@mcnees physical depiction of a 2d normal distribution

@mcnees Some of her colleagues. Most of the Soviet space dogs survived, and only Laika was ever sent on what was supposed to be a one way trip.

My favorite is ZIB (Замена Исчезнувшему Бобику, Zamena Ischeznuvshemu Bobiku, Substitute for Missing Bobik). Bobik ran away days before her suborbital flight in 1951, so ZIB was literally the first stray dog they caught hanging around the barracks, and successfully flew to 100 km and was safely recovered.

@mcnees Greatest graffiti in Irish history

@mcnees and you're mostly seeing the camera PSF there, not the disk of Pluto. Marc Buie's Pluto map back then used some very heroic forward modeling, but did successfully detect the "bright spot" that we now know is Sputnik.

Interestingly enough, he's going back and redoing it now, since his images from the 1990s had coverage of the parts of Pluto that New Horizons wasn't able to see in the flyby.

@karabaic @mcnees might know

@mcnees Using the Millionaire mechanical calculator, now on display because Lowell never throws anything out (great for history, bad for finding storage space)