via explore-blog: The very first photo of the moon, taken by John William Draper in 1839. Draper immigrated to the United States from England and became a chemistry professor at NYU. This daguerreotype print was the first of a series of silver platinum plates he shot using a telescope. Draper was also the first person to shoot a portrait in America, a photograph of his sister Dorothy-Catherine . In 1864, he became chairman of the American Photographic Association. Pair with Ordering the Heavens, a visual history of humanity’s quest to depict the cosmos before telescopes. Curious how it was done before we had fancy space telescopes? I recommend this slideshow from National Geographic: Milestones in Space Photography, featuring the first shot of the sun, taken by Louis Fizeau and Leon Foucault in 1845:
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via explore-blog:

The very first photo of the moon, taken by John William Draper in 1839.

Draper immigrated to the United States from England and became a chemistry professor at NYU. This daguerreotype print was the first of a series of silver platinum plates he shot using a telescope. Draper was also the first person to shoot a portrait in America, a photograph of his sister Dorothy-Catherine . In 1864, he became chairman of the American Photographic Association.

Pair with Ordering the Heavens, a visual history of humanity’s quest to depict the cosmos before telescopes.

Curious how it was done before we had fancy space telescopes? I recommend this slideshow from National Geographic: Milestones in Space Photography, featuring the first shot of the sun, taken by Louis Fizeau and Leon Foucault in 1845:

The Earliest Days of NASA Maria Popova, at Brain Pickings, happened upon a treasure trove of early NASA (and its airplane-only predecessor NACA) archive photos. They are really something. From biplanes to the Mercury capsule, pre-1950 aeronautics seemed to live by the motto of “If we build it, then we can go there.” That’s a sentiment we could use a bit more of. More here.
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The Earliest Days of NASA Maria Popova, at Brain Pickings, happened upon a treasure trove of early NASA (and its airplane-only predecessor NACA) archive photos. They are really something. From biplanes to the Mercury capsule, pre-1950 aeronautics seemed to live by the motto of “If we build it, then we can go there.” That’s a sentiment we could use a bit more of. More here.
Zoom Info
The Earliest Days of NASA Maria Popova, at Brain Pickings, happened upon a treasure trove of early NASA (and its airplane-only predecessor NACA) archive photos. They are really something. From biplanes to the Mercury capsule, pre-1950 aeronautics seemed to live by the motto of “If we build it, then we can go there.” That’s a sentiment we could use a bit more of. More here.
Zoom Info
The Earliest Days of NASA Maria Popova, at Brain Pickings, happened upon a treasure trove of early NASA (and its airplane-only predecessor NACA) archive photos. They are really something. From biplanes to the Mercury capsule, pre-1950 aeronautics seemed to live by the motto of “If we build it, then we can go there.” That’s a sentiment we could use a bit more of. More here.
Zoom Info

The Earliest Days of NASA

Maria Popova, at Brain Pickings, happened upon a treasure trove of early NASA (and its airplane-only predecessor NACA) archive photos. They are really something. From biplanes to the Mercury capsule, pre-1950 aeronautics seemed to live by the motto of “If we build it, then we can go there.” That’s a sentiment we could use a bit more of.

More here.

Catching a Snowflake This is what snowflakes really look like. Snow researchers (seriously, how cool of a job is that?) in Utah have developed a high-speed camera set-up that captures images of snowflakes as they fall from the sky. It gives us a nearly three-dimensional view of these tumbling crystals of frozen water vapor, and may help refine weather and storm predictions. That’s not the coolest part, of course. What I find fascinating is that our image of a “snowflake” as a single hexagonal crystal, with infinitely-varied fractally frozen arms, is completely wrong. More often than not, they’re imperfect clumps of randomly branched ice. The old rule of “no two snowflakes are alike” still holds, it just got a lot more complicated.  (via TechNewsDaily)
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Catching a Snowflake

This is what snowflakes really look like.

Snow researchers (seriously, how cool of a job is that?) in Utah have developed a high-speed camera set-up that captures images of snowflakes as they fall from the sky. It gives us a nearly three-dimensional view of these tumbling crystals of frozen water vapor, and may help refine weather and storm predictions.

That’s not the coolest part, of course. What I find fascinating is that our image of a “snowflake” as a single hexagonal crystal, with infinitely-varied fractally frozen arms, is completely wrong. More often than not, they’re imperfect clumps of randomly branched ice.

The old rule of “no two snowflakes are alike” still holds, it just got a lot more complicated. 

(via TechNewsDaily)

Source: technewsdaily.com

Tracking Curiosity The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter snapped this picture of Gale Crater last week, showing the complete mission progress of the Curiosity rover via its tire tracks. If you look at this awesoem hi-res version, you can follow the little guy from the burnt landing site at left to its current spot in Yellowknife Bay at right (you can even make out its wheels!) (More mission news at Wired Science. You might also want to check out the MRO HiRISE camera archive for more orbital shots of Mars.)
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Tracking Curiosity

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter snapped this picture of Gale Crater last week, showing the complete mission progress of the Curiosity rover via its tire tracks.

If you look at this awesoem hi-res version, you can follow the little guy from the burnt landing site at left to its current spot in Yellowknife Bay at right (you can even make out its wheels!)

(More mission news at Wired Science. You might also want to check out the MRO HiRISE camera archive for more orbital shots of Mars.)

Source: Wired

Tycho Rising The central peak of the Moon’s Tycho Crater, a complex crater whose mountain spire rises a massive two kilometers above the crater floor, as captured by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. You’ve probably seen this crater, it’s one of the Moon’s most visible.  Goes well with these digitally remastered shots from pre-Apollo Lunar Orbiters. (via APOD)
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Tycho Rising

The central peak of the Moon’s Tycho Crater, a complex crater whose mountain spire rises a massive two kilometers above the crater floor, as captured by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. You’ve probably seen this crater, it’s one of the Moon’s most visible. 

Goes well with these digitally remastered shots from pre-Apollo Lunar Orbiters.

(via APOD)

Source: apod.nasa.gov

The Moon: Remastered In 1966 and 1967, in preparation for the Apollo missions, NASA sent five unmanned lunar orbiters to map the Moon. Their extensive collection of images were stored on analog tapes. In an effort to save them from being scrapped, NASA/ARC archivists have been digitizing and enhancing the images so that they may live on and contribute to history and future lunar science. This image shows Tsiolkovskiy crater, on the far side of the Moon. This is what’s called a complex crater, its central peak casting frigid shadows on the dark volcanic rock underneath. The immense central peak was formed from an ancient impact so powerful that the Moon’s surface rebounded upward like a droplet hitting water, leaving a permanent eye in the center of the crater. Our Moon, so distant and small to human eyes, hides the true scale of this crater, a massive 112 miles (180 km) wide. Check out more stunningly restored images at MoonViews.
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The Moon: Remastered

In 1966 and 1967, in preparation for the Apollo missions, NASA sent five unmanned lunar orbiters to map the Moon. Their extensive collection of images were stored on analog tapes. In an effort to save them from being scrapped, NASA/ARC archivists have been digitizing and enhancing the images so that they may live on and contribute to history and future lunar science.

This image shows Tsiolkovskiy crater, on the far side of the Moon. This is what’s called a complex crater, its central peak casting frigid shadows on the dark volcanic rock underneath. The immense central peak was formed from an ancient impact so powerful that the Moon’s surface rebounded upward like a droplet hitting water, leaving a permanent eye in the center of the crater. Our Moon, so distant and small to human eyes, hides the true scale of this crater, a massive 112 miles (180 km) wide.

Check out more stunningly restored images at MoonViews.

Source: moonviews.com