Holey Mars, Batman!

February 28, 2014 by nvantreeck

One of Mars’ long time residents, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, took some high resolution images of a recent impact on the planet’s surface.

Mars, like Earth and all the other planets, receives its fair share of meteorites. Like Earth, only a few of them survive to actually hit the ground with any remarkable results.

Recently, however, the orbiter got this image of an impact that shows a crater about 100 feet (30 meters) in diameter at the center. The impact threw debris up to 9.3 miles (15 kilometers) from the center.

Scientists are currently studying the data for a variety of information, both about Mars and what lies beneath and the meteorite and how it could affect future missions to the red planet.

So I am sure you are wondering why the image is blue and not red like the rest of the planet. It turns out that the terrain where the crater formed is dusty, the fresh crater appears blue in the enhanced color due to the lack of reddish dust. At first glance I thought it might be frozen water or CO2, but its just dust.

– Ex astris, scientia –

I am and avid amateur astronomer and intellectual property attorney in Pasadena, California and I am a Rising Star as rated by Super Lawyers Magazine. As a former Chief Petty Officer in the U.S. Navy, I am a proud member of the Armed Service Committee of the Los Angeles County Bar Association working to aid all active duty and veterans in our communities. Connect with me on Google +

Norman

How Big Is Big?

February 27, 2014 by nvantreeck

This past months supernovae event in M81 (my unprocessed image below) got me thinking of how big a star this had to be to dwarf most of a galaxy.

If you haven’t checked out the star size videos over on Youtube®, they are amazing. I highly recommend that you view them while not wearing 3d glasses, you might get vertigo.

And as our observations of the universe get better and better, the size of some stars is getting staggeringly large. The current size (not mass) champ is UY Scuti. At about 5 billion times the volume of the Sun, light would take almost 10 hours to go across the surface. In comparison, it takes about 8 minutes for the light from our Sun to reach Earth. We be tiny!

The classification of the monsters if very interesting as well. You have blue hypergiants, yellow hypergiants, red supergiants, and red hypergiants. The blue line is the orbit of Neptune and the red circle is our orbit.

Thankfully, our small, dim little sun is sufficient for our needs. I mean really, a red hypergiant! What could live around that. Any habitable planet would take hundreds of years to orbit. That would mean I would about 2 months old. So there might be an upside after all.

– Ex astris, scientia –

Norman

A star is born, or could be, maybe.

February 26, 2014 by nvantreeck

If you have been following me for any amount of time, you will know that my favorite movie is 2001: A Space Odyssey. A classic if there ever was one. No CGI, no stupid made up characters (are you listening George Lucas?) story driven plot and characters.

One of the highlights was when the monoliths started multiplying on Jupiter and caused it to erupt into a star! But could it happen really?

Sadly, the answer is no. Unless you have a lot, and I mean a lot of monoliths hanging around to add about 75-85 Jupiter masses to the planet.

Bummer, I think it would be kind of nice to have an interesting sunset. Alas, physics will not help me here.

– Ex astris, scientia –

Norman

Let The Battle Begin!

February 25, 2014 by nvantreeck

In this corner, the newcomer, SPHERE!

The Spectro-Polarimetric High-contrast Exoplanet REsearch telescope trained and managed exclusively by the European Space Agency.

And in this corner, another newcomer, the Gemini Planet Imager! Born and trained in North America.

Both these bruisers are set to battle it out for the title of King of Exoplanet imaging!

While most of their contemporaries find planets the old fashioned way, these two imager’s are going to take actual pictures of exoplanets!

Fighting it out down in Chile. This battle is not to be missed! And who will win this battle? Why, we will! Good luck to both teams and may the data flow begin.

– Ex astris, scientia –

Norman

How To Train For Space..Or Not.

February 24, 2014 by nvantreeck

If you ever wondered about how astronauts train, you can find out first hand for about $45k.

A new company called Waypoint 2 Space is offering you the chance to spend your money and learn how its done.

However, you might want to note that NASA doesn’t take course graduates. As a matter of fact, no one does.

So what exactly do you get? According to Kevin Heath their CEO and their website they have programs in space flight training and payload specialist. Neither of which will get you a ride on any NASA mission. As a matter of fact they have no agreements with NASA at all. You may read their website and be led to believe that there is some sort of relationship, however, upon close examination, you would be wrong. To me, in my personal opinion, parts of the site seem to be a little deceptive.

Rest assured that the ONLY way you can become and astronaut for NASA is by attending (or being selected to attend) Astronaut Candidate Training program.

As for Waypoint 2 Space, if you have the money to spend on this, I would suggest booking a flight on Virgin Galactic or one of the other companies that will actually get you close to space.

Thanks to Keith Cowing from NASA Watch for alerting everyone about this and his continued follow ups.

– Ex astris, scientia –

Norman

Starizona And The Gem Show.

February 21, 2014 by nvantreeck

Last of the trip photos.

Friday night I was able to drop by Starizona, a wonderful telescope shop. Dean the owner is also the maker of the Hyperstar system (which I use), the microtouch focuser (which I use) and the Hyperion telescope line (which I want).

Most weekends Dean keeps the store open and has star parties right in the parking lot.

You can see the traffic whizzing by on the street about 10 yards away.

Yet, you can still take images like this 20 second, hand held shot with my Canon EOS M with a 3.5mm focal length.

A little processing (very little on the jpg only) and it doesn’t turn out half bad. Editing the RAW image would have been better, but hey, I gotta work sometime.

They have a projector and screen set up for people new to astronomy to get a better look at what they see through the telescopes.

A budding young astronomer reading away. She was NOT happy when Mom made her go home.

