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WHITE RAINBOW: Mount Washington in New Hampshire experiences some of the world's worst weather. Winds exceed hurricane force, on average, 104 days each year. Temperatures plunge to -47°F. Fog envelops the summit 3 out of every 4 days. Sounds awful.

On May 9th it was beautiful. That's when Jim Salge of the Mount Washington Observatory spotted this white rainbow--also known as a fogbow:

http://www.spaceweather.com/swpod2005/11may05/salge1_strip.jpg

Says Salge: "I've wanted to get a shot of a fogbow like this for some time, and this morning the conditions were perfect: thin fog and a bright sun!"

"Always look for ghostly fogbows when a low sun starts to shine through mist or fog," adds atmospheric optics expert Les Cowley. "They are almost colorless and sparkle and shimmer in the misty light. Fogbows are formed like rainbows, with tiny fog droplets taking the place of much larger raindrops. The light waves squeezed inside the small drops interfere to produce the broad diffuse bow. The Mount Washington bow shows more evidence of light wave interference--notice the two supernumerary bows tucked inside the main bow?"
 
Vote For Your Favorite Out-of-this-Universe Galactic Image.

http://www******.com/bestimg/index.php?cat=galactic
 
The white rainbow is magnificent. I've never seen anything like it before. Thank you for sharing that picture with us, linuxgeek. It's really quite interesting how these things are formed.
 
wildhoneyoh said:
The white rainbow is magnificent. I've never seen anything like it before. Thank you for sharing that picture with us, linuxgeek. It's really quite interesting how these things are formed.
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neat stuff should be shared
 
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Cassini Finds New Saturn Moon That Makes Waves

In a spectacular kick-off to its first season of prime ring viewing, which began last month, the Cassini spacecraft has confirmed earlier suspicions of an unseen moon hidden in a gap in Saturn's outer A ring. A new image and movie show the new moon and the waves it raises in the surrounding ring material.

http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/114781main_PIA06237-330.jpg

The moon, provisionally named S/2005 S1, was first seen in a time- lapse sequence of images taken on May 1, 2005, as Cassini began its climb to higher inclinations in orbit around Saturn. A day later, an even closer view was obtained, which has allowed a measure of the moon's size and brightness.

The new images can be seen at http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov, http://www.nasa.gov/cassini and http://ciclops.org .

The images show the tiny object in the center of the Keeler gap and the wavy patterns in the gap edges that are generated by the moon's gravitational influence. The Keeler gap is located about 250 kilometers (155 miles) inside the outer edge of the A ring, which is also the outer edge of the bright main rings. The new object is about 7 kilometers (4 miles) across and reflects about half the light falling on it -- a brightness that is typical of the particles in the nearby rings.

"It's too early to make out the shape of the orbit, but what we've seen so far of its motion suggests that it is very near the exact center of the gap, just as we had surmised," said Dr. Joseph Spitale, imaging team associate and planetary scientist at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo. The new moonlet orbits approximately 136,505 kilometers (84,820 miles) from the center of Saturn. More Cassini observations will be needed to determine whether the moon's orbit around Saturn is circular or eccentric.

S/2005 S1 is the second known moon to exist within Saturn's rings. The other is Pan, 25 kilometers (16 miles) across, which orbits in the Encke gap. Atlas and other moons exist outside the main ring system, as do the two F ring shepherd moons, Prometheus and Pandora.

Imaging scientists had predicted the new moon's presence and its orbital distance from Saturn after last July's sighting of a set of peculiar spiky and wispy features in the Keeler gap's outer edge. The similarities of the Keeler gap features to those noted in Saturn's F ring and the Encke gap led imaging scientists to conclude that a small body, a few kilometers across, was lurking in the center of the Keeler gap, awaiting discovery.

"The obvious effect of this moon on the surrounding ring material will allow us to determine its mass and test our understanding of how rings and moons affect one another," said Dr. Carl Murray, imaging team member from Queen Mary, University of London. An estimate of the moon's mass, along with a measure of its size, yields information on its physical makeup. For instance, the new moonlet might be quite porous, like an orbiting icy rubble pile. Other moons near the outer edge of Saturn's rings - like Atlas, Prometheus and Pandora - are also porous. Whether a moon is porous or dense says something about how it was formed and its subsequent collision history.

The Keeler gap edges also bear similarities to the scalloped edges of the 322-kilometer-wide (200-mile) Encke gap, where the small moon Pan (25 kilometers, or 16 miles across) resides. From the size of the waves seen in the Encke gap, imaging scientists were able to estimate the mass of Pan. They expect to do the same eventually with this new moon.

"Some of the most illuminating dynamical systems we might hope to study with Cassini are those involving moons embedded in gaps," said Dr. Carolyn Porco, imaging team leader at the Space Science Institute. "By examining how such a body interacts with its companion ring material, we can learn something about how the planets in our solar system might have formed out of the nebula of material that surrounded the Sun long ago. We anticipate that many of the gaps in Saturn's rings have embedded moons, and we'll be in search of them from here on."

