Image of the Day: Mercury

This image of Mercury was taken yesterday, September 29th, 2009.


credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington

Here was Messenger flying past Earth in 2005: http://dwarmstr.blogspot.com/2006/04/messenger-departing-earth.html

And Mercury transiting across the face of the Sun from Earth: http://dwarmstr.blogspot.com/2006/11/mercury-transit.html

Geiger counter current draw

This circuit connected to my geiger counter uses on average 80uA-- that's 0.08mA. On a click, it will bump up to 0.1mA. On startup just for a second it uses 3mA. At those rates, and with a standard 9V battery (at 650mAh), it would run about 9 months continously.

Geiger counter offline

I've been having serial port problems with my geiger counter that has been running since December 1st, 2005, and so at the moment there is no reading.

Early September ISS Shuttle passes in Chicago

See the International Space Shuttle and the Shuttle together in orbit here in Chicago:

http://www.heavens-above.com/PassSummary.aspx?satid=25544&lat=41.781312&lng=-87.605097&loc=Chicago&alt=0&tz=CST