altadenablog

ISS/Shuttle flyby 6:20 tonight

Chris Considine, the Skywatcher (we really need to find him a theme song!) tells us:

Just BEFORE 6:30...at about 6:20 it's one of the last shuttle missions...they are coming to a close!....
the double sized ISS and SHUTTLE 'spaceship' tonight should be super bright and directly OVERHEAD from
the NORTH WEST to the SOUTH WEST....
http://heavens-above.com/PassSummary.aspx?satid=25544&lat=34.190&lng=-118.130&loc=Altadena&alt=400&tz=PST

http://heavens-above.com/gtrack.asp?lat=34.190&lng=-118.130&alt=400&loc=Altadena&TZ=PST&Date=40143.1016639464&satid=25544

I wish ALL of you a WONDERFUL and HAPPY THANKSGIVING...
We all know we are having incredible weather for the holiday weekend...
Almost unfair compared to the rest of the nation...but that's WHY WE LIVE HERE!!!

Star party Sat. @ Eaton Canyon

Eaton Canyon Nature Center's final Twilight Program of 2009 will be on Sat, Oct. 3 at 7 PM, and it's a good one: Bonnie Burratti of JPL will speak about the recent mission to Pluto (still a planet, we say!) as well as a "Star Party" following her speech with telescopes set up to view the evening sky.

ISS flyby tonight

... starts about 6:50 PM in the northwest, heading southeast.  (Thx to the Skywatcher!)

Prepare for a little "boom-boom!"

Getting from lots of our readers that the space shuttle is likely to land at Edwards AFB about 5:52 this afternoon -- so prepare for the double sonic boom!

Skies above: ISS & Shuttle tonight

Chris Considine, the Skywatcher (insert dramatic music here -- he needs a theme song) tells us that the space shuttle will be chasing the International Space Station in the skies above Altadena starting at about 8:44 tonight.

Chris reports:

13 PEOPLE are now orbiting the earth...quite exciting.

UPDATE 9 PM:  A spectacular viewing from Altadenablog World Headquarters, and the Skywatcher sends us a poetic email:

The ISS  was chasing the Shuttle tonight over the skies of Altadena with a perfect trajectory from the Northwest skies to the South.

One followed the other on a beautiful night sky when the planets and stars were first coming into view.

Just as the two 'spaceships' were in full view, the first of 3 meteorites streaked across the sky, coming from the east to the west.

The first one was really a nice full chunk of space burning up over Altadena, leaving a long white line in the fading sky.

Then two others joined the club, entering the atmosphere and making their marks in the evening darkness.

Two spaceships with 13 people aboard chasing one another and 3 excellent 'shooting stars' made this a very memorable evening of sky spectating.

Copter lands at Eliot this afternoon

Man, we take our youngest to yoga, and this happens in our neighborhood!  No wonder we hate yoga!

Here's the first-person scoop from Chris "The Skywatcher" Considine:

At 4:15 this afternoon the Sheriff's rescue helicopter set down in quick fashion on the playing field of Eliot Jr High.. The copter was on a return to its Mt Wilson station after a presumed rescue mission that took it to Huntington Hospital just about 1/2 before this.

As the helicopter was heading back up to the mountain, it suddenly started to lose elevation and made a hard starboard turn at Mendocino and Hill. I was in a car on Mendocino and it kept losing elevation and turning in a full circle back towards Lake Ave.

As it looked, I thought it was going to land on my street, Sonoma Dr, but continued over Mar Vista and headed to Eliot. It then landed and attracted a large group of people and a huge cloud of dust.

A crewmember got out, and stood in front of the helicopter and signaled it to shut down and it did just that. The rotors came to a stop for about 8 minutes. Then they reboarded and started up the engines and took off and once again headed to Mt. Wilson.

As a conjecture, I can only surmise that perhaps a warning light or some other technical glitch forced them to land and check it out. It seems that it was minor, and they took off.

Quite an exciting afternoon here in Altadena once again, as yesterday this same crew was called into Eaton Canyon for the tragic removal of a hiker's body, the story seen on the front page of the Star News this morning.

