Red Sprite

 art, awesomeness, photography, science  No Responses »
May 232022
 

This image brought to you by SCIENCE:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CDy1sVcFVpE/

mcdonald_observatory
#WeatherWednesday On rare summer nights, ethereal forms leap into the skies above distant thunderstorms. Alien invaders? Not quite: it’s a jellyfish sprite, an extremely brief and rarely captured event associated with incredibly powerful lightning strikes. This event occurred above a powerful storm about 100 miles away as seen from McDonald Observatory on July 2nd, 2020. Image Credit: @hummel_stephen
This guys astrophotography is the sort of stuff that makes a social media platform like Instragram actually have some value. Take a look:
 Posted by at 3:03 pm

A Buddy the Cat update

 cats, news, photography, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
May 222022
 

At this point it’s safe to assume that he’s well. Let’s hope that he has a feeling of security and happiness that the two monsters who sicced dogs on him never feel again.

FYI, here’s Banshee. She complains a LOT. But she will, with any luck, never know any real hardship or trouble again:

 Posted by at 6:35 pm

Starliner

 awesomeness, news, photography, rockets, spacecraft  No Responses »
May 212022
 

Much can be said derisively about the Boeing Starliner, but you can’t deny that it looks spiffy on-orbit.

Starliner is not yet ready to fly passengers to ISS, certainly not paying private tourists, still, it’s a step in the direction of granting the US redundant flight capability.

 

 

 Posted by at 3:03 pm

Sagittarius A* imaged

 awesomeness, Hmm..., news, photography, science, youtube  No Responses »
May 122022
 

Astronomers reveal first image of the black hole at the heart of our galaxy

The structure imaged above is about the size of the orbit of Mercury. That sounds pretty big… but given the distance to the center of the galaxy, it’s about the same apparent size as a donut on the surface of the moon. Take THAT, “other ways of knowing.”

An earlier video showing stars orbiting around the supermassive black hole. I remain impressed that we can watch stars move from this great distance. The James Webb Space telescope should return some even better footage in the years to come.

 Posted by at 9:33 am

Who knew that Chinese TV news would have the most amazing bit of footage for today?

 AARRRGH, awesomeness, Crazy, news, photography, politics, rockets, russian empire, weapons, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
May 112022
 

*WOW.* Not a fun day to be a tanker.

 

 Posted by at 2:38 pm

River Shots

 photography  No Responses »
May 052022
 

This area of Illinois is nowhere near as photogenic as Utah. The night sky, for example, is essentially non-existent, and the local mountains are… kinda non-existent. Shrug. Still, there is the occasional shot worth taking.

 Posted by at 12:13 pm

Maximally traumatized cats

 awesomeness, cats, critters, photography  No Responses »
May 052022
 

In a just world, the level of trauma exhibited by my cats in the photo below would be the worst any of their species would ever experience. The “donut” on banshee is due to some environmental factor causing her to start chewing pretty enthusiastically on herself; she freaked out when a Cone Of Shame was put on her, but tolerated the soft donut pretty well and it does the job. Curiously, it also reduced her antipathy towards Buttons. This is the closest I’ve ever seen her allow him to come without complaint.

 Posted by at 12:08 pm
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