Other News

Apple buys comet for advertising purposes.

Petrol station attendant too busy for armed robber.

Rugby Union chairman stands down - drunk and disorderly complains Bundaberg Rum.

Mythbusters to test if cockaroaches can actually survive nuclear holocaust.

Orgasmic ring tone in courtroom almost guarantees return visit to court.

Greenpeace - Save the Planet - Eat Kangaroo!.

Guitar Heros are overdubbed on YouTube - made to look bad.

Sydney woman accidently swallows spoon.

A boy survives a two hour flight on the wing of a 737.

Monkey assassain.

Haunted swing freaks people out.

Drunk man in Halloween costume reported murdered.

Eclipse

My brother Steve took these great shots of last nights eclipse by simply holding a Canon compact digital camera up to the eyepiece of his telescope.


I filmed, edited and published this video to Google Video, YouTube and this Astro Shorts site, which seems to have the best quality. It's played back at 4000% speed so its easy to watch. Hope you like it.

Lunar Eclipse

Tonight will be a treat for stargazers on the east coast of Australia (like me) and New-Zealand. We'll be able to watch a lunar eclipse as the Sun, Earth and Moon become perfectly aligned.

For a guide to viewing or photographing the eclipse, visit Ice in Space, the Australian Amature Astronomy site for viewing the southern skies. This is a time-table for those living on the east coast of Australia.

28th August, 2007, Australian Eastern Standard Time (AEST)

• Start at 17:54
  
• Partial Eclipse Begins 18:51
• Total Eclipse Begins 19:52
• Greatest Eclipse at 20:37
• Total Eclipse Ends 21:22
• Partial Eclipse Ends 22:24
• Ends 23:21

Good viewing!

International Earth Day

"May there only be peaceful and cheerful Earth Days to come for our beautiful Spaceship Earth as it continues to spin and circle in frigid space with its warm and fragile cargo of animate life."

-United Nations Secretary - General U Thant - March 21st, 1971

April 22nd is International Earth Day. Some of you may have spotted the ice berg Google Doodle the made millions of people think of the global warming problem, if only for half a second. I only mention it because I did a bit of browsing for info on Earth Day and found out it was thought up by a guy called Gaylord Nelson. That's a really funny name. Har Har.

Spaceship Earth is a term that I havn't heard before. It is a way to look at our planet in a way that considers our limited resources.

Someone even wrote an Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth in 1963.

Where few men have gone before

I just finished watching the video on the front page of Virgin Galactic where you can already now book your flight to the final frontier and experience the amazing view of Earth from space and the feel of Zero G for yourself.

Sir Richard Branson is doing an extraordinary job in bringing space travel to people who would otherwise spend their life relatively earth-bound. There are plans to build five spaceships and two motherships. Motherships are the aircraft that lift the spaceships over 15 kilometers into the sky before they launch into space. After the spaceships detatch from the mothership they enter a "boost" stage that lasts about 90 seconds in which the ship accellerates to over 4000 kph putting the stress of about 3 to 4 g on the passengers. The spaceships will reach a height of about 110 kilometers before beginning the 30 minute descent that will subect you to 6 to 7 g on re-entry. Sound like an experience you'd want? Start saving, because the current cost of a seat is around $200,000 US.

Live long and prosper.

Farewell James Doohan.

The legendary "Scottie" from Classic Star Trek passed away last year. His wishes were to have his remains sent into space as his final resting place.

His wish will be realized when a commercial space company, Space Services Inc. launch a memorial rocket in his honour some time in October.

Full story here.

Image from StarTrek.com

Audio and Video

Silent video is boring to watch. Even if it's something interesting. If you put the exciting sligshot around the moon footage from the movie "Armageddon" and turn the sound off so it is silent (like it would be in space), very few people will watch it without reaching for the volume control.

Boring video can be made entertaining with a decent soundtrack. Wedding videos that people sit and watch all the way through in one sitting are the perfect example. Put an enjoyable, identifiable song on and most people will watch anything.

Sonicfire Pro 4.