...Are a million to one, it seems.
OK, that may be a bit harsh. But Schiaparelli is still not responding and may have gone Beagle on us.
*Update*
Worse than Beagle, it cratered. Looks like some sensors went out of alignment and it thought it was already at zero altitude when it still had hundreds of meters to go - so it jettisoned the parachute, fired the retros only briefly and then hit Mars at about 300 kph. Still with a lot of retro fuel on board.
Big-badda-boom.
MRO found it a couple of days later and got some photos...link
Still, looks like the orbiter is going to be a success, and Schiaparelli was a proof-of-concept mission for the landing process, so all data is good data in this case. Just have to hope ESA get everything right for the big landing in 2020.
Tuesday, October 18, 2016
Saturday, October 8, 2016
International Observe the Moon Night
October 8th is International Observe the Moon Night, so although unable to make it international - I did observe the Moon from near the front gate this evening.
Despite days of cloud cover, we actually had a fine day today and I was able to see a lovely quarter moon this evening once it got dark, with clear skys directly above. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get the telescope outside until later in the evening, by which time another cloud bank was starting to drift over the horizon, and the whispy leading edge of it was already starting to obscure the Moon.
Undaunted, I still spent some time observing using my 30mm, 17mm, 8mm and 6mm eyepieces and the Lunar filter. Once the cloud started thickening up, I no longer required the filter.
I also snapped a few pictures with the phone held to the EP, which are displayed here...
This is my first official observation of the Moon where I've started crossing off items from the Lunar 100. This evening accounted for :
Map #34 - Lacus Mortis - A strange crater with rille and ridge
Map #72 - Atlas dark-halo craters - Explosive volcanic pits on the floor of Atlas
Map #20 - Posidonius - Floor-fractured crater
Map #10 - Mare Crisium - Mare contained in large circular basin
Map #28 -Hipparchus - First drawing of a single crater
Details taken through the 6mm eyepiece. Looked great, but was loosing detail due to the thin cloud drifting in. These craters don't feature on the L100 list.
Then the cloud really rolled in and that was it for IOtMN.
Despite days of cloud cover, we actually had a fine day today and I was able to see a lovely quarter moon this evening once it got dark, with clear skys directly above. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get the telescope outside until later in the evening, by which time another cloud bank was starting to drift over the horizon, and the whispy leading edge of it was already starting to obscure the Moon.
Undaunted, I still spent some time observing using my 30mm, 17mm, 8mm and 6mm eyepieces and the Lunar filter. Once the cloud started thickening up, I no longer required the filter.
I also snapped a few pictures with the phone held to the EP, which are displayed here...
This is my first official observation of the Moon where I've started crossing off items from the Lunar 100. This evening accounted for :
Map #34 - Lacus Mortis - A strange crater with rille and ridge
Map #72 - Atlas dark-halo craters - Explosive volcanic pits on the floor of Atlas
Map #20 - Posidonius - Floor-fractured crater
Map #10 - Mare Crisium - Mare contained in large circular basin
Map #28 -Hipparchus - First drawing of a single crater
Then the cloud really rolled in and that was it for IOtMN.
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