent life form capable of light speed and they hear through the space grapevine a planet is being invaded by beings from the same planet that jostled them out of their solar system millions of years before, the planet being invaded is Earth. They come, rid us of the invading aliens and give us the technology to build holodecks.

Next at 10:00 pm EDT Hawking's Universe. Stephen Hawking is probably one of the most famous scientists in the word and you'll learn a little of his early life before he was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's Disease, meet his daughter, find out some of his major contributions to the field of astrophysics and learn of his quest to find the theory of everything. His goal in life, and I quote, "My goal is simple, it is the complete understanding of the universe, why it exists the way it is and why it exists at all". Hawking first put forth the theory that black holes are not completely black, that they give off radiation and are slowly evaporating through radiation, what we call "Hawking Radiation", named after him. His theory says that just before it goes into nothingness it gives off energy, depending on the size of the black hole, unspeakable energy, is this what caused the Big Bang? The preview dvds I received look real good, something you won't want to miss, again this Sunday starting at 9:00 pm EDT. Unfortunately these programs are only available in the US. Previous NGC shows I have mentioned here are slowly making their way to Canada through the Canadian Discovery HD Channel and the Canadian NGC, if you live in Canada just keep an eye open for them on those channels.

Now, I'd like to leave you with a video I took on my adventure in China, it is a ride on the Maglev, the worlds fastest railway in commercial use. We took the Maglev from the financial district in Shanghai to Shanghai's Pudong Airport, WOW, what a blast!! The 30 km distance took less then 7 minutes to cover, top speed 431 km and hour. Note at five and a half minutes into the ride a Maglev going in the opposite direction passes within feet of us scaring the crap out of me and a traveling partner, also notice at seven and a half minutes into the ride you'll see the Shanghai's 2010 World Expo mascot "Haibao". I'm thinking he looks a lot like Gumby, everybody thought I was crazy, especially the people that asked what a Gumby was, what do you think?

Real Gumby.

Haibao(Gumby wannabe).

The Terra-Cotta Army

2009-08-11T17:16:00.029-05:00

Often referred to as the eighth wonder of the world the Terra-Cotta Army, dating back to 210 BC was built to help the first Emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang rule in the afterlife.

It is estimated that more then 700,000 laborers and craftsmen manufactured the estimated 9,000 soldiers, chariots and horses.

So far 3 main pits have been discovered; Pit 1 and the largest, the top 2 images above, contains the main army; Pit 2 the next largest and the image above contained specialized troops such as archers.

Pit 3 , the smallest of the three was the troop command center.

The army was discovered by some local farmers digging for water back in 1974 when they came across some pottery pieces, the rest is history. For a donation you can get a founding farmer to, (get it, founding farmer, just made that up right now), sign your Terra-Cotta Army book and then they will allow you to take their picture as well, one of the farmers is signing my book in the image above, very cool.

Before the Terra-Cotta Army there was a small village and Pomegranate growing fields. The villagers have all been relocated and a small tourist town now occupies the land.

The museum is just outside of Xi'an (pronounced she anne) China and receives 2 million tourists and visitors annually, the Queen Of England, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, and me to name a few.

Our tour guide told us a couple interesting tidbits of info, a local person dressed up like a warrior and hid down amongst the figures, he managed to pull it off for quite awhile until someone saw him move and he was arrested, also apparently they had put a halt to the excavating because the warriors after being restored were losing their color, they have now figured out how to prevent that from happening and had just started to excavate a month before I arrived.

Besides soldiers, chariots and horses a large assortment of real armor, weapons, rare animal and bird figures and various types of pottery have been uncovered, as well as mass burial graves.

To keep the tomb a secret hundreds of officials and craftsmen involved in it's construction were buried alive with the dead Emperor. Just to the southwest of the mausoleum 42 mass graves have been uncovered, a lot of good the burying alive thing did, just 5 years after the Emperor's death General Xiang and his army looted and burned the Emperor's tomb destroying the Terra-Cotta Army.

The figures were created using molds and local clay heated to between 950 and 1050 degrees Celsius. The heads were made with 2 piece molds with the eyes, ears, mouth and hair added after to give each warrior their own individual look, actually there are some experts that say that real soldiers were used as models. I was so fascinated with that idea that I took a bunch of images using my telephoto lens, and they are all different, at least the images I collected, just think, when you are looking at the images below you could be looking into the face of someone that was an actual warrior back in the day!

I'll leave you with a video I took of the unforgettable event, notice at the beginning of the video I was told no pictures, still you can see the farmer signing some books before I turned off the camera, once inside the pits I was allowed to image again, but boy was it packed, had to push and shove my way into the front area, you can see where I almost lost my footing on a slope, all the area I could find to take pictures at the time, was also very hot, reached 40 c that day and wasn't much cooler in the building, very humid, you could smell the clay, added to the whole adventure.

Also look to the North East after darkness falls tonight , just under the W of Cassiopeia for the peak of the Perseid Meteor shower, could see as high as 40 meteors an hour, I'll be out trying to image them, should be a fairly good show.

Tank Man and The "F" Word

2009-08-06T12:02:00.045-05:00

My third day in China was very busy. We visited the Temple of Heaven, Tiananmen Square, The Forbidden City and Kunming Lake. Let me see, so far I have been frisked by a security guard in Vancouver, saw 2 people being whisked away in the Beijing airport to awaiting medical tents and medical personnel, got lost in the Beijing airport, was contacted by CNN for an interview, conquered my fear of flying and climbed the Great Wall of China, what a frigging adventure!!!

Our first stop was the gardens surrounding The Temple Of Heaven. The Temple of Heaven was constructed from 1406 to 1420 and visited annually by Emperors during the Ming and Qing dynasties to pray for good harvests. Music and activities were everywhere.

