The Astronomy Tower

[WagWag]

International Space Station marks 10 years of human occupation.

From CNN:

"The crew of the International Space Station marked the 10th anniversary of continuous human occupation of the orbiting science laboratory with a typical workday, pausing only briefly for a chat with NASA chief Charles Bolden and questions from international reporters."

"Since the first module, the Russian-built Zarya, launched on November 20, 1998, 103 vehicles have traveled to the station, bringing 196 people to visit or live long-term and conduct science experiments and other work, according to NASA. The station has traveled more than 1.5 billion miles -- the equivalent of eight round trips to the Sun. Human habitation of the station began in 2000."

From NASA:

"On Oct. 25, the station also set a record for being the longest continuously inhabited spacecraft. On that day, the International Space Station eclipsed the previous record of 3,644 days set by the Russian Mir Space Station. With each new day, NASA and its partners are pushing the envelope of human achievement in space into uncharted territory."

It never ceases to turn me into a thrilled, gleeful child whenever I see images taken from the ISS or read stories about it. The possibilities that arise, the wonderful humbling expanse of space, move me. There are very few positions I admire more than that of an astronaut.

The dangers involved, the time taken to train compared to the time spent doing what you've trained for, the lack of notoriety--your only chance of making the news is if you go down in a ball of flames--, all to be able to see the world without having a foot on it. Space is a magnificent mystery and for ten years humanity has had people living out in that unknown. I say, "Well done."

[swerve]

What an AWESOME post!!!

I am ALSO in AWE over our space pioneers...

[WagWag]

What an AWESOME post!!!

I am ALSO in AWE over our space pioneers...

Thanks Swerve!

Awe is a good word to use. The things these women and men get to see and experience, moments that belong only to a select few. I wish these people were more present in the media, more vocal...I want to hear first hand experiences. But I'll settle for spectacular photos.

[Elvin]

Awesome pics and post WaGWag!

[JournDude18]

i remember wanting to be an astraunat when i was little.

[medic1]

wow some of those stills just take your breath away,i find it amazing that with all
the crap happening all around us we just seem to forget the pure awsome beuty
that is going on above our heads

[braex27]

Great story, and some fantastic pictures!!

[NineOfClubs]

Thanks for posting! Wonderful stuff.

[star-warrior]

Spectacular photos. Reminds me of looking out the plane window over southern Scandinavia.

[WagWag]

Glad you have enjoyed the posts!

Should you guys want to see the ISS as it passes overhead, here's a link to the NASA tracking map. It certainly moves a lot quicker through the sky than I imagined.

Otherwise, I thought it'd be interesting to see just how international the International Space Station is.

International Cooperation piece.

[WagWag]

Here are a few more images that I really dig:

[WagWag]

I love this last one, it's like standing on the edge of oblivion.

[RazorzEdge88]

I thought this was going to be a thread about Afghanistan (9 years, I know, but it feels like longer).

[WagWag]

I could see why you'd think that, although hasn't Afghanistan had humans around for a few more than 9 years?

[RazorzEdge88]

Well, I thought maybe "human occupation" could be one of those strange, Orwellian misnomers used by our media to dehumanize brown people.

But anyway, yeah, nice pics. The nighttime outlines of city lights across the continents always appeal to the geography nerd in me.

[reone]

Great thread..I love the photographs.

Typically when I see images like this I wonder at one point in the human timeline will it be something that everyone can see in person...and if they will really even enjoy or respect it when that time comes.

[nbluth]

The pictures in this thread are just breathtaking.

I wonder what it's like out there, seeing all that in real life rather than pictures...

[barnbuddy]

wag wag - your sense of wonder is inspirational -

[iiiset]

Wow, are we ever the light-pollutingest buggers.

[WagWag]

Wow, are we ever the light-pollutingest buggers.

God, you're right.

I often think about how there was a moment in time when every single human being on the planet could look up and see the milky way in its magisterial beauty. From bright white Sirius to red nebula.

Now there are generations of people who have grown up never seeing it in the vast expanse of sky in front of them. It's almost heartbreaking. It's no wonder we've become disconnected from nature; its awe-inspiring, heart-pumping presence has been covered by a foggy amber glow.

We should consider ourselves lucky to have seen it like this at some point in our lives.

[Edward Twinkletoes]

They've got no business up there. This shit needs to be defunded and shut down.

[WagWag]

They've got no business up there. This shit needs to be defunded and shut down.

That makes a whole lot of sense.

