Hasta La Gadget!

The R2 unit will be available through Japanese import sites next month. Image courtesy of Lucasfilm Limited.

You won’t find Princess Leia begging for help when you turn on Sega Toys’ new Star Wars-themed projector. You’ll have to settle instead for a brilliant rendition of our galaxy instead.

The R2-D2 Homestar Planetarium is the latest in Sega Toys’ line of astral projectors. But unlike other models, it’s the only model that identifies a fully operational Death Star. Condolences to members of the Rebel Alliance: Alderaan is no where to be found.

The unit stands at 8 inches tall, and the LED projector runs for up to three hours on four AAA batteries. The planetarium will be available for 6825 yen ($91) when it hits stores in Japan next month. Stateside astronomers and Star Wars geeks will be able to procure the projector from import sites like Japan Trend Shop, which is taking pre-orders. Pairs well with the Blu-Ray edition of the movies, also out in September.

Considering all the space nostalgia we’ve been swimming in recently, it’s somewhat appropriate that a Cold War-era telescope is gearing up to make its maiden voyage, after more than three decades of development (and delays). The Russian mission, known as RadioAstron, will finally become a reality on Monday, when a radio telescope launches from Kazakhstan’s Baikonur cosmodrome before soaring into orbit some 350,000 kilometers away from the Earth. At just ten meters in width, the craft’s antenna is small in comparison to other radio ‘scopes, but its reach can be dramatically expanded when combined with signals from those on the ground. This technique, called interferometry, will effectively create the largest telescope ever built, covering an area nearly 30 times the Earth’s diameter and allowing RadioAstron to capture interstellar images in 10,000 times the resolution of the Hubble Space Telescope. There remains, however, one major hurdle — because the spacecraft collects data at about 144 megabits per second, it must constantly transfer information to antennas on the ground. Problem is, there’s only one antenna capable of receiving RadioAstron’s signals and, unless others are constructed soon, a healthy chunk of its observations could be lost. How do you say “buzz-kill” in Russian?

Russia’s RadioAstron telescope finally set to launch, blanket space with its radio eye originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 17 Jul 2011 20:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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That globe, which launched June 15th, was attached to a weather balloon, and apparently carried with it a GPS / GSM tracker, two GoPro cameras, two Canon cameras, and one Buzz Lightyear figurine. The mission? Capture last week’s lunar eclipse. Lucky for us, the mission was successful and both the cartoon astronaut and the accompanying film were successfully recovered. The resulting photographs are quite stunning, but you don’t have to take our word for it. If you missed Google’s live stream, you can catch up with Buzz and the team at the source link below.

Russian eclipse enthusiasts launch floating globe to shoot the moon originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 21 Jun 2011 21:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Pentax’s Optio WG-1 GPS point-and-shoot satisfied geotaggers out of the box, but owners of its K-5, K-r and 645D DSLRs have had to make do with third-party taggers like the PhotoTrackr or Eye-Fi. The new hotshoe-mounted O-GPS1 module fixes that oversight by recording latitude, longitude, altitude, Coordinated Universal Time and shooting angle. Everyday snappers might find an extra hotshoe attachment cumbersome, but astro-photography enthusiasts could well be enticed by the device’s interesting “ASTROTRACER” function. This helps you take clearer photos of celestial bodies by using the in-built sensors to calculate a star’s movement and then employing the camera’s shake reduction system to compensate. Sounds clever, but be advised: this module is only for Pentax DSLRs — and only for very specific models at that. You’ll get full functionality with the K-5 and K-r cameras, and geotagging (no ASTROTRACER) with the 645D. Oh, and you’ll need to make sure your camera’s firmware is up-to-date. Peer carefully through that lens and you’ll see the O-GPS1 heading for a July landing, priced at $250.

[Thanks, Iddo]

Pentax releases O-GPS1 add-on for DSLRs, appeals to astronomy nuts originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 02 Jun 2011 15:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Here’s a reminder: We’re not the center of the Universe. As species, as members of this planet, this solar system or even the Milky Way galaxy. We are just a speck twisting in interstellar dust. More »