Jamie Bissner also reports to us:

Air 5 with the L. A. County Sheriff's Department dropped two hikers off on the field at Eliot about 20 minutes ago (roughly 4:10 -- ed.). The hikers were picked up by two members of the Altadena Mountain Search and Rescue Team and taken away in a pick up. The hikers were not in custody and appeared to have no injuries.

Just checked with sheriff's station, and they confirm that there was a landing at Eliot after a search and rescue, but can't confirm that there was a second landing.  We're continuing to look into it.

Thanks to Jamie, Chris for the story and first photo, and Bo Astrup for the second photo.

UPDATE 9:30 PM:  OK, only one landing, Chris said he was conjecturing too much!  Rescue hikers in the mountains, fly 'em to Eliot, take off and go home.  Sounds like enough excitement for one day.

JPL gets "Best Science Website" Webby award for Cassini

We're totally stealing this cool note from JPL's (and Altadena's) Alice Wessen on Facebook:

My web crew and media rep are in NYC to pick up an award at the Webbys for Best Science Website (http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov).

While having breakfast, we ran into Mayor Bloomberg. He is a big NASA fan. (Picture: Kirk Munsell, Carolina Martinez, Harman Smith, Mayor Bloomberg, Alice Wessen and Greg Baerg)

Earlier that day, Alice Wessen was interviewed by Voice of America (http://www.voanews.com) about the Cassini mission website

The Webby award site is right here.

Remembering from on high

Chris "The Skywatcher" Considine tells us about the activity above yesterday morning:

As always on a Memorial Day, Altadena had its share of vintage aircraft flying overhead in
formation for the various activities around the area honoring our Veterans.

At 10:15am eight WWII warbirds flew over several times and a couple Air Force jets made a run
overhead, but the lack of visibility didn't allow any visual sightings, just the great low
rumble of most likely F-118's heading back over the mountains.

"L" from above

 Better late than never, but a note about today's aerial activity from Chris Consodine - The Skywatcher:

Not sure exactly why the Coast Guard is buzzing our little town at low altitude at 12:45pm this afternoon.

But the distinctive sound of the Swiss built copter and the bright orange and white color scheme left no doubt. Is there a body of water that I don't know about?...or maybe they were headed to the only body of water in the entire zone, Johnson Pond(lake), as they came back and buzzed the Rose Bowl area before heading out.

At the same time, the heavens were seemingly playing a bit of cosmic SCRABBLE in the sky as the clouds were actually in letter form today...A BIG Capital "L" was quite evident...and quite unusual.

Good day for skywatchin'

LA Fire Dept. Twitters us that vintage aircraft will be overhead this afternoon as part of the Dodger Stadium opening day festivities.  The Skywatcher (Chris Considine) has already e-mailed us that he's ID'd a B-2, and at 1:30, we can still hear things in the air.

Choppers above!

Chris Considine "The Skywatcher" is on patrol again, and reports the latest:

At exactly 10:07 the second wave of extremely low flying military helicopters came rumbling across Altadena at what seemed like less than 500' altitude (the legal limit).

A first wave of 6 flying just as low was seen and heard over the Pasadena Altadena border heading once again to the South East at 9:30 or so and barely visible as they were almost below the trees. Then this wave of 6 Apaches (this time I could SEE the pilots as they literally were over my roof top in single file formation followed by one BlackHawk pulling up the rear. Quite exciting, but still not exactly clear about their current missions and why there are so many so recently.

It's 10:45 right now, and we can still hear some chopper activity from our location.  Curioser and curioser!

Choppers on the move above Altadena

Chris "Skywatcher" Considine sent this note about this morning's activity above our heads:

The Skywatcher was busy this morning with the incoming rumble of multiple military helicopters in formation at 9am... it lasted quite a while with 4 in formation helicopters heading southeast over Altadena followed shortly thereafter by 6 more helicopters heading to the same general direction.

