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...