In case you missed it, here is a short video of Astronaut Mike Massimino’s appearance ( July 16, 2009) on the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson .

Although only ten minutes in duration,  he quickly describes his personal experience during his space journeys.

Mike was selected as an astronaut candidate by NASA in May 1996. He traveled on STS-109 ( March 1-12, 2002) and STS-125 ( May 2009 ) and has logged over 571 hours in space with 30 hours 4 minutes of that on four spacewalks. He has served as CAPCOM  ( spacecraft communicator) in Mission Control and as the Astronaut Office Technical Liaison to the Johnson Space Center EVA Program Office.

STS-109 (Columbia)  was the fourth Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission during which a new power unit, a new camera (the Advanced Camera for Surveys), and new solar arrays were installed. STS-109 orbited the Earth 165 times, and covered 4.5 million statute miles in over 262 hours.

STS-125 ( Atlantis) was the fifth Hubble servicing mission during which the telescope spent six days inside Atlantis’s cargo bay.

Astronaut Mike Massimino on Craig Ferguson Show

Vernal Equinox occurs Saturday, 20 March 2010, 17:32 UT. Springtime! (For the Northern Hemisphere and Autumn for the Southern Hemisphere.)

“Equinox” comes from the Latin “equal night”. An equinox occurs when Sun crosses the celestial equator, making the length of time of daylight equal to (or nearly equal to) the length of time of night. Days are longer than nights the farther from the equator you observe daylight on an equinox. It all has to do with sun angles and paths across the sky. I found a good explanation at the Date and Time web site.

Daylight Saving Time begins again on Sunday (14 March 2010). “Spring forward” is the phrase being shared all across the parts of the world where DST is practiced.

Seventy countries practice DST, which originated with Benjamin Franklin in 1784. The idea was that people who rose before sunrise used more electricity in the morning than they would if they rose an hour later in the summer. So, the hour hand on the clocks are shifted forward an hour in the spring and shifted back an hour in the fall.
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The second human to set foot on the Moon is going to appear on Dancing with the Stars, a (somewhat) popular “reality” television show in the USA. Buzz Aldrin, 80 years old, is going to be a contestant on the show.

I had a hard time believing it when I heard it, thinking that ”it must be a different Buzz Aldrin!” I had to search online to confirm what I had heard.

One question comes to my mind …”why?” A comment he made during an interview with Zap2it, according to Smithsonian.com, might help to answer that question: “Living on Air Force retirement and Social Security, I’m forced to go out and sing for my supper quite a bit.”

It is regrettable that a national hero feels the pinch to the extent that he participates in a show that he might not otherwise have considered.

Whether you are a classroom instructor or have a passing interest, a great resource for Moon studies is now available. You can see information on Moon missions, lunar landing sites, cultural stories, physical characteristic, and much more. You can also see a map that includes an atlas that allows you to click on a section and see it up close.

Many organizations have contributed to the educational site. It is free and available for use online through the ASP (Astronomical Society of the Pacific).

For hard core Sun followers, and for Iphone users, here is something just for you. NASA developed an application of a “…live global view of the sun.”

Using real time images of Sun, you can fly around it to see the side away from Earth, zoom in and out to inspect features, and do many other things, right in your hand. You can have real time images of sunspots, coronal holes, and flares. If a flare occurs, your phone will jingle and let you know.  You can have alerts to let you know when other types of events occur, as well.

If you just have to have this app for your Iphone, check it out. Let me know how you like it.

On 11 Feb 2010, the Solar Dynamic Observatory was launched on its mission to help with solar studies. Even before SDO made orbit, it gave onlookers a view of something rarely (if ever before) witnessed.

As SDO rose through the levels of Earth’s atmosphere, it encountered a sundog. (A sundog is an atmospheric phenomenon that occurs when sunlight is refracted by ice crystals in clouds.) Passing through the cloud formation, shock waves can be seen as SDO climbs higher into the sky. The shock waves obliterate the sundog. Watch the video taken by Anna Herbst of Bishop, California.

Keeping track of solar activity, whether strong activity or no activity, is a very necessary task. A strong solar flare could be devastating for space missions, disastrous for astronauts, and hazardous for Earth based electric grids.
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Here is a very nice short video documentary (about ten minutes) in which you can actually see the heat buildup around the shuttle as it journeys out of the Earth’s atmosphere.

If you are wondering what that “flappy tape-like substance” is seen at around minute four of the video, the answer has been provided by Mr. Randy Moore of JCS: “that is the remains of kapton material that is installed over the ET (external tank) to Orbiter umbilical area. It’s known as umbilical purge barrier and is used to contain N2 purge of aft compartment and decrease ice buildup. The barrier blows off the Orbiter during the first minute of ascent. That piece of footage was actually from the 16mm film camera on STS-129.  The 130 film is not yet developed.”

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Latest Update: We welcome home Endeavour after a successful 5.7 million mile mission. It was the 130th shuttle mission and Endeavour’s 10th trip to the ISS complex. This was an outstanding mission which successfully installed the Tranquility Mode and “opened up the ISS Cupula’s windows to the world”.  Houston will welcome the crew home on Monday at 1600 at Ellington Field’s NASA Hangar 990.

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