Incredible 'Space-O-Lanterns'

By Nancy Atkinson - October 29, 2011 at 9:08 PM UTC | Observing
gater.png

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When it comes to Halloween, there are some very creative people out there. Unfortunately, I'm not one of them, but I've been enjoying some incredible space-themed Jack-O-Lanterns that people on Twitter have been sharing. Above is an amazing re-creation of the Moon by astronomer and science writer

Will Gater

(

@willgater

) which shows the maria, craters and the rays from Tycho crater.

Below, a group of Space Tweeps got together and had a "Space-o-lantern" carving party: take a look!

[caption id="attachment_90423" align="aligncenter" width="435" caption="'Gargarkin': Yuri Gargarin in Jack-o-lantern form by Rachel Hobson"]

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Here's Yuri Gagarin in intricate detail in the "Gargarkin" created by Rachel Hobson,

@avgjanecrafter

on Twitter. See more at Rachel's blog,

Average Jane Crafter

[caption id="attachment_90425" align="aligncenter" width="580" caption="The STS-130 mission patch as a Jack-O-Lantern by Liz Warren. "]

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Liz Warren (

@spasmunkey

) specializes in space-o-lanterns of various space shuttle mission patches. Above in the STS-130 patch and below is STS-120.

[caption id="attachment_90426" align="aligncenter" width="580" caption="STS-120 Space-O-Lantern, carved by Liz Warren."]

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[caption id="attachment_90424" align="aligncenter" width="580" caption="Saturn Space-O-Lantern by Jen Scheer. "]

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And here's a planetary pumpkin from Jen Scheer (

@flyingjenny

).

These creative Space Tweeps declared the First Ever World-Wide Space-O-Lantern Carving Day on October 28, 2011, and you can see more at

their Flickr page.

Create your own Space-O-Lanterns and upload to the group!

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com