I love traditional Chinese music, love the tones and shapes of their instruments, I recorded some musical shorts on video and posted it at the end of this post.

Along with the music there was Chinese Shuttlecock,

and Tai Chi going on.

One of my goals, besides viewing the eclipse, climbing the Great wall, oh yeah and seeing the Terra Cotta Warriors was to get me and a friend fake Rolex Watches, as well as pick me up a "I Climbed The Great Wall" t shirt, well I got my shirt the day before and the Rolex watches that day and had my first experience with the local street vendors, they are everywhere and there are some good deals to be had if you know how to barter.

Since you can't actually go inside the Temple I leaned over the railing to get a shot of the beautiful ceiling work.

After the temple it was off to Tiananmen Square, the largest urban square in the world.

I gotta say our tour guide was very knowledgeable, a walking wikipedia on the history of Beijing, mention anything he always had a answer that usually went on and on and on so much so my brain started to hurt with way too much information,Temple this, Dynasty that, but mention..."Tank Man"..................................................................................................................................
......................................................................ribbit............................................................., silence fell, now from what I've been told, there have been major advancements in the personal freedoms and choices of the Chinese peoples over the last several years but there is still one major topic or taboo that no one is allowed to talk about and that is the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989.

Our tour guide either skirted or changed the subject every time I brought it up, there is no information on the subject over there, for some strange reason I thought there would be an X marking the spot or some kind of monument, seems the government is trying to either delete or re-write that part of their history. When I asked "can you at least point to the approximate area where it happened?" he hesitated then slowly pointed straight ahead down by the trees and and lamp posts on the image below. The avenue it occurred on, and you can see cars in the image below traveling on it is called Chang'an, it runs between Tiananmen Square and the entrance to the Forbidden City. Even today Freight trucks are not allowed to use the road and no commercial advertising is allowed within 100 metres of the street.

The government blocked twitter, blogger and even hotmail due to the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square protests, control the information flow, control the people.

That night I was watching the BBC news in my hotel room, they were reporting on a group of teenage students that were just quarantined at the Beijing Hospital, the reporter was saying the hospital was taking good care of them and that they were all having a great time, as he was reporting the camera was zooming in on the group about 30 or so yards away from the camera, behind a shoulder length chain link fence they were waving and smiling away to the reporters......., just kind of seemed a little staged, maybe not, maybe they were having a great time....behind the chain link fence.

This whole H1N1 thing brings up another question, the "F" word, what do the locals do if they feel a fever coming on? Do they sweat it out in hopes it's nothing too serious or do they pack their bags and expect to be away for a couple weeks? I asked the guide about this as well, he just laughed and said no problem, stay at home til better. The person sitting next to me on the plane was heading to Beijing from Vancouver to visit his family. I asked him how he felt about the virus and the quarantine, he said, China was a big place , lots of people and the government had to be careful.... that was it, then he went back to playing video games, he brought his laptop and was playing some cool space shooting game, and was actually very good, I dropped some hints about taking a turn, I even fixed his adapter for him so he could run it off the plane's electricity and said things like "cool game", and "how many lives do you have left", "I have a PS3" but he didn't take the hints, so I went back to watching "The Man From Planet X".

From Tiananmen square we entered The Forbidden City, 980 buildings and 8,700 rooms.
The Forbidden City was the imperial palace to the Ming and Qing dynasties, was built between 1406 and 1420 and was called forbidden because no one was allowed to enter or leave without the Emperor's permission. Such a huge place with magnificent buildings, again we did a lot of walking around, they kept it very clean, as we were waiting the hour it took for our guide to get through the lines to get tickets I got a picture of a cleaner and his cool witch type broom.

Kunming lake and the Summer Palace were our last stops that day. Once a summer resort for Empress Dowager Cixi, (Qing Dynasty) it is now a beautiful resort and lake for all to enjoy.

We also took a boat ride across the lake.

and saw some kites.

I'll leave you now with a video of some musical shorts, first a musical selection from the Tang Dynasty show I saw in Xian, then a quick change mask artist, some music from the park, a short of a singer from our Beijing hotel lobby and to end it off an actor from a play I saw, "The Legend Of Kung Fu" hitting a fish drum, fish never close their eyes, well they can't, therefore they are a symbol to monks to remain ever vigilant like them, next stop the Terracotta Warriors.

The Great Wall Of China

2009-08-02T09:42:00.015-05:00

"He who has not climbed the Great Wall is not a true man" Mao Zedong

Well it's official......I am now a true man....for I have climbed the Great Wall Of China, and what an experience!!!!!

The building of sections of the great wall started way back in the 7th century BC, built by individual states to protect their borders from other would be invading peoples, it wasn't until the first emperor of China, Qin (pronounced chin, and where China got it's name) Shi Huang decided to combine all the walls in 221 BC in an effort to keep out invading Xiongnu from the north. His General Meng Tian used a labour force of three hundread thousand soldiers, as well as criminals, civil servants and conscripts to combine the individual walls and to build additional.

The wall is now around 8,800 km long. Built between the 7th century BC and the 16th century AD, it required a workforce of millions and at it's peak during the Ming Dynasty was guarded by a million soldiers.

Our tour group was taken to the Badaling portion of the wall, just north of Beijing, Bada means giving access to every direction, it was apparently a very strategic point in the wall. First constructed in 1505 by the Ming Dynasty, it is 7.8 meters high and is wide enough for 10 people to walk along abreast or 5 horses or 5 people with umbrellas as it was raining as we were touring.

Try to sneak through the small guard house openings with a bunch of other people with umbrellas, actually had my umbrella ripped from my hand by a couple people's umbrellas as they were squeezing by me, so here I was holding a camcorder in one hand a camera wrapped around my neck, a telephoto lens in my side pocket chasing down my umbrella.... I don't even like or use umbrellas, but had to keep the rain off my lens somehow, hard to keep track of everything and still take pictures of the momentous occasion.

