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StarDome News
BREAKING NEWS INSIGHT 2010
KEEPING YOU POSTED
NEW UPDATES
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JULY 2010
Easter Island, an Eclipse
Visting the VLT at Paranal
and astronomy in the Atacama desert
Well what an amazing trip...
Easter Island or Rapa Nui as we like to call it was an incredible place, the most isolated island on the planet
(5.5 hour flight from Santiago)
Andy and 2 of the famed Moai stone heads.
Easter Island - What an incredible place to be!
Andy Green ©
Our night time Rapa Nui view for 3 nights
The moon and Mercury
Eclipse Day
We had chosen an area of the island around the volcanic crater named Ranu Kau for our groups and we were proved right in our decision in that not all of Easter Island that day was clear, in fact some parts were totally clouded out. Having special access to the airport Meteo station proved the key for us and we chose correctly.
Partial phase - luckily the clouds were on the coast behind us and we had an unobstructed view of totallity
Viewed from Ranu Kau -Totallity
A special visit to the VLT
European Southern Observatory
On Cerro Paranal with the
worlds most advanced telescopes &
inside the telescope Dome of "Antu"
Astro Observing in the Atacama Desert
Having given several lectures on our trip along with night sky tours of the southern stars we then headed off into the heart of the arid Atacama desert in order to allow my group to experience the amazing night time skies of the Southern Hemisphere
They were not dissapointed as we spent a night at "Space Ob's" and whilst there we utilised their telescopes.
My group at Space Ob's
look at the Milky Way behind us....
not bad for just a 30 second exposure!
Night time, Atacama style!
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JUNE 6th 2010
Sunday Morning Radio Guest
A geat morning today as the Sunday Show's
newspaper reviewer
Andy reveiwed the Sunday papers and their news stories along with space chat with
radio presenter Kevin Saddington.
Andrew has done this review slot in the past and it's always nice to catch up with kevin. Radio is something that Andy really enjoys doing
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MAY/JUNE 2010
European Astronaut Centre
Cologne - Germany
A private tour around the EAC
EAC Building Entrance
Entrance hall & reception
With UK Astronaut Tim Peake
I interviewed Tim whilst at the centre
A really nice man and very helpful
We will follow his training and report back here from time to time
Visiting the EAC Neutral buoyancy lab
The 10m deep astronaut training pool
3 of ESA's new astronuats prepare to enter the water
they are: left to right - Alexander Gerst of Germany, Andreas Enevold Mogensen of Denmark and Thomas Pesquet of France
ESTEC
Noordwijk - The Netherlands
ESTEC is the
European Space Research and Technology Centre
ESA has sites in several European countries. ESTEC is the largest site and the technical heart of ESA
Great day and super visitor Centre - SPACE EXPO
ATT Astronomy Show in Essen Germany
The ATT show is the largest Astronomy show in Europe.
I have attended the show 4 times and will be there again next year
Entrance to one hall
Dealers in attendance - several from the UK this year
The next ATT will be on the 7th may 2011
we will be there - will you??
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MAY 2010
StarDome has been recognised by the
for our contribution to, and for the endorsing of the
"Washington Charter"
for communicating astronomy to the public
We have received an official certificate from the IAU for our contribution, a fantastic honour.
StarDome is always involved worldwide in the
promoting of astronomy & astronautics
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MAY 2010
Unveiling event for the Hubble Image
European Space Agency
The Hubble anniversary image unveiling event took place on the 15th of May at Greenwitch Observatory ltd. It was a special moment for StarDome given we were chosen by the European Space Agency as one of only 100 companies Europe wide to receive one of these amazing prints
It will be on display for the next few weeks at
GreenWitch in Dry Drayton, Cambridge.
Thanks to Greenwitch MD Neil Parker and Dr Lee Sproats for their help
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MAY 2010
Meeting a True Hero!
