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January 2007 and beyond...
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Future events or events in progress. |
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Events listed below, are mostly of general or scientific interest.
They are events people can often be part of them. |
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| January 12 |
ASOD Meeting ASOD (Astronomy Society of the Desert, Coachella Valley, California). |
| January 20 |
ASOD Star party ASOD (Astronomy Society of the Desert, Coachella Valley, California). Location: Coachella Valley Preserve. |
| February 9 |
ASOD Meeting ASOD (Astronomy Society of the Desert, Coachella Valley, California). |
| February 17 |
ASOD Star party ASOD (Astronomy Society of the Desert, Coachella Valley, California). Location: Coachella Valley Preserve. |
| March 9 |
ASOD Meeting ASOD (Astronomy Society of the Desert, Coachella Valley, California). |
| March 17 |
ASOD Star party ASOD (Astronomy Society of the Desert, Coachella Valley, California). Location: Coachella Valley Preserve. |
Solar system |
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| Object: Earth Moon. Date and Time standard: PST (Pacific Standard Time). Year: 2006-2007 |
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| Month: |
1st quarter: |
full moon: |
latest quarter: |
new moon: |
| January 2007 |
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3 |
11 |
18 |
| January |
25 |
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| February |
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1 |
10 |
17 |
| February |
23 |
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| March |
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3 |
11 |
18 |
| March |
25 |
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| Date: |
what time: |
Events: |
Where: |
good chances of observation with: |
May last a few days: |
| Naked eyes |
Bino
culars |
Tele
scopes |
| 1-31 |
evening night |
Pleiades in Taurus, will be visible the whole month, high in the sky. |
South-East to South-West |
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x |
x |
x |
| 1-31 |
evening night |
Orion, will be visible the whole month. |
South-East |
x |
x |
x |
x |
| 1-7 |
evening night |
Mars will be incrisingly difficult to observe. It will move from Ophiuchus to Sagittarius. |
West |
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x |
x |
x |
| 3 |
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Earth will ba at the closest point to the Sun, which is called "Perihelion" |
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x |
| 5-15 |
evening |
Comet McNaught C/2006 P1, is visible in the sky at sunset and before Sunrise. It lay between Capricornus and Aquila in the evening and Aquila and Scorpius in the early morning. A clear view of the horizont is needed, as it is low in the sky. This comet will be visible for the next few days.
Astronomy Picture of the Day, 2007 January 5 (antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov).
Astronomy Picture of the Day, 2007 January 9 (antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov).
Astronomy Picture of the Day, 2007 January 13 (antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov).
Comet brightness, on the SOHO instrument. (sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov).
To find the comet...
example on Sunday 14, the comet will be at about 6 degree East (left) of the Sun at around noon. and more or less the same declination.
On a piece of paper, draw two lines 6 degree apart (see picture below).
Put your eye were the two lines meet, direct the right line toward the Sun, but WITHOUT looking at it, NO-NO!.
Take your binocular and look toward the other line.
With a little gentle scanning of the sky (4-8 degree), you should be able to find it.
The slide rule show the direction of the Sun.
The strait edge ruler show the direction of the comet.
The following days the comet will be slightly further away from the Sun.
On the 17 at noon, the comet will be at about 14 degree from the Sun, slightly lower left of it.