[WagWag]

Sorry boys and girls, I wanted to bump the thread after I saw this image on Astronomy Picture of the Day.

Fabulous!

[WagWag]

I'm bumping this again, to share this sweet video of the sun's surface:

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jciUYQHa6-0[/ame]

The Monday before last (12/6/10), this long filament--which is the darker strand you can see at the beginning of the video--exploded. The filament had formed a week before the eruption. A coronal mass ejection occurred as a result of this explosion, throwing plasma into the solar system.

You see the ejection of plasma at about the 0:08 mark. If that ejected body of plasma hit our atmosphere, auroras would have occurred, which wasn't the case with this event. I just thought I'd share it with those interested, it's so fascinating to me.

All of this was observed by SDO (Solar Dynamics Observatory), which is an Earth orbiting spacecraft that was launched only this past February. The images were collected in the spectrum of ultraviolet.

Fun fact: The red elements seen in the video are the "cool" solar plasma ranging in temperature from 60,000-80,000K while the yellow/orange elements on the surface are the nearly 1 million K "hot" plasma. Maybe not such a fun fact, depending on who you are, but interesting nonetheless.

[johaninsc]

WagWag, these pics and the video are great

My favorite is the nighttime shot over the Nile in Post#3
Beautiful !


This is such a cool thread

[WagWag]

The 21st marked the solstice. The moment in time when the Earth's northern hemisphere is tilted as far away from the sun; resulting in the shortest amount of daylight and longest night. This day marks the beginning of winter in the northern hemisphere and the beginning of summer in the southern hemisphere.

This image is a composite made back in 2005, of forty-three separate exposures of the solstice sun, showing the sun in it's lowest arc of the year. Images were taken overlooking the Tyrrhenian Sea from Italy.

[WagWag]

Did anyone manage to see the total lunar eclipse? I woke myself up at 3am to check and see if the weather had cleared, unfortunately it was cloudy.

The image above is a composite taken down in Georgia, of the full moon as it begins to slide into the Earth's shadow. It's composited from an image of the full moon and a longer exposure to capture the star-field behind it.

[WagWag]

Saw this image, just had to share it:

Explanation: The robotic Cassini spacecraft now orbiting Saturn drifted in the giant planet's shadow for about 12 hours in 2006 and looked back toward the eclipsed Sun.

Cassini saw a view unlike any other. First, the night side of Saturn is seen to be partly lit by light reflected from its own majestic ring system. Next, the rings themselves appear dark when silhouetted against Saturn, but quite bright when viewed away from Saturn, slightly scattering sunlight.

Saturn's rings light up so much that new rings were discovered, although they are hard to see in the image. Seen in spectacular detail, however, is Saturn's E ring, the ring created by the newly discovered ice-fountains of the moon Enceladus and the outermost ring visible above. Far in the distance, at the left, just above the bright main rings, is the almost ignorable pale blue dot of Earth.

[AussieGuy91]

Those are some absolutely amazing photo's!

[WagWag]

Thought this was a very interesting picture, a view of the Apollo 17 landing site. It was captured last month by the LRO (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter) as approached the surface of the moon a mere 22 kilometers above.

It's interesting to me because as much as I love space exploration, I'm conflicted by the way the surface looks marred by our activity there. I know that it's all superficial markings, but I still purse my lips a bit. Still, a spectacular image in my mind and a wonderful reminder of where we have been in the past.

[WagWag]

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wJYpRJQVbo&feature=player_embedded[/ame]

If you have the time, I recommend you watch this great tribute to the Space Shuttle program and the wonderfully and elegantly articulate Carl Sagan.

[SLOPPYSECONDS]

Oy space station YA FIND CURE fa da whack jobs below?

ans ya bill fa 10 years parkin

thankyou

[RaKroma]

Couple photos look like recently publishes satellite photos of India-Pakistan border with long stretch of flood lights installed from Indian side to make night smuggling harder.

[mark1111]

Thank you for this. What I don't understand is that it took so long to build (is it complete?) the ISS, now there is talk of scrapping it!!! WTF??? I would think it would stay up there for quite some time, but what do I know.

[RaKroma]

ISS took a global effort to develop and build. It takes a lot of resources and global brain power. The cost ran up as much as 160 billion dollars. It's expensive to man and maintain and with global economy in decline, countries struggling with debts, NASA fading away as an agency, there is no interest to keep maintaining it beyond the projected operational years.

[WagWag]

The Butterfly Nebula from Hubble

I'm sorry I keep bumping this thread, but I thought this image was wonderful. It's a picture of the nebula NGC 3602 (the result of a dying star) also known as the Butterfly Nebula taken by the Hubble Space Telescope after it's upgrade in 2009.

