Thursday, October 30, 2008

A tour of the surface of Mercury from MESSENGER


A series of five 11-band images was captured by MESSENGER just after the spacecraft crossed the night/day line (the “terminator”). At the beginning of the movie, it is dawn in that region of Mercury and the Sun is just off the horizon. The long shadows cast by crater walls exaggerate the ruggedness of the terrain and highlight variations in topography. Though Mercury’s true colors are subtle, the 11 color bands of MDIS were combined in a statistical method used to highlight differences in color units. Older, low-reflectance, and relatively blue material is encroached by younger, relatively red smooth plains. Several lobate scarps or cliffs are observed, which are places where compressional stresses caused Mercury’s crust to fracture and shorten.

Mobile post sent by geosteph using Utterlireply-count Replies.

Thursday, August 7, 2008

Sudden Storm..Rain, wind, thunder, hail!



Mobile post sent by geosteph using Utterzreply-count Replies.

August 5-- day two of diminished capacity for the AC


August 5-- day two of diminished capacity for the AC
Originally uploaded by geosteph
I came into work on Monday and notice my office was kinda hot. I figured Goddard had the AC turned down over the weekend, so I wasn't too surprised. A few minutes later an email came from the building manager: the air conditioner in building 33 will be working at diminished capacity this week. Don't call maintenance....

On Tuesday I remembered to bring a little fan with me ..but left it in my car.. by 1:30 I couldn't stand the heat and headed to the parking lot to retrieve my fan...and here it is, working happily on my desk.

Monday, August 4, 2008

August 3... now, where should I bury them?


August 3... now, where should I bury them?
Originally uploaded by geosteph

Logan stayed with his grandparents on the Eastern Shore while Frank and I were in Hawaii...and I think he may have picked up some bad habits. We were walking Sunday afternoon over at the bible college and I let Logan off leash to run around. Over the weekend there are few people around and the gates are closed..so Logan has a lot of space to roam. He disappeared for a bit, and when he returned he led me to this pile of big tires.. and as you can see he looked pretty proud of his stash. I'm just wondering where he buried the the tractors!

thx to MK Hall for his comment on flickr for inspiring this post :-)

August 2- Stargazer


Stargazer August 2
Originally uploaded by geosteph

We have a quarter acre lot in an established neighborhood close to Goddard Space Flight Center (where I work). The summer after we moved in Frank started putting in flower beds throughout the yard. We have glads, dahlias, lilies, poppies, impatients, pansies and tulips.

Once we ran out of yard space for the flower beds (I wanted to preserve some of the lawn ;-) ), Frank started adding flower pots on our deck. This season we've had an incredible array of stargazers... orange and white and this beautiful pink. I'm not sure how he timed it, but we've had Stargazers blooming since mid June!

My neigborhood


Sunday, August 3, 2008

August 1


August 1
Originally uploaded by geosteph
I joined the August one-day photo group on Flickr. As luck would have it, my dad and a friend went out crabbing on the Eastern Shore of Maryland and came home with over a bushel of Maryland blue crabs. So I took Friday off, and Frank, Logan and I headed to Denton to spend the day with my folks and eat crabs.

Our house in Denton

We brought along our "snob beer" Loose Canon IPA from Clipper City Brewing Company... our latest very good IPA find. What you see here is the aftermath of our feast.. which also include cherry tomatoes fresh out of the garden and homemade peach cobbler with peaches from the tree in my parents yard. We all ate our fill and still there were plenty of crabs left to share with my brother and sister later.


As we drove home that evening we watched the line of cars crossing the Chesapeake Bay Bridge headed east for a week or weekend at the beach. Glad we were traveling west, and not caught in the long line of traffic! We moved to Denton from Baltimore City when I was 10. At that time there was only one bridge over the Bay.. and on summer weekends there where "one-way" patterns that opened the bridge to the Western Shore folks so they could get to the beach.. funny how our perspective changed when we moved... these damn Western Shore folks blocking our way so they could reach the beach :-)

My old neighborhood in Baltimore


Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Thursday, May 29, 2008

Monday, May 19, 2008

Let's Go!



Have you sent your name to the Moon, yet? Here's your chance to join the journey back to the Moon with NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter or LRO. Go here to send your name.

Monday, May 12, 2008

Sunday, April 13, 2008

Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Friday, February 15, 2008

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Thursday, January 10, 2008

Tuesday, January 1, 2008