Nothing to report of which group or why, although one would have to suspect Marines being moved to or back to Camp Pendleton in Oceanside.

ISS flyovers this week -- bigger & brighter!

We're taking the easy way out -- Bill Westphal just sent us a note on the New, Improved Space Station, with New, Improved Largeness and Brightness, which will be passing overhead in the next couple of days.

Rather than figure out how to render the chart, we just cut & pasted the whole note!  Enjoy!

Honk-honk, eh?

Some newsgroup chatter and a couple of direct reports tell us that the latest flying object over Altadena is not a B-2, U-2, or UFO, but the Canada goose.  Some of the more knowledgeable birders in town noticed Canadian geese honking their way over the foothills this morning.

Usually the geese range over the San Fernando Valley during their migration, so this is a little off the beaten path for them.  Let's be alert tomorrow and see if there are more -- maybe it's a trend!

B-2 finally makes it

This blog would not be what is is without the ever-energetic and ubiquitous Bill Westphal.  Just want to make that clear at the outset, and thank him for yet another spectacular picture.

The B-2 bomber made its usual appearance at the Rose Parade this morning, an hour delayed due to frost on its wings at Palmdale, according to the stories.  Shortly after 9 AM, it finally swooped over the parade route and turned back home to its Kansas hangar.  Picture here from this morning, making a turn over the Verdugos.

The Master-mind of Mars

 Altadenan and JPL's former chief Mars scientist Dan McCleese is interviewed in this PSN story.  McCleese is one of those appearing on Tuesday's Nova, about the search for life on Mars.

Image is captured from an abortive attempt by Disney to animate Edgar Rice Burrough's Mars novels.  Rumor has it Pixar will tackle it again in 2012 ...

Mapping the universe

Sign of the TImes (sott.net) has a profile of freelance scientist Dr. Robert Gaskell, who uses the mighty banks of computers in his Altadena home to map planets and asteroids. 

Space station ... Hubble ... shuttle ... toolbag ...

Looking ahead, one of our favorite websites says there will be a very bright flyover of the International Space Station on Dec. 17 at about 6:30 AM.  We also note that, besides the Hubble and the Lacrosse spy satellite (wave as it goes by),  it tracks the latest object in the sky -- the missing International Space Station Toolbag!

Photo courtesy NASA

Stealth bomber flyover this afternoon

Did any of you see the B2 bomber flyover awhile ago (of course you did!).  Isaac Garcia is on top of things, and has fresh new pictures.  Check 'em out.

BTW, our inside sources say it wasn't a Rose Parade rehearsal, but a former Defense Dept. bigwig who was having his funeral at Pasadena First United Methodist Church today and earned the flyover.

UPDATE 9 PM: Just got the obit: there was a 1 PM funeral for Verne Orr, President Reagan's secretary of the Air Force and a champion of the B1 and B2 programs, at Pasadena FUMC, and the flyover was for that -- of course, if the B2 is flying over Colorado Boulevard anyway it could also have taken in a little practice run over the Rose Parade route as well.  (We have our suspicions that last month's U2 flyover was not just about the Hollywood air show, either).

Venus and Mars are all right tonight

We just had to quote from the old "Wings" song, even tho' Mars isn't involved.

But several eye-on-the-sky readers have told us about a beautiful conjunction of Venus, Jupiter, and the crescent moon tonight. Just look at the southwest after sunset.

Why is this night different from all other nights? It's ISS Passover!

We missed a good one last night, but hope we can redeem ourselves tomorrow:  the International Space Station will have a good overhead pass tomorrow, Friday, from about 5:07 to 5:12 PM, going from southwest to northeast (thank you, Bill and Alice).

Altadena WeatherCam: it's the meteor webcam!

The amazing Bill Westphal passes all superlatives by capturing a meteor on the weathercam!  We're in the middle of the Taurid meteor shower, and the 'cam picked this up shortly before 4 AM today.  Thank you, Bill! 

Taurid meteors swarming thru next week

The Spaceweather site tells us we're in the middle of a meteor shower -- and it's a goodie!

