Specialist 2nd Class Tony D. Curtis / US Navy via AP

An X-47B Unmanned Combat Air System demonstrator sits on an aircraft elevator on the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush on May 6.

Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Timothy Walter / US Navy via EPA

Sailors move an X-47B Unmanned Combat Air System (UCAS) demonstrator onto an aircraft elevator aboard the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush at an unspecified location in the Atlantic Ocean, on May 14.

Jason Reed / Reuters

Northrop Grumman test pilots Bruce McFadden, left, and Dave Lorenz are pictured with their arm-mounted controllers after they successfully launched an X-47B pilot-less drone combat aircraft for the first time off an aircraft carrier in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Virginia, on May 14.

By Nidhi Subbaraman, NBC News

The U.S. Navy's X-47B drone has become the first unmanned craft to complete a catapult launch from the flight deck of an aircraft carrier. Today's demonstration took place on the USS George H.W. Bush, off the coast of Virginia.

After a flight of an hour and five minutes, the drone touched down at the Naval Air Station Patuxent River in Maryland.

This drone didn't land on the carrier, nor has any, to date. A similar X-47B completed a carrier-style landing at Patuxent River earlier this month, catching a length of heavy cabling on the tarmac and coming to a short stop after touchdown, as it might on a ship deck. Read the full story.

Jason Reed / Reuters

An X-47B drone is launched for the first time off an aircraft carrier, on May 14.

Alan Radecki / US Navy courtesy of Northrop Grumman via AFP - Getty Images

An X-47B Unmanned Combat Air System (UCAS) demonstrator is launched from the deck of the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush during flight operations in the Atlantic Ocean on May 14.

Jason Reed / Reuters

An X-47B performs a fly-by after being launched for the first time off an aircraft carrier in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Virginia, on May 14.

Steve Helber / AP

A Navy X-47B drone does a fly-by over the nuclear powered aircraft carrier USS George H. W. Bush after it was launched off the coast of Virginia, on May 14. The plane isn't intended for operational use, but it will be used to help develop other unmanned, carrier-based aircraft.

Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Timothy Walter / US Navy via EPA

An X-47B is lifted on an aircraft elevator aboard the aircraft carrier 'USS George H.W. Bush' at an unspecified location in the Atlantic Ocean, on May 14.

John Brecher / NBC News

At right, Namiko Aoki, 84, from Tokyo, Japan, and companions Keiko Nakamura and Kisako Takahara. watch the moon eclipse the sun from Four Mile Beach in Port Douglas, Australia on Wednesday Nov. 14, 2012.

By John Brecher, NBC News

The first one got me hooked. June 21, 2001, was a bright sunny day in Lusaka, Zambia, and the only hint of the spectacle to come was a crowd of thousands I'd joined on a soccer field. It began slowly - imperceptibly save for shouts of “First contact!” from those watching the sun with filtered telescopes. It took about an hour for the moon to obscure half the sun’s disk, reducing ambient light by half (that’s one stop, if you play with cameras). If you didn’t know what was happening, you probably wouldn’t notice.

John Brecher

School kids watch the moon's disk begin to cover the sun between first and second contact during a total solar eclipse on June 21, 2001 in Lusaka, Zambia.

The next 20 minutes, though, changed my worldview. The sun faded faster and faster, dropping the ambient light another 12 stops, half of them in the last handful of minutes - a curtain fall from midday to midnight.

Stars came out as the moon's shadow tore away the familiar blanket of blue sky, taking with it a lifetime of up/down perception. Space isn’t out there, far away – it’s here, all around us, all the time. We hover in the abyss. Now I see it.

And then the sun returned with a sparkling flash – called the "diamond ring effect" - and blue sky concealed the void again.

I love to travel. I want to go everywhere, to get a feel for the Earth. Eclipses offer an excuse - not so much for where to go, but when. Sure, I want to go to Turkey - it's part of the Earth! But when would I say, "Now's the time for Turkey?" The answer was March 29, 2006: eclipse #2 in Side, on Turkey’s Mediterranean coast. (Astronauts aboard the International Space Station saw this one, too).

