Night Sky Photography -- 04-01-2026 -- The Full Flower Moon & Artemis II

 

The April full moon is also known as the Full Flower Moon in North America, and is the first full moon following the spring equinox in the Northern Hemisphere.

I was able to capture the shot above in a clear sky. The visible features of the lunar surface and the Man in the Moon is clearly visible in the shot, as is Tycho Crater, one of the largest craters on the visible side of Luna facing our Earth.

Tonight's Full Flower Moon arrives just in time for the launch of NASA's Artemis II mission, which successfully lifted off from Launch Complex 39B at the John F. Kennedy Space Center at Merritt Island, Florida at approximately 6:35 p.m. EDT -- just under four hours before the full moon reached its peak illumination here in South Carolina at 10:15 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, April 1st.

The Artemis II mission is the first crewed U.S. mission to the Moon since the Apollo 17 mission in December of 1972. Should all go according to plan, the four person crew of the Orion spacecraft (U.S. Astronauts Commander Reid Weisman, Pilot Victor Glover, Mission Specialist Christina H. Koch, and Canadian Astronaut Jeremy Hansen) will leave Earth's orbit this weekend -- the first human beings to do so in 53 years -- and arrive in orbit around the Moon on Monday, April 6th. Godspeed astronauts!

The Day The Earth Smiled -- Happy Earth Day!

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute.

 

NASA photo titled "The Day The Earth Smiled" shows our beautiful Earth as a bright blue star taken by the Cassini-Huygens space probe on Friday, July 19, 2013 from the orbit of the planet Saturn at a distance of approximately 753,000 miles (or 1.212 million kilometers) from Saturn, and approximately 898.414 million miles (or 1.445858 billion kilometers, or 85 light-minutes) from the Earth.

From that distance it truly puts into perspective just how blessed we are to be here and have a world suited for life. We should also remember to care for this world God gave us and treat the things that live on it with respect.

Happy Earth Day, Y'all!

Night Sky Photography -- 02-17-2021 -- Moon, Mars & Aldebaran Between Winter Storms -- Congratulations Perseverance!

Good evening, fellow night sky watchers!

This past week, for one night only, the skies cleared after days of freezing cold wintry rain we frequently get in South Carolina this time of year. I was able to capture a wonderful shot of the moon with the planet Mars and the bright star Aldebaran high overhead about an hour after sunset on Wednesday, February 17th.

You can see our beautiful Luna on her way to her First Quarter Phase in line with the slightly faint coppery planet, Mars and the bright star, Aldebaran near the top.

As I have mentioned before in previous blog posts, the giant star Aldebaran is the brightest star in the Constellation Taurus The Bull, and at 65 light years from our own sun is the fourteenth largest star in our night sky. The name Aldebaran derives from the Arabic term al Dabaran, meaning "the follower" because it seems to follow the Pleiades in the night sky.

Mars recently made headlines here on Earth with the successful landing of the NASA rover, Perseverance, on the surface of the Red Planet's Jezero Crater as part of the Mars 2020 mission launched last summer. This is part of the ongoing mission by NASA to search for signs of ancient -- or possibly current -- microscopic life on Mars, as well as learning more about our world's closest planetary neighbor.

The landing actually took place on Thursday, February 18th, the day after this photo was taken millions of miles away here on Earth.

The first colorized photo of the surface of Mars taken by NASA's Perseverance
rover at the bottom of Jezero Crater on Thursday, February 18, 2021.
Image courtesy of NASA.

Well, as always I hope y'all enjoyed this post. Please let me know what y'all think in the comments below. As always have a wonderful evening and be sure to keep your eyes to the night skies.

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!

The Apollo 11 Moon Landing 50 Years Later: For All Mankind

Astronaut Edward "Buzz" Aldrin standing with the US flag
on the surface of the moon.

50 years ago today, on Sunday, July 20, 1969, the crew of the Apollo 11 NASA mission successfully landed on the surface of the moon, beginning a mission of exploration that human beings have dreamed of for millennia since the dawn of mankind. 

First step on the moon.

Americans Commander Neil Armstrong and lunar module pilot Edward "Buzz" Aldrin landed the Apollo Lunar Module Eagle at a site they named Tranquility Base at 4:17 P.M. EDT. Command module pilot Michael Collins flew the command module Columbia alone in lunar orbit while they were on the Moon's surface.

Armstrong became the first person to step onto the lunar surface, speaking the following words: "That's one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind." Armstrong's first step onto the lunar surface was broadcast on live television to a worldwide audience.

 

Apollo 11 effectively ended the Space Race and fulfilled a national goal proposed eight years before in 1961 by US President John F. Kennedy: "before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth."

