It’s been all over the news – Two satellites collided in orbit.

It happened on the 10th February 2009 at 16:56:00 UTC.

The satellites involved were the out of order Russion Kosmos 2251 (93-036A) and the still working Iridium 33 (97-051C) satellite. They collided 789km above the Siberian arctic. There is now a cloud of debris quickly growing in size.

The interesting thing is that the satellites were almost at 90 degrees to each other (see image below). At that altitude, orbital velocity is around 7.4 Km/sec (27,000 Km/hour). At this speed, the chances of two objects the size of a car colliding is very slim….. but chances are chances…

I’m keeping an eye on the Space Track orbital data lists to see how much debris comes out of it.

Back in 2007, the Chinese destroyed one of their own satellites (FENGYUN 1C 99-025A). Each part of debris is catalogued and so far they are now up to 2242 pieces of debris from it’s destruction – Each piece is monitored daily to make sure it won’t collide with anything else.

The real problem is that scientists have come to agree that the number of objects in orbit has surpassed a critical mass. in scientific terms, they call it the critical spatial density. This is the point at which one collision creates debris which, through an exponential chain reaction even more collisions happen.

It’s been all over the news – Two satellites collided in orbit. It happened on the 10th February 2009 at 16:56:00 UTC. The satellites involved were the out of order...

The Daily Mail released a few pullout sheets about the moon mission. They were called “Moon Mail”.

Here is the Moon Mail from 11 July 1969.

The Daily Mail released a few pullout sheets about the moon mission. They were called “Moon Mail”. Here is the Moon Mail from 11 July 1969.

The Daily Mail released a few pullout sheets about the moon mission. They were called “Moon Mail”.

Here is the Moon Mail from 10 July 1969.

The Daily Mail released a few pullout sheets about the moon mission. They were called “Moon Mail”. Here is the Moon Mail from 10 July 1969.

As I posted yesterday, I’ve started scanning my collection of Apollo newspapers.

I’m starting with the Apollo 11 newspapers.

The Daily Mail released a few pullout sheets about the moon mission. They were called “Moon Mail”.

Here is the Moon Mail from 9 July 1969.

As I posted yesterday, I’ve started scanning my collection of Apollo newspapers. I’m starting with the Apollo 11 newspapers. The Daily Mail released a few pullout sheets about the moon...

I’ve got a bit of a collection of newspapers from the Apollo program in 1969.

Today, I finally started the task of scanning these papers. Some of them require up to 10 scans before being joined back together so it’s rather time consuming.

Hopefully now I’ve started I’ll be spurred into finishing it before the 40th Anniversary in 6 months.

I’ll post copies as I digitise them.

Wish me luck…..

I’ve got a bit of a collection of newspapers from the Apollo program in 1969. Today, I finally started the task of scanning these papers. Some of them require up...

Back in early 2004, NASA sent two rovers to Mars. The rovers were named Spirit and Opportunity.

As of today, the 3rd January 2009, Spirit has now been on the surface of Mars for 5 years. This is especially impressive as the original mission was only meant to consist of 90 days on the Martian surface.

Happy 5th Birthday Spirit

Since landing on Mars, the two rovers have collectively sent back over 250,000 images to earth and travelled over 21 kilometres.

Opportunity landed on Mars about 3 weeks after Spirit.

Information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MER-A

Back in early 2004, NASA sent two rovers to Mars. The rovers were named Spirit and Opportunity. As of today, the 3rd January 2009, Spirit has now been on the...

Apollo 8 launched 40 years ago today. This was to be the first time humans would ever orbit the moon and laid the foundation for the Apollo 11 Landing in July 1969.

The patch of Apollo 8

Believe it or not, Apollo 8 was also the most dangerous of the Apollo missions to the moon. All of the future missions took with them a lunar module (the spider bit that landed on the moon) while Apollo 8 simply took a test device of the same weight. During Apollo 13, the lunar module ended up being used as a life raft for power.

The astronauts of Apollo 8 achieved a speed of 10,822 metres per second (38,959 Km per hour) during their trip to the moon.

They also took the following legendary photo:

Earthrise Photograph by Bill Anders on December 24, 1968

Lets home Obama doesn’t pull the plug on the moon visits planned for 2020.

More information on Apollo 8 is available from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_8.

Apollo 8 launched 40 years ago today. This was to be the first time humans would ever orbit the moon and laid the foundation for the Apollo 11 Landing in...

I was unable to get a photo of the moon on friday – London has had overcast skies constantly since around noon on Friday.

Maybe next time…

Did anyone else manage to get one?

I was unable to get a photo of the moon on friday – London has had overcast skies constantly since around noon on Friday. Maybe next time… Did anyone else...

Remember that the moon will be very close to earth tonight  and a full moon.

In London the moon will be rising late and overhead at around midnight. If you only have a view to the west (like me) you will need to wait until around 2:30 am Saturday morning.

I wrote a post earlier in the week about taking photos of it to compare the relative size of the moon during it’s orbit.

I tried to get my hands on a T Mount for my camera to take photos through my telescope but ran out of time so will have to make do with my trusty 300mm lens.

The BBC have written a story about the moon too. You can find the story at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7779294.stm.

Remember that the moon will be very close to earth tonight  and a full moon. In London the moon will be rising late and overhead at around midnight. If you...

In the next few days you have the opportunity to take one of the photos of the moon to make a montage just like this one:

Source: Wikipedia

Unfortunately, good things take time so you’ll have to wait until 7th July 2009 take the other one.

The moon is in an elliptical orbit around earth. Because of this, the distance between earth and the moon differs by approximately 50,000 Km (31,000 miles).

The point farthest from earth is called Apogee and is around 406,000 Km and the point closest, called Perigee is around 358,000 Km away.

At lunar perigee the moon will appear to be around 12% larger compared with lunar apogee.

You can get a list of dates for the Lunar apogee and perigee for a given year from http://www.fourmilab.ch/earthview/pacalc.html. You should see that the 12th December this year is a full moon at perigee.

Lets jump to the chase…

Take a photo of the full moon this Friday (12th December) at a known zoom and put the photo to the side somewhere safe, then on the 7th July 2009 you should take the other one.

Both of these dates are full moons. This friday will result in the larger of the two images while the one in July 2009 will be the smaller one.

Enjoy.

In the next few days you have the opportunity to take one of the photos of the moon to make a montage just like this one: Unfortunately, good things take...