Astronomy Folk | Planets, Meteors, Comets, Telescopes

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Russian Cargo Ship Arrives at Station

The ISS Progress 41 cargo craft docked to the station?s Pirs docking compartment Saturday at 9:39 p.m. EST. The Progress is carrying 1,918 pounds of propellant, 110 pounds of oxygen, 926 pounds of water and 3,080 pounds of spare parts and supplies to the station.

The unpiloted Progress vehicle performed the automated docking using its onboard Kurs automated rendezvous system. Flight Engineers Alexander Kaleri and Oleg Skripochka monitored the cargo craft?s arrival inside the Zvezda servi [...]

Full story at http://spacefellowship.com/news/art24821/russian-cargo-ship-arrives-at-station.html

New weeks, new geeks. So say we all!

It’s been a while since I’ve plugged Geek-A-Week, artist Len Peralta’s project to interview and draw a trading card for one Alpha Geek per week for a year.

Did I say one? I guess this week is an exception, since Len’s latest geekweekery is with singers/songwriters/comedians/dorks Paul and Storm, they of the creation of w00tstock. The drawing Len did is perfect, since if you’re ever heard them perform you’ll wonder if they do inhabit the same body with two heads… and the description on the card back was done by none other than Neil Gaiman! You can listen to the interview by grabbing the MP3 here.

And it’s not like Len’s been slouching the past few weeks, either. Last weekend he roped into his nerd corral Chief Galen Tyrol himself, Aaron Douglas (from Battlestar Galactica, duh). I met Aaron at w00tstock at Comic Con, where he did a really funny walk-on wearing his orange flight deck jumpsuit. Despite his gruff appearance he’s actually completely without pity or humor or adult sensibilities.

You can find out for yourself by listening to ...

Full story at http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BadAstronomyBlog/~3/6mf41FMF5e0/

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

One Cargo Craft Docks, Another Begins Trip to Station

The Expedition 26 crew of the International Space Station enjoyed a little free time Friday morning following a busy Thursday that saw the launch of a Russian cargo craft and the capture, attachment and hatch opening of the Japanese Kounotori2 H-II Transfer Vehicle.

The ISS Progress 41 cargo craft launched at 8:31 p.m. EST Thursday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. When it arrives at the station's Pirs docking compartment Saturday at 9:39 p.m., Progress will deliver three tons of f [...]

Full story at http://spacefellowship.com/news/art24816/one-cargo-craft-docks-another-begins-trip-to-station.html

This Week On The Space Show

The Space Show, hosted by David Livingston under www.TheSpaceShow.com, will have the following guests this week:

1. Monday, January 31, 2011, 2-3:30 PM PST (22-23:30 GMT)
Meidad Pariente, ME from Israel comes to discuss the issue of GEP satellite collisions.
Meidad Pariente, 40, is one of Israel's leading space entrepreneurs.� As a student, he worked as an AMOS-1 Satellite operator, and after graduation he joined AMOS-2 systems engineering group, where he was responsible for integrated fun [...]

Full story at http://spacefellowship.com/news/art24819/this-week-on-the-space-show.html

Russian Cargo Ship Arrives at Station

Full story at http://spacefellowship.com/news/art24821/russian-cargo-ship-arrives-at-station.html

Bill O?Reilly: tidal bore

Look, I know. Bill O’Reilly is a far-right ideologue who couldn’t grasp reality with a hundred meters of velcro and a ton of Crazy glue. He’s mean-spirited, loud, and wrong, wrong, wrong. Debunking him is like debunking the Tooth Fairy; so easy and obvious that it’s almost mean on my part to do it.

Yet here we are.

By now the entire planet has heard O’Reilly’s bizarre litany about tides, and how he claims they prove the existence of God. As he has said on many an occasion, "tide goes in, tide goes out, never a miscommunication." By this he means that the harmony of nature, the amazing interconnection between things, clearly argues for God.

The problem is, he’s wrong. Twice, actually. First because he’s making the "God of the Gaps" fallacy: if something can’t be explained, then God must have done it. That’s pretty silly, since of course the far more likely explanation is simply that O’Reilly can’t explain it. That doesn’t mean I can’t! And in the case of tides, I can explain them, as can my friend Neil Tyson , and pretty much every other ...