So this was a cool item I saw at REI the other day when I was looking at GPS units. Its a gun you point up at the night sky and it calculates where you are, the direction you’re facing and what angle the gun is tilted at and lights up it’s display and tells you what you are looking at (with a picture too).

Unfortunately, it was daytime and I couldn’t use it. The one I saw was the Meade mySKY Personal Guide for Sky Exploration, this might just be something I need. This is the Official Meade site for the mySky (with some video)

it can identify 30,000 unique items

500 audio descriptions to keep you well briefed

built in GPS receiver

2 inch wide 480 x 234 LCD

Sandy Wood (from StarDate) is who narrates the sky for you

interfaces with some Meade telescopes

looks like a space gun / phaser

Popular Mechanics gave it a great review. But a lot of the people reviewing these seem to have them dead out of the box or problems getting the GPS to “lock”. The ones who it worked for absolutely love them. Possible other problems: Waving a gun around outside or trying to get it through airport security. And for some reason you can only update it on a Windows machine (via an SD card).The Celestron SkyScout Personal Planetarium seems to be a similar product, but it’s not as cool looking but it’s a year older and I think they’ve worked some of the bugs out. Many of the SkyScout complaints seemed to also be with getting the GPS to “lock”.

And. of course, there is s chart to compare the mySky and SkyScout.

Wow! This is the Astronomy Picture of the Day today! The previous link will get you “today’s” picture whatever today is, this will get you March, 3rd 2007 which is the one I’m talking about. It’s the moon (our moon) passing in front of the sun using ultraviolet cameras.

The extra amazing part is once you go to that page you can watch a short animated movie of the 12 hour transition.

Over 6,000 people die a day (most of them children) from water releated illnesses. These folks have created The LifeStraw, a straw about the size of a small clarinet that can be worn about the neck and weighs about 0.095 Kg (3.3 ounces). It’ll filter 2 liters (half gallon) a day for about a year! And they only cost about $3 each.

Over a billion people in the world don’t have safe drinking water! (Drinking salt water will reduce the life expectancy in half).

More info (from the FAQ):

I’ve been reading that A Brief History of Time has been made available in the public domain. Here is someone who converted it to several formats (web page, Palm reader, Microsoft reader, Acrobat), not all formats have images.

Found here at Palm 24/7.

Here’s a very cool photo of the ISS and Atlantis passing each other last week. In this picture they’re about 200 meters about (that’s about 650 feet). Be sure to click the link and scroll down to the larger very impressive picture (that’s the sun in the background).

Found at Don’t Forward.

I finally hooked up my Oregon Scientific Weather Station and I really like it. It’s got a remote sensor for outside and shows the humidity and temp for both inside and outside (or I guess you could put the sensor inside somewhere else in the house if you wanted). It shows the moon phase and sets itself via the atomic clock. The instructions read as if the atomic clock sends out a signal constantly (I thought it was a once a day thing). I know it took awhile (overnight) for mine to get the signal (and then I had to go set the time zone). It even makes a weather forecast based on the barometer and the humidity and temp. It’s a nifty little device and it’s well worth the money I spent on it.

It’s got an alarm clock and backlit display built into it too. Plus it shows if the temp, pressure and humidity are rising, steady or lowering. You can calibrate it for closer readings based on your altitude too. I think I paid more for just the little temp/humidity sensor I bought a few years ago.

FYI – It starting saying it’s got a connection with the Atomic Clock, I’m not sure how/why…

So it’s been 36 years since we landed on the Moon. I still think that is so cool. I really thought we’d be making field trips there by now but unfortunately that isn’t the case. These days I’m just excited/hopeful that we’ll get the shuttle missions going again.

For my birthday last year (or maybe it was Christmas) I got this Apollo 11 Artifact Kit. It’s got all sorts of cool paraphernalia in it (mission patch, moon map, travel voucher, customs declaration, school photos of one of the astronauts kids and other interesting stuff) and a book too. My mother saw it the other day and commented on how much her dad would have liked it, he’s the guy who got me interested in space and science. I don’t know if he ever knew that. I remember him taking me up to the library and getting books when I was little and I remember getting something to do with space at the same time he was (my version had lots more pictures than his did). It’s that first time that I always think of when people ask me about how I got interested in science and technology. I don’t know what was going on that made him interested, maybe a space mission or the anniversary of some launch or maybe just plain old curiosity.

