Perseids

Look to the skies this August for the Perseids. The Monthly Sky Guide and David Levy’s Guide to Observing Meteor Showers can point you in the right direction.

Lost and Found Lunokhods

Point of trivia: Lunokhod means moon walker in Russian.

The Lunokhod 2 was a Russian Rover that landed on the moon in 1973, and to this day holds the record for the longest distance of surface travel on the moon. It was intended to survey sites for later manned landings and lunar bases; in June of 1973, the mission was declared completed. Many speculated that this was due to mechanical failure and the Lunokhod was never recovered from the moon.

Fast forward to 1993. Richard Garriott (a.k.a. Lord British) purchases “ownership” of the Lunokhod landers for $68,500 from the Lavochkin Association, a Russian aerospace company. Even though the landers were still on the moon.

Now this is where it gets cool. Fast forward to this past Wednesday. 2010 – 37 years after the Lunokhod mission, Cambridge author and astronomer Phil Stooke found it neatly tucked in a crater. From CTV/Canada a.m. : “By comparing the newly released images from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter with pictures from his own recently published reference book on moon geography, The International Atlas of Lunar Exploration, he was able to find the tracks the old Soviet rover left in the moon dust.”

Check out the interview here on CTV… On the moon, “there are no waves or wind on the moon to wash or blow them away, like footprints on a beach. They could be there for millions of years.”

Kudos to Wired for my favorite caption thus far: “Game developer’s lost Russian rover is found.”

And to the Vancouver Sun for nicknaming Stooke a “lunar sleuth.” Intrepid, exotic, outstanding. I may have to find a new career…
[Above image: Lunokhod 2. The large white arrow indicates the rover, the smaller white arrows indicate its tracks, and the black arrow indicates the crater where it picked up its fatal load of lunar dust.]

Our Changing Planet Picks

Congratulations to Michael D. King, Claire L. Parkinson, Kim C. Partington, and Robin G. Williams, editors of Our Changing Planet: The View from Space for winning the Best of Show 2009-2010 and Distinguished Technical Communication 2009-2010 Awards by the Society of Technical Communication.

The Sky This Winter

Two weeks ago, Paul Kinzer gave us his amateur astronomy beginner’s buying guide. Now, he backs up his claims with objects you can see, even with modest equipment.

Brother Consolmagno on Colbert Report

Brother Guy Consolmagno (one of our best-loved authors) of the Vatican Observatory landed on the Colbert Report earler this month, and I totally missed it until now! Watch the video – endearing, funny, and informative.