APOD 2.5

Supercell over Montana
Beam me up, Scotty. A supercell, a multi-kilometer storm, over Montana (although it does look akin to war of the worlds). Torrential downpour and very fast winds, with the possibility of tornadoes. Still debating if that's better weather than the cold we've been having as of late.

APOD 2.4

Home from above
Nice view. Our home planet viewed from the international space station, 350 kilometers up, with the horizon clearly curved. Clouds are still plainly visible, and if we could see more of it we would probably see another hurricane attacking Louisiana. Living in zero gravity must be an interesting experience, to say the least. Curious though about what that astronaut is thinking. She certainly isn't looking out the window. Also an interesting fact: she's also the lead vocalist of Max Q. Because going to space isn't enough to show off these days.

APOD 2.3

two views, two crescents
Now that Venus is visible in the morning,  it can be seen with the waning crescent moon, at least for a few days.
What's nice is that in the second picture Venus does appear as a crescent even at first glance. What I am curious about though, is why in the first frame the planet appears as a gibbous, rather than the crescent in the right. not entire sure how the geometry is working there.

APOD 2.2

Ghosts of the Cepheus Flare

the mass of dust appears to have two humanoid figures, running and ghost-like. These strangely shaped clouds happen to be in the constellation Cepheus, the king. Pretty good timing now that we've started reading Hamlet (not that the late father and king makes much of an interesting apparition). Odd that space could, by blind chance, yield such images via gravity and tossing a few dice. Still doesn't make me want to read Hamlet, though.

APOD 2.1

water ice detected under the Lunar surface Ice was thrown up from the impact of a satellite from earth, and the resulting analysis suggests we may be able to find a much higher volume of H2O on the moon than previously thought. Whether or not we'd be able to mine it is unknown, but I would be interesting to see if we could get people onto the moon regularly. Waving my science fiction nerd flags here, human expansion into space would be interesting to see, if it's possible. And any settlement on the moon would be able to house a telescope that can see in all wavelengths of light. No atmosphere here.

Obsevations 10/23

Heavy light pollution. Outside of Sailor circus. 10:30 PM.


all three stars of the summer triangle visible, Deneb 45 degrees up from the horizon. Jupiter 20 degrees from the zenith point.

Work Sited

Regiomontauns. Wikipedia. 10/14/2010 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/regiomontanus>.

Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography Vol. 11. Detroit: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2008.