Tag Archive: Space


Meteor Shower peaking tuesday night…

October 1st 1958 NASA open for business...
File Photo KDG

On Tuesday April 20th the Lyrid shower will treat people late Tuesday night to a naked eye event.

The wide variety of astronomy events this month will be great for people looking to spend some time outside under the night sky, including families with young children, as they will not require any special equipment apart from a blanket, warm clothes and a clear sky.

Source Acuweather

Earth day shower.

Because of states of emergency may limit availability. Households in rural areas should well enjoy depending on cloud cover. Others may be creative so as not to do any thing unsafe.

Comet Atlas coming

While a telescope is required now this event should grow larger until late April.

On this Day: April 17th 1970

Apollo 13 returns to earth.

TGIF- Geminid shower peaking…

October 1st 1958 NASA open for business...
File Photo KDG

This weekend the Geminid meteor shower is peaking and on through the 19th of December. Mostly cloudy skies are for the weekend in the BC south central interior.

Look to the eastern horizon.

On this Day: December 13th 1962

Relay 1 is launched.

Space a frontier…

The northern part of the Artic ( Devon Island ) is going to be used by Goggle and Nasa to help understand conditions on Mars. This from Earth Sky news.


A crewed mission to Mars might be a long way off, but researchers are busy preparing, nonetheless. One of the best ways to prepare is by training scientists and testing new technologies in some of the most Mars-like locations on Earth, simulating the experience as much as possible.

Earth Sky news

On this Day: April 2nd 1513

Ponce de Leon arrives in Florida.

Wolf moon and eclipse coming January 20-21st!

Moon over Merritt .
File Photo KDG

Visible in North America

The month of January is shaping up good for sky watchers. One event is a full moon on the 20th – 21st with a lunar eclipse.

Totality, or total coverage of the moon, will begin at 11:41 p.m. ET on January 20 (4:41 UT on January 21) and will last for 62 minutes. The entire 3.5-hour event—including partial eclipses before and after totality—will be visible from the Americas, Greenland, Iceland, western Europe, and western Africa. Sky-watchers in eastern Europe and eastern Africa will witness only the partial eclipse, while people in most of Asia will not see any part of the sky show.

Source :National Geographic

Kamloops start,6:36 PM January 20th,19.6 degrees. Totality begins 8:41 PM, pacific time, altitude 38 degrees.

West of the Behive Cluster

The eclipse will take place in the Cancer Constellation, a little west of the Beehive Cluster,Five hours 12 minutes from start to finish if you include the penumbral events preceding the event.

Done Kamloops time 11: 48 PM, 58.3 degrees altitude.

On this Day: January 2nd 2004

The Stardust probe flies past Comet Wild 2

Moon Base Alpha…

As reflected in NASA’s Exploration Campaign, the next step in human spaceflight is the establishment of U.S. preeminence in cislunar space through the operations and the deployment of a U.S.-led Gateway. Together with the Space Launch System (SLS) and Orion, the Gateway is central to advancing and sustaining human space exploration goals and is the unifying single stepping off point in our architecture for human cislunar operations, lunar surface access and missions to Mars. The Gateway is necessary to achieving the ambitious exploration campaign goals set forth by Space Policy Directive 1. Through partnerships both domestic and international, NASA will bring innovation and new approaches to the advancement of these U.S. human spaceflight goals Source NASA

Nasa official site May 2018

On this Day: November 21st, 2004

The Paris club writes off up to a 100 billon dollars of Iraq’s debt.

The people at Nasa have recently reinforced their commitment to space,  the moon, and other planets by a new public relations display. The above statement is from May and you tube video from last week.

The people of earth are enriched by knowledge aquired every day by the fellowship of the discovery of the unknown and we should be grateful for its free and unfettered access. It truly is a shared goal. Good luck to the people of planet earth and may all new knowledge find place in attending the problems of this world. 

Apex of the suns way… Tonight!

 

WIN_20170717_19_52_55_Pro_LI

The sun west of Merritt, Red from smoke, of the 2017 fire season in the Sothern interior of BC File Photo KDG

A trip around the Milky Way galaxy center is called a cosmic year. Tonight the sun reaches its half way point in the orbit.

Our Milky Way galaxy is a collection of several hundred billion stars. It has an estimated diameter of 100,000 light-years. Our sun does indeed circumnavigate the Milky Way galaxy. In space, everything moves. There are various estimates for the speed the sun travels through the galaxy, but its speed is about 140 miles per second. Source earth sky news.

And it so happens that astronomers know which star the sun is moving toward in its journey around the galaxy. Our sun and family of planets travel more or less toward the star Vega – and away from the star Sirius. Unsurprisingly, Vega and Sirius lie in opposite directions in Earth’s sky.

 

Look for Vega at West to Norwest. One estimate of a Cosmic year is 230 million years; this must in our minds mean that the earth is subject to different influences over the millennia including gravity and weather .

On this Day: January 16th 1934

The Harlem Apollo theater reopens in New York.

TGIF -Hill 70 battle ends 1917

Still waters are great..
Photo KDG

Canada 150

World War 1 Hill 70 battle is over today in 1917, dead included soldiers from the interior of BC, For  Sale.

On this Day: August 25th 2012

Voyager 1 goes interstellar, the first man-made object to do that.

Count down to earth day: 19th, 20th, 21st, 22nd

Plant them if you got them' file photo KDG

Plant them if you got them’
file photo KDG

On this day: April 19th 1971

The launch of the worlds first space station.

 

 

 

 

 

Today in history: July 20th 1976

The Viking one lander is successful on Mars

Library pencil drawings

There are 5 pencil drawings by local Howard Baker in the newspaper area at the public library on Garcia Street. The 2012 works are of old derelict buildings in the area. On September 15th 2013 there is a token prize drawing .To get in to the draw  you have to identify the buildings.

Howard Baker is a retired teacher.

The library has a list names you need to match them.

Howard Baker  was a much appreciated part of the 100 year anniversary celebration of Merritt. In particular the play that dramatised a part of the local history, in particular characters about the historic Douglas lake cattle company. Howard wa s much involved in the stage dynamics for the play written bu local college librarian JIm Bruce.

Merritt has an interesting history short in the scheme of the world dynamic in the sence of a small population living in the tension of at least two empires. And trying to stay current with a big world.

Today in history: November 20 1998

The first module of the International Space Station is launched.

Stroller roller

There is a poster in the window of the Baillie house inviting participation in a moms and stroller walking exercise. Meeting at rotary park 1:00  March through June  for an hour of pushing strollers with others.

The ad is not gender neutral,  June 1st is also the start of bicycle month in BC’s lower mainland.

Health and the environment should be the concern for the best interest of people. Opinion: we applaud all efforts to these ends and especially when they are inclusive.

Today in History, May 29th,1999

The space shuttle Discovery completes is first docking with the International Space Station.

By election

A local councilor,Norm Brigdan has resigned his  seat and is moving to Vancouver Island to take a new job. The course for filling the seat is that there is not an unreasonable delay.  The election is 80 days after the appointment of a returning officer. The talk is for a September election.

Today in History: May 24, 1962

Mercury space project sees an man orbit the earth in a space vehicle.