This is a montage of NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope views of our solar system's four giant outer planets: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, each shown in enhanced color. The images were taken over nearly 10 years, from 2014 to 2024. This long baseline allows astronomers to track seasonal changes in each planet's turbulent atmosphere, with the sharpness of the NASA planetary flyby probes of the 1980s. These images were taken under a program called OPAL (Outer Planet Atmospheres Legacy).

From upper-left toward center, the hazy white polar cap on the three teal-colored Uranus images appears more face-on as the planet approaches northern summer.

From center-right to far-center right, three images of the blue planet Neptune show the coming and going of clouds as the Sun's radiation level changes. Several of Neptune's mysterious dark spots have come and gone sequentially over OPAL's decade of observations.

Seven views of yellow-brown Saturn stretch across the center of the mosaic in a triangle—one for each year of OPAL observations—showing the tilt of the angle of the ring plane relative to the view from Earth. Approximately every 15 years the relatively paper-thin rings (about one mile thick) can be seen edge-on. In 2018 they were near their maximum tilt toward Earth. Colorful changes in Saturn's bands of clouds can be followed as the weather changes.

At bottom center, three images of Jupiter spanning nearly a decade, form a triangle. There are notable changes in Jupiter's banded cloud structure of zones and belts. OPAL measured shrinking of the legendary Great Red Spot, while its rotation period speeds up.

[Image description: A montage of Hubble Space Telescope images of our solar system’s four giant outer planets: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, taken under the OPAL (Outer Planet Atmospheres Legacy) program over a duration of 10 years, from 2014 to 2024.]

Learn more

Credits:NASA, ESA, A. Simon (NASA-GSFC), M. H. Wong (UC Berkeley), J. DePasquale (STScI); CC BY 4.0

I imaged Uranus about a month ago, and wondered if the lighter area just off center of the planetary disk was real, or if it was a processing artifact. Upon seeing the NASA/ESA annual Hubble images of the Solar System's planets, I noticed that Uranus is displaying a very bright polar area. It seems that the lighter area in my image could be the polar brightening seen in the NASA/ESA image.

After assembling this composite image, I further wondered how else the two images compared in terms of my Meade LX850/12" and the Hubble Space Telescope, and in terms of the atmosphere that each telescope had to peer through.

Telescope Aperture:

Jim Johnson - 305mm

NASA/ESA - 2,400mm

Effective Focal Length:

Jim Johnson - 6,000mm

NASA/ESA - 54,600

Air Masses:

Jim Johnson - 1.09

NASA/ESA - 0.0

Seeing:

Jim Johnson - 4/10

NASA/ESA - 10/10

Friday, 26 March 2021, just after 11:00 pm. I have just checked the weather forecast, out of curiosity. Wish I hadn't! So thankful that all the scaffolding around my building will not be installed till 5 April.

"Some very rosy spring-like warmth this weekend will vanish quite thoroughly by Monday. In its place will be the effects of an incoming system which looks to bring a wide swath of snow, heaviest in the mountains and foothills of Alberta, and northern and eastern Saskatchewan. Much more impactful will be the system's strong winds, gusting 80-90 km/h for most of Monday across the two provinces. Blowing snow is a guarantee."

All five photos were taken on 4 July 2015, at the Olds College Botanic Gardens and Wetlands. I am adding the description that I wrote under a previously posted image taken on the same trip. It was an interesting and enjoyable outing, including seeing the barn and a cluster of mushrooms.

"Yesterday, 4 July 2015, was the Nature Calgary annual bus trip, and this year it was a visit to the Olds College Botanic Gardens and Wetlands. The College is approximately 95.0 km north of Calgary, roughly a 55 minute drive. This once-a-year outing always feels so good for everyone - no driving, simply relaxing on a bus. We had about three hours there, which sounded short, but in fact worked out quite well.

The mission of the College is:

"Our goal is to develop a Botanic Garden on the Olds College campus, which introduces, conserves, and maintains a diverse, well-documented and accurately labeled collection of prairie hardy plants.

Our collections will preserve our natural heritage, expand the role of Olds College as a Centre of Excellence in Horticulture, and gain formal recognition with the Canadian Botanical Conservation Network (CBCN) and the American Public Garden Association (APGA).

Olds College Botanic Garden will enhance and support education, training, demonstration, and applied research programs that span the generations and encourage the exchange of information and ideas with industry, students, other botanical gardens and the public.

The Botanical Garden will also raise awareness with the public regarding the importance of sustainable environments."

About the College:

"Not just a walk down the garden path, the gardens are designed to meet the instructional needs of courses and programs on campus, and are used as the location and subject matter for research projects. The Botanic Gardens are an aesthetically beautiful, diverse and well-maintained garden and constructed wetlands. Highlights include our collections of hardy peonies, lilies and roses, natural areas, a wide variety of aquatics, herb garden, fabulous annual displays each year and much more.

The Gardens are comprised of three phases spread over 25 acres and are populated with a wide ranging collection of prairie hardy plant material, both native and ornamental. The most established parts of the garden are the Central Portion opened in 2002.

The third and most recent phase of our Botanic Gardens is the East Portion which contains the Treatment Wetlands, opened in early September of 2013.

The three phases when considered together include naturalized landscapes, specialty gardens, walking trails, demonstration plots, an arboretum and 20 constructed treatment wetlands and display ponds. The area is complete with two public gazebos, an amphitheater and event areas. The Botanic Gardens & Treatment Wetlands has the ability to host weddings, reunions, graduations, workshops, and boasts 1.3 kilometers of trails throughout the gardens and wetlands.

Botanic gardens are quite different from other public garden spaces or show gardens. To be able to be identified as a botanic garden, several criteria must be met. For example, botanic gardens must:

Be open to the public

1. Exhibit a degree of permanence

2. Use a scientific basis as the foundation for their collections

3. Document and monitor the collection

4. Communicate information to other gardens, institutions and the public

The Botanic Gardens and Treatment Wetlands at Olds College is dedicated to meeting all criteria and continuing to expand its value to the college and extended community."

www.oldscollege.ca/about-us/botanic-gardens/about-us/index

SpaceX CEO and Chief Designer Elon Musk, left, NASA astronauts Victor Glover, Doug Hurley, Bob Behnken, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine, and NASA astronaut Mike Hopkins are seen inside the crew access arm with the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft visible behind them during a tour of Launch Complex 39A before the early Saturday morning launch of the Demo-1 mission, Friday, March 1, 2019 at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The Demo-1 mission launched at 2:49am ET on Saturday, March 2 and was the first launch of a commercially built and operated American spacecraft and space system designed for humans as part of NASA's Commercial Crew Program. The mission will serve as an end-to-end test of the system's capabilities. Hurley and Behnken are assigned to fly onboard Crew Dragon for the Demo-2 mission and Glover and Hopkins have been assigned to fly to the International Space Station on Crew Dragon's first operational mission. Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)

The farmer who owns this property, located in the hills southwest of the rural town of Nowra, Australia, happened to come home as I was setting up my camera and tripod. Seeing him move toward the gate, right near where I was lurking in the dark, I uttered “hi there”, but it went unanswered. Upping the volume, I repeated the words. He responded with “hi, watcha up to?” His tone was pleasant, and he seemed friendly, unlike many people who’ve stumbled upon me shuffling around in the shadows. “Taking photos of the stars”, was my brief reply. “Huh. I would have thought they were too far away to take photos of”, he offered, with a cheeky tone.

