To the Moon!

Fingers crossed...

Happy Birthday to You!

Today is Cathy's birthday. That means she gets a new official birthday star, eta bootis, the southeasternmost visible star in Bootes. Also known by its Arabic name, Mufrid or Murphrid, eta bootis is one of a somewhat unusual breed of "super metal rich" stars, which means pretty much anything but hydrogen and helium. Muphrid has a metal abundance about twice that of our sun. It is surrounded by a corono nearly twice as hot as that of the sun.

It is the third brightest star in Bootes.

There are a lot of mythological stories about the origins of Bootes, the Plowman. One is that Zeus raped Callisto, a nymph who ran with Artemis. And that when she gave birth to Arcas, Hera found out and got all, like, "Hey! You been running around on me or what?"

And when Hera tried to kill Callisto and Arcas, Zeus caused a mighty whirlwind to take them into the sky. Other stories involve Artemis killing Callisto, and, again, Zeus sorrowfully sending her into the sky.

Anyway, my sister, Mary, also has a birthday coming up, and her birthday star is some nondescript star in Draco. Mine, meanwhile, is Caph, the upper right star marking the W of Casseopeia.

Your birthday star is, of course, the star whose light began its journey to earth on the day you were born. Look it up if you're bored: http://outreach.jach.hawaii.edu/birthstars/year.php

So happy birthday to my little sister, who was born when I was 18. She is the funniest one of us all, and the reason this blog is so wonderful.

Teen discovers supernova

At 14, she's the youngest person ever to discover a supernova.
Way to go, Caroline!

I'd love to know more about this young lady.
I'm sure she's absolutely fascinating, and what an inspiration for young folks who sometimes feel nerdy or out of touch with the rest of teendom.

But there's only so much typespace, and ya know, they've got to use that to keep us informed of what Kate Gosselin ate for lunch.

Binocs review from Universe Today

Tammy over at Universe Today has posted an update to her review of Celestron's UpClose 10X50 binoculars - now they're half the price and come with a green laser pointer and a red flashlight.
$29.95, y'all!

Go buy!

It's settled, then.

It shall launch on the anniversary of my birth.


Endeavour launch delayed; next opportunity, June 17th.

Friday Song

I love Rufus Wainwright's version of this song, and the 8mm home videos someone put to it are comically similar to Ward home movies. (The home movies made before I was born, of course. All the fun stuff happened before I was born.)
I mean, I actually did a double-take on some of these scenes.

Kid hit by meteorite.

I've blogged about Meteorite v. Human in the past.

Now, once again, a poor unsuspecting human being has been attacked by a space pebble, which launched its vicious assault indiscriminately and without warning.

Hell yes, he survived.

His parents might have misspelled his first name, but I think we all know what they meant.

Low altitude HD video of the lunar surface, courtesy of JAXA's Kaguya explorer.

Only in Japan. Only. in. Japan.

Better than "cats and dogs", I suppose.

Happy birthday, Bruce McCandless!

McCandless was the first guy to try out the MMU in space.
The G-rated version of the phrase that springs to mind when I see this photo of him would be "nerves of steel."
I guess I've heard Space Oddity one too many times, because this photo makes my stomach turn.

Above: Bruce McCandless goes renegade after one rehydrated beef stew too many:
"You know what? FORGET IT! I'll get my own damn dinner!"