Launch of Space Shuttle STS-119 - Wednesday night at 6:20PM PST

Only 8 more launches until the Shuttle program is shut down in 2010 - watch it online if you've not seen one in a while!

Live launch updates blog + live commentary show (starting Wed afternoon):
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/shuttle/sts119/status.html

Live NASA Coverage (will be on all day Wed - Windows Media Stream)
300kbps: http://playlist.yahoo.com/makeplaylist.dll?id=1369081
500kbps: http://playlist.yahoo.com/makeplaylist.dll?id=1368570 (may not stream smooth during launch)
1200kbps: http://playlist.yahoo.com/makeplaylist.dll?id=1368163 (may not stream smooth during launch)

On cable on HDNet at 6PM PST live.

Saturn, Comets & Asteroids this week!

- Saturn is now out during the evening hours to the east, but the rings will be hardly visible due to planetary rotation.
- Comet Lulin is flying through our solar system at over 145,000 mph - you should be able to see it with binoculars to the east in the evening (close to Saturn)
- Asteroid "1 Ceres" is also visible to the east as well and is as close as it will be until the year 4,000.

Weather might be a problem this week for me, but I hope to get some photos of all three items to try out the scope again after months of bad weather.

Cloudy Moon

Quick shot of the "first quarter" Moon in a haze of clouds to the west. Still mostly cloudy and cold to really do anything with the telescope...so this shot is just with my SLR camera and 300mm lens.

Finally A Clear Night

Looks like we finally got a break from the cloudy weather we've had over the past few months and I spent the evening surveying the sky and taking this panorama of what I can see from my back yard...

STS-126 Shuttle Launch Status: 70% Launch Probability

As of 10AM today, the Shuttle has a 70% launch probability (30% chance of weather delaying the launch). The launch window is only 10mins long so if it doesn't launch at 7:55PM EST/4:55PM PST then it won't be launching at least till Sunday.


Photo of STS-126 on launch pad.

Shuttle Launch Info: STS-126 (This Friday)

Space shuttle Endeavour will launch this Friday at 7:55pm EST (4:55pm PST). If you've never seen a launch or haven't seen one in a while, why don't you make an effort to watch this one as there won't be many left.

Live launch will be viewable on cable on HDNet & NASA TV, and online at the links below:

Windows Media Player Links
NASA TV 150kb stream
http://playlist.yahoo.com/makeplaylist.dll?id=1369080

NASA TV 300kb stream
http://playlist.yahoo.com/makeplaylist.dll?id=1368570

In-Browser Links:
NASA TV 300kb stream
http://www.space-multimedia.nl.eu.org/stream/nasa.php

NASA TV 500kb stream
http://www.space-sts.nl.eu.org/stream/nasa500.php

As a note, the 500kb stream may lag or not work at all depending on site traffic during the launch so keep the 300kb stream link handy!

Lastly, here are some facts about this launch:
- 155th American manned space flight
- 124th shuttle mission since STS-1
- 99th post-Challenger mission
- 11th post-Columbia mission
- 22nd flight of Endeavour
- 27th shuttle mission to the ISS

On the local side of things, it is STILL CLOUDY and RAINY here. Outlook this week still looks bad so probably won't have any telescope updates anytime soon...sob.

Weather, Alignment and Collimation

This is what the weather looks like for the next 5 days…looks like seeing will be spotty at best.



As for my telescope, it is in the middle of an upgrade (yes already!)…nothing major, just replacement screws for the mount and Polar Alignment scope which I ordered from a place called http://www.scopestuff.com/. They have a wide variety of replacement and upgrade parts for scopes so I highly recommend you take a look if you want to make your scope a little bit better (I’ve added a link to them in the Links area). I replaced the following for my LXD-75 scope:

- Azimuth Adjustment Bolts
- Latitude Adjustment Bolts
- Polar Finder Scope Adjustment Thumbscrews

Why did I replace these bolts and screws? Well the replacement bolts are made to be more convenient to turn than the stock ones and the adjustment screws on the Polar Finder Scope require a tool to adjust...where the replacement screws adjust without a tool. Makes it that much easier to use the scope.

Now that it's cloudy and rainy I've been trying to find out more about aligning the scope so that I can take longer exposures. Right now I’m struggling to get up to 30 second exposures and from what people have told me, I should be getting 1min+ exposures easily. I've managed to align the Polar Align scope (which I'm betting was one source of tracking trouble) and am also using a new piece of software to help align the scope more accurately...as soon as I get some clear sky I'll be testing all of this out.

Speaking of collimation, if you are looking for a laser collimator to make sure your mirror is aligned, look no further than the Hotech 1.25” SCA Laser Collimator. I had bought the Meade 1.25” Laser Collimator previously and due to how it is made it didn't sit flush inside of the eyepiece which renders it useless (so don’t waste your money on it!) The Hotech on the other hand uses a rubber ring that expands inside of the eyepiece so that perfect alignment can occur. I'm eager to try out my new adjusted scope but again am waiting for some clear sky...