I would stop every once in a while to touch and smell the wall and look through the tiny peepholes and imagined how it would have been back then fending off invading forces. The majesty and immenseness of the wall, what a feat of engineering to build such a landmark, the loss of life just in building the wall reaching into the millions, many were buried in the wall itself.

It finally stopped raining and left cool atmospheric clouds cutting across the distant wall and landscape, very cool effect. You notice how the wall seems to wind across the hills forever like a dragon. Dragons mean a lot to the Chinese people. A Dragon is a power of good. They fend off evil spirits, bring prosperity, good fortune and symbolise greatness, goodness and many blessings.

One thing you notice real fast is you do a lot of climbing, to get to the top of the section we were on takes a little under an hour, good thing it was cooler then it would have been if not for the rain, you get a real work out, but looking down from the top is an experience you will never forget. One thing I did is take a video of a walkthrough of the Great wall, just to give you an idea of the sights and sounds I experienced that day

Time went by way too fast before you knew it we were down and done and heading off to our next adventure on the tour, but all good things must come to an end, as did the military usefulness of the wall, it had it's time but the high cost of manning and maintaining it became too much, along with internal power struggles. A border General unhappy with his superiors let in the Manchus in 1644 to invade Beijing, overthrow the short lived Shun Dynasty and starting the Qing Dynasty.

The Galileoscopes Have Arrived

2009-07-30T03:04:00.008-05:00

I am going to take a break from my China stories to bring you all an important announcement, I got my Galileoscopes in today and I gotta say I'm quite impressed. The image above was taken with my Canon 40D attached to the scope, not bad for a fifteen dollar investment.

I blogged about the scope once before here and said that to celebrate my daughter's wedding I would be giving 3 away. What I did is put the names on a piece of paper, threw them all up in the air and then just picked three off the floor at random, bet you never thought of that , if nothing else I'm original, more on the winners later.

First thing you notice about the scope is, that it is a kit , you have to put it together, lots of pieces, having said that it is not too hard to figure out, it comes with instructions even though I would have liked to have seen them more clear and detailed, like numbering all the parts at the start and then listing the number on the assembled drawing, I was left with a couple O rings that I still don't know where they fit, oh well that happens a lot to me and instructions.

This is critical... the foam enclosed objective lens, that is your main lens that fits in the front of the scope also contains your small lenses for your eyepieces. After I had put the scope together I started to put together the eyepieces and it was explaining how to assemble them but I couldn't find the lenses, looked high and low, went through all my packaging and bags then after what seemed like forever I thought I would check out the foam the objective lens came in, and sure enough they were there, they are so small and sandwiched between two pieces of thin foam taped to the side of the main objective foam that they got lost in the shuffle.

After I got the scope together which takes about fifteen minutes to a half an hour, I pointed it at the Moon, very good detail, again this only cost fifteen bucks, can't go wrong with that kind of investment, plus the learning experience you'll get while putting it together, again well worth the money and time spent.

I also pointed it at Jupiter and was able to see great detail and its four brightest moons even from my backyard. You will need to invest in a tripod, doesn't come with, I used my camera tripod to mount the telescope which worked very well. Overall a great buy and sure to increase the public's awareness and appreciation of the night sky, see what Galileo saw, he had the same type and size of scope. If you head over to the Galileoscope web site they have some cool downloads like observing and optics activity guides, bonus.

And now for the winners:

Congratulations to all the winners,I know you will enjoy and put to good use this little scope.

I'll leave you now with a instructional video on how to put the Galileoscope together, something I probably should have watched.

Darkness Falls On Shanghai

2009-07-26T22:14:00.017-05:00

I'm back and what an experience visiting China has been. Initially I decided to go because of the Solar eclipse, it didn't take long before I was forgetting what the main focus was as well as what it was slowly becoming, a sensory delight.

Touching the Great Wall Of China, smelling incense in the Jade Buddha Temple, walking in the Forbidden City seeing up close and personal the Terra -Cotta Warriors and hearing the chatter of a thousand voices in Tiananmen Square on a Saturday. I took the above image while our tour driver was taking a shortcut down the back-roads where the common people live, shot through the window, says a lot, a part of China we never toured but through the lens I was able to capture a moment in time.

Coming into China is an eyeopener. Right off the plane you follow signs that have arrows and say baggage, they basically just guide you to numerous checkpoints where you will be asked a series of questions and asked to show your passport, oh, and walk through a temperature sensor. Not once but twice the person right in front of me was whisked away to a waiting tent and to what looked like health officials, probably checking for signs of the H1N1 virus. She was with a group of teenagers, they reassured her they would wait, I never saw the group from then on.

There are numerous guards that line "baggage lane",(as I like to call it). they're just off to the side, and everyone is wearing protective masks, very intimidating to say the least. At the final checkpoint, there was a yellow line where you had to stop before you proceeded through to be asked the same questions and once again show your passport and go through another temperature sensor, I guess I was a little over the yellow line and a security/police/army type scary guy with a mask rushes in and shouts something in Chinese and pushes me back.......well I didn't know whether to shit, salute, or go into shock, come to think of it I probably did a little of each, now don't forget I had just come off an eleven hour fight from Vancouver, I wasn't a happy camper or feeling 100%, couple that with the fact that I was one of the lucky ones to be selected for a pat down at the Vancouver International Airport Security Check-In , and I mean pat down, hands down the back and front of my pants, told to assume the position and checked again, at least he thanked me for my cooperation.

After the final checkpoint you see another baggage sign with an arrow pointing to an escalator, you take this down, not to your waiting baggage but to a train station where you wait for a train that will take you to another building to finally get your baggage, congrats you pass and don't go to quarantine.

