SL -- JPL, NASA

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The UM Friday SL brownbag group went to JPL/NASA's island on April 3.





There is a planetarium inside this model of the sun.

We arrived in SL on the platform just outside the planetarium entrance.





You can use the map beside the platform to tell the planetarium where you live. It will mark your location on its model of Earth, so you can tell which part of the sky is overhead for you.





This is what the inside looks like. There is a model of the earth, and there is a transparent floor. You can see me, pretty much in the center of the pic, standing on the transparent floor.

The "person" in orange is a "planetarium guide."

You could ask questions like "where is Mars?" and the planetarium would show you.





Here you can see more of the other UM people in the planetarium.

It was kinda weird looking at the earth from this polar perspective. Greenland unmistakeable, but then figuring out everything else wasn't trivial, I found, looking down from on top.





Here is what happened when I asked the planetarium "where is Orion?"

You can see the brown skinny triangular thing pointing at Ann Arbor on the globe.





After a bit, we left the plantarium and explored. Underneath the plantarium are models of the planets in our solar system.

It's interesting to compare the "journalistic" pics I take of the group, and then the pics I take when I go back alone, later, and have more leeway to get just what I want in the pic...........









Did you know Jupiter has 62 moons? I was thinking 12 or 15..... Bet those sort of numbers are the "Galilean moons" -- visible using the equipment Galileo had......





JPL in RL is in the desert.

My buddy Leslie lives in Tucson, and recently had an unfortunate encounter of the cactus kind.

Hope you are feeling less like a pin cushion today, Leslie!





A new telescope is going up. The James Webb Space Telescope's mirror is much bigger than Hubble's, but it will only do infra-red light (Hubble does IR, visible, and UV.)





There is a lot of info about Martian landings. Martian dust devils are much larger and more powerful than those here on Earth.

You can "ride" inside a Martian dust devil...........







Looks like fun, no?

No. But not nearly as distressing to the balance system as it would be in RL!



A side note that JPL/NASA is *packed* with stuff. Like RL, it can be darn hard to find a nice clear plain background for my intended subject!



Leaving JPL/NASA for a neighboring island, we happen across a nice waterfall.

At the top. See the eagle, gliding by?





And from the bottom.



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