Space Weather News for Nov. 6, 2008
http://spaceweather.com

TAURID METEOR SHOWER: The annual Taurid meteor shower is underway and it could be a good show. 2008 is a "swarm year" for the Taurids. Between Nov. 5th and 12th, Earth is due to pass through an unusually dense swarm of gritty debris from parent comet 2P/Encke. When a similar encounter happened in 2005, sky watchers observed a slow drizzle of midnight fireballs for nearly two weeks. Whether 2008 will be as good as 2005, however, remains to be seen. In 2005, the swarm encounter was more central; Earth passed through the middle of the cloud. In 2008, forecasters believe we are closer to the outskirts. How much this will affect the shower, no one knows. The best time to look is during the hours around midnight when the constellation Taurus is high in the sky.

(Thanks to Bill Westphal for tipping us off!)

Cassini-Huygens relays "best witches"

Our friends at JPL send us this from Saturn:

As we begin our new Equinox mission at Saturn, the Cassini-Huygens team sends "best witches" for a happy, healthy and fun Halloween.
We've enjoyed sharing stunning images and exciting results of Cassini's first four years at Saturn - and promise to scare up many more treats as we continue studying the eerie glow of Saturn's rings, the spine-tingling thunder on the planet, the hair-raising jets on Enceladus, and the murky brew on Titan.

More here.

Out to launch Friday night

Our sky-eye-guy Bill Westphal says that, with a little luck, there'll be something to see fairly early tomorrow night: a Delta II launch at Vandenberg AFB at 19:28:21 PDT (or 7:28 PM to us civilians).  Launch window is one second long, so either it happens or it doesn't.  Weather permitting, launch should be visible for 200 miles.

The payload is an Italian COSMO-3 satellite going into near-polar orbit that will take radar images of Earth.

More on Mars in 3-D

Space.com has an article on Robert Gaskell's rendering of Mars images, which we featured previously here.

... and to all a good night!

Tonight's Alaska volcano-fueled sunset -- not as vivid as last night, but still pretty nice with that slight crescent moon.

Photo by the indefatigable Bill Westphal.

Sunrise, sunset

The Altadenablog family was returning from a party in Cerritos last night and marvelled at the amazing orange and red sunset as we drove west.

And, as usual, Altadenablog Science Correspondent Bill Westphal, as usual, is on the case, and sends us to today's Spaceweather page: a volcano in Alaska gets the credit for all the extra stuff in the atmosphere that makes the amazing colors.

The Perseids are coming!

The Earth passes thru the annual Perseid  meteor shower starting tomorrow, peaking at about 9 PM Monday night.  It continues through Tuesday -- if you get out of the city, expect one or two a minute.  Pull up a chair and enjoy!

International Space Station overhead tonight

Another flyby tonight, just before 9 PM:

Start 8:52:39 at 10 degrees above the NW
Max 8:55:35 at 86 degrees straight up
End 8:56:53 at 30 degrees above the SE

A gorgeous shot ...

... of the ATT Satellite Earth Station on Isaac Garcia's blog.  And who took this great shot?  Our ubiquitous science correspondent Bill Westphal, rapidly becoming the Forrest Gump of Altadena.

Low-flying 707? Travolta at large?

Our ex-father-in-law was one of those guys who was convinced that the black helicopters were buzzing him around his home near the Rose Bowl.  We've also heard of  the black triangles and the drones ... but a commercial jet?  This is new!  Chris Considine tells us about his experience:

Listen...I don't know if you had personally seen or were aware of a couple wild flyovers here in Altadena of a large white 4 engine commercial airliner?...it was Wednesday about 9:10am when I heard this incredibly loud aircraft over my house on Sonoma. I went out to see what I just described flying northwest about 1500 feet over our neighborhoods...

Then about 1/2 later coming out of RiteAid on Hill, I heard the same sound and there it was again circling away at 1500' above north Pasadena...

