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Handshake on orbit - a little bit other

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  In July, space enthusiasts could remember two notable events, one of which also had a special anniversary. This will now be discussed below, but not in the usual descriptive way, but through various memorabilia (most of which are part of my litthe collection). This past July marked the 50th anniversary of the first joint space flight, the Soyuz-Apollo (or Apollo-Soyuz , officially abbreviated ASTP ). The project was led by the two superpowers at the time, the Soviet Union and the United States. It was also the first multinational manned space mission, which later paved the way for further, more extensive international space activities. The commander of the American Apollo spacecraft was Thomas Stafford , his companions Vance Brand and Donald Slayton (aka "Deke"), who had not been able to spaceflight until then due to heart problems, and was instead the chief of the NASA astronauts. On the Soviet side, the mission was led by Alexei Leonov (picture 1, upside down), who h...
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In Search Of Sundials: Siófok and Zamárdi, Hungary

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  In summer, many people chose Lake Balaton again for relaxation, but this lake is also beautiful in the fall. Siófok is perhaps one of the most popular destinations in the region. And once we are here, let's explore the town's sundials, because there are more here.... I am often in Siófok because of work, and on the other hand, my journey home is best done from here. If I have some time before the bus or train - and I do quite often -, I try to use it usefully. I have been looking into the sundials in the area for a long time, but since most of the information is at least 30 years old, many of them may no actual. But the situation can be improved with a little research (e.g. the writings of the Hungarian Astronomical Associations' Sundial Specialist Group ). So, on a hot, bright June day, I started wandering around the town center. First, I visited the Millennium Park (formerly: Antal Váradi Square) next to the train station, where the Music Pavilion , the fountain and I...
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Hungarian in space again! (part1)

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This year,  25. June at 8:31 in Central European Time, the moment finally came when our second compatriot set off into space as a member of an international crew (picture 1). The launch and the preparatory operations preceding it went smoothly this time. At the time of writing, the crew has long since returned to Earth, and its members are celebrated as heroes in their own country. I know that people have written and spoken about the essence of space flight or its history in many places and in many ways, but let's take a quick look at what it is all about.  Forty-five years ago, on May 26, 1980, Bertalan Farkas traveled to the soviet Salyut-6 space station as a researcher cosmonaut under the "hands" of the Soviet/Russian Valery Kubasov . The four-member crew (in the terminology of the time: "ekvipázs"; it's a pfonetic transcription of franchise "équipage", that means crew) conducted various material, medical and earth science experiments, some ...
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In Search Of Sundials: Esztergom, Hungary

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  In this post, I invite the Dear Reader to Esztergom. However, the palette does not include traditional natural and cultural attractions, but the city's sundials. Nevertheless, I will also share some thoughts and photos about the landmarks along the way (since the latter were taken with a simpler smartphone and often not in the best conditions, I apologize in advance for the quality...). The article is also the first part of a thematic series, where the emphasis is on the sundials I visited. The topic is relatively new to me, and to be honest, I haven't been interested in it for a long time. But since it is a relatively easy amateur astronomy activity, I recently got the urge to do it. My first "sundial discovery" - if I remember correctly - happened in the summer of 2022 in Balatonfüred, but their regular visits "officially" began on October 23 last year (I will write about them in more detail someday). The order of their presentation is completely arbitra...
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What's Geminga- things behind naming

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  In this post, I would like to briefly talk about a long-standing mysterious object, and then I will also say a few words about why the blog was named this way. Geminga was discovered by the SAS-2 satellite in 1973 as a significant gamma-ray source in the direction of the Gemini constellation, near the Crab Nebula (see CGRO image, Figure 4). Since the detectors were still inaccurate at the time, it was not possible to determine its exact celestial position for a long time, so its identity could only be guessed at. It is named after its discoverer, the Italian Giovanni F. Bignami (1944-2017), which is an abbreviation of Gemin i Ga mma-ray source. On the other hand, "ghè minga" in the Milanese Lombard dialect means: it is not there, it does not exist (an interesting addition is that Bignami himself was born near Milan, studied in the city and even played a role in local political life, so he was closely connected to the region). The name was made official by the Internatio...
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My Life is a Science

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  I confess that I thought a lot about my post. The reason is that I don't like to talk or write about my personal life. However, the following "scientific autobiography" unintentionally contains certain aspects of my personal life. But I think that my future readers (I hope my followers) would like to know from whom they get the information and the content. And I think I would also like to see the person behind it. I trust that a post with a personal tone will help with this. I was already interested in natural sciences, especially astronomy and space exploration, as a primary school student: if I remember correctly, I was in first grade when I received the book " A világűr atlasza " ("The Space Atlas" authors Heather Couper and Nigel Henbest) as a Christmas gift. That's how I started to get acquainted with the subject, which, in addition to the beautiful photos, was also helped by sophisticated maps and other illustrations. I often secretly brows...
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