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This piece was inspired by a Youtube video a Deaf friend showed me.... the only clear sign in the video was "I love you"..she asked me to draw what i thought it was about.. I perceived it to be about a deaf child growing up to hearing parents, how the parents of an infant use great facial expressions to interact , and the parent child relationshipin takes place in a very visual way, but then as time passes the parents withdraw from using so much expression, expecting to transition over to an audio world ::hence the clock pulling the Alexander Graham Bell mask over the faces. But using Bell as this polarized icon through the dual view point of Deaf Culture, and Hearing Culture, the piece came to be about the relationship between Deaf culture and American society ... The plane image is the X1 rocket...it was the first plane to break the sound barrier. i thought it fitting since the hand shape in ASL for "i love you", and "plane" are the same.... the paper airplane image hints back at the rocket in the foreground, and means the American school system's many painful attempts to educate Deaf children... the parent figures are shown signing behind the back denoting the parents feelings towards Deafness, and reluctance to embrace Deaf culture. An alarming percentage of hearing parents who have Deaf children do not learn sign language ..and so i hope the drawing asks the question... "It it logical to strap an infant upon this plane as a method to break the sound barrier and launch the child into hearing culture without choice, when the parents could mearly learn to sign and become a part of Deaf culture with the child...?" the shadows of the parents and infant are connected, while actually the patents are shown not even touching the same ground as the child, emphasizing the ignorant concepts of a society that believes all Deaf learn to read lips perfectly and this makes them blend effortlessly into their hearing world.. the snail is a near identical image to the cochlea inside the human ear, so coming from the shadow of the x1 rocket it reminds that in reality, lip reading and the oral method are an enormously slow and grueling process...and also hints at the speed with which society has really taken the time to intelligently consider Deafness, and finally questions the latest modern scientific approach to Deafness the Cochlear implant..that the face of the snail hints at the "i love you" handshape, and is turning around suggests that a loving society might try a different approach. the ears of the parent figures are shown as closed eyes....meaning that from the deaf child's perspective, the parents hearing causes them to not pay attention with their eyes...the scuba divers show Deaf culture,, as the beautiful silent world it is.. since Deaf scuba divers can literally use sign language to communicate underwater, where hearing people just akwardly gesture, and have to wait to be above the surface to communicate.....i hope this image would be striking and urge hearing people to stop and think deeper about Deaf culture, and the many wonderful aspects of life hearing causes them to miss....
For today's Freight Car Friday offering here is a bit of a mystery. Green Mountain Railroad 309 sits beside the Vermont Rail System's Washington County Railroad office and small engine house in downtown Barre just west of the Williams Lane Crossing at MP7.7 on the railroad's Montpelier and Barre Division.
This car has sat here for some two decades, presumably used as storage but still wears faded green paint and original independent GMRC logos. All I can find online is that the then new shortline leased a batch of 40' boxcars from Itel Rail in 1966 and they remained in revenue service until 1982 hauling bagged Talc. Presumably they were retired that year because they aged out so my guess would be this car was built in 1942. I know nothing else so if anyone else here does know the manufacturer, build date, and original road name and number I'd love to find out more.
A for the Green Mountain, it was founded in 1964 by F. Nelson Blount of Steamtown fame as his common carrier arm and operated the state owned former Rutland Railroad mainline from Rutland to Bellows Falls and later acquired a small portion of the Boston and Maine Cheshire branch into North Walpole, NH. The shortline soldiered on after Blount tragically died in 1967 and Steamtown moved south in 1984. Finally in 1997 the Vermont Railway purchased it from then owner Jerry Hebda and it continues to operate as a key link in the Vermont Rail System serving local customers, a busy transload yard and overhead business from the CPKC in Whitehall destined to New England points via a partnership with NECR and PW.
Barre, Vermont
Friday August 1, 2025
Addendum: The following information provided by Scott Whitney.
There were 100 of them, all former Lake Superior & Ishpeming RR, the first 50 with roller bearing trucks and the second 50 with friction bearing. They were originally intended for talc service, but the introduction of higher capacity boxcars spelled doom for that use. A few of them in good condition were used to ship loads from Marlboro Manufacturing in Keene when GMRC was operating there. However, most of them went into storage in Keene with no more use in their futures. They returned to the rest of the GMRC when Keene operations ended, forming the largest train ever run in modern times on the branch. Leased from ITEL, they were sold for scrap. However, the scrap dealer that bought them allowed outside parties to buy them for storage use. Also, GMRC traded numerous other GMRC cars, the older 500's with friction bearings, one for one with the 300's to stay in use as storage cars on the GMRC, several to replace elderly wooden Rutland boxcars. Several of the cars can still be found all around the twin state area, some on trucks, some not. There are 7 GMRC owned ones left.
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.
Recently VRS and CP have been 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 B&M pool power days so with a bit of imagination one can pretend this is train 904 headed down from Newport to hand off to the B&M.
