View Japan Annular solar eclipse on May 21, 2012 in a larger map

View Japan Annular solar eclipse on May 21, 2012 in a larger map

So stoked! There’s an annular solar eclipse happening on May 20th. It will be visible in Japan and certain areas in the western U.S. so we’re taking a road trip to get a good look at it. The red line on the map shows the exact point where it can be seen in totality and if you’re somewhere outside the vicinity of the blue lines, it will be seen as a partial eclipse. Since we’re driving from southern California, the closest place for us to get the best view is northeast of Las Vegas.

An annular eclipse is different than a total eclipse. When the moon passes in front of the sun, it doesn’t completely cover it like a total eclipse does. It makes the center of the sun look like a black hole and leaves a “ring of fire” around the edges for a couple of minutes. There hasn’t been one in the U.S. in 18 years!

I’ve never seen a solar eclipse so I can’t wait! I’ll report back with lots of photos after the trip…

Photos and sources: NASA Goddard on Flickr, NASA

If I were on the International Space Station my eyes would be glued to the windows of the observatory module (the cupola).  These nighttime images of Earth taken by the Expedition 30 crew are incredible.  You can see both the Aurora Borealis and the sunrise on the horizon in the first two shots.  So wild!

Image 1: Moscow – March 28, 2012
Image 2: Ireland & the UK – March 28, 2012
Image 3: Atlantic coast of the US – February 6, 2012

These photos of Earth are part of the NASA image of the day gallery.

I melted when I read this letter posted on Brain Pickings that was written to Einstein by a young girl…

In a letter dated September 19, 1946, a young girl from South Africa named Tyfanny writes:  “I forgot to tell you, in my last letter, that I was a girl. I mean I am a girl. I have always regretted this a great deal, but by now I have become more or less resigned to the fact. Anyway, I hate dresses and dances and all the kind of rot girls usually like. I much prefer horses and riding. Long ago, before I wanted to become a scientist, I wanted to be a jockey and ride horses in races. But that was ages ago, now. I hope you will not think any the less of me for being a girl!”

Einstein replies: “I do not mind that you are a girl, but the main thing is that you yourself do not mind. There is no reason for it.”

Excerpts from the book Dear Professor Einstein: Albert Einstein’s Letters to and from Children

Photo of Einstein with his wife Elsa via Wiki, Source: Brain Pickings

How dope are these interactive 3D body apps?  You can see the structure of all parts of the body with them by rotating, cutting, zooming, and viewing animations on any Apple device.  Isn’t it such a great way to learn?

I could definitely kill some time with these apps.  Infotainment is the best.

Apps by 3D 4 Medical

Great book about spacesuits.  Space is always in fashion.

Spacesuits:  The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum Collection
by Amanda Young, Photographs by Mark Avino

Spacesuits – $29.95

Frosty Leo Nebula – 3000 light years away (December 5, 2011)

Blue Horseshoe – Red Galaxy in foreground being circled by a distant galaxy (December 19, 2011)

Cigar Galaxy (M 82) – 12 million light years away (January 2, 2012)

NGC 3259 Galaxy inside of the Ursa Major constellation, 120 million light years away (January 9, 2012)

Ancient cluster NGC 6752, 13,000 light years away and over 10 billion years old (January 30, 2012)

Just a few new Hubble Space Telescope shots from the picture of the week series.  My fav is the frosty Leo Nebula.

Photos:  spacetelescope.org

Damn, I love this.

Looking at satellite images of Earth never gets old.  This is a new composite image taken on January 4, 2012.  At 8,000 x 8,000 pixels, it’s the highest resolution photo ever taken of Earth.  Is it gorgeous or what?

Wish I could be a space photographer!

(‘Blue Marble’ shot with the Visible Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite instrument (VIIRS) on NASA’s newest Earth-observing satellite: Suomi NPP.)

Source:  Gizmodo, NASA Goddard Flickr

Photo:  JPL

Since I have a thing for space and live in southern California, I thought I’d take advantage of my location and do a little tour of JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) up in Pasadena.  One of the highlights was walking through the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) and seeing where the Mars rovers are born and tested.  I’m completely fascinated by these little robots just knowing that they’re out there exploring another planet while I’m sitting here writing… craziness!

Curiosity is the newest and largest rover family member (the one on the right above) and is due to launch at the end of this month.  It’s huge by comparison (weighing 2,000 pounds) and makes the old rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, look like babies.  I was amazed to hear that it has a rock-vaporizing laser (it’s the pink eyeball looking thing) and it’s own geology lab that can examine samples on the spot.  But I have to say, I’m a little disappointed that they didn’t just paint another pink eyeball on it since it looks like it only has one eye!  Even an eyepatch would’ve been good enough to complete it’s face!

The launch is scheduled for November 25 at 7:25 a.m. PST from Cape Canaveral, Florida and will land on Mars sometime in August 2012.  I’ll be tuned in to watch since my name is added to the microchip that is flying into space with it… (Yep, nerd’s still the word.)

Mars Curiosity on Twitter

Photos shot with the Fuji X100

It’s not a theory, brains are ALWAYS in style and Professor Brian Cox proves it.  If you were to walk by him at that train station in Mexico (pic 1) would you ever guess he was an accomplished particle physicist at CERN?  He definitely doesn’t scream “nerdy scientist” and with a getup like that you’d think he was a rockstar… Okay, well maybe he was one. (He’s on the right.)

When he’s not smashing atoms with the Large Hadron Collider or teaching at the University of Manchester, you can find him on a number of TV and radio shows.  In his most recent TV series, “Wonders of the Universe”,  he travels the world to explain the complexities of the universe by using metaphors and gorgeous cinematography.  I can’t get enough of the show, so of course I had to buy the book.

Rock on Brian.

Brian’s Website
Twitter: @ProfBrianCox
Speaking at TED

Photos:  Twitter @BBC_Wonders

Photo of Saturn shot with the Fuji X100 through the telescope lens.

Space coast is the best coast!  If you want to pretend to be an astronaut for a day, this is the place to be.  During a trip to Florida to visit the fam, we spent the day at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) and the night at Brevard Community College to peep through Florida’s largest public telescope (it’s 24″ in diameter).

There’s tons to see and do at KSC… There’s a shuttle launch simulator, spacecraft on display, IMAX movies, moon rocks, Star Trek exhibits, and you can even have lunch with an astronaut or go through astronaut training!  If you plan it right, you can catch a rocket launch!  Watching the launch of the Juno spacecraft was the icing on the cake.  Since we were staying an hour away in Orlando, we had to wake up before dawn to be some of the first 2,000 people to get priority viewing access.  It was definitely well worth it.

After a full day of mars landers, spacesuits, and alien flavored dippin’ dots, we drove 30 minutes south to the Brevard observatory and planetarium.  We were lucky to have a pretty clear sky that night and had an insanely awesome view of Saturn.  Looking at Saturn and it’s well defined rings through a telescope this large is probably one of the creepiest things.  It’s there, and I’m here… It makes me feel very small, which I love because it really puts things in perspective.

Will you boldly go?

Photos shot with the Fuji X100