I called the Sheriff first and the deputy knew nothing about it. I then called the FAA office and got JJ who was most interested in hearing about this. He knew nothing and checked with radar etc a couple of times during our conversation. Since the plane was heading away, I couldn't see any distinct markings (as it had almost none), and we talked about the possibility of it being a forest service flight or training run, but it had no orange or red markings of any kind and there were NO fires anywhere at all.

I then called a neighbor on Boston and it turns out they had been scared (mother and young daughter) by a low flyover of a jet with the exact same description on Sunday afternoon. I called the FAA back and told them of this other sighting and they are very interested for someone to video tape it or photograph this airliner flying over Altadena. I watch the skies all the time and can identify most aircraft by sound before sight. Certainly we have are share of awesome military aircraft from both the Rose Bowl and Dodger Stadium flying low over us for excitement. But this was the very first time I've ever seen a large (most likely a 4 engine 707) airliner flying over us...Maybe others saw it, or markings that would help identify it...

FAA direct number (found it in the phone book) that gets immediate results is: 310 725 3300

Thought this might make in interesting piece on the blog for responses...maybe it was Travolta in his private 707 practicing landings...maybe not.

Haven't had this kind of excitement since the Hercules transport flew overhead last fall ...

I see a big moon a'risin ...

A note from our eye on the sky, Bill Westphal:

The Summer Solstice occurs this Friday, June 20 at 4:59 p.m. At this moment, The Sun reaches its most Northern point in its apparent path around the Earth. This marks the beginning of Summer in the Northern Hemisphere and Winter in the Southern hemisphere.

Also, Wednesday June 18 is the Full Moon.  If you're watching the Moon rise in the East at 8:36 PM you may be lucky enough to witness the Solstice Moon Illusion.  Read an interesting article about it here from NASA:

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2008/16jun_moonillusion.htm?list1093392

 

JPL's Mars programs get $463 million boost

A House subcommittee has passed a recommendation for funding several planetary space exploration programs, including JPL's Mars exploration programs:

"We were able to obtain $75 million more than the President requested in the budget, and this will help keep the Mars scientific laboratory on schedule and, I hope, give the pathway to launch the next Mars vehicle in 2013," said [Congressman Adam] Schiff, a member of the subcommittee of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies bill.

Full details here.

Mars-a-Dena landing

Congrats to our neighbors at Jet Propulsion Laboratory  who successfully bulls-eyed the Phoenix lander on the arctic plains of Mars Sunday.

The photo was captured by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. This is the first time that a spacecraft has imaged the final descent of another spacecraft onto a planetary body.  You can see the lander, its parachute, and the lines that attach the two on the brightened photo, with a background of the Martian surface.

(hat tip: Chris Considine)

ISS flyby tonight

Check the skies in the west southwest starting at 9:10 PM tonight -- supposed to be a superbright flyby of the International Space Station heading our way.  More info right here.

Hat tip: Chris Considine

Spectacular space flybys tonight & tomorrow

After a spectacular flyby last month, the International Space Station will be soaring over Altadena again tonight.

The Jules Verne (the robotic space truck that will supply the ISS) will appear in the south-southwest at approximately 8:01 p.m., followed by the ISS at about 8:05. 

(The Endeavor space shuttle, which at last report has unhooked from ISS, should also be part of this display)

The spacecraft will reappear tomorrow night, at approximately 8:23 for the Jules Verne and 8:28 for the ISS.

Go here for an updated list of satellite flybys.

Lunar eclipse tonight

A rare total lunar eclipse will occur tonight (cloud cover willing).  Schedule is:

5:29pm - Approximate time of moonrise (look slightly north of east).
5:41pm - Approximate time of sunset.
5:43pm - Moon enters the Earth's dark shadow ... the visible eclipse begins!
7:01pm - Total eclipse begins (note the Moon's color and brightness).
7:25pm - Middle of the eclipse (Moon will be at its darkest).
7:51pm - Total eclipse ends.
9:09pm - Moon leaves the Earth's dark shadow ... the eclipse ends.

The next one won't be until 2010!

