J. P. Major
- Location
- Dallas, Texas, USA
- Birthday
- December 26
- Title
- Editor / Author
- Company
- LightsInTheDark.com
- Bio
- Astronomy news and photos from around our solar system! More on Twitter @JPMajor
MY RECENT POSTS
- Latest Images of Enceladus
October 12, 2011 10:52PM - Hunter's Moon - October 11,
2011
October 11, 2011 10:46PM - Astronaut Memorial
October 11, 2011 06:51PM - Vision: Save The James Webb!
October 09, 2011 09:41PM - A Glow From Above
October 08, 2011 11:35PM
MY RECENT COMMENTS
- “nolalibrarian: Our
atmosphere IS a force field...
it protects
us from a lot of
th…”
October 09, 2011 02:10PM - “Jan: it's not an
immediate change, or a
reflection of
certain
wavelengths (like
D…”
October 09, 2011 02:09PM - “Flylooper: I wonder what
mass-marketed digital
consumer
devices ARE made in
the U…”
October 06, 2011 03:47PM - “Thanks everyone for your
responses and to the editors
for
making it an EP. As I
s…”
October 06, 2011 11:26AM - “There's definitely
meteors, and planes taking off
and landing
at Hilo airport.
An…”
September 26, 2011 01:48PM
J. P. Major's Links
Latest Images of Enceladus
On Saturday, Oct. 1, the Cassini spacecraft performed another flyby of Saturn’s moon Enceladus. Passing by at a distance of only 62 miles (99 km) Cassini took some fantastic images of the 318-mile-wide moon —/… Read full post »
Hunter's Moon - October 11, 2011
Lights In The Dark posted a photo:
Tonight's full moon is known as the Hunter's Moon, as is also at
apogee - the furthest point in its orbit around the earth.
© Jason P. Major. All rights reserved. Read full post »
Astronaut Memorial
Lights In The Dark posted a photo:
The poignant Astronaut Memorial at Kennedy Space Center.
© Jason Major Read full post »
Vision: Save The James Webb!
Do you love astronomy? Do you appreciate science? Do you have a curiosity about the nature of our Universe, how it came to be and what our place is within it? If you are even reading this I assume your answers to all of those questions is a resounding “yes!” and… Read full post »
A Glow From Above
Many of the recent images and videos I’ve shared here have featured amazing views from the Space Station. At 225 miles up, astronauts aboard the ISS enjoy an unprecedented and privileged view of our world, literally from the edge of… Read full post »
Goodnight Moon
Another stunning view from the Space Station, this photo was taken by Expedition 28 astronaut Ron Garan on July 31, 2011 and shows the Moon seeming to sink into the ocean of air that is our life-supporting atmosphere.
As the Moon passes behind Earth… Read full post »
He thought different than most people. He definitely thought different than most CEOs and most computer programmers. But he didn’t think so different that he lost touch of what people want, of who people are and that, ultimately, his/… Read full post »
Earth's Aurora and ISS
Lights In The Dark posted a photo:
Beautiful image of Earth's aurora from the ISS, captured by
Expedition 28 astronaut Mike Fossum.
Docked Soyuz capsules can be seen in the foreground.
Originally uploaded to Twitpic by Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield
on October 5, 2011. twitpic.com/6vg… Read full post »
Can Comets Cause CMEs?
First, watch this sequence:
What is it? It’s an animation made from images taken by ESA’s SOHO solar observatory showing a comet diving into the Sun on October 1, and then a large CME (coronal mass ejection) erupting immediately thereafter.
Now, typically science has said that the… Read full post »
Peekaboo Helene
Lights In The Dark posted a photo:
While the original raw image from Cassini, acquired during a flyby on October 1, 2011, didn't show it very well when I adjusted the curves in Photoshop I was able to see what seems to be Helene peeking out from… Read full post »
Pay a Visit to Vesta
Can’t see the video below? Click here.