In addition to various scientific instruments, the Armstrong and Aldrin left behind an Apollo 1 mission patch in memory of astronauts Roger Chaffee, Gus Grissom, and Edward White, who died when their command module caught fire during a test in January 1967; two memorial medals of Soviet cosmonauts Vladimir Komarov and Yuri Gagarin, who died in 1967 and 1968 respectively; and a memorial bag containing a gold replica of an olive branch as a traditional symbol of peace.  

One of the most amazing human technological achievement was the work of hundreds of thousands of dedicated American people over a decade, from those who designed the equipment, the factory workers who build the components for the command and lunar modules, the rocket engineers who designed and built the Saturn V rocket, the employees at NASA who planned out the missions, and of course the astronauts themselves who carried them out, risking their lives to achieve this milestone in human history.  

More so it was the dream inspired by writers of science fiction for over a century. Many more would be inspired by the achievement of the Apollo program to continue writing about mankind's quest for the other planets in our solar system, and eventually traveling the stars themselves.

This blog post is dedicated to the memory of all those who helped make the Apollo program and this great achievement possible, and for those who work today to continue the mission of expanding humanity's frontiers in space.

The memorial plaque attached to the Eagle lander with the
names and signatures of the three Apollo 11 astronauts
Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, Buzz Aldrin,
and U.S. President Richard M. Nixon.
"We came in peace for all mankind."

The Apollo 11 lunar landing mission crew.
From left to right: Neil A. Armstrong, commander;
Michael Collins, command module pilot;
and Edwin E. Aldrin Jr., lunar module pilot.

The Apollo 11 insignia.

In The Beginning God.... Apollo 8 -- 50 Year Anniversary

The famous "Earthrise" photo  taken from lunar orbit by astronaut
Bill Anders on December 24, 1968.

Fifty years ago this Christmas the world watched in a mixture of excitement and wonder as the three-man crew of Apollo 8 -- Frank Frederick Borman II, Jim Arthur Lovell Jr. and William Alison Anders -- blasted off from Pad 39A at the John F. Kennedy Space Center on Merritt Island in Florida, United States for a six-day trip to the Moon and back, becoming the first human beings to leave Earth behind, fly around the Moon and return safely home.

The six-day mission began on 21st December 1968 and included a day orbiting the Moon, when the astronauts took the now famous "Earthrise" picture -- one of the most celebrated photographs ever taken of our planet. Circling the Moon on Christmas Eve, the crew shared their thoughts in a public broadcast, reading a passage from Genesis, the first book of the Bible.

 

William Anders

 

"We are now approaching lunar sunrise, and for all the people back on Earth, the crew of Apollo 8 has a message that we would like to send to you. 

 

"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness." 

 

James Lovell

 

"And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.
And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.
And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day."

Frank Borman

 

"And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.

And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good."

 

"And from the crew of Apollo 8, we close with good night, good luck, a Merry Christmas -- and God bless all of you, all of you on the good Earth." 

The return trip home was uneventful, the capsule splashing down successfully in the Pacific Ocean on 27th December. The success of Apollo 8 showed that it was possible to take astronauts safely to the Moon and bring them home; the next major task would be learning how to land on the lunar surface.

US Postage Stamp commemorating
the Apollo 8 Lunar Orbit Mission.
Issued on Monday, May 5, 1969.
Over 187 million of these stamps
were made.

Blue Sunset On Mars

The following link is a small 50 second film created by NASA showing panoramic camera images from the Mars rover Opportunity of the sunset on Mars on November 4th and 5th, 2010:

Blue Sunset On Mars

Truly an awe inspiring sight. The same sun we wake up to every clear day here on good ole Terra (Earth) as seen on the surface of our closest neighboring planet. A sight that perhaps only God has ever witnessed now possible through the use of modern human technology. We truly do live in an age of wonder.

Martian sunset photo taken by the Mars rover Spirit at Gusev Crater, May 19, 2005.

 

I do wonder though, someday will human beings actually stand on the surface of the Red Planet and see this gorgeous blue sunset with their own eyes? I believe we -meaning humanity- will, both as explorers, and as future Martians ourselves.

Of course, I'm a huge science fiction fan and I must confess a bit of a romantic when it comes to the ideas of space exploration and colonization beyond Earth. Just another of the long line of wild dreamers who look up at the night sky at the distant planets and stars the way our own ancient ancestors must once have looked at the distant horizon and wondered what lay beyond. 

I believe that someday there will be generations of humans born and living on Mars, perhaps in vast domed biospheres the size of major cities on Earth. Or maybe - with the help of future technologies yet to be invented - a way to transforming that lifeless world's surface and atmosphere into a place habitable for human life. Today's science fiction could well be tomorrow's science fact. After all look at what progress humanity has made in just one century. Imagine two or three centuries hence.

At the very least I hope to live to see the day the first human explorers touch their boots to the surface of Mars and take that first step into the next great frontier.