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Palomar

Member

From: USA

Registered: 2002-05-30

Posts: 9,734

Re: Space Exploration of Yesteryear

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap041023.html]1967 -- Surveyor slip-slidin'

-*-

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap041009.html]1st interplanetary "fax":  1959  (Stamp commemoration)

-*-

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap010414.html]1961:  Man Enters Space  Betcha didn't know (I didn't):
"As a precaution against the unknown physiological effects of spaceflight on piloting skills and judgment, his onboard controls were locked out by a secret combination. In case of emergency he carried the combination in a sealed envelope."

-*-

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap040417.html]1972:  Lunar Dust & Duct Tape

--Cindy

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We all know [i]those[/i] Venusians: Doing their hair in shock waves, smoking electrical coronas, wearing Van Allen belts and resting their tiny elbows on a Geiger counter...

--John Sladek (The New Apocrypha)

SpaceNut

Administrator

From: New Hampshire

Registered: 2004-07-22

Posts: 29,431

Re: Space Exploration of Yesteryear

Sealed envelope sound real military in thinking.

How surveyor landed on the moon will be the same when we finally get to go back.

That has got to be the best up close look at the lunar buggy. I do not remember such views when I watched the Nasa broadcasts so long ago.

Palomar

Member

From: USA

Registered: 2002-05-30

Posts: 9,734

Re: Space Exploration of Yesteryear

*Space exploration of course includes astronomy:

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap960406.html]Var!

"Edwin Hubble's discovery is responsible for our modern concept of a Universe filled with galaxies."

--Cindy

---

We all know [i]those[/i] Venusians: Doing their hair in shock waves, smoking electrical coronas, wearing Van Allen belts and resting their tiny elbows on a Geiger counter...

--John Sladek (The New Apocrypha)

Palomar

Member

From: USA

Registered: 2002-05-30

Posts: 9,734

Re: Space Exploration of Yesteryear

*Found this at universetoday.com's "weekly roundup":

Tuesday, November 23 - The first photograph of a meteor shower was taken on this day in 1885 in Prague, Czechoslovakia.

Weather satellite Tiros II was launched on this day in 1960. Carried to orbit by a three-stage Delta rocket, the "Television Infrared Observation Satellite" was about the size of a barrel, testing experimental television techniques and infrared equipment. Operating for 376 days, Tiros II sent back thousands of pictures of Earth's cloud cover and was successful in its experiments to control orientation of satellite spin and infrared sensors. Oddly enough, a similar mission - Meteosat1- also became the first satellite put into orbit in 1977 on this day by the European Space Agency.

--Cindy

---

We all know [i]those[/i] Venusians: Doing their hair in shock waves, smoking electrical coronas, wearing Van Allen belts and resting their tiny elbows on a Geiger counter...

--John Sladek (The New Apocrypha)

Palomar

Member

From: USA

Registered: 2002-05-30

Posts: 9,734

Re: Space Exploration of Yesteryear

*Okay, this doesn't quite fit into this thread but doesn't really fit any other, either.  Will stick this here. 

Tonight let's explore the star in the middle of the handle of the "Big Dipper". Its name is Mizar, but if you have exceptional eyes you may also see its companion Alcor as well!  The ancient Arabs used this star as an "eye test" for their warriors - if you could see both components, you were given a horse.  The name Mizar and Alcor literally translates to "the horse and rider."

I can see Alcor -- provided I have my glasses on, LOL.

Actually Mizar and Alcor are a visual double, and not an actual binary system. 

Mizar is a double star, though; its companion is called "Sidus Ludovicianum."  According to the universetoday.com article (the quote above taken from it), SL was once believed to be a planet.

Anyway, I thought the bit of history was interesting.

--Cindy

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We all know [i]those[/i] Venusians: Doing their hair in shock waves, smoking electrical coronas, wearing Van Allen belts and resting their tiny elbows on a Geiger counter...

--John Sladek (The New Apocrypha)

SpaceNut

Administrator

From: New Hampshire

Registered: 2004-07-22

Posts: 29,431

Re: Space Exploration of Yesteryear

Here is a Simular eye tests when viewing the 7 sisters, which actually has 9 stars, most people see at least 5 of them.

Palomar

Member

From: USA

Registered: 2002-05-30

Posts: 9,734

Re: Space Exploration of Yesteryear

Here is a Simular eye tests when viewing the 7 sisters, which actually has 9 stars, most people see at least 5 of them.

*You must mean the Pleiades. 

--Cindy

---

We all know [i]those[/i] Venusians: Doing their hair in shock waves, smoking electrical coronas, wearing Van Allen belts and resting their tiny elbows on a Geiger counter...

--John Sladek (The New Apocrypha)

SpaceNut

Administrator

From: New Hampshire

Registered: 2004-07-22

Posts: 29,431

Re: Space Exploration of Yesteryear

yes the official name but all i could think of at the time were old indian legends and of braves becoming chiefs and the poor peoples name for them.