The Eclipse Feeling

It was like someone turned down the Sun with a dimmer switch.  The tempurate dropped quickly, enhanced by the lack of moisture in the dry mountain air.  In a span of an hour, the Sun looked the same, but was very different, as totality approached.  I was taking photos through my telescope with an attached solar filter, so I could see the Moon slowly covering the Sun.  But as the environment changed in Northern Wyoming, I grew more excited for what was to come.  Over a year of preparation for this event, and clear skies greeted me with the confidence...

A Space Laser to Destroy Space Junk – It’s Not Star Wars

Space Junk is a growing problem.  Even though there is a lot of room in low Earth orbit, it’s estimated that 3,000 tons of space debris is floating around at different altitudes and speeds, posing a significant threat to present and future orbital infrastructure.  The number of objects classed as space junk doubled in 2014 to 4000 individual pieces, mostly due to collisions between objects already in space.  Most of this space junk is old derelict satellites and rocket bodies and engines leftover from 50 years of space exploration.  Because of the wide variety of altitudes, trajectories, and speeds, it can...