Here’s a great video released by JPL taking us on a virtual tour of the asteroid Vesta, from the point of view of NASA’s Dawn spacecraft. It’s a shape model of Vesta, mapped with actual images acquired by Dawn during its approach and… Read full post »
Mountains and Dark Material on Vesta
Lights In The Dark posted a photo:
This image of Vesta acquired on August 14, 2011 by NASA's Dawn
spacecraft shows mountains on the asteroid's north pole region and
splotches of dark material surrounding some of its craters.
This image was taken through the camera’s
clear… Read full post »
Mercury’s Curious Hollows
As part of a wealth of new information presented today by the MESSENGER science team, this image shows the interior of Sander Crater, located within Mercury’s vast Caloris Basin. Areas seen as bright spots in previous lower-resolution images have been revisited/… Read full post »
Did Earth Once Have Two Moons?
Our Moon. It lights up our nights, governs our tides and has inspired millions — perhaps billions -– of people throughout history to contemplate its nature, its influence on our lives (if any) and, of course, where it may have come from.
The currently accepted theory is that over four and… Read full post »
Ripples in the Sky
Here’s something interesting…
This Saturday I was looking at some timelapse video from the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope’s Cloudcam… those are beautiful in their own right, but really I was interested in seeing if there was any visual of the reentering UARS. After doing some time… Read full post »
Crescent Earth from Apollo 4
Lights In The Dark posted a photo:
A beautiful photograph of our planet, taken by the unmanned
Apollo 4 spacecraft on Nov. 9, 1967. This is one of the first
American images taken of the whole Earth.
Obtained from the Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth… Read full post »
Large Solar Flare on 9/25/11 (SDO AIA304)
Lights In The Dark posted a photo:
A good-sized solar flare erupted from sunspot 1302 on September
25, at 15:59 UT, as seen here in an image from SDO (cropped and
edited.) sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/
The scale size of Earth is shown by the blue globe at lower… Read full post »
On Top of the World
In what may be the best single representation of the visual feast of images we have enjoyed from Expedition 28 flight engineer Ron Garan during his 5 1/2 month stay aboard the ISS, this amazing image shows… Read full post »
On Top of the World
Lights In The Dark posted a photo:
In what may be the best single representation of the visual feast of images we have enjoyed from Expedition 28 flight engineer Ron Garan during his 5 1/2 month stay aboard the ISS, this amazing image shows him inside the… Read full post »
Rolling Stones in the Lake of Death
No, it’s not the title of a B-movie starring Keith Richards, it’s an image of lunar boulders resting in a line within a valley on the Moon. This valley, located in the central peak of Bürg crater, is filled with boulders ranging/… Read full post »
Mercury's Debussy Crater
Lights In The Dark posted a photo:
The bright rays of the crater Debussy on Mercury stretch far
across the planet in this image from MESSENGER, acquired September
13, 2011.
The brightness of the rays denotes this as a relatively young
crater, as compared to the… Read full post »
As The World Turns
Today is the autumnal equinox, when the Earth receives sunlight at its most direct angle relative to its equator and poles. As Earth orbits around the Sun over the course of a year, its axial tilt causes the angle of solar illumination to change – a predictable and regular change, but… Read full post »
Moons of Three
Saturn’s moons Dione and Titan lined up with the planet’s rings, seen here nearly edge-on, from the point of view of the Cassini spacecraft’s camera on September 17, 2011.
This is a composite of three raw images taken/… Read full post »
Dione and Titan (9-17-11)
Lights In The Dark posted a photo:
Saturn's moons Dione and Titan lined up with the planet's rings,
seen here nearly edge-on, from the point of view of the Cassini
spacecraft's camera on September 17, 2011.
This is a composite of three raw images taken with… Read full post »
Hyperion 3D 9-16-11
Lights In The Dark posted a photo:
3D anaglyph of Saturn's moon Hyperion, made from recent Cassini
raw images acquired on September 16, 2011.
Original image: saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/photos/raw/rawimagedetails/index.cfm?...
Credit: NASA / JPL / SSI. Edited by J. Major.
Read more about Hyperi… Read full post »