See Internationl Space Station? See Steve and Joe spacewalking? Yes, those are NASA astronauts working on a truss to install a new cargo carrier attachment. What is so cool? These pictures were taken through a 10" (25cm) Newtonian reflecting telescope by Ralf Vandebergh from his backyard in the Netherlands! WOW!
Given the speed of the ISS as it passes over head, keeping a telescope aligned with the path of the ISS is quite a challenge. Taking out of this world photos showing astronauts spacewalking is well...out of this world!
Source: Wired Science
Nella's Top Space Stories
- Britain is joining other industrialized nations in establishing a national space agency with its own budget to help expand Britain's fledgling space industry. Space News
- As DarkSyde mentioned in his front page post this morning, VISTA, the largest survey telescope in the world, is up and running courtesy of European Southern Observatory who just released its 1st batch of photos. See the stunning Flame nebula below! Space.com
- NASA will hopefully being launching the new Widefield Infrared Survey Explorer on Monday on a Dela II rocket. The new IR space telescope will be able to map virtually the entire sky once in orbit in the infrared frequency range. WISE will be able to "see" new Near Earth Objects, brown dwarf stars, and IR galaxies previously unobservable due to low light radiation from these celestial objects. WISE has a resolution nearly a 1000 times better than its predecessor IRAS. Daily Mail
- As mentioned earlier this week, Congress inserted a clause in NASA FY2010 exploration budget in H.R. 3288 which effectively prevents President Obama from cancelling the Constellation program without Congressional approval. Florida Today
- Richard Branson and Virgin Galactic introduced the new SpaceShipTwo which was christened the VSS Enterprise by California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and New Mexico governor Bill Richardson. Suborbital flights should begin in 2011. Wired News
- Here is a commentary from Jeff Goldstein about the future of human spaceflight. Check his earlier commentaries linked in his post. Huffington Post
- My situation is exactly the opposite of this columnist. Slate
Astronomy Corner
A new star has been discovered in the Big Dipper. Apparently it is part of a binary system with Alcor.
Weird Space
I wrote about Saturn's Hexagon yesterday, but it is just too weird! Even DarkSyde can't get it enough of it!
Space Photo of the Week
The Flame Nebula, NGC 2024, located in the constellation of Orion as imaged by VISTA
Note: For more space stories check out Neon Vincent's Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday