syzygy
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Reged: 10/06/05
Posts: 1496
Loc: Hungary
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Image Credit: ISS Expedition 7 Crew, EOL, NASA
(Image record from Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth)
hi-res version
On April 12th, 1961, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Alexseyevich Gagarin became the first human in space. His remotely controlled Vostok 1 spacecraft lofted him to an altitude of 200 miles and carried him once around planet Earth. Commenting on the first view from space he reported, "The sky is very dark; the Earth is bluish. Everything is seen very clearly". Alan Shepard, the first US astronaut, would not be launched until almost a month later and then on a comparatively short suborbital flight. Born on March 9, 1934, Gagarin was a military pilot before being chosen for the first group of cosmonauts in 1960. As a result of his historic flight he became an international hero and legend. Killed when his MIG jet crashed during a training flight on March 27, 1968, Gagarin was given a hero's funeral, his ashes interred in the Kremlin Wall. On yet another April 12th, in 1981, NASA launched the first space shuttle.
more: NASA-APOD
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Edited by syzygy (04/12/08 04:54 AM)
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Tourist
Reged: 06/24/08
Posts: 43
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Good work syzygy, you provided reading material and pictures for a few hours. They all are interesting and beautiful. I like the most Yuri's Planet - Image Credit: ISS Expedition 7 Crew, EOL, NASA. The hi-res version is just amazing!
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The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page. - St. Augustine - My project about Benidorm and the surrounding maps.
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syzygy
Master Cartographer
Reged: 10/06/05
Posts: 1496
Loc: Hungary
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Thank you bt, i am glad you had found your counting in this selection!
In my APOOD selection you can check some astronomical beauties on their own place in GSky, the following included!
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NGC 6888: The Crescent Nebula
Credit & Copyright: Tony Hallas
hi-res
NGC 6888, also known as the Crescent Nebula, is a cosmic bubble about 25 light-years across, blown by winds from its central, bright, massive star. This beautiful telescopic view combines a composite color image with narrow band data that isolates light from hydrogen and oxygen atoms in the wind-blown nebula. The oxygen atoms produce the blue-green hue that seems to enshroud the detailed folds and filaments. NGC 6888's central star is classified as a Wolf-Rayet star (WR 136). The star is shedding its outer envelope in a strong stellar wind, ejecting the equivalent of the Sun's mass every 10,000 years. The nebula's complex structures are likely the result of this strong wind interacting with material ejected in an earlier phase. Burning fuel at a prodigious rate and near the end of its stellar life this star should ultimately go out with a bang in a spectacular supernova explosion. Found in the nebula rich constellation Cygnus, NGC 6888 is about 5,000 light-years away.
more from: NASA-APOD
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Edited by syzygy (08/14/08 08:18 AM)
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syzygy
Master Cartographer
Reged: 10/06/05
Posts: 1496
Loc: Hungary
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Credit & Copyright: Wally Pacholka (Astropics.com/TWAN)
Is there any place in the world you could see a real sight like this? Yes. Pictured above is single exposure image spectacular near, far, and in between. Diving into the Earth far in the distance is part of the central band of our Milky Way Galaxy, taken with a long duration exposure. Much closer, the planet Jupiter is visible as the bright point just to band's left. Closer still are picturesque buttes and mesas of the Canyonlands National Park in Utah, USA, lit by a crescent moon. In the foreground is a cave housing a stone circle of unknown origin named False Kiva. The cave was briefly lit by flashlight during the long exposure. Astrophotographer Wally Pacholka reports that getting to the cave to take this image was no easy trek. Also, mountain lions were a concern while waiting alone in the dark for just the right exposure.
more from: NASA-APOD
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