Astro Hawk (Ian Kluft) ✅🚀🛰️

"Sunbeam" by XKCD comic - Being able to anticipate the movement of the Sun☀️ & Moon🌕 across the sky is likened to a superpower🦸, by setting the bar very low... Apparently a proper #science education and curiosity about the sky now qualifies as a superpower. https://xkcd.com/3253/ #astrophotography #astronomy #space #humor

"How Many Decimals of Pi Do We Really Need?" by #NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory JPL - Short answer: for spacecraft navigation around the solar system (as far as humanity has launched anything so far) NASA determined 15 digits after the decimal point is sufficient. So for NASA, 𝝿 = 3.141592653589793 . That yields an error of about 1.5cm/0.5in at the extremities of the solar system. Good enough. https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/edu/news/how-many-decimals-of-pi-do-we-really-need/ #astronomy #space #math #PiDay

"Astronauts on International Space Station take shelter in SpaceX Dragon as cosmonauts try to fix air leak" by @Spacecom@flipboard.com - As a precaution, #NASA had its #ISS #Crew12 astronauts shelter in the #SpaceX #CrewDragon with the hatch closed while 2 Russian cosmonauts worked on fixing a small air leak in the module Zvezda, one of the oldest parts of the space station from 2000. The shelter order was lifted after an hour. More work on the leak will be needed. https://www.space.com/space-exploration/international-space-station/astronauts-on-international-space-station-take-shelter-in-spacex-dragon-as-cosmonauts-try-to-fix-air-leak #ISSleak #space

20 years ago, June 5 & 6, 2006: I visited the New Mexico Spaceport to see UP Aerospace's new launch pad. This was before Virgin Galactic's runway and terminal were built. So it was a mostly-empty desert with a few dirt roads and this launch pad. It was first. UPA would begin flying commercial suborbital space payloads later that year, and continues to use the site today. #NewSpace #space #business

"There’s More To Global Positioning Than Just GPS" by @hackaday@hackaday.social - US GPS🛰️ started it but isn't the only public global navigation system now. Initially planned for military use, GPS was first to open to public use (after KAL Flight 007✈️ was shot down in 1983) and then others followed. Sophisticated multi-network receivers now improve #Positioning #Navigation #Timing #PNT resolution by combining data from all satellites in view. https://hackaday.com/2026/05/07/theres-more-to-global-positioning-than-just-gps/ #GNSS #GPS #Galileo #Glonass #Beidou #space

RE: @AstroHawk@spacey.space

2 years ago, April 8, 2024: I witnessed the total solar eclipse at Mesquite, Texas (eastern Dallas metro). We could see totality through thin clouds. It was a relief because it was overcast all morning. Cumulus clouds were slower to form than forecast because they depend on solar heating, which was diminished by the eclipse. We couldn't see the corona lines like I saw in 2017. But everyone noticed an enormous prominence (solar flare) peeking around the Moon. #SolarEclipse2024 #astronomy #weather

"Roman Space Telescope Launching in September" by Space Policy Online / Marcia Smith - #NASA #RomanSpaceTelescope🔭, named for astronomer Nancy Grace Roman, has a launch date: no earlier than (NET) September. It's a visible-to-near-infrared telescope like Hubble, with 100x larger field of view. It's planned to go to Sun-Earth L2 at 1M mi/1.6M km away, like Webb Space Telescope, where it won't have day/night thermal fluctuations that Hubble does. https://spacepolicyonline.com/news/roman-space-telescope-launching-in-september/ #astronomy #space

"Planetary Science" by XKCD comic - What happens if we find a planet with life? Of course, that means besides our own! 🤦 https://xkcd.com/3255/ #astronomy #planetary #science #exoplanets #WTF #humor

"SpaceX aims for mid-May Starship Flight 12 launch with revised trajectory" by NASASpaceFlight - Next #SpaceX #Starship test launch attempt from Boca Chica "Starbase" in Texas planned with daily launch windows May 12-18. The stack is Booster 19 and Ship 39. Iterating on previous tests, this also aims for 2nd stage Indian Ocean splashdown to test re-entry heat shield. https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2026/05/spacex-mid-may-starship-flight-12-revised-trajectory/ #NewSpace

I updated my program that lists close passes by NEO (Near-Earth Object) asteroids available in #NASA JPL data. We were warned of a flood of new objects discovered by the Vera Rubin Observatory. I changed the program from hard-coded watching within 2 lunar distances, to a configurable distance. For this niche, the flood is more of a rising tide. For now I set it back to 2LD. Most show up as discovered just before to days after the closest approach time. #LowFlyingRocks #asteroid #astronomy #space