The Pithy Amateur Astronomer

A sliver of the crescent Earth shines in bright blue in this ultraviolet view of the planet taken May 21, 2010 by Japan's Akatsuki probe headed for Venus.

How do astronauts go potty in space? Watch this video to find out!

http://www.space.com/common/media/video/player.php?videoRef=SP_100519_SpacePotty

I know it sounds childish but I can't help but snicker when they use terms such as "docking" when it comes to proper technique.

I was browsing around the Spitzer Space Telescope Astronomical Images gallery when I found an image that would make a great poster.

If anyone would know a way to purchase this (as a poster of course), let me know and I would be glad to purchase one and put in my office.

I haven't posted recently because I have been really busy with finding out I am going to be a father. A future amateur astronomer is going to be welcomed into my family. Due date is sometime in November (I am hoping in middle of the month or Halloween since we have a lot of family members with November birthdays).

I have been watching a lot of Astronomy Picture of the Day by NASA. The latest one was M72: A Globular Cluster of Stars.

Source: http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap100512.html

I challenge you to count the stars. Also visit http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/1005/m72_hst_big.jpg for the entire image (around 11 megabytes).

Explanation: Globular clusters once ruled the Milky Way. Back in the old days, back when our Galaxy first formed, perhaps thousands of globular clusters roamed our Galaxy. Today, there are less than 200 left. Many globular clusters were destroyed over the eons by repeated fateful encounters with each other or the Galactic center. Surviving relics are older than any Earth fossil, older than any other structures in our Galaxy, and limit the universe itself in raw age. There are few, if any, young globular clusters in our Milky Way Galaxy because conditions are not ripe for more to form. Pictured above by the Hubble Space Telescope are about 100,000 of M72's stars. M72, which spans about 50 light years and lies about 50,000 light years away, can be seen with a small telescope toward the constellation of the Water Bearer (Aquarius).

Guenter (Günter) Wendt died today at the age of 85. Wendt died after being hospitalized for congestive heart failure and then suffering a stroke.

The first time I heard of Guenter was from the movie Apollo 13.

For more information, read about him on Wikipedia.