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Tag Archives: Apollo 11 50th Anniversary

50th Anniversary Moon Landing

Sacred Space Astronomy avatarPosted on July 26, 2019 by Deirdre KelleghanJuly 26, 2019

  On July 19th it was my pleasure to run two Apollo 11drawing workshops for children in Co Sligo Ireland. This was the eve of the 50th Anniversary of the Apollo moon landing. Seeing the moon landing live on TV 50 years ago was a big deal to me. It influenced my life in many ways, it still does. Therefore being so close to July 20th, I included my workshops as part of the global celebration of Apollo 11 in the IAU ( International Astronomical Union) events list. You can see mine and  the events from all over the world here. Its interesting how the Apollo moon landing absolutly pulled the entire planet together as one back in 1969. A few hours of focused global awe for the achievements of three men on our behalf. We need more of that unity, we need it so much. Ocean FM based in Co Sligo interviewed me about the Apoll 11 moon landing … Continue reading →

Posted in Education, History, Moon, Outreach, Space Exploration | Tagged #Apollo50th, Apollo 11, Apollo 11 50th Anniversary, Buzz Aldrin, Drawing, Drawing Workshop, IAU100, Michael Collins, Ocean FM, Sligo Central Library, Tubbercurry Library | Leave a reply

The ancient and inaccessible: the moon and the periodic table

Sacred Space Astronomy avatarPosted on July 20, 2019 by Dr. Michelle FranclJuly 20, 2019

Next week I am off to St. Petersburg (Russia, not Florida) to give an invited lecture at the 4th International Conference on the Periodic Table — a celebration of the 150th anniversary of Dmitri Mendeleev’s proposal that the chemical elements could be laid out in a table where elements in each row (now columns) shared many properties. This periodicity of properties led this method of organization to be called a “periodic table.” Pope Paul VI in one of the Vatican Observatory’s domes reading a message to the Apollo 11 astronauts. The lecture I’ve been asked to give is based on an essay I wrote for Nature Chemistry earlier this year, “Isotopic Enrichment” (Isotopes are variants on elements. For example, carbon-14 dating tracks the radioactive decay of a heavier than normal variant of a carbon atom.  Most carbon is carbon-12, where the number indicates the mass of a single atom,) The title of this blog post comes from an article ten years ago in … Continue reading →

Posted in Moon | Tagged Apollo 11 50th Anniversary, faith and science | Leave a reply

Apollo Moon Masterpiece

Sacred Space Astronomy avatarPosted on July 12, 2019 by Deirdre KelleghanJuly 12, 2019

Way back in time when I was just 11 years old I bought myself a copy of National Geographic Magazine. The February 1969 issue came with a large comprehensive moon map. The map is jam-packed with moon information, including the proposed sites for the Apollo Missions. This Apollo Moon masterpiece shown above is a true thing of beauty. This treasure has been on my wall for decades, an inspiration every time I look at it. The original artwork for the near and far side of the moon was hand-painted by cartographic artist Tibor Toth.   There were no computers in graphic art at the time. The map was designed by Dave Cook who also did most of the writing for the gorgeous snippets of lunar information included in every nook and cranny. Others credited with the work on the map are  Richard Furno, Dave Moore, and Jay Igno. Back then copying and pasting was just exactly that, cutting out text … Continue reading →

Posted in Education, History, Popular Culture, Space Exploration | Tagged Apollo 11, Apollo 11 50th Anniversary, Apollo Moon Masterpiece, Drawing, History of Apollo, Moon, National Geographic, National Geographic Maps, Tibor Toth | Leave a reply

Keep up with the Apollo 11 – 50th Anniversary

Sacred Space Astronomy avatarPosted on July 5, 2019 by Deirdre KelleghanJuly 5, 2019

    There is an abundance of Apollo 11 50th Aniversary  activities flooding the internet at the moment. Here below are a few that I find interesting and perhaps you have not found them yet. Hopefully, you can access most of them no matter what country you are in  while reading this write up. Share your Apollo 11 Story with NASA a call out to the world One that resonated with me is the NASA call out for oral recordings of peoples personal memories of the moon landing in 1969. This call runs up to December 31st 2019. It is easy to do and there is a list of questions to address in your recording that helps to structure your audio. The questions help to build a picture of the impact of the first moon landing on peoples lives. A few weeks ago I recorded my four minutes worth and sent it in. It felt good to do it, some … Continue reading →