CPKC GP20C-ECO 2280 and VTR GP38-2 209 lead train NPWJ south past a young orchard near MP L47.4 south of the little village of Passumpsic as they follow the the river of the same name on this glorious summer afternoon.
Barnet, Vermont
Friday August 11, 2023
A multitude of magnificent, swirling clouds in Jupiter's dynamic North Temperate Belt is captured in this image from NASA's Juno spacecraft.
This color-enhanced image was taken on Oct. 29, 2018, as the spacecraft performed its 16th close flyby of Jupiter. At the time, Juno was about 4,400 miles (7,000 kilometers) from the planet's cloud tops, at a latitude of approximately 40 degrees north.
@NASAJuno is exploring Jupiter to improve our understanding of the solar system's largest planet.
Credit: NASA/Juno
Read more about Juno: go.nasa.gov/2QVKg0i
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 scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.
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For Monochrome Monday here's anotner frame of this busy scene from the little capital city of the Green Mountain State.
After coming down the switchback route from the quarry in Websterville and stopping in Barre to pick up more cars Vermont Rail System's Washington County Railroad crew head into Montpelier with more than a dozen loads of granite armor rock from the Northeast Materials quarry. They set off their whole train on the old CV main, where they were temporarily left and are now running light engine down to Montpelier Junction to pull empties from the NECR interchange and make room for the outbound loads they'll bring down later.
A trainman flags the busy Main Street crossing in the center of the little capital city as red VTR 206 (a GP38-3 206 blt. Oct. 1969 as SOU 2718 and originally a high nosed straight GP38) and green GMRC 804 (a GP9r blt. Oct. 1955 as NW 13) roll over a short stretch of street running at about MP 1.4 on the Washington County Railroad's M&B Division.
These particular rails are ex CV, first laid in 1849 by CV predecessor Vermont Central. In 1958 Sam Pinsly's Montpelier & Barre purchased them and he quickly consolidated the parallel CV and old Montpelier & Wells River routes between this point and 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 settling on Vermont Rail System's Washington County Subsidiary about two decades ago.
The large square brick building at right which now serves as a bank was once the Montpelier & Wells River Railroad station and headquarters building. Built in 1876 as the Murray Block, it was purchased and refurbished by the M&WRR in 1881 for $8,000.
Montpelier, Vermont
Friday August 1, 2025
The cutting-edge technology that keeps the Silverstone motor racing track in tip-top condition could be coming to Croydon. John Bownas spoke to the team hoping to bring it here.
Pot holes – we all hate ‘em, and Croydon certainly has its share.
But now, the borough’s highways team is taking a lead from the people responsible for maintaining Silverstone’s grand prix circuit.
New technology that is good enough for the world’s top racing drivers is being tested in Croydon to see if it is up to the council’s exacting standards.
If trials are successful, the infrared-powered Nu-Phalt repair system could become invaluable to Croydon’s road repair crews who would be the first in London to realise its potential benefits.
Apart from a significant possible cost saving, the biggest advantages that the new technique has over traditional methods are:
•speed: a typical 1 square metre repair can be completed in just 20 minutes; currently, the same job takes considerably longer, and would be only a temporary fix;
•durability: the infra-red triggered thermal bonding means that patch repairs are far more permanent and blend seamlessly into the surrounding road surface;
•environmentally friendly: the process starts by recycling the existing macadam and needs only a small amount of new material to top off the repair.
The council has recently announced a multi-million pound investment project to resurface many of its roads.
However, there will always be a need for fast and efficient repairs in those cases where small patches of tarmac work loose.
This can happen at any time of the year – although it is usually after spells of wet or cold weather that these small holes open up to create a real headache for motorists and cyclists.
In total, the council’s emergency repairs operation currently costs about £560k every year in manpower and materials – and that’s not including the money that is budgeted separately for the major road resurfacing schemes that we will be seeing a lot more of over the next few years.
Steve Iles is the council’s head of highways, and he knows better than anyone else in the borough just how big a task it is to stay on top of the thousands of road repairs that his teams have to carry out every year.
Talking to Your Croydon about this mammoth job and his hopes for the promising high-tech solution, he first ran through some of the big numbers involved.
“We’ve got nearly 3,000 roads in Croydon, and these all get inspected by the council at least twice a year.
“We look out for any problems that might have arisen since the last visit – and particularly any new holes or cracks that could pose a hazard.
“Since January our system’s logged nearly 5,000 new reports from both streetscene inspectors and those members of the public who phone or email to tell us about possible problems.”
In that same time we’ve managed to fill in or repair about 9,800 – but there’s still around 8,600 that we know about waiting to be fixed.
“That takes a lot of doing,” continued Steve, “I’ve got six full-time staff who spend the majority of their day out doing this sort of work.
“And when they can’t do road repairs, because of snow and ice, they drive the gritting lorries to try to keep the roads clear.”
Tony Whyatt is the highways engineer whose research into improved technology solutions has led to the trial of the Nu-Phalt system.
“I’m really optimistic about how this will save us time and money.
“We reuse most of the existing road material on-site and need to add only a small amount of fresh material to each repair.
