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.