mettalfabrik

great pics shugs ,love the first one in particular,looks like somekind of huge metallic dinosaur striding across the river

spent last weekend down in Cornwall and popped down to lands end and lizard point a bit wet and windy but magic places all the same here,s a few pics lands end lizard point the old lifeboat station

just catching up with the news on kepler PASADENA, Calif. -- EXCERPT: NASA's Kepler mission has taken its first images of the star-rich sky where it will soon begin hunting for planets like Earth. The new "first light" images show the mission's target patch of sky, a vast starry field in the Cygnus-Lyra region of our Milky Way galaxy. One image shows millions of stars in Kepler's full field of view, while two others zoom in on portions of the larger region. The images can be seen online at: [project website; NASA portal; JPL Photojournal] "Kepler's first glimpse of the sky is awe-inspiring," said Lia LaPiana, Kepler's program executive at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "To be able to see millions of stars in a single snapshot is simply breathtaking." One new image from Kepler shows its entire field of view -- a 100-square-degree portion of the sky, equivalent to two side-by-side dips of the Big Dipper. The region contains an estimated 4.5 million stars, more than 100,000 of which were selected as ideal candidates for planet hunting. Two other views focus on just one-thousandth of the full field of view. In one image, a cluster of stars located about 13,000 light-years from Earth, called NGC 6791, can be seen in the lower left corner. The other image zooms in on a region containing a star, called Tres-2, with a known Jupiter-like planet orbiting every 2.5 days. "It's thrilling to see this treasure trove of stars," said William Borucki, science principal investigator for Kepler at NASA's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif. "We expect to find hundreds of planets circling those stars, and for the first time, we can look for Earth-size planets in the habitable zones around other stars like the sun." ...We've spent years designing this mission, so actually being able to see through its eyes is tremendously exciting," said Eric Bachtell, the lead Kepler systems engineer at Ball Aerospace & Technology Corp. in Boulder, Colo. Bachtell has been working on the design, development and testing of Kepler for nine years. see FULL RELEASE

any thoughts GW? re swine flu out break

yay! A new sunspot is forming at the circled location. The magnetic polarity of the spot identifies it as a member of new Solar Cycle 24. Credit: SOHO/MDI Daily Sun: 21 Apr 09 http://spaceweather.com/ NEW SUNSPOT: Breaking a string of 25 consecutive spotless days, a new sunspot is forming near the sun's northwestern limb. The magnetic polarity of the spot identifies it as a member of new Solar Cycle 24. Readers, if you have a solar telescope, now is the time to watch sunspot genesis in action.

thought so! i always like to think that the mayan thingy calender stops at 2012 cos they ran out of paper,or should that be clay tablets my calender stops on dec 31st beginning to worry abit!!

all you want know about Apophis http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/99942_Apophis

enjoyed the chase and reading the reports and adventures last year ,hope you all get some action by the way found a neat site http://www.wvlightning.com/index.shtml

jeez pete i was going to post the same thing last night but thought nobody would know ,you do mean the aztec or is it mayan? calender prophesy thing don,t you?

thousands of em check this out http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/ then check out the APOPHIS link at the bottom' possible armeggedon baby!!!

just an update from http://kepler.nasa.gov/ 2009 April 7 NEWS RELEASE: 2009-065 - DUST COVER JETTISONED FROM NASA'S KEPLER TELESCOPE Excerpt: Engineers have successfully ejected the dust cover from NASA's Kepler telescope, a spaceborne mission soon to begin searching for worlds like Earth. "The cover released and flew away exactly as we designed it to do," said Kepler Project Manager James Fanson of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "This is a critical step toward answering a question that has come down to us across 100 generations of human history -- are there other planets like Earth, or are we alone in the galaxy?" ..."Now the photometer can see the stars and will soon start the task of detecting the planets," said Kepler's Science Principal Investigator William Borucki at NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif. "We have thoroughly measured the background noise so that our photometer can detect minute changes in a star's brightness caused by planets." At 7:13 p.m. PDT on April 7, engineers at Kepler's mission operations center at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, Boulder, Colo., sent commands to pass an electrical current through a "burn wire" to break the wire and release a latch holding the cover closed. The spring-loaded cover swung open on a fly-away hinge, before drifting away from the spacecraft. The cover is now in its own orbit around the sun, similar to Kepler's sun-centric orbit. See an animation [med-res -|- low-res].... With the cover off, starlight is entering the photometer and being imaged onto its focal plane. Engineers will continue calibrating the instrument using images of stars for another several weeks, after which science observations will begin.