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West |
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x |
x |
x |
| 9 |
night, early morning |
Jupiter will be at about 5 degree North of the red giant Antares. |
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x |
x |
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| 15-31 |
evening night |
Mercury, located in Capricornus, will rise in the West, it will be at best during the last two weeks of January. It will be below Venus. |
West |
x |
x |
x |
x |
| 15-31 |
evening night |
Venus will move from Capriconus to Aquarius during the second part of January. |
West |
x |
x |
x |
x |
| 15-30 |
evening night |
Saturn will increase in brightness during the month. |
North-East |
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x |
x |
x |
| 18 |
evening night |
Neptune will be at just 1.4 deg north of Venus |
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x |
x |
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| 31 |
evening, night |
Mercury should be about 7 degree below Venus. |
West, South-West |
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x |
x |
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Today in history. Some interesting events. |
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Historical events, as well as future historical events, such as spacecrafts journey. |
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Date: |
History events (sorted by year, month, day): |
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2005 January 5 |
Largest known "Dwarf planet" in the solar system Eris (www.gps.caltech.edu) (page of M Brown describing the discovery) was discovered by the team of Michael E. Brown, Chad Trujillo, and David L. Rabinowitz using images originally taken in 2003 at the Palomar Observatory. It was after a re-scan of pictures taken about 1.5 years earlier, that a computer detected the possible existence of a planet.
Eris orbit is huge compared to the others planets, it is also tilted a lot, about 44 degre. It takes Eris about 556.7 years to accomplish one orbit.
Eris diameter is about 2400 km in diameter, this a little bigger than Pluto. Eris is also known as "2003 UB313".
Eris (en.wikipedia.org).
Dwarf_planet (en.wikipedia.org).
Eris Orbit (en.wikipedia.org).
Eris discovery (www.nasa.gov). this page mention a discovery of January 8, this is incorrect, as mentionned on the main article of M. Brown (fisrt link above).
rans-Neptunian Object 2003 UB313 vying with Pluto in Size (www.iau.org).
Dysnomia, (www2.keck.hawaii.edu) a moon of Eris.
2003 UB313 (neo.jpl.nasa.gov). this is an annimation that require a "Java" brother or viewer.
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2004 January 25 |
Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity (en.wikipedia.org) landed on Mars.
Mars Exploration Rover (en.wikipedia.org).
View of Oppportunity (en.wikipedia.org) landing site from space.
Mars Exploration Rover (marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov) mission.
Mission summary (mars.jpl.nasa.gov).
images (photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov) from Mars Exploration Rovers.
Mars24 SunClock (www.giss.nasa.gov) is a (Java) program and browser applet which displays a Mars "sunclock", a graphical representation of the planet Mars showing its current sun- and nightsides, along with a numerical readout of the time in 24-hour format.
Maestro (mars.telascience.org) is a (Java) program for people interested by how to control a Mars Rover. It is a simpler replica of the real program scientists use.
Maestro desciption (mars.telascience.org) page.
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2004 January 4 |
The Nasa Mars RoverSpirit (en.wikipedia.org) Landed on Mars.
Latest Spirit Update (www.jpl.nasa.gov).
Mars Exploration Rover (athena.cornell.edu) main page.
Mars Exploration Rover Mission update (athena.cornell.edu).
Latest Rover Images (www.jpl.nasa.gov).
Images from Spirit (photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov).
View and description of Spirit landing site (photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov).
View of Spirit landing site (en.wikipedia.org) and tracks (foot print).
View of Spirit from space (en.wikipedia.org).
Image of Spirit journey (en.wikipedia.org) on Bonneville Crater.
Where Are The Rovers Now ? (marsrover.nasa.gov) (lot of images).
Spirit: Detailed Traverse Maps (marsrover.nasa.gov).
Mars Exploration Rover Landing Site (hiroc.lpl.arizona.edu) at Gusev Crater.
Mars rover (en.wikipedia.org).
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1986 January 28 |
NASA Space Shuttle Space Shuttle Challenger disaster (en.wikipedia.org). Challenger disintegrated 73 seconds after lift off.
Orbiter Vehicles, Challenger (STA-099, OV-99) (www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov).
Fuel leak (en.wikipedia.org) at lift off, on the right "Solid Rocket Booster" (SRB).
Solid Rocket Booster description (en.wikipedia.org) (with images).
Solid Rocket Booster Ocean recovery (en.wikipedia.org).
Solid Rocket Booster Boat recovery (en.wikipedia.org).
Solid Rocket Booster info (en.wikipedia.org) (less info than previous linked page).
