By Bill Federer, July 17, 2017 The first mission to walk on the moon was Apollo 11, which blasted off JULY 16, 1969, from Cape Kennedy. President Richard Nixon stated in Proclamation 3919: “Apollo 11 is on its way to the moon. It carries three brave astronauts; it also carries the hopes and prayers […]
Saturn reached its 2017 opposition on June 16. Of course, opposition means opposite the Sun in Earth’s sky and near opposition Saturn is up all night, at its closest and brightest for the year. This remarkably sharp image of the ringed planet was taken only days before, on June 11, with a 1-meter telescope from […]
May 7, 2017 A veterans’ memorial park in Minnesota will soon include a satanic monument after a free speech debate sparked by the removal of a cross from a statue of a praying soldier. The memorial from the Satanic Temple in Salem, Massachusetts, features a black cube with inverted pentagrams, a soldier’s helmet and a […]
What is pictured is a sharp telescopic view of a magnificent edge-on spiral galaxy NGC 3628, a puffy galactic disk divided by dark dust lanes. Of course, this deep galactic portrait puts some astronomers in mind of its popular moniker, The Hamburger Galaxy. The tantalizing island universe is about 100,000 light-years across and 35 million […]
April 28, 2017 John 14: 25 “These things I have spoken to you, while I am still with you. 26 But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. 27Peace I leave with you; […]
April 25, 2017 On April 12, as the Sun was blocked by the disk of Saturn the Cassini spacecraft camera looked toward the inner Solar System and the gas giant’s backlit rings. At the top of the mosaicked view is the A ring with its broader Encke and narrower Keeler gaps visible. At the bottom […]
March 20, 2017 Vice President Mike Pence spoke at a Florida megachurch on Sunday, explaining that whenever people pray for President Donald Trump, he and the administration “feel it.” During a worship service held at the Coral Springs-based Church by the Glades, which has six campuses and averages 9,300 weekly worshippers, Vice President Pence was […]
March 12, 2017 [CLICK ON IMAGE FOR HIGH RESOLUTION, Christoph Kaltseis, CEDIC 2017] Near the center of this sharp cosmic portrait, at the heart of the Orion Nebula, are four hot, massive stars known as the Trapezium. Tightly gathered within a region about 1.5 light-years in radius, they dominate the core of the dense Orion […]
March 1, 2017 [CLICK ON IMAGE FOR HIGH RESOLUTION, Sean R. Heavey] Although it may seem like an alien mothership, it’s actually a impressive thunderstorm cloud called a supercell. Such colossal storm systems center on mesocyclones — rotating updrafts that can span several kilometers and deliver torrential rain and high winds including tornadoes. Jagged sculptured […]
