NASA Finds Long-Lost Soviet Lunar Rover

The Lunokhod 1 Rover

NASA launched its Lunar Reconnissance Orbiter last year to scout possible locations for future lunar landings/bases for the now defunct Constellation program. Now, even with Moon missions dead, the Orbiter still circles the Moon. On a recent pass, something from the Cold War era was found: a dead Soviet lunar rover!

Lunokhod 1 landed on the Moon on November 17, 1970 and traveled around the Moon for nearly a year, transmitting back information about components of lunar soil and geography. Hwever, all good things must come to an end. Lunokhod's signal was lost on September 14, 1971 and its location was a mystery for nearly 40 years until just a few days ago when the rover was spotted in high resolution photographs of the lunar surface.

Despite being a dead Cold War relic, Lunokhod still has the potential to help science! One feature of the rover was a large mirror designed to reflect laser beams back to Earth. The Apollo missions planted similar reflectors on the lunar surface, too. In the years since Apollo, these reflectors have established. the fact that the Moon is moving away from the Earth at a rate of 40mm per year.

Now, with Lunokhod 1 found scientists will have yet another vantage point at which to direct laser beams for future study dealing with variations in Einstein's theory of general relativity as laser measurements can measure the Moon's orbit to within a millimeter of accuracy!
Scierntists had long known this potential for the dead rover. as a result, a team led by UC San Diego's Tom Murphy had been searching for the rover for years. Failure to find it caused some fear that the rover had fallen into a ravine or that it had tipped over, making the mirror unusable. As it turns out, the team was merely scouring the wrong location, as the rover was several miles from its estimated location.

Even Russian scientists have taken note of the achievement, with Ruslan Kuzmin commenting that he felt a "deep interior excitement" upon the news that Lunokhod 1 had been found, and further calling the LRO camera "a fantastic instrument."

So, with the Cold War a thing of the past and the rover located, expect its contributions to science to continue for years to come.

Lunokhod 1's final resting place


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Canon 28-135IS USM quick review


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Happy 20th Birthday Hubble!

The Hubble Space Telescope

Okay, it's a belated happy birthday to the Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble's 20th birthday was actually on April 24, which was also, ironically, International Astronomy Day, too.

Launched into orbit on April 24, 1990 aboard the shuttle Discovery, Hubble was officially commissioned the next day. Since then, Hubble has not only beamed some of the most spectacular deep space images ever captured back to Earth, but has literally seen 13.7 billion years back in time to a point just a few hundred million years after the Big Bang. For all its triumphs, Hubble was not without its growing pains.

The Hubble became something of an embarrassment when it was first sent up into space. The main mirror was faulty. A subsequent shuttle mission was needed to allow astronauts to replace the mirror. new mirror in place, Hubble became fully operational by 1993.

From its height of 353 miles, far above atmospheric disturbances that plague Earth bound telescopes, Hubble has the clearest eye to the universe that is physically possible. It is estimated that Hubble's images are around 10 times clearer than the best Earth scope images. So far, it has photographed over 30,000 objects, including star clusters, nebulae, galaxies, and perhaps most spectacularly, dying stars. Hubble's photos have also helped astronomers discover huge black holes at the center of galaxies, that the universe is expanding at a quickening pace, and the first organic particles in space.

For all its achievements, Hubble is now near the end of its life, as it is scheduled to be replaced in 2014 by the James Webb infrared space telescope.


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Happy Astronomy Day!

Hopefully, everyone interested in astronomy knows that Astronomy Day is today. However, while everyone should be familiar with the date, who knows the history of the holiday itself?

Astronomy Day was started in 1973 by Doug Berger, president of the Astronomical Association of Southern California. Berger's intent: set up telescopes in urban areas to bring astronomy to people who were often ignorant of the night sky.

The idea soon started catching on all around the United States, and then the world. Now, Astronomy Day, in its full name, is the International Astronomy Day, showcasing the holiday's rapid rise from local public outreach into worldwide phenomenon.

Astronomy Day is not set on a fixed date, as it moves around from April to May each year, coinciding with first quarter Moon as much as possible. Astronomy Day is also the culmination of Astronomy Week, too.

So, now that you know all about the holiday that celebrates the hobby that brings us all together, celebrate by doing some astronomy tonight or even today with solar scopes!


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User-Friendly Pages Added

In an effort to make this already long blog more user friendly, I have gathered some mainstays (and sure to grow) categories: astrophotos and equipment reviews, all together and have added links to each on a seperate web page, thus eliminating the need to hunt through previous posts month by month to find what you want (to some degree anyway).


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Nothing To See Here Except More Wasteful Government Spending

Today is tax day. As people all over the country are rushing to their local post offices or Tea Party rallies, I thought I'd get in on the tax day fervor, too. The above photo was not retouched in any way (except for added text). Yes, that's right, some governmental agency spent your tax money to put up a blank sign. Whatever it cost to put up, it was too much.


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March 2010 Astrophotos

Here's the astrophoto gallery for March. Again, a lot of quick stuff except for the Constellation shots. April should start bringing some new deep sky as the LXD55 is finally working again after a reboot. Enjoy.
Young Moon and Venus

The Big Dipper, rapidly rising in the North/Northeast

Leo, almost directly overhead by true dark

Corvus. the tiny constellation in the South, May is the optimum time for viewing for the non-night owls before it quickly disappears

Venus and a 2 day old Moon

The same thing about half an hour later with my new Olympus Styulus 550WP weather-sealed point and shoot. Expect a review of this sub $100 bargain cam soon!

Sunspots through a white light filter

Waning Crescent in the dark

After a cloudy winter, it's nice to see the Sun first thing in the morning

Moonstars with the Olympus, the little P&S can do night astro!

Third quarter Moon

Waning gibbeous in the morning


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New Element Named for Copernicus

Recently discovered element 112 is no longer nameless: it has been named Copernicum, after the Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus, who rediscovered the idea of the heliocentric solar system (Aristarchus of Samos proposed the same idea in the 200s B.C.). While Copernicum is unlikely to impact any of us on an individual basis, it is a fitting tribute to the man who, literally, reordered the cosmos.

To read more: Popular Science


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