RAF Squadron Leader Tony Iveson DFC
Tony Iveson fought in the Battle of Britain with RAF Fighter Command, as a Sergeant pilot, joining 616 Squadron at Kenley flying Spitfires on 2 September 1940. On the 16th of September, he was forced to ditch into the sea after running out of fuel following a pursuit of a Ju88 bomber. He joined No.92 Sqn the following month. Commissioned in 1942, during his second tour he transferred to RAF Bomber Command, where he was selected to join the famous 617 Squadron, flying Lancasters. He took part in most of 617 Squadron's high precision operations, including all three sorties against the German battleship Tirpitz. He went on to become one of the most respected pilots in the squadron.
StarDome has made a donation to the New Bomber Command Memorial which will honour 55,000 RAF service personnel that served during the WWII
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MAY 2010
Meeting of minds
A meeting with Skylab Astronaut Dr Ed Gibson
He spent 84 Days, 1 hour and 15 minutes in space between 1973/4 aboard the
US space Station Skylab
It was also nice to meet up with former NASA flight Controller Gerry Griffin
Another highlight was having dinner with Apollo 13 astronaut Fred Haise, thanks Freddo!.
Meeting Jim McDivitt again
Note the Union Jack jumper!
and to meet former astronaut Vance Brand for a second time.
Thank you to Scott Kleinhesselink for taking the pics
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MAY 2010
British Interplanetary Society
&
Spaceflight Magazine
Promotion
StarDome's Andrew Green is on the membership committee at the British Interplanetary Society
In May he manned the BIS/Spaceflight stand at
Autographica 15 in Birmingham UK
Andrew has had several articles published in
Spaceflight magazine
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APRIL 2010
StarDome has been chosen as one of only 100 companies and science establishments throughout the whole of Europe to receive a European Space Agency
20th Anniversary Hubble Print
Credit: NASA, ESA, and M. Livio and the Hubble 20th Anniversary Team (STScI)
The newly released image is of a small portion of one of the
largest seen star-birth regions in the galaxy,
the Carina Nebula.
To celebrate the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope’s twenty years in orbit the European Space Agency/Hubble, in conjunction with their American partners, NASA and the Space Telescope Science Institute, will be providing StarDome with a large format print of Hubble’s anniversary image for display. The 2.38 metre x 1.5 metre image is a stunning portrait of a star-forming region taken by Hubble's new Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3).
Servicing Mission 4 in May 2009 (Andrew was at Kennedy Space Center NASA Press Site in Florida for the launch)
left the telescope more capable than ever. The astronauts repaired two instruments, replaced two others and also performed other necessary maintenance work on the veteran observatory.
The high quality of this image will make for a dramatic display and a fitting tribute to Hubble’s twenty years in orbit. ESA has therefore decided to produce ONLY 100 laminated copies of the image, and we have ben chosen to receive one, an incredible honour that reinforces our standing within the space community.
The Image is currently on display at
GreenWitch Observatory ltd
Dry Drayton, Cambridge
http://www.green-witch.com/
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MARCH 2010
An evening with Neil Armstrong
First man on the moon
I was able to attend an event at the US air base at RAF Mildenahll in Sufolk on March 11th at which the first man on the moon and the last man on the moon were in attendance
an amazing evening to be in the compnay of these legends and to hear Armstrong
say those imortal words in person
"Thats One Small Step For A Man
One Giant Leap For Mankind"
Thanks to Steve & Scott my American friends who both work at Mildenhall for the USAF for access to the base
Neil Armstrong, Gene Cernan & Apollo 13's Jim Lovell
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FEBRUARY 2010
Andrew was in attendance at Astrofest in London
I was able to distrubute more leaflets for my upcomintg trip to Easter Island for the 2010 Total Solar Eclipse
It should be a fantastic trip!
On the House of Optics Stand with one of the Explore Leaflets
Sir Patrick Moore was there as well.
It's always nice to catch up with Patrick
I have met Sir Patrick on many occasions
and have been fortunate to visit hm at his house, Farthings in Selsey, West Sussex
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