Scenes from Space #14

This image of comet Tempel 1 was taken 67 seconds after Deep Impact crashed into its surface. It taken by the high-resolution camera on the mission's flyby craft. I actually did a little work on the Deep Impact mission, and had a tiny amount of code on both the impactor and the flyby spacecraft. Way cool!

Pawtuckaway Night Hike

Mike, Dad, and I went on a night hike in Pawtuckaway State Park. It got down into the 20's while we were out there, and we could see the frost forming on the fallen leaves. We took the boys with us (Dugan, Bailey, and Cody), and they had a blast. Unfortunately, this is the only picture I got. :)


Long Time No See!

The last time I saw Ryan, he was less than one month old. Now, he is 16 months old! He has such a cute little personality, and is motoring around the house like a champ. It was great to see him!


Will the Real Slim Shady…

Please stand up!

This post marks our 50th, and what better way to celebrate than with some cute photos of Sean doing something new. Check this kid out! He's just getting the hang of crawling, but he is already trying to pull himself up on things. It started with him pulling himself up onto his knees, and playing with his new toy while kneeling. Then he figured - 'what the heck, i'm halfway there' - and got onto his feet instead!


Kite #9 – Double Delta-Conyne

Kite #9 has been finished for a while, bit I have had no luck getting it to fly until this morning. This kite is a double delta-conyne, which is basically 2 triangular cells with delta wings on them. This is the first kite I've tried to make with a 'fancier' design. The wings are made of different colored stripes - black, blue, green. yellow, and white. I had to use the Trefoil Dragon's tail to get this one stable in the air, but once it was up there it flew very well. This kite is about 7-8 feet wide and about 3 feet tall.

Scenes from Space #13

Believe it or not, this isn't the Death Star! It is actually Mimas, one of the moons of Saturn. The huge crater on Mimas (known as Herschel) is 80 miles across - almost 1/3 of the diameter of the entire moon. Herschel's walls are 3 miles high, parts of its floor measure 6 miles deep, and the central peak rises 4 miles above the crater floor. The impact that made this crater must have nearly destroyed Mimas. Fractures can be seen on the opposite side of Mimas that may be due to the same impact.

Happy Halloween!

Sean didn't seem to mind his Halloween costume at all. Probably because the fabric was a little slippery, and it helped him crawl across the carpet. We were worried that all of the dressed-up strangers coming to the door would scare him, but he hardly noticed them - he played in the candy bowl all night! (By the way, one of these images is especially for Mike Page. It's Sean's "Male Model" pose!)



Scenes from Space #12

The last of the Titan rockets was launched on October 19th, 2005. This launch ends the Titan program, whose first launch was in 1959. Originally designed for carrying nuclear warheads, the Titan evolved into the workhorse rocket that could lift the heaviest payloads. The Titan was the launch vehicle for many well-known missions - including manned Gemini missions, the Viking missions to Mars, the Voyager missions to the outer solar system, and the Cassini spacecraft now orbiting Saturn.