Celestial Mechanics

Posted by By Rocket at 11 June, at 22 : 15 PM Print

 

On the day of the Venus Transit (June 5), I went to the Chabot Space and Science Center in Oakland, California to watch it on the big telescope. We just missed seeing Venus on any of the big telescopes, but we did get to observe it transmitted from a large telescope in Hawaii on the Island of Hawaii at Mauna Kea. On the way out, a man had brought his personal telescope and we saw Saturn through it. It was astounding. You could see the rings clearly.

There has been some really cool space and celestial stuff going on in the last few weeks. For example, there was the Space X Dragon launch and safe return to Earth.

Did you know that the International Space Station orbits the entire Earth every 90 minutes? So, when the Dragon wanted to dock with the Space Station, it had to first do a fly-by of the SpaceLab and then synchronize its orbit and fly “with” it for an entire revolution around the Earth before it could sync-up and dock. The CEO of Space,was on the radio, describing it this way: “The SpaceLab is moving at the si,times the speed of an assault rifle and it took a revolution around the Earth to line up with it.” That is so different than how I picture things in space… you know…floating.

And there was the SOLAR ECLIPSE.

It could viewed from my front yard.

Rocket's Blog Chabot Space and Science Center, International Space Station, Mauna Kea, Solar Eclipse, Space, Space X Dragon, Transit of Venus