John Brecher

From left to right, a crowd gathers for a solar eclipse, witnesses totality and leaves an ancient Roman amphitheater in Side, Turkey.

Stacy Kwinn

John Brecher and Lisa Sholley watch a total solar eclipse on July 22, 2009, at Dishui Lake in Shanghai, China.

I proposed to my wife during eclipse #3, near Shanghai on July 22, 2009, a day that began with rain and heavy clouds. Around first contact, on the shores of a circular man-made lake, I looked at the bright area in the clouds where I knew the sun to be and thought: well, if you appear I'll go through with this. Remarkably, as all went dark, the clouds parted to reveal the last sliver of sun disappearing behind the moon. The hole in the clouds held for all six minutes of totality, enough time to stammer a proposal, and of course, see the diamond ring in the sky.

Today I'm in Port Douglas, Australia. It's total solar eclipse #4 for me, and #1 for my seven-month-old son (though he experienced an annular eclipse on May 20 in California). The weather today is partly cloudy, and once again the clouds made way for totality. 

Where to next? Ever since I heard about the big money on the Micronesian Island of Yap, I've wanted to go there. But again: when is the right time to go to Yap? Well, it looks like 2016 is the year, since there's a total solar eclipse passing nearby on March 9.

If you're in North America and want to see a total solar eclipse, you have a great opportunity on Aug. 21, 2017. Crossing the country from Oregon to South Carolina, it should be relatively easy to plan a road trip, especially if you consider that you have five years to do it. Watch out, though, it might be habit-forming.

See more images of eclipses in PhotoBlog.

Follow @NBCNewsPictures

Slideshow: Total solar eclipse seen from Australia

John Brecher / NBC News

Glimpse eye-opening scenes from Wednesday's total solar eclipse in the Southern Hemisphere.

Launch slideshow

Richard Carson / Reuters

Kayakers and paddle boarders watch as the Space Shuttle replica "Explorer" moves under a highway bridge into Clear Lake toward the dock at the Johnson Space Center in Houston on Friday.

Smiley N. Pool / Houston Chronicle via AP

A full-size replica of the space shuttle passes the Kemah Boardwalk on Friday.

Space shuttle replica Explorer had to leave Kennedy Space Center in Florida to make way for the recently decommissioned space shuttle orbiter Atlantis. According to the full story, the 130,000-pound replica will be displayed at the Johnson Space Center:

Once the space shuttle mockup is in place outside Space Center Houston, the visitor center will open its parking lot for a free, family-friendly display of space-related exhibits and activities. Guests will also have the opportunity to view the space shuttle mockup at its new home. 

The replica will eventually become the star attraction of an educational exhibition themed around the retired space shuttle program. Designed for outdoor display, the mockup is fully detailed inside and out. Once an access ramp is erected later this year, Space Center Houston visitors will be able to walk through the orbiter to look inside the crew compartment and payload bay.

Read more...

Smiley N. Pool / AP

Crowds line the Kemah Boardwalk to watch as a full-size replica of the space shuttle passes on Friday.

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SPACEX via EPA

Handout image provided by SpaceX on Thursday shows the SpaceX 'Dragon' commercial cargo craft after it was recovered in the Pacific Ocean several hundred miles off the coast of Southern California. The Dragon spacecraft returned to earth after becoming the first private craft ever to reach the orbiting International Space Station.

Alan Boyle reported in Cosmic Log that the capsule touched down within a mile of its target, according to SpaceX founder Elon Musk:

When he saw the first pictures of the craft bobbing in the Pacific, he said his reaction was, "Welcome home, baby. ... It's like seeing your kid come home."

Read more...

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Bruno Martin / Reuters

A man works near a stack of French Minitel terminals which are to be broken down into their components for recycling in Portet-Sur-Garonne, southwestern France on May 23. The Minitel, the box-like terminal with a keyboard and monochrome screen, was introduced on the market in 1982 by telecommunications operator France Telecom and used by the French to get information as a phone directory or to purchase train tickets. Although there are between 600,000 - 700,000 of the units still in use, the Minitel service will end on June 30, 2012.

