In Memory Of The 35th Anniversary Of The Challenger -- A Tribute To The Fallen Pioneers Of Space Travel

The crew of the space shuttle Challenger honored us by the manner in which they lived their lives. We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye and "slipped the surly bonds of earth" to "touch the face of God." 

                                  ~ U.S. President Ronald Reagan addressing the nation on January 28, 1986 

Space shuttle Challenger (OV-099) Mission STS-51-L crew:
(front row left to right) Michael J. Smith, Dick Scobee, Ronald McNair;
(back row left to right) Ellison Onizuka, Christa McAuliffe, Gregory Jarvis, Judith Resnik.
Photo courtesy of NASA/ 1986.

Today marks the 35th anniversary of the deadly accident that took the lives of the crew of the NASA space shuttle orbiter Challenger (OV-099). 

I was nine years old and home from school on the morning of January 28, 1986. I was playing a game of some sort with my sister in the family living room when my dad came into the room stunned and told everyone present that the space shuttle Challenger exploded on television. 

I remember feeling a little bit of cold in my stomach at the news. My grandparents quickly turned on the television set to the breaking news story. One of the reasons that me and my sister were home that day was school being let out for teachers work day, and the launch of the space shuttle mission -- which was to have included what should have been the first civilian school teacher into orbit. In fact, I recall that we were assigned homework to write a report on the launch. 

My sister, Olivia, was in probably worse shock than I was over the news. She was in complete denial at the time that the crew died in the explosion (later it would be learned that the crew did in fact survive for a short time following the breakup of the shuttle). I will never forget my teary-eyed seven year old sister saying, "No, teachers can't die! They're teachers!" I too was somewhat disillusioned to learn at such a young age that teachers were not invincible. To me educators were tough (and at times grumpy) people, but regardless people who seemed to be above concepts like being moral human beings. 

There were two things other than these moment that stood out for me on that terrible day in American history: the constant replay of the explosion itself, the fireball and smoke trails; and the address to the nation given by President Ronald Reagan. 

Even as a child, the words Reagan spoke about the importance of the space program and the crew of the space shuttle and others before them as the first pioneers into the next great frontier for humanity stuck with me. He spoke of the tragedy, of the dedication of the men and women lost in the disaster, and quoted from the poem High Flight by John Gillespie McGee Jr. He also reaffirmed that mankind would continue to move forward to conquer space.

The loss of the seven crew members was a shock to the nation, and would delay the US space program for several years. Yet just as the past sacrifices of the first great pioneers of space travel inspired those seven brave American men and women; the memory of the sacrifices made by the crew of the Challenger lives on today in the dedication of those who continue to serve as astronauts, technicians and engineers designing the crafts that will someday take humanity beyond our pale blue dot and into the solar system, and possibly beyond in some distant day. 

This blog post is dedicated to the honored memories and sacrifices of those pioneers of humanity's space program tragically killed while helping to advance humanity's scientific knowledge of the universe. Their noble sacrifices to that service will be remembered as human pioneers continue our march into space in the decades, centuries, and possibly the  millennium to come.

In Honored Memory

Valentin Bondarenko (Ukraine, USSR) 

Killed in an altitude trainer accident on March 23, 1961.

Theodore C. "Ted" Freeman (USA) 

Killed in a training jet crash on October 31, 1964. 

Elliott McCay See, Jr.  (USA)

Charles Arthur Bassett II (USA)

Gemini 9 Crew

Killed in a training jet crash on February 28, 1966. 

Virgil "Gus" Grissom (USA)

Edward H. White (USA)

Roger B. Chaffee (USA)

Apollo 1 Crew

Killed in a spacecraft test accident on January 27, 1967. 

Vladimir Komarov (Russia, USSR)

Soyuz 1 Commander

Killed on impact from re-entry parachute deployment failure on April 24, 1967. 

Clifton C. Williams, Jr. (USA) 

Killed in training jet crash on October 5, 1967. 

Michael J. Adams (USA) 

X-15 Flight 3-65-97

Killed in training flight crash on November 15, 1967. 

Robert Lawrence (USA)

Killed in training jet crash on December 8, 1967.

Yuri Gagarin (Russia, USSR)

Vladimir Seryogin (Russia, USSR)

Soyuz 3 Crew

Killed in training jet crash on March 27, 1968. 

Georgi Dobrovolski (Ukraine, USSR) 
Viktor Patsayev (Kazakh, USSR - modern-day Republic of Kazakhstan)

Vladislav Volkov (Russia, USSR)

Soyuz 11 Crew

Killed by decompression in space on June 30, 1971. 

Gregory B. Jarvis (USA)

Ronald McNair (USA) 

Christa McAuliffe (USA)

Ellison Onizuka (USA)

Judith A. Resnik (USA)

Francis R."Dick" Scobee (USA)

Michael J. Smith (USA) 

Space Shuttle Challenger (OV-099) Crew

Killed during explosion during the mission launch over the Atlantic Ocean on January 28, 1986.

