Around the World in 92 Minutes

Last night, I had the great pleasure of meeting Astronaut Chris Hadfield at the American Museum of Natural History. Hadfield gave a book talk on his latest work, "You Are Here: Around the World in 92 Minutes." Hadfield is an expert communicator and gave us all a personal and emotional account of his life on orbit.

He began saying, "I want to show you some pictures from this trip I took last year." In his understated way, like we were about to look at some photos from his Ontario cabin. A three time veteran, with 2 shuttle missions and a six month post and command on the International Space Station, he has a great orbital perspective.

He shared the story of his first mission aboard Atlantis. Showing a launch video, I was immediately reminded of how much I miss the ripping a hole in the sky crackle of the ATK Solid Rocket Boosters. Nothing I've ever heard sounds quite like them. Hadfield commented, "When those big white rockets light you're going somewhere." He gave everyone a few words of advice for our own first launches, "You know, if you ever get the chance, you really should do it." The prelaunch meal - "The chefs will prepare anything you want. I recommend you eat something creamy and colorful. Use ketchup. You're going to see it again. Go for technicolor!" When asked of the mothballing of the shuttle fleet, he responded, "They're very primitive...128k of processing power... 30 years old... Do you drive a 30 year old car?" He added, "We shouldn't have such a gap in vehicles, but that's what we do."

The Orbital Perspective, as Ron Garan dubed it, comes through with every astronaut I've met. Hadfield spoke of the diversity and beauty of the Earth. Taking tens of thousands of photos on his ISS mission, he tweeted an image daily. He said he scanned through those he took that day, looking for one that caught his eye. "What was it emotionally that drew me to that photo?" "STEM pays the bills. When we really want to communicate, we use art." Through his new book he definitely uses the art of that "Shining Ball of Blue, home to everyone that anybody ever knew." to speak volumes.

Hadfield is a great advocate for exploration. He described it as a basic human trait. "We've been sending probes out there for thousands of years." From the early humans taking the first steps out of the Rift Valley to other planets and beyond our Solar System. [Space Exploration] is just the next step. It's an extension of what we do as humans." Where should we be going? Hadfield got a great response from the audience when he said, "The obvious next step is to go back to the moon. Live there for a few generations, learn as much as we can.?"

Hadfield also spoke of changes he's observed on the planet, like the loss of the Aral Sea, drained for cotton production. "I'm not a rabid environmentalist, I've just been around the world...about twenty-six hundred times." when asked about climate change.

 

Hadfield concluded the evening with a medley of ISS and Space Oddity and a book signing, graciously greeting and signing for more than an hour after his presentation. Of the book, Hadfield said the photos belong to you. The profits of book sales go to the Michael J Fox Foundation. The audience responded with an appreciative round of applause. Hadfield remarked, "I didn't expect applause for that, it's just the right thing to do."

If you don't know Hadfield, look for his collection of YouTube videos, get his books, follow him on social media. He brings a distinctly human perspective to living and working in space. You will instantly understand why he is so popular and you too will be a fan of the mustachioed man from Canada.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Our Nearest Star 100514

It's a bright sunny autumn day. A perfect day to turn the telescope (with proper filter) sunward to see what the sunspot activity is. Sunspot 2178 (left) and 2181 (right) were particularly interesting today. 2181 could produce an M-class flare. From SpaceWeather.com, "Sunspot AR2181 has a 'beta-gamma' magnetic field that harbors energy for M-class flares." Here is a close up of that area. Photos were taken with Canon 60D mounted to a Celestron C8 with 2x Barlow.

Inconstant Moon

Columbia University's Astronomy Department Public Outreach hosts an astronomy lecture and observing evening every couple of weeks. Last night, Summer Ash gave a wonderful lecture on the Moon. She began with asking the question "What is a month?" A seemingly simple question with a rather complex answer actually, summed up in two words: it depends. Sidereal, synodic, tropical, anomolistic, and draconic - each measuring a different aspect of the periodic nature of our satellite.

Summer Ash & Camilla Corona

The Moon is one of my favorite objects for telescope and binocular observation. As Summer's title says, it is fascinating because it is inconstant. Every time one looks at the moon, it is different. Different phases, different angles, even different portions of the surface are visible due to the combined effects of eccentricity, inclination and liberation. The result, over the course of a month, one can observe more than 50% of the lunar surface.

So go out this evening and start your first lunar month! The moon is a thin waxing crescent setting at 7:30 pm.

Also check out these lunar resources:

• Moon Globe app 
• The New Moon: Water, Exploration, and Future Habitation by Columbia Astronomy Professor Arlin Crotts 
• The Moon by Seymour Simon 
• My NASA Moon YouTube Playlist 

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Sunset Time Lapse

Wind swept cirrus clouds set ablaze by the sunset. Experimenting with time lapse on the GoPro camera.

NWMSTEM

Who should we be following, liking, plus-ing… listening to in STEM and STEM Ed? I’ve read the articles and followed the social media fall out around the Kardashian Index and find myself moved to explore a different metric. 

Like many have already stated, I am disappointed but not surprised at how white and male the lists are. The latest “Top 50” list from Scientific American has many favorites of mine among the 50, yet features only 6 that are not white males. I teach many children who are non-white and half of my students are not male. My own children are female and/or non-white. I want to ensure that the voices they hear, that I am sharing with them, are more diverse than my own (a card-carrying white male). Granted, #1 on the SciAm list, Neil deGrasse Tyson once said of role models, “I didn’t have to have a black astrophysicist as a role model to become one.” Look who his mentor was and the exposure his mother ensured he got. We don’t all have Ms Tyson or Carl Sagan in our lives. Sometimes hearing a voice from a face that looks like our own is what we need. Sometimes that face just helps us know we aren’t alone in our pursuit. What is more to the point, we all benefit from a wider variety of voices. Different ideas, points of view, backgrounds all contribute to the body of knowledge.

Let's give STEM a more diverse face.

I ask for your help in creating a more diverse list of people who use social media as a STEM and STEM Ed communications platform. Please use the NWMSTEM form I’ve created to nominate yourself or someone whom you feel we should be listening to. And please share this with your followers so that we may cast a wide net.

What's Up For September

http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/multimedia/downloads/whatsup20140901-640.m4v

A video guide from Jane Houston Jones (NASA/JPL) to celestial highlights for the month of September. I'll do my best to observe and share as many as possible here.

• Antares, the Moon, Mars and Saturn "dance" among Scorpius & Libra in the evening
• The Moon and Jupiter rise together pre dawn
• The Zodiacal light appears pre dawn with Jupiter leading the way

The Pleiades

Brigantine Beach Skyscape

The Pleiades has always been one of my favorite "constellations." I think it's partly the different mythologies of the "seven sisters" found in different cultures. The Neil deGrasse Tyson Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey series did a wonderful job of presenting several of these stories in Episode 8: Sisters of the Sun.

Last night, the seeing conditions were outstanding! Not a cloud anywhere and cool dry air. With no moon, the Pleiades was clearly visible with the naked eye and fit perfectly in the field-of-view of the Celestron 12x70 Cometron binoculars. With the dark sky, there were so many stars in the cluster that it was actually difficult to spot the "seven" of it's name.

How many stars do you see?