ISS Tours

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“ISS Tours”, a video playlist of inside tours of the International Space Station by NASA, ESA, and Roscosmos astronauts and cosmonauts through the years, compiled by myself after scouring YouTube. You’ve seen how I see the ISS from the ground, and now you can watch how crew members in orbit see it from inside.

The most complete tours not cut up into multiple parts are the two most recent ones, with NASA’s Sunita Williams and ESA’s André Kuipers.

Also of interest is game developer Richard Garriott’s Man on a Mission, about his private visit to the ISS in 2008, during which he also filmed Apogee of Fear, ostensibly the first science fiction film recorded in space. (It’s really bad.)

And of course, there’s Chris Hadfield’s cover of David Bowie’s Space Oddity:

It’s not strictly a tour of the station, but there’s certainly enough scenery in the video to merit addition to the playlist.

Recent ISS Captures

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The visible part of the International Space Station’s orbit has lately taken it over our area early in the morning, and as we get up at 5AM every day now, I’ve had several opportunities to photograph ISS flyovers from the parking garage roof deck. (The LADEE launch photo was a great encouragement.) First two attempts were a bit cloudy, but the clouds actually served to enhance these long exposures.

ISS (50 sec f/3.5)
ISS through clouds

Another pass from last Monday was stymied by glaring light pollution from the new Metro parking garage across the street, but the ISS is faintly visible along the bottom of the frame.

ISS faint pass NW-NE (114s f/3.5)

So far what’s worked for me is to stick to ISO 200 to minimize grain noise and suburban light glare, keep aperture wide (usually f/3.5), and go for 30-120 second exposures to get a full streak across the field of view of a 16mm lens. Some time I’d like to try this from a much darker place, and see if I can use a higher ISO and even longer exposure time to get more stars — maybe even the Milky Way. As it is, I tried to shoot Orion and the harvest moon, with unimpressive results. (Wind wasn’t helping.)

Orion (30s f/4.5 ISO 200)
Moon

Previous ISS sightings here.

Sunday: NatGeo and Organ

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Sunday was fun: church service in the morning, and in the evening we had an inaugural concert for the newly finished First Baptist DC organ project, and in between we visited the National Geographic Museum to see A New Age of Exploration, an exhibit celebrating NatGeo’s 125th anniversary.

Panorama: National Geographic Wall of Covers
Amy and Dinosaur Teeth Me and Bathysphere

I noticed a few mentions of the Philippines in the displays: an 1898 cover about the islands shortly before the Spanish-American War, and a 1922 atlas marking the Philippines as a US territory.

Philippines as US territory on 1922 map National Geographic June 1898 "Philippine Number"

We also played a few augmented reality Kinect games, exercising the right to “bear arms,” so to speak.

Nat Geo Kinect Game

Back at church, the new organ was wondrous, rich and full in tone, with a pair of trompet en chamades in the English and French styles, and a variety of effects like a tinkling zimbelstern, harp, and convent bell. Our organist Dr Lon Schreiber of course got a standing ovation.

Inaugural Organ Recital, FBCDC

It’s going to be great singing under those pipes every Sunday. Here’s a video of Lon playing some Franck on the new organ before the recital:

Organ recital program in this tweet, InTowner story on the recital, more about the church’s organ project, the builders’ “Opus 2795” page on Austin Organs’s site, and my photos of the organ’s construction.

LADEE Launch

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On Friday night, 6 Sep 2013, NASA launched LADEE, a small robotic spacecraft designed to study the moon’s tenuous atmosphere. LADEE was lofted into space by a five-stage solid-fueled Orbital Sciences Minotaur V from Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Wallops Island, VA (which I had previously visited for the launch of Antares, another Orbital Sciences rocket). We watched the Minotaur launch from the roof in Fairfax, and I had my DSLR out to catch this 141 second long exposure:

Minotaur V Launch with LADEE lunar probe

Continue reading LADEE Launch

NJ/NYC Labor Day Weekend

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Visited Amy’s parents in New Jersey for the long Labor Day weekend. First time driving the Fiat 500 up that far, and it performed admirably.

Fiat 500 at Walt Whitman Service Area

On Saturday we went to New York to drop by The Metropolitan Museum accompanied by Amy’s brother and his fiancee, taking the train in from Elizabeth Station. I’ve always loved seeing all the foliage growing over the older tracks at Elizabeth.

The old overgrown tracks at Elizabeth Station

At the Met we viewed the Arms and Armor and Musical Instruments galleries, and an exhibit of 18th Century pastels. I really liked the lion and unicorn on this old American revolutionary powder horn.

Lion and unicorn on a Jacob Gay powder horn, 1759

On Sunday we went to church, had an outdoor barbecue with Amy’s family, and viewed a tape of her uncle’s roller coaster modeling days. We went home the next day, stopping at Walt Whitman Service Area to eat some Roy Rogers and look at the New Jersey merchandise.

"Jersey Girl" shot glasses and piggy banks "Jersey Girl" Bells

Full photoset from the weekend here.

Selected Readings on Internet History

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A Brief History of the Internet, from DARPA to the FNC, by the Internet Society.

Vannevar Bush’s “As We May Think,” seminal 1945 essay on a future machine that could visually trace user paths through a network of hypertextual content.

The Hut Where the Internet Began. It was in the Philippines that the late Douglas Engelbart first read Vannevar Bush’s essay and conceptualized a future network of humans interconnected via computer interfaces. He also demoed the first mouse.

Also see: CBC’s 1993 news story on Internet:

A 1994 feature on “the infobahn”:

And a 1995 “how to use the internet” feature:

Meadowlark

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Meadowlark Botanical Gardens was almost ridiculously beautiful when we visited on Saturday afternoon.

Meadowlark Botanical Gardens

We hadn’t been there for a few years (since we got the car in 2010). It was nice to see the Korean Bell Garden all finished.

Meadowlark Korean Bell Garden

Bees sipped from obedient plant flowers on the Potomac Valley trail.

Obedient Plant and Bee

And in Lake Caroline one could go out to the gazebo and look down at carp swimming around a giant snapping turtle with a moss-covered shell.

Carp and Snapping Turtle with Mossy Shell

More photos here.

Waffle House

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Waffle House Hash Brown Terminology A few things you should know about me and Waffle House:

  • I only know about Waffle House because of Homestar Runner.
  • The closest Waffle House to me is 30 miles away in Dumfries, Virginia, so I don’t get to eat at Waffle House much, which makes it a momentous event when I do.
  • There is a specific terminology for ordering hash browns with toppings. My preference is “Smothered, Covered, Peppered, Capped.”
  • You can get a bowl of grits with cheese, eggs, and ground sausage on top. With the hash browns and coffee it’s a complete breakfast.

Sausage egg and cheese grits

This particular Waflle House was really just a stopover on our Saturday trip to Busch Gardens Williamsburg.