Sergei Vozovikov (Russian Federation)

Killed during water recovery training on July 11, 1993. 
  

Rick D. Husband (USA)

 William C. McCool (USA)

Michael P. Anderson (USA)
David M. Brown (USA)

Kalpana Chawla (USA)

Laurel B. Clark (USA)

Ilan Ramon (Israel)

Space Shuttle Columbia (OV-102) Crew

Killed in vehicular disintegration upon re-entry of Earth's atmosphere on February 1, 2003. 

Michael Alsbury (USA) 

Killed in spacecraft flight test crash on October 31, 2014.

You Will Not Be Forgotten!

Night Sky Photography -- 01-19/20-2021 -- Mars & Uranus Conjunction After Sunset

Good evening fellow stargazers!

This evening I have a rather interesting stellar meeting to offer you in the form of my amateur night sky photography: a conjunction between our nearest planetary neighbor, Mars, and one of our more distant ones, Uranus. 

Because of the great distances involved, Uranus cannot be seen by the naked eye from Earth without the aid of a telescope, or the lens of a really good camera at just the right time, if you know where to look.

As you can see in my first photograph, Mars appears much smaller in the night sky these days than it did the previous summer of 2020 during its opposition and close approach to Earth. As it moves away from Earth in its orbit of the sun, Mars will continue to appear as little more than a small orange-yellow dot in the night sky, but still easily visible when the first stars appear in the evening at dusk.
 
In the second image I took a couple of minutes later, I was about to take an extreme close-up using the 35X Optical Zoom lens of my Sony DSC-H300 camera to just barely capture the small blurry dot that is the planet Uranus -- the seventh planet from our sun and the third largest planet in our solar system. 

 

As y'all can see, the two planets appear close together in the night sky in conjunction at about 1.75 degrees apart. To put that into perspective if you were to extend your arm towards the two planets and extend your pinky finger, Mars and Uranus would tough both sides of your extended finger at arms length.

Uranus was first discovered to be a new planet by British astronomer Sir William Herschel who first observed the distant planet on March 13, 1781 with his homemade 6.2 inch reflecting telescope in the garden of his home in Bath, Somerset, Great Britain (now the Herschel Museum of Astronomy), initially mistaking it as a comet.

It was later named in 1783 by the German astronomer Johann Elert Bode, who later determined that Herschel's "comet" was indeed a planet. Unlike Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn, Uranus does not have a Roman god equivalent for a name. The planet is named for the ancient Greek god of the sky Uranus, the father of Kronos (Saturn) and grandfather of Zeus (Jupiter).

Not visible from Earth, Uranus has a smaller ring system similar to Saturn’s, except that it orbits the planet at a 90 degree angle. Uranus also has at least 27 moons, the five largest of which are: Titania, Oberon, Ariel, Umbriel, and Miranda.

Uranus orbits the sun once every 84 years and in 2033 will have only just completed its third lap of the sun since its discovery in 1871! Because the solar system is in constant motion, the distance between Earth and Uranus changes daily. The closest our two planets get is 1.6 billion miles, and at their farthest, they are about 1.98 billion miles apart. Light takes about 2 hours and 45 minutes to travel from Uranus and arrive at Earth.

My final photo I took earlier this evening of the first First Quarter Moon of 2021, which I think turned out remarkably well. 

 

Well folks I hope y'all enjoyed my evening photography offering. I hope to have some more interesting photos and facts about our nightly neighbors soon. Till then have a wonderful evening and y'all keep your eyes to the night skies!

Robert E. Lee By Julia Ward Howe -- A Tribute

Robert E. Lee after the War Between The States
as president of Washington College in Lexington, VA.
Later renamed Washington-Lee College in his honor.
(Colorized photo courtesy of Library of Congress)

 

Robert E. Lee

By Julia Ward Howe

A gallant foeman in the fight,
A brother when the fight was o'er,
The hand that led the host with might
The blessed torch of learning bore.

No shriek of shell nor roll of drums,
No challenge fierce, resounding far,
When reconciling Wisdom comes
To hear the cruel wounds of war.

Though may the minds of men divide,
Love makes the heart of nations one,
And so, the soldier grave beside,
We honor thee, Virginia's son.

Mrs. Julia Ward Howe (May 27, 1819 - October 17, 1910) was an American poet and author, best known for writing "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" and the original 1870 Mother's Day Proclamation. Howe was a prominent American abolitionist and Women's Suffrage activist. Born Julia Ward in New York City, New York, USA, she was the fourth of seven children born to Samuel Ward and Julia Rush Cutler.
Her poem about the former Confederate General Robert. E. Lee was written shortly after his death in October of 1870 in respect for his memory as someone who sought to reunify a nation following the brutal and ugly American Civil War (War Between the States) 1861-1865. 

Interesting Facts About The Constellation Orion

 

Greetings fellow night sky fans!

