Monthly Archives: November 2009

November 30, 2009

Festival Sains Antariksa 2009

IYA 2009 is only a month away, and before officially closed, my office organized activities, in the participation of this IYA 2009. The name of the activity is Festival Sains Antariksa 2009 (Space Science Festival). There were various activities, as ...

November 30, 2009

November 30, 1609 – 2009

At last the memorable night has come. If the weather in Bavaria stays as is now, we might have the chance of repeating the observations of the moon exactly 400 years after Galileo's. Although Galileo has almost certainly observed the ...

November 30, 2009

Observing from La Palma

Trying to confirm the proto brown dwarfs ... I already have the answer. At least part of it. Weather is not kind to us, at least tonight. Mean while, several nice pictures, taken with my mobile.

November 29, 2009

How will be Earth if it has rings? tomorrow at the NASA-GRC!

How will be our planet if it has a ring? I found this interesting video on the web that I wanted to share with you. Surprisingly I wrote this 7 days ago and apparently forgot to publish it. Find below the ...

November 29, 2009

A Visit to Candi Cangkuang

Two days ago, during the Eid al-Adha, the Muslim "Festival of Sacrifice", i went to Candi Cangkuang, the only candi (ancient temple) that well preserved in West Java Province. This candi lies near the Garut town, about 50 km from ...

November 28, 2009

The best proto-brown dwarf candidate so far: PR from Spitzer

SPITZER TELESCOPE OBSERVES BABY BROWN DWARF PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope has contributed to the discovery of the youngest brown dwarf ever observed -- a finding that, if confirmed, may solve an astronomical mystery about how these cosmic misfits ...

November 27, 2009

Shuttle and Station

I had another good view of the space station and space shuttle last night, on very similar orbits but about 20 seconds apart. Since it was Thanksgiving in the United States, a large number of dinner guests also got ...

November 27, 2009

Horror Vacuii

This post is about the terror brought about by astronomy. Just personal considerations and feelings: nothing to be taken very seriously and born from the desire of sharing with others (who might feel the same way but never dared to ...

November 26, 2009

AWFUL

In A Win For Uppercase Letters (AWFUL), the NASA Public Affairs Office (PAO) has agreed acronyms should be capitalized even if they spell a word, if they are short enough. So WISE will remain WISE, not Wise. Today ...

November 26, 2009

Space Station and Space Shuttle

Last night I saw the space station followed by the space shuttle about 10 seconds later. They were easily visible from my house in Los Angeles. Go to Heavens Above to get predictions for your area. The ...