SkyGuy
A graduate of the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, Tom Vilot is an artist and self-taught software engineer. He has been part of numerous group shows and participated in Boulder’s jurried “Open Studios” two years.
After working in the software industry for almost twenty years, Mr. Vilot decided it was time to merge his two passions: astronomy and kids.
Being the quintessential “kid magnet,” Mr. Vilot has been volunteering at the Fiske Planetarium in Boulder, CO., in their K-12 outreach program.
Mr. Vilot studied acting for two years.
He launched SkyGuy.com, a series of short videos answering the many questions he has received from kids while volunteering at Fiske. The project is an abrupt change from his past, throwing himself into a completely new industry and learning all new tools. Once again, he is rapidly teaching himself. This time it is video, lighting, sound, editing and animation.
Skyguy – Dispatch – Apollo 11
Jul 20th
Skyguy talks about the 40th anniversary of the historical Apollo 11 mission where one small step for man and one giant step for mankind. We also learn about how the spacecraft was designed, where it landed, what the astronauts did on the moon and who was apart of the mission.
Skyguy – DISPATCH: Hubble First Space Walk
May 16th
Thursday was a great day for the astronauts working on the Hubble Space Telescope. But …. I have to tell you, it wasn’t all easy.
The highest priority for this service mission to the Hubble was to replace the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 with a new one, the Wide Field Planetary Camera 3.
In order to put the new one in, the astronauts first had to take the old one out. But …. things were not going according to plan at one point. Watch the video and see how calm and professional astronaut Drew Feustal is in the face of a stuck bolt that could ruin the highest priority of the entire mission…
Skyguy – DISPATCH: Hubble Repair!
May 14th
Great news about the Hubble Space Telescope
Yesterday, astronauts aboard the space shuttle Atlantis reached the Hubble and — using the shuttle’s robotic arm — pulled it into the cargo bay. Very, very carefully!
The astronauts are going to give Hubble some important repairs, and also give it some really powerful new equipment.
Hubble was launched into orbit on April 24th, 1990. So last month, it turned 19 years old. So you could say we’re giving Hubble some very cool but slightly overdue birthday presents!
I think Hubble is the greatest scientific instrument ever created.
It is named after the astronomer Edwin Hubble. In [YEAR], he discovered that nearly all the galaxies in the universe are moving *away* from each other — which shows that our universe is expanding.
Since we know that our universe is expanding, it makes sense that this expansion must have had a starting point. Scientists call that starting point of the whole universe the “big bang.”
The Hubble Space Telescope has taken lots of great pictures of stars, nebulae, and galaxies. But it’s also allowed scientists to figure out the age of the universe far more accurately than ever before.
Because of information from the Hubble, we know that our universe is about 13.7 billion years old.
But the Hubble Space Telescope has helped astronomers discover many other very surprising things.
For instance, we know that not only is our universe expanding — but it keeps expanding faster and faster!
Wow!
Here’s what that means: Imagine that you blew up a balloon so much that it popped. Then — instead of the pieces of the balloon slowing down as they move away — they actually sped up!
Let me tell you — plenty of astronomers and scientists were very, very surprised when they saw that!
Using the Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers also learned that supermassive black holes are probably common in the centers of all galaxies.
And in 1994, when comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 hit the planet Jupiter, Hubble took fabulous pictures of this big event. And that was a lucky break for astronomers — it was just a few months after the first time the Hubble got some upgrades and repairs, so it was all ready for action.
So Hubble has been GREAT for astronomers and it will only get better after this week. With repairs and new instruments on board, Hubble is sure to surprise us with great new discoveries about this strange universe we live in.
I’d like to wish the Hubble Space Telescope a very very happy birthday — and I’m looking forward to lots more great pictures and science.
So go outside tonight, look up at the night sky, wave, and yell “HAPPY BIRTHDAY HUBBLE!”