I had aimed to take photos in which the Milky Way was seeming to stand vertically, stretching from the horizon to the top of the frame. I missed that by about 30 minutes, resulting in our galaxy's starry band of light and dust tipping over a little towards the southwestern side of the sky. The farm’s distance from any significant built-up areas was a boon for a dark sky hunter like myself, allowing me to capture a tremendous amount of detail in the Milky Way’s dust lanes, as well as the distinct deep green colour of the background atmospheric airglow.

You can see Jupiter–our solar system’s most massive planet–shining with a bright, white light at the extreme righthand side of this image. Higher up and across to the left is Mars, at present brighter than Jupiter in the night sky but glowing with a distinctly orange hue. The Magellanic Cloud galaxies hadn’t long risen over the trees near the south-south-eastern horizon, starting another daily circuit of the sky.

I took eleven photographs to make up a vertical panorama to take in this scene, but only ended up using eight of those so that the image wouldn’t be too tall for posting online. Each of the images was shot with a Canon EOS 6D camera, through a Samyang 14mm XP lens @ f/2.8, exposed for 25 seconds @ ISO 6400. The camera was mounted on a Nodal Ninja 3 panoramic head, atop a Manfrotto tripod.

In the early CSX era, motive power started to show up in locales that they previously did not venture. Case in point-a pair of Seaboard System B36-7s were sitting deep within Chessie System's home at Riverside Shops in Baltimore.

My first visit inside the Julia Ideson Building at the Houston Central Library. A beautifully restored Spanish Renaissance style from 1926. It’s was the only main Houston library from 1926-1976. It is named after the system’s first head librarian for 40 years,

This is one corner of of the wrap around windows in the Tudor Gallery

The two extremely high-power Nuclear-fusion engines get the ship going in a hurry. They are capable of Warp 9 - which is just barely sub-light speed - but require half a solar system's length to slow down to atmospheric-entry speed. (You really don't want to incinerate the planet's crust your are trying colonize with your engine's high-energy backwash!)

A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket with Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft aboard is seen on the launch pad at Space Launch Complex 41 ahead of the Orbital Flight Test-2 mission, Monday, Aug. 2, 2021 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Boeing’s Orbital Flight Test-2 will be Starliner’s second uncrewed flight test and will dock to the International Space Station as part of NASA's Commercial Crew Program. The mission, currently targeted for launch on 1:20 p.m. EDT Tuesday, Aug. 3, will serve as an end-to-end test of the system's capabilities. Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)

JL/JAL506 departure from the RWY19R at New-Chitose Airport [RJCC/CTS]

(CTS STD11:00 / ATD11:11 - HND STA12:40 / ATA12:24)

Japan Airlines Boeing 767-289 (JA010D)

ex. Japan Air System's plane.

SpaceX CEO and Chief Designer Elon Musk, left, speaks with NASA astronaut Bob Behnken on the fixed service structure of Launch Complex 39A during a tour before the early Saturday morning launch of the Demo-1 mission, Friday, March 1, 2019 at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The Demo-1 mission launched at 2:49am ET on Saturday, March 2 and was the first launch of a commercially built and operated American spacecraft and space system designed for humans as part of NASA's Commercial Crew Program. The mission will serve as an end-to-end test of the system's capabilities. Behnken and fellow NASA astronaut Doug Hurley are assigned to fly onboard Crew Dragon for the Demo-2 mission. Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)

The Detroit People Mover began operation in 1987 and is one of the more interesting transportation options in the heart of the Motor City. Admittedly, I have never taken a ride on the system, but I'm sure some great photos could be taken from the elevated system's trains. I took this photo on January 26, 2018 during a visit to the North American International Auto Show at Cobo Center, a corner of which can be seen at the left in my photo. The Renaissance Center is seen in the distance, with the upper portion of the Detroit Princess riverboat at the bottom of the photo.

View my collections on flickr here: Collections

Press "L" for a larger image on black.

Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft opens its main parachutes as it lands at White Sands Missile Range’s Space Harbor, Wednesday, May 25, 2022, in New Mexico. Boeing’s Orbital Flight Test-2 (OFT-2) is Starliner’s second uncrewed flight test to the International Space Station as part of NASA's Commercial Crew Program. OFT-2 serves as an end-to-end test of the system's capabilities. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

This is a train I don't normally get to photograph as it runs Sun-Thu corresponding with my work week and is off the only two days I can usually get out. But this week, thanks to some early morning training I was able to get out after and try for something different. Knowing that the Providence and Worcester Railroad's WOGR/GRWO turns have had a nice matched pair of classic red and brown painted GEs of late I figured they were worth a look.

I made it to the Chair City just as they were pulling into the Pan Am Southern yard along the old Boston and Maine mainline. Having made quick work of their chores they are on their way back to Worcester with eight empty aluminum hoppers and nothing else. PW 3903 (B39-8E blt. Apr. 1988 as LMX 8594) and 4005 (B40-8W blt. Feb. 1992 as ATSF 561) are making quick work of the light train down the 26 miles of the former Boston and Maine Gardner Branch seen here in the rural town of Hubbardston passing the old B&M era MP 20 and the rarely used siding track.

And as for history of this line, how about a little courtesy of the Holden Historical Society?

In 1869, the Boston, Barre and Gardner Railroad (BB&G) commenced construction of a railroad from Worcester (at Barber), through Holden, to Gardner. This 26-mile line, which cost 1.2 million dollars to build, opened in 1871. It was extended 10 miles to Winchendon in January, 1874 and later that same year the company leased the Monadnock Railroad north another 16 miles to Peterborough, New Hampshire. The BB&G thus attained a total length of 52 miles.

Beset by financial reversals, the Monadnock lease was surrendered to the Cheshire Railroad in 1880. The BB&G was leased itself to the Fitchburg Railroad in 1884. The following year it was merged into the Fitchburg and became that road's Worcester Division. In 1900 the Fitchburg was leased and soon thereafter merged into the Boston & Maine Railroad (B&M), becoming the B&M's Fitchburg Division. As a part of the B&M system's Fitchburg Division the line through Holden was referred to at different times by various names including the Worcester & Contoocook (N.H.) Branch, the Worcester & Hillsboro (N.H.) Branch, the Peterboro (N.H.) Branch, and finally after the line was severed north o f Gardner, as the Worcester Branch of the Fitchburg Division. At Worcester, the line joined the B&M Portland Division's Worcester Main Line at Barber.

The original 52-mile BB&G line through Holden remained under B&M control for 73 years. In 1974, the line was bought by the Providence and Worcester Railroad (P&W) from the trustees of the bankrupt B&M which was considering the route for abandonment. The last B&M freight left Holden for Worcester in January 1974 and the P&W operated its first train over the line on February 2, 1974.

At various times, passenger stops existed at Chaffins, Dawson, Holden, Jefferson, and at North Woods. Holden and Jefferson were small country depots, while the others were flag stops with small shelters. Only two station structures remain: the Holden depot in its original location and the Jefferson depot which was moved in 1975 to a site next to the Wong Dynasty Chinese Restaurant on Reservoir Street.