NO Bitterness here,your need to put it there says everything,and i really dont care who your friend is,as for your website thats a good site which i do visit ,i do hope your operation has small carbon footprint and all that lovely merchandise hope thats all eco friendly-but i decline to send my hard earned cash to a tax haven

i have an understanding of what the expedition is about thats why i posted the link as for kids -i am nearly as old as betty,s boy as for results lets see what they come up with i want to see them! and i hope they clean up before they depart bryan NOT an executive manager

on the contrary i am fervant admirer of people who accomplish these things what ever their motives, as for your rant about true britons and prince charles he was never a patron of any of the things you mention,in fact everest was climbed by a new zealander and a nepalese ,the moon was was visited by americans and the nile well there is alot of debate about that but was finally confirmed by henry stanley morton an american,,i think you,ll find that wales other interests are polo and shooting birds by the thousand ,your opinion of jade goody et al i ,ll grant you that,but your servile suck up to the heir apparent is galling he being from a long line of debauchers ,womenisers, warmongers ,madmen,and murderers,most of them not even true britons your generation(who helped to get us in our present situation) ought read up its history before pontificating from their ivory towers

if you care to read my post correctly you will notice i started with 'on a different tack,implying that i had changed the topic therefore there is no relevance ,just a personal view of a hypocrite and social leech no better than a benefits scrounger your grasp on reality is no better than your grasp of english comprehension, is that 'ad homs, enough for you! i do so detest pompousness especialy of the executive kind!

thought that linky would stir it up abit.and on a different tack i see the patron is old prince big ears himself i recently visited poundbury his model green village ,sticks out like a sore thumb nothing in common with local area looks like a vast collection of mini chalgroves another example of namby pamby enviro politics from an over priviledged dreamer

had not heard about this could be interesting for the ice watchers out there! http://www.catlinarcticsurvey.com/

latest from nasa,sort of admitting the next maximun,when it finally arrives ,will be well below average!! http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2009/01...olarminimum.htm and hey jethro i,ve got some ploughshares!!

rather odd that BOEING is one of CSIRO,s major partners, i wonder whats in it for them!

been following this on the solar activity thread since 2006 when the mimimum was expected to bottom out ,and with every prediction thats come since, coupled with the jovian theory i believe we are entering a very quiet sun phase, i do believe this will have an impact on the climate but i am no expert ,and in anycase minima can last up to 15 years if you look at past records,whatever it is attracting attention in the right places now and the data suggests this MAY be the case, lets see how many times the prediction for solar max is adjusted between now and this time next year then perhaps there may be something else to worry about bog off! i like it, you,ve got a way with words jethro lol

maybe 6\7 years ago now ,but i remember going to the easter superbike round at thruxton race circuit,it was a sunny day with a fairly strong breeze so felt quite cool,when i got home i found i was very red ,a builder mate of mine commented on my appearance saying that it was,nt sunburn but what he called windburn common among outdoor workers outside the summer months,anybody else familiar with this term?

wind here is now a constant 20mph and with showers in the area but bright inbetween the black cloud hey a thousand posts!!!

thought this was pretty cool,ties in with the kepler mission too ,make your own starwheels via a printable pdf http://kepler.nasa.gov/ed/starwheel/index.html

bright blue skies at the moment,and razor sharp clear which is always a sign that it wont last,already see the squall line approaching way out west temp=7c wind=SW@15MPH pressure=1006mb from 1004 @3am RH=61% CHEERS Bryan

cheers for the swift reply mate, yeah it would have been neat if it had been in the same neighbourhood as keplers search any way lets hope the launch goes ok bryan