Evening Fireworks Tomorrow
by Walt Posted on Feb 19, 2008 under Buzz, Techno Love |
Ever read the story or perhaps seen one of the many adaptations of Mark Twain’s last book, Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court?
Then perhaps you remember the critical denouement of Hank “predicting” the solar eclipse, thus impressing the locals and saving his life?
That was fiction. “Ripped From The Headlines” fiction, however.
You see, 504 years ago this month, Christopher Columbus used the trick to save himself and his crew, stranded on the shores of Jamaica. It wasn’t a solar eclipse, but a lunar eclipse. And Columbus wasn’t headed for a death before the King and Merlin, but simple starvation. Columbus and crew pulled the “trick” off, and were given plenty of provisions by the superstitious natives, and were eventually rescued four months later.
Well, in case you have any superstitious types to fool, Wednesday night is your night to have some fun. East of the Rocky Mountains starting a little after 10PM on the East Coast the moon will get dimmer… and dimmer… until it gets lit by a blast of dull red light, the light from the shadow of the Earth. Very spooky if you haven’t seen it. The “totality” or total occurs about two hours after it starts.
Here at Cuppacafe Central in Southeast Texas, the sky has been sparkly clear for the last two nights, and the moon has been bright enough to read with. However, most really cool celestial events in Southeast Texas mean cloudy skies, and so I don’t expect to witness this event.
WAIT!!! THERE’S MORE!
At the very beginning of darkening of the moon, but far away from the official viewing area, something ELSE is going on up in the skies Wednesday night.
West of the Hawaiian Islands in the Pacific Ocean, the US Navy will be shooting down USA 193, the deadly Sooper Sekret Space Thingee filled with deadly gas
The satellite is already tumbling badly. Yesterday, the thing skipped off the atmosphere hard enough to make a brilliant flare, delighting as well as alarming those watching from below.
The US Navy has already filed a NO FLY ZONE order in their missile range and here’s a pic of the details:
Click the image for a more readable view
The times on the chart put USA 193 (as it is known by many) over the restricted area at 10:30 PM Eastern Time. That’s when the experts in the US Navy will go to work.
Most missiles that would come from… say… North Korea… would be lower and going slower than this current target. This satellite is going about twice the speed and three times the height as any Asian based missle intent on doing North America harm.
In other words, it’s not like the US Navy has anything like this satellite killer pre-programmed in their arsenal.
That said, I’m pretty damn confident they’ll hit it. What happens after that, however, will be very interesting.
Stay tuned!
EDIT: The map image is an combination of a couple of maps I found so won’t be precisely accurate.
