Apple iPhone 4 Goes to Space

AstrO Gears Product showcase: Apple iPhone 4                                     AstrOceanOmy Store

apple-iphone-4 

Product Features Description

  • iPhone 4. The fastest, highest-resolution iPhone
  • FaceTime
  • Retina Display
  • Multitasking
  • HD Video Recording and Editing
  • 5-Megapixel Camera with LED Flash
  • Astronomy Edition 🙂

Yeah! The most amazing feature in iPhone 4 is the Gyroscope built-in. Which makes the iPhone 4 Astronomy edition.

I’m including iPhone 4 as one of my AstrO Gears product. Why! Just see below… I will include more features of this gear later on.

Last year Father-Son Team lunched iPhone 4 into Space with weather balloon. They have used an insulated craft, weather balloon, iPhone 4 and a HD video camera to enter the space and film down the whole process. iPhone 4 was used to locate the location of the craft. Check out the video>>>

iPhone in Orbit

 

Interesting right!

The next surprise is that iPhone 4 this Month will be taken aboard the International Space Station via STS-135 to help conduct ground breaking experiments. Odyssey Space Research LLC, of Houston, TX, has developed an iOS application that will take advantage of the iPhones built-in mechanisms.

The experiments will perform onboard the US. National Laboratory on the International Space Station (ISS)

Screen_shot_2011-06-13_at_2.10.46_PM.png.scaled1000

In an excerpt from their official press release, Odyssey states:

The SpaceLab for iOS app will utilize the innovative features of iPhone 4, including the three-axis gyro, accelerometer, Retina display, cameras and A4 chip, for space-based research. The crew will conduct various experiments to collect data which could one day find use in practical applications, such as the recovery of navigation information for a spacecraft that might be “lost in space.

SpaceLab for iOS 

Four experiments are planned, click on the image above to read more.

As stated by Odyssey Space Research:When the experiments are completed, both iPhones will be returned to Earth. The first opportunity for return will be on a Russian Soyuz vehicle in the fall of 2011. Flight data from the experiments are expected to be collected, analyzed, and then shared via this app on the App Store.

The launch target for STS-135 (Orbiter Atlantis) is set by  July 8, 2011. 🙂

What are you waiting for! Download the application now.

Need an iPhone! It’s available in AstrOceanOmy Store.

Click here for more AstrO Application for iOS from NASA

Clear Skies

Lunar Eclipse Pictures

On Wednesday 15th of June @ night, I managed to take some shots of the lunar eclipse using my lil 3 inch (76mm) Catadioptric telescope and Apple iPhone 4.

IMG_0939

IMG_0936

The Moon was so bright in early stage, therefore I used the green Lunar filter.

IMG_0957

Red Moon..Without the lunar filter

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And yeah 🙂  some drinks, Barbican (Non-Alcoholic Drink) Just for refreshing 🙂

Lunar Eclipse Album

Technical Data:

  • Telescope: 3 inch (76mm) Catadioptric type, 600mm focal length, tabletop mounted.
  • Eyepieces: H20mm with green lunar filter
  • Camera model: Apple iPhone 4, (5 megapixels)
  • Image Type: jpeg (Width: 2592 pixels, Height: 1936 pixels)
  • Exposure Time: 1/15 sec, normal.
  • Camera Aperture Value: 2.97 EV (f/2.8)
  • Camera ISO Speed Rating: 500
  • Camera Focal Length: 3.9 mm
  • Metering Mode: Pattern
  • Camera Software: iOS 4.3.2
  • Location: Muscat, Oman. (Athaiba – Ocean area, on top of the roof surrounded with plants 🙂
  • Weather Temperature: 31°C , feels like 40+
  • Sky Condition: Haze around the horizon
  • Humidity: ~80%
  • Field Time: 22:15 (GMT+4) to 16th June 00:45 (GMT+4)
  • Refreshment Drink: Barbican ^_^

Total Lunar Eclipse on June 15

lunar-eclipse

People in the Arab world, European, African and Western Asian countries will witness a total lunar eclipse on Wednesday (June 15) and will be viewed in relative density for 100 minutes over two days.

It is the first of two total lunar eclipses in 2011, the second occurring on December 10.

Bookmark your calendar now, if you’re in the indicated zone above

The eclipse will start at 10:23 pm (GMT+4) on Wednesday in partial shading, develop into full eclipse at 11:23 pm (GMT+4) on the same day and continue till 1:02 am (GMT+4) on Thursday.

“The peak of the lunar eclipse will be at 12:13 (GMT+4) (Wednesday), while the partial lunar eclipse will last till 2:02 am (GMT+4) (Thursday).” The moon will not disappear totally because of the reflection of sunshine from the Earth’s surface.

