Category Archives: Space

Telescopes

As a child I had wanted to be an astronomer. Instead, I became an author and a theologian. But I’ve never lost my love of astronomy. My first telescope was made of plastic; it was a reflector and was supposed … Continue reading

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SETI

SETI, the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence, is now more than fifty years old. In 1959, the Cornell physicists Giuseppi Cocconi and Philip Morrison published an article in the journal Nature proposing the idea that it might be possible to use … Continue reading

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Apollo 13

On the night of April 13, 1970–43 years ago today–the words “Houston, we’ve had a problem” were uttered when an oxygen tank in the Service Module of the moon bound Apollo 13 exploded. The Lunar Module pilot of that mission, … Continue reading

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A Memory

Neil Armstrong, the first human being to set foot upon the moon, passed away the afternoon of Saturday, August 25, 2012. The flags of the nation flew at half-staff in remembrance and there were outpourings of tributes. And yet, only … Continue reading

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Dawn

Early in the evening of September 27, 2007, a Delta II blasted off from Space Launch Complex 17B at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. On board was Dawn, an enormous unmanned spaceship designed to visit two asteroids: Vesta,and Ceres. … Continue reading

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Antarctica

Two organizations raced to get to their destination, stretching the available technology to achieve their goals. Only one could get there first. National pride and personal pride were at stake. But we’re not talking about a race to the moon. … Continue reading

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Life As We Don’t Know It

“The Universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose.” So said J.B.S. Haldane in Possible Worlds and Other Papers in 1927. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the astronomer Percival Lowell mesmerized the … Continue reading

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Planet Pi

If you click on the infographic it will give you a much larger version. Source: JPL Send to Kindle

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Moon and Jupiter

Tonight we attempted to see the comet PanSTARRS again; but we had prayer meeting tonight and by the time we got outside the comet had set. But, I had my telescope with me (a Meade 3 1/2 inch Maksutov–Cassegrain with … Continue reading

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Comets and Other Stuff

I finally got to see the comet PanSTARRS tonight, together with my wife and Kathy Newman, who took several excellent pictures of it. We watched it from our church; it was dark there and we had a clear view of … Continue reading

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