In 1878 there were four round trip passenger trains between Worcester and Winchendon. This increased to six round trips at the turn of the century. Under B&M ownership, the old BB&G line became part of a rather unlikely through passenger route from Worcester to Concord, NH. This service ended after the floods of 1936 severed the line north of Peterboro. However, a round trip passenger local from Worcester to Peterboro would survive another 17 years, handling passengers and mail. In its last years, it acquired a certain degree of fame and became known as the Peterboro Local or the Blueberry Special. By the early 1950s the B&M was hemorrhaging financially from passenger train losses and was given permission to discontinue this train. It made its last run, with extra coaches and much fanfare, on March 7, 1953. It had remained a steam train with an ancient wooden combine and one coach almost to the very end, at which time steam power had been taken off and a diesel locomotive substituted.

B&M operated through symbol freights Worcester to Mechanicville, NY (WM-1), and Mechanicville, NY, to Worcester (WM-2), as well as a local freight that switched customers between Worcester and Gardner. The through freights between Worcester and Mechanicville, NY, operated until about 1968. WM-1 would arrive punctually in Holden at 7:30 every evening, switch the small yard, and then depart for Gardner and points west. The eastbound WM-2 passed through in the small hours of the night. The local switcher out of Worcester worked during the day. By the end of B&M control, through service on the line had been discontinued and the Worcester switcher ventured out the line only to service customers as needed.

The line has undergoing a dramatic renaissance since the P&W commenced operations in 1974 and today is a well kept modern 30 mph railroad. In fact it's so well kept that chasing a train along its length is downright challenging!

Hubbardston, Massachusetts

Wednesday March 16, 2022

Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope watched a mysterious dark vortex on Neptune abruptly steer away from a likely death on the giant blue planet.

The storm, which is wider than the Atlantic Ocean, was born in the planet's northern hemisphere and discovered by Hubble in 2018. Observations a year later showed that it began drifting southward toward the equator, where such storms are expected to vanish from sight. To the surprise of observers, Hubble spotted the vortex change direction by August 2020, doubling back to the north. Though Hubble has tracked similar dark spots over the past 30 years, this unpredictable atmospheric behavior is something new to see.

Equally as puzzling, the storm was not alone. Hubble spotted another, smaller dark spot in January this year that temporarily appeared near its larger cousin. It might possibly have been a piece of the giant vortex that broke off, drifted away, and then disappeared in subsequent observations.

"We are excited about these observations because this smaller dark fragment is potentially part of the dark spot’s disruption process," said Michael H. Wong of the University of California at Berkeley. "This is a process that's never been observed. We have seen some other dark spots fading away, and they're gone, but we've never seen anything disrupt, even though it’s predicted in computer simulations."

The large storm, which is 4,600 miles across, is the fourth dark spot Hubble has observed on Neptune since 1993. Two other dark storms were discovered by the Voyager 2 spacecraft in 1989 as it flew by the distant planet, but they had disappeared before Hubble could observe them. Since then, only Hubble has had the sharpness and sensitivity in visible light to track these elusive features, which have sequentially appeared and then faded away over a duration of about two years each. Hubble uncovered this latest storm in September 2018.

Wicked Weather

Neptune's dark vortices are high-pressure systems that can form at mid-latitudes and may then migrate toward the equator. They start out remaining stable due to Coriolis forces, which cause northern hemisphere storms to rotate clockwise, due to the planet's rotation. (These storms are unlike hurricanes on Earth, which rotate counterclockwise because they are low-pressure systems.) However, as a storm drifts toward the equator, the Coriolis effect weakens and the storm disintegrates. In computer simulations by several different teams, these storms follow a more-or-less straight path to the equator, until there is no Coriolis effect to hold them together. Unlike the simulations, the latest giant storm didn't migrate into the equatorial "kill zone."

"It was really exciting to see this one act like it's supposed to act and then all of a sudden it just stops and swings back," Wong said. "That was surprising."

Dark Spot Jr.

The Hubble observations also revealed that the dark vortex’s puzzling path reversal occurred at the same time that a new spot, informally deemed "dark spot jr.," appeared. The newest spot was slightly smaller than its cousin, measuring about 3,900 miles across. It was near the side of the main dark spot that faces the equator — the location that some simulations show a disruption would occur.

However, the timing of the smaller spot's emergence was unusual. "When I first saw the small spot, I thought the bigger one was being disrupted," Wong said. "I didn't think another vortex was forming because the small one is farther towards the equator. So it's within this unstable region. But we can't prove the two are related. It remains a complete mystery.

"It was also in January that the dark vortex stopped its motion and started moving northward again," Wong added. "Maybe by shedding that fragment, that was enough to stop it from moving towards the equator."

The researchers are continuing to analyze more data to determine whether remnants of dark spot jr. persisted through the rest of 2020.

Dark Storms Still Puzzling

It's still a mystery how these storms form, but this latest giant dark vortex is the best studied so far. The storm's dark appearance may be due to an elevated dark cloud layer, and it could be telling astronomers about the storm's vertical structure.

Another unusual feature of the dark spot is the absence of bright companion clouds around it, which were present in Hubble images taken when the vortex was discovered in 2018. Apparently, the clouds disappeared when the vortex halted its southward journey. The bright clouds form when the flow of air is perturbed and diverted upward over the vortex, causing gases to likely freeze into methane ice crystals. The lack of clouds could be revealing information on how spots evolve, say researchers.

Weather Eye on the Outer Planets

Hubble snapped many of the images of the dark spots as part of the Outer Planet Atmospheres Legacy (OPAL) program, a long-term Hubble project, led by Amy Simon of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, that annually captures global maps of our solar system's outer planets when they are closest to Earth in their orbits.

OPAL's key goals are to study long-term seasonal changes, as well as capture comparatively transitory events, such as the appearance of dark spots on Neptune or potentially Uranus. These dark storms may be so fleeting that in the past some of them may have appeared and faded during multi-year gaps in Hubble's observations of Neptune. The OPAL program ensures that astronomers won't miss another one.

"We wouldn't know anything about these latest dark spots if it wasn't for Hubble," Simon said. "We can now follow the large storm for years and watch its complete life cycle. If we didn't have Hubble, then we might think the Great Dark Spot seen by Voyager in 1989 is still there on Neptune, just like Jupiter's Great Red Spot. And, we wouldn't have known about the four other spots Hubble discovered." Wong will present the team's findings Dec. 15 at the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union.

The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and ESA (European Space Agency). NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the telescope. The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Maryland, conducts Hubble science operations. STScI is operated for NASA by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy in Washington, D.C.

For more information: www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2020/dark-storm-on-neptune-r...

The crew access arm is seen as it swings into position for Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket at the launch pad at Space Launch Complex 41 ahead of the Orbital Flight Test-2 (OFT-2) mission, Monday, Aug. 2, 2021 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Boeing’s Orbital Flight Test-2 will be Starliner’s second uncrewed flight test and will dock to the International Space Station as part of NASA's Commercial Crew Program. The mission, currently targeted for launch at 1:20 p.m. EDT Tuesday, Aug. 3, will serve as an end-to-end test of the system's capabilities. Photo Credit: (NASA/Aubrey Gemignani)

After the disaster that was the Grouse I, the URE commissioned EP Industries to design a new system instead of relying on their in-house production and design crews. Using modified plans for the Grouse, EP Industries crafted the Grouse II, a far superior version. The system's limbs remain very similar to the original's, but the torso was completely reworked. In addition, the head was outfitted with better armor and sensor systems, bringing it up to date with the Greco-Roman's Gladius systems. Small changes to the Grouse II's armor and mechanics have made it more agile and sturdy than ever before.

