History Reimagined: Apollo 11

Excel sure could've helped the crew of Apollo 11 get off the moon. Imagine having to do that complicated math without it. LINK: Youtube

Learn more about how Excel can help you achieve your goals faster and easier: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel

The Artist Who Solved The Riddle of Earthshine

Leonardo Da Vinci is primarily associated with his artistic creations and his oddly inspired mechanical contraptions. However many people are unaware of his astronomical endeavors, more importantly his discovery of earthshine.

Already during the 16th century, Leonardo da Vinci had correctly gathered enough information and drawings to explain the nature of earthshine. In Da Vinci’s Codex Leicester, published in the early 16th century, he states his belief that the Moon possessed an atmosphere and oceans, and that it was a fine reflector of light because it was covered with so much water. He also speculated about how storms on Earth could cause the earthshine to become brighter or dimmer, which is indeed observable with modern instrumentation.

Link, Via: Neatorama

Last Night's "Wolf Moon" was a Perigee Moon

Last night’s full moon was the biggest one of the year (by 14%) and also the brightest (by an impressive 30%).

The Moon’s remarkable luminosity sprung from its proximity–about 50,000 km closer to Earth than other full Moons of the year. This can happen because the Moon’s orbit is not a circle but an ellipse: diagram. Last night, the Moon was on the near side of the ellipse–a place astronomers call “perigee”–making it a big, bright perigee Moon.

The “Wolf Moon” designation applied to January full moons comes from Native American tradition, according to the Farmers’ Almanac. If you missed last night’s maximum, it will still be impressive tonight. Those experiencing cloudy weather can watch the movie “Moonstruck” instead.

Link. Via: Neatorama

New Year's Eve Blue Moon Eclipse

On December 31st, we will see the second full moon of the month, or the 13th full moon of the year. These rare occasions are called a blue moon, as in “once in a blue moon”. But that’s not the only thing special about New Year’s Eve this year. There will also be a partial lunar eclipse on the 31st (visible in Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia)!

Only a very small portion of the Moon’s southern limb will be in the Earth’s umbral shadow, but there will be a noticeable darkening visible over the Moon’s face at the point of greatest eclipse. Need more? Then know this eclipse is the one of four lunar eclipses in a short-lived series. The lunar year series repeats after 12 lunations or 354 days. Afterwards it will begin shifting back about 10 days in sequential years. Because of the date change, the Earth’s shadow will be about 11 degrees west in sequential events.

For the eclipse, the duration of the partial phase will last within two seconds of a hour long, while the penumbral duration from beginning to end will run about four hours and eleven minutes. Penumbral contact will begin at 17:17:08 UT and umbral contact at 18:52:43 UT. The moment of greatest depth of shadow will occur at 19:22:39 UT, 31 December 2009.

Link -Via: Geeks Are Sexy, Via: Neatorama

(image credit: Kostian Iftica)

Thai Moon Festival

As part of the full moon festival, 100,000 rafts are launched into Thailand's Mae Klong River. LINK: Youtube

Send Your Name to the Moon

Psst! Wanna send your name to the moon? NASA is setting up a website where you can enter your name, which will then be entered in a database on a microchip that will be integrated onto the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.

The deadline for submitting your name is July 25, 2008 - and the LRO is scheduled to launch in late 2008:

This is really cool. Have entered my name and printed out my certificate. Looking forward to checking this out when they have it up.
Link, Via: Neatorama