INTOXICATING: Annabelle was sitting on the couch this afternoon, pink sparkly guitar strapped on, ready for practice. She'd gotten through the less-than-compelling "Sight Reader 2" exercise a couple of times but she just couldn't focus, for on the TV (with the sound muted) was a NASA-TV program about propulsion.
"I want to watch this!!!" she practically begged while the above was on the screen. ...
Seriously, who am I to say 'no'?
I'm going to have to up my game if she keeps this up. Which she will.
EARLY EXPLORER: Today I remembered to consult the handy-dandy "This Day in History" calendar for September that I'd made up a couple of weeks ago. Glad I did, because according to it, today is the day the Magellan expedition completed the first circumnavigation of the globe (in 1522).
First we talked about what "circumnavigation" meant. Then, we talked about explorers. On a daily basis, we talk about astronauts 'round here, and I told the kids that the astronauts are all explorers and adventurers, but back in the day, there were many pioneers who really didn't know where they were going. In 1969, Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins knew the moon was there and that they had a target of the Sea of Tranquility. But rewind a few centuries and explorers had no such assurances. They just knew something was out there and they wanted to go find it, so they set off to discover the unseen.
Magellan's story is a fascinating one. Born in Portugal, though he was orphaned at 10, he had the good fortune afterward of being assigned to the Queen's castle as a messenger. There, he learned about navigation and explorations of the time. In his 20s, he asked the king of Portugal to underwrite his journey to the Spice Islands. When he was refused, Magellan turned to the king of Spain. He agreed because Spain was looking for a better, westward route to Asia than around the southern tip of Africa. However, since the quest was uncharted and Magellan was unproven, it was hard recruiting shipmates. Many were prisoners released in exchange for signing on.
A fleet of 5 ships (the Santiago, San Antonio, Conception, Trinidad and Victoria) set sail in Sept. of 1519. It took them over a year to find the route around the southern tip of South America (now known as the Strait of Magellan). It was rough going, and the captain of the San Antonio bailed on the mission, leaving four ships.Magellan made it to Guam, but never as far as the Spice Islands, as he was a casualty in the Battle of Mactan in the Philippines Islands, reportedly taking a stake to the heart and a poison arrow to the foot. His boat was burned and his body left behind.
In the end, only one of the five ships (the Victoria) made it back to Spain.
Detail from a map of Ortelius - Magellan's ship Victoria
Only EIGHTEEN of the original crew of 250 men made the 'round trip. Yowza.
BTW, Magellan is the one who named the Pacific ocean, his "peaceful sea" tag inspired by its (relatively) calm waters.
DON YOUR GLASSES: Have some funky red cyan 3D glasses sitting around? I do from the Mars Science Laboratory Tweetup/launch. :) They came in hand for the Super Awesome 3-D image (below) from NASA's Curiosity. It was taken from the rover's Bradbury Landing site inside Gale Crater, using both the left and right eyes of Curiosity's Navigation camera.
Per NASA, "This full-resolution, 360-degree stereo panorama was taken on sols 2 and 12 of the mission, or the 2nd and 12th Martian days since landing (Aug. 8 and 18, 2012). It requires viewing with the traditional red-blue 3-D glasses, with red going over the left eye. The right and left stereo pairs are also available for creating your own 3-D imagery."
It's totally worth checking out the right view: http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/683940main_pia16140-Righteye.jpg
And the left: http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/683937main_pia16140-Lefteye.jpg
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