Even though the orbital defense force is still made primarily of modified Grouse I's, the Grouse II can be outfitted with a variant version of the original jetpack, allowing for atmospheric and sub-orbital flight.

So I fixed up the grouse a bit, mostly making the chest a bit less chubby. I'm pretty satisfied with how it turned out. As always, fits a fig.

Likes and comments are highly appreciated. Thanks for viewing!

I've been having this horrid pains in my upper abdomen, and I'm taking medication for it. But I was looking for a natural remedy that could help me feel at least a bit better. Then I read that apples actually do help for that if you eat one or half of one during the day and before you go to bed. I didn't believe it at first, but I decided to try it anyways and it's true! It's working for me, I don't have as many discomforts when I do eat an apple before going to bed. I'm still taking my medication but the apple really did make a difference. Just passing the tip along.

This apple is my digestives system's hero!

Have a great weekend, everyone. :)

View The Mighty Apple On Black

The SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft is seen atop the company's Falcon 9 rocket on the launch pad of Launch Complex 39A before the early Saturday morning launch of the Demo-1 mission, Friday, March 1, 2019 at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The Demo-1 mission launched at 2:49am ET on Saturday, March 2 and was the first launch of a commercially built and operated American spacecraft and space system designed for humans as part of NASA's Commercial Crew Program. The mission will serve as an end-to-end test of the system's capabilities. Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)

Gornergratbahn AG (GGB, BVZ Holding AG): The Gornergrat rack railway connects Zermatt (1605 m a.s.l.) with the summit of Gornergrat (3089 m a.s.l.), in a route of 9.3 km. Of metric gauge, it is one of the few railways in the world that has a three-phase electrification, at 750 V/50 Hz. It uses the Abt system's rack. The line was put into service in 1898, and is electrified from the beginning. The service is mainly provided with EMUs of two cars, of three different generations.

Here we see a train formed by two articulated EMUs of the most modern generation (numbers 3083 and 3084, part of series Beh 4/6 3081-3084, built by Stadler in 2006), just arrived to Gornergrat.

Gare de Lyon 14/02/2020 12h06

The very first TGV of all time, the 01 named "Patrick" is arriving at Gare de Lyon during it's farewell tour ("tourné d'adieu") and arrives at Gare de Lyon. Especially traveled to Paris togehter with Andy to experience this very special event.

For the occasion, the train was decorated by mixing the 3 liveries that this TGV experienced during this career.

TGV 01 "Patrick"

An explosion of colors to say farewell to the first TGV Sud-Est high-speed train. Set TGV 01, named ‘Patrick’, retires after 41 years of service. For this occasion, both power cars got back their original orange livery. Intermediate cars got back SNCF older blue-silver paint scheme, so TGV 01 now sports all three liveries it has had during its active career.

The SNCF TGV Sud-Est or TGV-PSE was a French high speed TGV train built by Alstom and operated by SNCF, the French national railway company. It is a semi-permanently coupled electric multiple unit and was built for operation between Paris and the south-east of France.

The TGV Sud-Est fleet was built between 1978 and 1988 and operated the first TGV service from Paris to Lyon in 1981.

Originally the sets were built to run at 270 km/h (168 mph) but most were upgraded to 300 km/h (186 mph) during their mid-life refurbishment in preparation for the opening of the LGV Méditerranée. The few sets which still have a maximum speed of 270 km/h (168 mph) operate on routes which have a comparatively short distance on the lignes à grande vitesse, such as those to Switzerland via Dijon. SNCF did not consider it financially worthwhile to upgrade their speed for a marginal reduction in journey time.

In December 2019, all TGV Sud-Est sets were retired from service. In early 2020, a farewell service which included TGV01 (Nicknamed Patrick), the very first TGV train ever build. This train included all 3 liveries that were worn during it's service.

FACTS & FIGURES (SNCF TGV "Sud-Est")

In service: 1981-December 2019

Manufacturer: GEC-Alsthom

Number built: 111

Numbers preserved / scrapped: 7 / 107

Formation: 10 cars (2 power cars, 8 passenger cars)

Capacity: 350

Length: 200 meters

Speed: 300 km/h

Electric system(s): 25 kV 50 Hz AC 1500 V DC

Safety system(s): TVM 300/TVM 430

[ Source & More: Wikipedia - SNCF TGV Sud-Est ]

Suppressed Infiltrator model of the Falcon, with holo optics. Weapon is compatible with optical camouflage stealth suits (meaning the rifle cloaks with the suit).

//HISTORICAL-ARCHIVE//

"Wakey wakey..."

The man slowly came to, shaking his head. It still felt cloudy, and his stomach felt like someone had punched it a good dozen times.

"Quite the party, huh?" He smirked. He couldn't quite focus enough to identify his questioner, but he was able to tell it was a feminine voice.

"Don't be smart with me. Who are you?"

"Oh, I'm sorry, I must of forgot to introduce myself... how wasted was I? Must've been a real good party."

"Last I check, the tranq darts I use don't cause memory loss, don't play with me. Who are you?"

"C'mon, don't tell me you went through all the effort to get me and never even checked my name?" He laughed, though he regretted it afterwards. His gut still felt pretty sore. But he was able to make out his dim surroundings. It was a small room, the walls were lined with pipes. There was a narrow chainlink door at one end the seemed to lead to a low hallway. He was probably still on the Techron ship, maybe somewhere near engineering? Somewhere deep in the guts of the ship, one of the few places not crawling with security.

"Just tell me who you are."

He sighed.

"Cale Anderson, private operative for-"

"No, I mean your real name."

"Ah, my bad. Silly me to think I know my own name."

"Don't play games with me, your real name."

"I don't suppose I can repeat my first answer?"

"Look. If you aren't him, then you can tell me where he is. So, answer me this: what do you know about Jonathan McGregor?"

"I would shrug, but it appears you tied me down very tight. That would also probably explain why I feel sore everywhere too."

He was able to make out his questioner. Female, geared in UNGC infiltration armor. It clicked in his head now what was happening.

"Don't avoid the question."

"And if I don't know?"

"You do."

"What makes you think that?"

"We don't have any records on Samuel McGregor or his wife Sophie, they both just vanished before the UNGC intervened in this system's little war."

"And what does that have to do with me?"

"Their son, however, was a prominent leader of the resistance against the EC. When the UNGC intervened, we attempted to detain the leaders of both the resistance and the EC to immediately cease the conflict. We never were able to obtain Jonathan McGregor."

"Too bad, huh? I hear he is quite handsome, I bet you would have loved that."

"Very funny. Now look, I have gotten a perfect DNA sample match between him and you. Ready to stop playing games?"

"Heh, nah. I've got you in checkmate."

Her head straightened, confused.

"What?"

"Oh, I figured you know who I was from the beginning. I was just stalling."

"For what?"

"Your mistake to catch up and bite you in the rear. You shouldn't have brought me here." He started to grin.

"Why is that?"

"Techron's have perfect security. And they hate it when someone breaks that."

Further down the hall the sound of doors being smashed in and rooms cleared could be heard.

Jonathan couldn't be quite sure, but the UNGC inquisitor muttered something rather vile.

//END//

(Comments and notes are always welcome)

(I particularly would appreciate comments on the story too)

(This is the final Falcon weapon)

The library in the hamlet of Naselle is the most substantial and attractive building in town.

"Library service in Naselle started on April 21, 1986 in a stationary bookmobile near Lion's Park. The Naselle Library was originally opened as an experimental 'mini-library' to serve patrons formerly served by the bookmobile. A new library was built and opened in November 1991."

