Total Solar Eclipse - November 14, 2012 Cairns, Australia

On November 14, 2012 from 5:45 to 7:40 AM (Australia time) the solar eclipse shadow will sweep across Cairns & the Great Barrier Reef region.

I will be in Cairns, Australia to observe this amazing event. Below is map showing the path of the eclipse. As you can see the majority of the Moon's shadow will be casted over the Pacific Ocean.

And a more up-close view of where in Australia people can observe this event. This particular region has not seen a total solar eclipse since 17AD and the next one won't happen for over 200 years. Needless to say, many spectators are expected to come and safely view the Moon dance in front of the Sun. 

How exactly does a total eclipse happen?

Would you like to know more about the Australia 2012 Solar Eclipse?

NASA Sun Earth Day Australia 2012 Eclipse

Here is a preview from the Australia News TV Station

More information about the Australia Eclipse November 14, 2012 here

Being intimate with the Russian ЭПП Electrical Food Warmer

 

Today was a fairly easy day. Canadian Astronaut David Saint-Jacques (he is @Astro_DavidS on Twitter) and I were learning about some of the ISS components inside the Russian segments. First, let me tell you a little about David. 

(on a site note, when we first met, he reminded me of The Wiz in Seinfeld - I wish I had a crown with me for him to put on! Ok, off topic, sorry David)

Born in Quebec, raised outside of Montreal, Canada, David speaks French and English fluently. But not just that. He has a pretty good handle on Spanish, Russian and Japanese! What's even more amazing, David has a medical background and an astrophysics one! Plus he has a commercial pilot license! His postdoctoral research included the development and application of the Mitaka Infrared Interferometer in Japan and the Subaru Telescope Adaptive Optics System in Hawaii.

After that he joined the Astrophysics group at Université de Montréal. His international experience also includes engineering study and work in France and Hungary and medical training in Lebanon and Guatemala.

In October of 2011 David was part of the NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations project, known as NEEMO. 

NEEMMO sends groups of astronauts, engineers, doctors and professional divers to live in an underwater habitat for up to three weeks at a time. These crew members, called aquanauts, live in Aquarius, the world's only undersea laboratory, located about 19 metres below the surface, 5.6 km off Key Largo in the Florida Keys.

David was a crew member of NEEMO 15, the first undersea mission to simulate a visit to an asteroid. For part of the mission, he was supported by his colleague CSA Astronaut Jeremy Hansen who, as CAPCOM, provided information and directions from the Key Largo surface to the NEEMO 15 team.

The undersea environment is the closest analogue on Earth to a gravity-weak asteroid, making it the best place to test relevant exploration concepts. During NEEMO 15 the crew evaluated different strategies for anchoring themselves to its surface, traveling along its terrain and collecting data. They also coordinated their efforts with DeepWorker submersibles, one-seater submarines built and developed by Nuytco in British Columbia, Canada.

Told you, David is another one of those interesting people to get to meet and know. 

Anyway, today I learned about the Russian ЭПП Food Warmer. David told me to get "intimately" familiar with the device. Since I always follow instructions...

The electric food warmer is designed to heat foods in cans, and plastic pouches.

The ЭПП consists of a heater, an automated unit, and a control panel. The warmer contains a number of cells for heating food. The heating elements inside the cells conform to the shape of the various packages.

The Service Module has two food warmers, “Подогреватель пищи 1”, “Подогреватель пищи 2” (Food warming 1, Food warming 2), connected to onboard outlets. The foods are warmed to 65°C (149°F) within 30 minutes. The food warmer operates automatically. The foods are inserted into the warmer to the maximum depth of the cells. Any combination of foods may be warmed – from one meal ration to four.

I am glad that David realized that giving me instructions like "get yourself intimately familiar with..." just don't work all that well with me. Glad we first learned about the food warmer and not the Russian space toilette...

Time Zones & Times - what it means for NASA SDO

Ever wonder why we have Eastern (or Mountain, or Pacific) Standard Time? You can thank the railroads. On November 18, 1889 railroads in the United States began using the set of "Standard" timezones that we more or less use today. 


Before the U.S. had time zones, how did people traveling across the country know what time it was? Until the invention of the railway, it took such a long time to get from one place to another, that local "sun" time could be used. When traveling to the east or to the west, a person would have to change his or her watch by one minute every 12 miles in order to always have the correct time.


When people began traveling hundreds of miles in a day by train, calculating the time became a problem. Railroad lines needed to create schedules for departures and arrivals, but every city had a different time!

