Magazine Posts

Today marks 93 days since the first Coronavirus case was reported in the U.S. We now have 803,018 confirmed cases and 43,558 deaths.
What about those highly needed tests?  If you rank the world reporting nations based on the number of tests per 1 Million of population, The US is number 42 in the world. Yes, Number 42.
I don't know about you, but I am tired of political spinning and lies. Lets ask our government to tell us the truth and to marshal our resources to address this problem in a coordinated, disciplined non political way.

Seattle photographers trade Zoom calls for a zoom lens .......... Read more

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

To some, it looks like a giant chicken running across the sky. To others, it looks like a gaseous nebula where star formation takes place. Cataloged as IC 2944, the Running Chicken Nebula spans about 100 light years and lies about 6,000 light years away toward the constellation of the Centaur (Centaurus). The featured image, shown in scientifically assigned colors, was captured recently in a 12-hour exposure. The star cluster Collinder 249 is visible embedded in the nebula's glowing gas. Although difficult to discern here, several dark molecular clouds with distinct shapes can be found inside the nebula.

Photo by Juan Filas

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

What would it look like to approach Saturn in a spaceship? One doesn't have to just imagine -- the Cassini spacecraft did just this in 2004, recording thousands of images along the way, and hundreds of thousands more since entering orbit. Some of Cassini's early images have been digitally tweaked, cropped, and compiled into the featured inspiring video which is part of a larger developing IMAX movie project named In Saturn's Rings. In the concluding sequence, Saturn looms increasingly large on approach as cloudy Titan swoops below. With Saturn whirling around in the background, Cassini is next depicted flying over Mimas, with large Herschel Crater clearly visible. Saturn's majestic rings then take over the show as Cassini crosses Saturn's thin ring plane. Dark shadows of the ring appear on Saturn itself. Finally, the enigmatic ice-geyser moon Enceladus appears in the distance and then is approached just as the video clip ends. After more than a decade of exploration and discovery, the Cassini spacecraft ran low on fuel in 2017 was directed to enter Saturn's atmosphere, where it surely melted.

Video by Cassini Imaging TeamISSJPLESANASAS. Van Vuuren Music: Adagio for Strings (NY Philharmonic)

I matters not where you are today,
for at this time we should all pray.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

It was just another day on aerosol Earth. For August 23, 2018, the identification and distribution of aerosols in the Earth's atmosphere is shown in this dramatic, planet-wide digital visualization. Produced in real time, the Goddard Earth Observing System Forward Processing (GEOS FP) model relies on a combination of Earth-observing satellite and ground-based data to calculate the presence of types of aerosols, tiny solid particles and liquid droplets, as they circulate above the entire planet. This August 23rd model shows black carbon particles in red from combustion processes, like smoke from the fires in the United States and Canada, spreading across large stretches of North America and Africa. Sea salt aerosols are in blue, swirling above threatening typhoons near South Korea and Japan, and the hurricane looming near Hawaii. Dust shown in purple hues is blowing over African and Asian deserts. The location of cities and towns can be found from the concentrations of lights based on satellite image data of the Earth at night. Celebrate: Earth Day at Home

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Stars can't turn these old wooden arms, but it does look like they might in this scene from a rotating planet. The well-composed night skyscape was recorded from Garafia, a municipality on the island of La Palma, Canary Islands, planet Earth. The center of the once working windmill, retired since 1953, is lined-up with the north celestial pole, the planet's rotation axis projected on to the northern sky. From a camera fixed to a tripod, the star trails are a reflection of the planet's rotation traced in a digital composite of 39 sequential exposures each 25 seconds long. Brought out by highlighting the final exposure in the sequence, the stars themselves appear at the ends of their short concentric arcs. A faint band of winter's Milky Way and even a diffuse glow from our neighboring Andromeda Galaxy also shine in the night.

Photo by Antonio Gonzalez

Many flowers; colorful all,
will be gone by the Fall.

She glanced at him,
as he walked by.
He looked at her,
knowing not why.

A single encounter,
as if by chance,
could this lead to,
a new romance?

He stopped again,
as if to try,
she said no to him,
with a sigh.

"Please don't bother me,"
she said to he.
"Please go away,
and leave me be."