I can’t tell you how much I wanted to be an Astronaut when I was a kid. When they built and launched the Space Shuttle I thought I’d be able to do it as a passenger but with major setbacks every few years we haven’t gotten there yet. This was a suit that they had at NextFest (see my other NextFest posts). They kept pointing the to the sensors on the front and asking kids about it (the stick way out so you can’t look down in the suit) but the suit was missing the item you’d need to read the sensors so most of the kids weren’t making the connection.

(Hint: The item would be attached to the arm). NASA had a great setup. They had a bunch of stuff for the solar sail (which hadn’t been launched yet) too and the material was so light you didn’t feel it in you hand, I think the static in your body almost repelled it. It had a very SciFi Roswell quality about it…

Aliens of the Deep in 3D was great! IMAX movies are always great especially when in 3D. It’s James Cameron doing a Jacques Cousteau type movie thousands of feet down. They’ve got beautiful footage some interesting background details and some occasional special effects. They spend a lot of time talking about how some of this is like exploring other worlds and how some of what they do on the ocean floor would be used in deep space (especially if looking in water for life). A bit of how the extremes of space and the ocean can be very similar. Did I say the 3D looked great?!?

Anyone know anything about a planetary alignment tonight? (Or this week?) The weather guy mentions it (on the left down a little, by the video clip) but I can’t find anything on-line about it (Yahoo/Google/Space.com). A link (or two) if you had any information would be excellent…

You can definitely see the eclipse and see that it’s RED but it’s just to hard to really see it well.

Total eclipse of the Moon tonight. It’ll be 11 PM-ish in the eastern time zone in the US. See Yahoo for basic info, Space.com for Top 10 Lunar Eclipse Facts and this and this guide. This will be your last chance until 2007!

Private spacecraft travels into space twice in 5 days and they win the prize! I always wanted to be an astronaut as a kid, but when the space shuttle came around I assumed I’d be able to go as a passenger so I didn’t pursue it. Maybe I will still get my chance to go on a vacation into space… More info.

So I found this Ecological Footprint survey which (kind of) lets you figure out how much of the Earth’s resources you consume (waste). Actually what it lets you calculate is if everyone on Earth was like you, how many Earths would be need to supply them all. Not knowing enough, I left 0% room for other species and if everyone were like me it would take somewhere around six Earths to support everyone. Actually I did it a few times and got answers between 5.3 and 7 depending on how I answered some of the borderline questions. Either way, I’m a pig in the world ecology (my low score is just that above the average american). If I gave other species 1/3 of the planet my number jumps up to somewhere between 7 and 10.

Now some of this would change if we had good public transportation in Detroit (the motor city) and if I knew how “local” my food was produced. I.E. If I lived in Battle Creek I’m thinking my eggs, bacon, beef(?) and cereal would all be considered more local. I got nailed for air travel (10 hours a year), living alone and home square footage (but I live in a condo, not taking up any more space than the person below me, no yard and I walk a lot of stairs to get up to the third floor).

The funny thing is that it appears that I scored (lost) lots of points for living alone which (likely) means I’m not increasing the world’s population. And I’d gladly give it all up to increase that number by one or three…

(The survey was originally linked to www.lead.org/leadnet/footprint/default.htm but doesn’t appear to be there any more so I’ve updated the link).

I was looking for a calendar and I found this.

I’m not kidding this DNA kit is from http://discovery.com/ and is sold as the Discovery DNA Explorer Kit. “Ideal for budding forensic-scientists or secret agents, the working lab and tools are just like the real thing.”

Be careful of the warning if you live in Canada: “Two of the 10 experiments included in the Kit require the “Lambda DNA,” which does not ship to Canada.”

I saw Disney’s Sacred Planet today at the IMAX. It was excellent. Beautiful scenery! It was a more natural version of ‘The Lorax’ lots of little clues about nature but not too much in your face with it. From Africa to Utah (and the Arctic?) and stories of culture passed on. Click on the links/images for trailers and other bonuses at http://sacredplanet.com/. It opens April 22nd on Earth Day.

“Sacred Planet is a 45-minute journey around the world to some of the most exotic and beautiful places that still exist. From the last remaining old growth forests of British Columbia, the snowy peaks and glaciers of Alaska, the red rock canyons of Utah and Arizona, the tropical jungles and underwater mysteries of Borneo, the ancient ruins of Thailand and remote deserts of Namibia to the white sand beaches of New Zealand. Stunning images that include the landscape, the people and the animals indigenous to the land, all serve as visceral reminders of this planet’s infinite variety and biological diversity.

The tenor of the film is one of hope and beauty. It showcases the natural beauty of our planet’s diverse regions as a testament to what is at stake, and as an inspiration to its audience. Sacred Planet serves as witness to all that remains to be cherished, rather than to all that has been lost.”