Soyuz Docking Tonight
Destination: ISS. Image Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls
After Wednesday’s successful launch from Kazakhstan, the Soyuz spacecraft carrying the Expedition 13 crew is scheduled to dock with the station tonight at 11:19 p.m. EST. Live coverage of the docking begins at 10 p.m. Eastern on NASA TV.
What a fantastic photo!
If you’ve never witnessed spacecraft docking with the International Space Station, tonight’s your chance. Docking events are a lot of fun to watch, and no simple task — but they do a great job of making it all look easy.
Added 10:22 CST:
Expedition 13 has arrived at ISS. The docking went quite smoothly and right on time. The views of Earth delivered during tonight’s coverage from some 220 statute miles were absolutely breathtaking.
37 Responses to “Soyuz Docking Tonight”
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Shoot, better than double D batteries on that one. That flame looks cool, does it not?
Watching the launch made me wish we already had the CEV instead of the Shuttle. There’s something to be said for the simplicity of “dumb rockets.”
Yup, sometimes simplicity gets you from point A to B more efficiently. Complexity is great when it all works. I should be mad at Discovery–I changed my vacation 3x for it and it still failed me when I was so close to seeing it go off. It still burns me. Michael Kearney from SPACEHAB told me he thought the shuttle would go beyond 10 years…I don’t think so, but he has a vested interest. (He drives a Harley, btw.) SPACEHAB
docking is an interesting exercise in the space, but it is not a simple task to dock with in the “o” gravity, a simple push is sufficient to go besides the docking region.
sunil (may be in space someone forget his homesikness ! )
Awesome photo!
Absolutely. One of the best rocket plume shots I’ve ever seen.
“Plume,” thank you. When I wrote my above post the word just wouldn’t surface.
Wolve, the font is smaller when one posts. It’s harder to read, especially after being on the PC so much. Don’t mean to be a thorn in your side, but the font you had was really quite fine. This font actually hurts my eyes and I’m squinting.
Please consider that especially for older people, small font is painful to read. I know, because one of my 62 year old board members asked me to increase the size, and everybody else likes it. Just my $.02.
I didn’t change the font size. It’s just Arial instead of Lucida Grande.
Is it better now? I bumped it up one notch.
Ditto sidebar links.
…and fixed the time for silly DST.
I still like the old font better. This font comes across not as crisp as the prior font–like it’s pixilated not smooth. I don’t mean to be a pain.
But here’s some great news….Goodbye to lack of integrity!
Sorry, he’s been my nemesis for years now, and if you like him, I’m sorry for you (not)…NASA doesn’t need him if Dems don’t act so stupid. (I’m a registered nothing, btw.)
Oops, sorry Wolve, thanks for what you did fix/change. I didn’t mean to sound like a whining ingrate! Red dots are gone….did you delete some atheist links or am I imagining that?
Solar Flare: sorry the revised font scheme isn’t your bag, but I like it better.
For grins, I conducted an informal poll with a few pals over the tweaked look and they all think it’s an improvement over the defaults. I think it just looks cleaner. No worries.
What are the “red dots” you mention? I’m not sure what you mean…
As for links, I actually added several extras, but just tidied up the badges at the bottom of the sidebar, removed a couple because they looked too “busy.” I replaced the Atheism Online badge with one to a friend’s site, Atheist Resource (it’s much better, and, I don’t like the “-ism” at the end in all honesty, since there’s no doctrine, etc.).
Concerning DeLay’s resignation — good riddance. Aside from numerous other egregious & inflammatory things, this was the same bonehead who said:
– in response to the 1999 Columbine shooting in Colorado: “Our school systems teach the children that they are nothing but glorified apes who are evolutionized [sic] out of some primordial soup.”
– on separation of church and state: “I don’t believe there is a separation of church and state. I think the Constitution is very clear. The only separation is that there will not be a government church.”
– on evolution: “Give me one example that proves evolution. One example! You can’t.”
Needless to say, I despise the man. Politics in general really tick me off these days, so I don’t follow all the madness nearly as closely as I used to.
BAUT is soooo slow, I thought I’d come here. (I had to retype a post 3x!)
Solar Flare: sorry the revised font scheme isn’t your bag, but I like it better.
Ok, I’ll still luv ya anyway. The red dots are back…the ones next to Waypoints, Archives, etc. The font looks clearer on my home PC than at work. Go figure.
As far as Delay, this article and this blog entry with links. And this article last week in the Houston Chronicle. In fact, they have a whole sidebar devoted to scheming politicians.