Navy Yard officials set a clock to the official time in Brooklyn, New York CREDIT: “Taking the time, Brooklyn Navy Yard,” 1890-1901. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress. Reproduction Number LC-D4-21274 A.

Navy Yard officials set a clock to the official time in Brooklyn, New York

CREDIT: “Taking the time, Brooklyn Navy Yard,” 1890-1901. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress. Reproduction Number LC-D4-21274 A.

At first the railroad managers tried to address the problem by establishing 100 different railroad time zones. With so many time zones, different railroad lines were sometimes on different time systems, and scheduling remained confusing and uncertain.

Finally, the railway managers agreed to use four time zones for the continental United States: Eastern, Central, Mountain, and Pacific. Local times would no longer be used by the railroads. The U.S. Naval Observatory, responsible for establishing the official time in the United States, agreed to make the change. At 12 noon on November 18, 1883, the U.S. Naval Observatory began signaling the change. 


As Greenwich Mean Time (the official time used by the U. S. Naval Observatory) was transmitted by telegraph, authorities in major cities and managers of the railroads reset their clocks. All over the United States and Canada, people changed their clocks and watches to match the time for the zone they lived in. Quickly, the confusion caused by the many different standards of time was resolved.

This 1892 train map shows the route of the Burlington &. Quincy Railroad and the new time zones CREDIT: Rand McNally and Company. “Burlington Route,” 1892. Geography and Map Division, Library of Congress. Call Number G3701.P3 1892 .R3 RR 357.

This 1892 train map shows the route of the Burlington &. Quincy Railroad and the new time zones

CREDIT: Rand McNally and Company. “Burlington Route,” 1892. Geography and Map Division, Library of Congress. Call Number G3701.P3 1892 .R3 RR 357.

The color blobs in this figure on the very top show the timezones used today around the world. Before standard time each community kept track of time. Some important times (such as noon) where announced by ringing bells or another signal. Imagine a train arriving in one town before it left the last one! Not everyone was happy and some towns continued to use local solar time until 1918.

Today we release SDO marked in Coordinated Universal Time (diplomatically called UTC) and International Atomic Time (similarly, TAI). TAI is the number of seconds since midnite January 1, 1958. A series of laboratories keep track of the march of time. UTC maps TAI to almost local solar time at the Greenwich Meridian in England (the line where longitude is 0). This means that UTC has leap seconds to keep up with the slowing down of the Earth's rotation. Right now we have added 34 leap seconds to UTC. We like TAI because it is easy to do differences in time by subtracting the TAI times. This is not true for UTC.

When you look an SDO timestamp it will say Z or UTC if the time is UTC; T or TAI when it is TAI.

Today's Sun in 304 angstrom - is shows the ~50,000 degrees C. Chromosphere

NASA IT Summit 2011

Dear Blog!
I am so very sorry for not having updated you more frequently the last 6 weeks. But my travels have kept me so busy. The trip from San Diego to the Space Coast for STS-135 was epic. My visits to NASA Stennis and Glenn were productive. My participation at the Astronomical Society of the Pacific Conference and the NASA Helio Education and Public Outreach retreat was educational. And now I am at the NASA IT Summit in San Francisco "Making IT Stellar at NASA". Why am I here?

It is not just about IT. This is about exchanging ideas, sharing best practices, learning what's new and cutting edge around IT, social media and education.

This morning's keynote address by Lynn Tilton (CEO of Patriarch Partners LLC) was very inspirational. "Dream the dream, have one foot in reality and the other one in the future!"

Then there was a social media session "Becoming a Social Organization; Taking a Strategic Approach to Social Media by Anthony Bradley with Gartner. Lots of great information how social media works. It's not just about mass, it is about community and engagement, about outreach and sharing, about social feedback and listening.

While broadcasting some of the interesting facts, I was asked what my thoughts were on the following statement:

"I don't see how education can happen with 140 characters!" 

My first initial thought was a statement Anthony Bradley made a couple hours earlier "If you don't think social media works, then you are doing it wrong!". But it really takes a few characters to capture somebody's interest or to inspire somebody to learn more by following a link, looking up information, picking up a book etc. It's not so much about actually educating right there, but building the foundation to build on.

So I decided to ask the Twitterverse what they think. Keep in mind, I do not have a huge following on Twitter. It's not about the mass. But the people who do follow me, they are engaged, they are interested and they want to learn, share and feel part of the team.

