This Day In Space History: August 20

2

http://www.onthisday.com/events/august/20
A Venus-Jupiter conjunction occurs, believed to be the "Star of Bethlehem." It also happened one week earlier the following year, read my post here.

1913

http://www.onthisday.com/events/august/20
Adolphe Pegoud becomes the first pilot to parachute out of an airplane.

1975

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdloqU2bmcA
Viking 1 is launched to Mars' orbit and will become the first successful landing of a spacecraft on the Red Planet. learn about the mission here: https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraftDisplay.do?id=1975-075C

1977

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdloqU2bmcA
Just 16 days before its twin Voyager 1 is launched, Voyager 2 is launched today from Cape Canaveral toward Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.



For a complete list of today’s Space History, see  http://www.astronautix.com/a/august20.html

This Day In Space History: August 19

1871

https://airandspace.si.edu/stories/editorial/orville-wright-born-today-1871

Orville Wright is born. Together with his brother Wilbur, in 1903 they made "the first successful powered airplane." Today is now recognized as National Aviation Day in the U.S.

1959

The satellite Discoverer 6 is launched. learn more here: https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraftDisplay.do?id=1959-006A

1960

http://www.onthisday.com/events/august/19

The Soviet Union launches and successfully returns the first live animals in space on Sputnik 5. The animals included: Strelka & Belka, the dogs; 2 rats; 40 mice; 1 rabbit; and fruit flies.

1979

http://www.onthisday.com/events/august/19

Vladimir Lyakov and Valery Ryumin return to Earth after a record 175 days in space on Soyuz 34.

1982

http://www.yearinspace.com/the-week-in-space
Aboard Soyuz T-7, Svetlana Savitskaya becomes the second female in space.

For a complete list of today’s Space History, see  http://www.astronautix.com/a/august19.html

This Day In Space History: August 18

1686

https://www.revolvy.com/topic/Neith%20(hypothetical%20moon)&uid=1575

Giovanni Cassini (1625-1712) sights what he believes is a natural satellite of Venus. The hypothetical moon is called Neith.

1868

https://www.wired.com/2009/08/dayintech_0818/
In his observation of the spectral lines of a solar eclipse in Guntur, India, French astronomer Pierre Janssen (1824-1907) discovers helium, recognizing that a wavelength didn't match that of any known element.

1960

Discoverer XIV, "the first successful low resolution photo surveillance spacecraft" (nasa.gov) is launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base. learn more here: https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraftDisplay.do?id=1960-010A

1976

http://www.onthisday.com/events/august/18

The Soviet spacecraft Luna 24 lands on the moon's surface, ten days after its launch.

1993

http://www.yearinspace.com/the-week-in-space

The first flight of the Delta Clipper (DC-X), a reusable spacecraft.

For a complete list of today’s Space History, see  http://www.astronautix.com/a/august18.html

This Day In Space History: August 17

1877

http://www.astronautix.com/a/august17.html

Astronomer Asaph Hall (1829-1907) discovers Mars' moon Phobos.

1958

http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/edn-moments/4394263/Pioneer-0-moon-orbiter-explodes--August-17--1958

77 seconds after its launch, Pioneer (or Thor-Able 1), a probe meant to orbit the moon, exploded.

"This spacecraft was the first U.S. attempt at a lunar mission and the first attempted launch beyond Earth orbit by any country."  (nasa.gov)

1962

https://spacemedicineassociation.org/history1962/

Carl Sagan urges the need to sterilize lunar spacecraft, speculating the probable contamination by terrestrial microorganisms (already by Lunik II and Ranger IV) of both the moon and Earth.

1966

Satellite Pioneer 7 was launched into solar orbit. learn more here: https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraftDisplay.do?id=1966-075A

1970

Venera 7 is launched, a mission which would land on Venus and observe its atmosphere. learn more here: https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraftDisplay.do?id=1970-060A

2006

http://www.yearinspace.com/the-week-in-space

Voyager 1 reaches 100 AUs from Earth. If you remember my post where an 1864 comet passed Earth at 0.0964 - that was very close to Earth.

One AU ("astronomical unit") is the approximate distance between the Earth and Sun, equivalent to near 150 million kilometers (britannica.com).

According to NASA, already being the most distant object in space, "'The Spacecraft That Could' Hits New Milestone."

For a complete list of today’s Space History, see  http://www.astronautix.com/a/august17.html

August 12, 2017

So on this night, I went out and wow! I could see so much, the sky was so clear, the stars were so pretty! My pictures were such poor quality, though, and I just wish you could see it exactly how I could!

