Category Archives: Science

SpaceX Starlink Launch, October 27, 2022

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On Thursday evening, October 27th, SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 with 53 Starlink satellites from Vandenburg Space Force Base. This 6:14pm PDT launch was at just the right time to provide a spectacular view from the ground. It was dark enough to see the rocket in flight and it moved into the sunlight which highlighted the plume in the dark sky.

I got out my handy Sony RX-100 Mark 5 and set it up on a tripod. After a little fumbling around, I got the connection to the smart phone working. Sony has a decent app that you can use to control the camera from a mobile device. No cable releases needed.

This first image shows the Falcon 9 toward the end of the first stage burn.

Just visible above the horizon

The second image was taken after main engine cut off (MECO), stage separation, and second stage start up. The rocket is clearly in the sunlight.

Stage 2 firing after stage separation

The third image is the most dramatic. The exhaust plume is expanding as the second stage gets farther into the vacuum of space. The two dots behind the second stage are the fairing halves and the dot behind them is the first stage. Click on the image to get a full-sized version.

Stage 2 firing with the fairing halves and the first stage behind

This wider-framed image shows the second stage speeding on with the long exhaust plume behind it. Note the crescent Moon toward the bottom of the frame.

The second stage on its way with a crescent Moon just above the horizon

The lingering exhaust lights up the sky.

Remnants of the launch linger in the sky

Mt. Wilson Hooker Telescope 100th Anniversary Event

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On May 4th, I had the opportunity to attend an event at Mt. Wilson Observatory celebrating the 100th anniversary of the official opening (first light was in 1917) of the 100-inch (2.54 meter) Hooker Telescope. Sponsored by the Institute for Student Astronomical Research (InSTAR) and PlaneWave Instruments, it was a afternoon through evening event that allowed us to get close to this historic observatory. The event included a full tour of the observatory, several informative presentations, dinner, and then viewing through the 100-inch telescope.

We arrived around noon, and broke into two tour groups to visit the telescopes. We started off from the Museum and headed past the 150′ Solar Tower toward the 60″ telescope. (Click on a picture for a full-sized version.)

The 150′ Solar Telescope on Mt. Wilson

Our guide was Tim, a scientist from CalTech. Tim has been giving tours at Mt. Wilson for 30 years. These are real tours. You get to get inside the domes and touch the telescopes. There is a lot of history here and the guides present it very well. The 60-inch (1.52 meter) Telescope was the largest in the world when it went into service in December 1908.

Our tour guide, Tim, at the 60″ telescope


The size and nature of the galaxy and the universe were at the center of debate in astronomy in the early 20th century. The answers were found at Mt. Wilson. A major discovery in this debate was made with the 60-inch Telescope by Harlow Shapley. Shapley had been hired by George Ellery Hale to work at Mt Wilson. Shapley, used measurements of Cepheid variable stars to determine the dimensions of the Milky Way. He determined that it is far larger than previously thought. He also established that our solar system was in a nondescript, off-center position in the galaxy.

The 60″ Hale telescope

The 60-Inch Telescope was a marvel of engineering and construction. George Ellery Hale, the moving force behind Mt. Wilson Observatory, had a knack for raising money and a determination to build bigger and bigger telescopes. More information and more photographs below the fold.

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SpaceX PAZ Launch From West LA

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We got up early on February 22nd hoping to see the planned launch by SpaceX of the PAZ satellite from Vandenberg Air Force Base. The last launch from Vandenberg was quite impressive with a huge display in the sky seen from all across Southern California.

The launch happened on time at 6:17 am PST, putting the satellite into a polar orbit. Two smaller SpaceX satellites went along as a secondary mission to test their planned satellite internet service. They also tried to land part of the payload fairing. That landing was not quite successful but the fairing half survived in good condition.

We watched the web cast of the launch and got our cameras ready. About two minutes after launch, we saw the rocket moving above the treeline. The trees were a bit of a problem as they fooled the autofocus on a few shots. This shot is at 6:19 am PST, T+2:05 into the mission. The rocket is already about 28 miles / 45 kilometers high and is going 2,600 MPH / 4,200 KPH. My speed and altitude numbers are approximate as I obtained them from matching my estimate of mission time (T+) to the webcast replay.

Approximately T+2:05

Just 12 seconds later, this shows how the rocket trail is expanding and is not lit up white by the Sun. T+2:17, 37 miles / 60 kilometers up and going 3,300 MPH / 5,400 KPH.

Approximately T+2:17

This picture was taken at just about main engine cut off or MECO. At this point the first stage shuts down, the second stage separates, and the second stage engine starts up. We are at 6:19 am PST, T+2:32, 48 miles / 77 kilometers up going 4,200 MPH / 6,700 KPH.

Just about the moment of main engine cut off (MECO) at T+3:32

The second stage burning looks interesting and there appear to be two objects moving along. These pictures were taken at T+2:52 and T+2:57 respectively. This is approximately the time when the fairing was deployed, so that could be the other object in the picture. Altitude increasing quickly, 64 miles / 103 kilometers in the first picture, 72 miles / 115 kilometers in the second. Speed has gone down a bit to 4,000 MPH / 6,500 KPH.

Second stage well on the way at T+2:52

Approximately T+2:57

At this point the clouds began to interfere more and the rocket was increasingly hard to see. This final image was taken at 6:21am, t+4:11 with the spacecraft at 132 miles / 213 kilometers in altitude moving 4,500 MPH / 7,300 KPH.

