I like astrophotography because it is challenging. A good picture is only partly determined by the quality of optics and mount, the transparency and turbulence of the atmosphere and the darkness of the night sky. A large role is played by how the equipment is actually used: how collimated the optics, how good the polar…
Review: Go, Flight – The Unsung Heroes of Mission Control, 1965 – 1992 (2015)
Go, Flight by R. Houston and M. Heflin is a typical example of the excellent works published since 2007 by the University of Nebraska Press in their Outward Odyssey: A People’s History of Spaceflight Series. The narrative covers the early years of human spaceflight in the United States, from Gemini all the way to the first turbulent decade…
Review: Rocket Boys (1998)
Rocket Boys is a marvellous, masterfully written autobiography. It recounts the formative years of Homer H. Hickam, Jr., a young man growing up in the mining town of Coalwood (West Virgina) with a burning passion for rocketry. It is the story of how he and his high school friends overcame technical, financial and personal hurdles…
Hot Pixels, Star Alignment and Interpolation
A few months ago, while testing out ways to reduce the effects of light pollution on pictures taken from my downtown “observatory”, I took a few subframes of the Leo Triplet (M 65, M 66 and NGC 3628) with a Baader Planetarium UHC-S filter. As the intent was just to get a first impression of…
Review: Mission Control (2015)
For a long time, I could not find any book addressing the topic of mission control operations in a generic, conceptually satisfying and complete way. There is, of course, ample and excellent literature about the heroic days of the Mission Operations Control Rooms (MOCR) during Mercury, Gemini and Apollo. The best known examples are certainly Failure…