It has the hallmarks of the short-lived postmodern style, which looks better here than in its usual application as a garnish on strip malls.

www.trl.org/locations/naselle

About Timberland Regional Library

Timberland Regional Library (TRL) is a public library system that provides library services to the residents of five counties in Southwest Washington State: Grays Harbor, Lewis, Mason, Pacific, and Thurston Counties. Under Washington State law, TRL is an Intercounty Rural Library District and is funded by property taxes and revenue from timber sales in the 5-county area.

In the 1960's the Washington State Library Commission initiated a demonstration project to improve library services in Grays Harbor, Lewis, Mason, Pacific, and Thurston counties in response to requests from the counties' residents.

Through this cooperative effort, library services were consolidated to create a more efficient and economical regional operation, to increase the size of the library collections and to provide service for the first time in several rural communities.

Citizens voted in November 1968 to unite the five counties into one library district, the Timberland Regional Library (TRL). TRL services began in 21 libraries with Becky Morrison serving as the first Executive Director.

Since 1968, TRL has provided information, reading, and lifelong learning services at 28 libraries offering over 1 million items to more than half a million people. The library system is funded mainly by local property taxes with additional income from timber sales taxes.

Not only were community libraries added when opportunities and dollars permitted, TRL has introduced state-of-the-art electronic services in order to provide residents with the best available library service; to provide access to all, regardless of physical limitations or geographic location; and to increase the potential of success for everyone in the system’s five counties. All Timberland library programs are free and open to the public. Anyone needing special accommodations to participate in a library program may contact the library one week in advance.

www.trl.org/about-timberland-regional-library

A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket with Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft launches from Space Launch Complex 41, Thursday, May 19, 2022, at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Boeing’s Orbital Flight Test-2 (OFT-2) is Starliner’s second uncrewed flight test and will dock to the International Space Station as part of NASA's Commercial Crew Program. OFT-2 launched at 6:54 p.m. ET, and will serve as an end-to-end test of the system's capabilities. Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)

For Station Saturday here is the last stop on this fun Friday chase last summer.

The Canadian Pacific Railway had been operating in the state of Vermont for 115 years when they finally retrenched in 1996 and sold the Newport and Lyndonville Subs to Iron Roads Railways which created the new Northern Vermont Railway which took over on September 28th of that year. The Iron Roads system was bankrupt within a half dozen years and the NV ceased to exist with the Lyndonville Sub and the former Boston and Maine Conn River Mainline between Newport and White River Junction being purchased by the State of Vermont and contracted to Vermont Rail System's Washington County Railroad Subsidiary. The WACR is now at the two decade mark operating the 103 mile line while the Newport Sub north into Canada passed to succesors Montreal, Maine and Atlantic and then Central Maine and Quebec until remarkably returning to the CP fold in 2020 when they purchased the CMQ

This past year VRS and CP began pooling power, with one unit from each running thru between White River Junction, VT and Farnham, QC on an up and back every other day schedule. This harkens back to the Boston and Maine pool power days so with a bit of imagination one can pretend this is train 904 headed down from Newport now in the capable hands of a B&M crew.

CPKC GP20C-ECO 2280 and VTR GP38-2 209 lead train NPWJ at MP L85.9 on VRS Washington County Railroad Connecticut River Division, the former B&M Conn River Mainline. The station here at Ely dates from 1900 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1994 and is now a private residence.

Fairlee, Vermont

Friday August 11, 2023

The Space Launch System’s booster is seen after the second and final qualification motor (QM-2) test, Tuesday, June 28, 2016, at Orbital ATK Propulsion Systems test facilities in Promontory, Utah. During the Space Launch System flight the boosters will provide more than 75 percent of the thrust needed to escape the gravitational pull of the Earth.

NASA Media Usage Guidelines

Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

Image Number: NHQ201606280022

Date: June 28, 2016

GMCR GP9 804 and VTR GP40-2 307 are at MP 3.15 on Washington County Railroad's M&B Division crossing the Winooski River with a handful of empty gons destined for the top of The Hill at Websterville for loadout at Northeast Materials granite quarry.

The particular rails this train is on are ex Central Vermont, first laid in 1875 when the 1849 branch into the capital city was extended to Barre. In 1957 Sam Pinsly's Montpelier & Barre purchased them and he quickly consolidated the parallel CV and old Montpelier & Wells River (later Barre &Chelsea) routes between this point at Barre. The state purchased these rails in 1980 when the M&B petitioned for abandonment and they've had multiple contract operators over the years until finally setting on Vermont Rail System's Washington County Subsidiary about two decades ago.

But changes are coming to this location. Sometime within 5 to 6 weeks of this photo the last train will pass over these rails, and in a strange twist of fate a little over a mile of the old Montpelier & Barre (ex Barre & Chelsea, nee Montpelier & Wells River) will be coming to life. From about the point where I am standing, once known as Barre Transfer (where the CV, M&WRR mainline and Barre railroad branch to the quarries all met), west a little over a mile toward Montpelier rails are being relayed on the old right of way that was torn up in 1958 shortly after the M&B bought the CV branch.

Consequently a bit over a mile of the old CV including the bridge that this train is on, will be abandoned and removed. The purpose is to eliminate two aging bridges over the Winooski River, this one and a thru girder bridge to the west. Both of these ex CV bridges are at the end of life and arein need of major repairs to continue to safely support heavy loads of granite coming down from the quarries. It was determined to be cheaper for VTR to purchase the old RofW and relay the rails along the north side of the river than it would be to repair or replace the two bridges.

Montpelier, Vermont

Friday April 24, 2020

Taken with Olympus OM-System S Zuiko Auto-Zoom 100-200mm 1:5

Old barracks on Tern Island in the French Frigate Shoals, Hawaii.

Camera: Olympus OM-1

Lens: Olympus OM-System S Zuiko MC Auto-Zoom f/4 35-70mm. Yellow.

Film: Ferrania P30

Developer: Rodinal 1:50

Key System's Yerba Buena yards at Emeryville, in July 1953, with a Key System 'Bridge Unit' passing in the background..

On the extreme left is the front of preserved Sacramento Northern Birney streetcar No 62 - still in original white livery with blue doors. Beyond that are the two ex-NY Richmond Shipyard Railway cars 561 and 563.

On the right are Sacramento Northern Baldwin-Westinghouse steeple-cab electric locos 440 and (behind) 442, which were at that time on hire to the Oakland Terminal Railway.. Both locos were returned to the Sacramento Northern in 1955, and scrapped soon afterwards.

Today, this area is part of a retail park, and cars 62, 561, and 563 are all at the Western Railway Museum at Rio Vista Junction.

Original slide - photographer unknown

See - approximately - where this photo was taken

These three galaxies, collectively known as NGC 7764A, were imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope. The two galaxies in the upper right of the image appear to be interacting with one another — indeed, the long trails of stars and gas extending from them both give the impression that they have both just been struck at great speed, thrown into disarray by the bowling-ball-shaped galaxy to the lower left of the image. In reality, however, interactions between galaxies happen over very long time periods, and galaxies rarely collide head-on with one another. It is also unclear whether the galaxy to the lower left is actually interacting with the other two, although they are so relatively close in space that it seems possible that they are. By happy coincidence, the collective interaction between these galaxies have caused the two on the upper right to form a shape, which from our Solar System's perspective, ressembles the starship known as the USS Enterprise from Star Trek!

Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, J. Dalcanton, Dark Energy Survey, DOE, FNAL, DECam, CTIO, NOIRLab/NSF/AURA, ESO

Acknowledgement: J. Schmidt

For more information, visit: esahubble.org/images/potw2204a/

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The crew access arm is seen as it swings into position for Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket at the launch pad at Space Launch Complex 41 ahead of the Orbital Flight Test-2 mission, Wednesday, May 18, 2022 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Boeing’s Orbital Flight Test-2 will be Starliner’s second uncrewed flight test and will dock to the International Space Station as part of NASA's Commercial Crew Program. The mission, currently targeted for launch on 6:54 p.m. ET on May 19, will serve as an end-to-end test of the system's capabilities. Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)

With the growing success of their VCS line, EP Industries decided to delve into the drone market with their ACS (Automated Combat System) line. The first in the series was the RF-X02A, which uses a heavily modified AI system from a Hornet system. The unit saw moderate success, but it was not until the release of the unit's full-armor set that it came into widespread use. The extra armor not only adds new weapons, but covers most of the system's more integral parts with bio-laminate plates, greatly increasing its effectiveness in battle, at the cost of higher energy consumption.

This is based around Lu Sim's reFrame design. I swear it's coincidence that we both built mass-produced looking frames at the same time :P They even share some ideas and techniques!

I was impressed by the customizability & proportions of the reFrame, although the articulation of the basic design was kinda limited (namely in the arms) so I had to address that in this build. When the base mech was built, I felt like it needed something more, and thus the armor set was born. The armor doesn't really hinder the articulation at all, although it does make the waist joint want to bend all the time. I also tried to combine a more Japanese-esque head with a drone-like one, and I think it turned out okay.

Next up: Droneuary!

(Although I guess this technically counts as a drone, doesn't it?)

A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket with Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft aboard is seen at sunrise on the launch pad at Space Launch Complex 41 ahead of the Orbital Flight Test-2 mission, Tuesday, Aug. 3, 2021 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Boeing’s Orbital Flight Test-2 will be Starliner’s second uncrewed flight test and will dock to the International Space Station as part of NASA's Commercial Crew Program. The mission, currently targeted for launch at 1:20 p.m. EDT, will serve as an end-to-end test of the system's capabilities. Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)

Picture [also] taken for the Photo Salon class of Caledon Oxbridge (yeah, yeah, I know how it sounds/seems like here 😏) of Second Life:

www.facebook.com/groups/206350456439067/permalink/1023327...

---

🎵: [The best version of this song:-] 🏁 "Across The Universe"

---

I see no-thing

and then some-

thing or two——

Right

Wrong

Up

Down

stream-loading

steam-rollin'

whatkindofTRAUMAbeyouholden?

Holden Caulfield saw it all too well and

he did get along super-swell——

until idiots like you who couldn't see,

yet decide what to sing on MTV(to a tee, to a 'T=MCsquareheadedILLogicbeesknees—

Well, my daunted,daunt-y,darn-tikki-friend-in

side my membranes of memory lane——

I do not want to KNow you anymore(ow! Yes!)

I do not want to careforYOU anymore(Yes;)

Because I ain't yo sitter

and definitely no maker-of-

shift-y belieb system(s) of hu(man)-ity

It is all your own UNdoing (by the way #newsflash)

how Karma plays its own role unto-onto you[r BeING a jerk

[un]towards VAST HUMANity that

cannot be calculated in two(set categorical 'boxes')

or

can/could it be your self-project

ed hate-love-turned-into-chilvarous disguise-in-mice ——

three times it runs(from your social charms[and savvy ]);

three times it is ... still ... justasblind / as my own.

_____________________________________

#rhymemaynotreasonmaynotrhyme :o)

_____________________________________

It will all make sense in the end.

ॐ

ओ३म्

We were talking about the space between us all /

And the people who hide themselves behind a wall of illusion /

Never glimpse the truth, then it's far too late, when they pass away /

We were talking about the love we all could share /

When we find it, to try our best to hold it there with our love /

With our love, we could save the world, if they only knew /

Try to realise it's all within yourself /

No one else can make you change /

And to see you're really only very small /

And life flows on within you and without you /

We were talking about the love that's gone so cold /

And the people who gain the world and lose their soul /

They don't know, they can't see, are you one of them? /

When you've seen be-yond yourself then you may find /

Peace of mind is waiting there /

And the time will come when you see we're all one /

And life flows on within you and without you

__

🔊 Vibe-wit-hme 😄 :

Within You Without You (Remastered 2009) 🎵

#PisceanWisdom #forREALism ;)

__

A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket lifts off on May 19, 2022, from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida for NASA Boeing’s uncrewed Orbital Flight Test-2 (OFT-2) for the agency’s Commercial Crew Program. Liftoff for OFT-2 occurred at 6:54 p.m. EDT. Starliner is expected to arrive at the space station for docking about 24 hours later with more than 500 pounds of NASA cargo. The flight test is designed to test the system’s end-to-end capabilities for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program providing valuable data towards NASA certifying Boeing’s crew transportation system for regular crewed flights to and from the International Space Station. Photo credit: NASA/Kevin Davis and Chris Coleman

NASA image use policy.

Boeing and NASA teams work around Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft after it landed at White Sands Missile Range’s Space Harbor, Wednesday, May 25, 2022, in New Mexico. Boeing’s Orbital Flight Test-2 (OFT-2) is Starliner’s second uncrewed flight test to the International Space Station as part of NASA's Commercial Crew Program. OFT-2 serves as an end-to-end test of the system's capabilities. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

Ex. # 219 475 BVG Berlin arrived in Almaty in 2000 in the vein of system's revival after the 90s. It worked mostly as # 1041 being renumbered to # 1011 in 2008 and almost put out of service the same year. However, it was revived by some enthusiastic young tram driver and served another year or two since then. Seen here in 2011 about to be dismantled and scraped soon.

Tramway depot, Almaty, KZ

A look into the afterburner of the F-35A from the previous post. I'll let the text from that post speak to this one as well.

This is a case of stealth making itself known in a big way… its roar during this high-speed pass rivaled the thunder of its namesake. We brought friends along with us to this year’s Wings Over Wayne (WOW 2019) Air Show at Seymour Johnson AFB in Goldsboro, North Carolina… one noted that with this much noise, it wasn’t too stealthy. I responded to her that when its target hears that noise, it’s too late to do anything about it.

This is the F-35A Demo Team out of Luke AFB, Arizona, showing some of the capabilities of the Lightning. It is the Air Force’s latest 5th-generation stealth fighter. While it’s quite proficient at tearing up the sky, it was designed with an enhanced ability to survive in the advanced threat environment of the world today, and much what it can do will never be demonstrated at any air show… but it’s amazing.

Early in its test phase, the F-35 was determined to be quite a dud as a fighter. Tested against a 4th-generation F-16, it could barely hold its own in a mock dogfight against the Viper, but what few knew was its capabilities were reined in, much like holding a racehorse back from what it was born to do… run. There was another problem that was unforeseen… pilots of the new F-35 had all previously flown 4th-generation, and they brought with them habits that did not apply to the new system’s stunning flight characteristics. They were just figuring out they had to unlearn what they had trusted for so long flying F-15s, F-16s, and F-18s, also known as Legacy fighters, because the Lightning wasn’t just capable of making mincemeat of any adversary, it was a gamechanger with immediate power, faster response to pilot input, an incredible angle of attack (AOA), and an ability to slow to less than 100 mph rapidly while still maintaining controlled flight to rapidly swing its nose to a target. The funny thing is, that as new pilots graduate flight school without the habits of the older pilots, they’re learning more about what the Lightning can do.

