APOD 4.8, the end

Zooniverse remains unaltered. Galaxy zoo Hubble continues.



Well those on the beach at Perth, Australia got a lovely show on Australia day, 2007. The expected fireworks display was joined with an impressive thunderstorm, and a very bright comet McNaught between the two of them. The comet had to be very luminous to be visible as all the other lights were active on earth. How visible it actually was is hard to say, as the digital image was processed to cut down the light and red reflection from the fireworks.

APOD 4.7

Zooniverse: more of the same, more classifying galaxies.



There appears to be a spire in the clouds, as the Space shuttle Endeavor ascends for the last time. The perspective of the rising shuttle and the clouds makes the lower mass seem solid and flat, as if something was poking out of a mattress. from the visible spec that is the shuttle itself, the scale is more easily represented, and the total area of the visible sky is vast, and the camera was on board a shuttle training aircraft. I'd still love to know what we're going to do about getting NASA personnel up to the international space station until we have a suitable replacement.

APOD 4.6 and zooniverse....ah you know the drill.

Zooniverse: continued on Galaxy zoo Hubble. Classifying galaxies. Will likely be doing this for the rest of zooniverse, however long that may be.

APOD: A long long time ago, Voyager 1 was sent off into the solar system, far away. Now 117 Astronomical units from the sun or 17 light hours away, it is now the spacecraft farthest from us after its initial send off in 1977. From its gravity sling-shooting past Jupiter, it now travels at 17 kilometers a second. It has still not reached interstellar space, and will not for some years to come. The Fifth farthest craft will reach Pluto's orbit in July. Four years from now. And that distance is 3 billion kilometers from the sun. Now pardon me while I go home and never ever ever sign up for spacecraft leaving earth, as the idea of being "lost in space" is pretty terrifying. As a small child I cried from being lost in Toys 'r' us. Mierda.

APOD 4.5 and Zooniverse progress

Zooniverse continued with Galaxy zoo Hubble. No changes there and no days missed. Haven't exactly coutned the days but I should be where I need to be on that.


I however have not worked on the moon zoo project, although the craters here at the southern pole have been given some attention.
 
The picture shows how much sunlight the different parts of the pole get in a 6 moon-day (6 earth-month) period. The mounts are almost completely white as they are in a state of eternal day, Where as the craters never get any direct light. The crater in the middle is very close to the actual southern pole, withing 9 degrees or so, and the lunar equator is very close to the ecliptic plane, the amount of light at the poles is constant. Perhaps the mountains in there area would be ideal locations for solar power arrays. Assuming they have protection from falling rocks.

APOD 4.4 and zooniverse progress

zooniverse: Continued working in Galaxy zoo Hubble, classifying galaxies. Most of which are smooth ellipses but I occasionally find an interesting spiral galaxy. No work done for zooniverse outside of class time. I may or may not switch to a different zooniverse project soon. We'll see.

Now for a view from Everest. This is probably the only APOD I've done of anything under Earth's atmosphere. Any planet-side images I've chosen are from other worlds (or artists' renditions of thereof). But to say that this view is nice is a bit of an understatement.

The clouds around the mountain look like fog from this vantage point, 8.85 Kilometers up. This altitude is about the maximum that any international aircraft will reach. The air is surely thin, but what a view of the mountains. I wouldn't hop on down so quickly though. In its country, Nepal, the mountain is referred to as Sagarmontha, or "the forehead of the sky" which sounds rather fitting.

APOD 4.3 and zooniverse progress

Zooniverse: continued working on the milky way project, drawing bubbles as I went. Unfortunately this grew old halfway through the week (since I would only find a bubble every third image, which I suppose would be an indicator of the wealth of empty space in the Milky Way.) I have now begun working on one of the galaxy zoo projects, here observing galaxies and describing their appearance.

50 years ago, Yuri Alexseyevich Gagarin was the first man sent up, and he described the image he saw before him as he orbited.

The international space station has a view that looks very much like what he described. The sky was black, the earth was bluish, and he could see clearly. Yuri survives a prototype vessel to reach orbit, but died in a crash of a Mig jet during a training flight. Ironic and unfortunate. He received a hero's funeral, ashes safely tucked away in the walls of the Kremlin. As for his achievements, the man became a legend for this journey to space. It's sad to think of it now. 50 years ago scientific achievement meant sending a man to space. Now it means building a smaller ipod.

APOD 4.2 and Zooniverse progress

As For "Zooniverse," I have been working on the milky way project and will likely continue doing so. I spy in space. Now on to the ASTRONOMY PICTURE OF THE DAAAAAY:

Raindrops are falling, on Titan. The -290 degree atmosphere on Titan allows there to be precipitation in the form of Liquid methane. The storms above Saturn's largest moon may also have lightning from the Nitrogen rich atmosphere.

This is of course an artist's illustration, but it is believed to be close to what we would see. The rain clouds were found via the Cassini spacecraft. This however is nothing compared to the ground breaking discovery in 2005 of Water on Mars. The water and the nutrient rich surface may have sustained life

......before it melted.