Then there is the matter of blocked social networking sites, stuff we take for granted like blogger and twitter. Another reminder that Bob wasn't in Kansas anymore. Of course this story has a happy ending , I made it home alive and well, the planes didn't crash and burn, I no longer have a fear of flying and I had a most excellent adventure. I even got lost in Shanghai while traveling down some back roads, finally got my bearings and made it back to the hotel.... again adding to the adventure.

I have lots of stories waiting to be told. I took over 1,200 images and 6 hours of video, but for now I will leave you with a video I took of the blackness that fell on Shanghai during the Total Solar Eclipse, we didn't get to see actual totality but we did experience the premature night fall which was quite the experience in itself.

Total Solar Eclipse In Shanghai (well, not quite total)

2009-07-22T09:27:00.005-05:00

I have heard from Bob again. He got a couple of good Partial Eclipse images before it clouded over.

Here is part of the email he wrote to me -

"Colin it has been amazing here. So many stories to tell and pics to show but internet time is hard to get and I'm very busy and of course I can't get blogger here. At least we weren't totally blocked out with clouds and was able to get some partial eclipse pics before it totally clouded over, very super cool, and the sky went black like night for 5 minutes. Had people lined up to see my images and then thanking me. Chinese people are very polite, met lots of interesting people during the eclipse. I got a super video of the darkness and the reaction of the people around me when it happened which I will post when I get home."

Bob made the CNN website. He was a contact person in Shanghai and called them every 30 minutes or so to let them know how it was going. Here is a link to the CNN article. The CNN producer saw his website and emailed him to see if he'd be interested in doing an interview. How could he refuse?

"I have lots of stories and images to share when I get back, an experience of a lifetime! Bob"

On behalf of Bob, take care everyone, Astro-Nuts

Bob has landed in China

2009-07-17T13:24:00.005-05:00

Hi everyone. My name is Colin (better known as Astro-Nuts). Bob and I try to get out with our cameras frequently. We went meteorite hunting as well. Anyway, enough about me. After all, this is Bob's blog. Bob asked me to post for him as he is unable to from China. I will try to keep you updated as I hear from him. Here is part of an email he sent me yesterday -

"I can't do posting, things we take for granted like social networking can't do in china, can't even bring up my blog. Had to pinch myself to see if i was dreaming when walking on the Great Wall. I took a video of a small walk through which I will post when I get back, so much to see and do, only had a couple hours sleep since I arrived. The whole reason i came to China was for the Total Solar Eclipse....that has now become secondary, sure I hope it is clear skies, but the whole experience of being in China is really quite remarkable and worth the trip in itself.

Bob"

New Sun Spots and New National Geographic Channel Premier, "Living On The Moon"

2009-07-09T07:09:00.014-05:00

Finally our sun seems to be coming back to life. The sun goes through an 11 year cycle where it waxes and wanes with solar activity. The sun has been stuck in the waning phase for an extended period and up until a month or so ago solar physicists didn't really know why.

Seems a slower then usual moving solar jet stream associated with sunspot production thousands of miles below the sun's surface has finally reached a critical 22 degree latitude of the sun and with it new cycle sunspots.

Got a call from Spaceweather PHONE last Sunday, July 5 informing me of a huge Sunspot taking place and got lucky with a break in the clouds to capture some of the solar action.

The image above is active region 1024 starting to disappear by July 6. They expect upwards of 90 sunspots to occur daily at solar maximum sometime in 2013.

National Geographic Channel is celebrating the 40 th. anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing with a new premier,
"Living On The Moon". The show will be aired Sunday July 19, 9 pm EDT, a day before the actual anniversary of July 20.

See inside NASA's Constellation program which will take 4 astronauts to the Moon's south pole as early as 2020, only this time round our long term goal is to stay and set up base.

Using 3D animations you'll watch as the initial lonely outpost expands to a lunar city by 2050 and a tourist resort by the middle of the twenty first century.

To be able to survive and flourish on the moon we'll have to harness the lunar resources from turning moon rock into water to eventually exporting lunar produced solar energy to our earth, very interesting concepts and one of NGC's best premiers.

This will be my last post before I leave for China next Wednesday. I will post if I am able, if not see you when I get back July 28. I'll leave you now with a video of the Constellation program from launch to splashdown.

UFO In China

2009-07-03T12:57:00.009-05:00

A funny thing happened to me on the way to my daughter's wedding, well the morning there of to be more precise. I was out at 3:00 am June 20 to try and capture a Lunar, Venus and Mars conjunction, of course as usual clouds got in the way, but I got the coolest looking lens flare I'd ever seen, looked like a UFO. Think of the possibilities!!

Voila..... using photoshop's blending feature and a few keystrokes you have a distant alien planet with a UFO appearing out of the glare of one of it's Suns, at least that's what I see. I've been keeping myself amused doing different combos with some of my existing images and my new favorite UFO pic, doesn't take much for me to be amused.

Brings me to my next point, you know I'll be leaving for China a week from this coming Wednesday and you can bet there will be some cool combos to be had, how bout a UFO over the Great Wall, or a UFO in Tiananmen Square, where will it show up?

Email me where you believe it will show up and if you are right or the closest to the first combo I publish, you will get one of the Galileoscopes I will be giving away, ( I won't look at the emails till after I publish my combo). If you enter this email contest and don't win, no worries, your name will still be put in the draw for one of the other two I will be giving away.

Eleven days and twenty one hours as of this writing to my leaving on a jet plane to China to view the Total Solar Eclipse of July 22 2009. It is getting more official, I just got my tour package in the mail, and....and...... I got a cool name tag, always wanted one of them.

I will probably post one more time before I leave and then while I am there I will try to post as often as possible just to prove I'm actually there, believe it or not I'm still getting the odd naysayer that asks me if I'm really going or if I have chickened out yet.

