I saw another UFO Saturday night. Once again in the car headed west, I spied a bright starlike object in the reddish post-sunset sky, low to the mountains. It was reminiscent of Venus as it appears deep in the sunset glow, but of course Venus is not in that part of the sky at sunset […]
Archive for the 'Space' Category
I saw another “UFO”, maybe two
Published April 14th, 2008 in Bizarre, Space, atmospheric events and Science. 5 CommentsWhile most of us slept on the morning of March 19, hours before the death of famed science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke was announced, a shot rang out in the Universe the likes of which are unknown in human history. By a preliminary analysis, this object was visible to the unaided human eye in […]
Sundogs bite as UFOs
Published January 20th, 2008 in Bizarre, Photos, Space, atmospheric events and Science. 17 CommentsLet me start by saying that I do not know what most people of north central Texas saw and reported as a UFO last week. If the published reports are accurate — then what they saw was very unusual at least, and if true, then we cannot rule out an extraterrestrial origin. However, I […]
Astronomy is not just for the sighted anymore.
Earth passed the December solstice more than a week ago, but another milestone comes tomorrow (Jan. 2). It’s not one you would normally notice, nor one that you would logically expect. As the Earth orbits the sun, its distance varies by up to 3 million miles. Tomorrow, earth is at perihelion, or its closest point […]
Astronomy started out as a purely visual science, but with today’s electronics and techniques, the visually impaired can enjoy and contribute. But that really isn’t what I am referring to as “listening to astronomy” here. It used to be that you to take classes, or else had to be in the right place at the […]
Student space project a limited success
Published November 8th, 2007 in Space and Science. 0 CommentsBack in May I mentioned a program called YES2 involving some early orbital experimentation with the concept of a “space cable.”
YES2 was to unroll a 30 km (about 19 mile) long cable from an orbiting Russian spacecraft (Foton-M3). The intent was that the dangling probe (called Fotino) would skim the Earth’s upper atmosphere, then […]
How to identify a UFO
Published October 4th, 2007 in Bizarre, Space and atmospheric events. 68 CommentsIn a previous post I gave some ideas of what you should do if you observe something in the sky you can’t identify. I used “flying saucer” in the title of that blog, but I don’t want to restrict this to objects with such an obvious and questionable connotations, so I will use “unidentified flying […]
Did you know that NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) offers free speakers? No, I don’t mean that they will send you new subwoofers. But if you have a group of people who would like to learn about JPL’s planetary exploration programs, chances are that there is a JPL Solar System Ambassador in your city who […]
Whoa! Mars as big as the full moon! You’ve probably heard that before, huh? I’m sure many of you have already seen the email that says in August 2007, Mars will be as big and bright as the full moon. In fact, some versions of this email claim that Mars and Earth’s moon will […]