Atlantis blasts off

If you haven't seen it yet, here's the final blast-off of Space Shuttle Atlantis on Friday, July 8. The "shuttle view" camera is mounted to the orange external fuel tank. Be sure to watch until the rocket boosters disengage about 3 minutes in. Very cool.

When Atlantis touches down next week, it will mark the end of the Space Shuttle era. All shuttles are being retired and will be moved to space museums across the country.

With over 2.5 million parts, the Space Shuttle has been called "the most complex machine ever built." Interested in learning more? Check out this infographic.

The Milky Way like you've never seen it

I'll never forget the first time I really saw the Milky Way Galaxy. It was in August 2004. My wife and I were camping with her parents at Horse Meadow Campground in the Sierra Nevada mountains. We'd been city slickers for the better part of 8 years, and had long forgotten the splendor of the night sky.

But late that summer night, high in the mountains, all of that changed. I stepped out of my tent and was blown away at the sight of the Milky Way Galaxy. You could almost reach out and touch it, it looked so close.

With our rural location and night sky ordinances, Yucca Valley is pretty dark as far as towns go, but sometimes I wonder what it would be like to see a totally dark sky with no light pollution at all. I imagine what Abraham must have seen, when God told him to look up, and promised him an offspring that would outnumber the stars in the heavens (Gen. 15:5). With no city lights to compete, it must have been pitch-black with tens of thousands of brilliant stars shimmering down.

Most of us may not have the luxury of totally dark skies in the 21st century, but this amazing time-lapse video captures the majesty of the Milky Way, and the power of its Creator.


Plains Milky Way from Randy Halverson on Vimeo.

Our solar system

My family took a trip last Friday to the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, AZ, where the dwarf planet Pluto was discovered in 1930. Got to view the sun through a special filter and see Saturn through their 24" telescope. Breathtaking!!

Here's a fascinating infographic of our solar system. A great way to capture the size of earth and our neighboring planets. Yes, the heavens are still declaring the glory of God (Ps. 19:1).


Source SPACE.com: All about our solar system, outer space and exploration

Three planets snuggle up

Summer and winter, and springtime and harvest, 

sun, moon and stars in their courses above, 

join with all nature in manifold witness 

to Thy great faithfulness, mercy and love.

The course of the stars and planets is wonderfully predictable and a reminder of God's faithfulness.

You'll want to take a moment in the next couple nights and step outside to look at the sky. As you scan the western horizon, you'll see a rare astronomical treat. With great precision, three planets will snuggle up close together in what astronomers call a "convergence." The brilliant planet Venus will appear alongside two lesser lights, Mars and Saturn.

Two-planet convergences are noteworthy, but three planets are quite rare. Of course, these planets will still be millions of miles apart from each other, but from our angle, they will form an exciting planetary trio in the sky. Space.com gives more detail:

A wide variety of different conjunctions and configurations involving the planets typically occur during the course of any given year. It is rather unusual, however, when three or more bright planets appear to reside in the same small area of the sky.  


...So far as viewing this upcoming planet cluster, the only drawback for prospective observers will be that these three planets will be visible for at best for only about 60 to 90 minutes after sundown before they start getting too low to the horizon to be readily observable.


...to avoid being disappointed, I would strongly suggest also using binoculars to scan the west-southwest sky for the three planets, especially if it is rather hazy (as midsummer evenings often tend to be). 


...on the evenings of Aug. 7-8, Venus, Saturn, and Mars will fit inside a 5-degree circle. Your clinched fist held at arm's length, for instance, is equal to roughly 10 degrees; the pointer stars at the end of the bowl of the Big Dipper are separated by just over 5 degrees).

Enjoy this rare celestial event, and remember the faithfulness of our God!

Related posts:

• New NASA photos
• Starry nights
• The importance of creation

New NASA photos

NASA has finished some repairs and upgrades to the Hubble Telescope and is releasing beautiful new images from space. You can view a slide show here.

My favorite picture was the Abell Galaxy Cluster, located 5 billion light years away. My mind can't comprehend that kind of distance! It's so far way that the gravitational fields of closer galaxies stretch the light and warp the appearance of galaxies lying further back.

O how wise and beautiful is our Almighty Creator!

Psalm 19:1 The heavens are telling of the glory of God; And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands.

Romans 1:20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.

Related posts:

• Starry nights
  
• The importance of creation
  

Starry nights

Next weekend, we have something called the "Starry Nights Festival" here in Yucca Valley. The community center hosts lectures on astronomy, and the local astronomy club sets up their telescopes for free stargazing at night. Believe me, these aren't the kind of telescopes you find at Wal-mart or a garage sale. Some of these local hobbyists have really sophisticated equipment.

Starry Nights is a fun and unique event, made possible by our clear desert skies and strict "Night Sky" lighting ordinances. My brother-in-law and sister-in-law will be coming down to visit next weekend, and we're looking forward to checking out some of the stars together.

To get a sense of the enormous size of our universe, I would highly recommend the video posted here. Natalie and I first saw this several years ago on the Privileged Planet DVD, and still talk about it from time to time. It's truly amazing - the best depiction I've ever seen of our universe. And it's great to see this short video finally posted online. Blogger Jeff Gray draws an encouraging spiritual application from the video as well.

HT: Tim Challies
Photo credit: xamad