Category Archives: Astronomy

Astronomy, Multiple media, Satellite Watching

Images made of solar transit of Chinese space station

Astrophotographer Thierry Legault has posted a couple of great pictures he made of the Chinese space station “Tiangong-1, with the Shenzhou-10 module docked”, as it crosses in front of the sun:

Click on these thumbnails for the large versions:

http://spaceweather.com/gallery/full_image.php?image_name=Thierry-Legault-transit_tiangong1_shenzhou10_wl_crop_1371794600.jpg

Thierry-Legault-transit_tiangong1_shenzhou10_ha_50_1371794600_fpthumb[1]

 

Astronomy, Space participation

ARKYD space telescope Kickstarter passes $1M goal

The Planetary Resources Kickstarter campaign for the ARKYD public access space telescope surpassed the $1,000,000 goal today. At the moment, they have 11,356 backers, with $1,003,126 pledged and 11 days to go.

Just yesterday (see post  here) they had $916,582 after about 20 days of fundraising. It was starting to look like the pledges had leveled off and they might have trouble reaching $1M. When I saw the total this evening, I first thought that a single person might have given them a boost but the number of backers had also jumped from about 100 per day to over 700 today as seen in the charts at ARKYD – Kicktraq.

They also introduced new Add-ons and a new mystery stretch goal for $1.5M:

New $1.5M Mystery Stretch Goal Revealed!
When we reach $1.5 Million in pledges, every selfie pledge or higher will receive an exclusive digital Beta-Selfie, taken next year during the crucial integration phase of spacecraft build! Become a part of the build and catch a glimpse of our clean-room squad in action!

Update: Here is an update and video from PR:

Many of you have just crowdfunded a space telescope, bringing space within reach for everyone!  You know who you are – THANK YOU!!!  We passed our $1M campaign funding goal today and are now on the way to our $2M stretch goal of searching for Alien Planets.  Help us get there.

We passed 11,000 backers while I was live on-air with Leo at Twit.tv / Triangulation, and thanks to The Oatmeal’s pledge and fan support, we’re accelerating towards an exciting final 10 days of the campaign!

Time is running out to join the community that is democratizing space exploration and sharing it with the world.  Make your pledge!  This is only the start of something REALLY BIG.

There’s a ton of new stuff over on our Kickstarter page, including live events next week with Rainn Wilson (Dwight Schrute), Seth Green and Hank Green, Richard Garriott (Lord British) and Jon Mavor (Planetary Annihilation), add-on pledge levels, new stretch goals, and our main Kickstarter video translated into more than a dozen languages, including Klingon.

Astronomy, Education, Space participation

Update on the Arkyd space telescope Kickstarter campaign

2 Comments

The Planetary Resources fund-raising for the ARKYD public access space telescope has reached 10,350 Backers and $916,582 pledged towards the $1,000,000 goal with 12 days to go. That’s a tremendous accomplishment for a space Kickstarter campaign but it actually seems a bit disappointing considering how fast the pledges were coming in during the first couple weeks. It looks like they will have to work hard just to make sure they reach the $1.0M goal, much less meet their $2M stretch goal to fund exoplanet searches.

Kickstarter campaigns often have a surge in the final few days as efforts intensify to meet the deadline. So it’s still likely they will beat the $1M goal and it will be interesting to see how far past it they get.

Follow their money raising rate at ARKYD: A Space Telescope for Everyone by Planetary Resources :: Kicktraq.

ExoplanetStretchGoal