Astro Potty

This is how a toilet in the space station looks like:

A Crater Named Balagtas

The surface of the planet Mercury is pock-marked with numerous craters, and the International Astronomical Union names them after famous artists and writers. 

One Philippine writer was immortalized with a crater on Mercury named after him - Francisco Balagtas, which was the pen name of poet Francisco Baltazar. He wrote, among others, the opus Florante at Laura. 


The Balagtas crater is about 98.82 kilometers in diameter, located at 22.6 ° center latitude and 12.75 ° E longitude. 


Sources:


USGS
Wolfram Alpha
Wikipedia

[Pictures are screenshots from USGS (top) and Wolfram Alpha (bottom)]

Red Moon

A total lunar eclipse occurred last June 16, 2011, and I was able to observe the astronomical event at the PAGASA Observatory inside the University of the Philippines Diliman campus.

Together with some members of the UP Astronomical Society, we observed the eclipse - the first one in 11 years - at the sun deck of the observatory. The eclipse started around 1:25am and reached maximum at 4:12 am.

This is my second major eclipse observation in recent years, the first was the total solar eclipse in China in 2009. 

pics, from top: the red moon at totality; the umbra becomes apparent at the start of the eclipse; members of the UP Astronomical Society with their observation gear; observing the eclipse

[cross-posted at Kin's Ant Farm, the 2 eclipse pics are courtesy of UP AstroSoc member A. Geronimo]

Castor and Pollux

Castor and Pollux, birthed by Leda and fathered by Zeus and King Tyndareus, the twins were legendary characters in Greek and Roman mythology. Because Pollux's father was a god, he was born an immortal, while his twin died.

They were immortalized in the heavens with a constellation of their own - Gemini (or The Twins). The brightest stars in the constellation were the stars named Castor, which 49.8 light years away from Earth, and Pollux, located 34 light years away. There is an extrasolar planet orbiting Pollux.

I saw these Roman statues (ca. 3rd AD) in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Sundial Umbrella

A Japanese designed came up with this nifty design of a parasol that also functions as a sundial. Align the umbrella using the built-in compass, and you can read the time from the sun's position along the grid lines.

via Neatorama