Post archive for ‘science’
Hawaii Mountains Silhouetted by the Moon
Man, is this beautiful. Because the atmosphere is a bit thinner at 13,500 feet, space shines through more clearly. Maybe this is something that Rocky Mountain-dwellers are used to, but the Ozark “Mountains” I grew up in never afforded an image like this. Silhouetted mountains; a bright Moon and sparkling Venus; and clouds, lit up by the moonlight, make for a breath-taking image, even when viewed on a computer screen. I can only imagine how beautiful it must have been in person.
(Frayed Laces, maybe you can tell us!)
A Marathon of a Different Kind
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A couple weeks ago, I announced my bid for the upcoming Berlin Marathon, and yesterday, NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day featured a marathon of a different kind.
In the 1800s, Charles Messier, a French astronomer, dedicated much of his time cataloging objects in the sky that he and other comet hunters might incorrectly identify as comets. Most of these items were deep sky objects, like nebulae and galaxies. He cataloged 103 objects in the sky, and this astronomical marathon challenges amateur astronomers to view all 110 Messier objects (7 were added to Messier’s list).