“There’s no noisy compressors, and the system cuts the number of vehicles and staff involved in each repair.
“We also minimise disruption to traffic – which is good for drivers – and these repairs can be driven over again almost immediately they’re finished.”
Indeed, driving away from our meeting with Tony we drove over a number of holes that had just been filled – and the first thing we noticed was that we didn’t notice them at all.
The repaired road was as smooth as the day it was originally laid.
Back to Tampa FL for more vintage scenery, this time a year later, on 12 April 1982, at Seaboard System's sprawling Uceta and Yeoman yard and shop complex, where we find SW-9 switcher No. 181 (ex-Atlantic Coast Line) working the yard in the short-lived Family Lines attire.
Tasmània, AUSTRÀLIA 2023
Port Arthur is one of Tasmania’s and Australia’s most significant historic sites. Located about two hours by car from Hobart, it was a British penal colony in the 19th century. The site features impressive ruins, including the prison, church, and hospital, set in a stunning natural landscape. Guided tours share stories of convict life and the penal system’s history. You can also take a boat trip to the Isle of the Dead, the convicts’ cemetery. At night, ghost tours offer a spine-chilling experience for the brave. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a place of deep cultural meaning. Port Arthur blends history, scenery, and emotion. A must-visit to understand Tasmania’s past.
There's times when you need to ship that extra-precious package to a dangerous place: an ybrite necklace for your Rimarian pirate girlfriend, a slave shipment passing through the cannibal colonies of R-332, or your company's CEO on the way to firing the whole Epsilon Lady of the Country branch.
At times like these, Galactic Handling and Logistics can provide an armed escort using fast and well-armed interceptors like the Vanadium Vibration, pictured above.
Sleep tight, at GHL we *do* care.
Small print for the Armed Escort service:
- service can be activated only in spaceports whose GHL branches start with the letter "V", except in the month of November
- available on request at a premium based on package value, System's Terror Level and number of escorts used
- service may be cancelled in a cloud of debris without prior notification
Dust collecting in the gravitational plane of the solar system's planets can be seen illuminated by the sun in space in the spring and fall. Here I captured this zodiacal light" with a Perseid meteor over the Mono Basin.
Although I try to avoid the lights of Lee Vining, often they're an unavoidable addition to my night photographs in the area. Their impact is likely to soon get a lot worse:
Mono County Planning Commission disappoints; Board of Supervisors to vote soon on Tioga Inn project
"Despite overwhelming opposition from the public, on Thursday the Mono County Planning Commission voted 4-0 to approve the Tioga Inn project with few modifications to the final plan and design."
www.monolake.org/today/2020/04/18/mono-county-planning-co...
I've posted more information on my blog:
www.jeffsullivanphotography.com/blog/2020/04/25/light-pol...
Contact members of the Mono County Board of Supervisors if before their May meeting if you have any concerns.
35mm SLR camera
Professional 35mm SLR camera
(inspired by Exakta Varex)
made by KMZ (Krasnogorsky Mekhanichesky Zavod)
Moscow, USSR from 1958-64
Lens Helios-44 2/58
camerapedia.wikia.com/wiki/Start_(SLR):
The Start is a 35mm film SLR camera manufactured by Mechanical Factory of Krasnogorsk (Krasnogorsky Mekhanichesky Zavod) (KMZ), near Moscov, former USSR, between 1958-64. Start Старт (=Старт logo stamped as Italics) means Start.
The Start camera has a unique lens mount, the Start breech-lock bayonet, and a cloth focal plane shutter with a wide range of speeds from 1 to 1/1000 second. The aperture release lever on the lens is pressed together with the shutter release, in a way similar to that of some old Exakta lenses on Exa and Exakta cameras. The viewfinder screen has a dual prism rangefinder in the central area. The camera's pentaprism finder is detachable, it slides off to the rear.
The Start is a very well made and interesting system SLR camera, and entirely mechanical. It was aimed at the professional market. At its era there is no other system camera in the Soviet Union.
It was often referred to as the "Russian Exakta". At that time Start was the only competition to the Exakta available within the Soviet Union and the Soviet-dominated part of Europe. It was at least in principle, the only other system camera, providing not only interchangeable lenses, but also finders and viewing screens. Helios-44 58 mm f/2 is similar to the Carl Zeiss Jena Biotar. But unfortunately this is the Start system's only manufactured lens. There is an adapter for M39 screw mount Zenith lenses, but this was not an attractive option, as such lenses did not have automatic aperture system. This adapter was in the set.
The cutting-edge technology that keeps the Silverstone motor racing track in tip-top condition could be coming to Croydon. John Bownas spoke to the team hoping to bring it here.
Pot holes – we all hate ‘em, and Croydon certainly has its share.
But now, the borough’s highways team is taking a lead from the people responsible for maintaining Silverstone’s grand prix circuit.
New technology that is good enough for the world’s top racing drivers is being tested in Croydon to see if it is up to the council’s exacting standards.