I have been doing a lot of research on the weather conditions over in China right now and came across the above Satellite image through NASA's Earth Observatory, if you are concerned with global climate change you should check it out. It's mission, "To share with the public the images, stories and discoveries about climate and the environment that emerge from NASA's research, including it's satellite missions, in the field research and climate models". The image above shows a major tropical storm that occurred last week off mainland China producing 8 casualties and 11 people missing. Other then that it has been mostly sunny and hot in Shanghai, where I will be viewing the eclipse from, here's hoping it stays that way.

I'll leave you now with one of my UFO combos animated, hey I got a million of them, even got a cool combo with a UFO over my cat's head.

Arrival

2009-06-26T16:50:00.019-05:00

Just got my latest edition of Meteorite Magazine and there were some interesting facts in it about the Buzzard Coulee Meteorite, so I thought I would add some of my interesting Microscopic meteorite pics to the fold to better illustrate what I'd like say in this post.

You may know that back on November 20 of last year a 10 tonne meteoroid collided with our Earth's atmosphere over Saskatchewan creating temperatures as hot as the Sun, exploding with the force of 300 tonnes of TNT and witnessed by 1000's from British Columbia to Manitoba, what we have come to know as the Buzzard Coulee Meteorite. What you may not know is that 12 other fireballs were spotted across the globe that same night from Florida to Scotland.........coincidence?........perhaps, but how do you explain the above suspicious looking alien monitoring device thingy with an arrow, probably pointing to a landing site?

On the opposite side of the suspect bug,(image above), was another suspicious looking item, kinda like a telecommunication Fiber Optic strand, image below.

Or how bout the microscopic image below of Martian Meteorite NWA 4925, hey look at where it joins the meteorite, such fine alien craftsmanship.

Or how bout the image below , a 2 parter of another suspect fiber from Martian Meteorite DAG 476. People..... look at it, it's in the shape of an ear, those crazy Martians, they're messing with us, leaving all kinds of clues thinking no one is going to be wacky enough to figure them out.

When I first opened up the package of my Buzzard Coulee meteorite I commented on a post it smelt like space....the more I think of it , it may have smelt like burnt electronics....interesting.

Finally the microscopic image above of Martian meteorite LA 002. This has all been in fun, thought I better add that since in real life people don't know if I'm joking or not, I am joking around, just in case you think I'm nuts, well yes I am, but I really don't believe that is a cucumber above.

Apparently I wasn't the only person to smell the meteorite, there were 3 other reported incidences of odd smells, but during the fall, also one reported case of heat. Someone felt heat on the side of their face and then turned in the direction of the heat to catch the fireball.

Lots of reports of sounds of the fireball crashing through our atmosphere, as far away as Avonlea Saskatchewan, 500km away from the crash site. People witnessing the sonic boom and light show actually went out looking for the fall site only to be disappointed to find the fall was hundreds of kilometers away.

Lastly I'd like to leave you with an animation of a place I had lunch at while searching for meteorites. I had a moment, stopping and taking it all in, that I was lucky enough to be searching for rocks from space. As I was looking around I noticed a meteorite, just sitting there a few yards away, right in an area the whole search team had just been a few hours before. I got up and walked further only to find yet another meteorite. It is a place I will remember for the rest of my life.

Next Stop, China

2009-06-21T19:47:00.011-05:00

Now that my daughter's wedding is complete, my next major point of focus will be the final preparations for my Total Solar Eclipse tour of China, only 23 days away.

I should mention here that the wedding was a complete success, a good time was had by all and everything went like clockwork, boils down to good organization and the tons of work my wife put into it, even picking out my suit and tie. Even the weather co-operated, if my trip to China goes the same way I'll be a happy camper.

The major contributing factor to a good trip will of course be the weather, if cloudy skies, no see eclipse, having said that even with no Solar Eclipse I will still be in China, what a remarkable place to visit, so rich in history and tons of cool things to do and see.

I have bought lots of books on China since first deciding on doing the tour and have learned a lot about this fascinating place, such as;

-China's climate ranges from sub-arctic in the north to tropical in the south.

-China straddles 5 time zones but has adopted UTC, (Coordinated Universal Time), which is Greenwich Mean Time + 8 hours.

-China has the world's oldest continuous civilization dating back 8,000 years.

-China has the longest continuously used written language system in the world.

-Chinese astronomers were the first to record a meteor shower in 2133 BC. and a Solar Eclipse in 1217 BC.

-Over a million prisoners, peasants and soldiers were used to build the Great Wall of China. It took over 1700 years to build and stretches 1500 miles, and I'll be seeing it live and in person.

-Many religions are practiced in China; Buddhism, Taoism, Islam, Hinduism, Judaism, Heaven worship, Chinese folk religion, Christianity, and several other new religions and sects.

-The Chinese language has over 20,000 characters.

- Chinese invented the first ice cream in the 7th century.

- The Chinese actually invented a lot of cool things, gunpowder, rockets and fireworks, printing, books, papermaking and paper money, the abacus, stirrups, wheelbarrows, seismometers, porcelain, silk, the compass and kites. The kite was used for military purposes, spying or carrying messages.

-China's name came from the Qin Dynasty, (pronounced chin).

Somehow this whole going to China seems so surreal to me still, me...... who is so afraid of flying and an introvert.........is going off to China by myself, what am I thinking? It is kind of liberating to be able to tackle so many of my fears at one time, like I'm taking control of my life and doing what I want and not letting the phobias take control of me.

I'm going to leave you now with a You Tube video of the Terra-Cotta Warriors, one of my stops on my surreal tour.

