{{{Moonlit!}}}
Because I've missed you.
I don't care if it is an orgy of death, there's still such a thing as a napkin.
Willow ,'Lies My Parents Told Me'
All Ogle, No Cash -- It's Not Just Annoying, It's Un-American
Discussion of episodes currently airing in Un-American locations (anything that's aired in Australia is fair game), as well as anything else the Un-Americans feel like talking about or we feel like asking them. Please use the show discussion threads for any current-season discussion.
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P.M. Marc - May 15, 2003 10:33:36 pm PDT #4768 of 9843
So come, my friends, be not afraid/We are so lightly here/It is in love that we are made; In love we disappear
moonlit - May 16, 2003 12:10:08 am PDT #4769 of 9843
"When the world's run by fools it's the duty of intelligence to disobey." Martin Firrell
P.M. Marc - May 16, 2003 12:24:03 am PDT #4770 of 9843
So come, my friends, be not afraid/We are so lightly here/It is in love that we are made; In love we disappear
I used to have a poster of that.
Or, something similar.
It seems to have vanished, though. Pwetty.
Noumenon - May 16, 2003 12:30:21 am PDT #4771 of 9843
No other candidate is asking the hard questions, like "Did geophysicists assassinate Jim Henson?" or "Why is there hydrogen in America's water supply?" --defective yeti
That's beautiful. I wish it would be just a little bigger so I could use it for wallpaper. I'm using NASA's earthlights picture right now.
moonlit - May 16, 2003 12:50:22 am PDT #4772 of 9843
"When the world's run by fools it's the duty of intelligence to disobey." Martin Firrell
If anyone is interested in space/nasa/satellite stuff, the J Track/NASA site is an amazing time waster. (click on J-track 3D)
The number of satellites up there is truly mind-boggling, it's as 'busy as Bourke St.' (Melbourne jargon, insert busiest city street of your choice) You can zoom in/out and rotate the earth to wherever you want to see, plus track the space and ground orbital paths. Whizzy.
And Nou, I check that space pic of the day site every week or so. Some of the Hubble stuff in particular is amazing.
plasmo - May 16, 2003 1:29:53 am PDT #4773 of 9843
{[-_-]}
Thanks for the link moonlit, I'm enjoying some satellite tracking right now. I've always enjoyed looking up and spotting them at night.
Noumenon - May 16, 2003 2:14:29 am PDT #4774 of 9843
No other candidate is asking the hard questions, like "Did geophysicists assassinate Jim Henson?" or "Why is there hydrogen in America's water supply?" --defective yeti
My reactions to the satellite thing: (which piece of space debris are YOU?)
What are all those ones doing way out in the big belt around the earth, like AMSC-1? DirecTV is out there. I thought it would be up close like the phone satellites.
AO-10 has the coolest orbit. Its ground trace is this irregular wavy thing, but its orbit is just a smooth ellipse.
Atlas Centaur R-B is like 3-D spirograph, and Chandra is just weird. I wonder what they're tracking with that dip into the southern hemisphere after three spirals over the north? ...I Googled it. It's not tracking anything on Earth; it's measuring X-rays outside Earth's radiation belts, and it has to stay out of darkness for more than two hours at a time.
Ooh, the GPS satellites are all in a zone of their own, between the two densely populated zones.
IUE just paints a teardrop shape on the side of the earth. Is that possible?
Very cool link. They should put the Moon in there, to show it's ten times farther out than the farthest satellite. It would make for cool zooming and rotation.
moonlit - May 16, 2003 2:57:58 am PDT #4775 of 9843
"When the world's run by fools it's the duty of intelligence to disobey." Martin Firrell
Glad you liked it. I did warn that it was a time-waster didn't I, but I guess that it's at least educational.
Upon retirement my father decided to pursue his childhood hobby/dream/interest of astronomy. This involved spending serious amounts of cash on a largish (12in diameter, 3-4ft long) computer driven automatic tracking telescope, joining the Australian astronomical society, and participating in public education outdoor sessions at various observatories for viewings of things like Hubble, Halley's Comet and other such entities. Consequently I usually build up an impressive favourites list of space/astronomy/cosmology related sites but this last round of computer problems has pretty much wiped the latest ones.
Theodosia - May 16, 2003 5:18:22 am PDT #4776 of 9843
'we all walk this earth feeling we are frauds. The trick is to be grateful and hope the caper doesn't end any time soon"
IUE just paints a teardrop shape on the side of the earth. Is that possible?
Is that one of the 'geostationary' ones? They orbit -- more or less -- over the same fixed spot (you have to get the distance right on the nose to make it work) and I suppose the tilt of the Earth would help make the teardrop shape.
§ ita § - May 16, 2003 10:31:28 am PDT #4777 of 9843
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.
Jim, you want my Matrix comments here?