Starship Asterisk*

Dude... that's pretty fargin good. =)

Thanks!

That's actually very well done.

Thanks for asking. :!: It's not perfect, but it does the job.

http://picasaweb.google.com/okubet/APOD/photo?authkey=T9iiYeIkmi0#5191904611848016098[/img]

-Clear Skies

Nice job...It's extremely tough to correlate photos from low earth orbit to actual locations on earth just by site. I've tried.

Do you think you could post that composite picture online? You can host it on picassa with a free account, or even without an account by googling for "forum photo hosting."

I'd love to see it.

I was curious what area the picture [i]actually[/i] covered. Carefully using the published photo data and with help from Google Earth (GE) I snared it.

The sun's direct reflection is centered on the northern end of Taiwan (Taipei) and the small island, Yonaguni-shima, about 100mi ESE from Taipei. The massive anvil hovers over the southern end of Taiwan and mainland China is barely visible towards the horizon.

[b]Within a degree or so:[/b]
Camera FoV = 52 deg x 35 deg
Camera Pointing Direction = 292 deg AZ (agrees with sun position)
Sun Elevation = 13 deg

I made a neat composite picture by overlaying a semi-transparent copy of Yuri's Earth on GE having the same camera position. It wasn't easy, but I was amazed that I could figure this out using GE and having so little visible land features. 8)

Awesome picture. Views of clouds from above are always amazing to me, whether from airliners or space. The broad perspective in this one is just plain amazing. So much to see!

I don't believe Gagarin had a camera, but I think there was a video camera pointed at him during the flight. Even if he had one, he probably wouldn't have been able to do much with it. As far as I know he was strapped in the entire time, had only a very small window, and had no control over the orientation of the spacecraft, as the missions planners weren't sure how the human body would react to weightlessness and decided the entire mission should be controlled automatically. He was only up for 108 minutes, and mostly occupied with taking instrument readings and reporting back his experiences.

More info on the mission:
http://www.russianspaceweb.com/vostok1.html

Gagarin didn't actually ride the Vostok-1 spacecraft all the way to the ground. He ejected at terminal velocity at an altitude of 7 km.

[quote]A farmer and her daughter observed the strange scene of a figure in a bright orange suit with a large white helmet landing near them by parachute. Gagarin later recalled, "When they saw me in my space suit and the parachute dragging alongside as I walked, they started to back away in fear. I told them, don't be afraid, I am a Soviet like you, who has descended from space and I must find a telephone to call Moscow!"[/quote]

Thanks for your reply Case, which is much appreciated. :)

[quote="DavidLeodis"]In the information about the picture that was brought up through the 'Image record' link it states under 'Nadir' Date: 2003/07/21 at 10:17:20.[/quote]That must be the correct time of the picture. The other (later) date is most likely a time stamp from some post-processing (e.g. by Photoshop).

[quote="Case"][quote="bluegreenheart"]When was it taken and from what spacecraft?[/quote][url=http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap080412.html]http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap080412.html[/url]

Image Credit: [url=http://www.nasa.gov/topics/iss/index.html]ISS[/url] [url=http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/station/crew/exp7/]Expedition 7[/url] Crew.
Yuri I. Malenchenko (commander) and Edward T. Lu (flight engineer).
Launch: April 25, 2003, 10:54 p.m. CDT (Houston time, not Baikonur time)
Docking: April 28, 2003, 12:56 a.m. CDT
Undocking: Oct. 27, 2003, 5:17 p.m. CST
Landing: Oct. 27, 2003, 8:41 p.m. CST

Photo date from image meta data: 2003/10/17 14:42:14

As one of the expedition members is also called Yuri, I suppose he's the one that took the picture.[/quote]

In the information about the picture that was brought up through the 'Image record' link it states under 'Nadir' Date: 20030721 (YYYYMMDD) GMT Time: 101720 (HHMMSS). That is thus 2003/07/21 at 10:17:20. I thought that information was when the picture was taken, but the image meta data above indicates otherwise. I would be grateful if somebody could inform me what is the correct date and time that the picture was taken. Thanks.

