Thursday, December 04, 2014

International Space Station

One of the delights of spending time on Ocracoke, especially at the beach, is the opportunity to gaze into the night sky and marvel at the profusion of stars, star clusters, galaxies and planets.

Milky Way over Ocracoke Beach by Craig Roberts













Satellites and other man-made objects, including the International Space Station, are sometimes visible also.

In case you haven't heard, NASA is now providing live video from the International Space Station. 

According to their web site, the video "includes internal views when the crew is on-duty and Earth views at other times. The video is accompanied by audio of conversations between the crew and Mission Control. This video is only available when the space station is in contact with the ground. During "loss of signal" periods, viewers will see a blue screen. Since the station orbits the Earth once every 90 minutes, it experiences a sunrise or a sunset about every 45 minutes. When the station is in darkness, external camera video may appear black, but can sometimes provide spectacular views of lightning or city lights below."

You can watch the video here: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/live-iss-stream.

This month's Ocracoke Newsletter is the seldom told story of the 1837 murder of Willis Williams by Jacob Gaskill. You can read it here: http://www.villagecraftsmen.com/news112114.htm.

1 comment:

  1. Vickie P.10:24 PM

    About a year ago, Appy saw an article in our local newspaper about the space station being visible from our home that night. We ran to the top of the hay fields and witnessed the station streak across the sky. It was spectacular!

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