Time Lapse Lunar Eclipse over the Acropolis
Time lapse video by Elias Politis, uppermost, and single image composite of same, immediately above. It’s NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day for June 25.
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Astronomy
Amazingly well-timed photos of ISS silhouetted against moon, sun
Both these remarkable shots were captured from the ground by French astrophotographer Thierry Legault.
The first, showing the ISS passing in front of the full moon, was taken from Avranches, France, at 21:34 UTC on December 20, 2010. The space station, of course, is much closer to the camera than the moon is, and is moving at 7.5 km/s relative to the ground, the upshot of which is that this photograph was only possible for the 0.55 seconds it took the ISS to pass in front of the moon. Monsieur Legault knew that, in advance, planned for it, and got the shot.
The second, even more remarkable photograph, shows a double partial eclipse of the sun, most obviously by the moon, to lower left, but also, again, by the ISS. The small dark spot to lower right is a sun spot larger than the Earth itself. This photograph was only possible for a 0.86 second window at 9:09 UTC on on January 4th, 2011, from Muscat, Oman. Again, Legault carefully planned for that moment, traveled to Oman, and got the shot.
M. Legault’s website is absolutely chock-a-block with stunning astrophotography and is well worth the click. Just be prepared to spend some time gawking. [via Neatorama]
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O’Reilly author Alasdair Allan on citizen science, Perl, Arduino, and more
Amongst other emerging tools the Arduino platform has made building cheap sensor platforms within the easy reach of amateurs, and professionals, alike. One of the projects I’ll be talking about in the book is a pollution detecting hoodie which live logs geo-located level of pollutants to the Internet and alerts you to increased local pollution with embedded LEDs.
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Beautiful solar system mobile from really cheap stuff
If you’d told me yesterday that it was possible to make a solar system mobile from nothing but yarn and styrofoam craft balls that I’d be proud to hang in my living room, let alone give to a child, I would not have believed you. You win this round, Instructables user yosyam!
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How-To: Build a star-tracker for your camera
The best stellar photography requires long exposure times to capture the dimmer stars. The problem with long exposures of the night sky, of course, is that it moves. Or rather, it appears to move. So if you don’t have some way of keeping your camera pointed at the same location over the course of the exposure, you get “trailing.” Eric Chesak built this impressive star-tracking camera mount bracket and won a Design News contest back in March with it.
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How-To: Build a model Hubble Space Telescope
Our intrepid space-beat reporter Rachel Hobson spotted these cool model Hubble Telescopes on the Hubble website: There are three versions: a PVC pipe version, a basic paper model version, and an expert paper model version that even includes the internal structure of the telescope. Why not host a little Hubble-building party with some friends and […]
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Flat-pack observatory roof protoytype
Craig Smith, of Firefly Workshop, has been planning a home observatory and is working out the details of easily building a domed roof for it. He writes: Anybody with a decent telescope knows that a telescope should be cool as the night air to prevent heat radiant distortion. Aside from keeping it out in an […]
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