If trials are successful, the infrared-powered Nu-Phalt repair system could become invaluable to Croydon’s road repair crews who would be the first in London to realise its potential benefits.
Apart from a significant possible cost saving, the biggest advantages that the new technique has over traditional methods are:
•speed: a typical 1 square metre repair can be completed in just 20 minutes; currently, the same job takes considerably longer, and would be only a temporary fix;
•durability: the infra-red triggered thermal bonding means that patch repairs are far more permanent and blend seamlessly into the surrounding road surface;
•environmentally friendly: the process starts by recycling the existing macadam and needs only a small amount of new material to top off the repair.
The council has recently announced a multi-million pound investment project to resurface many of its roads.
However, there will always be a need for fast and efficient repairs in those cases where small patches of tarmac work loose.
This can happen at any time of the year – although it is usually after spells of wet or cold weather that these small holes open up to create a real headache for motorists and cyclists.
In total, the council’s emergency repairs operation currently costs about £560k every year in manpower and materials – and that’s not including the money that is budgeted separately for the major road resurfacing schemes that we will be seeing a lot more of over the next few years.
Steve Iles is the council’s head of highways, and he knows better than anyone else in the borough just how big a task it is to stay on top of the thousands of road repairs that his teams have to carry out every year.
Talking to Your Croydon about this mammoth job and his hopes for the promising high-tech solution, he first ran through some of the big numbers involved.
“We’ve got nearly 3,000 roads in Croydon, and these all get inspected by the council at least twice a year.
“We look out for any problems that might have arisen since the last visit – and particularly any new holes or cracks that could pose a hazard.
“Since January our system’s logged nearly 5,000 new reports from both streetscene inspectors and those members of the public who phone or email to tell us about possible problems.”
In that same time we’ve managed to fill in or repair about 9,800 – but there’s still around 8,600 that we know about waiting to be fixed.
“That takes a lot of doing,” continued Steve, “I’ve got six full-time staff who spend the majority of their day out doing this sort of work.
“And when they can’t do road repairs, because of snow and ice, they drive the gritting lorries to try to keep the roads clear.”
Tony Whyatt is the highways engineer whose research into improved technology solutions has led to the trial of the Nu-Phalt system.
“I’m really optimistic about how this will save us time and money.
“We reuse most of the existing road material on-site and need to add only a small amount of fresh material to each repair.
“There’s no noisy compressors, and the system cuts the number of vehicles and staff involved in each repair.
“We also minimise disruption to traffic – which is good for drivers – and these repairs can be driven over again almost immediately they’re finished.”
Indeed, driving away from our meeting with Tony we drove over a number of holes that had just been filled – and the first thing we noticed was that we didn’t notice them at all.
The repaired road was as smooth as the day it was originally laid.
Just a bit over a quarter mile after passing the old depot Vermont Rail System's Washington County Railroad train NPWJ (Newport to White River Junction) has paused for a break behind Wing's Supermarket, a popular lunch stop owing to its convenient trackside proximity. What isn't convenient this day was the pouring rain which certainly made their work and my photography less than a pleasant experience!
In short order the pair of company red EMD GP38-2s, CLP 204 (blt. Oct. 1973 as SCL 528) and VTR 201 (blt. Dec. 1972 new for the VTR) will be back on the move with their dimutive tei car train from this spot here at MP L82.7 on modern day WACR's Connecticut River Division Lyndonville Subdivision.This is the former Boston and Maine Conn River Line main which dates from 1848 when the Connecticut and Passumpsic Rivers Railroad built north from White River Junction.
Fairlee, Vermont
Saturday June 22, 2024
This cluster of valves is called a fire pump (discharge) test header, an important feature of a building's fire sprinkler system, used for periodic flow testing of the system's water pump as required by applicable fire safety codes. As far as I can tell from research (mostly websites of companies selling fire safety systems and services), the test involves connecting hoses to these valves; each valve then opened at various points during testing to verify the pump meets standards for water flow and pressure (its capacity) under different flow levels.
I've driven past the side of the building many times over the years, but only recently noticed this interesting cluster of valves. Apparently, the number of valves these headers accommodate varies with the size of the building and its fire sprinkler pump capacity.
JA06HD
Sikorsky S-76C
C/N: 760584
Aero Asahi
Tokyo Heliport (RJTI) 03.12.2019
Tokyo Broadcasting System's news chopper heading out in some lovely late afternoon sunshine. TBS covers the Kantō region and produces the Takeshi's Castle game show, which was shown in the UK.
Exercising Vermont Rail System's trackage rights over NECR from White River Jct to Bellows Falls, VTR extra 206 (AAPRCO's "Autumn Explorer") passes MP 5 on the Roxbury Sub at Hartland, VT.
The latest view of Saturn from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope captures exquisite details of the ring system — which looks like a phonograph record with grooves that represent detailed structure within the rings — and atmospheric details that once could only be captured by spacecraft visiting the distant world. Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 observed Saturn on June 20, 2019, as the planet made its closest approach to Earth, at about 845 million miles away. This image is the second in a yearly series of snapshots taken as part of the Outer Planets Atmospheres Legacy (OPAL) project. OPAL is helping scientists understand the atmospheric dynamics and evolution of our solar system's gas giant planets. In Saturn's case, astronomers will be able to track shifting weather patterns and other changes to identify trends.
