Monday, December 31, 2007

Armchair astronomy and space travel


This is the time of year in our part of the world at which clouds cover the sky almost continuously. It frustrates the astronomer in me. For instance, there are a couple of comets visible in binoculars at night right now, Mars and Saturn are at their best for this year, the winter constellations are coming up - but I can't get to see them. So, I resort to my past pictures, and also the internet.

To the left, there are some pictures I took of the Moon over a year ago. I suppose that you would have a similar view from a spaceship heading there - this is as close as I'll ever come to space travel.

You can certainly see many more (and better) pictures like that on the internet. Here's a new "location" for lunar images, for the most part provided by "earthbound" people who, like me, have an interest in astronomy.

I you're interested in the missions which NASA sends to the planets and their moons here are a couple of links: http://www.nasa.gov/topics/solarsystem/index.html, http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/index.cfm. Enjoy the views!

Below is the New Year's greeting from the Cassini-Huygens team at NASA - these folks are the ones who sent the Cassini probe to Saturn. That probe (along with the Mars rovers) is part of what I consider to be the most successful and productive "robotic" space undertakings ever:















Our family wishes you the same!