Lunar Eclipse

Click on the image above for more information on time & place..

Provided by Larry

Clear Skies on June 15th hopefully 🙂

Geomagnetic Sun Storm

Our nearest star, the Sun Unleashed ‘Spectacular’ & Powerful Eruption on 7th June, 2011.

<<<Read the full article written by Tariq Malik on Space.com>>>

MAGNIFICENT FLARE on 7th June, 2011

STORM WARNING: The forecasters have downgraded the chances of a geomagnetic storm on June 9th to 20%. The disturbance, if it occurs, would be in response to a glancing blow from the Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) of June 7th. High-latitude sky watchers should remain alert for auroras. Above all, there are small chances that the radio satellites in orbit will be effected.. I suggest all people around the world to take care while doing outdoor activities.. Wear suitable clothes and sunglasses..Anyway, there is absolutely nothing to worry about.

Clear amazing auroras skies 🙂

Books from AstrOceanOmy Store:

         Sun, Earth, Man                     EMP Survival                Solar Variation                          Sun Storm

The Pulsar

What is a pulsar?

A Pulsar is a rapidly rotating neutron star that gives off beams of energy. And a neutron star is a star that has collapsed into a super-dense form of matter.

Artist concept of ancient pulsar J0108. Image credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Penn State/G.Pavlov et al. Optical: ESO/VLT/UCL/R.Mignani et al. Illustration: CXC/M. Weiss

 
 
 
Artist concept of ancient pulsar J0108. Image credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Penn State/G.Pavlov et al. Optical: ESO/VLT/UCL/R.Mignani et al. Illustration: CXC/M. Weiss

 

 

The neutron stars comes from the death of massive stars. Normally Massive stars when it dies it either forms into a neutron star or a black hole.

Small stars like our star “The Sun” when it dies, it will turn into a white dwarf and then slowly once the gravitational collapse it fades to become a black dwarf.

A dwarf is a collapsed core of a star,  and a black-hole is an infinitely dense object formed initially by the collapse of a massive star. The gravity of a black hole is so strong that not even light can escape from it.

OK, back to Pulsar topic:

Neutron stars spins very quickly and produce beams of radio energy that appears to flush on and off very rapidly. In this event they emits such pulses, therefore they are called pulsars.

Pulsar is mentioned in the Holy Quran:

سورة الطارق

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ

وَالسَّمَاء وَالطَّارِقِ{1} وَمَا أَدْرَاكَ مَا الطَّارِقُ{2} النَّجْمُ الثَّاقِبُ{3} إِن كُلُّ نَفْسٍ لَّمَّا عَلَيْهَا حَافِظٌ{4} فَلْيَنظُرِ الْإِنسَانُ مِمَّ خُلِقَ{5} خُلِقَ مِن مَّاء دَافِقٍ{6} يَخْرُجُ مِن بَيْنِ الصُّلْبِ وَالتَّرَائِبِ{7} إِنَّهُ عَلَى رَجْعِهِ لَقَادِرٌ{8} يَوْمَ تُبْلَى السَّرَائِرُ{9} فَمَا لَهُ مِن قُوَّةٍ وَلَا نَاصِرٍ{10} وَالسَّمَاء ذَاتِ الرَّجْعِ{11} وَالْأَرْضِ ذَاتِ الصَّدْعِ{12} إِنَّهُ لَقَوْلٌ فَصْلٌ{13} وَمَا هُوَ بِالْهَزْلِ{14} إِنَّهُمْ يَكِيدُونَ كَيْداً{15} وَأَكِيدُ كَيْداً{16} فَمَهِّلِ الْكَافِرِينَ أَمْهِلْهُمْ رُوَيْداً{17}

 

At-Tariq

In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful

By the heaven and the night-comer (The Pulsar) (1) And what shall make thee know that which the night-comer (The Pulsar) is? (2) It is the star shing brightly. (3) No soul is there but hath over it a watcher. (4) So let man look – from what is he created. (5) He is created from a water drip-ping, (6) That issueth from between the loins and the breast-bones. (7) Verily He is Able to restore him, (8) On a Day whereon secrets shall be out. (9) Then he shall have no power nor any helper. (10) By the heaven which returneth, (11) And by the earth which splitteth, (12) Verily, it is a discourse distinguishing. (13) And it is not a frivolity. (14) Verily they are plotting a plot. (15) And I am plotting a plot. (16) So respite thou the infidels – respite them gently, (17)

 

The Name Al-Tariq in Arabic means the knocker. And we all know the knocking sound.. The way it is mentioned in the Holy Quran is amazing. And Allah (The God) knows best.