After coming back from Kitt Peak, we stopped by the Gem and Mineral show that was being held ALL over Tucson. There was like 36 venues to choose from. I went to the main one at the civic center in downtown Tucson. The place was well lit (or I smudged the lens on my cell phone). An artist who made fantasy and crystals meld into something beautiful.

Chewie, the dino fossil won first prize for best display in his category.

Some VERY cool florescent rocks and minerals under black light.

A very expensive ($18,000) Amethyst back lit table, one of many impressive pieces from this company.

Gorgeous polished petrified wood table tops for sale as a reasonable $800-1,500 apiece.

One of my favorite artist who takes ironwood and makes these amazing works. The vase in front was $10,000.

Big assed geode (crystal egg not included).

One of my other favorites were these Australian sand sculptures. The sand flows through a barrier of air to make these one of a king images. It is like a colorful etch-a-sketch.

Really too many images to show, but I didn’t even get to see the crown jewels on display from the Smithsonian (the crowd was tremendous). All in all I estimate that there was between 2-3 billion dollars worth of art, semi-precious and precious stones on display in this one location. I haven’t gone rock hounding since my youth, but I found out that Harbor Freight sells a rock tumbling kit. I may just have to get in contact with my High School friend Mark (a geology major) and see about rounding up some rocks…..

– Ex astris, scientia –

Norman

Kitt Peak At Last!

February 20, 2014 by nvantreeck

Ok, so everything is mostly back to normal computer-wise, so now I can show you Kitt Peak! Yeah!

The entrance, listing all the Universities that participate in the site.

A cleverly crafted mirror blank art work near the front gate. Heavens above and Earth below.

The start of the journey, the visitor’s center.

Appropriately, there is a Sun clock in the court yard of the visitor’s center.

Exhibits in the visitor’s center.

A great mirror size comparison of the different mirrors on display. The “table” in the lower right hand corner is actually the glass left after the hole was cut into the actual 4.5 meter mirror.

Tucson light pollution over the years. Tucson is one of the original dark sky cities and has enacted ordinances to keep it that way. It is also the home of the International Dark Sky Association.

A model of the Solar Telescope.

The real thing.

On the way to the solar telescope, we went by the well used basketball court. You can tell the astronomers that come here are very physically active.

The entrance to the solar telescope.

Official plaque of the McMath-Pierce Solar Telescope.

The not so official plaque inside.

Such modern equipment! Actually, it isn’t used anymore. I think a commodore 64 has more computing power.

The control room proper.

Inside the loooooong tube.

The bottom were the sunlight bounces from the top mirror.

One of the mirrors that direct the sunlight to one of the many instruments inside.

One of the spectrographs that is used.

The tubes actually carry coolant to keep the inside, well cool.

Next tour, the 84″ telescope!

The dome. Dome, da, dome, dome!

A schematic of the 84″.

The scope at last.

The original maker of the mount.

The smallest camera on the telescope. They have a 4,000lb camera that the use sometimes. I’d hate to have to mount it.

A pictorial history of the telescope.

Some of the other telescopes (24 in all) on Kitt Peak.

Many, many, many more photos, but too many to show here. I will try to upload them all to my http://www.pinterest.com/nvantreeck site as fast as my connection will let me.

– Ex astris, scientia –

Norman

Technical Difficulties.

February 19, 2014 by nvantreeck

Okay, so while I was trying to upload all my photos, my computer crashed. I am in the process of recovering everything now. This means that you will have to wait till tomorrow (hopefully) to see all the images. Thanks for understanding.

– Ex astris, scientia –

Norman

A Trip To Tucson.

February 18, 2014 by nvantreeck

I had some business to attend to in Pheonix this weekend, but afterwards I moved on to Tucson for a visit.

Luckily, I was able to stop by and see one of my favorite telescope manufacturers. Once we entered we were asked if we wanted a tour! Dreams do come true!

Here is the grinding machines for the large telescopes.

The mirror coating machine that they recently purchased.

The main grinding room.

Blanks waiting to be transformed.

35mm and 60mm grinding machines waiting for blanks.

The blanks attached to base ready to be ground to perfection.

An early stage etalon ready to move on down the line.

The etalon is sandwiched between two blanks with tiny, tiny, tiny spacers less than .000005mm!

Ye Olde Optics Shop! Yeah!

All the parts starting to come together.

Parts waiting to ship.

Completed 60mm solar scope waiting for pickup by their new owners.

A lone 100mm scope amid the 60mm scopes ready and waiting.

A microscope to place the spacers.

The spacers are made from pieces of a larger piece. Literally, they just break off little pieces of the blank and place them to create the air gap necessary for the solar scope to work correctly.

Handing over an etalon!

Checking for perfection using a standard light emitter.

The business end of a Lunt Solar Scope ready for testing.

One last check, and Lunts are go!

You can find out more about these amazing solar scopes here.

Tomorrow, Kitt Peak!

– Ex astris, scientia –

Norman

One Holiday After Another.

February 17, 2014 by nvantreeck

Happy Presidents Day in the U.S.

No posts today. I am enjoying my day off! Who am I kidding! I’m working! Everyone else take the day off.

– Ex astris, scientia –

Norman

Astronomy and Law

Astronomy and Law Blog

Charon: Moon of Pluto

Monthly Archives: February 2014

Holey Mars, Batman!

How Big Is Big?

A star is born, or could be, maybe.

Let The Battle Begin!

How To Train For Space..Or Not.

Starizona And The Gem Show.

Kitt Peak At Last!

Technical Difficulties.

A Trip To Tucson.

One Holiday After Another.