04 December 2007

4 December 2007

The White Birds

I would that we were, my beloved, white birds on the foam of the sea!
We tire of the flame of the meteor, before it can fade and flee;
And the flame of the blue star of twilight, hung low on the rim of the sky,
Has awakened in our hearts, my beloved, a sadness that may not die.

A weariness comes from those dreamers, dew-dabbled, the lily and rose;
Ah, dream not of them, my beloved, the flame of the meteor that goes,
Or the flame of the blue star that lingers hung low in the fall of the dew:
For I would we were changed to white birds on the wandering foam: I and you!
I am haunted by numberless islands, and many a Danaan shore,
Where Time would surely forget us, and Sorrow come near us no more;
Soon far from the rose and the lily, and fret of the flames would we be,
Were we only white birds, my beloved, buoyed out on the foam of the sea!

Y.B. Yeats



As I remember it, whenever the Shuttle and the ISS fly across the sky before or after docking the shuttle is always out in front. Today I looked up their orbital speeds and find that the Shuttle will be going faster than the ISS. I infer from that that it has to be going faster when it is trying to reach orbit than the ISS does to remain in orbit.

 MPHm/s
Space Shuttle17,5807880
ISS17,2397706

6Dec07, 1631 EST
STS-122 Launch
6Dec07, 1640 EST
STS-122 MECO
7Dec07
Visible Passes
  ISSSTS-122
BeginsTime1646 EST1648 EST
Alt.horizonhorizon
Az.SWSE
Mag.3.66.6
Max. AltTime1651 EST1653 EST
Alt.82.6°87.9°
Az.SESE
Mag.-4.4-1.6
EndsTime1654 EST1656 EST
Alt.7.0°1.0°
Az.NENE
Mag.-1.91.0
7Dec07
Visible Pass
 STS-122
BeginsTime1821
Alt.horizon
Az.W
Mag.2.0
EndsTime1825 EST
Alt.15.4°
Az.NW
Mag.-1.6
8Dec07, 1326 EST
STS-122/ISS Docking
8Dec07
Visible Pass
 ISS/STS-122
BeginsTime1707 EST
Alt.horizon
Az.WSW
Mag.7.1
Max. Alt.Time1712 EST
Alt.33.1°
Az.NNW
Mag.-0.1
EndsTime1714 EST
Alt.37.4°
Az.NE
Mag.0.8
9Dec07
Visible Pass
 ISS/STS-122
BeginsTime1729 EST
Alt.horizon
Az.W
Mag.2.1
Max. Alt.Time1734 EST
Alt.17.1°
Az.NNW
Mag.-2.1
EndsTime1734 EST
Alt.12.7°
Az.NNE
Mag.-2.2
11Dec07
Visible Pass
 ISS/STS-122
BeginsTime1637 EST
Alt.1.8°
Az.W
Mag.1.8
Max. Alt.Time1642 EST
Alt.17.9°
Az.NNW
Mag.-2.3
EndsTime1645 EST
Alt.3.7°
Az.NE
Mag.-1.5
16Dec07
Visible Pass
 ISS/STS-122
BeginsTime1825 EST
Alt.horizon
Az.NW
Mag.0.3
Max. Alt.
Ends		Time1827 EST
Alt.7.4°
Az.NW
Mag.-0.9
17Dec07
Visible Pass
 ISS/STS-122
BeginsTime1834 EST
Alt.horizon
Az.NW
Mag.0.4
Max. Alt.
Ends		Time1836 EST
Alt.8.2°
Az.NW
Mag.-0.8
18Dec07
Visible Pass
 ISS/STS-122
BeginsTime1709 EST
Alt.horizon
Az.NW
Mag.-0.1
Max. Alt.Time1713 EST
Alt.15.4°
Az.NNE
Mag.-2.8
EndsTime1714 EST
Alt.12.6°
Az.NE
Mag.-2.6
18Dec07
Visible Pass
  ISS/STS-122
BeginsTime1843 EST
Alt.horizon
Az.NW
Mag.0.6
Max. Alt.
Ends		Time1845 EST
Alt.9.2°
Az.WNW
Mag.-0.6
19Dec07, 1125 EST
STS-122/ISS Undocking
19Dec07, 1308 EST
STS-122/ISS Separation
19Dec07
Visible Pass
 STS-122ISS
BeginsTime1718 EST1756 EST
Alt.horizonhorizon
Az.NWNW
Mag.3.00.5
Max. Alt.Time1722 EST1801 EST
Alt.25.0°60.6°
Az.NNENE
Mag.-0.5-4.6
EndsTime1723 EST1801 EST
Alt.17.4°60.6°
Az.ENENE
Mag.-0.1-4.6
19Dec07
Visible Pass
 STS-122
BeginsTime1852 EST
Alt.horizon
Az.WNW
Mag.3.9
Max. Alt.
Ends		Time1854 EST
Alt.9.8°
Az.WNW
Mag.2.8
20Dec07
Visible Pass
 ISS
BeginsTime1642 EST
Alt.horizon
Az.NW
Mag.0.0
Max. Alt.Time1647 EST
Alt.22.8°
Az.NNE
Mag.-3.1
EndsTime1651 EST
Alt.2.5°
Az.E
Mag.-1.3
20Dec07
Visible Pass
 ISS
BeginsTime1817 EST
Alt.horizon
Az.WNW
Mag.0.8
Max. Alt.Time1822 EST
Alt.38.3°
Az.SW
Mag.-2.8
EndsTime1822 EST
Alt.37.1°
Az.SSW
Mag.-3.0
21Dec07, 1752 EST
STS-122 Deorbit Burn
21Dec07, 1854 EST
STS-122 Lands KSC


We had another, the second, and, if the old wives are to be believed, the last snowfall of this winter.


I was poking around in the menus of Starry Night Starter looking for something that I have forgotten about now because I found a setting for asterisms that I started to explore and found that it knows about the Northern Fly or the defunct constellation Musca Borealis which Peter and I were looking for one night. So I made an animation of the constellation's location with Photoshop Elements.


Starry Night Starter graphics animated with Photoshop Elements

posted by Charlie at 12:54

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