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I'm still pretty amazed by all of this.  It took 10 years and traveled 6.4 billion km to get where it is today.  The descent took 7 hours.  Just think, when this was launched smartphones weren't really a thing yet (the first iPhone was still 3 years away).  Can you imagine launching something then waiting a decade to find out if it would work?  Those 7 hours of the descent must have been nerve-racking. 

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I upgraded my phones' data plan for the month to watch the livestream at work.

 

If you haven't seen it yet, XKCD did a real time comic of the landing that you can page through (arrow keys work) at http://xkcd1446.org/#0.  Play by play of the events, his jokes mixed in, and a Douglas Adams reference.

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"What's on the agenda today, dad?" "Oh, you know, just gonna venture into the endless void of space, experiencing that special kind of wonder that only a very small, very select group of people have ever had the privilege to behold first-hand." "Oh, that's so cool! What for?" "Just hardwiring the basement for Internet. You know how spotty the internet is down there."

 

this is how I imagine the conversations between space folk and mission control go

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"What's on the agenda today, dad?" "Oh, you know, just gonna venture into the endless void of space, experiencing that special kind of wonder that only a very small, very select group of people have ever had the privilege to behold first-hand." "Oh, that's so cool! What for?" "Just hardwiring the basement for Internet. You know how spotty the internet is down there."

 

this is how I imagine the conversations between space folk and mission control go

 

Cable management is so much harder in zero-G. Earlier they were having issues cutting a tag off. Had to use something that looked like bolt cutters.

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On Sunday the 27th through Monday the 28th there will be a total lunar eclipse.  But even more than that, it will be a total eclipse of a supermoon.  A supermoon is when the Moon is as close to the Earth as it gets during its orbit resulting in the largest apparent size of the Moon in the sky.  A total lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes completely into the shadow of the Earth.  Even though the Moon will be passing through the Earth's shadow, the Moon will appear a reddish color due to refraction of light through the atmosphere, a so called "Blood Moon".  Because of the timing, only certain parts of the world will be able to see it.

 

sept-2015-lunar-eclipse-world-map.jpg

 

Here are the prime times to view it

 

supermoon-lunar-eclipse-city-time-zones.

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Thanks for the heads up, definitely setting my alarm for that.

Also, in unrelated space stuff, this cool image showing how large the Andromeda galaxy would look in the sky if we could see it more clearly was floating around recently:

Kngq10v.jpg

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I didn't get a look at the eclipse itself (late and low in the sky); however, I took this shot of the supermoon a few hours earlier :)

 

post-33997-0-91039100-1443447759_thumb.jpg

 

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My wife wanted us to go out and see it but, for various reasons, I was a party pooper so she went out on her own. It ended up that with all the trees and clouds around here, you could barely see it anyway, so I guess I made the right decision? Also, I'm an ass.

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I watched about 10 minutes total of it, around the middle.  In theory I think that lunar eclipses are cool, but in practice it's a slow enough process that I get bored.  Thankfully I live in the country, so I can just wander outside occasionally and see how it is progressing. 

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