Another "take" on Halloween - from Emily Lakdawalla's twitter account of the last minutes of Rosetta

I have had all kinds of troubles with my internet access - I am ashamed to say. Consider what Rosetta did with a technology from the last millenia.

Here - auf Deutsch  
is how Rosetta ended the mission - the final OSIRIS wide angle i
mages - 1000 words in your language!

And here is a link to some twitter from Emily Lakdawalla
Around November 2016 there appear references to halloween as well as the solar system - its all happening!

W O B 

3 o'clock in the morning

It is now mid-morning, 5 swans are sleeping on the lake below me.

And I recall once again my nightmare. I must have awaken around 3am
and finally got out of bed at 3:51 - and yes it was cloudy, no aurora.

It all began last Sunday night when I received an email from the
library: 4 books were due but I could not renew them online. (Can,
maybe, now.)

So Monday afternoon I walked over to return 2, renew 2 books - and
incidently noticed that their 3D printer(!) was down for maintenance.
When I was back home I realized that I had left my library "card"
back at the library. I had asked the always friendly and helpful staff
to show me how to login to renew library books. Anyway my "card" was
found and I would pick it up next day.

That night/next day Tue I received an email from the European Space Agency,
ESA announcing a new computer model to the comet 67P Churyumov-
Gerasimenko being studied by the Rosetta Mission. The model came with
full 3D printing instructions. Sooo I packed up my 3D model that ESA
gave me last November for the landing(s) of Philae on 67P.

Vicki drove me over to the hospital for my hand rehab and as I got out
I noticed how bad . irregular the pavement surface was, as I stumbled.

After rehab I walked over to the library and picked up my "card" and asked
whom I should ask about the 3D printer. And began outlining an idea.
The idea has stalled for the moment but my brain has continued to "think".

I need some more info about how to control the size of the model, how much
material is involved and how long will it take. Ideally I would make
segments every - afternoon, say - over the course of say 45 minutes. And
then after several days I would have all the pieces to put together to
have - again say a 1:100,000 - model of 67P. I think it would be fun,
exciting for the library users and possibly be of general interest to
the citizens of Orillia.

During this daydream I stumbled and fell, my model rolled out of my hands.
the police thought it was a bomb and blew it up and killed me. And that
is when I woke up. Too much American news for me to handle.

Here is a video on 3D printing of 67P

One thing is certain: I am not a snowbird who migrates!

W O B

Everything's Ducky

Some people take a bath on Fri in prep for the Mariposa Folk Festival 

(suitably blurred so as not to be offensive)
Before the bath - desperation - kinda like me ?

Black and white.
Deep into the pores:

But the results are worth it:

Mind you for those who come late ...

It is difficult to get squeaky clean.

Photos taken yesterday at the Langman Sanctuary or downloaded from Rosetta.

W O B

67P Churyemov-Gerasimenko

I notice many of you liked my coffee 2 blogs below this. Well grab some "coffee" and have a look at this comet. Here is an "amateur" animation. Before I go further I would like you to understand albedo or
auf Deutsch - Albedo

These 3 images were taken by Rosetta at different times since March 2nd 2004 partly for calibration purposes but also for comparison of how different surfaces reflect light. The earth reflects approx 40% of what falls on it, the moon between 9 and 12% and 67P around 4%. Comet Halley also is quite dark:

Now I have often been asked how accurate are the comets I make. Here are images from Earth Hour in March at Montreal-Westmount:

This is the one on the right covered with hoar frost:

The one on the left is about 2 hours older to demonstrate that comets do age. I'll discuss strength,and density in another entry.

Now I show 67P from the Feb 14 very close flyby:

Rosetta took quite a series of images on the way in and on the way out from distances between 6km (above) and just over 30km.

There is a lot of detail and later one will be able to make comparisons to see how the surface has changed with time due to sublimation. (There are many more images.)

That "smudge" is the shadow cast by Rosetta's solar panels:

Finally for tonight I want to leave you with a link to the NY Times which appears to being kept up todate.
Give it a try once a week - may have to refresh the browser to replace the cache. wob

Summer Time Today: we all Sprung forward an hour - yes it is snowing

OK, it is snowing but it will stop and we will all get our share of skin cancer so cream up, please.

The sun is still south of the equator so we still have long shadows. However, on Feb 14 the sun
was directly above Comet 67P's bigger lobe, maybe above Imhotep, difficult for me to see.
The oval dark mark is the shadow of Rosetta cast on the comet.

The dimensions of this last image (above) are X (left-right) = 1370metres, Y(up-down) = 1350m

"Chernozem Steppe"

I did not submit a name for the landing site. I honour Klim Churyumov and Svetlana Gerasimenko in the name of Viktor and Irena Pronik who loved the Krim. I hope that this comet is beyond the current politics as ESA has joined nations after WW II- remember November 11. I travelled by train through the Ukraine in 1977. The people are good; I wonder about the world's politicans?

It has not yet been suggested so I will do so now: let us give the names of the discoverers to the 2 lobes of their comet. Looking at the picture below I see that Klim Churyumov is  taller than Svetlana Gerasimenko. Only on that basis, I suggest the larger lobe be named Churyumov, and the smaller one, Gerasimenko.

I hope our pilot has a steady hand:

Real people.