Recovery ship (www.nasa.gov) info with images.
Independent Oversight... Solid Rocket Boosters (science.ksc.nasa.gov).
NSTS 1988 News Reference Manual (science.ksc.nasa.gov).
Kennedy Space Center (www.nasa.gov) index page.
Image of Challenger at lift off (images.jsc.nasa.gov).
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1984 January 24 |
The first Apple Macintosh (en.wikipedia.org) went on sale.
Making the Macintosh : (library.stanford.edu) Technology and Culture in Silicon Valley.
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1976 January 21 |
(This writing is a work in progress, you are welcome to bring fact or corrections to it).
The Concorde (en.wikipedia.org) supersonic transports began commercial flights between London - Bahrain, and Paris - Rio de Janeiro.
Le Concorde (fr.wikipedia.org).
The concorde flew at Mach 2.23 (about 2754 km/h, about 1712 mph) on 1974 March 26, but its cruising speed was Mach 2.04 (2519,4 km/h, about 1566 mph).
During its 34 years lifespan of these 27 years of commercial service, the Concorde had several upgrade and modifications done on it.
The Concorde has been the plane with the best safety record in history, until the 2000 July 25 accident, which was caused by a part that fell off a DC-10 plane (belonging to Continental Airlines), at the previous take off, 4 minutes earlier.
With only 20 planes produced, the Concorde became suddenly the worst plane in history, as the ratio is onlyh 20 to 1. However can we judge a plane on only one accident, which was caused by another plane... ?
This accident started new work on the aging plane. Kevlar was added around the fuel tanks (the Concorde include 13 of them), Michelin designed new puncture resistant tires, that were better and each were 20kg (44 lbs) lighter.
On 2003 April 10, British Airways and Air France announced the end of the Concord flight for the next year. They officially retired on 2003 May 23 for Air France and 2003 October 24 for British Airways. However, They were several "good bye" to the plane through the world.
Regarding the noise issue...
While it seems correct to say the plane was noisyer than other planes, it was not the louder plane of its time. In fact at take off and landing pilots were taking extrem care, to make them as quiet as possible.
The noise issue while true, as of today, seems to have been used as a propaganda machine to kill the competition by any means, as the U.S. of A had nothing ready to compete with.
The Lockheed L-2000 (en.wikipedia.org) as well as the Boeing 2707 (en.wikipedia.org) had been canceled, The Boeing project stayed alive longer. U.S. government, tryed to sell the project
In the 1950's France, United Kingdom, United State and Soviet Union all had super sonic transport planes projects,
"Bristol Aeroplane Company" for United Kingdom and "Sud Aviation" for France were each working on supersonic project, type 233 (en.wikipedia.org) for U.K. and Super-Caravelle (en.wikipedia.org) for France. U.K. had a trans-atlantic project, while France had a mid-range project.
In the early 1960's both country were ready for production of a prototype, however, the cost of developing such a plane was so great that the British government required to find international cooperation to lower the cost. Several attempt were made with others country, surprisingly, only France was serious about going into a deal with the British.
An international treaty has been signed between both countries. Britain asked for a special clause to be included in the treaty. A penalty would be asked in case of cancelation by the other party.
Well, Britain, became twice close to cancel the deal...
On 1962 November 28 a treaty has been signed, both companies had merged their projects. The companies assigned to make the plane were British Aircraft Corporation and Aerospatiale.
Over 100 Concord planes order have been secured by companies from all around the world, which included Pan-Am, TWA, American Airlines and United Airlines for the U.S. of A alone.
When people around the world, especially in Washington D.C. understood the two European countries were really committed to a supersonic project, a pnic wind "a la" sputnick wave of panic fluw over D.C.
On 1963 June 5, President Kennedy signed the "National Supersonic Transport" program, which let the government pay 75% of the expenses of developing a project that could compete with the Concorde.
The FAA director, thought the Concord project was way to ahead, and proposed to develop a bigger plane and faster plane. The plane would be made of Titanium or Stainless steel. at the time, they estimated a market of 500 such planes worldwide, by 1990.
