Magazine Posts

Twin mills (front: green mill, 1856; rear: red mill or Schoof’s mill, 1706), Greetsiel, Krummhörn, Lower Saxony, Germany.

Dietmar Rabich, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. View source.

Photo taken near El Bolsón, Argentina. By Paz Arando on Unsplash

Baciccio's Triumph of Franciscan Order depicts the Apostles recommending Francis of Assisi, Anthony of Padua, and other Franciscans to Christ for admittance into Heaven. The fresco is on the vaulted ceiling of the Church of the Twelve Holy Apostles in Rome. This year is the 800th anniversary of Francis of Assisi's death. Today is his feast day.

Livioandronico2013, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. View source.

Budgies. Budgies, also known as budgerigars and parakeets, are sociable birds, and in the wild may be seen in flocks of hundreds or more. They have been bred into many different colour forms, but the birds in this photo are the natural colour form, which I think is hard to beat. Photo taken near Port Douglas Habitat, Port Douglas, Australia.

By David Clode on Unsplash

Brown booby (Sula leucogaster plotus) male in flight over Michaelmas Cay, Great Barrier Reef, Queensland, Australia.

Charles J. Sharp, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. View source.

Gene Autry in 1942. Autry died on this date in 1998.

Harry Warnecke / Robert F. Cranston, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. View source.

Choir of the Málaga Cathedral, Andalusia, Spain. The Roman Catholic church was built in the Renaissance architectural tradition between 1528 and 1782 following the plans drawn by Diego de Siloe. The temple is considered one of the Renaissance jewels in all Andalusia.

Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. View source.

The tower of the Cathedral of Saint Domnius (Split, Croatia) as seen from the Vestibule of Diocletian's Palace.

Sumitsurai, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. View source.

Ceiling Painted Dome Cupola Angels Fighting Demons in the Vatican Museums. Today is Michaelmas in much of Western Christianity.

Livioandronico2013, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. View source.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

What color is the universe? More precisely, if the entire sky were smeared out, what color would the final mix be? This whimsical question came up when trying to determine what stars are commonplace in nearby galaxies. The answer, depicted here, is a conditionally perceived shade of beige. In computer parlance: hex FFF8E7. To determine this, astronomers computationally averaged the light emitted by one of the larger samples of galaxies analyzed: the 200,000 galaxies of the 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey. The resulting cosmic spectrum has some emission in all parts of the electromagnetic spectrum, but a single perceived composite color. This color has become much less blue over the past 10 billion years, indicating that redder stars are becoming more prevalent. In a contest to better name the color, notable entries included skyvory, univeige, and the winner: cosmic latte.

Photo by Karl Glazebrook & Ivan Baldry (JHU)

View of the Basilica Cistern, Istanbul, Turkey. The Basilica Cistern, or Cisterna Basilica is the largest of several hundred ancient cisterns that lie beneath the city. This subterranean cistern was called Basilica because it was located under a large public square, the Stoa Basilica, on the First Hill of Constantinople. The cistern, built in the 6th century during the reign of Byzantine emperor Justinian I, provided a water filtration system for the Great Palace of Constantinople and other buildings on the First Hill, and continued to provide water to the Topkapı Palace after the Ottoman conquest in 1453 and into modern times. Today it is kept with little water, for public access inside the space.

Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. View source.

Gladiolus dalenii (parrot gladiolus) flower in the rain. About 4–5 cm (1.6–2.0 in) across. Garden plant in Ooty, The Nilgiris, south India. Focus-stack of 38 images.

Timothy A. Gonsalves, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. View source.