Then there’s this local blog woman who for years has paid attention to Delay…going to teacher’s meetings and such. She’s pretty sassy and funny, but very serious. Take a look: http://www.brazosriver.com/
Also, do you remember how he reacted when the Dems pulled that quorum and escaped to OK? One can argue if that was right or wrong, but people’s houses and families were bullied, and that’s not the first time. A Greek man I know, who invites me every year to his house for Easter (ironic, huh?) has been in the roach-exterminating business for 30 years and knows Delay from his roach-killing days. His opinion is not favorable. So, I am delighted to see him gone–not just for his recent issues, but 13 years of issues I’ve paid attention to. A good strategic politician he is–but unethical. As far as NASA, heck, Bush didn’t even visit JSC when he was governor–that is true. Me and another guy wrote into the paper once supporting NASA, but they edited out some of my more political comments. I think one could still tell that despite Bush, that I a liberal-minded person, supports space exploration.
You notice Dante puts politicians in the 8th Circle of Hell with the hypocrites, the thieves, astrologers and such? (I’m a literary atheist, you get that I hope).
I wish we could clean house…literally! (Thanks for letting me rant to a fellow Texas denizen, especially as neither of us are native Texans.)
Yeah, politics get my blood pressure up–I’ve tried to concentrate on the science part of it mostly. The immigration issue I’ve argued about vehemently since early 2003 and my opinions still stand, so to me it’s like, “Where have you been lately?”
Lol, that was a choppy, poorly written post! See, Delay gets my ire up.
“The red dots are back…the ones next to Waypoints, Archives, etc. The font looks clearer on my home PC than at work.”
Oh, you were describing the bullets on my sidebar… those are white, actually, which I reckon explains my confusion.
The only colors used in the content are white and blue(s) (save for the grey borders and dividers). BTW, I never removed the bullets; for whatever reason they display just fine in Firefox but not in IE (along with some other things, like the abbreviation tags… grr). I was just too lazy to go chasing down a fix.
At work the little red dots do not appear. At home they do. They are most definitely red, but faint. That’s why they’re annoying–they’re not bold enough to stand out, yet they are noticeable…they look like bullets yearning to be important, but can’t be. No big deal. I like your blog–it feels comfy and familiar (minus the cons.) because our little board has a black, starlit background, so I’m use to it.
Just out of curiosity: which OS & browser are you using at home?
What kind of monitor are you using, and when’s the last time it was calibrated?
There’s no coding in my stylesheet for any sort of red; the bullets are intended to be as white as white gets, and that’s how they display for me (#FFFFFF, or in RGB, 255,255,255 — just like the content text). If they’re somehow appearing as red on certain systems I’d like to know the particulars so that I can dive in and prevent that from happening (if it’s something on my end unbeknownst to me)… it’d wreck my whole theme.
I thought you could see that as one can with BlogPatrol, ISP trackers and such. You don’t have that capability on these blogs? Hmm. You can see my ISP #’s, though, right? WXP2002, IE. Calibrated my monitor? I should do that? Never known of doing such a thing. The operating system at work doesn’t show ANY bullets at all. Our system there is WXP (can’t think of which version), but I don’t know what they do as far as calibration. The browser is IE, too. I just know that at work fonts and such don’t look as good as at home. My home PC is set to automatically update. Maybe I need Geeks on Call.
I can see IPs, but didn’t realize until now that my site meter gives me individual user statistics, browser, OS, resolution, etc. Yay! I thought it was only capable of showing overall browser and OS share. Glad I asked.
Hmm. When I access my page with IE I don’t see any dots (and it appears we’re running the same version on the same OS). Maybe it’s a resolution issue? I’ll change mine to match yours and find out. Red dots = baaaaad!
Hmm. Still no dots.
But…. OW, MY EYES!
Perhaps I should put a note somewhere advising people not use 800×600 resolution. It looks…. terrible… set that low.
Could I interest you in bumping up to 1024×768 or 1280×960?
At work they lock our control panels, so I can’t fool around with the screen size, but unlike many others, I choose to keep my screen 800×600. I can’t stand the small font, because after a while I’m really squinting. I’d rather scroll and it be big. So, absolutely not, I can’t make it smaller, because I’m on the PC all day, and often (it seems)all night. My eyes get red and I start to see halos around the streetlights. You have to remember that I have worked under fluourescent lights at work for years. I’ve tried various things to dim the lights such as take out on of the lightbulbs, but that annoys them. Screen covers and such annoy me. I’m not being a baby about this….:-)
So, at work, it’s obviously not the Home Version of WXP, but it looks worse–the font is pixilated. It’s IE verson 6.0 or something. No dots. It all looks better at home and I use 800×600 there too, so I don’t know why you’re saying “Ow.” It looks fine at home, except that they are little red dots. Why not get rid of the dots altogether? I don’t think bullets are necessary and it’s a cleaner look without them.