The brightest stars I could see were: Altair, Sinistra, Arcturus, Vega, and Omega Capricorni

I did, this time, make an effort to see where the planets were in the sky. Saturn and Jupiter were the only planets above the horizon, but I could not see it and I didn't have my telescope with me. But SkyView showed me where the other planets were, and even where the Hubble Telescope was!

Something I found really neat was that I was able to see a constellation - Sagittarius. So on my phone, I drew out the shape of the stars I could see, and... it matched the constellation on my app! I started with the 5 stars and drew a "house" and then added on whatever else I could see afterwards. See how well I did below...

Since I have really poor images, I'll just insert some SkyView screenshots below.

  

   

Saturn and Jupiter, above the horizon

(horizon = red line)

  

Venus, Mercury, and Hubble Telescope, below horizon

   

Mars and the Sun!

This day was a big looking-at-the-sky day because I also got up way to early ☺ to see the sunrise and also watched the sunset. The water from the lake made it especially gorgeous this night, but unfortunately it was so cloudy in the morning I could barely see anything. Here are a few shots!

sunrise

sunset

let's talk

You could say life happens. But it'd be more truthful to say procrastination happens.


I am known for my procrastination - so much that I once wrote an article for the school paper about procrastination and submitted it at 12:04 am the day after it was due (I mean, it was just 5 minutes late, right? LOL). But that is a prime example of me always waiting until the last moment to get things done. And that includes my blog. Most days, I'd wait to start writing my This Day in Space History posts until around 9 or 9:30 at night. And by the time I finish, there's not much time left to spend working on other side posts (I currently have 2 started but not ready to post). And you might have noticed that I missed a daily post on August 14th and 16th. I started both of them, but just... never really finished.

I was going to post an update like this closer to when school starts, but since I just missed another day, I think I should address it all now. For the rest of the summer, I will keep trying to post everyday, as well as work hard to pre-write as many History posts as I can so that they are all ready to be posted (I can schedule the publish time&date).  I am thinking, however, that pre-writing so many posts is not possible, so I think I will start by pre-writing every other day so that next year I could post the ones I didn't finish (including 8/14 and 8/16). And if there's a day I can get an extra one in, that's great!

So I think that's all I had to say. If I think of something else, I'll update the post.
Now, I want to set a goal for myself today...and publishing it online will sort of hold me accountable to at least try to get it all done. So today, I really want to work on/complete the following:

• This Day in Space History 8/17
• started about 6:30 and its about 7:30 now    ⇢ go read!!
• extra post #1  {preferably completed and published} 
• it's 12:08 pm and I just finished (started at 11 am!!!!)    ⇢ go read!!
• extra post #2  {preferably completed, but if not, its ok}
• pre-write a history post for when school starts again {completed and scheduled}

Wow, looks like today's gonna be a big blogging day! I'll edit this post each time I finish a task and say what time it is that I worked/finished. It is currently 10:58 am. Let's go!!

This Day In Space History: August 15

Not much happened today in space, but one especially fascinating thing did happen today. And it has to do with......

      ......ALIENS!

1977

Jerry Ehman, a professor at Ohio State and part of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) project, received records of sounds from space, via "The Big Ear" telescope. On August 15, 1977, however, the sounds were different. 6EQUJ5, to be exact. But what significance does that hold? The sound matched the 1959 predicted frequency by Philip Morrison and Giuseppe Cocconi - a 1420 megahertz radio wave, the frequency of hydrogen. So how did Ehman react to the signal? "Wow." The specifics of the signal made it appear to have been produced knowingly. But now the question is what made the noise? Where did it come from? It was tracked back to the Sagittarius constellation. It could have been a natural space sound such as a collision. But since 1977 -40 years ago today- it was never repeated.

We still don't know who or what made that noise, but we know we have not received another seemingly intentional signal from space. Maybe one day we'll come in contact with the sound's source again. Or maybe it will remain a mystery...

Click on the link below to read the NPR article about this amazing story of the WOW Signal.
http://www.npr.org/sections/krulwich/2010/05/28/126510251/aliens-found-in-ohio-the-wow-signal

as fun as aliens are, I want to acknowledge one more event today...

1986

http://www.nytimes.com/1986/08/15/nyregion/news-summary-friday-august-15-1986.html

After the space shuttle Challenger's devastating crash in January, President Ronald Reagan announces changes in the space program to fund a $3 billion project to replace Challenger with a new shuttle.

