Tag: nasa

Over 250,000 miles from San Diego!

You might have heard that the Artemis II moon mission will be splashing down off the San Diego coast on Friday shortly after 5 pm. But did you know you can be watching the mission live during its lunar flyby?

This afternoon I’ve been watching live video from NASA as Artemis II has begun passing around the far side of the moon! It’s the farthest humans have ever flown from planet Earth. Over 250,000 miles!

Right now as I type this they cannot contact Earth due to loss of signal, but as soon as they come around the opposite side of the moon, we’ll hear from them again and see new views! From over a quarter million miles away!

I urge everyone to watch the live feed from NASA as this historic mission progresses. Human eyes are seeing what they have never seen before. You can watch the live feed from the NASA website. Click here!

All my photos are screenshots taken from the live video feed.

Here’s one look inside the Orion manned capsule:

And here’s the Earth–that tiny bright sliver–about to pass behind the moon as the Artemis II mission moves around the moon:

UPDATE!

Later, the crew of Artemis II would watch a solar eclipse–one never seen before! From a point near the moon!

Yes, the moon at their position appeared much larger than the sun. That tiny dot is Venus.

Science will benefit from this unique observation of the sun’s corona.

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Indigenous rock art in Rancho Bernardo!

Surprising as it might be, Rancho Bernardo has some of the most unique and extraordinary rock art in North America!

Five hundred to one thousand years ago, indigenous people created both pictographs (rock paintings) and petroglyphs (rock carvings) in present-day Rancho Bernardo. I didn’t know this until I observed an interesting Rancho Bernardo Historical Society poster at last weekend’s RB Alive! street festival.

If you’d like to learn more about this topic, there’s an informative YouTube video you should watch. A history presentation from 2018 features analysis of Rancho Bernardo’s rock art. Photographs of the badly faded art were enhanced using special software previously used by NASA.

You can view the YouTube video by clicking here.

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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

Observing sunspots from San Diego’s Balboa Park!

Sunspots on the surface of the sun were clearly visible today in San Diego! A sense of wonder filled me when I viewed the distant phenomenon from Balboa Park.

Today the Fleet Science Center had Sunspotter Solar Telescopes, solar binoculars and other instruments related to astronomy outside and ready for use.

I had stumbled upon a special event at the Fleet Science Center. They were hosting the NASA Community College Symposium, which would feature a planetarium show, educational talks, panels, and a variety of space-themed activities.

A recent graduate of SDSU’s Astronomy master’s program operated the solar telescope, and I tried to capture the tiny dark sunspots with my camera. (For my final photo, the image contrast was radically increased, bringing out the spots.)

What appear to be small spots on the sun’s surface can be up to 100,000 miles in diameter! The sun itself is about 93 million miles from where you stand!

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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

NASA Student Launch team in Balboa Park!

Participants in the NASA Student Launch rocket project were greeting visitors to Balboa Park today!

The NASA Student Launch Initiative is a competitive, experimental challenge where student teams design, build and launch rockets, then analyze the results.

The challenge for 2023 is to design a rocket that will reach 5000 feet. The rocket must autonomously receive NASA’s radio frequency transmissions, commanding a maneuverable camera.

The students also get to meet NASA engineers to present their findings!

Team Hydra, from MATHmania Robotics, with members from around Southern California, were in Balboa Park demonstrating how the rockets they’ve designed work. Why? Participants in NASA Student Launch are also tasked with STEM education.

Kids passing by were instantly drawn to the big rockets and were eager to learn all about them!

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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!