Wed, Jan 26, 2011
Agency Announces NanoSail-D Amateur Astronomy Image
Contest
NASA has formed a partnership with Spaceweather.com to engage
the amateur astronomy community to submit the best images of the
orbiting NanoSail-D solar sail. NanoSail-D unfurled the first ever
100-square-foot solar sail in low-Earth orbit on January 20.
The contest is open to all types of images, including, but not
limited to, telescopic captures of the sail to simple wide-field
camera shots of solar sail flares. If NanoSail-D is in the field of
view, the image is eligible for judging. The solar sail is about
the size of a large tent. It will be observable for approximately
70 to 120 days before it enters the atmosphere and disintegrates.
The contest continues until NanoSail-D re-enters Earth's
atmosphere.
NanoSail-D will be a target of interest to both novice and
veteran sky watchers. Experienced astrophotographers will want to
take the first-ever telescopic pictures of a solar sail unfurled in
space. Backyard stargazers, meanwhile, will marvel at the solar
sail flares -- brief but intense flashes of light caused by
sunlight glinting harmlessly from the surface of the sail.
NanoSail-D could be five to 10 times as bright as the planet
Venus, especially later in the mission when the sail descends to
lower orbits.
NASA Image
The NanoSail-D satellite was jointly designed and built by NASA
engineers from the agency's Marshall Space Flight Center in
Huntsville, Ala., and NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field,
CA.
To encourage observations of NanoSail-D, Spaceweather.com is
offering prizes for the best images of this historic, pioneering
spacecraft in the amounts of $500 (grand prize), $300 (first prize)
and $100 (second prize).
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