All variants of the F-35, A, B, and C models all have advanced integrated avionics giving enhanced situational awareness not just to the pilots, but to every Lightning aircraft on a given mission… what one knows, they all know. Red Flag is somewhat like the Air Force’s version of Navy’s Top Gun, but there’s more to it than what the movie portrays. A Marine pilot new to the program in 2016 was preparing to take off in an F-35B from Luke AFB for a Red Flag exercise… it floored him how much information it provided him from the other members of his squadron who were already airborne. He had a Gods-eye view of the fray before he even left the ground.

From a pilot’s own perspective: "You never knew I was there," he said with a smile. "You literally would never know I'm there. I flew the F-35 against other fourth-generation platforms and we killed them, and they never even saw us."

"If you were to engage an F-35 in say, a visual dogfight capability, the capabilities of the F-35 are absolutely eye-watering compared to a fourth-generation fighter. So if it's a long-range contact, you'll never see me and you'll die, and if it's within visual-range contact you'll see me and you're gonna die and you're gonna die very quickly."

"I can tell you that it is by far the best platform I've ever flown in my entire life, and at that, you would have to take me on my word."

– Maj. Gen. Scott Pleus, former CO of 56th Fighter Wing at Luke AFB. 24 years flying the F-16.

Makes me proud of my own involvement as an airman of the U.S. Air Force.

A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket with Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft aboard is seen as it is rolled out of the Vertical Integration Facility to the launch pad at Space Launch Complex 41 ahead of the Orbital Flight Test-2 (OFT-2) mission, Wednesday, May 18, 2022 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Boeing’s Orbital Flight Test-2 will be Starliner’s second uncrewed flight test and will dock to the International Space Station as part of NASA's Commercial Crew Program. The mission, currently targeted for launch at 6:54 p.m. ET on May 19, will serve as an end-to-end test of the system's capabilities. Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)

A Slice Of Life.

The Circular light rail (Chinese: 環狀輕軌; Wade–Giles: Huan2 chuang4 Ch'ing1 kuei3) is a 22.1-kilometer (13.7 mi) circular light rail line currently under construction in Kaohsiung, Taiwan.[3] The south part of this line makes use of the defunct tracks of the Taiwan Railways Administration's Kaohsiung Harbor Line.

Forecast to cost 16.5 billion New Taiwan dollars, it will be the world's first light rail vehicle system on a fully catenary-free route.[4][5]

Phase I construction consists of a section of line from Station C1 to Station C14, where Stations C3 and C14 are the transfer stations to Kaohsiung Mass Rapid Transit system's Red Line and Orange Line, respectively. Construction of Phase I began on June 4, 2013.[6] Stations C1 to C14 were tested from August 2015 (rides on the trams are open to the public for free during testing[7]). The civil construction part of stations C1 to C14 had been completed, and Phase I achieved full operations on September 2017.[8][9][10] The CAF Urbos trams used in this line parked at or passed by these stations for demonstrations and tests in several events from November 2014 onwards.

Phase II construction will not start until the Kaohsiung urban railway is relocated underground in 2017. It is scheduled to be completed in 2019.[4]

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circular_light_rail

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) released the first look at its newest state-of-the-art subway cars in production, the R211 class, which is planned for service on the subway system’s lettered routes and the Staten Island Railway.

The MTA Board approved the $1.4 billion contract award of 535 R211 cars to Kawasaki Rail Car Inc. in 2018 and the delivery of the first test cars is scheduled for later this year.

Description The following information was published along with the image in 1990, prior to Pluto having been stripped of its title as a planet:

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has obtained the clearest pictures ever of our solar system's most distant and enigmatic object: the planet Pluto. The observations were made with the European Space Agency's Faint Object Camera. The ninth and last real planet known, and the only planet that has not been visited by a fly-by spacecraft, Pluto was discovered just 60 years ago by the American astronomer Clyde Tombaugh, who was searching for the source of irregularities seen in the orbits of Uranus and Neptune. It has become apparent since then that Pluto is a very peculiar object.

NASA Media Usage Guidelines

Credit: NASA, ESA, and STScI. Ground Image: Canada–France–Hawaii Telescope, Hawaii

Image Number: STScI-PRC1990-14

Release Date: October 4, 1990

Note: The image is not at full resolution, but because of the fine detail, it is best viewed as LARGE as possible. Zoom in and out by clicking on the image.

WARNING:

Don't look at the Sun though a Telescope's Eyepiece or Finder Scope without protective Solar filters, as it can cause permanent eye damage. The same applies when you use a camera, and look through the Camera's Eyepiece. If at all possible, rather look at the Sun in Live View on the Camera's LCD Screen.

About this photo:

This is a photograph of the surface of the Sun (mostly in the wavelengths of visible light, and the H-Alpha (Ha) Infrared (IR) spectral line of Hydrogen at 656.28 nm).

Over 99.999% of the light was blocked with a R-G "White Light" Solar filter. Sunspots, granulation and filaments are visible due to the use of an additional Baader Planetarium Solar Continuum filter (passing a narrowband spectral wavelength of light at 540 nm).

This image was created by Stacking several High Dynamic Range RAW images, that were photographed with a Canon 60Da DSLR, on a 6" wide field Newtonian Reflector Telescope (Astrograph).

About Sunspots:

The dark spots are cooler holes in the Sun's Photosphere and are called Sunspots. The Photosphere has a temperature of 5,800 degrees Kelvin, and Sunspots have temperatures of about 3,800 degrees K. Sunspots only appear to be dark, as they are surrounded by much brighter and hotter regions of the Sun's Photosphere.

With the use of extreme narrowband Hydrogen-Alpha Solar filters, Ca K-Line filters, and other wavelengths of light like Ultraviolet (UV), the detail of the Sun's surface, prominences and solar flares will be far more apparent.

About the Sun:

The Sun is a G-type Main-Sequence Yellow Dwarf (G2V) Star. As far as stars go, the Sun is a very average star in the middle of its life cycle (around 5 billion years old). To give an indication of the Sun's size, about 1.3 million Earth sized planets can fit into the volume of the Sun. Through the process of fusion, the Sun burns approximately 600 million tonnes (metric tons) of Hydrogen each second, turning it into 596 million tonnes of Helium. As the Hydrogen nuclei fuse, Photons are emitted, which in short is why the Sun and other stars shine.

The Sun is roughly 150,000,000 km (93,205,679 mi) from Earth. The speed of light is 300,000 km/sec (186,000 miles/sec), which means that the light took just over 8 light-minutes (8 minutes and 26 seconds) to reach my Telescope.

The mass of the Sun is about 2 Nonillion kilograms:

M☉ = (1.98855±0.00025) × 10^30 kilograms or 10^27 metric tons, and is referred to as 1 Solar Mass. The Sun contains 99.86% of the mass in our Solar System.

About Hydrogen and the Chemical Elements:

The Hydrogen Atom is the simplest and most abundant element in the Universe (with only 1 Proton and 1 Electron). Through the process of fusion, more complex elements are made at different stages of a star's life and death cycle.