If I'm understanding this correctly, the large, colorful body that you see in the image is ionized gas and if you look towards the center of the image, around the narrow part of the hourglass shape, you'll see what's called a dust torus that surrounds the central star.

Click HERE for the full resolution picture, it's breathtakingly spectacular. The Butterfly Nebula is 4,000 light-years away.

[Asenath]

This thread made me think of this song composed by autotune-altered Sagan Quotes. It's a pretty cool song on its own, though.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSgiXGELjbc[/ame]

[WagWag]

^Thanks for that, I think Sagan had one of the most honest grasps on life and understanding the universe than most people.

[TheFallenAsexual]

Sweet Post, Man!!

[WagWag]

Sweet Post, Man!!

Thanks NA, I'm glad a few people get some pleasure out of this thread, because I certainly do.

[WagWag]

Time Lapse NASA Fly-Over

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ls9yJTphLxg[/ame]

I know there was a similar one that made its rounds a few months ago, but this one is fresh (I swear). This is a time lapse of a sequence of photographs taken from expeditions 28 and 29 from the International Space Station. They date from August to October of this year.

Here's a list of the locations seen in order of appearance:

1. Aurora Borealis Pass over the United States at Night
2. Aurora Borealis and eastern United States at Night
3. Aurora Australis from Madagascar to southwest of Australia
4. Aurora Australis south of Australia
5. Northwest coast of United States to Central South America at Night
6. Aurora Australis from the Southern to the Northern Pacific Ocean
7. Halfway around the World
8. Night Pass over Central Africa and the Middle East
9. Evening Pass over the Sahara Desert and the Middle East
10. Pass over Canada and Central United States at Night
11. Pass over Southern California to Hudson Bay
12. Islands in the Philippine Sea at Night
13. Pass over Eastern Asia to Philippine Sea and Guam
14. Views of the Mideast at Night
15. Night Pass over Mediterranean Sea
16. Aurora Borealis and the United States at Night
17. Aurora Australis over Indian Ocean
18. Eastern Europe to Southeastern Asia at Night

[Daximus]

Awesome thread. Bump all you want.

You could always ask a mod to rename it for you too.

[WagWag]

Awesome thread. Bump all you want.

You could always ask a mod to rename it for you too.

Thanks. I hadn't even thought of changing the name. What do you think it should be called?

[Daximus]

WaGWaG's house of porrrr.........errrrrr, big huge pee....errrrr, space place or something gay like that.

[star-warrior]

Space the Final Front Ear.

[reone]

Did anyone manage to see the total lunar eclipse? I woke myself up at 3am to check and see if the weather had cleared, unfortunately it was cloudy.

The image above is a composite taken down in Georgia, of the full moon as it begins to slide into the Earth's shadow. It's composited from an image of the full moon and a longer exposure to capture the star-field behind it.

I missed this post, but I stayed up and watched it myself. It was a lovely sight. It's a strange feeling to see cosmic events like that taking place with your naked eye in real-time.

The time lapse was gorgeous, though. I love seeing the lights of the cities and the lightning from storms the most. It's interesting to see the stark contrast from the city lights to the areas that are much less densely populated.

[ashonfire]

I read the title as '10 Years of Human Centipede', the actual topic is far better and the pics are stunning rather than being arse-facey! Thanks.

[WagWag]

WaGWaG's house of porrrr.........errrrrr, big huge pee....errrrr, space place or something gay like that.

Don't worry, it is a porn forum...it's hard getting one's mind out of the gutter.

Space the Final Front Ear.

Ha ha, I'm torn between chuckling and rolling my eyes.

[WagWag]

I missed this post, but I stayed up and watched it myself. It was a lovely sight. It's a strange feeling to see cosmic events like that taking place with your naked eye in real-time.

Oh man, lucky duck. This was almost a year ago, wasn't it?

I read the title as '10 Years of Human Centipede', the actual topic is far better and the pics are stunning rather than being arse-facey! Thanks.

Oh god, I definitely need to change the title now! Ha ha. Glad there are no ass-face pictures in here--otherwise this thread would be relegated to the Kinks and Fetishes section.

[reone]

Oh man, lucky duck. This was almost a year ago, wasn't it?

Hah, well it was there for most to see . I remember it being much colder than it is outside now so it might have happened a little bit closer to December or January. It seems like it happened such a long time ago, though. So much can change in just a year.