[So Cal Rocket]

[So Cal Rocket]

These two images of Mars were taken by Space Imaging’s IKONOS satellite as the red planet and Earth reached their closest proximity in nearly 60,000 years. At that point which occurred last week, Mars was 34.6 million miles (55.6 million kilometers) away. The first image (left) was taken on Aug. 26, 2003 at 21:40 GMT (3:40 p.m. MDT) as IKONOS came out of the eclipse of the Earth and orbited over our planet’s northern pole. The second image (right) was taken a little more than a half a Martian rotation later on Aug. 27, 2003 at 12:26 GMT (6:26 a.m. MDT). The Martian south polar ice cap is visible at the bottom of both images. The resolution of these images is approximately 67 km. IKONOS takes images of Earth at 1-meter resolution.

Although IKONOS is designed to take images of the Earth, because of its agility, it can look away from Earth and take images of objects in space. Even though Space Imaging doesn’t sell stellar images, it does periodically take images of specific stars in order to calibrate the IKONOS imaging array for luminosity.

[RadioAstronomer]

Thank you :-)

[RadioAstronomer]

A little vanity here! I helped to take this pic. :-)

[hunter112]

You've heard of the Man in the Moon? On the pic to the left, I see Stimpy.

[arasina]

Wow! Does anyone else see a cowboy on a galloping horse, with a sort of Old West dust kicking up, in the first one?