Moon Afire

The photo above shows a young Moon amidst a sea of “burning” clouds as observed from near Athens, Greece on June 25, 2009 at 8:37 p.m. local time. A few well positioned and reddened clouds, over the darkened portion of this waxing crescent Moon, give the illusion that something nefarious has happened to our reliable companion. At sunset or sunrise the increased path length of sunlight, as

Moons and Rings Before Saturn

While cruising around Saturn, be on the lookout for picturesque juxtapositions of moons and rings. Another striking alignment occurred last March in the view of humanity's Saturn-orbiting Cassini spacecraft. Rhea, one of Saturn's larger moons, was caught passing Epimetheus, one of Saturn's smaller moons. Epimetheus, as pictured above, is actually well behind the heavily cratered Rhea.

LDN 1622

LDN 1622 (Lynd's Dark Nebula) appears against a light background of glowing hydrogen gas. (5.2-inch APM/TMB 130/780 apochromatic refractor at f/6, SBIG ST-4000XCM CCD cameras, sixteen 15-minute exposures, stacked) Hunter Wilson took this image from Lexington, Ohio.

City Lights at Night along the France-Italy Border

The brightly lit metropolitan areas of Torino (Italy), Lyon, and Marseille (both in France) stand out amidst numerous smaller urban areas in this dramatic astronaut photograph. The image captures the nighttime appearance of the France-Italy border. The southwestern end of the Alps Mountains separates the two countries. The island of Corsica is visible in the Ligurian Sea to the south (image top).

Partial Lunar Eclipse of June 26

The first lunar eclipse of 2010 occurs at the Moon's ascending node in western Sagittarius about 3° east of the Lagoon Nebula (M8). It is visible from much of the Americas, the Pacific and eastern Asia (Figure 2). The Moon's contact times with Earth's shadows are listed below.Partial Eclipse Begins: 10:16:57 UTGreatest Eclipse: 11:38:27 UTPartial Eclipse Ends: 12:59:50 UTPenumbral Eclipse Ends:

NASA - Task Force on Space Industry Workforce and Economic Development

A Bold New Vision for Florida's Space Coast

"I am committed to taking additional steps to help local economies like Florida's Space Coast adapt and thrive in the years ahead. 
The men and women who work in Florida's aerospace industry are some of the most talented and highly trained in the Nation… To these ends, I hereby direct the following: Establishment of the Task Force on Space Industry

Solar Energy For Older Kids

Solar Energy For Students and EducatorsSolar Energy Younger KidsSolar Energy Older KidsSolar Energy Older Kids1. What is photovoltaics?Photovoltaic (fo-to-vol-ta-ik) systems are solar systems that produce electricity directly from sunlight. The term "photo" comes from the Greek "phos," meaning light. "Voltaic" is named for Alessandro Volta (1745-1827), a pioneer in the study of electricity

Solar Energy For Younger kids

Solar Energy For Students and EducatorsSolar Energy Younger kidsSolar Energy Older kidsSolar Energy Younger kids1. What's so great about the sun, anyway?The sun is amazing. Without it, none of us would be here, and there would be no life on earth. It is bigger than anything we can really imagine--a million planet earths would fit inside it! It takes millions of years for the energy from the

Solar Energy For Students and Educators

Solar Energy For Students and EducatorsWe are glad you were interested in renewable energy! We do a lot of things in Solar Energy International Solar in Schools program, but we don't do homework.Solar Energy Younger kidsSolar Energy Older kidsIf you need more information than you find on this site, check out the following links:Kids Saving Energy - Information on solar, wind, geothermal,