Double Post

Here's an observation I made an observation Friday morning. I woke up earlier than usual, and, noticing that it was still dark out, I decided to go outside really quick. The full moon what showing brightly, and had a slightly golden yellow hue to it. It was significantly larger than normal. It was about two fists (about twenty degrees declination, I think) over what I perceived to be the horizon, since there were houses and trees in the way. It was setting. Looking around, I spotted Ursa Minor, and located Polaris. I also spotted Cepheus, and I think I saw Draco. I went in a few minutes later, as the sky started to brighten.

APOD


Now for the second part of the post. This is an image from the Mars Opportunity rover of the largest crater yet to be visited by a rover, the Victoria Crater. The crater itself is about 730 meters wide, and is located in the Meridiani Planum, a Martian plain just two degrees south of the equator. The region is home to about 12 craters, the largest being the Airy Crater, which is a whopping 40 km in diameter. The Victoria crater is likely the last significant landmark the Opportunity will visit. The rover traveled 21 months to reach it, and the site will take about 1 year to analyze. The nearest prominent craters are 25 km away.
The Opportunity, or the Mars Exploration Rover - B, was the second of two rovers in NASA's Mars Exploration Rover mission, launched in 2003. The Opportunity landed on January 25, 2004, about three weeks after its sister Spirit (MER-A) made planetfall. The rover's operational duration has lasted ten times longer than expected, making it a valuable asset to NASA in its ongiong mission to mars. The official patch of this mission sports Duck Dodgers as the mascot.