Aircraft aluminimu (Duraluminium), could not be used, as above Mach 2.2 it loose part of its physical properties.
On 1966 December 31, the 300 seats Boing project has been approved. In 1969 September, the plane was 2 years behind schedule, the variable geometry wings had been canceled for a delta type fixed wings and the number of passenger had been reduced to 234.
Promotional evetn in the media, were predicting the plane would be ready soon, and sub-sonic plane similar to the Boeing 747, were just temporary and had no long range future.
While 115 (unfilled) orders by 25 airlines has been reached, the adminitration of president Nixon supported the project well, it has been canceled on 1971 May 20.
Today the only sample of a mockup of the plane has been put back together, after seating 19 years in a Florida scrapyard.
Air France's F-BVFA (205) Concorde (fr.wikipedia.org) in National Air & Space Museum in the United States..
The last flight of a British Concorde (en.wikipedia.org), 26th November 2003.
Farewell to Concorde (news.bbc.co.uk).
Aérospatiale-BAC Concorde (portal.aircraft-info.net).
Concorde video (www.britishairways.com).
La vie du Concorde (afconcorde.free.fr) (lot of images)
Air France Flight 4590 (en.wikipedia.org).
Concorde's origins to where you can visit them today (www.concordesst.com).
Concorde dans la presse de 1965 à 2003 (le.pointu.free.fr).
MUSÉE DELTA (museedelta.free.fr).
Brooklands Concorde Experience (www.brooklandsconcorde.com).
Concorde at Manchester Airport (y2u.co.uk) & videos of the last flights.
Air France Concorde Readied for Display at Smithsonian (www.space.com).
Forum des Lovers francophones (www.af001.com), 100 % Concorde, le plus bel avion du monde !
Maintenance Concorde (www.leconcorde.eu).
www.concorde-jet.com (www.concorde-jet.com).
Concorde Air France (www.concorde002.com) (blog).
Concorde (www.mairie-metz.fr) a Metz.
The Boeing SST (www.hiller.org).
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Space |
Astronomy picture of the day. NASA
Hubble space telescope, picture of the day (image and video).
ESA European Space Agency.
Picture from the OSEI (Operational Significant Event Imagery). These images usually represent environment change events.
Earth motion for Coachella Valley.
 seismology for Coachella Valley (Southern California).
Light pollution prevention start at home.
The night sky in the World. Satellite monitoring of the artificial night sky brightness and the stellar visibility.
IDAInternational Dark-Sky Association.
 Auroral Activity (Northern Hemisphere). NOAA Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite (POES) continually monitor the power flux carried by the protons and electrons that produce aurora in the atmosphere.
 Auroral Activity Southern Hemisphere.
 GOES Solar X-ray Imager, provide full-disk images of the Sun once a minute in the 0.6-6 nm range with 5 arcsec pixels.
It allow real-time prediction of solar-terrestrial disturbances.
more info.
 SOHO Pick of the Week. Courtesy of SOHO/EIT and SOHO/LASCO consortium. SOHO is a project of international cooperation between ESA and NASA.
 latest SOHO images171.
 latest SOHO images284.
CosmicopiaMore about Cosmic Rays (educational).
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Our Sponsor |
People at Alembic have helped us in many ways, at first as sponsors, then as volunteers as well.
They are so dedicated, I would not be surprised if their guitars run linux. ;-)
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About the Author |
I am simply a Linux enthusiast with an interest in science.
I like to build hardware projects and connect them to computers, to do data acquisitions and other things. I also like to make telescopes or make existing telescopes more convenient to use.
This page will hopefully help me to learn something. I am happy if I can share it with the reader.
I belong to the following astronomy societies: RAS. ASOD
and linuxastronomy.org, which is a virtual group of linux enthusiast, experimenting with astronomy.
Suggestions or corrections with for goal to make this site better are welcome.
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