One of the funnier parts of the scientific method, at least during work in the field, is that nature is a cruel prankster. The smallest things can derail the greatest of experiments. More often than not this results in catastrophe, yet some of the greatest leaps in Science have come from something that seemingly went wrong. Alexander Fleming accidentally discovered penicillin when he noticed that a bacterial culture had been contaminated with mold, but the bacteria did not spread anywhere near the mold. Penzias and Wilson discovered the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation when they were trying to detect faint radio waves...
Tonight, right around sunset, there will be a partial eclipse of the sun, visible from most of North America. As the sun sets, skywatchers will get to see the moon gradually cover about half of the sun, before it disappears below the horizon. A map of the viewing area shows that the best spot to see it will be all the way up in the Canadian arctic. If you don’t live in the Arctic circle, you can certainly see the eclipse in the South-West near the horizon as it sets. The moon will start to cover the sun around 5:45 EDT,...
A Commander Chris Hadfield returns home tonight, the York Universe crew will be focusing on his voyage with a special show, featuring talk of the incredible and inspiring exploits of the first Canadian commander of the International Space Station. Featured in this episode will be an interview with one of the newest Canadian Astronauts, Jeremy Hansen. I was lucky enough to be a part of this interview, and am excited that it will finally reach air time tonight! Also debuting tonight after the York Universe episode, will be my second ‘What’s The Latest?’ podcast, entitled ‘Supernova part 1.’ Find it in...
The Hershel Observatory, an ESA telescope for which NASA helped build instruments and process data, has stopped making observations as it has finally run out of its liquid Helium coolant, as expected. This is a good time to remember the multitude of data that a space based telescope can churn out, and the incredible scientific advancement that comes from such missions. On the heels of the NASA proposed budget, it reminds us how important scientific funding and advancement are, especially for countries that have a good standard of living. The high end technology that comes from developing missions like this...
Rather than post a bunch of simple tiny posts, I decided to go for the gusto and post something a bit more massive. I realized recently that I blog barely once a week, which would be fine for an astronomy-only blog, but I also want to blog about interesting things in my life, which are slightly more common than ‘weekly.’ So to productivity, which for me has been lacking as of late. I spend plenty of time doing valuable things, but not many of those things are valuable to me in the long term. I get to work out a...
This morning was the launch of the second SpaceX dragon capsule mission, officially designated mission CRS-2. It launched at 10:10am today, Friday, March 1st from Cape Canaveral space launch complex 40. A bit of background on Dragon: The two-stage rocket uses 9 engines to power the first stage out of the atmosphere, before the single rocket stage 2 takes the capsule the rest of the way. The 14.4 foot tall dragon capsule is capable of carrying more than 7000 lbs of cargo split between pressurized and unpressurized sections. On March 2nd, Astronauts will use the CanadaArm 2 to grab onto the capsule...
Hello World, The purpose of this blog is mainly Astronomy, but also to connect the world to my personal adventures and to my company Astronomy in Action (www.astronomyinaction.com). I want to become more connected to the digital world and especially to the Astronomy community as a whole. Enjoy! Ryan