I was expecting to see grainy black and white images but noooo, they had to choose stunning images taken with modern day camera's. Did Gagarin take a camera with him and take pictures ?

http://www.findyourfate.com/numerology/babynames/russiannames.html

*YURI* : Russian form of George meaning "Earth worker or farmer."
---------------------------------------------
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuri_Gagarin

<<Yuri Gagarin was born in the village of Klushino near Gzhatsk, on 9 March 1934. His parents, father Alexei Ivanovich Gagarin and mother Anna Timofeevna Gagarina, worked on a collective farm.

[After leaving Cosmonaut life] Yuri Gagarin began to requalify as a fighter pilot. On 27 March 1968, Gagarin and his instructor died in a MiG-15UTI on a routine training flight near Kirzhach. It is not certain what caused the crash, but a 1986 inquest suggests that the turbulence from a Su-11 'Fishpot-C' interceptor using its afterburners may have caused Gagarin's plane to go out of control. Weather conditions were also poor, which may have contributed to the inability of Gagarin and the instructor to correct before they crashed.

In his book, Two Sides of the Moon, Alexei Leonov recounts that he was flying a helicopter in the same area that day when he heard "two loud booms in the distance." Corroborating the above hypothesis, his conclusion is that a Sukhoi jet (which he identifies as a Su-15 'Flagon'), flying below its minimum allowed altitude, "without realizing it because of the terrible weather conditions, passed within 10 or 20 meters of Yuri and Seregin's plane while breaking the sound barrier." The resulting turbulence would have sent the MiG into an uncontrolled spin. Leonov believes the first boom he heard was that of the jet breaking the sound barrier, and the second was Gagarin's plane crashing.>>

GORGEOUS!!!!!!!!!!

Let's here it for the Yuris and all the brave people who find it within themselves to do these incredible things.

Hi Kees,

[img]http://img255.imageshack.us/img255/2482/iss007cloudha3.jpg[/img]

[quote="Case"]
It looks impressively tall.[/quote]

Focussing in on the flat anvil, this cloud must have topped the "tropopause", i.e. 10 to 15 km high (depending on latitude).

At least as interesting are the isolated peaks further to the terminator, not visible in your croped image. They look like castellanus.

Regards,
Henk

[quote="bluegreenheart"] ...what about the picture? [/quote]
[color=darkred]
I take it Gagarin did not have a camera ?

This day in APOD ... 12 years ago :)
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap960412.html[/color]

[quote="ta152h0"]and it even has its own Horsehead nebula.[/quote]I suppose you mean this one:
[img]http://img255.imageshack.us/img255/2482/iss007cloudha3.jpg[/img]
It looks impressively tall.

[quote="bluegreenheart"]When was it taken and from what spacecraft?[/quote][url=http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap080412.html]http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap080412.html[/url]

Image Credit: [url=http://www.nasa.gov/topics/iss/index.html]ISS[/url] [url=http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/station/crew/exp7/]Expedition 7[/url] Crew.
Yuri I. Malenchenko (commander) and Edward T. Lu (flight engineer).
Launch: April 25, 2003, 10:54 p.m. CDT (Houston time, not Baikonur time)
Docking: April 28, 2003, 12:56 a.m. CDT
Undocking: Oct. 27, 2003, 5:17 p.m. CST
Landing: Oct. 27, 2003, 8:41 p.m. CST

Photo date from image meta data: 2003/10/17 14:42:14

As one of the expedition members is also called Yuri, I suppose he's the one that took the picture.

and it even has its own Horsehead nebula...........errrr...........cloud. pass the beer :D :D :D

The credit for this [url=http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap080412.html]APOD[/url] is given to [url=http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/station/crew/exp7/]Expedition 7[/url] at the ISS and was taken sometime between 04-28-03 and 10-27-03 when they departed. BTW the expedition was commanded by another [url=http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/malenchenko.html]Yuri.[/url]

That's all well and good about Yuri Gagarin's legacy and the interesting historical perspective, but...what about the picture? The Astronomy Picture Of the Day? What a great shot! When was it taken and from what spacecraft? I love the long shadows behind the tall clouds.