*Partial Solar Eclipse This Sunday Evening!* Sunday May 20th. For Portland, the eclipse gets underway at 5:04 p.m. when the Moon makes first contact with the Sun. The maximum eclipse accords at 6:21 p.m. when the Moon covers 81 percent of the Sun's diameter at 25 degrees above the western horizon. The partial eclipse will end at 7:29 p.m. as the Moon exits.
Remember since this isn't a total eclipse there is still enough sun uncovered to do damage to eyes. OMSI will have a party and solar glasses (aluminiumized Mylar that is thick enough to meet sun safety standards). You can easily build a pinhole camera by poking a hole in a cardboard box. The internet is replete with ideas for safe viewing. *SpaceX Launch Scheduled for May 19* I have a good feeling about this one. Liftoff is scheduled for 4:55 am Eastern time this Saturday, 1:55 am in Portland: that's late Friday night if your staying up! Webcast starts at 1:15 am Portland time. News-like Items: *SpaceX teams up with Bigelow SpaceX is teaming up with Bigelow Aerospace to start marketing private space stations. But they're skipping over the US and Europe and heading straight to Asia. http://www.spacex.com/press.php?page=20120510 *ATK is Pushing Liberty Hard ATK has backed their own entry into the private space race, a super tall rocket called Liberty. It's a modified SRB from the space shuttle with an Ariane 5 (ESA/France) upper stage. They claim it will be ready to carry people to orbit by 2015. The reaction from the space community has been cold at best. http://www.space.com/15625-liberty-rocket-private-space-taxi-atk.html *MER Opportunity Rolling Again After waiting out Martian winter for 5 months commands were sent to the Mars rover Opportunity to start moving again. It managed to move about three and a half meters. We're now on (Martian) day 2954 of the 90 day mission. Keep on truckin' http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/mer/news/mer20120509.html *Expedition 31 Launch Russia launches a Soyuz spacecraft to the space station with 3 astronauts onboard. There are 6 people in space right now. Photos: http://www.spaceflightnow.com/station/exp31/launch/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/nasahqphoto/7181785360/in/set-72157629881492383/ *Eventful Weekend at FAR Friends of Amateur Rocketry, a permissive launch/test site in Southern California saw lots of action over the weekend. Here's the highlight reel. (Sorry for the lack of info on some of the launches) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqIaO8YgVB0 Eye Candy: - Russia's latest, state of the art, high resolution weather satellite Electro-L http://gizmodo.com/5909215/this-is-the-definitive-photograph-of-planet-earth - Outer Space: Compositied raw images from Cassini and Voyager -- mostly of the Saturian system. http://vimeo.com/40234826 - Glint of Sun off the ocean from the ISS http://www.flickr.com/photos/astro_andre/7187315564/ - Long exposure from the ISS. Cities streak by underneath, stars above. http://www.flickr.com/photos/nasa2explore/7196578530/in/photostream/ _______________________________________________ psas-team mailing list psas-team@lists.psas.pdx.edu http://lists.psas.pdx.edu/mailman/listinfo/psas-team This list's membership is automatically generated from the memberships of the psas-airframe, psas-avionics, and psas-general mail lists. Visit http://lists.psas.pdx.edu to individually subscribe/unsubscribe yourself from these lists.