You use XP? What version?
I’m on XP Pro.
See, that’s what I’m saying: there’s nothing in my formatting that can account for the little red dots you’re mentioning. Something else has to be causing you to see them, I just don’t know what that is, nor how to get rid of it.
Here’s how the page looks in Firefox (white bullets display).
And here’s Internet Explorer (no bullets display).
I was saying “Ow, my eyes” at the 800×600 resolution not over the size of the text itself, but how badly everything on the page pixelates. The layout isn’t designed for it.
Argh, I spent time on this, but it was good, b/c that previous ISP email address I never use, and I forgot to change my fraudently compromised Visa check card with them and my payment is due.
OK, I forgot how to save a screen shot without all the other junk on it–how do you do that? I just learn PC by doing–never studied it. Here is a screen shot: Now, the dots don’t look red, but you can see faint little dots. Saved as a RLE file (whatever that is) they do show up as red, but Image Shack doesn’t allow RLE’s.
Seeing the white bullets, I definitely think it looks better without them, imo. They’re a bit bright. In a way, bullets are banal–they’re good for reports and such. (This is criticism with a smile.)
I have no idea why two IE’s show the dots differently-none or red. I have no problems with IE, despite friends claiming Firefox et all are better. I think everything looks good now. The more one adds to the sidebars, the more it detracts from the entries themselves. Your entries are very well done and linked with great pictures. Everytime I like a site the way it is, people change it…like the Houston Chronicle–I hate their new design–it’s so busy and harder to navigate. My friend’s movie site did the same thing. I mean look at Phil’s site and blog–it’s pretty plain, but it hasn’t stopped anything.
:-)
Well, shoot, I messed up the link:
Screen shot of red dots
Thanks for that screenie, I was scratching my head … and actually still am to a large extent. I know why IE doesn’t show stylized bullets — in a nutshell, it’s picky (read: retarded) and won’t process certain elements as they were intended to be viewed.
The default for these Kubrick-based WordPress themes gives you these >> bullets for lists where specified. Like on Phil’s blog, (which uses the original Kubrick theme). Using other browsers, you’d see the links and lists like this. I thought those were hideous, so I changed to the small disc (yummy).
What I can’t figure out for the life of me is why your IE shows things that:
1) aren’t supposed to be there
2) while my IE (same version) doesn’t
3) in a color of its own choosing, without regard for what’s specified by my stylesheet… which is what’s supposed to run the show.
I’m now convinced that your computer just totally hates me.
Something that might fix this: I may try replacing the disc-style bullet to a smaller picture element. I’m hooked on my bullets and like what they add; if I get ambitious I’ll incorporate that and reduce the size from what they are now.
Oh, btw… Firefox kills IE. You should spend time with it at some point. After 15 minutes on a plain vanilla version (no extensions/add-ons), I made it my default browser back when it was still in beta. It’s exponentially better now. Put it this way: I’d rather not have internet access than be without FF.
Grrrrr…..banal bullets!
Maybe my computer knows I like red instead of white.
I hear FireFox, FireFox, FireFox, then I hear people (on BAUT) say it’s not so great. Why is it so great? I don’t have a problem with IE, here or at home. So, what is it going to do for me personally?
I’ve seen a couple of people on the forum mistake other “issues” with the board for Firefox glitches. The only issue I’m aware of with the vBulletin software is the manner in which Firefox processes the WYSIWYG text editor (the “enhanced interface” in the user CP); it’s a very minor one at that… sometimes it doesn’t recognize the “paste” command. That’s it. Big deal, hehe. The majority of users I’ve seen on the board trumpet its praises.
I’ll use a spacecraft analogy: IE is Mariner 4; Firefox is Mars Recon Orbiter. Seriously.
Firefox is much faster and less bloated, offers better security (from virii, hijacking, and spyware), has superior ad and pop-up blocking, tabbed browsing, an integrated search feature with engines you specify, and extensively customizable with add-ons of your choosing for what best suits your style of browsing. It’s not just some other random browser du jour — it’s a comprehensive personal solution for how you approach the Internet.
