I know it’s been months since an update, but I promise to “get back on the horse” and maintin this site more faithfully. With this being the International Year of Astronomy, there is much going on.

In the meantime, I want to make everyone aware that the astronomy club now has a Twitter feed. With that, we will be giving more up-to-date reports in addition to our website and this blog.We believe it will especially come in handy during our public night season, as we make “go/no-go” decisions in case of “iffy” weather conditions.

So if you would like to check us out on Twitter, please follow the link below, or on the side menu.

GRAAA on Twitter

Posted in Announcements, Astronomy Clubs Tagged: Astronomy, james C. Veen Observatory, Twitter, Veen Observatory ]]> http://spacewatch.wordpress.com/2009/03/20/updates-and-twitter/feed/ 0 Kevin http://spacewatch.wordpress.com/2008/11/25/the-universe-light-speed/ http://spacewatch.wordpress.com/2008/11/25/the-universe-light-speed/#comments Tue, 25 Nov 2008 14:22:59 +0000 Kevin http://spacewatch.wordpress.com/?p=212 ]]> Season Three of the amazing series The Universe continues tonight. The new episode is called “Light Speed.” Here’s a preview…

According to the laws of physics we can never travel faster than the speed of light…or can we? Light speed allows us to see things instantly here on Earth, and shows us the entire history of the universe going back nearly 14 billion years. Learn all about light speed, the ultimate constant in the universe and discover ways scientists envision breaking the “light barrier” which may be the only way the star travel of our imaginations ever comes to reality.

Check local listings for the time of the show.

Some of the world’s leading physicists believe they have found startling new evidence showing the existence of universes other than our own. One possibility is that the universe is so vast that an exact replica of our Solar System, our planet and ourselves exists many times over. These Doppelganger Universes exist within our own Universe; in what scientist now call “The Multiverse.” Today, trailblazing experiments by state of the art particle colliders are looking for evidence of higher dimensions and Parallel Universes. If proof is found, it will change our lives, our minds, our planet, our science and our universe.

Check local listings for the time of the show.

In space travel there is a saying that the first 50 miles and the last 50 miles are the most dangerous. Explore the controlled explosion of launch, the fiery crucible of reentry and everything in between. See how a single spark inside a spacecraft or a micrometeoroid less than an inch wide hitting a space station can turn a routine mission into a lethal nightmare. As the missions become longer, venturing to Mars and beyond, the potential disasters will only become bigger. What would happen if a spacecraft ventured too close to a black hole or was hit by a gamma ray burst?

Check local listings for the time of the show.

You can follow the mission at the shuttle mission page and if there are any special events, we’ll talk about them here. Locally, we have the Community Media Center to thank, as they broadcast NASA-TV on local cable channel 24 (Livewire). The GRAAA sponsors NASA-TV locally. Godspeed Endeavour, and good luck.

NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) basically took over the operations of NACA (National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics)to be the “official” agency of exploration of space and aviation. The first administrator of NASA was T. Kenneth Glennan, who served in that capacity from August 19, 1968 until January 20, 1961. The current administrator is Michael Griffin.

It would be hard to list the many varied and vast achievments that have happened over the past fifty years, or the leaps in technology that have been brought to the mainstream populace due to the ingenuity, courage, and intelligence of the people who have worked for NASA over the years. Suffice it to say the world would be a vastly different place without their efforts.

If you head over to the main NASA site, they have a wide variety of images and stories regarding their anniversary.

This means that the planned Hubble Servicing Mission, which was scheduled to launch on October 14th, is going to be postponed until sometime early next year, in order for a new SICDHS unit to be carried up and installed.

Dr. Phil Plait has more details on his Bad Astronomy blog.

“Equinox” means “equal night” (from the Latin). In theory, on the equinoxes you have equal amounts of day and night, but it actually varies because of a few factors, some of which being the orbit of the earth, the way the atmosphere bends light (refraction), and your actual position on the earth. But the common understanding is that we have equal amounts of daylight and nighttime on this date.

So here in the Northern Hemisphere, the days grow cooler, the nights crisper. Leaves fall from the trees. It’s time to harvest. And for a few days, it’s really hard to drive east/west at sunrise and sunset, as the sun appears directly in front of you.

If you are one of the people who love the soon-to-be-past summer (like me), you have my condolences. It will return, but there’s months to go, so you might as well enjoy the change of seasons.

But to clarify, no matter what you have received via email, or heard from friends, you are NOT going to see “Mars as big as the full moon” on August 27th.

This is a hoax, which has now been going for five years.

If you want more information, you can search previous posts. Otherwise we have no comment.

The August full moon is called the “Sturgeon Moon” as the large fish were seemingly easier to catch this month.

And if you just so happened to be on the other side of the world there will be a partial eclipse of the moon. If you remember last August, we actually had a total lunar eclipse at full moon.

So as the sun sets on the warm Saturday evening, turn around 180º from the sunset and see the luminous full moon rising in the southeastern sky, as it begins its journey across the night sky, bathing the earth with its reflected glow.