What happened after I asked my followers for their thoughts on that statement truly shows the power of one social media platform alone. In this case Twitter; 140 characters or less. It started a round of discussions, people sharing their thoughts, experiences, ideas and tips. By simply asking "What do you think about the statement that you cannot educate in 140 characters" an educational round of discussions started.

Below are some of the responses. Would you like to participate remotely? You can! The NASA IT Summit 2011 wants you to be part of it. To chat during the session, please go to the session on the IT Summit Remote Engagement Site: http://open.nasa.gov/itsummit/

Use hashtag #NASAIT on Twitter.

@craigfifer: My first reaction is "Sounds like that person is a great candidate for education."

@craigfifer: 2nd reaction is, regardless of your beliefs, consider the 10 Commandments. Each 1 is ~140 chars, & they educated a society. 

@ocaptmycapt: Education is awareness, it's opening dialogue, it's accessibility - that's 140 characters; they were dead wrong. 

@craftlass: Sometimes brevity is the key to understanding. Less chance to get mired in details, more to see the big picture #NASAIT 

@craftlass:  Also, education is best when conversational. In 140 no party gets to run on, conversation improves dramatically #NASAIT 

@tigergirl528:  GrrrOWL! www.mathplayground.com What can't we do in 140 characters? The pen is mightier than the sword! 

@tigergirl528: #140WordsorLESS www.sesamestreet.org/games are cool = 92 

@tigergirl528:  #140WordsorLESS nga.gov/kids/kids.htm = 107 left 

@nasa_edge:  Definitely not quality, but I believe you can receive some form of education. Engagement possibly. 

@catherineq: Perhaps not in a "traditional" sense but *inspiration* happens and that is vital for successful education. 

@marimikel: Brevity doesn't preclude information. Educating people in 140 characters is completely possible! 

@mswz: " This morning during #NASAIT - thoughts? "I don't see how any education can happen in 140 characters" " Out of the loop. 

@jaymay: Doesn't happen in 140 chars. Happens over course of many tweets, time. Twitter's not about one-time hit, but 'relationship' 

@stubek: If a person says education cannot happen in 140 characters, they are narrow minded and against innovation PERIOD #FB #NASAIT 

@stubek: Education in 140 characters is as simple as a quick fact or a headline with a URL and more details #NASAIT 

@harbingeralpha:  "I don't see how kids can talk to one another over text." "I don't see how video games are anything but play." "I don't see..." 

@harbingeralpha: my 11 year old brother can see the value, perhaps the speaker needs a chat with him and many others. 

@harbingeralpha: my less political answer = "Haters gonna hate." 

@tim846: Twitter is a GREAT way to connect & empower. Check out our SXSW panel: yur.is/SXSWi2012 

@rocketman528: Quite a lot of education takes place in 140 characters! Almost every major science result/news article is tweeted:-D #NASAIT


@sluggernova: beyond 1st engmt/link, learning outcomes can be w/in social space. E.g. new ideas, crowdsourced knowledge. Mass collab. #NASAIT  

Space Fair 2010 - Melaka Planetarium, Malaysia

Debbie and I with some of our new friends!

Opening day at Melaka Planetarium!!! There were hundreds and hundreds of people from all over Malaysia who came to see us today. Some of the school groups took over3 hours to get here. They must really love science.Today I got to learn about how big the solar system really is. The students working with us set up a giant balloon, complete with sunspots, to represent the Sun. The Earth was a23 mm marble. They had all the other planets there, the moon, the asteroids, even a model of the Kuiper Belt objects and Pluto.

I love their faces - this is what interest looks like!

Visitors had to figure out which Earth ball was the right size for the balloon Sun. Then they got to figure out how far away the tiny Earth marble should be placed from the balloon Sun. It was 270 meters – almost 3 football fields away! It made me feel like Earth was very small and fragile. They also had a map that showed where in the city the other planets would be in our model. The farthest one, Neptune, was WAY outside the city. That was hard enough to understand. Then they showed us a 360 mm (14”) ball,and said it was the scaled size of the nearest star. I asked how far away the nearest star would be from the Sun, on our scale. You won’t believe this – it would be 72,000km(40,000 miles) away!

The kids are learning about spectroscopes and about me!

Part of my local team! They are great!

And as you can see, it's hands-on science teaching!

Here the kids are learning about the scale sizes! They loved it.

Some of my new Malaysian friends! Thank you for your hospitality and interest!