Below is the videos for a Pulsar sound. Suubhan Allah. (God is the greatest) 

The sound of Pulsar

 

The Sound of Pulsar

 

In the third verse of Surat Al-Tariq, it says: “ It is the star shing brightly. (3)

English translation of the Quran sometimes does not cover it all.. So I’ll describe it more clearly. The third verse in Arabic it says: “AlNijm AlThakib” The word AlNijm means: The Star and the word AlThakib means: The driller

Drilling through what! Allah knows best.  All what we know that spinning Neutron Stars or the Pulsars spins very quickly and produce beams of radio energy that appears to flash on and off very rapidly. The following video shows how the Pulsars rotates. 

The Pulsar drills

At the End, all what we know is little and Allah (The God) knows best. There are many translations/meaning of the Quran/verse, but all the studies now refers that the mentioned Quran verse above is pointing towards the Pulsars. No one can make a final conclusion here, we still need to do lots of research.. Allah is the Greatest and Allah knows best.

More about the Pulsar from AstrOceanOmy Store:

                        ON THE PULSAR               Decoding the Message of the Pulsars

Let Me Shine

I just received this brilliant poem from a friend and would like to share it here.  All thanks to Micheal who wrote this shiny poem.  Well Done

When Galileo was alive, he could see every Constellation in the sky
Through the centuries Men, Women, and Children sang night time songs
Never knowing it would soon be gone
Then some damn fool invents the Street Light
We all said goodbye to the skies at night
Now it’s up to us to find the ways
To get back the good old days
We spend all night awake, looking for a solution
For this nightmare of ours is called Light Pollution

– by Michael Uberty, USA.

Celestron SkyScout

AstrO Gears Product showcase: Celestron SkyScout Personal Planetarium. AstrOceanOmy Store

“This is the device amateur stargazers have been waiting for since, well, Galileo..”  Popular Science Magazine

SkyScout

SkyScout is a revolutionary handheld device that uses advanced GPS technology with point and click convenience to instantly identify over 50,000 stars, planets, constellations and more.

skyscout_personen

SkyScout Features:

  • Identify: Simply point the SkyScout at any star in the sky and click the “target” button. The SkyScout will instantly tell you what object you are looking at.
  • Locate: To locate a star or planet, select the objects name from the menu and follow the directional arrows through the viewfinder. SkyScout tells you when you are on target. It’s that easy!
  • In addition, the SkyScout also features a ‘Tonight’s Highlights’ function which provides you with a customized list of the 20 best objects you can view for your exact date, time and location anywhere in the world.
  • Learn: Once you have targeted an object the real fun begins. The SkyScout includes entertaining and educational audio and text information, including facts, trivia, history and mythology about our most popular celestial objects. If you locate a star that is part of a constellation, the SkyScout will even talk you through every star within that constellation along with providing a detailed onscreen map on the whole constellation. A fun learning tool for all ages, the SkyScout personal planetarium puts the knowledge of an expert astronomer in the palm of your hand.
  • Click here for more from Celestron website.

skyscout-tour

Not to forget that the Celestron SkyScout Personal Planetarium is the “Official Product” of the International Year of Astronomy (IYA) 2009!

I already purchased mine since long time back and would like to share some pictures:.

photo 1  photo 2

photo 3  photo 4

While opening the box, I’ve noticed something strange and funny in the package 🙂  . I’ll come up with more details in the next post. Please visit for updates.

SkyScout is available for purchase in AstrOceanOmy Store .

 

Anyone in Oman who would like to purchase, please contact me.

Clear Skies

How tiny are we!

Previously I posted >>> VY Canis Majoris

Here’s another video which demonstrates the size of our Solar System Planets, Sun & other Stars.

 

VY Canis Majoris remains the BIGGEST Star known up to date.

Books from AstrOceanOmy Store

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Nuclear Energy! Is it Green?

Green-No-Clear

Well, the question Is it GREEN means the following:

  • Is it Safe for the Environment?
  • Is it Healthy?
  • Is it cheap? / Economical?
  • Is it recyclable / renewable?
  • Is Radioactive material Green?
  • Is it truly Green in terms of short and long term.

The answer to these questions is in the word itself (“Nuclear” Energy / Power)

Nuclear sounds to me as  No-Clear Energy / Power

So what’s behind the No-Clear Green? That is the question.

I think history already answered to that question!  See the Chernobyl Nuclear power plant disaster  & The Three Mile Island disaster

Now I feel sorry for Japan. The same scenario happening at the moment in Fukushima Nuclear power plant while I’m typing this.

