Author's posts

Mar 27 2009

Orion’s Belt

StarDate: -314224.72

The rainy Pleiads wester,
Orion plunges prone,
The stroke of midnight ceases,
And I lie down alone.

A. E. Housman
Orion's Belt
Orion’s Belt and M42 (The Orion Nebula)

Mar 08 2009

The Stars on Orion’s Belt

StarDate: -314179.55

The rainy Pleiads wester,
Orion plunges prone,
The stroke of midnight ceases,
And I lie down alone.

A. E. Housman
Orion's Belt
Orion’s Belt and M42 (The Orion Nebula)

Mar 02 2009

The Constellation of Orion

StarDate: -314155.78

I've seen things you people wouldn't believe.
Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion.
I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate.
All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain…

Roy Batty.
Blade Runner, 1982
Orion Nebula: The Hubble View
Orion Nebula: The Hubble View
NASA, ESA, M. Robberto (STScI/ESA) et al.

The nebula in Orion's Sword.

Feb 18 2009

Fireworks In Hubble’s Eye

Crab Nebuala

This composite image was assembled from 24 individual exposures taken with the NASA Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2

July 4, 1054 Kaifeng, China. (Song Dynastic period)

In the 1st year of the period Chih-ho (1054), the 5th moon, the day chi-ch’ou (July 4th) (a “guest star”) appeared approximately several inches south-east of T’ien-kuan(z Tauri)…

From the Sung-shih annals [Breen & McCarthy (1995) p.4]

The Director of the Astronomical Bureau, the esteemed Yang Wei-te, received reports this day of the appearance of a ‘guest star’ in the constellation Taurus proximate to ? Tauri. The politically minded astronomer decides to wait on a more propitious moment to bring the news to the emperor and his court. He is keenly aware that ‘guest stars’ and comets are generally harbingers of bad fortune.  

Feb 16 2009

The Maldives From Space

Maldives In Indian Ocean
1 The Maldives
Modis Web
February 15, 2009

The Maldives From Space

Appearing at first glance to be more like the dotted-outlines of islands than actual islands, the island nation of the Maldives lie in the Indian Ocean, southwest of India. It is worth examining the higher resolution images, for a better look at the ghostly, luminous forms of the coral atolls that are the Maldives. There are 26 atolls made up of nearly 1200 individual islets, over 200 of which are inhabited.

The Maldives are the lowest country in the world, with the maximum natural ground level only being 2.3 meters (7.5 feet). Because of being so low-lying, the Maldives were greatly affected by the 2004 tsunami. There is also concern about how rising ocean levels might affect the islands.

This image was captured by the MODIS on the Terra satellite on February 12, 2009.

 

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