Our From the Earth to the Moon marathon came to a close on Saturday in the most over-arcing way possible. Charles and I began by watching Georges Melies' 1902 sci-fi classic, La Voyage Dans La Lune. This set the stage for the Australian 2000 film, The Dish, about Sam Neill's struggles to broadcast the Apollo 11 moonlanding in 1969.

We then watched the final four episodes of the miniseries: "For Miles and Miles," "Galileo Was Right," "The Original Wives Club," and "La Voyage Dans La Lune." This last episode, juxtaposing the making of Melies' movie with the Apollo 17 mission brought the day full circle and the marathon to an end.

It's a pity more people didn't show up for this series, since it actually is very good. Still, I had a grand time watching it again along with the movies I picked to go along with it.

Charles and I continued our October Space Marathon with Apollo 13 and the next four episodes of From the Earth to the Moon. We ate some pizza that made us both sick, so I'm suffering from stomach cramps this evening.

The final day of the marathon, however, will be next Saturday, starting with The Dish at 5. It's a charming little movie that is basically a love letter to a radio antenna. There aren't many cutesy, feel-good movies about science so The Dish is somewhat unique in its genre. Then the last four episodes of From the Earth to the Moon will round out this three-week marathon.

Today we launched the "From the Earth to the Moon" marathon in style. Katie stopped by to watch October Sky with us beforehand, a touching real-life story about how Homer Hickam was inspired by Sputnik and strove to escape a near-certain fate to be a coal miner. Katie abandoned us after that.

Charles and I then kicked off "From the Earth to the Moon," watching the first four episodes of the series. Next week it'll be Apollo 13 and episodes five through eight.

We even took a time out to head outside to watch the International Space Station pass overhead. Weather conditions were perfect and the ISS took over two minutes to traverse the sky as a very bright point of light arcing overhead. I ought to have tried to photograph it, but I was happy with watching it with binoculars though, even then, none of its structure or shape was really apparent.

All in all, a good night!

As previously reported, I'm celebrating this golden anniversary by running the HBO miniseries "From the Earth to the Moon" (FTETTM), about that first formative decade between NASA's establishment and the moon landings. It will occur over three weeks and will include movies that relate to the history involved. Here is the full schedule for the three movie days:

October 4.
5:00 - Movie: October Sky (1999)
7:00 - FTETTM: Episode 1 - "Can We Do This?"
8:00 - FTETTM: Episode 2 - "Apollo One"
9:00 - FTETTM: Episode 3 - "We Have Cleared the Tower"
10:00 - FTETTM: Episode 4 - "1968"

October 11.
4:30 - Movie: Apollo 13 (1995)
7:00 - FTETTM: Episode 5 - "Spider"
8:00 - FTETTM: Episode 6 - "Mare Tranquilitatis"
9:00 - FTETTM: Episode 7 - "That's All There Is"
10:00 - FTETTM: Episode 8 - "We Interrupt This Message"

October 18.
5:00 - Movie: The Dish (2000)
7:00 - FTETTM: Episode 9 - "For Miles and Miles"
8:00 - FTETTM: Episode 10 - "Galileo Was Right"
9:00 - FTETTM: Episode 11 - "The Original Wives Club"
10:00 - FTETTM: Episode 12 - "Le Voyage Dans La Lune"

After that will be October 25, and Halloween movie day. Stay tuned!

October is fast approaching, now not even two weeks on the horizon. As you all know, I totally heart the space program something fierce and October 2008 is a big month. Not only will we see the launch of STS-125 Atlantis to the Hubble Space Telescope on the 14th, but also Soyuz TMA-13 carrying Expedition 18 to the International Space Station on the 12th.

Historically, October is month of major anniversaries. The first of October marks NASA's fiftieth anniversary, the date that the agency officially began operations in 1958. Additionally, October 11th will be the fortieth anniversary of the launch of Apollo 7, the first manned Apollo mission that lead to the first moon landing the following July. Additionally, October 4th is the fifty-first anniversary of the first satellite, Sputnik 1, though I celebrated that last year.

In commemoration of these keystone anniversaries Charles and I have conspired to show the complete run of the 1998 HBO miniseries, From the Earth to the Moon, beginning on Saturday, October 4. The twelve-hour series dramatizes the Apollo Program from the early days of Mercury and Gemini up through the last moon landing on Apollo 17.

Additionally, there is the intent to include Ron Howard's 1995 motion picture, Apollo 13. The reason being that, due to the movie's release, the episode of From the Earth focuses on the ground's reaction rather than the astronauts on orbit.

Since the schedule we had for Battlestar Galactica seemed to work so well, why not keep it. Showtimes will be from 7-11 with time beforehand for any additional business. The full series is approximately twelve hours long, so this will be broken up over the course of three weeks (October 4, 11, 18). As always, invitations are open to anyone who would like to happen by.