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Astronomy Picture of the Day -- Rocket, Meteor, and Milky Way over Thailand
NASA ^ | February 12, 2014 | (see photo credit)

Posted on 02/12/2014 3:16:02 AM PST by SunkenCiv

Explanation: Can the night sky appear both serene and surreal? Perhaps classifiable as serene in the above panoramic image taken last Friday are the faint lights of small towns glowing across a dark foreground landscape of Doi Inthanon National Park in Thailand, as well as the numerous stars glowing across a dark background starscape. Also visible are the planet Venus and a band of zodiacal light on the image left. Unusual events are also captured, however. First, the central band of our Milky Way Galaxy, while usually a common site, appears here to hover surreally above the ground. Next, a fortuitous streak of a meteor was captured on the image right. Perhaps the most unusual component is the bright spot just to the left of the meteor. That spot is the plume of a rising Ariane 5 rocket, launched a few minutes before from Kourou, French Guiana. How lucky was the astrophotographer to capture the rocket launch in his image? Not lucky at all -- the image was timed to capture the rocket. What was lucky was how photogenic -- and perhaps surreal -- the rest of the sky turned out to be.

February 12, 2014

(Excerpt) Read more at 129.164.179.22 ...


TOPICS: Astronomy; Astronomy Picture of the Day; Science
KEYWORDS: apod; astronomy; science; thailand
[Credit & Copyright: Matipon Tangmatitham]

1 posted on 02/12/2014 3:16:02 AM PST by SunkenCiv
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To: brytlea; cripplecreek; decimon; bigheadfred; KoRn; Grammy; married21; steelyourfaith; Mmogamer; ...
APOD's 2014 calendar is now available.
The Big One

2 posted on 02/12/2014 3:16:34 AM PST by SunkenCiv (http://www.freerepublic.com/~mestamachine/)
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To: SunkenCiv

Almost impossibly a rocket launched from eastern SA would still be visibly powered approaching Thailand.


3 posted on 02/12/2014 3:32:52 AM PST by Vaquero (Don't pick a fight with an old guy. If he is too old to fight, he'll just kill you.)
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To: Vaquero

Must have been a long, slow burn, or second stage, and very dark skies.


4 posted on 02/12/2014 3:53:46 AM PST by SunkenCiv (http://www.freerepublic.com/~mestamachine/)
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To: SunkenCiv

Oh my god..............


5 posted on 02/12/2014 4:05:55 AM PST by wastedyears (The Ender's Game movie was a stupendous, colossal, galactic failure to me.)
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To: SunkenCiv

I guess. I even did some searches but didn’t do enough searches. A low earth orbit is approximate a 90 minute proposition. I found somewhere where 1 particular satellite reached orbit after 45 minutes. So I suppose it is possible.

I’ll probably do searches now for hours because in the words of the bank robber in Dirty Harry, (played by Albert Popwell) “ I gots ta know”


6 posted on 02/12/2014 4:08:28 AM PST by Vaquero (Don't pick a fight with an old guy. If he is too old to fight, he'll just kill you.)
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To: SunkenCiv
The rocket traveled from South America to Southeast Asia is “a few minutes”? Yikes!
7 posted on 02/12/2014 4:09:37 AM PST by Gay State Conservative (Obama: "I can do whatever I want")
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To: Vaquero

While a satellite in low-Earth orbit takes 90 minutes to complete one orbit it is already in orbit as soon as it reaches orbital velocity. That would occur within 20 minutes. Thailand is 10,000 miles from the launch site near Cayenne almost half way around the Earth. The rocket burn pictured here is most likely a second firing (a second stage) called a mid-course correction to place the object into a higher circular (maybe geostationary) orbital altitude.


8 posted on 02/12/2014 5:07:09 AM PST by Procyon (Decentralize, degovernmentalize, deregulate, demonopolize, decredentialize, disentitle.)
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To: SunkenCiv


9 posted on 02/12/2014 5:14:36 AM PST by JoeProBono (SOME IMAGES MAY BE DISTURBING VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED;-{)
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To: Procyon

Yeah. Kind of figured. Probably bringing an elliptical orbit into the round.


10 posted on 02/12/2014 6:18:23 AM PST by Vaquero (Don't pick a fight with an old guy. If he is too old to fight, he'll just kill you.)
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To: SunkenCiv

That is real beauty from God.


11 posted on 02/12/2014 6:25:06 AM PST by bmwcyle (People who do not study history are destine to believe really ignorant statements.)
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To: Vaquero

Any kind of comm satellite is built as tough as it can be, but goes up pretty slow compared to, say, an ICBM, because the circuitry is a little tender, and also has to last a long time. ICBM circuitry is tougher to withstand the extra G’s, but also doesn’t really have to be made to last, for obvious reasons. ;’)

Those Mercury astronauts (only six flew in the Mercury program, Deke finally went to space aboard Apollo-Soyuz) endured high G’s riding those fast-to-orbit ballistic missiles, and did it solo each time, how tough were they.


12 posted on 02/14/2014 7:23:55 PM PST by SunkenCiv (http://www.freerepublic.com/~mestamachine/)
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To: JoeProBono

“Hey Rocket! Watch me pull a Thailand out of my hat! Nothin’ up muh sleeve... Presto!”


13 posted on 02/14/2014 7:26:51 PM PST by SunkenCiv (http://www.freerepublic.com/~mestamachine/)
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To: SunkenCiv

Deke,director of flight crew ops. I felt for him with his heart murmur. Glad he was able to eventually fly.
Then Al Shepard and Glenn were put on medicals. I was happy when Shepard was able to fly to the moon after an operation...we needed golf on the moon what with all those holes. The Glenn shuttle flight was pure political payback from the slickster. But I was 12 when the first one flew and they were all my heroes.


14 posted on 02/15/2014 4:46:28 AM PST by Vaquero (Don't pick a fight with an old guy. If he is too old to fight, he'll just kill you.)
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