Bruno Martin / Reuters

A man separates components from a French Minitel terminal which are to be broken down for recycling in Portet-Sur-Garonne

Bruno Martin / Reuters

Circuit boards from French Minitel terminals which are broken down into its components, are collected for recycling in Portet-Sur-Garonne, southwestern France.

According to Wikipedia, millions of the terminals were handed out free to telephone subscribers in France who then paid by the minute for their dialup use. 

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John Brecher / msnbc.com

Daylight on a cloudy day as shot by Canon G10, HTC Amaze, iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S.

By John Brecher

As part of a joint product test with msnbc.com's Gadgetbox blog, I tested three cellphone cameras: iPhone 4S, iPhone 4, and HTC Amaze, a phone marketed for its photographic capabilities. 

For comparison, I shot the same stuffed animals in four lighting situations: 

• Daylight (cloudy)
• Indoor fluorescent lights
• Very dim LED lamp (exposure f/2.8 at 1/2.5 second, ISO 400)
• Built-in flash

I included a Canon G10 in the mix, because while we definitely want to know what the best phone camera is, the ultimate question is whether a phone can replace a good point-and-shoot camera.

A few easy conclusions: Overall, the iPhone 4S is decidedly better than the iPhone 4. In low light, both old and new iPhones are better than the HTC Amaze.

In terms of image quality, the iPhone 4S looks almost as good as the G10 in all but very low light conditions. Some of this is subjective — you may or may not prefer the iPhone's color saturation, for example.

As someone who's ruined plenty of shots by blowing out the highlights, I can say that the iPhone's smaller sensor does hinder it in some ways. Look for the abrupt transition from detailed to blown-out highlights on the 4S and iPhone 4 shots, compared to the far smoother highlight handling of the G10. 

There's more to a camera, though, than the image quality it produces. It's also a matter of handling. It's great that iPhones running iOS5 let you use the volume key as a shutter button. HTC's Amaze also has a hard button. Tapping a touchscreen interface can introduce more camera shake.

Also, If you do want to override automatic white balance and exposure, a dedicated camera is the easiest and best tool. There are apps and tweaks for iPhone and other phones, but it involves a lot of tap-dancing with your fingers. And if you're trying to shoot lots of images in rapid succession, it's faster to use a real camera.

Still, the iPhone 4S comes the closest to putting run-of-the-mill point-and-shoots out of business. Your dedicated camera had better be high performance, like the Canon PowerShot S100, or somehow qualitatively different, to make it worth carrying along. 

As for the test pictures, you can see our daylight comparative results above and the rest below. There's no HDR and no use of post-processing in Photoshop other than resizing. All cameras were shot on auto for white balance, exposure and focus. 

John Brecher / msnbc.com

Daylight on a cloudy day as shot by Canon G10, HTC Amaze, iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S.

John Brecher / msnbc.com

Overhead fluorescent lights indoors as shot by Canon G10, HTC Amaze, iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S.

John Brecher / msnbc.com

Overhead fluorescent lights indoors as shot by Canon G10, HTC Amaze, iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S.

John Brecher / msnbc.com

Built-in flash indoors as shot by Canon G10, HTC Amaze, iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S.

John Brecher / msnbc.com

Built-in flash indoors as shot by Canon G10, HTC Amaze, iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S.

John Brecher / msnbc.com

Very dim indoor light as shot by Canon G10, HTC Amaze, iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S. Exposure was f/2.8 at 1/2.5 second at ISO 400 on Canon G10.

John Brecher / msnbc.com

Very dim indoor light as shot by Canon G10, HTC Amaze, iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S. Exposure was f/2.8 at 1/2.5 second at ISO 400 on Canon G10.

John Brecher has been a professional photographer for 15 years, and has shot for msnbc.com for the last five.

Kevork Djansezian / Getty Images

Shigeru Miyamoto (R), Senior Managing Director, Nintendo Co., Ltd., speaks during a news conference as an orchestra performs before the unveiling of the new game console Wii U at the Electronic Entertainment Expo on June 7, 2011 in Los Angeles, California.

The photographer got a pretty good picture of this situation, considering that it's a staged announcement. If you're interested in E3 and video games, look at msnbc.com's coverage from Winda Benedetti and In-Game editor Todd Kenreck.