Winter Has Come. USS Leo Open to the Public. Julius Caesar's Last Breath and You. The Imaginarium.

Happy Winter Solstice, the Shortest Day of 

the Year, and the First Day of Winter.

For the folks in the northern hemisphere, today is the long awaited winter solstice. Though, technically the first day of Winter, the Solstice marks the halfway point  between the seemingly endless darkness that accompanies winter and the arrival of spring.  The winter solstice also marks another occasion; the shortest day of the year (the actual time can vary by a few hours depending on your latitude).

 The Winter Solstice at Stonehenge, England.  The Sun rises perfectly positioned through the upright stone markers telling the ancient locals that the darkest day of the year was upon them and that longer days were coming.

The USS Leo Opens to the Public at 

Lakeview Academy

Hello Troops,

The Troubadour's news wires jumped into action this afternoon with news that Lakeview Academy's Space Education Center is open for public missions in their new USS Leo simulator.   The USS Leo is the newest Space EdVentures simulator built by Lakeview Academy in Saratoga Shores.  Lakeview partnered with DSim Corporation in the design and construction of the USS Leo.  BJ Warner is the director.  Many of you remember BJ from his many years as a flight director at the CMSEC and most recently, the Discovery Space Center in Pleasant Grove.  The email announcement is below:   

Dear Discovery Space Center Fans,
As a thank you to our past guests we want you to be the first to hear about our big announcement. We are thrilled to announce our newest simulator the UCS LEO is now open for booking!!!!
Located at Lakeview Academy (527 W 400 N, Saratoga Springs) the Leo offers new missions and upgraded controls while still focusing on education and entertainment. With a capacity of up to 12 crew members the Leo is perfect for small private groups and birthday parties.
One of the coolest features of the new simulator is the ability to run “Junior Missions”. Ages 3-9 will love exploring the galaxy while learning about shapes and numbers as well as fighting off the occasional bad guy. We encourage parents to attend with their Junior Cadets and participate in this new simulation!
If your child loved their experience at Discovery Space Center then they will not want to miss trying out our newest simulator!! Book their experience today at discoverysimulations.com/ucsleo
See you in the final frontier!
-The Discovery Simulations Team

This is what many of you Space EdVentures fans have been waiting for; you get to fly in another new ship.

Congratulations to Lakeview Academy and welcome to the family of Space EdVentures simulators.

Mr. Williamson

Space and Science News
Scientist to Image a Black Hole's Event Horizon for the First Time.

General relativistic ray tracing simulations of the shadow of the event horizon of a black hole. (Credit: M. Moscibrodzka & H. Falcke, Radboud University, Nijmegen)

Was Einstein right? The European Research Council (ERC) has awarded 14 Million Euros to a team of European astrophysicists to construct the first accurate image of a black hole. The team will test the predictions of current theories of gravity, including Einstein's theory of General Relativity. The funding is provided in the form of a 'Synergy Grant', the largest and most competitive type of grant of the ERC. 
Read More from Science Daily


Teacher Comment on their Experiences onboard DreamFlight Adventures' IKS Titan

The IKS Titan is a simulator located at Shaler Area Elementary School in Glenshaw Pennsylvania.
Recently the PAEYC Unconference held an activity onboard the Titan.  Click HERE to hear their comments.

Julius Caesar was assassinated on the 15th March 44 BC. That was quite some time ago, which means that there has been plenty of time for his last breath to have mixed relatively evenly around the globe (this is the first assumption). The next step is to calculate the number of molecules that are in a single breath. To do this, you need to have a rough figure for the volume of a breath. This will obviously vary considerably depending on the size of the person, their current physical state etc., but a good value is about half a liter (this is the first rounded value).  Read More at Quarks to Quasars

The Imaginarium

Crazy hair day at school