Posts Made By: Maurice Clark

The Aussies do it again!!!

In what has been called one of the most ruthless displays of determination, Australia has crushed England once again to take a 3-0 lead in the 5-test Ashes series. Revenge is sweet!!! 8)

MC2

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/cricket/england/6188783.stm

Hi all,

Check this one out!

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/56641

8)

MC2

Seems like the Phoenix lander (scheduled for launch later this year) has run into a couple of problems. First is money. (what else 8O ) The second could be more serious. Problems with the landing site: too many large boulders!

More here:

http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00000830/

Maurice

Hi all,

Just though I would share with everyone a couple of observing reports of comet McNaught from friends in Oz. For it to be better than Hyakutake, it must be truly spectacular.

Why is it, that when I lived in Oz, the best comets were observable from the northern hemisphere.... now that I am stuck in the USA, guess where the best comets are...????!!!!!!!!! :C > :C

Mumble, mumble, mumble.........

Maurice

2007 Jan. 19.51 UT: m1=-0.4, Dia.=1', DC=9...naked eye...Andrew Pearce (City Beach, Western Australia)[I am speechless! For those northern hemisphere comet observers who are able to get on a plane to the southern hemisphere, I strongly suggest you do it! My home town of Perth has a forecast of fine and clear skies for the next week with a day time temperature of 30 deg C.

This truly is a Great comet in every sense of the word and in my 25 years of comet observing it is the best I have ever seen and now is well in front of C/1996B2 Hyakutake. The comet is now visible in a dark sky and the tail is truly an awesome sight. I am observing from a local beach and even from the floodlit carpark, the tail appears as a bright plume of smoke over the sand dunes. Lay people down on the beach cannot believe their eyes! The m1 estimate of the coma has significnatly decreased when extinction effects are taken into account, although I have trouble reconciling the quite dramatic drop in the corrected magnitudes as the comet does not seemed to have faded so dramatically to the eye, however I am reporting the corrected magnitude estimate and I am again using Venus and Alpha Centauri as the comparisons.

The coma still contains a non circular central condensation which appears slightly elongated to the ENE. Again the coma appears parabolic in shape although lot thinner and sharper in terms of shape than observations 4-5 days ago. Now to the tail! It is truly remarkable. I am strongly reminded of those famous photographs of Comet West in 1976 with the tail spread out almost perpendicular to the anti-solar direction. These photographs are strikingly similar to what C/2006P1 appears like visually to the naked eye.

The southern edge of the tail is the more strongly defined edge with in effect no actual northern 'edge', it just diffuses away into the sky background. To give you an appreciation of the bend in the tail, it should be noted that the PA of the tail southern edge at the coma is 145 deg. At the end of the discernable southern edge at the extremity, it is PA 35 deg, so in effect there is a full right angle! The straight line measurement from the coma to the southen edge of the tail at the extremity is 20 degrees. The width of the tail at the end is at least 5.5 deg and it could have been wider if not for the diffuseness of the northern edge.

Stiriations(correct spelling?) as were evident in the famous Comet West photographs are plainly visible to the naked eye for C/2006P1. They are visible as distinct 'dark' lines against the backdrop of the tail. Many more stiriations are visible in 20x80B. Words just fail to describe the visual appearance of this comet now!]


Regards
Andrew Pearce

Andrew,
I concur with all the observations. Went to Gin Gin (1 hour north
Perth) last night. The coma of the comet was on the horizon and the tail stretched at least 10 degrees then arced back to the horizon. It kind of reminded me of the arch in Arches National Park. Truly breathtaking. There are streamers in the tail which reminded me of a strong aurora...blinding in my 15x80 binoculars in the dark sky...what can I say?

James Athanasou

Hi all,

Not sure where this item should go. Seems like Iran is trying to get into the space business.

Iran has converted one of its most powerful ballistic missile into a satellite launch vehicle. The Iranian space launcher has recently been assembled and "will liftoff soon" with an Iranian satellite, according to Alaoddin Boroujerdi, the chairman of the Iranian parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission.

The move toward an independent space launch capacity is likely to ratchet up concern in the U.S. and Europe about Iran's strategic capabilities and intents. Orbiting its own satellite would send a powerful message throughout the Muslim world about the Shiite regime in Tehran.

That would make life interesting if it works.

More here: http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story.jsp?id=news/IRAN01257.xml

Maurice

This sounds like a great one to see. Hopefully in will be in cinemas soon.

"I have two moons in my head."

That's Mike Collins, the pilot of the command module for Apollo 11, at the beginning of the movie. The moon all earthlings know and the moon he circled.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/21/AR2007012101288.html

See also: http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.rss.html?pid=21743

THINKFilm has acquired North American rights to IN THE SHADOW OF THE MOON, a documentary directed by award-winning filmmaker David Sington that brings together the surviving crew members from the Apollo missions to tell their stories by interweaving stunning archival footage with first-hand testimony. The deal was announced by the company's President and CEO, Jeff Sackman, who plans to release the film in theatrical engagements in 2007 in association with Discovery Films.

Maurice

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft this month is set to surpass the record for the most science data returned by any Mars spacecraft.

Since beginning its primary science phase in November 2006, the orbiter has returned enough data to fill nearly 1,000 CD-ROMs. This ties the record for Mars data sent back between 1997 and 2006 by NASA's Mars Global Surveyor mission.

So in 3 months it has returned more data than any other Mars mission!!!!!! 8O

More here. http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/MRO/news/mro-20070207.html

Maurice

Hi all,

A friend of mine from Singapore sent me this. I like it!

Cheers,

Maurice

Subject : A pastor on his death bed

An old pastor lay dying. He sent a message for an Income Tax agent and his lawyer to come to the hospital. When they arrived, they were ushered up to his room. As they entered the room, the pastor held out his hands and motioned for them to sit on each side of the bed.

The pastor grasped their hands, sighed contentedly, smiled, and stared at the ceiling. For a time, no one said anything. Both the Income Tax agent and lawyer were touched and flattered that the old man would ask them to be with him during his final moments. They were also puzzled because the pastor had never given any indication that he particularly liked either one of them.

Finally, the Lawyer asked, "Pastor, why did you ask the two of us to come here?" The old pastor mustered all his strength, then said weakly, Jesus died between two thieves, and that's how I want to go.

Hi all,

The STEREO mission website has just released an animation taken from one of the spacecraft of comet McNaught passing perihelion. Very good!

http://stereo.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/highlight.shtml

Cheers,

Maurice

Well....almost...! 8)

New images taken with the Hubble Space Telescope show a galaxy being torn to shreads.

http://www.spacetelescope.org/news/html/heic0705.html

Cheers,

Maurice