The world seems a better place.
 

http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/Hi...hotos/6550.jpg

30th Anniversary of Apollo 11

Hey! Who took the other half?

Wait, where have all the stars gone? ;)

It's all a conspiracy -- this picture was taken in Arizona. :)

It's the daylight side of the earth ... the stars come out at night. :cool:

I'd love to see that animated .. Watching the clouds appear and move and evaporate over the whole surface would be very cool.

Sky and Telescope
 

I came across this site recently.

http://skyandtelescope.com/#

They have an interactive sky chart that you can use to find objects in the sky (I believe it covers only the US and Canada though). Apparently there is a naked eye comet (Ikeya-Zhang)out there right now... but its been cloudy here.

Hasselblads in space
 

From the square format you can tell this was taken with one of the specially designed Hasselblad cameras that went on so many trips. They were designed to controls that were easy to use with the gloves of a space suit and were equiped with 70 mm film backs for extra exposures without a film change. NASA also experimented with some modified Nikons and Leicas. I imagine they are using mostly digital cameras now on space shuttle trips.

As I recall most of all the cameras were ditched on the moon so they could bring back rocks and the astronauts. Some day maybe a salvage crew will go there to get the cameras. It would be a neat trip, until they find a field of eggs with nasty aliens in them. Make a great plot for a movie. Right Mother? Sure Hal. :3eye:

Re: Hasselblads in space
 

Probably the most valuable Hassys ever made. a good write up at http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/Hi.../a11-hass.html Each of the special magazines coupled with thin film stock held 200 images.

Two weeks ago CNN was talking about the Hubble upgrades. They showed the optical disc jukebox (or whatever subsystem is inside that thingie the size of half a room) that holds ALL the Hubble data. They must have some sort of super-sensitive CCD digicam capturing the short end of the telescope. It couldn't be film, because the Hubble doesn't have a nearby 1-hour photo processing center.

I think the guy said it was 70 terabytes of data. So far.

Christ on a cracker! I'd love to get my hands on the "best of ..." part of that.

HAHAHAHAHA. Christ on a cracker. I know this is way off topic, but man that cracked me up. Where did you hear that? :)

Must be one of them Central PA things. ;)