Cap'n Bob & the Damsel

February 2011

Navy X-47B Stealth Bomber

About 13 years ago while working for the aerospace company that produced this aircraft, I had the privilege of working on prototype avionics systems for pilotless aircraft systems like this. Video taken in the vicinity of Edwards AFB in California’s high desert.

From Fox News:

The U.S. Navy said it made a breakthrough in drone technology with the first flight of the X-47B, a bat-winged unmanned jet designed to take off and land from an aircraft carrier, one of the most complex and difficult feats in aviation.

08 Feb 2011 by Aerospace Aviation Military

It’s Official: The Sun is A Sphere

From the STEREO website:

February 6, 2011: It’s official: The sun is a sphere.

On Feb. 6th, NASA’s twin STEREO probes moved into position on opposite sides of the sun, and they are now beaming back uninterrupted images of the entire star—front and back.

“For the first time ever, we can watch solar activity in its full 3-dimensional glory,” says Angelos Vourlidas, a member of the STEREO science team at the Naval Research Lab in Washington, DC.

“This is a big moment in solar physics,” says Vourlidas. “STEREO has revealed the sun as it really is–a sphere of hot plasma and intricately woven magnetic fields.”

Each STEREO probe photographs half of the star and beams the images to Earth. Researchers combine the two views to create a sphere. These aren’t just regular pictures, however. STEREO’s telescopes are tuned to four wavelengths of extreme ultraviolet radiation selected to trace key aspects of solar activity such as flares, tsunamis and magnetic filaments. Nothing escapes their attention.

[more]

07 Feb 2011 by Aerospace Astronomy

Red Bird

cardinal-wall.jpg

In order to entice the birds to dwell around the house where we can see them, I toss some bird seed and “Critter Crunch” around the house. It seems to work since we are frequently visited by many species of birds, including this cardinal.

Just the other day, we were wondering why this bird is bright red. Most species out here seem to blend in with the desert, but not this guy. You can spot him in a palo verde or a mesquite 500 feet away. When the wall where he is perched is finished and painted the color of the house, he will blend in a little bit better.

05 Feb 2011 by Arizona Critters Photography

STEREO Spacecraft at Solar Opposition This Weekend

Why would that be significant? Well, it would allow for a full 4PI (360×360°) view of the sun. The animated movie of the sun on STEREO’s Website currently has a gap in the coverage of the sun. The spacecraft are in a heliocentric orbit drifting away from the Earth, one leading and one lagging. This diagram shows the current position of spacecraft A (ahead) and B (behind). The scale is in astronomical units, the average distance between the earth and sun.

Sun-monitoring instrumentation on spacecraft like SOHO and STEREO have gone a long way in discovering what makes the sun behave in mysterious ways. Also, the data coming back (when not intentionally distorted by the IPCC, the CRU or NASA’s James Hansen) can be used to chart the relationship between solar activity and global climate.

whereis.jpg

NOTE: This is the second posting of this article (the original article posted June 16, 2010) because the actual opposition will take place this weekend on Sunday, February 6, 2011. I updated the position graphic for Ahead and Behind and added a NASA STEREO Teaser Video.

04 Feb 2011 by Aerospace Astronomy Global Warming Science

Driving Through a Saguaro Forest

Our route to Cave Creek, Arizona, takes us along state route 74, a scenic highway from US 60 to Lake Pleasant. The first twenty miles, or so, along route 74 takes you through a very scenic area consisting of many varieties of desert vegetation dominated mostly by the saguaro cactus.

Damsel took all of the images used for this. You can pause the slideshow by rolling your mouse over the picture and resume by rolling out.

03 Feb 2011 by Arizona Travel

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