Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center: south hangar panorama, including Vought OS2U-3 Kingfisher seaplane


Image by Chris Devers
Quoting Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum | Vought OS2U-3 Kingfisher:

The Kingfisher was the U.S. Navy’s primary ship-based, scout and observation aircraft during World War II. Revolutionary spot welding techniques gave it a smooth, non-buckling fuselage structure. Deflector plate flaps that hung from the wing’s trailing edge and spoiler-augmented ailerons functioned like extra flaps to allow slower landing speeds. Most OS2Us operated in the Pacific, where they rescued many downed airmen, including World War I ace Eddie Rickenbacker and the crew of his B-17 Flying Fortress.

In March 1942, this airplane was assigned to the battleship USS Indiana. It later underwent a six-month overhaul in California, returned to Pearl Harbor, and rejoined the Indiana in March 1944. Lt. j.g. Rollin M. Batten Jr. was awarded the Navy Cross for making a daring rescue in this airplane under heavy enemy fire on July 4, 1944.

Transferred from the United States Navy.

Manufacturer:
Vought-Sikorsky Aircraft Division

Date:
1937

Country of Origin:
United States of America

Dimensions:
Overall: 15ft 1 1/8in. x 33ft 9 1/2in., 4122.6lb., 36ft 1 1/16in. (460 x 1030cm, 1870kg, 1100cm)

Materials:
Wings covered with fabric aft of the main spar

Physical Description:
Two-seat monoplane, deflector plate flaps hung from the trailing edge of the wing, ailerons drooped at low airspeeds to function like extra flaps, spoilers.

Winter Skies Over Marshall (NASA, Marshall, 01/06/12)


Image by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center
A view of the moon and a winter sunset over the main building complex at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.

Image credit: NASA/MSFC

GOES Full Disk View March 6, 2010


Image by NASA Goddard Photo and Video
Satellite image showing earth on March 6, 2010.

Credit: NOAA/NASA GOES Project

Join us on Facebook

The spirit and the dragon


Image by Mario in arte Akeu
Created for The StockYard Image Challenge

Lee Plaza [3] with thanks to Яick Harris

also:
Created for the NASA Remix Project challenge #15 – THE VIEW FROM SPACE.

Space Hubblesite

Model with thanks to Faestock

Dragon: Shoofly

Texture: darkwood67

Texture here

Space and Time


Image by WolfS♡ul
Space and Time to keep us apart
someday we will find our way
together will be ..
My love , My other half we different and in
the same time we are the the same
I love you my heart is yours and yours is my

You can feel my love my pain as I can fell yours , sometimes we don’t even need words ..
because just to know that we have each other in enough , I love you and I always will …

NASA GOES-13 Full Disk view of Earth November 24, 2010


Image by NASA Goddard Photo and Video
NASA GOES-13 satellite image showing earth on November 24, 2010.

Credit: NOAA/NASA GOES Project

Hoover dam: detail


Image by pinelife
Detail of the star map on the floor of the monument of dedication at the Hoover Dam. I love the Art Deco design and the blatant 1930′s symbolism of the rest of the monument.

Messier 51 (M51) 3/6/10


Image by zAmb0ni
This year’s version of M51. Compared to
last year’s version, there are several differences.

1) Used a MPCC (coma corrector) that improved star shape
2) 10 minute exposures vs. 6
3) shorter focal length guidescope
4) better seeing
5) better polar alignment
6) better guiding

If you look at the details between the two, it is a no brainer that this one is sharper. I can’t remember if I used any sharpening in post processing in the old version, but even going back and adding sharpening to the old one, it does not approach the detail obtained in this one.

I was hoping to get some of the fainter parts of the galaxy with the longer exposures, but I think I need to get to a darker site to get that. Oh well.

Details:
Canon 300D Modified
IDAS-LPS P2 filter
Celestron C6-N
27 x 10 minutes @ ISO400
darks/flats/offset
stacked in DSS, PP in photoshop

why the moon came down


Image by Eddi van W.
background:
www.flickr.com/photos/germanbreogan/2193104918/
model:
magikstock.deviantart.com/art/archaeology-3-85036427
eagle:
www.flickr.com/photos/lamerie/245934183/in/pool-snips

Stirring Up a Bloom off Patagonia


Image by NASA Goddard Photo and Video
NASA image acquired December 21, 2010

The most interesting art often arises from the convergence of different ideas and influences. And so it is with nature sometimes. Off the coast of Argentina, two strong ocean currents recently stirred up a colorful brew of floating nutrients and microscopic plant life just in time for the summer solstice.

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this image of a massive phytoplankton bloom off of the Atlantic coast of Patagonia on December 21, 2010. Scientists used seven separate different spectral bands to highlight the differences in the plankton communities across this swath of ocean.

This milky green and blue bloom developed on the continental shelf off of Patagonia, where warmer, saltier coastal waters and currents from the subtropics meet the colder, fresher waters flowing up from the south. Where these currents collide—known to oceanographers as a shelf-break front—turbulent eddies and swirls form, pulling nutrients up from the deep ocean. Also, the nearby Rio de la Plata runs off the land and deposits nitrogen and iron-laden sediment into the sea just north of the area shown in the image.

Add in some strong summer sun, and you have a bountiful feast for the microscopic, floating plants—phytoplankton—that form the center of the ocean food web. Those plants become food for everything from microscopic animals (zooplankton) to fish to whales.

Though it is impossible to say for sure without direct sampling of the water, most of the phytoplankton blooming in this photo are likely coccolithophores, single-celled plants that form calcite scales. (Calcite is a carbonate mineral often found in limestone chalk.) Blooms of coccolithophores are common in those waters in southern hemisphere’s spring and summer. Diatoms might also be in the mix.

NASA image created by Norman Kuring, Ocean Color Web. Caption by Michael Carlowicz.

Instrument: Aqua – MODIS

Credit: NASA Earth Observatory

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.

Follow us on Twitter

Join us on Facebook

Distant moon


Image by wallygrom

Sunset on Mauna Kea


Image by D.H. Parks
We drove to the top of the mountain where it was cold, lifeless, and hard to breath. It’s like being on the moon up there! This was taken from the base of the Gemini telescope.

The remote location, far from sources of light pollution, and high elevation of Mauna Kea make it one of the world’s premier locations for astronomical observation. More about the observatories.

Olympus 9-18mm @ 10mm, f/5.6. The lens had some dust from the wind and dry conditions. Several exposures merged with hugin+enfuse.

The Moon and the clouds


Image by Gaute la Nata

2007_07_11_sba-sfo-lhr_253.JPG


Image by dsearls
Sault Saint Marie.

Gemini + Taurus (annoted)


Image by ComputerHotline