Experience with the space program? No. But he did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night.

Astros, 3. Cardinals, 0.

Today is the birthday...

of the worst. astronaut. ever.

Above: A post-fire party aboard Mir. The uninvited Jerry sulks in his bunk while the fun-loving Russians (and a token German) drink водка and, weepy with national pride the knowledge that they came really close to dying, belt out a slurred version of Гимн Советского Союза. Jerry complains that they're being really loud and he's trying to get some sleep, God, it's not easy doing all these science experiments but he guesses they just don't give a care about science at all and how would they like it if he sang real loud or something. They just laugh and Valeri Korzun starts a round of "I'm Henry the Eighth I Am" and everyone joins in except Aleksandr Lazutkin, who's floated off to find a barf bag because even though he's Russian, the stuff never really agreed with him. Probably. I don't know. I wasn't there. But I'll bet.

Whether you can hear it or not, the universe is laughing behind your back.

Saturn and Mimas

Cassini's image from today: Saturn and tiny Mimas.


It might be tiny; still, I'd keep an eye on it:

New Hubble image. Click to enlarge. Seriously. Click.

This is one of the most beautiful Hubble images yet.
Just released, snapped in November of 2008.

From HubbleSite:

January 15, 2009: The unique planetary nebula NGC 2818 is nested inside the open star cluster NGC 2818A. Both the cluster and the nebula reside over 10,000 light-years away, in the southern constellation Pyxis (the Compass).

This Hubble image was taken in November 2008 with the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2. The colors in the image represent a range of emissions coming from the clouds of the nebula: red represents nitrogen, green represents hydrogen, and blue represents oxygen.

Comet Lulin

Comet Lulin is on the way.

I can't wait to move away from (so much) light pollution.

I can't see poo.