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I ran across a great web site last night, a web essay on "Information Display Systems for Russian Spacecraft: An Overview", which has lots of photos of instrument panels of Soviet/Russian spacecraft, which I think are fun to look at.
Looking at Some of these panel diagrams led me down an interesting line of thought. I can't read the button labels, because they're in Russian. It occured to me that that might be a reason to learn to read Russian. Since from 2010 to 2014, the only viable person-rated spacecraft will be the Soviet Soyuz and whatever succeeds it. I would be able to read stuff in the original language. I've always wanted to learn a foreign language. I've thought that Japanese would be neat, and I took some in college, but I just haven't had any reason to pursue it. Maybe this could be a reason to get that second language.
Here's a Soyuz-T panel photo from Astronautix.com:
this photo is © Mark Wade and used according to their use terms.
I've always been facinated by the globe instrument in the panel. I presume it indicates current position in orbit and maybe where you'd land if you fired the retro-rockets right now. Is this an actual, active navigation device? Is it a clockwork globe that just turns? Is it controlled by computer, or something else?