Posted in Education, History, Space Exploration, Space resources | Tagged Apollo 11, Apollo 11 50th Anniversary, Apollo 50, BBC Media, BBC TV, BBC World Service, Buzz Aldrin, Drawing Workshop, Eagle Lander, History of Apollo, Let's Go To The Moon - Apollo 11, Michael Collins, Podcasts, Share your Apollo Story NASA oral history | Leave a reply

In the Sky This Week – July 2, 2019

Sacred Space Astronomy avatarPosted on July 2, 2019 by Bob TrembleyJuly 2, 2019
This entry is part 104 of 184 in the series In the Sky This Week

My wife and I are packing up our home of 22 years, and will be moving a few miles north. While I was clearing out my bookshelf, I found a book that I owned as a child, that has somehow remained with me, albeit a bit worse for wear: You Will Go To the Moon, published in 1959 by Mae and Ira Freeman, illustrated by Robert Patterson. I was a child of the Apollo era, and like many others of that time, our lives where influenced-by, and in many cases shaped-by the events of the early space age. As I look at through the book now, many of the images are very reminiscent of Chesley Bonestell’s artwork – also something from my childhood. This book shows a Moon lander leaving from a toroidal space station – something Bonestell featured in many pieces of his art way before 2001: A Space Odyssey; there’s also a whimsical image of an adult and … Continue reading →

Posted in Astronomy, Outreach, Space Exploration | Tagged #AsteroidDay, Apollo 11 50th Anniversary, Cassiopeia, Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9, Conjunction, David Levy, Dragonfly Rotorcraft Lander, Exoplanet, Kepler-903 b, Moon, Regulus, Sun | Leave a reply

In the Sky This Week – February 26, 2019

Sacred Space Astronomy avatarPosted on February 26, 2019 by Bob TrembleyMarch 5, 2019
This entry is part 85 of 184 in the series In the Sky This Week

This summer’s nationwide library reading program, “A Universe of Stories,” coincides with NASA’s 60th anniversary, and the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing. The Warren Astronomical Society (Michigan) has received multiple requests from libraries for summer speakers, astronomy programs and display case setups – and they’re still coming in! I’ve reached out to other astronomy clubs and volunteer NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassadors in southeastern Michigan for help covering all the outreach requests. If you are looking for speakers for this summer, Solar System Ambassadors in your state, and local astronomy clubs are a great resource. You can find many clubs and events listed on the NASA Night Sky Network site. Venus and Saturn continue to spread apart this week, and the waning crescent Moon appears very near several planets in the southeastern predawn sky. Mercury can be seen very low in the western sky at dusk this week. Mars and Uranus are high in the west-southwestern sky before midnight; … Continue reading →

Posted in Astronomy, Outreach | Tagged Apollo 11 50th Anniversary, Beehive Cluster, Ceres, Comet 71P/Clark, Halley's Comet, Hayabusa2, Jupiter, Kepler Space Telescope, M44, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, Mercury, Moon, N103B, NASA 60th Anniversary, NASA Night Sky Network, Orion, OSIRIS REx, Saturn, Solar System Ambassadors, Sun, Taurus, The Big Dipper, Uranus, Venus | Leave a reply
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Recent Posts

ⓜ Believing in things…

Sacred Space Astronomy avatarPosted on February 25, 2021 by Br. Guy ConsolmagnoFebruary 24, 2021
This entry is part of 60 in the series And Then I Wrote

And then I wrote… in 2014, the national Catholic newspaper Our Sunday Visitor invited me to submit a few words about science and faith…  as anyone who reads these pages knows, it’s hard to shut me up on the topic! This covers familiar ground; but it does it in a … Continue reading…

Posted in And Then I Wrote | Tagged faith and science | Leave a reply

In the Sky This Week – February 23, 2021

Sacred Space Astronomy avatarPosted on February 23, 2021 by Bob TrembleyFebruary 24, 2021
This entry is part 184 of 184 in the series In the Sky This Week

Millions of people around the planet have seen NASA’s Perseverance Rover descent and touchdown video – I’ve watched it over and over! I tweeted that this landing made me feel like a kid during the Apollo era again! Cameras were not part of the rover’s initial design – and were … Continue reading…

Posted in Astronomy, Outreach | Tagged Dyson Sphere Program, Jupiter, Mars, Mars Perseverance Rover, Mercury, Moon, Saturn, Sun, Supernova 1987A, Uranus | 1 Reply

Arrival: Mars Takes Center Stage As Probes Arrive At The Red Planet!