Increasingly hard to see at T+4:11

SpaceX Iridium Launch from West Los Angeles

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On Friday night, December 22nd, SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 with 10 Iridium satellites aboard from Vandenburg Air Force Base near Lompoc. We watched the initial lift off on YouTube, and my wife went outside to look for the rocket. I’ve seen rocket trails before but was not prepared for the sight we saw that night. It first appeared as a short, red flare-like glowing spot, moving quickly up into the sky. My photos of the early appearance did not turn out. As it got higher in the sky it became much more impressive.

Here is the rocket still boosting on the first stage. Changes in the atmosphere probably account for the changing density of the plume.

I took this short video which, as best as I can guess, covers stage separation and the initial boost back of first stage.

This next shot is after main engine cut off and stage separation. The bright spot on the left is the boosting second stage on its way to orbit. The bright spot just behind it is the first stage. And the plume is looking pretty interesting.

This next shot has the crescent Moon, the boosting second stage, and the descending first stage. If I remember correctly, they did a mock landing of the first stage with no drone ship.

The dissipating cloud looks vaguely like a dragon in the sky.

The Internet Makes You Smart

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I read a good article in Scientfic American the other night. The point of the article was that social learning among great apes (orangutans in the article) was critical to learing higher level skills. And that without social interaction, these skills were not learned. The key hypothesis in the article is

My own explanation, which is not incompatible with these other forces, puts the emphasis on social learning. In humans, intelligence develops over time. A child learns primarily from the guidance of patient adults. Without strong social–that is, cultural–inputs, even a potential wunderkind will end up a bungling bumpkin as an adult.

The core learning method is interaction with others. The area they studied had a high number of orangutans, causing more social interaction than is normal among these apes. The apes they studied used tools much more than other apes.

One of our first finds in this unlikely setting astonished us: the Suaq orangutans created and wielded a variety of tools. Although captive red apes are avid tool users, the most strik­ing feature of tool use among the wild orangutans observed until then was its absence.

The increased use of tools does not represent a higher intelligence among this group of apes.

We doubt that the animals at Suaq are intrinsically smarter: the observation that most captive members of this species can learn to use tools suggests that the basic brain capacity to do so is present.

In looking at this behaviour, they looked at a number of reasons why it would occur in this group. In an well presented analysis (you need to read the article), they show that the reason is clearly cultural learning. The orangutans learn from interaction with other orangutans. Social interaction increases intelligence.

So I draw the conclusion that the internet increases human intelligence. Why?

  • The internet is primarly a means of interaction between people
  • It enables interaction without regard to geographic separation
  • Communities develop that allow people with similar interests to share their skills
  • My own experience in astrophotography is that my skills are better because of what I have learned from others in internet newsgroups

I wrote about the benefit of newsgroups in an earlier post. This Scientific American article gives a scientific basis to the benefit for all of us of collaboration enabled by the internet. So surfing and chatting and blogging and newsgrouping makes you smarter! Almost an invitiation to do this at work.

Global Warming Alarmism — The Anti-Science

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There is an excellent op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal today, and it is available free at OpinionJournal. In extraordinarily clear terms Richard Lindzen puts forward the case that the hysteria not only leads to exaggerated claims, it leads to suppression of good science.

The answer has much to do with misunderstanding the science of climate, plus a willingness to debase climate science into a triangle of alarmism. Ambiguous scientific statements about climate are hyped by those with a vested interest in alarm, thus raising the political stakes for policy makers who provide funds for more science research to feed more alarm to increase the political stakes. After all, who puts money into science–whether for AIDS, or space, or climate–where there is nothing really alarming? Indeed, the success of climate alarmism can be counted in the increased federal spending on climate research from a few hundred million dollars pre-1990 to $1.7 billion today. It can also be seen in heightened spending on solar, wind, hydrogen, ethanol and clean coal technologies, as well as on other energy-investment decisions.

So we need alarmism for more money. That is an old political story. And where the money goes, goes the power, and where the power goes, comes corruption.

It isn’t just that the alarmists are trumpeting model results that we know must be wrong. It is that they are trumpeting catastrophes that couldn’t happen even if the models were right as justifying costly policies to try to prevent global warming.

If the models are correct, global warming reduces the temperature differences between the poles and the equator. When you have less difference in temperature, you have less excitation of extratropical storms, not more. And, in fact, model runs support this conclusion.

Not to mention double standards.

So how is it that we don’t have more scientists speaking up about this junk science? It’s my belief that many scientists have been cowed not merely by money but by fear. An example: Earlier this year, Texas Rep. Joe Barton issued letters to paleoclimatologist Michael Mann and some of his co-authors seeking the details behind a taxpayer-funded analysis that claimed the 1990s were likely the warmest decade and 1998 the warmest year in the last millennium. Mr. Barton’s concern was based on the fact that the IPCC had singled out Mr. Mann’s work as a means to encourage policy makers to take action. And they did so before his work could be replicated and tested–a task made difficult because Mr. Mann, a key IPCC author, had refused to release the details for analysis. The scientific community’s defense of Mr. Mann was, nonetheless, immediate and harsh. The president of the National Academy of Sciences–as well as the American Meteorological Society and the American Geophysical Union–formally protested, saying that Rep. Barton’s singling out of a scientist’s work smacked of intimidation.

All of which starkly contrasts to the silence of the scientific community when anti-alarmists were in the crosshairs of then-Sen. Al Gore. In 1992, he ran two congressional hearings during which he tried to bully dissenting scientists, including myself, into changing our views and supporting his climate alarmism. Nor did the scientific community complain when Mr. Gore, as vice president, tried to enlist Ted Koppel in a witch hunt to discredit anti-alarmist scientists–a request that Mr. Koppel deemed publicly inappropriate. And they were mum when subsequent articles and books by Ross Gelbspan libelously labeled scientists who differed with Mr. Gore as stooges of the fossil-fuel industry.

Read the whole thing. We need to get back to an open discussion on a scientific basis.