orion

Watch the Orion test flight: Splashdown: Why is it great? Well, speaking as a Gemini (not my horoscope sign, but the space program going when I first gained sentience) ... First, it is big, fast, cool looking. It actually looks like a rocket that might have been designed a decade before they ever actually made any rockets. It is almost Deco. Second, they got a guy from the 1960s -- with that slightly, nasal, black and white voice people spoke in back then -- to call the race launch. Third, Orion is really good at taking selfies. Fourth, it didn't take long. The whole thing was like…
"Give me a man who says this one thing I do, and not those fifty things I dabble in." -Dwight L. Moody While star clusters may dabble in a number of physically interesting things, there's one thing that they do above all others, and that is shine. For today's Messier Monday, where we spotlight one of the 110 deep-sky wonders of the Messier catalogue, let's take a look at one of the brilliant open clusters of stars that's recently formed in our neighborhood of the galaxy and that will appear all winter long: Messier 50. Image credit: Greg Scheckler, using the robotic telescopes of http…
"My role in society, or any artist's or poet's role, is to try and express what we all feel. Not to tell people how to feel. Not as a preacher, not as a leader, but as a reflection of us all." -John Lennon Welcome to the latest edition of Messier Monday, where each week we take an in-depth look at one of the 110 deep-sky objects in the Messier Catalog. These objects, all of which are visible from certain northern latitudes at certain times of the year, were catalogued explicitly to prevent comet-hunters from confusing these static objects with potential comets. Image credit: SEDS Messier…