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Air travel has gotten a bad rap recently. With spikes in airport security and problems with the likes of Kevin Smith, major airlines have been painted as the bad guys. It’s debatable whether or not big airlines are truly at fault in these highly publicized situations, but there is one way that you can avoid commercial airline headaches altogether and better meet all your travel needs: an aircraft charter.

An aircraft charter is a setup that connects owners of private aircraft with busy individuals who want to get somewhere without the hassles and inconvenience that invariably come with a major airline. In many ways, an aircraft charter provides you with the conveniences of owning your own private jet, while helping to save you on the many expenses that you would have if you did own one. This is not to say that certain charter arrangements couldn’t provide you with a “piece” of the ownership of a jet, but if that isn’t something you are interested in, you can still rely on an aircraft charter on a case-by-case basis without having to put up any money upfront.

This is actually a pretty significant benefit. Owning a private jet is prohibitively expensive for almost everyone, but these same people still want to enjoy the convenience and service that a private jet can provide. That is where the aircraft charter comes in. In essence, you are “renting” the use of a private jet on an individual basis, and this is especially helpful if you need to get somewhere quickly on short notice, since the timeframe for booking a private flight is exponentially faster and more efficient. A private aircraft charter is also a big benefit if your destination is out of the way, because many commercial airlines only deal with large cities and airports.

Comfort is another boon you can enjoy with an aircraft charter. Even flying first class, you can’t expect to have the same level of in-flight service that you will experience on your own aircraft charter flight. From fully-catered meals to top-notch amenities like Internet access and sleeping quarters, you can expect a memorable and enjoyable flight with an aircraft charter.

Some people travel by aircraft charter for business, and others for leisure, but the flexibility available means that you can customize your particular flight to meet your specific needs. Commercial airlines are adequate for some things, but they are definitely not known for catering to your needs and fitting around your busy schedule. On a commercial flight, you might find yourself frustrated by flight delays, long lines, invasive security, and other annoyances that make your flying experience unnecessarily stressful. Aircraft charter is designed to give you the best possible experience so that you can focus on what actually matters to you.

If you are interested in an aircraft charter, you can find jets all across the spectrum. For small groups, you should look into light and mid-sized aircrafts, while super mid aircrafts and heavy aircrafts are suitable for large groups. The luxury and speed you get with a private aircraft charter is unsurpassed, and if you find yourself traveling a lot, there is certainly no better way to make that flight than with an aircraft charter.

It happens only once in a blue moon — and scientists say a blue moon is exactly what we’ll see in the skies this New Year’s Eve.

Don’t expect an azure glow over our lunar satellite, however. The term “blue moon” simply refers to the second full moon in a calendar month, something that hasn’t happened on a New Year’s Eve for nearly 20 years, NASA says.

“December 1990 ended with a blue moon, and many New Year’s Eve parties were themed by the event,” said Professor Philip Hiscock of the department of folklore at Memorial University of Newfoundland, in Canada. “It was a lot of fun.”

Most months have just one full moon, because the 29.5-day cycle of the moon matches up pretty well with the length of calendar months. Occasionally, there will be two full moons in a month, something that happens about every 2½ years, NASA says.

But a blue moon on December 31 is rare.

Elvis Presley crooned about it when he sang the old Rodgers and Hart song “Blue Moon,” in which he stood alone without a dream in his heart or a love of his own.

He struck a more hopeful tone in another tune, singing about his love returning to his arms “When My Blue Moon Turns to Gold Again.” He also covered Bill Monroe’s bluegrass classic, “Blue Moon of Kentucky.”

It is possible for the moon to have a cerulean hue, NASA says, but that’s sometimes caused by fine dirt circulating in the Earth’s atmosphere or the dark blue tone of the sky.

A blue moon hasn’t always meant the second full moon in a month. Hundreds of years ago, it simply meant “never” or “absurd,” Hiscock said.

“The phrase ‘blue moon’ has been around a long time, well over 400 years, but during that time its meaning has shifted,” he said. “I have counted six different meanings which have been carried by the term, and at least four of them are still current today. That makes discussion of the term a little complicated.”

When the Indonesian volcano Krakatoa erupted in 1883, it put so much dust in the atmosphere that the moon actually appeared blue — an event so unusual that the term “once in a blue moon” was coined, according to NASA’s National Space Science Data Center. The effect lasted for almost two years, Hiscock said.

Full moons used to have 12 names, one for each month, such as “harvest moon,” NASA said. The term “blue moon” referred to the 13th full moon in a year.

The term acquired its current meaning in the 1940s, after the Farmer’s Almanac of Maine offered an astronomical definition of a blue moon “so convoluted that even professional astronomers struggled to understand it,” NASA wrote on its Web site.

A writer at Sky and Telescope magazine in the late 1940s tried to explain the almanac’s definition by saying it referred to the second full moon in a month.

“That was not correct, but at least it could be understood,” NASA wrote. “And thus the modern blue moon was born.”

