I'll take the Colbert Room, please

Stephen Colbert is a NASA fan. I mean, this is the guy who introduced our hero, Garrett, to the late night comedy tv audience. And all he wants in return is to have his name on the latest ISS room, which will be delivered later this year. Thus far, "Colbert" is leading in a NASA contest to name the room. I, personally, am okay with that. Of course, "Colbert" is up against some pretty hefty competition, like "Serenity," "Legacy," "Earthrise" and "Venture," all of which sound like 70s girls' names. The new room will feature lots of windows and a machine that converts urine into drinking water. Yum.

Other US rooms on the Space are named Unity, Harmony and Destiny, all of which sound like 80s girls' names.

NASA doesn't have to abide by the results of the contest, so Colbert is by no means a done deal. But, for what it's worth, I'm voting for "Colbert."

But the next room better be named the "Ward."

Neewww Moooonnn, you saw me standing alone..

The International Astromical Union has announced the discovery of a new moon in one of Saturn's outer rings. Cassini found the moon, which is only about a third of a mile wide in Saturn's "G Ring," which they now believe was formed from icy debris that scattered when meteorites crashed into the moon.

This means Saturn has a boatload of moons.

The Cassini orbiter that found the moon was launched by NASA's JPL. The Huygens probe that separated from Cassini to research the moon, was managed by the European Space Research and Technology Centre, was part of a mission launched from Canaveral in 1997.

Really space-related

If you were to ask me to choose a living human being to spend a week with in a closed room with no food, no books and no teevee, I would pick Neil DeGrasse Tyson. If you were to tell me that I had to live the rest of my life in one building and never venture outside that building, I would choose the Rose Center for Earth and Space.

I just bought Tyson's new book, The Pluto Files, and I can't recommend it highly enough. I never knew that Uranus was originally named George for the king of England. I had no idea that Tyson was responsible for changing the mnemonic from "My very excellent mother just served us nine prunes" to "My very excellent mother just served us nine pizzas."

And I'm only on page 23!

Anyway, Neil, if you read this, my email address is on this blog. Call me if you're ever forced to pick someone to spend a week in a room with you. I'll bring the beer.

Not space-related.

But utterly awesome.

Do you know how many times in my life I've said, "Screw the top of the Eiffel Tower. Screw Times Square. Someone needs to put a live webcam on the ocean floor."

Well, guess what?

Someone did. I am addicted to this thing. I have been watching for a couple of hours and I have seen some of the coolest stuff swim by.

Here is the link to ORCA'S "Eye in the Sea" camera.

Your birthday star.

A fun thing to do when stargazing is to look at your "birthday star."
Your birthday star is a star whose light left on the long journey to Earth the year you were born.
Of course, your birthday star changes each year.
Being 37, my birthday star this year is Arcturus.
Last year, it was Denebola and next year it will be Lambda Ser.
Here's a fun chart to look up your star.
I'd imagine that if you're having a stargazing party, breaking out the Birthday Star Chart and letting everyone see "their" star would be a humongous hit.


Above: Arcturus

I know I put it here somewhere

Comet Lulin briefly lost its tail yesterday. In what is being called a "disconnection event," which sounds vaguely like something psychosomatic, a gust of solar wind tore off part of the comet's tail. Comet Lulin will come within 38 million miles (a trip to the corner store in astronomical terms) on Feb. 24. Meanwhile, tonight, the comet will be visible near the double star, Zubenelgenubi (pronounced "elephant,") in Libra.

As the Ward sisters and sister-in-law will be in O'Neil, Fla., with a still-fairly-dark sky next week, we will be watching for it. Here's what the tail thing looked like.

Gemini Ale

It's no secret that I often decide which beer to purchase based on the label.
By fortunate coincidence, I have found that the beers with the prettiest, most interesting, or most unique labels are also the best tasting beers. Thankfully, I have a liquor store within walking distance which, though small, surely has the biggest collection of beautifully-labeled beers outside of the big liquor chains.
Don de Dieu ("Gift of God") pairs nicely with the peppery Maudite ("Damned") and I first bought them because of their beautiful labels.
Naturally, opening a Maudite is a charming wink-wink nudge-nudge precursor to opening a bottle of Salvation for your guests:
Anyway.

The point of this is the latest fab beer label I came across, which turned into a new fab beer discovery.
Gemini beer not only has a beautiful label; it's space-themed, too.
Bonus.
I'm not one to wax poetic about piquant aftertastes of leather and cigar - I'll just tell you this is a really good beer.
If you'd like to hear the poetic waxing, it's all here on Beer Advocate's page devoted to the brew.

Perhaps you can find some Gemini for your next "Yuri's Night" party.

Ad astra per aspera

In memoriam.

Yakety Sax makes everything hilarious.

I thought, "Boy, I know a video that would be awesome with The Benny Hill Show theme."
So I went to the Benny Hillifier and you know what?


I was right.

What?