This Evening's Bright Satellites

It is fun and easy to spot satellites. I like to use CalSky to give me personalized reminders of when and where to look.

This evening we had a bright iridium flare. It was shining at magnitude -5.6, but only 17.6 degrees above the horizon. I didn't have my camera quite set when I spotted the satellite. I plunked it down and grabbed this shot just in time:

Canon 3Ti 18-55mm lens, ISO 1600, f/5.6, 5 sec.

We also had a bright passage of the International Space Station this evening. At its highest it was 68 degrees above the horizon and shining at -4.3. Here are two shots combined into one frame from the end of the passage:

Canon 3Ti 18-55mm lens, ISO 1600, f/5.6, 2 30 sec. exposures

The bright star just to the right of my house and the trail of the ISS is Vega in the constellation of Lyra, the harp.

Planets. Bats.

Early evening is the time to head out to see the planetary conjunction. It is also the time to start feeding on insects, especially if you are a bat. We have seen a lot of them these evenings while looking at the conjunction. Tonight I actually grabbed some pics of the bats too.

Here's a wide shot of the three planets and a bat:

Canon 3Ti 1/40 Sec 55-250mm Zoom f/5.6 ISO 3200

And a couple more, cropped from the full frame showing just a bat and Venus:

For you planet purists out there here's a shot of the conjunction without any bats in it:

Canon 3Ti 1/25 Sec 55-250mm Zoom f/5.6 ISO 3200

The group of planets is pulling apart as Mercury ascends and Jupiter is sinking in the western sky. It should still be worth a look tomorrow night as May ends, but not for much longer.

Tonight's View of the Conjunction

Here's how the planetary conjunction looked this evening:

Canon 3Ti 1/40 Sec 55-250mm Zoom f/5.6 ISO 3200

Canon 3Ti 1/25 Sec 55-250mm Zoom f/5.6 ISO 3200

Jupiter is rapidly sliding from view, presenting quite a different alignment relative to Venus and Mercury than it did just 2 nights ago. It is worth checking out while you still can.

There Are Four Planets!

The planetary conjunction continues to put on a nice show in the early evening sky. It is nice to get four planets in one view (Yes, I am counting Earth).

Here's how it looked from our driveway earlier this evening:

Canon 3Ti 0.3 Sec 55-250mm Zoom at 100mm f/5.6 ISO 1600

It is nice to see how much their positions have changed since two nights ago. Here's a closer view with the planets labeled:

Canon 3Ti 1/25 Sec 55-250mm Zoom at 250mm f/5.6 ISO 1600

I took far more shots than anyone would want to see, but this last one is unique in its own way. I caught Venus just as it was setting. Can you spot it?

Canon 3Ti 0.3 Sec 55-250mm Zoom at 250mm f/5.6 ISO 1600

Here is a cropped view of the full frame shot:

Notice how Venus is reddened, just like the Sun is at sunrise or sunset.

The title of this post is (naturally) a Star Trek reference. If you are wondering how to say it, let Jean-Luc Picard show you the way:

Star Trek: Tomorrow is Yesterday

Time travel. Stock footage. What's not to love in this episode of Star Trek? Unfortunately, there really isn't much to love at all here.

The Enterprise is accidentally thrown backward in time to 20th Century Earth, just days before the first mission to the Moon, where it is picked up and pursued by the Air Force as a UFO. Ironically, this episode first aired on January 26, 1967, just one day before the Apollo One fire, an event that took the lives of three astronauts and delayed the real missions to the Moon.

Struggling to regain power and fearful that the Air Force plane might be able to damage them, they try to hold the plane back with a tractor beam. When it begins to break apart Kirk has the pilot beamed aboard.

Alas, they how have someone from the past on board who has seen the future. Just as bad the pilot, Captain Christopher, reveals that he took footage of the Enterprise with his wing cameras. Once they find the wreckage and develop the film their presence here will be confirmed as a real alien threat. As Spock explains, "our tractor beam caught and crushed an Air Force plane. It'll be impossible to explain this as anything other than a genuine UFO. Possibly alien, definitely destructive."

So the crew must infiltrate an Air Force base and retrieve the film with Captain Christopher's help. Of course Christopher wants to escape so that complicates things. Mayhem ensues as another Air Force officer is beamed aboard and Kirk is taken prisoner.

The one key to possibly enjoying this episode is to not think about what is happening. At all.

We learn that, much to the annoyance of Kirk and Spock, the ship's computer has a female personality. This was part of an attempt to add some humor to the episode but it didn't work (It's really much more degrading to women). There's just one moment for me that was funny. Kirk is explaining the situation to Christopher after he beams aboard. Just as they walk onto the bridge Christopher says "I never have believed in little green men" as Spock is revealed saying "Nether have I." Unfortunately, this is the highlight of the episode.