Credit: NASA, ESA, A. Simon (GSFC), M.H. Wong (University of California, Berkeley) and the OPAL Team
The 7 train's new Hudson Yards Station opened on September 13, 2015 and is the system's 469th station. A very futuristic design features the mosaic artwork "Funktional Vibrations" by Xenobia Bailey"
Oh SCOTUS, the system's broken to the core
When SCOTUS can be bought and be paid for
SCOTUS, you're supreme only in name
You're not a monument to law but one of shame...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We had flown down to San Diego to catch a Giants game at Petco Park and while we were wandering around Old Town, stumbled upon this fantastic trio...Wouda bought em but couldn't bring them on the plane...Just might hafta drive down there one of these days Pa...
Vermont Rail System's legendary septuagenarian diesel number 405 leads a three car Trains magazine charter special eastbound on the Green Mountain Railroad's Bellows Falls Subdivision mainline at MP 27 as it descends the grade past the old wooden passenger station. This line traces its history back to 1849 when the Rutland Railroad's mainline from the Connecticut River town to Burlington opened by way of its namesake community.
The venerable Alco RS-1 rolled out of the Schenectady plant in November 1951 as one of a half dozen of the model and served the erstwhile Class 1 until it shut down for good in 1961. While her siblings were scattered to the wind she never left her home state being picked up by Nelson Blount (founder of Steamtown) and then staying with the Green Mountain Railroad in freight service even after Steamtown left in 1983. She has remained in service on her home rails for 73 years and still occasionally is called up to freight duty, though now largely enjoys an easier life on excursion and passenger duty such as this.
Per a history of the town published in 1949 the wooden station at left dates from 1851 and is the second one on the site and was remodeled in 1891. I'm not sure who owns it now and if it is railroad or town property but as one of only a few surviving in its as built location it makes for a popular photo prop.
Ludlow (village), Vermont
Saturday September 28, 2024
After picking up all the loads off the old main Vermont Rail System's Washington County Railroad crew is back on the move with a long string of gons loaded with granite for the NECR interchange at Montpelier Junction. GMRC 804 (a GP9r blt. Oct. 1955 as NW 13) and red VTR 206 (a GP38-3 206 blt. Oct. 1969 as SOU 2718 and originally a high nosed straight GP38) are at about MP 1.9 on the Washington County Railroad's Montpelier and Barre Division approaching the Granite Street crossing.
The spur at right contains covered hoppers loaded with wood pellets for one of the few non granite customers on the line. To the right of it is the recently restored former Montpelier Granite Works stone cutting shed. I'm not sure exactly when it was built but believe it dates to the early 20th century when originally constructed as the Excelsior Granite Works. In 2022 the ramshackle structure which had been clad in metal was remodeled into office space, and the old woodwork was restored and opened back up by the local Connor Group LLP.
Montpelier, Vermont
Friday August 1, 2025
Here's a view looking south from the Amtrak platform (served twice daily by the Vermonter) past the the tidy little wood frame depot at MP 76.4 on the modern day New England Central Railroad's Roxbury Sub. The ex Central Vermont station is believed to be the third at the site and was constructed in 1934 and serves this train and its northbound counterpart every day of the year.
Down in the interchange yard is the Vermont Rail System's Washington County Railroad Montpelier and Barre Division crew in the process of gathering up empty gondolas that they will take back into Montpelier ultimately destined for loading up at Northeast Materials quarry in Websterville atop Millstone Hill. The power consists of VTR 206 (a GP38-3 206 blt. Oct. 1969 as SOU 2718 and originally a high nosed straight GP38) and green GMRC 804 (a GP9r blt. Oct. 1955 as NW 13).
Montpelier Junction
Berlin, Vermont
Friday August 1, 2025
Another from day seven of the American Association of Private Railroad Car Owners (AAPRCO) Autumn Explorer VI that would see the special train traveling north from St. Johnsbury to Orleans then back south to Bellow Falls via VRS' Washington County Railroad, the former Canadian Pacific and Boston and Maine Conn River mainline.
Having run around the power around adjacent the railroad's Barton transload facility here, the crew is now shoving back north to Orleans to stage for a 2 PM departure once the passengers return from their excursion and lunch. In this typical bucolic scene the train is just north of the Boudreau Lane crossing at about MP L10.2 on the Lyndonville Subdivision of the WACR's Connecticut River Division.
It is led by VTR 206 a GP38-3 206 blt. Oct. 1969 as SOU 2718 and originally a high nosed straight GP38. Trailing is VTR 313 a GP40FH-2 that was rebuilt from original NYC GP40 3078 (blt. 8-67) for New Jersey Transit commuter service. She later ended up working for Iowa Pacific on their assorted passenger operations until that company went belly up and then was purchased in the bankruptcy auction by VRS in 2020.
