Astronomy Scrapbook Thursday 10th April 2014

On This Day
10th April 1813 death of Joseph Louis Lagrange

Possibly the greatest mathematician of the 18th century Joseph Lagrange is best known for the Langrangian points, these are the 5 locations around a planet`s orbit where the gravitational forces and the orbital motion of the space craft, Sun and planets create a stable location from which to make observations.

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Astronomy Scrapbook Wednesday 9th April 2014

On This Day
9th April 1964 Explorer 9 Burns up in Atmosphere.

Following more than 3 years in space the Explorer 9 balloon satellite burns up in the atmosphere. The 12 feet diameter sphere was launched on Feb 16th 1961 and made 14,000 orbits. Explorer 9 investigated the atmosphere and its drag effect.  

Astronomy Scrapbook Tuesday 8th April 2014

Eye in the Sky
8th April Mars at Opposition

The red planet comes to opposition in the constellation of Virgo.



On This Day(1)
8th April 1732 birth of David Rittenhouse

A renowned American astronomer, clock maker, mathematician and surveyor Rittenhouse would become the first American to see the newly discovered planet Uranus in 1781.



On This Day (2)
8th April 1964 Launch of Gemini 1

This was an unmanned launch of the future 2 man Gemini space craft series. The launch was successful  however  it was 1 second late!

Astronomy Scrapbook Monday 7th April 2014

On This Day
7th April 1968 Launch of Luna 14

The Russian Moon probe Luna 14 which was the final flight of the second generation of the Luna series. It successfully orbited the Moon for 8 days sending back scientific data including information on  solar charged particles and cosmic rays, and the motion of the Moon.

Astronomy Scrapbook Friday 4th April 2014

On This Day
4th April 1914 Birth of Zdenek Kopal

The Czech astronomer Zdenek Kopal April 4th1914- June 23rd 1993 studied close binary stars and variable stars. After World War 2 he became head of the astronomy department at the University of Manchester, England .

Astronomy Scrapbook Thursday 3rd April 2014

Eye in the Sky
3rd April 2014

The waxing crescent moon lies close to the Hyades open cluster in Taurus this evening. The Moon should also be showing earthshine which causes its dark side to become dimly visible.

On This Day
3rd April 1964 Failure of an ATLAS F rocket.

An ATLAS F fails in a launching from Vandenberg Air Base. It was the 7th successive flop for the ATLAS programme since an ATLAS D failed on 6th Sept 1963

Astronomy Scrapbook Wednesday 2nd April 2014

On This Day (1)
2nd April 1963 Launch of Luna 4

It is believed to have been a Lunar Lander mission but a course correction seems to have failed and the probe flew past the Moon at a range of 8,500 km on 6th April 1963

On This Day (2)
2nd April 1964 Launch of Zond 1

Officially described as an "automatic station" for the purpose of "further developing a space system for distant interplanetary flights" Many observers believed that Zond 1 was a Venus fly or even designed to impact Venus, but after two course corrections contact was lost in mid May 1964.

On This Day (3)
2nd April 1998 Launch of TRACE

TRACE ( Transition Region And Coronal Explorer) was a NASA space telescope designed  to study the Sun in UV and EUV it was operational until 2010.

How TRACE viewed the Sun