Color Mosaic of Olympus Mons on Mars by NASA on The Commons on Flickr.
Color mosaic of Olympus Mons volcano on Mars from the Viking 1 Orbiter. The mosaic was created using images from orbit 735 taken 22 June 1978.
Olympus Mons is about 600 km in diameter and the summit caldera is 24 km above the surrounding plains. The complex aureole terrain is visible at the top of the frame. North is up. (Viking 1 Orbiter MH20N133-735A)
A rare second Full Moon of the month, known as a “Blue Moon,” is seen over Cincinnati on Friday, Aug. 31, 2012.
The family of Apollo 11 Astronaut Neil Armstrong held a memorial service celebrating his life earlier in the day in Cincinnati. Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon during the 1969 Apollo 11 mission, died Saturday, Aug. 25. He was 82.
Image Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls
Tonight is a Blue Full Moon. The last blue moon occurred on Dec. 31, 2009 and that “New Year’s Eve Blue Moon” also coincided with a partial lunar eclipse (for viewers in Europe, Asia, Africa and some parts of Alaska).
This is our last blue moon until 2015. A Blue Moon - the second of two full moons in one month - aren’t all that rare and aren’t any different in color, it’s nice that they get more people to look up at the night sky.
The next blue moon won’t occur until July 31, 2015, so you should check this one out.
Actually, it’s not an event you have to stay up late to observe. The moon will be at its fullest at 9:58 a.m. EDT on Friday, so you can check it out early morning too.
The real rare one is a year with two blue moons and the last time we had two months with two full moons was in 1999. The next time double blue moons will occur is in 2018.
Sing along with the moon (and The Marcels)
“If I had to choose a religion, the sun as the universal giver of life would be my god.”
Napoleon Bonaparte
(Source: argentumcosmos)
Get out your copy of Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon
Apollo 15 Onboard Photo: Earth’s Crest Over the Lunar Horizon by NASA on The Commons on Flickr.
Apollo 15 Onboard Photo: Earth’s Crest Over the Lunar Horizon Collection: NASA Marshall Space Flight Center Collection Name of Image: Apollo 15 Onboard Photo: Earth’s Crest Over the Lunar Horizon Full Description: This view of the Earth’s crest over the lunar horizon was taken during the Apollo 15 lunar landing mission. Apollo 15 launched from the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) on July 26, 1971 via a Saturn V launch vehicle. Aboard was a crew of three astronauts including David R. Scott, Mission Commander; James B. Irwin, Lunar Module Pilot; and Alfred M. Worden, Command Module Pilot. The first mission designed to explore the Moon over longer periods, greater ranges and with more instruments for the collection of scientific data than on previous missions, the mission included the introduction of a $40,000,000 lunar roving vehicle (LRV) that reached a top speed of 16 kph (10 mph) across the Moon’s surface. The successful Apollo 15 lunar landing mission was the first in a series of three advanced missions planned for the Apollo program. The primary scientific objectives were to observe the lunar surface, survey and sample material and surface features in a preselected area of the Hadley-Apennine region, setup and activation of surface experiments and conduct in-flight experiments and photographic tasks from lunar orbit. Apollo 15 televised the first lunar liftoff and recorded a walk in deep space by Alfred Worden. Both the Saturn V rocket and the LRV were developed at the Marshall Space Flight Center. Date of Image: 1971-07-26
I never will have time
I never will have time enough
To say
How beautiful it is
The way the moon
Floats in the air
As easily
And lightly as a bird
Although she is a world
Made all of stone.
I never will have time enough
To praise
The way the stars
Hang glittering in the dark
Of steepest heaven
Their dewy sparks
Their brimming drops of light
So fresh so clear
That when you look at them
It quenches thirst.
by Anne Porter, from Living Things: Collected Poems
Moons outnumber the planets by around 20 to 1 - here is a guide to ten of the solar system’s most noteworthy moons 10 Moons Every Person Should Know
(via npr)
Mimas, moon of Saturn
Beloved if only because of its resemblance to a certain sci-fi film location…
Mimas is small and icy, but it’s also home to “Herschel” — the name astronomers have given that massive crater situated on the moon’s leading hemisphere.
At 139-kilometers wide, Herschel is almost one-third the diameter of Mimas itself, and is what makes it seem so Death Star-ish. (BTW, the Herschel crater was discovered three years after the release of that Star Wars - but those films do have a knack for predicting some astronomical discoveries).
Plus, it’s also geeky cool that temperature maps of Mimas reveal hot regions that look like Pac-Man eating a dot.
One of my favorite moons. Everyone has favorite moons, right?
Io moon to Jupiter - very close in size to our own moon, but it couldn’t be more different. Despite having a mean surface temperature of less than -250 degrees Fahrenheit, Io is home to over 400 raging volcanoes, making it the single most geologically active object in the solar system.
Full Moon
The moon will be turning a vivid red to viewers in western North America during a total lunar eclipse on Saturday, Dec. 10.
Those in the Pacific Time zone will be able to catch the event starting at 6:05 am and lasting until 6:57 am, which means only those who wake up early (or go to bed very late) will manage to glimpse the blood-red moon before the sun rises. Unfortunately, both sunrise and moonset will prevent those in the eastern U.S. from watching the eclipse.
But if you’re not in the right place to see this spectacular occurrence, Slooh — a public space camera collaboration with telescopes in Hawaii, Australia, and Asia — has got your back.