The train it consists of seven private cars in order as follows:
Blue Ridge Club blt. 1950 by Pullman-Standard
Pacific Home: blt. 1949 by Budd
www.rideaprivatecar.com/directory-private_rail/listing/pa...
Northern Dreams: blt. 1955 by Pullman-Standard
Northern Sky: blt. 1955 by ACF
Dover Harbor: blt. 1923 by Pullman
Colonial Crafts: blt. 1949 by Pullman-Standard
NYC 3: blt. 1928 by Pullman
As for the railroad, the Connecticut and Passumpsic Rivers Railroad first arrived here in 1863 they built north from Barton on to Newport and then finally to the Canadian border in 1867. It operated independently until 1887 when it was leased by the Boston and Lowell only six months before the B&L itself was leased to the Boston and Maine which affected practical control from then on.
In 1926 the B&M leased the line from Newport to Wells River to the Canadian Pacific which ultimately bought it outright in 1946. If interested here's a cool article from a century ago about that lease which was newsworthy enough to make the New York Times!
www.nytimes.com/1926/06/01/archives/cpr-gets-new-line-acq...
The Canadian Pacific Railway had been operating in the state of Vermont for 115 years when they finally retrenched in 1996 and sold their 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 has surpassed 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.
Barton, Vermont
Friday October 10, 2025
Former Clinchfield SD45-2 3614 was sunning itself and fading a bit more in Baltimore wearing Seaboard System's French Grey paint with a little yellow on the nose courtesy of CSX.
It was eventually rebuilt by CSX as SD40-2R 8262 and painted into CSX's Yellow Nose 2 paint scheme before being retired.
A week after the release of the first images from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, data from the telescope’s commissioning period is now being released on the Space Telescope Science Institute's Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes. The data includes images of Jupiter and images and spectra of several asteroids, captured to test the telescope's instruments before science operations officially began July 12. The data demonstrates Webb's to track solar system targets and produce images and spectra with unprecedented detail.
In this image, Jupiter, center, and its moon Europa, left, are seen through the James Webb Space Telescope’s NIRCam instrument 2.12 micron filter.
Fans of Jupiter will recognize some familiar features of our solar system’s enormous planet in these images seen through Webb’s infrared gaze. A view from the NIRCam instrument’s short-wavelength filter shows distinct bands that encircle the planet as well as the Great Red Spot, a storm big enough to swallow the Earth. The iconic spot appears white in this image because of the way Webb’s infrared image was processed.
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, and B. Holler and J. Stansberry (STScI)
#NASAMarshall #msfc #gsfc #jwst #space #telescope #jameswebspacetelescope #jupiter #europa
I had the chance to test OM System's OM-1 along many lenses for a couple of days, though the weather wasn't great and there were barely any birds. But it was still interesting and very helpful to learn some new skills along friends of mine. Thanks to Bogdan Tilvaru for letting me test his OM-1! (which he also had in testing). Bird: Black Redstart, female.
After setting out all the empties at Barre Transfer on the old main (ex CV) Vermont Rail System's Washington County Railroad crew is headed west at about MP 2.4 on the Montpelier and Barre Division running light with GMRC 804 (a GP9r blt. Oct. 1955 as NW 13) and red VTR 206 (a GP38-3 206 blt. Oct. 1969 as SOU 2718 and originally a high nosed straight GP38).
They are curling along beside Barre Street on the nearly mile and a half stretch of trackage which was rebuilt on the former Montpelier and Wells River Railroad right of way west from Barre Transfer four years ago. This grade had been bereft of rails for 55 years when trains returned in 2021, and this was my first time photographing it. You can read more about why this happened here: vrs.us.com/reviving-a-historic-route-to-improve-service/non
Interestingly the former CV trackage including both bridges was not ultimately abandoned and was actually tied in with switches on both ends and is used as a storage track called appropriately enough the 'Old Main'. This crew will pause just ahead and duck into the west end of the old CV main to pick up the outbound loads they'd left here earlier and take them down to Montpelier Junction yard to the NECR interchange.
Montpelier, Vermont
Friday August 1, 2025
Since its inception in 1953, Memorial Healthcare System has been a leader in providing high-quality healthcare services to South Florida residents. Moving health forward to meet the needs of the community, Memorial is one of the largest public healthcare systems in the nation and highly regarded for its exceptional patient- and family-centered care that creates the Memorial experience. Memorial's patient, physician and employee satisfaction rates are some of the most admired in the country, and the system is recognized as a national leader in quality healthcare.
Memorial Regional Hospital is the flagship facility of the healthcare system and is one of the largest hospitals in Florida.
Memorial Regional Hospital offers extensive and diverse health care services that include Memorial Cardiac and Vascular Institute featuring renowned surgeons, Memorial Cancer Institute treating more inpatients than any other in Broward County, and Memorial Neuroscience Institute providing innovative technology and world-class physicians.
