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drljefe
climber
El Presidio San Augustin del Tucson
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Mar 13, 2013 - 12:06am PT
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Not WELL with the naked eye.
I used a pair of binoculars and it was perfect, pretty much what you see in this pic.
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john hansen
climber
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Mar 13, 2013 - 12:20am PT
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Thats a nice shot..
How long was the exposure?
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drljefe
climber
El Presidio San Augustin del Tucson
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Mar 13, 2013 - 12:31am PT
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Not sure, my buddy in phoenix shot it.
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climbski2
Mountain climber
Anchorage AK, Reno NV
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Mar 13, 2013 - 12:32am PT
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Waiting for ISON.. Hale-Bop was very cool but if ISON works out it will be visible during the day!
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Mike Bolte
Trad climber
Planet Earth
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Mar 14, 2013 - 02:56am PT
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Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
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Sep 22, 2014 - 11:55am PT
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Seems to be going well with Maven, and Mangalyaan should be joining it soon. Hot times for a cold planet. The big excitement this fall could be Rosetta trying to land on a comet.
If any of you stargazers are interested, I've started a planetary discussion on the plate tectonics thread. Feel free to jump in.
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climbski2
Mountain climber
Anchorage AK, Reno NV
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Nov 11, 2014 - 03:05pm PT
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If all goes well Rosetta will launch a craft to land on a Comet tomorrow around 8am.
Watch live here http://rosetta.esa.int/
Here is a cool selfie it took with the comet in the background and a plume of gas visible.
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Darwin
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Nov 11, 2014 - 06:58pm PT
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Bump!!!
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climbski2
Mountain climber
Anchorage AK, Reno NV
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Nov 11, 2014 - 11:09pm PT
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Final go has been given.Command for landing has been transmitted. The attempt will begin in about an hour.
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Tvash
climber
Seattle
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Nov 12, 2014 - 01:16am PT
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Philae is away and descending.
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climbski2
Mountain climber
Anchorage AK, Reno NV
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Nov 12, 2014 - 06:20am PT
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The top thruster that was supposed to hold philae to the surface for full stop may not be functioning, they say 50/50. A harpoon system is hoped to work if not. Gravity of the comet is less than .00001G and the lander will impact at less than 4Mph but now could bounce right back into space. If the surface is not perpendicular in relation to the direction of descent.. ie "sloped" then that would be also a problem.
Hopefully the "cliffhanger" landing system will work..I have some doubts. So do the design and operations teams. It will take some luck.
A Harpoon unit
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Sierra Ledge Rat
Mountain climber
Old and Broken Down in Appalachia
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Nov 12, 2014 - 07:19am PT
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Back in the Cold War days I worked for the United States Space Command undergound in Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado. I had a few interested tasks as part of my job.
Every day I used to calibrate the orbits of the GPS satellites. G.I.G.O. You can't get good GPs data unless the orbits are properly calibrated. I used tacking data from space sensors around the world to calculate and calibrate the orbital vectors.
I was also one of the orbital safety officers for the manned space program. There's a lot junk in orbit, which posed a real hazard to the space shuttle. (A one-pound piece space junk travelling at 18,000 m.p.h has the same kinetic energy as a 100,000-pound locomotive traveled at 60 m.p.h.) My job was to keep track of the space junk and the shuttle, and help NASA change the shuttle's orbit to avoid space junk.
It's still in the news:
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/space-station-dodges-chinese-space-junk-26857653
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climbski2
Mountain climber
Anchorage AK, Reno NV
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Nov 12, 2014 - 07:44am PT
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Seems like a very interesting job. On watch to protect our astronauts is pretty cool stuff! Ever detect an object that caused a course change? How involved where you in that sort of thing?
Philae has either landed or not by now. It's aproximately 500Mkm away so something like 25 light minutes delay for info.
Live broadcast http://rosetta.esa.int/
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climbski2
Mountain climber
Anchorage AK, Reno NV
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Nov 12, 2014 - 08:04am PT
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Flurry of intense activity ..Control room is cheering. Anouncement coming?......seem to be double checking..all that is for sure is telemetry being received..seem to have some inconsistencies. no announcement yet.. hard to tell what they are seeing..they seem to be figuring it out themselves.
8:10 am PST Confirmed.. Lander on the surface. Harpoons fired and rewound.. lander is on the surface.
Congrats to the European Space Agency!
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Gunkie
Trad climber
East Coast US
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Nov 12, 2014 - 09:51am PT
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This asteroid, however, is a possible bad boy. It's classified as a PHA (Potentially Hazardous Asteroid). My little observatory is credited as a co-discoverer. As of today, though, the probability of its colliding with Earth at some future date is calculated at something significantly less than one percent.
Yes, but is it an ISIS or al Quada controlled comet? That would make a big difference and the US would need more Republicans in office to save us from the evils that lurk in space. Of course your funding might be cut because you can see further than 6000 years into the past and might see the face of god. And if that happens, mohammed will become gay and mass orgies will breakout in Utah. Maybe they do already.
I feel snarky today.
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Tvash
climber
Seattle
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Nov 12, 2014 - 11:10am PT
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They just aimed and dropped the thing from 22 km. No thrusters.
Dayum. Nicely done.
7 cameras on board. 1st surface pics in a few hours.
This is so cool.
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