What really made Nuclear power as “Green” is because people who designed this technology said that it emit relatively low amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2). Therefore less harm to the environment.

So again I say

What’s behind the No-Clear Green?

 

Please have a look at the following file for the answer/s

folder-download

The World has started protesting Nuclear because its No-Clear

 (Please spread the message)

50 Amazing and strange Astronomy facts

What do you think?

1-Saturn would float if you would put it in water.
2-If you would place a pinhead sized piece of the Sun on the Earth you would die from standing within 145 km (90 miles) from it.
3-Space is not a complete vacuum, there are about 3 atoms per cubic meter of space.
4-Only 5% of the universe is made up of normal matter, 25% is dark matter and 70% is dark energy.
5-Neutron stars are so dense that a teaspoon of them would be equal to the weight of the entire Earth’s population.
6-The Sun is 400 times larger than the Moon but is 400 times further away from Earth making them appear the same size.
7-The star Lucy in the constellation Centaurus is a huge cosmic diamond of 10 billion trillion trillion carats.
8-Seasons last 21 years on Uranus while each pole has 42 years of sunlight followed by 42 years of darkness.
9-Venus,on the other hand, does not have any seasons at all.
10-1 year on Mercury consists of less than 2 days on Mercury.
11-There are as many oxygen atoms in a breath as breaths of air in the atmosphere.
12-Helium is the only substance in the universe that cannot be in solid form.It can’t be cold enough.
13-The coldest place in the universe is on Earth. In Wolfgang Ketterles lab in Massachusetts. 0.000000000001 degrees Kelvin.
14-The pistol star is the most luminous star known 10 million times the brightness of the Sun.
15-Saturn’s moon Titan has liquid oceans of natural gas.
16-All the planets are the same age: 4.544 billion years.
17-Earths moon was most likely formed after an early planet named Theia crashed into Earth.
18-8000 stars are visible with naked eye from Earth. 4000 in each hemisphere, 2000 at daylight and 2000 at night.
19-90-99% of all normal matter in the universe is hydrogen.
20-Only 55% of all Americans knows that the Sun is a star.
21-Because of the speed the Sun moves at, solar eclipses can last at most 7 minutes and 58 seconds.
22-Lunar eclipses, however, can last 1 hour and 40 minutes.
23-All the coal, oil, gas, wood and fuel on Earth would only keep the Sun burning for few days.
24-A full moon is nine times brighter than a half moon.
25-When the Moon is directly above your head or if you stand at the equator, you weight slightly less.
26-A single Quasar produce the same amount of energy as 1 trillion suns.
27-Just after the Big Bang, everything in the universe was in liquid form.
28-A planet nicknamed “The Genesis Planet” has been found to be 12.7 billion years old making it the oldest planet found.
29-The shape of the universe looks a lot like a brain cell.
30-Every year, the Moon is moving away from Earth by 3.8 centimeters.
31-The Moon spins around its axis in the same time it goes one lap around the Earth which makes us always see the same side of it.
32-Upsilon Andromeda B also only face one side to its star. One side is hot as lava while the other one is cold below freezing.
33-The average galaxy contains “only” 40 billion stars.
34-While in space astronomers can get taller, but at the same time their hearts can get smaller.
35-Mars surface is cowered with iron oxide (rust).
36-Only half a billionth of the energy released by the Sun reaches Earth.
37-Rogue planets are not bound by any star, brown dwarf or another planet which makes them free-float around the galaxy.
38-Sweeps 10 is the planet with the shortest orbital period found. It orbits its star in only 10 hours.
39-85% of all stars in our galaxy are part of multiple-star systems.
40-Some brown dwarfs have liquid iron rain falling down on them.
41-The light emitting from the Sun is actually 30.000 years old.
42-Of the over 20 million meteors that are observable every day only one or two reach the surface of Earth.
43-The United States have approximately 3.500 astronomers, but over 15.000 astrologers.
44-The closest black hole to Earth is only 1.600 light-years away.
45-There are at least 10^24 stars in the universe.
46-Certain “star quakes” have been found to tear apart the surface of neutron stars.
47-Any free-moving liquid in outer space will form itself into a sphere due to surface tension.
48-The odds of being killed by falling space debris is 1 in 5 billion.
49-Neutron stars can rotate up to 500 times in 1 second.
50-The largest structure found in the universe is the Sloan Great Wall, a super cluster of galaxies 1.37 billion light-years wide.

Very interesting facts from Astronomers & Scientists.. I still could not get it about fact number 18 ? Half of the stars are visible at daylight with naked eye from Earth? Could anyone explain!