On May 14, Central Florida residents and visitors will have a chance to view the historic Space Shuttle last launch of Atlantis from the Kennedy Space Center.  Atlantis is one of three remaining shuttle orbiters, each of which is scheduled to have its final flight between now and the end of the year.  The mission designation for the flight is STS-132 (which stands for Space Transfer System mission #132).

Atlantis’ 12-day mission to the International Space Station (ISS) will deliver a 23-foot long, 17,000 pound Russian-built research module that will provide additional storage space and a new docking port.The module will be permanently attached toone of the existing sections of the ISS and will carry important hardware on its exterior including a radiator, airlock and a European-built robotic arm.  Three spacewalks are planned to install spare components outside the station, including six spare batteries, a Ku-band antenna and spare parts for the Space Station’s Canadian-built robotic arm.

This and the other final flights of Discovery on September 16 and Endeavor no earlier than mid-November will be the last opportunity to transport large components and spare parts to the ISS, which can only be delivered using the large cargo bay provided by the Shuttle.

This will be the 32^nd flight for Atlantis, which lifted off on its maiden voyage on Oct. 3, 1985.   Later missionsincluded the launch of the Magellan probe to Venus in May 1989,Galileo interplanetary probe to Jupiter in October 1989, the first shuttledocking to the Mir Space Station in June1995 and the final Hubble servicingmission  in May 2009.

Atlantis is named after a two-masted sailingship that was operated for the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute from 1930to 1966.

In total Atlantis has logged 115 million miles of space flight has spent 282 days in earth orbit.

The scheduled launch time is 2:20 pm, given favorable weather conditions at the Kennedy Space Center and at its downrange emergency landing sites in case one is needed.

For those who wish to be as close as possible for the launch, prime viewing sites are along the Indian River on U.S. Highway 1 especially in Titusville, the Beachline Expressway Rt. 528 where it crosses over the Indian River, in Cocoa Beach off Route A1A, and at Jetty Park at Port Canaveral.  Plan to arrive at least 3-4 hours prior to launch.

We all know inventor, scientist and all around genius Albert Einstein was one successful guy, but what most of us don’t realize is that it took a lot of hard work for him to get there. Einstein was a classic late bloomer and didn’t come into the success that we all know him for until he was near middle age. Einstein’s success is a story of perseverance and the belief that you have something to contribute to the world, no matter how many times others tell you that you don’t. Let’s take a look at some of the lessons today’s business community can take from the life of one Albert Einstein.

Thinking outside the box

Einstein is well known for his incredible scientific theories that literally invented whole new fields of science, but what made Einstein such an incredible mind around his peers was the fact that he could look at a problem that had baffled scientists for generations and almost immediately look at the problem from a new perspective. He might not come up with the answer right away, but he could break start the journey down a new path. Today, we call this ‘thinking outside the box.’ While we may never accomplish something so grand, the ability to look at problems from new and interesting perspectives is incredibly valuable in today’s workplace. Every day, businesses both big and small take on problems that they have been wrestling with for years, and if you can inject something new into that conversation, you will prove yourself to be an asset your company can’t live without.

Don’t ever give up

Just like Thomas Edison, success didn’t come right away for Albert Einstein. He tried to forward some rough drafts of his scientific theories earlier on in his career, and they were either summarily ignored or brushed off as incomplete or just plain impossible. The truth is that most professors and “experts” who viewed his early work were likely terrified by it or they simply didn’t have the capacity to understand it. Instead of giving up, Einstein went back to the drawing board and refined his theories. When he was done, they were simply irrefutable and are now known verbatim by most of the earth’s population. This incredible commitment to his work should serve as inspiration to not only businessmen and women, but to anyone who has ever tried and failed at anything. Although we may never have an idea as grand as the ones he did, that doesn’t mean we can’t impact society with our work if we just try hard enough.

Sense of humor

Probably the best known picture of Einstein features him with his famous Einstein tongue out. It showed that even someone labeled the smartest person in the world can have a sense of humor and not take themselves so seriously. In the highly competitive world of business, it is extremely important to know when to push yourself away from your desk and have a good time. Besides, what good is the good life if you are constantly at work?

This is just a short post about an interesting piece of software I recently found: Stellarium (http://www.stellarium.org/).

I have not tried it in depth yet but it sounds promising – have a look at the feature list from the homepage:

in version 0.10.2

sky

• default catalogue of over 600,000 stars
• extra catalogues with more than 210 million stars
• asterisms and illustrations of the constellations
• constellations for twelve different cultures
• images of nebulae (full Messier catalogue)
• realistic Milky Way
• very realistic atmosphere, sunrise and sunset
• the planets and their satellites

interface

• a powerful zoom
• time control
• multilingual interface
• fisheye projection for planetarium domes
• spheric mirror projection for your own low-cost dome
• all new graphical interface and extensive keyboard control
• telescope control

visualisation

• equatorial and azimuthal grids
• star twinkling
• shooting stars
• eclipse simulation
• skinnable landscapes, now with spheric panorama projection

customisability

• add your own deep sky objects, landscapes, constellation images, scripts…

The software is open source and runs on Windows, Mac and Linux – if you have experience with this program, please drop a comment down here on this site…