For a complete list of today’s Space History, see  http://www.astronautix.com/a/august15.html

This Day In Space History: August 13

1911

Just a few weeks after her friend Harriet Quimby becomes the first American woman to get her pilot's license, Matilde Moisant -who would break many records- becomes the second woman in the U.S. to become a licensed pilot. Read about why she was almost arrested here: https://airandspace.si.edu/stories/editorial/aug-13-1911-second-us-woman-earn-pilot%E2%80%99s-license

1959

https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraftDisplay.do?id=1959-005A

Discoverer 5 is launched. Run by the Department of Defense and Air Force, the main goal of the program (though kept secret from the public) was to develop a surveillance satellite to replace U2 spyplanes in order to keep tabs on Soviet production of weapons.

2014

https://www.space.com/37183-today-in-space.html
With such detailed imaging abilities, previously unheard of from a private company, DigitalGlobe launched the high-resolution WorldView-3 satellite from Vandenberg Air Force Base. The WorldView-3 has the sharpest image yet for a satellite.



For a complete list of today’s Space History, see  http://www.astronautix.com/a/august13.html

This Day In Space History: August 12

3

http://www.onthisday.com/events/august/12

A Venus-Jupiter conjunction occurs, meaning they experienced a close encounter. This is believed to be the "Star of Bethlehem."

1962

http://www.yearinspace.com/the-week-in-space
One day after launching Vostok 3, the USSR launches Vostok 4.

1977

http://www.onthisday.com/events/august/12

The High Energy Astronomy Observatory (HEAO) 1 is launched into Earth's orbit.

1978

http://www.onthisday.com/events/august/12

The launching of the International Sun-Earth Explorer (ISSE), a project between NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) to study solar wind and Earth's magnetism.

2005

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is launched from Cape Canaveral in search of proof of the longevity of water on Mars that would support life.

learn more: https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/mars-reconnaissance-orbiter-mro/

follow the Mission on Twitter @HiRISE

For a complete list of today’s Space History, see  http://www.astronautix.com/a/august12.html

This Day In Space History: August 11

1960

https://www.space.com/37183-today-in-space.html
The satellite Discoverer 13 becomes the first space capsule to be recovered from Earth's orbit. It landed in the Pacific Ocean, was airlifted by a Navy helicopter to a ship to Pearl Harbor.

1962

http://www.yearinspace.com/the-week-in-space
The USSR launches Vostok 3.

1989

Voyager 2 discovers Neptune's partial rings.

read the news report here: http://www.upi.com/Archives/1989/08/11/Voyager-2-discovers-partial-rings-around-Neptune/5083618811200/

1999

http://www.onthisday.com/events/august/11

A total solar eclipse is seen in much of the northern hemisphere for a total of 2 minutes and 23 seconds.

For a complete list of today’s Space History, see  http://www.astronautix.com/a/august11.html

This Day In Space History: August 10

1966

http://www.astronautix.com/a/august10.html
Lunar Orbiter 1 is launched at 15:26 EDT from Cape Canaveral.

1972

https://www.space.com/37183-today-in-space.html

Meteor "Great Daylight Fireball" passes through the sky. Within just under two minutes, it entered the atmosphere over Utah and traveled north, leaving the atmosphere over Alberta, Canada.

1990

The Magellan spacecraft enters Venus' orbit.

1992

The TOPEX/Poseidon satellite, a project bewteeen the French space agency, Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES) and NASA, is launched. A goal was to measure the topography of the ocean surface, which led to many interesting feats. Learn more about them here: https://sealevel.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/topex/ 

1999

http://www.astronautix.com/a/august10.html
Shuttle Mir experiences a computer failure, ending the over-a-decade-long Soviet mission.

2001

https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/archives/sts-105.html
The Discovery shuttle STS-105 is launched at 17:10 EDT to the International Space Station.



For a complete list of today’s Space History, see  http://www.astronautix.com/a/august10.html

This Day In Space History: August 9

Well, not much happened in the world of space today... here's what I could come up with...

1945

http://www.onthisday.com/events/august/9
Today was the day when, at the end of the second World War, the U.S. dropped its second atom bomb "Fat Man" on Nagasaki, Japan. Another sad day in history.

1973

http://www.onthisday.com/events/august/9

The Soviet craft Mars 7 is launched off to Mars.

1976

https://www.space.com/37183-today-in-space.html

Luna 24, the last lunar mission, is launched by the USSR from Kazakhstan to return samples from the moon.

For a complete list of today’s Space History, see  http://www.astronautix.com/a/august09.html