Tuesday, December 17, 2013

I met at astronaut!

Last Saturday, I awoke at 5.30am, hopped on a train to Cork city, then a 3 hour bus to Dublin for a small adventure.

Commander Chris Hadfield was doing a book signing in Easons on O'Connell Street and I was determined to see him. He was incredible during his time on the ISS, sharing details of life in space with everyone via twitter and youtube. I am a huge fan, and so to Dublin I went.

For some reason, I was not expecting there to be many people at the signing. I figured maybe 50 or 100 people would show up to see an astronaut signing his book. This is Ireland after all, and I didn't think there was a particularly huge space fan-base here. 

Boy, was I wrong. 

I arrived in Easons at 11.10, and saw what looked like a fairly short queue so I had a little wander around the shop for a few minutes. I figured I should pick up a copy of the book, but I couldn't find one. I asked an assistant, who seemed awfully stressed and she told me that they were selling so fast, they had moved all the remaining copies behind the counter. I headed up and bought one, and the lady behind the counter told me they could no longer guarantee a signed copy to anyone not already queuing. So I went to the back of the queue where I was met by a security guard who directed me out the door to the actual back of the queue, which stretched several hundred people down the street! 

I was amazed to see so many people there. And such a mix of people. I was speaking to an elderly man for a bit, and there was a family with a little girl in the queue in front of me, and a family with two teenage boys behind me. And absolutely everyone was in such good form. Despite the pouring rain and freezing cold, and the fact that we were queuing outside for 2 hours, everyone was visibly happy and excited. It was brilliant to see. 

So 2 and a half hours after I arrived in Easons, I got to meet Commander Hadfield. He was super nice, very humble and gracious. I had to shake his hand, cos you know, when am I going to get to touch an astronaut again?! He said 'Thanks for waiting' and I said 'Thanks for coming to Ireland!' 

A super nice security guard took this photo for me. I think my excitement is visible. Also my damp coat.

All in all, it lasted about 30 seconds, but it was completely worth it. A great day! 

PS. His book is a great read. Highly recommended.

Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Happy 15th ISS!

We get so much interesting science, not to mention enjoyment, from the International Space Station, it seems only fair to wish it a Happy Birthday!

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(Source)

The first International Space Station component, the Russian Zarya module, was launched in November 1998. In the 15 years since, NASA and its global partners have built a world class orbiting laboratory, establishing a continuous human presence in space since 2000 and paving the way for future exploration beyond. 

My first view of ISON!

I got up at 4.30am yesterday, cycled 7km in 2°C in an attempt to spot ISON before it disappears from view. As it is, it's very low in the morning sky, only 5ish degrees above the horizon. That, combined with the full moon blasting light all over the sky and the lights in the harbour, meant I had my work cut out for me! 

Cork Harbour - not ideal for astronomy.

I located Mars and Arcturus, and used them to find Spica, which was very low when I started. From there I attempted to hop to ISON using my binos. It was very difficult. I knew where it should be, but it just wasn't visible. Eventually, in the short period when it was high enough, and the sunrise hadn't brightened the sky too much, I managed to spot a faint green-ish blur. Success! 

After 2 and a half hours, I had very numb fingers and a whole heap of photos to edit. This is the result. 

YAY COMET!

I'll probably play with it a bit more and try to pull some more from it, but for now, given the conditions, I'm pleased. 

A Stellarium screenshot for comparison.

I stayed around to catch a gorgeous sunrise over the harbour. 

Sunrise.

Then I cycled home, filled a hot-water bottle and crawled into bed to attempt to regain feeling in my extremities.

All in all, a great morning.

PS. Bonus setting moon.


Sunday, November 17, 2013

Gravity! *Potential Spoilers*

I've now seen Gravity in the cinema twice, in both 2D and in 3D. It is awesome. Stunningly beautiful to watch, and pretty much non-stop action from start to finish.

Obviously, a certain amount of artistic licence is taken, and the film is not 100% realistic. I was so caught up in the story that most of the inaccuracies went over my head, but the one I noticed was, during the crying scene, when Sandra Bullocks tears did a sort of sweet, gently floating off her face thing.

I remembered a video Commander Chris Hadfield did showing how crying in space really works...


...And it was nowhere near as sexy as Sandra made it look! 

Friday, November 15, 2013

#WaveAtSaturn Part 2

Back in July, I posted about #WaveAtSaturn. On that day, we were given advance warning, for the first time ever, that a spacecraft would be photographing the Earth at a certain time. All over the globe, many people went outside to wave towards Saturn, where the Cassini spacecraft would be. The image from that day is now viewable online, and it's a beauty!

(source, hi-res)

A collage was made with the many photos submitted using the wave at Saturn hashtag too. It's pretty nifty!

(source, hi-res)

Very cool to see so many people getting involved!

Monday, November 11, 2013

Touchdown Expedition 37!

Just wanted to do a quick photo-dump of the screenshots I took at stupid o'clock last night during the most recent landing of a Soyuz craft from the International Space Station.

The Soyuz capsule seen drifting away from the ISS.

Soyuz more than 300km above the Pacific Ocean.

Soyuz with parachute deployed, flanked by a Russian helicopter.

Touchdown! 

Mission Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin back on terra firma, holding the Olympic Torch.

ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano is all smiles.

Nyberg, Yurchikhin and Parmitano well wrapped up against the cold.
It was a great landing, as they always are! Those Soyuz crafts are amazing things! 

Friday, July 19, 2013

#WaveAtSaturn

Wave At Saturn is currently happening! Quick, run outside and look up! You are being photographed from 900 million miles away! 


Saturday, June 29, 2013

When We Left Earth

This is a very cool documentary series, consisting of 6 parts, looking at American human spaceflight. Well worth checking out...



You can find the other parts here: two, three, four, five, six.

That's my Saturday sorted!

Thursday, May 30, 2013

Sunny days!

The weather has been absolutely amazing lately! Savage sunny days, really high (for Ireland) temperatures and no cloud! Unfortunately, that means that night-time astronomy has taken a bit of a back seat, it doesn't get properly dark til midnight, and I'm working tons so I can't stay outside all night...

However, I've been doing a teeny bit of solar astronomy. I'm still finding it tricky to get decent focus, but I got this shot the other day that I was pretty pleased with!


As a comparison, here's the shot I pulled from the NASA website...


Not perfect but I'm happy! 

Saturday, April 6, 2013

Jupiter

I finally managed to get a half decent photograph of Jupiter!!


It's a single shot taken using a Canon 450D, so it's not brilliant, but it's the best I've managed thus far. I'm still working on getting a usable webcam for planets.

I had a quick wander around the sky looking for PANSTARRS too, but couldn't spot it. I found it alright a week or two ago, but my decent camera was out of order so this is the best shot I could get...


The sky is currently nothing but cloud, so hopefully it'll clear a bit later and I can try again!