Sacred Space Astronomy avatarPosted on February 22, 2021 by Fr. James KurzynskiFebruary 24, 2021

These past couple of weeks have greeted us with exciting news from Mars! First, the United Arab Emirates mission to place a weather satellite named Al-Amal into orbit around the red planet was a success! One of the main goals of the “hope probe” is to understand the red planet’s … Continue reading…

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a reply

ⓜ Full Moon-th Meetup: 28 February, 2021

Sacred Space Astronomy avatarPosted on February 21, 2021 by Br. Guy ConsolmagnoFebruary 24, 2021

Featuring Dr. Robert Janusz, and the latest news of the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope! Just for our paying members: on the next Full Moon (actually, the day after full Moon, this month), Sunday, February 28, we’ll be holding our regular on-line meetup where we get to know and chat with … Continue reading…

Posted in Announcement | Tagged Meetup | Leave a reply

Specola Guestbook | September 16, 1934: Pope Pius XI

Sacred Space Astronomy avatarPosted on February 21, 2021 by Robert MackeFebruary 21, 2021
This entry is part 82 of 82 in the series Specola Guestbook

Since its founding in 1891, many people have passed through the doors of the Vatican Observatory.  A quick perusal of our guestbook reveals several Names, including Popes, Nobel laureates, astronauts, actors, and saints. Today’s guestbook entry is not technically from the guest book.  It is from a separate parchment reserved … Continue reading…

Posted in Astronomy, History, Uncategorized | Tagged Castel Gandolfo, Pius XI, Pontifical Academy of Sciences, Specola Guestbook, Vatican Observatory | Leave a reply

The Sun Rules!

Sacred Space Astronomy avatarPosted on February 20, 2021 by Christopher M. GraneyFebruary 2, 2021

If they [the stars] are suns having the same nature as our sun, why do not these suns collectively outdistance our sun in brilliance? Why do they all together transmit so dim a light…? When sunlight bursts into a sealed room through a hole made with a tiny pin point, … Continue reading…

Posted in Astronomy, History | 1 Reply
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Recent Comments