Memorial Regional Hospital and Memorial Regional Hospital South are both located in Hollywood, Florida, and offer our community a variety of medical and surgical services. Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital at Memorial provides a comprehensive array of pediatric services and is the leading children's hospital in Broward and Palm Beach counties. Memorial Hospital West, Memorial Hospital Miramar and Memorial Hospital Pembroke serve the communities of western Broward County and others in South Florida. Memorial Home Health Services, Memorial Manor nursing home and a variety of ancillary healthcare facilities round out the system's wide-ranging health services.
Memorial has a reputation as one of Florida's leading healthcare systems and is supported by a distinguished medical staff. In fact, the vast majority of physicians are board certified, or board qualified in their specialties and have been trained at many of the nation's finest medical schools and hospitals. Because of its distinguished medical staff and services, Memorial moves health forward for patients from South Florida and beyond.
As Memorial continues to lead in providing the next level of healthcare, many prestigious awards have been earned throughout the system. The accolades include Modern Healthcare magazine's Best Places to Work in Healthcare, Florida Trend magazine's Best Companies to Work for in Florida, 100 Top Hospitals, Consumer Choice Award, Best-Run Hospital, Best Nursing Staff, Best Pediatric Hospital and Best Maternity Hospital. The health care system was also honored by the American Hospital Association with the "Living the Vision" award and the "Foster G. McGaw" award for which Memorial was selected from more than 5,000 hospitals as the national model for improving the health of the community.
Credit for the data above is given to the following websites:
web.bcpa.net/BcpaClient/#/Record-Search
© All Rights Reserved - you may not use this image in any form without my prior permission.
on petrified driftwood, with sandstone. Specimens approx. 3" by 2"
Using the OM System's in camera focus stacking tools.
I see an adjustment is needed in the focus differential between shots. That is under my control.
The camera performs flawlessly.
A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket with Boeing's CST-100 Starliner spacecraft aboard launched 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. EDT, and will serve as an end-to-end test of the system's capabilities.
Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky
#NASA #NASAMarshall #MarshallSpaceFlightCenter #MSFC #StarLiner #CommercialCrewProgram #InternationalSpaceStation #ISS
NASA’s Juno mission captured this view of Jupiter’s southern hemisphere during the spacecraft’s 39th close flyby of the planet on Jan. 12, 2022. Zooming in on the right portion of the image reveals two more worlds in the same frame: Jupiter’s intriguing moons Io (left) and Europa (right).
Io is the solar system’s most volcanic body, while Europa’s icy surface hides a global ocean of liquid water beneath. Juno will have an opportunity to capture much more detailed observations of Europa – using several scientific instruments – in September 2022, when the spacecraft makes the closest fly-by of the enigmatic moon in decades. The mission will also make close approaches to Io in late 2023 and early 2024.
At the time this image was taken, the Juno spacecraft was about 38,000 miles (61,000 kilometers) from Jupiter’s cloud tops, at a latitude of about 52 degrees south. Citizen scientist Andrea Luck created the image using raw data from the JunoCam instrument.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS; Image processing by AndreaLuck © CC BY
#NASAMarshall #nasajuno #jupiter #io #Europa
Comet Hale-Bopp, the cometary visitor of a lifetime, here appearing to a plunge into a region of Aurorally brightened sky, seen from my backyard in Tok, Alaska.
Imagine the violence done to these dusty snowballs from the dawn of creation as the pull of our daystar detours them into the inner solar system's neighborhood ... The icy worldlet's surface boils explosively, geysers erupt, city sized chunks break off .... If they can avoid smashing into a passing planet along the way, or getting sucked directly into our sun, they lose a lot of weight on each passage, till only a rocky cinder survives to cruise eternally through the darkness.
However, the tenuous dust trails left in cometary wakes continue to traverse the gravitational lanes almost endlessly, and when you look up to see the sparkling flash of a meteor, or "shooting star", you are likely watching a tiny fragment of a comet encountering our atmosphere.
Taken on Fuji 1600 film, with a Praktica LTL3 and wide angle lens, piggybacked on the motorized mount of my refractor, I believe it was about a 2 minute exposure.
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.
Recently VRS and CP have been 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 B&M pool power days so with a bit of imagination one can pretend this is train 904 headed down from Newport to hand off to the B&M.
CPKC GP20C-ECO 2280 and VTR GP38-2 209 lead train NPWJ south past Robinson's Farm near MP L48.9 south of the little village of Passumpsic as they follow the the river of the same name on this glorious summer afternoon.
Barnet, Vermont
Friday August 11, 2023
The subject of this image is a group of three galaxies, collectively known as NGC 7764A. They were imaged by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, using both its Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) and Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3). 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!
NGC 7764A, which lies about 425 million light years from Earth in the constellation Phoenix, is a fascinating example of just how awkward astronomical nomenclature can be. The three galaxies are individually referred to as NGC 7764A1, NGC 7764A2 and NGC 7764A3, and just to be really difficult, an entirely separate galaxy, named NGC 7764, sits in the skies about a Moon’s distance (as seen from Earth) away. This rather haphazard naming makes more sense when we consider that many of the catalogues for keeping track of celestial bodies were compiled well over 100 years ago, long before modern technology made standardising scientific terminology much easier. As it is, many astronomical objects have several different names, or might have names that are so similar to other objects’ names that they cause confusion.