This is what Carl Sagan meant with one of his well known quotes from Cosmos, "The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood, the carbon in our apple pies were made in the interiors of collapsing stars. We are made of starstuff."

About the Milky Way, and our Solar System's place within it:

The Milky Way Galaxy is estimated to have over 400 billion stars. Stars are suns, and just like in our Solar System, many of the stars have planets with moons orbiting them. Our sun is a middle aged Yellow Dwarf star, located in the Orion Arm (or Orion Spur) of the Milky Way Galaxy. It's a minor side spiral arm, located between two larger arms of the Milky Way Galaxy's spiral. The Milky Way is merely one mid-sized barred spiral Galaxy, amongst over 100 billion other Galaxies in the observable Universe. When we look up at the night sky from Earth, we see a glimpse of the Carina-Sagittarius Arm of the Milky Way Galaxy. It takes about 250 million years for the Milky Way Galaxy's spiral arms to complete one rotation.

The size, distance and age of the Universe is far beyond human comprehension. The known Universe is estimated to contain over One Billion Trillion stars.

1 000 000 000 000 000 000 000

Click on this link to view an image that illustrates ''our Solar System's position within the Milky Way Galaxy''.

View the spectacular images and videos captured in several wavelengths of light with the NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory.

This image was published in Astrophotography Ezine - Issue 23.

Martin

-

[Home Page] [Photography Showcase] [My Free Photo App]

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The second and final qualification motor (QM-2) test for the Space Launch System’s booster is seen, Tuesday, June 28, 2016, at Orbital ATK Propulsion Systems test facilities in Promontory, Utah. During the Space Launch System flight the boosters will provide more than 75 percent of the thrust needed to escape the gravitational pull of the Earth, the first step on NASA’s Journey to Mars. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

Gornergratbahn AG (GGB, BVZ Holding AG): The Gornergrat rack railway connects Zermatt (1605 m a.s.l.) with the summit of Gornergrat (3089 m a.s.l.), in a route of 9.3 km. Of metric gauge, it is one of the few railways in the world that has a three-phase electrification, at 750 V/50 Hz. It uses the Abt system's rack. The line was put into service in 1898, and is electrified from the beginning. The service is mainly provided with EMUs of two cars, of three different generations.

Here we see train 628 from Gornergrat arriving at the Zermatt terminal. It consits of two of the most modern EMUs of this railway, the Bhe 4/6 3095 and 3094. They are part of a series of five built by Stadler Ral in 2022 (Polaris type, series 3091-3095).

The Boeing CST-100 Starliner spacecraft jettisons the heat shield as it lands at White Sands Missile Range’s Space Harbor, Wednesday, May 25, 2022, in New Mexico. Boeing’s Orbital Flight Test-2 (OFT-2) is Starliner’s second uncrewed flight test to the International Space Station as part of NASA's Commercial Crew Program. OFT-2 serves as an end-to-end test of the system's capabilities. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

Superficially resembling a skyrocket, Comet ISON is hurtling toward the Sun at a whopping 48,000 miles per hour.

Its swift motion is captured in this image taken May 8, 2013, by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. At the time the image was taken, the comet was 403 million miles from Earth, between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.

Unlike a firework, the comet is not combusting, but in fact is pretty cold. Its skyrocket-looking tail is really a streamer of gas and dust bleeding off the icy nucleus, which is surrounded by a bright, star-like-looking coma. The pressure of the solar wind sweeps the material into a tail, like a breeze blowing a windsock.

As the comet warms as it moves closer to the Sun, its rate of sublimation will increase. The comet will get brighter and the tail grows longer. The comet is predicted to reach naked-eye visibility in November.

The comet is named after the organization that discovered it, the Russia-based International Scientific Optical Network.

This false-color, visible-light image was taken with Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3.

Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

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More details on Comet ISON:

Comet ISON began its trip from the Oort cloud region of our solar system and is now travelling toward the sun. The comet will reach its closest approach to the sun on Thanksgiving Day -- 28 Nov 2013 -- skimming just 730,000 miles above the sun's surface. If it comes around the sun without breaking up, the comet will be visible in the Northern Hemisphere with the naked eye, and from what we see now, ISON is predicted to be a particularly bright and beautiful comet.

Catalogued as C/2012 S1, Comet ISON was first spotted 585 million miles away in September 2012. This is ISON's very first trip around the sun, which means it is still made of pristine matter from the earliest days of the solar system’s formation, its top layers never having been lost by a trip near the sun. Comet ISON is, like all comets, a dirty snowball made up of dust and frozen gases like water, ammonia, methane and carbon dioxide -- some of the fundamental building blocks that scientists believe led to the formation of the planets 4.5 billion years ago.

NASA has been using a vast fleet of spacecraft, instruments, and space- and Earth-based telescope, in order to learn more about this time capsule from when the solar system first formed.

The journey along the way for such a sun-grazing comet can be dangerous. A giant ejection of solar material from the sun could rip its tail off. Before it reaches Mars -- at some 230 million miles away from the sun -- the radiation of the sun begins to boil its water, the first step toward breaking apart. And, if it survives all this, the intense radiation and pressure as it flies near the surface of the sun could destroy it altogether.

This collection of images show ISON throughout that journey, as scientists watched to see whether the comet would break up or remain intact.

The comet reaches its closest approach to the sun on Thanksgiving Day -- Nov. 28, 2013 -- skimming just 730,000 miles above the sun’s surface. If it comes around the sun without breaking up, the comet will be visible in the Northern Hemisphere with the naked eye, and from what we see now, ISON is predicted to be a particularly bright and beautiful comet.

ISON stands for International Scientific Optical Network, a group of observatories in ten countries who have organized to detect, monitor, and track objects in space. ISON is managed by the Keldysh Institute of Applied Mathematics, part of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

NASA image use policy.

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scienti

The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope has captured new details of the auroras on our Solar System’s largest planet. The dancing lights observed on Jupiter are hundreds of times brighter than those seen on Earth.

These observations of Jupiter’s auroras (shown on the left of the above image) were captured with Webb’s Near-InfraRed Camera (NIRCam) on 25 December 2023 (F335M filter). Scientists found that the emission from the trihydrogen ion, known as H3+, is far more variable than previously believed. H3+ is created by the impact of high energy electrons on molecular hydrogen. Because this emission shines brightly in the infrared, Webb’s instruments are well equipped to observe it. The image on the right shows the planet Jupiter to indicate the location of the observed auroras, which was originally published in 2023 (F164N, F212N, and F360M filters).

A video of these observations can be found here.

[Image description: On the right is the planet Jupiter as seen in near-infrared light. Its clouds are dark blue and white in colour, with some red spots within the clouds, while its poles are tinged with green, yellow and red. A box over the north pole is overlain with more data in shades of orange, displaying aurorae as arcs and rings on the planet. To left, this area is shown larger in size and captioned “09:53:57 25 Dec. 2023”.]

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Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Ricardo Hueso (UPV), Imke de Pater (UC Berkeley), Thierry Fouchet (Observatory of Paris), Leigh Fletcher (University of Leicester), Michael H. Wong (UC Berkeley), Joseph DePasquale (STScI), J. Nichols (University of Leicester), M. Zamani (ESA/Webb); CC BY 4.0

January 2, 2016. ©Copyright 2016 Karlton Huber Photography - all rights reserved.

My first photo shoot of 2016! A very peaceful morning. I think the ducks sense the approaching weather system(s). Hoping for a safe and nurturing winter.