My Daughter is Getting Married, So Black holes is Giving away Galileoscopes

2009-06-14T10:16:00.011-05:00

You may remember back in March I gave away a meteorite to mark my daughter's, (Amanda), birthday, then I thought what will I do to celebrate with you, my other daughter's,(Lindsay, image above), wedding this coming Saturday, June 20..... enter the Galileoscope. Back in March I headed over to the Galileoscope site and saw that for only $15.00 US you can own a scope, wow, at that price I could give away 3.....so I bought 5....1 for moi, cause I like scopes, 1 for the happy couple and 3 to give to you all.

The Galileoscope is another awesome cornerstone project for the International Year of Astronomy 2009, a high quality low price telescope kit. Called the Galileoscope because it has basically the same specs as the telescope Galileo first used to point towards the heavens 400 years ago, see what Galileo saw, and for really cheap.

I am expecting the scopes to reach me by the end of June-beginning of July, when they I arrive I will do a review, then start giving them away. I'm thinking some kind of draw, if you are interested in getting one, comment here or send me an email and I'll throw your name in the hat, or you could head over to the site and order one right now, at $15.00 US you just can't go wrong.

You have 2 options when purchasing, you can get some, price $15.00 US or give some, $12.50 US, give some is when you purchase anonymously and allow the Galileo people to donate to someone or group of their choosing.

You should know, you're on the hook for a tripod, doesn't come with. You can always go pirate, get yourself an observer's eyepatch, walk around saying Arrr Matey holding your scope and wearing the eyepatch, impress friends and family alike. I bought one when I first started using a scope, it impressed the wife, well actually she gave me the, gee what now look, but deep down inside I knew she was thrilled. It's supposed to cover your eye so you don't have to squint, so you are more relaxed, couldn't get into it, I squinted anyways, force of habit.

I'll leave you now with a video of the Galileoscope.

Cloudy Moon and The Mars Hoax...Once Again

2009-06-08T13:47:00.029-05:00

I was just sitting on my deck a few days ago admiring the Moon when a thin layer of clouds crossed it's path, I used the binoculars to see the effect they were having on it, and it looked beautiful.

Thought great, got my camera out, took some images but something got lost in the translation. So I noticed the Moon was going to be coming into view of my telescope sight in about 20 minutes, thought to myself, I got to try and translate what I am seeing into a picture, maybe the scope can do it. Clouds in just the right amount can add so much to the character of the Moon, acting like a filter they can actually bring out more detail and add mystery to it.

Opened up my POD, (Personal Observatory Dome), got everything set up but the clouds disappeared, this was actually a good thing, gave me time to focus on the Moon, image below, it is so hard to get a tight focus when clouds are in the way.

From this point on it was hurry up and wait, I just kind of hung out in my POD for almost an hour till the clouds finally came back, just in time, I did not want to loose the daylight, the daylight was a big part of what I was seeing, I love a daytime Moon, so pretty.

Eventually some more clouds crossed the Moon's path once again, and what you are seeing in these images are the results of a cloudy daytime Gibbous Moon, (gibbous meaning the Moon being more then half illuminated), I thought they turned out pretty good, a good representation of what I saw that night.

Heads up, the good old Mars Hoax is going around again. I have had plenty of emails already this year, even one from one of the directors of the company I work for about the validity of an email going around stating that in August, Mars, being so close to Earth will look to be the same size as our Moon, not true!!

This hoax started when back in August of 2003 Mars orbit put it only 56 million km from Earth, the closest it had ever been in recorded history. Somebody thought it would be neat to start a rumor stating that because Mars was so close to the Earth it would look the same size as the Moon.

It mixes truth and fantasy. True, back in August 2003 Mars was closest it had ever been to Earth, also true it wouldn't be this close to us again till 2287, but not true about Mars being the same size as the Moon.

I remember the first time I encountered this hoax, a friend of mine, after reading the email back in July of 2004 called me to ask if I would take an image of Mars for him seeing that it was going to be as big as the Moon, I said sure, no prob......... wait, what'd you say....... better send me a copy of that email.

He then forwarded me the email, a power point presentation. The next time I saw him, I explained that the email was bogus and the reasons, but he gave me the, yeah but it is on the internet, it must be true look. I finally convinced him and gazillions of other people, well at least 5 I can think of off the top of my head, that Mars will never be the same apparent size as the Moon, will this ever end........ probably not.

I took the image below back in December 2007 when Mars was in conjunction with the Moon, it shows the real apparent size comparison, you can see they aren't the same size by any stretch of the imagination.

I'll leave you now with another Milky Way animation.

How To Build A Robot Army, and New NGC Premiere

2009-06-03T07:41:00.009-05:00

My wife, knowing my love for Robots picked me up "How To Build A Robot Army". Robots have gotten a lot of bad press, what with shows like Battlestar Galactica or the Terminator series of movies, you know the cliche-ick (wd) plot line... Man creates Robot, Robot gets smarter and stronger then Man, Robot tries to destroy Man, very unfair for the Robots....People ..Robots are our friends, they only want what's best for their creators and this book shows that side of Robots.

The Book does a good job of letting the reader know the state of affairs concerning Robots in today's world and also how we might improve them by weaponizing and training them for battle, because we all know, surely the world of tomorrow is going to be fraught with danger, anybody that's watched movies knows this to be true.

So where do you start, author Daniel Wilson suggest starting your own Robot army can be as simple as duct taping a steak knife or Scissors to the top of a Robot vac, if an alien attacks, just point the bot at the unsuspecting Alien, then when the Alien goes to step on your low profile bot, you have your first victim, I'm thinking especially if it is a one legged variety Alien.

With titles of chapters like"How to Convert your Car into an Unmanned Ground Vehicle", "How To Keep A Sexy Fembot Fit For Battle" or "How To Deploy Spying Robots Bugs", you'll be set for any battles against any evildoers whether it be , Aliens, Vampires, Ninjas, Godzilla, Werewolves or White Sharks.