Tonight I thought I'd share something pretty interesting tidbits about the Constellation Orion for y'all.

Named by Western cultures for the hunter in Greek mythology, Orion is probably the most prominent constellation easily recognizable in our sky dome. In the Northern Hemisphere, Orion is most visible in the evening sky from January to March during the winter months. It lies on the celestial equator and is one of the brightest and best known constellations in the night sky. 

Orion is largely made up of eight prominent stars.

The  B-type blue super giant star, Rigel (Beta Orionis) and the red giant star Betelgeuse (Alpha Orionis) are the two brightest stars of the constellation respectively. Rigel is the sixth-brightest star in the night sky as seen from Earth. Rigel’s distance is estimated to be around 773 light-years, while the distance to Betelgeuse is estimated to be about 724 light-years away.

The this constellation's most distinctive feature are the three stars that make up the Orion's Belt asterism: Alnitak (Zeta Orionis), Alnilam (Epsilon Orionis), and Mintaka (Delta Orionis). The names of the three stars come from Arabic word Alnilam which means "string of pearls" Looking for Orion's Belt in the night sky is the easiest way to locate Orion.

The other prominent stars that make up Orion are: Bellatrix (Gamma Orionis), Saiph (Kappa Orionis), and Meissa  (Lambda Orionis).

Eight major stars make up the Constellation Orion The Hunter.
The largest of these is Rigel, followed by Betelgeuse, Saiph, Bellatrix, Meissa, and the three stars:
Alnitak, Alnilam, and Mintaka that make up the "Orion's Belt" asterism.

 

In Greek mythology and astrology, Orion the hunter is accompanied by his hunting dogs: the constellations Canis Major and Canis Minor, and is hunting Taurus the Bull.

One can easily find the major stars of each of these three constellation by using Orion as a starting point.

Using Orion's Belt as a straight line an amateur stargazer can easily locate the "dog star" Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky as seen from Earth, to the bottom left.

Going the opposite way, using the upper part of Orion's Belt one can make a line to Aldebaran, the "Eye of the Bull" and the brightest star in the constellation Taurus.

Finally using Betelgeuse as a starting point one can make a straight line to the star Procyon, the brighter of the two stars that make up the "lesser dog" Canis Minor.

Picture here with the Constellation Orion are Taurus The Bull and the two dogs Canis Major
and Canis Minor.
Using a straight line with Orion's Belt as a starting point, finding the bright stars Sirius and Aldebaran are easy.
Procyon can be found using a straight line from Betelgeuse on Orion's left shoulder.

Betelgeuse, along with the stars Procyon and Sirius, also make up the Winter Triangle asterism. These three stars are three of the ten brightest objects, as viewed from Earth, outside the Solar System.

In addition, Orion itself is also a part of and largely surrounded by an even larger asterism, the Winter Circle (or Winter Hexagon) with Orion's brightest star, Rigel, making up one of its six major stars.
 

The major stars of the Winter Triangle and Winter Circle (Winter Hexagon) as seen in the night sky
with the constellation Orion in the winter months in the Northern Hemisphere.

 

The constellation contains several interesting nebulae: the Orion Nebula (Messier 42), De Mairan’s Nebula (Messier 43), the NGC 2068 Nebula (Messier 78), and the famous Horsehead Nebula (Barnard 33) among others. In addition seven stars in the constellation Orion possess planetary bodies.

In the winter months one can find Orion by looking to the east an hour after sunset. The easiest way to spot it is to find Orion's Belt.

Well folks, I hope y'all enjoyed this presentation. Let me know in the comments section below.

Night Sky Photography -- 01-12/14-2021 -- Constellations Orion & Taurus, The Winter Triangle, & The Winter Circle

Good evening, fellow Stargazers!

Over a couple of cloudless evening this month, I managed to get some really good shots of two of the winter month's most prominent star constellations: Orion The Hunter and Taurus The Bull.

The bright stars Sirius, Betelgeuse, and Procyon (the primary stars in the three constellations of Canis Major, Orion, and Canis Minor, respectively) make a triangle, which I mentioned before in previous blog posts is sometimes called the Winter Triangle asterism in the Northern Hemisphere. Betelgeuse makes up the "shoulder" of the Hunter. Follow the line of the three stars of Orion's belt to find Sirius The Dog Star. Procyon makes up the third corner of the triangle outlined in red in the photo.

Also pictured in the photo are the stars Aldebaran, Rigel, Pullox, and Castor which make up part of the larger Winter Circle (or Winter Hexagon) asterism, which I outlined in yellow. The star Capella which makes up the last star in the Winter Circle, is out of frame. Aldebaran is of course the major star of the Constellation Taurus, also known as the "Eye of the Bull".

These two constellations and the Winter Triangle and Winter Circle asterisms will remain prominent in the night sky throughout the winter months in the Northern Hemisphere. Look for them rising in the east an hour after sunset.

Have a wonderful evening and please keep your eyes on the night skies, y'all!