July 4, 2005
Deep Impact
It appeared that no cable news network provided live coverage of Deep Impact hitting Comet Tempel 1. So much for the 24 hours news cycle.
So I watched the NASA TV feed via the internet.
The mission to slam a coffee table into Manhattan was was successful!
The preliminary photos look awesome, I suspect as better ones come in some of them will make their way to computer desktops the world over.
More pictures are here.
Congratulations to NASA and the University of Maryland for providing us with one heck of a Fourth of July fireworks show... A job well done.
With BOTH Natalie Hollaway and Dylan Groene missing, I don't think FOXNews could sneak in World War Five...
Posted by: jk at July 4, 2005 9:14 AMIs that coverage not embarassing? I've pretty much forsaken TV news (except local stuff)... when i turn it on to Fox, it's all Aruba, all the time.
The reporters all suckered Roger Ailes into open ended trips down there.
I'm embarassed for them.
Posted by: AlexC at July 4, 2005 10:41 AMOf all the things government unjustly spends my tax money on, this is the one I object to least: space exploration.
I set the PVR to record the NASA channel and, armed with locating info from http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/network/2005/06/28/deepimpact.html, headed out to the hot tub with my binoculars. I'm pretty sure I had the comet located. I found Jupiter, low in the western sky and the brightest object around. (Also the only one with three moons visible in orbit!) Then, up and to the left, a bright star that had to be Spica. About a half-binocular field-of-view above and slightly left from Spica was a small dot not visible to the naked eye. I watched it for about 15 minutes, 5 before and 10 after the scheduled impact. Nothing. If anything it appeared to grow dimmer, or possibly a bit fuzzy although that could have been eye fatigue.
It goes without saying that the TV pictures were better. I had fun though!
Posted by: johngalt at July 4, 2005 2:03 PMJohngalt, actually spending on science is Constitutional! Article 1, Section 8, Clause 8. "progress of science and useful arts".... of course the definitions of those could be subject to debate.
Damn you round earth! Damn you! It was all below the horizon.. you non-east coasters got a chance anyway.
Posted by: AlexC at July 4, 2005 11:48 PMWe're all in agreement here, no news coverage? I was all set to have my trusty TIVO record the event, now all I needed was some event coverage to record. A NASA channels sounds cool, is that a satellite system? But come on, what else news worthy was going on at the time that was so important that no coverage was planned? Surely there must still be some broadcast equipment out Michael Jackson's way that could have been trucked over to JPL.
Posted by: Silence Dogood at July 5, 2005 10:27 AMTrue story. NASA TV is on satellite and some cable systems. Typically watching paint dry is more exciting, but then there are those days...
But they do stream it online.
Posted by: AlexC at July 5, 2005 3:02 PM"...by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;"
This is the patent and trademark provision Alex. Surely you detect no penumbra about government funding!
Posted by: johngalt at July 6, 2005 2:52 PM | What do you think? [7]