Tag Archives: Space

Astronomy – State of the Art

Astronomy – State of the Art Course by Professor Chris Impey

Introduction

 

About this course

This course is for anyone who loves astronomy and wants to get up to date on the most recent astronomical discoveries.  Join Professor Chris Impey and our team of instructors from Steward Observatory at the University of Arizona to learn the science behind the latest astronomy news headlines, to enrich your understanding of the universe, and to glimpse the future of this exciting area of research. Courses runs from March 25 to May 10, with one major topic covered each week for seven weeks. Lecture material will be augmented by discussion, live Q&A, and guest lectures. Find us on Facebook, Google+, YouTube, and follow us on Twitter @AstronomySOTA.

Category:Math and Science

Tags:astronomy, space, science, research, math and science

what’s in the course?
Over 26 lectures and 2 hours of content!
Become familiar with the cutting edge of astronomy research, from the Solar System and exoplanets to galaxies and the distant universe.
Learn how astronomers are addressing profound issues such as the existence of life beyond Earth and black holes and the nature of dark matter and dark energy.
Gain an appreciation for the technological innovations in telescopes and detectors that are transforming our view of the universe.

Course requirements:
Interest in Astronomy

Who Should Attend?
Everyone
Amateur Astronomers
Planetarium Educators
Science Center and Museum Educators
Science Teachers
Astronomy Instructors
Students of Astronomy

This course runs from March 25 to May 10, 2013 for free. You can still register for this course if you were late. Completion Certificates Available. Register online: http://www.teachastronomy.com/mooc/

Clear Skies

Islamic Call to Prayer – [Islam Calls You]

Adhan – The Call For Prayers
In The Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful

Adhan is the first call to prayer. The Adhan is uttered in a loud, albeit sweet melodious, voice to announce to the faithful that it is time for the Obligatory Prayer and to invite them to offer the prayers.

Those who perform Adhan are known as ‘Muezzin.’ The honour of being the first Muezzin goes to Hazrat Bilal, a black slave who converted to Islam. He had a very sweet, resonant and musical voice. He was appointed as Muezzin by the Prophet of Islam. The appointment of a black slave as the first person to call Muslims for prayers, shows that in Islam all human beings are treated as equals.

Rich or poor, black or white, short or tall – all are equal in the eyes of Allah. It is the piety of each individual that makes the difference.

Play this video to listen to Azan

 

Adhan is recited in a loud voice by the Muezzin facing the direction of the Ka’ba in the following words, which are said in the order mentioned:

Allahu Akbar” – recited FOUR times.

Meaning, “Allah is Most Great.”(four times)

Ash-hadu an la ilaha ill-Allah” – recited TWO times.

Meaning, “I bear witness that there is none worthy of being worshipped except Allah.”(twice)

Ash-hadu anna Muhammad-ar-Rasoolullah” – recited TWO times.

Meaning, “I bear witness that Muhammad is the Apostle of Allah.”(recited twice)

Hayya ‘alas-Salah” – recited TWO times.

Meaning, “Come to prayer.”(turning the face alone to the right and saying it twice)

Hayya ‘alal-falah” – recited TWO times.

Meaning, “Come to Success.”(turning the face alone to the left and saying it twice)

Allahu Akbar” – recited TWO times.

Meaning, “Allah is Most Great” (face back to front and saying it two times).

Morning (Fajr) Prayers

The following phrase is added after “Hayya ‘alal-falah” in the Azan of the early morning prayers:

As-salatu khairum minannaum” – recited Two times.

Meaning, “Prayer is better than sleep” (recited two times).

”La ilaha illallah” There is no deity except for Allah.

 

Someone from Switzerland was doing some research on Adhan and people behavior.. Have a look at the video below;

During Adhan, it is normally that people should stop on what they are doing,  hear the Adhan and prepare for prayer.

Have a look at the video below, originally made by my friends here in Oman Smile

From Oman

 

More to come, Regarding Adhan, Space & Time in my next future posts. InShaAllah

More on Adhan from Wikipedia

Earth at night from space ISS

Something MUST watch! From International Space Station (ISS)

 

Time lapse sequences of photographs taken with a special low-light 4K-camera by the crew of expedition 28 & 29 onboard the International Space Station from August to October, 2011. All credit goes to them.

Note: All images are from: The Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth. New images are added daily to the database.

Shooting locations in order of appearance of the various places..
1. Aurora Borealis Pass over the United States at Night
2. Aurora Borealis and eastern United States at Night
3. Aurora Australis from Madagascar to southwest of Australia
4. Aurora Australis south of Australia
5. Northwest coast of United States to Central South America at Night
6. Aurora Australis from the Southern to the Northern Pacific Ocean
7. Halfway around the World
8. Night Pass over Central Africa and the Middle East
9. Evening Pass over the Sahara Desert and the Middle East
10. Pass over Canada and Central United States at Night
11. Pass over Southern California to Hudson Bay
12. Islands in the Philippine Sea at Night
13. Pass over Eastern Asia to Philippine Sea and Guam
14. Views of the Mideast at Night
15. Night Pass over Mediterranean Sea
16. Aurora Borealis and the United States at Night
17. Aurora Australis over Indian Ocean
18. Eastern Europe to Southeastern Asia at Night.

Brilliant view isn’t it! This is one of the reasons why astronauts would like to extend their journey in orbit..

Out of This World

 Out of This World

26th Earth revolution around the Sun since I was born

 

space-cake

Enjoy the Cake 🙂 

But please don’t eat my Space Ship

 

The next Question is

What did I do since that day?

I want to get Married.. I think this is the next Planet that  I should go!

But first I must search for my Princess.. I searched the whole Planet Earth, but still could not find her!! Where is she?

Out of this World!!..

I’m coming to you my Dear Princess

Using my Space Ship 🙂

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

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!