Heavens Above    

This link is already set for viewing from Lake St Charles and is easier to use than the NASA viewing site.

Check on when you can see the International Space Station and other satellites over Lake St. Charles.  

Iridium Flares can also be tracked:

From the web site:  "An Iridium flare is caused by the sun being reflected from one of the three main mission antennae (MMA) of an Iridium satellite. The MMAs are flat, highly polished aluminium surfaces, and when the angles are just right, they can reflect the sun just like a mirror. There are over [60] of these communications satellites in orbit, and they are operated by the Iridium LLC Consortium."

Get a sky chart and identify all the stars and planets. 

Comets and Meteors  

Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) February 9, 2004.  Comet LINEAR T7 may or may not be visible in May 2004 -- what suspense!  The Heavens Above web site (above) has viewing information.

"Another comet may also reach naked eye visibility at nearly the same time, making 2004 April and May two of the busiest bright-comet months in centuries." 

Animated Asteroid 

Watch the closest pass of a previously predicted asteroid in this animated picture. Way cool.

A Slice of the Universe in 39 Jumps  

From the web site:

"View the Milky Way at 10 million light years from the Earth. Then move through space towards the Earth in successive orders of magnitude until you reach a tall oak tree just outside the buildings of the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory in Tallahassee, Florida. After that, begin to move from the actual size of a leaf into a microscopic world that reveals leaf cell walls, the cell nucleus, chromatin, DNA and finally, into the subatomic universe of electrons and protons."

They ended up in Tallahassee at Florida State University?!!    I am sure they were actually aiming for the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida.  From a distance of 10 million light years away, it is understandable that they would miss the true axis of the universe by just a few hundred miles.

 

 

Home  Page    Message Board       Index of Links         Top of Page