Not including the lightning strikes on Saturday, this is now the 5th scrub of STS-127. Man, I hope she makes it soon.. the timing for Apollo 11th’s 40th anniversary launch (on Thursday) seems almost destined now, but next launch attempt is Wednesday, July 15th @ 18:03:10 EDT.
Space Rock “”hunting” is cool indeed. All the thrill of the hunt in every sense of the word indeed. =)
Hyup, I finally found me a confirmed piece of the Buzzard Coulee Meteor (100 GM), and so did my buddy Gscratch! Wooot! Woot! I also have several other fragments that need to be confirmed yet also.
Finally, yeah, the Marsden Hotel is a true “Canadian Cultural” experience, as is the cafe across the street. You should definitely go one day.
P.S. – Space rock is not for sale, but valued between $1,000 and $1,500. Not bad for few hours work. =) If you want to buy your own you can look here on Kijiji Edmonton and elsewhere. They are starting to pop up here and there now that the Spring is revealing where they are from their slumber under a blanket of snow.
“Cross pollinating great movies, namely Snatch and the first Star Wars films, can only result in something awesome! Having Brick Top as Vader’s voice instead of James Earl Jones makes for much more entertaining viewing, my pedigree chums…LMAO”
Well, great, a new hobby and sport of a different kind — “Meteorite Hunting”. Yah, Greg Scratchley was one of the first people in Western Canada to report this fireball to the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, Edmonton Chapter and others on-line within minutes of it passing over Edmonton, AB, Canada. Of course, he called me first to ask, “Hay, did you see it?”. No I did not, but I sure wish I did.
However, in today’s “Big Brother” world there were definitely enough cameras around that caught it. (See link at end for video footage, and in-depth coverage). Anyways, we kinda call it “Greg’s Meteor” between ourselves, but the official name of it is the “Buzzard Coulee Meteorite” for where it landed. Anyways, I told Greg the day he spotted it.. nay promised him.. one day he would get to touch a piece of it.
Today, I made that come true for my buddy. We drove out to Saskatchewan in the heart of the debris field and did an expedition of our own. Greg was so jazzed about it, he even bought his buddy a kick ass “rock pick” (I always wanted one of these for dispatching fish with).
Well, we put a few kilometers on the boots today in some of the flattest terrain on earth, and muddiest, and rockiest. Yah, like looking for a proverbial “space needle” in a hay stack indeed. We finally found some rocks on a gravel road that looked “spacey” and well stuck to a magnet.
However, our hopes soon dwindled when a local oil-lease worker came by with his pickup and showed us his 2 KG baked potatoe rock from space. We got to fondle it anyways, a bonafide piece of the meteor (even if ours does not turn out to be one).
We are also heading out again in a week after Easter to help join in an official hunt organized by the “University of Calgary”, and anyone is welcome to join in. Details are posted here on this website. However, note that what you find you can’t keep and have to turn over.
Poopy, but like we learned today, half the fun is in the finding.. the other half is in the fondling.
Meteorite search update: 10 tonne rock responsible for fireball
U of C researcher Alan Hildebrand said the fireball was like a billion-watt lightbulb shining in the sky.
Investigation of the fireball that lit up the skies of Alberta and Saskatchewan on November 20 has determined that an asteroid fragment weighing approximately 10 tonnes entered the Earth’s atmosphere over the prairie provinces last Thursday evening. And University of Calgary researcher Alan Hildebrand has outlined a region in western Saskatchewan where chunks of the desk-sized space rock are expected to be found. [See Google Map of search area]
I just knew there had to be a way to get NASA TV up and running on my Palm OS T|X device. So, you think it’s easy do you? I spent four worthy hours to make it happen! I dare you now to try and figure out how I did it! Perhaps I will post the answer – or maybe I already just did here. (are you GEEK enough to find the hidden answers?).
Yes! I can now watch my favorite television station in the whole wide world (besides Discovery & History) via Wi-Fi from any spot in my house, including the shitter. Yeah, sucks to be you don’t it! Here is the proof photo of me watching LIVE images from SPACE (STS-118) on my LCD Monitor, A Projector Screen, and my Palm TX. No, I will spare you the shitter photo, suffice to say I am headed there next after sitting here for all that time drinking cola.
I think NASA should give me a job now — don’t you agree too!?
I guess I need to start playing the lottery more often if I ever want to fulfill my space travel dreams. That or help develop buggy office suite software for the masses.
Yes, Charles Simonyi (a former Microsoft Engineer and now billionaire / the man who built Word and Excel) is jet setting up on the International Space Station and enjoying a lunch packed by his girlfriend Martha Stewart to boot. Is that a good thing?
If I could fly up to the Space Station, I would bring my ahhh wife Morgan Fairchild along for a ride, and so she could tidy up the place a bit afterwards.
Anyways, it also looks like he spent just a few bucks on his website blog. It’s worth checking out below, and you can Google More Here.
