Sma's Sky

Bringing a small portion of the sky to your screen!

[Sma's Sky @SmasSky]

I've got my live stream up and running. Clear skies right now! https://t.co/4s4omgxW2w

[Sma's Sky @SmasSky]

@AJamesMcCarthy Or Louisiana? I'm on the west coast of FL, its going to be interesting watching launches with 3 different basic trajectories. The LA launches should be quiet interesting following those from here!

[Sma's Sky @SmasSky]

@AJamesMcCarthy Same, behind the trees, clouds, and its supposed to start raining around 11pm until 4am. But I'll keep an eye out, just in case

[Sma's Sky @SmasSky]

@astroferg Are you manually guiding with the HC, or is it a completely manual mount?

[Sma's Sky @SmasSky]

Remote Focus Motor Controller V2 is now in testing. I still have to mount it to the telescope and make cases for it. Im considering making it available to others if anyone is interested. Either as a diy, pcb diy, or pre-assembled. Let me know if you're interested!

[Sma's Sky @SmasSky]

@AJamesMcCarthy Of course there's a weight penalty we'd have to deal with, getting a power source like that off the ground, unless it was manufactured in orbit, from materials mined in or it, or in the moon...its so close yet....not really lol

[Sma's Sky @SmasSky]

@AJamesMcCarthy To that effect...do you realize how "close" we are to the impulse engine from star trek? Given the proper power source to power an engine like VASIMR the time to get to Mars could be drastically reduced....

[Sma's Sky @SmasSky]

@AJamesMcCarthy ...We couldn't quite get to the 1/4 the speed of light, and if we could the acceleration to get to that speed would be less than ideal, but with a proper power source we could get to Mars in about a month. The every two year window would be drastically reduced as well.

[Jasmine 🌌🔭 @astro_jaz]

this picture of the surface of asteroid ryugu is one of the scariest photos from space in my opinion.

look at the darkness in the distance, the infinite void stretching out forever.

[Astronomy Live @astroferg]

During IFT-4 I was able track an intact @SpaceX Starship at engine shutdown from Florida for the first time. I recently learned how to do flat field calibration within DaVinci Resolve. I reprocessed the footage and even found additional frames of Starship, here it is at 50% speed

[Scott Manley @DJSnM]

South Korea's lunar orbiter getting the first images of the results of Falcon 9's RULE (Rapid unplanned lunar encounter)

[Jessica Meir @Astro_Jessica]

Using our special spacewalk drill to install one of the struts for the mounting brackets, as captured by @astro_anil. And look, all of you are in this photo with me as well (Earth!)!

[SpaceX @SpaceX]

The SpaceX Recovery team is still working to recover Flight 13’s Starship from the Indian Ocean. They’ve been overcoming challenging conditions and increasingly rough seas as they attempt to guide the 52m long spacecraft to port

[Astronomy Live @astroferg]

Amazing footage of the plume from the Falcon 9 second stage impact!

[Sma's Sky @SmasSky]

@aliexfolgueira @robertoblake With "proper" ai use, you wouldn't know ai was used. The only use of ai most people are aware of is the slop because it's obvious. Social media, even with out ai creates addiction, brings out the negative in people, and could be considered toxic, should we ban all social media?

[SpaceX @SpaceX]

On January 15, 2025, Falcon 9 successfully deployed Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost Mission 1 and ispace’s RESILIENCE lunar landers on a trajectory to the Moon from pad 39A in Florida.

For most of our missions, we plan a controlled deorbit of the Falcon second stage so it safely reenters over the ocean. For higher energy missions like those to a lunar transfer orbit, nearly all performance on the vehicle is devoted to successfully placing the payload in the intended orbit, and a controlled disposal maneuver is not always possible.

We actively work to be as responsible as possible with hardware left in space to ensure space safety, including for more complex missions. In this case, over time, solar activity and gravity led the second stage toward the Moon. Impacts like this are rare, but they can happen with objects in these types of orbits, and we worked with NASA on the optimal disposal solution.

Our focus remains on advancing reliable access to space while working toward even more sustainable operations with Starship in the future. As a fully reusable vehicle, Starship is designed to eliminate expendable upper stages entirely, reducing hardware left in orbit and enabling even more missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond.

[Sma's Sky @SmasSky]

@AJamesMcCarthy @peterrhague There was a group a while ago that had the beginnings of a plan to build a "ship/station" in the shape of the original enterprise. The saucer segmemt would spin to create gravity. I cant remember all the things they had worked out. It was called "Build the Enterprise".

[Sma's Sky @SmasSky]

@FelixSchlang @DJSnM ...I could do it without the help of ai, but I wouldn't be nearly as far along as I am, especially because since it helps with keeping track of things, which I'm bot great at.

[Sma's Sky @SmasSky]

@FelixSchlang @DJSnM Indeed! I've been creating custom telescope/streaming controls(obs overlays, scene switching, telescope controls all via one program), and adding remote electronic focus to my telescope, which doesnt have an off the shelf version, all using various ai tools to help...

[Sma's Sky @SmasSky]

@DJSnM ...If we want to save time, stop pulling our hair out (oof, sorry lol) by using ai to assist, so be it.

[Sma's Sky @SmasSky]

@DJSnM I feel like people who have done coding for a long time, in one form or another, have earned the right to "vibe code". We've delt with the mind numbing routine of bug hunting, commenting, rearranging etc...