Additional closer observations of the new body may take place in the next several months, as Cassini continues its intensive survey of Saturn's beautiful and mysterious rings.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.
 
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AERA Announces Ticket Sales and Target Window for First Commercial Launch December 2006


Temecula CA (SPX) May 13, 2005
Following the release of the animated presentation of the Altairis Rocket and agreements with the United States Air Force, Florida Space Authority and Cape Canaveral, AERA Corp. announced Thursday a target date has been chosen for the first flight of a civilian crew into space and that it has begun ticket sales for future flights.

Altairis will lift off from Cape Canaveral beginning in December 2006. Tickets go on sale this morning.

"With our design completed and our agreements in place to use Cape Canaveral for launch, flight logistics and landing, we are now ready to begin ticket sales," said Bill Sprague, founder, president and chief scientist behind the Altairis Rocket.

Altairis is designed to comfortably launch six passenger astronauts and one mission commander into space and bring them safely back to earth.

The tickets for the first commercially available flights cost $250,000 and can be acquired by going to the AeraSpaceTours.com Web site and applying via the Web.

Those who apply will receive a call from a personal service representative to continue the process of garnering a seat on the first flight.

"There are certain minimum physical requirements and we have to be sure that the people who have signed up meet the criteria to be an Altairis passenger astronaut," Said Sprague.

All seats on flights in 2007 may be reserved also by visiting the Web site and placing a deposit of 25 percent of the purchase price with the company. It is expected that there will be an additional 30 launches in 2007.

"We believe that the flights subsequent to 2007 and beyond will be less expensive than the first flights," Said Sprague. "We are looking forward to our first launch in 2006 and beginning a new era of space travel."

http://www.aeraspace.com/
 
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An interesting last 24-48 hours.... The flare from 5/13 has been playing havoc with the planet. Geomagnetic Storms rating reached a G5 for some time. Radio Blackouts sitting at least at a R1. Solar Radiation Storms reaching at least an S2.


[tr][td]G5[/td][td]Power systems: : widespread voltage control problems and protective system problems can occur, some grid systems may experience complete collapse or blackouts. Transformers may experience damage.

Spacecraft operations: may experience extensive surface charging, problems with orientation, uplink/downlink and tracking satellites.

Other systems: pipeline currents can reach hundreds of amps, HF (high frequency) radio propagation may be impossible in many areas for one to two days, satellite navigation may be degraded for days, low-frequency radio navigation can be out for hours, and aurora has been seen as low as Florida and southern Texas (typically 40° geomagnetic lat.).[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]S2[/td][td]Biological: passengers and crew in high-flying aircraft at high latitudes may be exposed to elevated radiation risk.***

Satellite operations: infrequent single-event upsets possible.

Other systems: small effects on HF propagation through the polar regions and navigation at polar cap locations possibly affected.
[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]R1[/td][td]HF Radio: Weak or minor degradation of HF radio communication on sunlit side, occasional loss of radio contact.

Navigation: Low-frequency navigation signals degraded for brief intervals.
[/td][/tr]


http://sec.noaa.gov/
 
AURORA WEEKEND: "Fabulous." "One of the best shows in 15 years!" "Ye-haww!" These are a few of the things sky watchers had to say about this weekend's Northern Lights, which spread across much of the United States on Saturday night, descending as far south as California and Arizona. Photographer Brian Larmay ("This is living!") saw these bright blue auroras over Niagra Falls:

http://www.spaceweather.com/aurora/images2005/15may05/Larmay3_strip.jpg
 
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Ishmael said:
Old Sol's getting really active lately.

Ishmael
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yeah.. which is ironic since those who keep track believe we are headed into or are in a solar minimum.
 
linuxgeek said:
yeah.. which is ironic since those who keep track believe we are headed into or are in a solar minimum.
Click to expand...

It's the SUV's dude. Trust me.

Ishmael
 
Ishmael said:
Ever seen them Linux? Awesome.

Ishmael
Click to expand...

nope ... hope to head far enough north to see them one day .. maybe even bounce some radio waves of them.
 
linuxgeek said:
I expect it is. Just need to be in a situation where travel is doable.
Click to expand...

Being an overpayed, underworked government employee, that shouldn't be a problem. :D

Ishmael
 
Ishmael said:
Being an overpayed, underworked government employee, that shouldn't be a problem. :D

Ishmael
Click to expand...


ha ha .. you funny man. maybe if I was actually management... but I'm stuck in the pits with some people who make the government employee stereotype look like a hard worker.
 
linuxgeek said:
ha ha .. you funny man. maybe if I was actually management... but I'm stuck in the pits with some people who make the government employee stereotype look like a hard worker.
Click to expand...

What would you like with that whine? ;)

Ishmael
 
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