 

Space spectacular tonight

Hope you managed to catch the overflight of the International Space Station and Atlantis a few minutes ago.  It was bright and spectacular -- Spawn 2 was very excited and is now drawing pictures.  Did any space fans get snaps to share?  Send 'em here!

Space -- the final frontier

Altadenablog always wanted to grow up to be an astronaut, and back in his aerospace days was fortunate enough to actually meet some.  That's why we're so excited about Bill Westphal's latest missive:

The Space Shuttle Atlantis (STS-122) is currently docked with the International Space Station (ISS). The position and timing of their orbits will provide two excellent viewing opportunities for us here in Altadena over the next few days.

Visible passes of the ISS happen when the timing of the orbit is just right and light from the setting (or rising) Sun is reflected off of the body and solar panels of the ISS. It appears like a star that is slowly moving across the sky until it disappears into the Earths Shadow. On really good passes, the ISS can be so bright, that it looks like an airplane with its landing lights on.

Saturday February 16

At approximately 6:41 pm (or shortly thereafter because of the hills) they will appear just above the horizon in the Northwest. They will be overhead at approximately 6:44 pm and will disappear into the Earths shadow around 6:46 pm in the Southeast.

Monday February 18

The ISS will appear at approximately 5:47 pm (or shortly thereafter because of the hills) It will appear just above the horizon in the Northwest. It will be directly overhead at approximately 5:50 pm and should be visible all the way to the Southeast horizon where it will disappear around 5:53 pm. This could be a very interesting pass because the Shuttle is scheduled (as of this writing) to undock from the ISS Sunday morning. Depending on its orbit and distance, we should be able to see it fly by near the ISS. More on this later. 

I hope the weather cooperates and we have clear skies.

A total eclipse of the heart

... a little late for Valentine's Day, but we've got a lunar eclipse to look forward to next Wednesday, Feb. 20.

Glenn Miller, telescope operator emeritus at Griffith Observatory, reports:

Dear Friends,

On Wednesday, Feb. 20th, there will be a TOTAL LUNAR ECLIPSE as the
full Moon is rising (shortly after sunset) in California. Here is a
short timeline of events:

5:29pm - Approximate time of moonrise (look slightly north of east).
5:41pm - Approximate time of sunset.
5:43pm - Moon enters the Earth's dark shadow ... the visible eclipse
begins!
7:01pm - Total eclipse begins (note the Moon's color and brightness).
7:25pm - Middle of the eclipse (Moon will be at its darkest).
7:51pm - Total eclipse ends.
9:09pm - Moon leaves the Earth's dark shadow ... the eclipse ends.

Binoculars will be helpful, but not required. Try not to miss this
event, because the next total lunar eclipse in California will not
occur until December 20th, 2010.

Astronomically Yours,
---Glenn

Christmas whooshes

High wind warning for Christmas eve and Christmas Day:  from the National Weather Service:

..HIGH WIND WARNING IN EFFECT FROM 8 PM THIS EVENING [Dec. 24] TO 6 PM PST TUESDAY...

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN LOS ANGELES/OXNARD HAS ISSUED A HIGH WIND WARNING...WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM 8 PM THIS EVENING TO 6 PM PST TUESDAY. THE HIGH WIND WATCH IS NO LONGER IN EFFECT.

NORTH TO NORTHEAST WINDS WILL INCREASE TO 30 TO 40 MPH THIS EVENING...WITH GUSTS OVER 60 MPH POSSIBLE BELOW PASSES AND CANYONS. WINDS WILL SLOWLY DIMINISH LATE TUESDAY AFTERNOON.

A HIGH WIND WARNING MEANS A HAZARDOUS HIGH WIND EVENT IS EXPECTED OR OCCURRING. SUSTAINED WIND SPEEDS OF AT LEAST 40 MPH OR GUSTS OF 58 MPH OR MORE CAN LEAD TO PROPERTY DAMAGE.

Wednesday launch scrubbed

For those of you keeping track, last Wednesday's rocket launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base was cancelled due to high winds.  Don't think the rain's going to make it easier to launch any time soon!