TEEVEE: Right after My Little Ponies ended this morning, we switched over to NASA TV. :)
What a treasure trove it was. We started off by watching amazing images returned by Ebb and Flow, the twin satellites mapping the moon using precise microwave measurements,
The satellites are flying in tight orbits around the moon, at about the same height a commercial airliner would orbit Earth. In the photo above, ted corresponds to mass excesses (bumps) and blue corresponds to mass deficiencies (craters). The map shows more small-scale detail on the far side of the moon compared to the nearside because the far side has many more small craters.
And here's a video of their findings ...
TANDEM DREAMS: At some point early this a.m. CJ migrated his way up to our room. At about 5:55 he was more than ready to get up and start his day, but first he wanted to tell me about the dream he just had. He said he was dreaming about the 2016 presidential elections, and it was a candidates debate and the debate degenerated into "whether or not Americans like their bacon too crispy" and the news anchor/moderator got fired on the spot for letting that happen. LOL!
But what I found REALLY funny about his dream was while he was dreaming that, at the very same time I was also having a dream about the 2016 presidential election and whom the candidates would be. Quite the coincidence, no?
SANTA WATCH: Since December 1, the kids have been keeping tabs on Santa's activities via the NORAD Web site: http://www.noradsanta.org/en/ .
For most of the year NORAD, the North American Aerospace Defense Command has to worry about the mission of aerospace warning and control for North America. However, in December, all that mundane stuff is set aside for their important Santa tracking duties.
There's an absolutely charming story regarding how NORAD got into the Santa tracking business. It seems back in 1955, a Colorado Springs based Sears Roebuck & Co. ad misprinted a telephone number for kiddies to call Santa. The number in the ad rang through to the commander's operations hotline. Doh! Fortunately, the director (Harry Shoup) had a sense of humor and civic obligation, and he had his staff check the radar for Santa. Thereby, a tradition was born.
In 1959, when Canada and the US created a bi-national air defense command called North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), the tradition of tracking Santa continued, and it has lived on through today.
Thanks to the magic of the Internets, NORAD is more popular than ever, and each day their Web site adds another game and more info about the Jolliest of Elves. It's an exciting, engaging way for the kids to get into the holiday spirit.
LIT UP: Thanks to a Facebook post by the White House, we caught some of the live broadcast for the National tree lighting ceremony. This year marks the tree's 90th anniversary. The tradition dates back to 1923, when President Calvin Coolidge lit a 48-foot fir tree featuring 2,500 red, white and green bulbs. It's been lit in times of war and peace, depression and prosperity.
A sign of the times, of COURSE the National Tree has its own Web site. There, we discovered a neat-o interactive history lesson for kids (and adults) in the form of an interactive timeline (http://www.thenationaltree.org/timeline/)
In addition to ogling a pretty tree, we got to hear holiday songs performed by the likes of Phillip Phillips, The Fray, James Taylor, Colbie Caillat, Jason Mraz, and more. Cool! You can watch some or all of what we saw here: http://thenationaltree.org/tree-lighting/
The National Tree's Web site even has fun holiday cards you can email people. Check 'em out here: http://www.nationalparks.org/holiday-2012/ecards.
The Moon video is fascinating altho I don't like the yellow color for the zero reference (I wanted to say "sea level" but that wouldn't be right.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the Tree links.