Space Station passed over my house last night

August 4, 2012

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Go to full screen to glimpse the station.

Moon watching 2012

January 2, 2012

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Apollo 17 / NASA

The Moon.  It’s a real place.  A world of it’s own, that hangs in our sky.  It may be the very reason life exists on this planet.  Formed when a planet the size of Mars collided with the (then smaller-than-now) Earth, the results of that chaos formed the (more-properly designated) double-planet system we see today.  We often talk about the Moon orbiting the Earth, but it doesn’t, not really.  The Earth and the Moon both orbit around a common center of gravity.  That center is some miles below the surface of the Earth, but it is not the center of the Earth.  The Moon is considered the largest satellite (even though it’s not, not really) of a planet, relative to the primary’s size, in our solar system, with the possible exception of Pluto/Charon.  Now that Pluto has been downgraded from planet status, the Moon may hold that title without challenge.

I took my telescope out into the back yard tonight, and had a look-see.

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