Just a heads up, tomorrow, June 4 at 9 pm EDT on the National Geographic Channel," World's Toughest Fixes: Satellite Launch." Get a behind the scenes look at what goes into launching a 250 million dollar 2 ton communications satellite on top of a rocket the size of a 12 story building. Watch as teams of scientists and engineers race to make final repairs and the launch window from French Guiana. I am hearing through my National Geographic Channel contact there are more excellent space show premieres coming up in August so stay tuned for further updates.

I 'll leave you now with an excellent YouTube video about Robots.

The Backbone Of Night

2009-05-28T17:36:00.007-05:00

"We are in the midst of millions and millions of suns-we are in the jewel house of the maker, and our soul mounts up, up to that wonderful creator, and we adore the hand that scattered the jewels of heaven so lavishly in this one vast region."

Edward Emerson Barnard.

There is just something about viewing our Milky Way Galaxy that invokes a sense of awe, so majestic, so huge. What can I possibly say or put into words that hasn't been already said or googled.

There are people in this world that aren't muddied by information, that don't have high speed Internet access, people such as the contemporary hunter gathers, "!Kung Bushmen", they actually believe the Milky Way holds up the sky.... if not for the Milky Way surely the stars would come crashing down to Earth, hence they call it "The Backbone Of Night", wow, to be a bushguy and enjoy stuff for just stuff, mind you they have to pray it doesn't break or they all die, but still, how magnificent it must be to be in their place under the stars, to look at the heavens so differently.

I went out with Astro-Nuts to our local astronomy club's dark site to image the night sky and to see what we could see, was lucky enough to capture a green/violet aurora along with the Milky Way, don't mean to be a braggy Bob again... well maybe a little, the image above was Editor's choice for the Sky and Telescope magazine's web site in their Reader's Photo Gallery section.
Image was taken with my Canon 40D and 10-17mm Tokina fisheye lens, 60 second exposure, ISO 3200, F3.5.

Our Milky Way is classified as a spiral galaxy with anywhere from 200-400 billion stars, the center, the bulge near the horizon, in the constellation Sagittarius has the highest concentration of stars therefore generally the brightest part of the Milky Way. Our Solar System orbit's the Galactic Center once every 220 million years.

Milky Way twirled in Photoshop.

While out that night saw a few meteors and captured the one above.

I'll leave you now with an animated version of one of my Milky Way shots.

Moon

2009-05-23T07:38:00.012-05:00

Ever since I can remember remembering about things I've been fascinated with all things Moon. From the first time I looked up in the sky at the Moon through the telescope my Dad bought me when I was a kid to taking images like the one above, a daytime waxing gibbous Moon, waxing just means the Moon going from New Moon to Full Moon phase, gibbous means the Moon is more then half illuminated but not full.

I'm always looking for ways to rediscover it, enter "Moon" movie.

Due for limited release June 12 this awesome indie movie, directed by David Bowie's son Duncan Jones and staring Sam Rockwell takes us to the Moon where Sam Bell (played by Sam Rockwell) is in the last days of his 3 year mission mining for Helium-3 when Sam gets into some kind of freak accident that finds Sam beside himself... literally, hint Solaris.

What is Helium-3 you might ask, well it is a very rare non-radioactive isotope sought after as a second generation fusion power source, very rare on Earth but thought to be in abundance on the Moon.

Now I have talked about Helium-3 before in one of my posts where I have purchased Lunar real estate, I stated that people were mocking me for buying property on the Moon but I would have the last laugh, well not me, I'll be dead but my great great grand kids will when NASA is negotiating with my great great grand kids for the mining rights to helium -3 on their property..... sure like NASA or the Chinese are going to be negotiating for mining rights from my descendants, that is unless my great great grand kids get there first, probably not going to happen.

A character driven movie it looks to be real good. Sam is not totally alone, he has "Gerty" a talking computer (Kevin Spacey) kind of like HAL in 2001: A Space Odyssey. The sets look very cool, they used a combination of digital special effects and real live miniature models.

Duncan Jones sums up the movie and his thoughts behind it in an interview I found, and I quote; "My generation of geeks was a big fan of films like "Outland" and "Silent Running" and the original "Alien". Those kind of science fiction movies were more about the character and sort of human qualities than about the technology. I love those films and I miss those films in some ways, and we wanted to create something which felt comfortable within the canon of those science fiction films from the sort of late seventies to early eighties." I can hardly wait. I'll leave you now with the trailer.

A little... no a lot off topic, I went to see the latest incarnation of Star Trek and thought it was too cool, I also posted a YouTube video of it, too funny, I laughed till I stopped.

The Saskatchewan (Buzzard Coulee) Meteorite Search and Recovery Part II

2009-05-18T07:21:00.017-05:00

I was able to go out once again and look for the Buzzard Coulee Meteorite, was out a month ago with the University of Calgary research team and found 3 stones, this time I found 6 meteorites........the difference being, this go round I was able to keep them, Woo triple frigging Hoo!!

I went out with Astro-Nuts and his father, whom I have known for years through our local RASC club. We met up with a group of people who were given permission to search the landowners property. The above image is a pic of my favorite find, it has so much character. When meteors fall to the ground, this one in particular, (Buzzard Coulee) broke into thousands of tiny pieces, most of them tumble through the atmosphere before they hit the surface, the one above somehow got orientated and pointed one direction and developed flow-lines. It also has a couple cool looking thumbprints or regmaglypts, caused by vortices of hot gas burning thumbprint like impressions into the rock.(image above a domesticated meteorite, image below, what the same meteorite looks like in the wild.)

No matter how often you find these stones it's always a thrill, you are the first person on Earth to touch these rocks from space.

200x microscopic image of a flow line.

