Hello class... I hope you have enjoyed your week back to school. We are so lucky that we have Monday off, and will have another short week! I hope that you are all enjoying your nice long weekend. Last post, I told you that the STS-128 (Space Shuttle Discovery) was getting ready to launch. Hopefully you were able to see the launch, but if not, it's ok, you can watch it here. Here is a video from NASATV, which was posted on YouTube:


Space Shuttle Discovery is attached to the International Space Station, and through out the week, the ISS (with Discovery attached) will be makeing some flybys. Here are the times for Kensington.

Sunday, September 6 8:26:58pm-8:29:01pm SSW with a max elevation of 29 degrees and a magnitude of -2.2

Monday, September 7 8:51:19pm-8:53:41pm WSW with a max elevation of 68 degrees and a magnitude of -3.8

Tuesday, September 8 7:41:12pm-7:43:18pm SSW with a max elevation of 31 degrees and a magnitude of -2.3

Wednesday, September 9 8:05:36pm-8:07:57pm WSW with a max elevation of 63 degrees and a magnitude of -3.7

Remember the lower the magnitude (apparent magnitude) the brighter the object appears to be. This will be a great sight for you to check out, especially with a telescope! I will try to remind you about this in school on Tuesday. All information regarding the flybys was taken from Spaceweather's Satellite Tracker (http://spaceweather.com/flybys/flybys.php?zip=20895)

I was on Spaceweather.com today and found this AWESOME picture of the moon shining through an Old Faithful eruption.



This photo was taken from www.spaceweather.com however, the original photo was taken by professor Jimmy Westlake of Colorado Mountain College.

On Wednesday, there was a 7.0 magnitude earthquake in West Java, Indonesia. This quake did trigger a small tsunami, however the tsunami did not cause any harm or damage. The earthquake, however, caused a lot of harm and damage.

(information regarding the Indonesia earthquake was taken from Yahoo! News http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090902/wl_afp/indonesiaquake)

Also, on Wednesday, heavy rainfall produced major flooding in West Africa (Burkina Faso). The flooding has destroyed many homes and buildings.

(information regarding the Burkina Faso flood was taken from Yahoo! News http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090903/wl_nm/us_africa_flooding)

I am not sure if you have seen the news about the wildfires in California. Firefighters have been working very hard to control wildfires near Los Angeles. They have finally been able to contain part of them, however the fires continue to burn. This has caused harm to people and wildlife in and around the area.

(information regarding the California wildfires was taken from Yahoo! News http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090905/ap_on_re_us/us_wildfires_200 )

Please remember to keep the people of Indonesia, West Africa, and California in your prayers.

Finally, next week in school, we will be talking about the Astronomy Club. I will be holding sign-ups, and we will be brainstorming some fun ideas!

See you in school,
Ms. T