  • Fr. Bruce Wilkinson February 23, 2021 at 4:05 pm on In the Sky This Week – February 23, 2021I completely agree with you that putting cameras on EVERY space mission - without question and without fail. The ability to see the accomplishments of the various robotic missions have inspired future generations to want to become part of the space exploration crowd
  • Ed Yepez February 20, 2021 at 7:51 am on The Sun Rules!Excellent! Thank you very much for presenting this in such an understandable form. Also let me appreciate the math.(a lot of which I had forgotten) With Kepler, how you can make the correct observations, yet still come to an erroneous conclusion? But the observations remain correct, even useful for further...
  • Bob Trembley February 19, 2021 at 5:16 am on In the Sky This Week – February 16, 2021I joined a NASA Night Sky Network Zoom Watch Party - it was pretty cool! When I joined, an engineer was talking about his work on the helicopter - those wings are HUGE! I watched the the landing with my in-laws; it was cool to see the same image up...
  • Richard Hill February 19, 2021 at 12:54 am on Skyward by David Levy: February 2021Very nice meteor photo! Reminds me of one Geminid I saw as I was walking to night lunch on Kitt Peak. It passed right through Orion. Burned a memory in my brain.
  • Benjamin Goodison February 18, 2021 at 5:26 pm on In the Sky This Week – February 16, 2021... and three days later, Perseverance finally touched down successfully and is snapping its first images!I'm sure there were more than a few spontaneous prayers in the NASA control room in those last few minutes... there certainly were at my end :) Really looking forward to the wealth of new...
  • Bob Trembley February 16, 2021 at 8:31 am on In the Sky This Week – February 16, 2021Oh my goodness! Thank you SO MUCH for the kind replies!
  • Joseph O'Donnell February 16, 2021 at 8:00 am on In the Sky This Week – February 16, 2021Thank you for this. Always so helpful and enlightening.
  • Stan Sienkiewicz February 16, 2021 at 7:47 am on In the Sky This Week – February 16, 2021Bob, another great post. Wonderful way to start the day. Thanks for putting in the time to create these posts. Educational, beautiful, and awe inspiring. I really appreciate seeing these each week. Thank you, Stan
  • Fr. James Kurzynski February 12, 2021 at 10:40 pm on Space Exploration As An Act Of Interfaith Dialogue.Thanks Joel! I greatly appreciate your insight and encouragement!
  • Fr. James Kurzynski February 10, 2021 at 10:46 am on Polar Vortex, Snowy Owls, Puffins, and Answering the Question: Fr. James, If Global Warming Is Real, Why Am I So Cold?Thanks for you response! My apologies if it came across that Wisconsin was the southernmost Snowy Owls travel. That was not my intent. In my prep, I saw articles of sightings as south as Texas. The point being that some birds go south, others don't, and its a bit of...
  • Jim Cook February 10, 2021 at 8:05 am on Polar Vortex, Snowy Owls, Puffins, and Answering the Question: Fr. James, If Global Warming Is Real, Why Am I So Cold?Wisconsin is actually NOT very far south to find Snowy Owls in winter, as you can see from its eBird range map: https://ebird.org/science/status-and-trends/snoowl1/range-map I've subscribed to eBird's Snowy Owl reports list for almost 10 years now and while some years have seen more reports of sightings than others, they typically...
  • Fr. Timothy Sauppé February 8, 2021 at 8:38 am on A telescope made by an Angel…Br. Guy: This would make a great beginning to your opening address to the Solar Eclipse Retreat in 2024 for Bishops/Priests. I am going to save this. Fr. Timothy Sauppé
  • Richard Saam February 7, 2021 at 10:20 am on JWST update – Hexagons in SpaceI want to make an additional point on hexagons: In the realm of crystallography as described in solid state physics, there is an equivalence between real(energy) and reciprocal(momentum) hexagonal space. This was mathematically presented in Charles Kittel's (recently deceased) text "Introduction to Solid State Physics". And then something to ponder:...
  • Joel Hopko February 1, 2021 at 11:23 am on Space Exploration As An Act Of Interfaith Dialogue.Fr. Kurzynski -- I too was very moved by the Emirates and the other national efforts (Japanese, Indian etc.) Like you I found in them an expression of the human spirit and even the religious wellsprings that can inspire us toward a shared destiny beyond our fear and confusion. Thanks...
  • Richard Saam February 1, 2021 at 10:33 am on JWST update – Hexagons in SpaceAdding to Fernando's comments 'hexagons are pretty much everywhere in the universe': It can be argued that universal space time can be expressed as oscillating virtual hexagonal (~50 cm, ~8 hr) lattice units conforming to the conservation of energy and momentum and the universe vacuum energy density. There is some...
  • Christopher M. Graney January 27, 2021 at 9:05 am on Faith, Science and Astronomy TextbooksGood! Glad to hear it. As for myself I still think they need more on Kepler, at least if they are going to throw in bits of history with any religion content. It would help with those many students who are afraid that science is all about being non-theistic.
  • Joel Hopko January 24, 2021 at 12:24 pm on Faith, Science and Astronomy TextbooksProfessor Graney -- Call me easily placated, but I was actually somewhat relieved that most of the texts reviewed at least attempted to provide some nuance to the Galileo narrative. Certainly an improvement over the "martyr for science" trope so frequently dispensed over popular media. Obviously much work remains, but...
  • Fr. James Kurzynski January 20, 2021 at 6:48 am on Space Missions In 2021: What Are You Most Excited To See In This New Year?Thanks Janine! I love your reflection on the Al Amal mission! I was so impressed with the video they produced and, yes, I can't wait to see the United Arab Emirates contribution to science! It's something that isn't mentioned much, but should be mentioned more: True science, by its very...
  • Janine Samz January 19, 2021 at 9:37 am on Space Missions In 2021: What Are You Most Excited To See In This New Year?Thank you, Father. Let's see. I am drawn to three! The Emirates one is interesting because of the extent of what they are looking for and from history I know the Arab culture used to be a leader in science. It would be interesting to see them at work again...
  • Christopher M. Graney January 19, 2021 at 8:59 am on “Cosmos: Possible Worlds”, 10-13: Goodbye to a Losing SeasonMy experience with students and the general public is that a reasonable number of people will be amazed by the real universe. For example, people who saw the conjunction on the 21st were generally amazed. But certainly Cosmos seems to think that stuff has to be over the top.

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