Here’s a good example, even though it hardly scratches the surface. After however many revisions, IE finally included a meager pop-up blocker a while back. When you go to a website, if pop-ups attempt to launch, IE will usually prevent them from opening. Whee. Say I wanted to go read the FOX News site (which I don’t, I just picked their page because they’re one of the worst offenders). So I load the page and yeehaw, IE blocks their pop-up. But there are still tons of ads within the page itself; they’re ugly, irritating, and slow down your loading time. Things like that irritate the crap out of me. Screenshot: FOX News in MSIE. Firefox comes standard issue with an extension called Adblock — it does precisely what its name says. You can configure it however you like (or turn it off entirely), but here’s a screenshot of how the same page looks in FF. Presto. It literally removes the ads from the page’s content itself in addition to blocking any pop-ups.
I could probably write a novel on this; my browser is highly supercharged, with extensions I’ve installed from RSS management (I get live updates from pages I like without having to surf there and hunt for them — it does things like alert me when someone posts a comment on my blog, for example, or when Spitzer posts a press release, etc) to displaying my current weather and 5-day forecast (down to the lunar phase), to the BBcode extension which gives me complete formatting options with a mouse-click for bulletin boards and XHTML.
It does everything except cook you dinner, basically. You couldn’t pay me to use another browser over my beloved FF.
You can configure it however you like (or turn it off entirely), but here’s a screenshot of how the same page looks in FF. Presto. It literally removes the ads from the page’s content itself in addition to blocking any pop-ups.
But my job does suck, lol. (Referring to the add in your example). Yes, in IE my pop-up blocker makes a popping noise and throws up a yellow bar telling me it’s done its job. But that annoys me as well, and I have to close it. I like as uncluttered window as possible. I hate ads and we pay $$ not to have them on our board and in my photo center. So, you’re doing a good selling job here…I might be convinced to change.
Now, with the tab browsing–that sounds good. I usually have at least three windows open, sometimes more, as I am alternating between reading articles, using the dictionary, or posting. Your examples are good, thank you.
So, can I alternate between IE and FF if I change it in my Internet tools? Would there be any reason to do that? (Don’t mean to sound clueless here.) I’m not into too many doodads on my PC–I don’t use half of the functions I have available–I just want to get on it and move quickly (my dial-up isn’t that much slower than work). I have enough notifications from KSC, Landmark Theaters, airlines, etc. that I don’t need news/weather notifications (except now I’ll probably due the SpaceWeather.com thing in regards to the Sun, lol.)
OK, so what do I need to do to sign up and try it? It won’t mess with my 800×600 resolution, will it? Don’t want you to pull any sneaky stuff on me…..
Ouch with those typos: uncluttered window ‘as’; due–>do; etc.–>etc.,
BTW, I understand the need for ads on BAUT et al, but I couldn’t help but chuckle over the one in the ID/Religion thread, so I saved it. It’s the one that says:
Religion Run Amok
7 Great Myths of Organized Religion
Though it’s about “genuine spirituality” vs. “empty religious dogma.”
You don’t need to do anything in Internet Tools or Internet Options to switch between IE and Firefox; there’s no sign-up, and it won’t alter anything. To try it, just download and install the latest version. Launch it with a shortcut — you can also import your links from IE if you like. If you end up liking it better than IE, you can just make it your default browser.
BTW, you can tell Firefox to block pop-ups and instruct it not to tell you when it’s done so. That’s really nice, it just does its thing without adding a bar across the screen or making a sound. There’s a ton more to cover than we’ve talked about here; if you poke through the options or read the documentation you might start to get a clearer picture of its capabilities.
I still have IE installed, simply because once in a while I run across an archaic (or draconian) page that doesn’t support Firefox. I also have an extension installed that allows me to right-click on a URL and open the target in Internet Explorer, for just such occasions.
There’s a list of FireFox extensions here, and a list of search box engines (and add-ons) here.
Their mail client, Thunderbird, is fantastic as well. It’s much preferable to Outlook / Outlook express.
If you’re curious about extensions, I could recommend a few great simple ones that make browsing much handier, or list which ones I use.
Added: I forgot to mention, there are tons of themes for FF as well, so you can make it look just about however you like.
Addition #2: Firefox with Adblock will allow you to can ads you see on message boards, including BAUT. It’ll literally “disappear” them; you’ll only see the forums’ content.
Ok, thanks for that info. I’ll try downloading it in just a bit since I need to shower and go to the store anyway…hope it doesn’t take too long. I’ll deal with extensions later.
The only thing with “disappearing” ads on BAUT is that affects their ad package, no? Isn’t it good to click on the ads there every so often? BAUT’s don’t bother me–in fact they’re often amusing such as “Religion Run Amok.” Too, if say, you’re in a telescope thread, ads that could be useful come up for telescopes.
