“Planetarium” by Sufian Stevens, Bryce Dessner, Nico Muhly makes US premier

Sufjan Stevens, Bryce Dessner, and Nico Muhly have created an elaborate song cycle show titled Planetarium, which includes 10 songs on the theme of the Solar System. Here are some reviews of the America premier of the concert held at the Brooklyn Academy of Music last week:

The work was also performed at the Sydney Opera House last summer: Planetarium at the Sydney Opera House – Workhorse – June.25.12

Here is a performance of “Jupiter”:

The following video will continue through all ten songs from the show in Amsterdam on April 8th 2012:

Bonhams space auction on BBC

The  BBC has this video report on the Bonhams Auction (see earlier post) in New York City on March 25th of space memorabilia: Apollo space memorabilia to be auctioned – BBC

http://youtu.be/wBk6hAqPj6g

Bright fireball meteor seen over much of the US East Coast

A large bright meteor over the US East Coast on Friday evening got lots of attention:

This video offers three views of the fireball from a parking lot webcam:

Here’s a view from a security camera in Thurmont, MD:

Meteors happen somewhere over earth at a fairly frequent rate. Fireballs, i.e. meteors brighter than Venus, are also more frequent that many assume. Here are a couple of sites that post daily reports on such events:

 

“Stardust” – a homage to Voyager 1

Via Ralph.Ewig comes a pointer to a short film by Mischa Rozema in honor of the Voyager 1 spacecraft, now believed to be in or near interstellar space –

Stardust from PostPanic on Vimeo.

 

Satellite image or artwork? Play the game.

Images of earth from space often look both amazingly beautiful and intriguingly abstract. Here’s a fun exercise in trying to tell a set of earth observation images from artworks like those one might see at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (MOMA) in New York City: NASA or MOMA? Play the Game! Here are some pictures. Were they taken in space, or painted here on Earth? – Megan Garber/The Atlantic

Everyone can participate in space