tingilinde

time compressed seismic data

For your listening enjoyment

details here

a tip of the hat to Sukie

high definition sprites

This APOD photo almost looks fake - like a model.

 

the equinox

Fall arrives at 2:50am on the 23rd in the Northern Hemisphere.

 

extinguishing beauty

e.  Around here it's habitat destruction and heavy use of pesticides. 

There are some conservation and restoration efforts

snip

...

Alarm about firefly decline is inspiring recovery work. For centuries, fireflies have been central to Japanese poetry, art, and the Shinto belief that sacred spirits grace the landscape. But industrialization, agricultural runoff, pesticide contamination, and harvesting nearly wiped them out. Firefly hunters were selling their catch, sometimes 3,000 a night, to wholesale shops. From there the fireflies were bagged and delivered by bicycle courier to habitat-bereft cities where they were released for the public to enjoy and where they promptly died. That practice has been banned.

Japanese school children now raise fireflies and release them in proper habitat, and there are firefly festivals all over the country. Today Japanese fireflies are a symbol of environmental enlightenment and national pride. “While [they] have never been restored to their former glory days,” writes Lewis, “a predictably sad saga was transformed into a conservation success story by an impressive combination of national, local and private efforts.”

...

 

a beautiful pod

Every once and awhile a real beauty shows up.

and, of course, there are the gee-whiz images.

 

 

a beautiful roll cloud

Over Wisconsin - from yesterday's APOD.

 

the remnants of a fireball

The dispersal of a Persid fireball trail from Friday evening from Shaun Davey.

(near real time.. over about a minute)

 

on a summer asterism

Phil Plait on the Summer Triangle - something wonderful for clear and dark skies.

snip

...

It was a clear night, and while my eyes hadn’t yet adjusted to the darkness, a few stars were already visible to me. I took a moment to get my bearings and then suddenly smiled with delight. Three bright stars were rising to the east: two closer to the horizon and one already high overhead.

“Oh, hey, hello there, Summer Triangle,” I whispered to myself. I was surprised to see the arrangement despite its appropriate name and the fact that this was early July. It had been cloudy around here for so long, I’d forgotten what stars were up.

...

 

 

on fireworks

koichi itagaki

High school graduate, ran a small snack food company, amateur astronomer and supernova hunter.

snip

...

After high school, Itagaki went to work at a local confectionary company, saving up to buy a 15-centimeter telescope with which he discovered his first comet at age 20. He joined Itagaki Peanuts, a snack food company started by his father, and eventually became its CEO. He is credited with being the first in Japan to sell snack “minipacks” that provide just a mouthful of peanuts, cashews, or candy-coated almonds. As the business prospered, Itagaki says he “invested a lot” in his passion—perhaps as much as the cost of typical Japanese house, he estimates. At age 60, he turned over operations of the 30-employee firm to his sons so he could devote himself to astronomy.

Like Ikeya and many other amateurs, Itagaki started out watching for comets. But in 1998, NASA set up a near-Earth object program, which enlisted major observatories to detect and track threatening celestial bodies. It left little room for amateur discoveries. So in 2000, “I gave up on comets and started searching for supernovae,” Itagaki says.

...