I’ve never used Outlook express…I have that at work. I use Yahoo, which I like, and so many people I know use it, so it’s compatible. Wow, I didn’t realize you were this into computer stuff. 0-) FireFox should give you a commission fee! That’s about as geeky as me and my Unabridged Merriam-Webster dictionary…really freaks me out when people use dictionary.com. Ugh. Imagine if I could afford the OED….just taking the online-tour got me excited…until I saw that’s it a little over $300 per annum.
Re: ads on BAUT — Fraser has stated openly on the board that if you don’t want to see ads, he doesn’t want you suffering through them, and to use FF and Adblock without a moment’s guilt.
The download shouldn’t take you long, even on dial-up. Note that it’s only 5 Megs, compared to IE’s bloated 25 Mb+ core install (and that’s before the updates, lol).
For non-POP3 e-mail, I’ve been hooked on Gmail since it came out (mainly due to the simple interface and insane amount of storage they offer). Yahoo mail is fine too — and, just so you know, there’s a FF extension specifically for Yahoo mail, so your browser will notify you of new messages in real time. I have one for Gmail and it’s marvelously reliable and unobtrusive. I get an indicator showing me there’s mail, I click on it, and I’m loaded directly into my Gmail inbox in a new tab… with one mouse-click.
And, yes, I’m a chronic geek for software toys and PC stuff in general. Just the way I have my browser set up would probably scare most people.
If you spend any serious time using Firefox, you’ll see why I sing its praises so highly. The way it behaves makes so much more sense than IE… even just little things. For example, when you look at a file, picture, etc, IE saves it in a nebulous temporary cache folder somewhere unless you’re specifically aiming each given file to a familiar location. Firefox dispenses with that entirely — from the Tools menu, select Downloads… and there’s a list of everything you’ve DLed recently, no hunting through your OS’ cache. A lot of little conveniences like that add up, fast. Saved keystrokes add up too, in a big way. You’ll see… then I’ll officially welcome you to the dark side. Muahahha.
Oh, and about the OED subscription… I’d love to have one. While it’s not quite as nifty, there is a dandy free resource dedicated to etymology if that sort of thing spins your beanie: the Online Etymology Dictionary. Love it, personally.
Hi Wolve, I’ve seen that etymology link, thanks, yes it’s very useful. I have a bunch of word-related sources, and books. I still like my books, too. Askoxford.com has a compact online dictionary that’s free, but it’s not as good as Merriam-Webster. Since I pay for the unabridged version of MW I get all sorts of goodies with that. All those dictionary quotes I paste on BAUT are from MW and I rarely post the whole entry. I get a monthly newsletter too, that has all sorts of stuff, and their Word of the Day I get at work, which uses the word in sentences AND has a whole etymology description. The OED was originally created by citings after citings collected by people–the book I mention in my profile, Simon Winchester’s. “The Professor and the Madman,” is a great. It reads like a mystery even though it’s non-fiction. A fast read–you might like it. Basically, a man who contributed over 10,000 entries to the OED lived in a mental institution. Kind of like an amateur astronomer of vocabulary.
I downloaded FF and tried it out a bit, but it’s moving slower than IE, so I went back to IE for the moment. It takes longer for a page, say my board’s page that has a photo on it, to load. Also, when it imported my Favorites it put everything in alphabetical order! Argh! The way I have it set up in IE is there are all my yellow folders of topics in alphabetical order and then all links to articles, pictures, or forums that will go to the recycle bin (unless they make it to “folder status.” There in order of the date I saved them, so now they’re all over the place, and it’s rocked my world. I need to clean that up in IE.
Too, FF made my font look different on my board. Hmm. Why is it slower than IE? I’ll have to try it out some more.
I spoke too soon–Phil changed his blog.
Fatal error page again, fyi.
Bah, sorry about that.
SpamKarma got angry again.
No idea why FF was being slower than IE for you, it’s very much the opposite on my end, although I’m on speedy cable. There’s a huge difference for me.
You can change how your imported bookmarks from IE display… go to Bookmarks, Manage Bookmarks, and from there you have a number of options at your disposal. Importing stored URLs across platforms is never a one-shot deal that preserves your original order.
Re: different font appearance… FF and IE both have means of increasing/decreasing font size. With either browser window open, hold down CTRL and use your scroll wheel up/down to increase/decrease the text size you see. Perhaps there’s a discrepancy between how your IE was displaying that versus the FF default.