200x microscopic image of melt that occurred during entry into our atmosphere.

Search or Strewn Field.

Search Team.

Meteorite haul.

Hey there is nothing more satisfying then going to a meteorite strewn field, searching for and finding meteorites, bagging them, getting them GPSed, then taking them home to take and post pictures of for all of you, and even selling them, that's right as long as you are from Canada and you would like to purchase one I can sell them to you, but you have to be from Canada, seems the seller needs a permit if they want to sell outside Canada, odd, but once rocks from space fall in Canada they become part of our culture, go figure, another government money grab. I don't usually talk about selling stuff on this blog but if you are interested I have and have access to people with some rocks for sale at a decent price if you are so inclined.

A fun time was had by all. As I was taking microscopic images of one of my stones I also took some more polarized microscopic images of my angrite meteorite thin section and animated it for you, these extremely rare stones, some scientists believe their origin is Mercury are very cool and make as far as I'm concerned great art when crossed polarized.

Shanghai, Total Solar Eclipse 2009

2009-05-13T17:40:00.011-05:00

Just an update on my once in a lifetime trip to China to view live and in person the Total Solar Eclipse July 22 2009. A lot has transpired since I started my countdown to China a while back. First off, I now have a passport, what can I say, I don't....... or rather they don't let me out that often. Apparently you need passports to leave your home country, I've only heard speak of them before, now I have one.

To get one I first had to get a birth certificate, well I had one but under "Name" it had "Baby Boy". Plus I have gotten all my shots, I have over come my fear of needles to get all kinds of shots to protect me from God knows what, I spent over an hour listening to the travel agency nurse informing me of all the things I could get and how not to get them, turning white and getting faint as she's talking, and invariably it always happens, the statement,"Are you going to be okay, would you like a glass of water?" I hate talking about diseases, I always develop the symptoms when talking about them. I sent my passport away with my China visa application and I'm just waiting for the actual visa and passport to return, then I'm good to go.

I have done a lot of research about the weather stats over in Shanghai using sites such as NASA's Eclipse Web Site, It would kind of be sad if I went through what I went through spent what I spent to only have it cloudy the day of the eclipse, mind you a trip to China is okay cool to fall back on, so rich in history and lots to see. Shanghai is actually one of the better places to be during the eclipse. The image above shows it has the lowest average cloud cover of the sites in the eclipse's path. So here's the plan, I have found out that the Hotel... nay... Resort I will be staying at has Internet access, so I am planing , if all goes well, from the Hotel terrace...la de da, to use USTREAM to broadcast live from my blog, the actual Eclipse Event!!!!!! The Total Solar Eclipse starts at 9:32 am July 22, you can find what the time is in your location by using this converter, it works out to be 9:32 pm EDT July 21.

One last thing, as part of their International Year of Astronomy 2009 celebrations, KW Telescope is having a "Photographic Celebration Of the Night sky" where they display images taken by astrophotographers from across Canada, two of mine were selected to be on display for the event, my Nuclear Moon image above and my Double Halo with Circumzenithal Arc, image below, thought it was cool to have my work half way across the country being displayed with the best, very honored.

I'll leave you now with an animation of my Nuclear Moon.

Review, "Celestron FirstScope"

2009-05-08T14:09:00.014-05:00

Well, Celestron has gone and done it, made the heavens available to the average person on the street with their inexpensive, easy to use, well built scope.

Got mine yesterday, at just $49.99 US or $62.49 CAD, you just can't go wrong.

Look at the family on the box, they are frigging thrilled, probably because when they pulled the scope out of the box it was already assembled.

Just had to put the eyepiece in the eyepiece holder, total time 2 minutes, and that's with me popping nearly all the bubbles in the bubble wrap.

So what do you get for your money? You get the scope and 2 eyepieces giving you 15x and 75x magnification and you get to show people you have over for casual events to your humble abode awesome views of the Moon, Saturn, Mars, Venus as well as bright deep sky objects like star clusters from your light polluted backyard, who do you know that can say that?

Very portable, and as far as storage, store it in plain sight, you can see from above image how cute, yet professional it looks, you'll be the talk of your friends, family and neighbors. So it is inexpensive, comes assembled, can store it anywhere, looks cute, but what's it got under the hood?..... well nothing......it's not a car....duh. But what is does have is the ability to grab'n'go, no fancy set up time required, hey that makes a big difference, could be the difference between using it or not, and this is coming from someone, moi, that has had literally a gazillion scopes... well maybe not literally, but have had lots. I unpacked, assembled and was outside with the scope on my car trunk looking at the Moon, and...and imaging with my wife's little camera pointed at the eyepiece,(image below) total elapsed time, around 4 minutes!!

FirstScope First Image, 15x

FirstScope Second Image 75x

FirstScope and Canon 40D

I have not been approached by Celestron to do a review, all me, I thought I should tell anyone and everyone I can about this little guy, if you are looking for your first scope but don't want to spend a lot of money, this is the scope for you, I was very happy with the quality of the views of various heavenly bodies I pointed the scope at, including Saturn (which by the way is worth the price of admission alone). Astro-Nuts was with me trying it out as well, he liked it so much he went and ordered one.

Also available for this scope is an accessory kit which comes with 2 more eyepieces giving you 24x and 50x, a Moon filter, which allows for better imaging and viewing during a Full Moon, could have used that last night, a carrying case for your scope, a 5x24 finder scope and a CD ROM filling you in on the basics of astronomy, familiarizing you with stars, planets and constellations and gives you the ability to print off star charts, for only $24.94 CAD. Even though I still have a gazillion scopes, I chose this one for a quick Photon Phix and to take it with me in the car when going out of town, again grab'n'go, very cool, definitely 5 out of 5 stars.

I'll leave you with a little video of the FirstScope.