20110515

Space Shuttle Endeavour STS-134 (201104280022HQ)

The space shuttle Endeavour is seen on launch pad 39a as a storm passes by prior to the rollback of the Rotating Service Structure (RSS), Thursday, April 28, 2011, at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. During the 14-day mission, Endeavour and the STS-134 crew will deliver the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) and spare parts including two S-band communications antennas, a high-pressure gas tank and additional spare parts for Dextre. Launch is targeted for Friday, April 29 at 3:47 p.m. EDT. Photo credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

04-01983 Ryan X-13 Vertijet c. 1955

20101202

night reflections

night reflections, upload feito originalmente por davedehetre.

20101109

Aound the sword of Orion

Aound the sword of Orion, upload feito originalmente por 3D King.

20100905

Comet Seen thru Diffuse Aurora

Comet Seen thru Diffuse Aurora, upload feito originalmente por David Cartier.

20100414

Moonsets over Honolulu - 2nd try

20100118

2009 Leonid Meteor


2009 Leonid Meteor, upload feito originalmente por Navicore

From 2:20am at the peak of the 2009 Leonid Meteor Shower. The radiant seems correct for Leo rising in the east. There is a rare amount of meteor detail in this shot. A particle streaks ahead of an awesome double afterglow and colorful train.

ISO 1600, K20D with an old Super Takumar m42 50mm 1:1.4 open all the way for 6 seconds and continuous.

I didn't crop or reframe the photo at all. The train even hung around for the the next exposure that started over 6 seconds later.

50mm isn't that big a field. I was about to switch to a much wider but slower lens. Glad I didn't, it is like the thing is posing for the 50mm.

Startrails


Startrails [54min Exposure], upload feito originalmente por g_e_r_r_y.

Stones of Stenness


Stones of Stenness, upload feito originalmente por JanuaryJoe.



I'M LAZY!

20090830

experience the planets


20090618

mercury


Recent images from the robotic MESSENGER spacecraft that flew by Mercury last October show previously uncharted regions of Mercury that have large craters with an internal smoothness similar to the maria on Earth's own Moon. Therefore, like our Moon's maria, these craters on Mercury are thought to have been flooded by lava floes that are old but not as old as the surrounding more highly cratered surface. The above image mosaic of the western limb of Mercury was created by MESSENGER as it approached the Solar System's innermost planet last October. Old and heavily textured terrain runs across much of the image bottom, while across the middle left lies comparatively smooth impact basins where small craters may appear similar at first to protruding hills. MESSENGER will buzz past Mercury again later this year before entering orbit in 2011.

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20090501

Busy Moon


Half an hour after Prometheus tore into Saturn's F ring, Cassini snapped this image just as the moon was creating a new streamer in the ring. The dark pattern shaped like an upside down check mark in the lower left of the image is Prometheus and its shadow. The potato shaped moon can just be seen coming back out of the ring.

The moon’s handiwork also is apparent in two previous streamer-channel formations on the right of the image. The darkest streamer-channel stretching from the top right to the center of the image shows Prometheus’ previous apoapse passage about 15 hours earlier. A fainter, even earlier channel extends to the edge of the image.

Prometheus (86 kilometers, 53 miles across) dips into the inner edge of the F ring when it reaches apoapse, its farthest point from Saturn. At apoapse, the moon’s gravity pulls out particles of the ring into a streamer. As Prometheus moves back toward periapse -- its orbit's closest point to the planet -- the streamer gets longer. Then, as Prometheus moves back toward apoapse, the streamer breaks apart which results in a dark channel. This streamer-channel cycle repeats once every orbit with the streamer-channel features being streamers during Prometheus periapse and channels during Prometheus apoapse.

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