news

Feb

2009

The Replacement For The Hubble Space Telescope

The replacement for the Hubble is scheduled to launch in 2013. The James Webb Space Telescope will have the ability to see further than Hubble and feature mirrors over 20 feet in diameter. Its sunshield alone is bigger than a tennis court. This new telescope will be situated about a million miles from Earth, putting it beyond our current ability to service it. However, scientists have taken the problems with Hubble into account and have made the appropriated modifications to allow the telescope to self-correct.

NASA: http://www.jwst.nasa.gov/

CNN Video: http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/tech/2009/02/11/eoj.hubble.replacement.cnn.html

Feb

2009

Google Earth 5 and Related Items

Google Earth 5 is now in the wild. My first impression after maybe 30-40 minutes of tinkering is thumbs up. Overall it is now alot faster and feels as though the gui has been tweaked for speed. Occasionally there is some slowness but I’m guessing that is a side effect of some of the optimization stuff they’ve done. Google Earth remains one great free resource everyone should download.Some KML Files you might want to add:

Satellite Tracking KML (Near Real time): http://adn.agi.com/SatelliteDatabase/
Ship Tracking KML (Near Real time): http://marinetraffic.com/ais/ge.aspx
Flight Tracking KML (Hourly snapshot): http://fboweb.com/flighttracking/

Feb

2009

HMS Victory Found During Filming of Discovery Channel’s “Treasure Quest”

During last week’s episode of Treasure Quest on Discovery, Odyssey Explorer found a wreck that they would only refer to as “The Legend.” Several details were given about the ship that could lead anyone with historical knowledge to a good conclusion.Facts Given:

It was believed to be a ship of the line (only a handful existed in the mid 1700’s).
It carried over 100 guns.
Carried almost 1000 people.

It was all confirmed via Fox News this morning to be the wreckage of the HMS Victory that sunk in the English Channel after getting seperated from her fleet. Research indicates she was carrying 4 tons of gold when she went down. To clear up the ambiguity, this HMS Victory is the inspiration for the HMS Victory used by Horatio Nelson.

According to AIS, at this moment Odyssey Explorer is moored near London.

Sources:

Fox News: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,486387,00.html
Treasure Quest @ Discovery: http://dsc.discovery.com/tv/treasure-quest/treasure-quest.html

Jan

2009

Mount Redoubt Webcams

For those of you who haven’t found them yet, here is a link to the Mount Redoubt observatory and its webcams. The site was crashed earlier this week due to a flood of activity once it was announced an eruption is eminent. The site is back up at least for now. Go over and check it out. They are going to have a front row seat to the blast if it goes.Website: http://www.avo.alaska.edu/activity/Redoubt.php

Twitter updates: http://twitter.com/alaska_avo

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