Once they have recovered the films and realize that by not returning Captain Christopher they will be altering history, Spock and Scotty devise a plan to make everything right again. Spock explains it to Captain Christopher, "the only possible solution is the slingshot effect, like the one that put us here. My computations indicate that if we fly toward the sun, seek out its magnetic attraction, then pull away at full power, the whiplash will propel us into another time warp....Logically, as we move faster and faster toward the sun, we'll begin to move backward in time. We'll actually go back beyond yesterday, beyond the point when we first appeared in the sky. Then, breaking free will shoot us forward in time, and we'll transport you back before any of this happened."

Um, okay. Kirk adds, "You won't have anything to remember, because it never would have happened."

They then do their slingshot thing, beam people back into themselves--a maneuver that I still do not understand--and, by reversing the engines, fly forward in time to their present day. 

This one is best forgotten. Not terrible, but not worth your time either.

Next up, will be a classic Kirk vs. Computer episode - Return of the Archons.

Conjunction Junction, What's Your Function?

Until tonight I've been to crazy busy to even check out the nice conjunction of Jupiter, Venus and Mercury that is taking place in our evening skies. Have you seen it?

This evening's view from near Tucson, AZ began with a nice sunset. Wouldn't you agree?

Thankfully the cirrus clouds did not interfere with the view. Can you spot the three planets in the shot below?

It's a bit tough, so here's the same shot, but with the planets labeled.

 And another shot, this time taken with a zoom lens:

Any pairing or grouping of planets like this is called a conjunction (hence the title of this post). It might be surprising to think that we have the two inner planets (Venus and Mercury) grouped with one of the outer planets (Jupiter).

When we look at this conjunction of planets, are we essentially looking inward and outward at the same time?

Yes, we are.

Here's a screen shot grabbed from my iPad running Sky Safari Pro:

As you can see, from our vantage point on Earth Mercury, Venus, and Jupiter are all in the same general direction. You can almost draw a line from Earth to Mercury, Venus and Jupiter and that's the geometry that gives us our conjunction. For more details on the conjunction and how the view changes from night to night, check out this info from Sky&Telescope magazine.

And if you are looking for some Schoolhouse Rock, you'll find it here.

In Which I Blog about Meeting Authors at Cons and Star Trek Continues

Until recently it had been quite sometime since I had been to a science fiction convention. That has changed as I have now attended two of them in just the last couple of weeks.

In early May I attended the very small LepreCon in Mesa, AZ. I went specifically to meet the author guest of honor, Jack McDevitt. He's one of my favorite sci fi authors writing today. Jack was kind enough to sign a book and pose for a pic with me. He's one of the few authors where I pretty much want to read everything he is writing. His varied career has convinced me that it isn't too late for me to try my hand at writing. After starts and stops, he took up writing at age 45. So maybe it is okay for me to give writing fiction a shot at 50. (I'll let you know if things work out.)

This weekend I attended the much, much larger Phoenix Comic Con (PCC). I was part of one of their science panels--presenting with Lowell Observatory's Gerard van Belle and Ray Sanders of CosmoQuest. The session went very well (You should have been there!).

While at the con I had to do some geeky things. First up was to catch author John Scalzi. John signed a copy of his new novel, The Human Division and pose for pics with me.

I attended one of his sessions where he proved that he knows how to work a crowd and have a good time doing it.

As you can see I was wearing a Star Trek shirt. Speaking of Trek, PCC turned out to be a good con for those who like classic Trek, as it saw the debut of the first episode of Star Trek Continues.

Star Trek Continues debuted before a full house at Phoenix Comic Con

Their first episode is called Pilgrim of Eternity and it amazingly takes up right where TOS left off. In the guest role stars Michael Forest,  returning to the role of Apollo that he played all those years ago in Who Mourns for Adonais?

Michael Forest (right) is Apollo

Michael Forest owns the role of Apollo (even after all these years) and the new cast and crew has done and amazing job of making this new show look and feel like the Star Trek of old. It is an amateur project, done out of love for Trek, but there is nothing amateurish about it. I liked it much better than Into Darkness. You should watch it for yourself. 

Of course, being a comic con, there was lots and lots of cosplay on display. Lately, I have finally been watching Doctor Who (to slightly broaden my horizons). It is interesting that clean cut and well dressed counts as looking like the Doctor. There were many at the con dressed as the Doctor and as Companions. This was perhaps the youngest person at the con dressed as the Doctor:

It was nice to see so many people, young and old, having such a good time at the con.