Credits: ESA/Hubble & NASA, J. Dalcanton, Dark Energy Survey, DOE, FNAL, DECam, CTIO, NOIRLab/NSF/AURA, ESO; CC BY 4.0
Acknowledgement: J. Schmidt
This weekend is about raw intensity.
I'm debuting the brand new "Malcolm" Skin from Gloom, released for the Weekend Sale. Wearing it here in the 'Rio' tone. It’s a rugged, textured base that holds up perfectly under heavy lighting and sweat layers.
The gear is from .Kindex., available now at Lewd Station. The "Wally" Body Harness and "Eddy" Neckchain are minimal, sharp, and designed to show off the work you've put into your physique.
Layered with Picasso Homme's "Sweaty Belly" and Buffy's BOM Shine for that authentic, worked-up finish. The Warlord Titan Arms add the final touch of power.
— C R E D I T S —
▸ Skin: Gloom - Malcolm Skin - Velour : Rio NB (New for Weekend Sale)
▸ Harness: .Kindex. 25K12 Wally Body Harness (@ Lewd Station)
▸ Necklace: .Kindex. 25K08 Eddy Neckchain
▸ Arms: [Warlord] Titan Arms v3
▸ Boots: Semller - Platform Brit Boots
▸ Body Enhancers: PICASSO HOMME (Sweaty Belly, Chest, Butt, Veins) // ! BUFFY'S ! Asmodeus BOM Shine
▸ Body Overhauls: S-RANK "KHAIRO" Full System // S-RANK "KAIZO" Body Skin
▸ Hairbase/Facial Hair: Volkstone Sloan Hairbase & Kyler Facial Hair
▸ Facial Details: VELOUR "CHAD" ADDONs // S-RANK "YOUNES" Pores // Not Found Frown Line
▸ Body Hair: Physique X - BH003 Collection
▸ Anatomy: NXS Bento Cock & Pubes
▸ Head: LeLutka EvoX KRIS 4.0
For Monochrome Monday here's a look at Vermont Rail System's Washington County Railroad job at Barre Transfer at about MP 3.2 on the WACR's Montpelier and Barre Division. They have just cut away from a cut of empties pulled from the NECR interchange yard at Montpelier Junction that they have temporarily set off on the old main.
GMRC 804 (a GP9r blt. Oct. 1955 as NW 13) and VTR 206 (a GP38-3 206 blt. Oct. 1969 as SOU 2718 and originally a high nosed straight GP38) are at this location which historically was known as Barre Transfer because it was where the rails of the Central Vermont, Barre Railroad and Montpelier and Wells River all met. The train arrived here via the nearly mile and a half stretch of trackage which was rebuilt on the former M&WR right of way four years ago (rails in lower right). This grade had been bereft of rails for 55 years when trains returned in 2021, and this was my first time photographing it. You can read more about why this happened here: vrs.us.com/reviving-a-historic-route-to-improve-service/non
The trackage coming in from the left where they left the empties is ex Central Vermont, first laid in 1875 when the 1849 branch into the capital city was extended to Barre. Out of sight is a track diverting to the right that once led another 35 miles east to a junction with the Boston & Maine / Canadian Pacific Conn River Mainline at Wells River. Opened in 1873, trains ran until November 1956 when the route was abandoned and the rails removed except for an 1800 ft stub on this end extending east from this switch to a couple long closed customer sidings in East Montpelier.
In 1957 Sam Pinsly's Montpelier & Barre purchased the CV branch and he quickly consolidated it and the old Montpelier & Wells River (later Barre & Chelsea) routes between downtown Montpelier and Barre. The state purchased these rails in 1980 when the M&B petitioned for total abandonment, and they've had multiple contract operators over the years until finally settling on Vermont Rail System's Washington County Subsidiary about two decades ago.
Montpelier, Vermont
Friday August 1, 2025
The subject of this image is a group of three galaxies, collectively known as NGC 7764A. They were imaged by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, using both its Advanced Camera for Surveys and Wide Field Camera 3. The two galaxies in the upper right of the image appear to be interacting with one another. The long trails of stars and gas extending from them 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, 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 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 has caused the two on the upper right to form a shape, which from our solar system's perspective, resembles the starship known as the USS Enterprise from Star Trek!
NGC 7764A, which lies about 425 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Phoenix, is a fascinating example of just how awkward astronomical nomenclature can be. The three galaxies are individually referred as NGC 7764A1, NGC 7764A2, and NGC 7764A3. This rather haphazard naming makes more sense when we consider that many astronomical catalogs were compiled well over 100 years ago, long before modern technology made standardizing scientific terminology much easier. As it is, many astronomical objects have several different names, or might have names that are so similar to other objects’ names that they cause confusion.
Image Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, J. Dalcanton, Dark Energy Survey, U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Fermilab (FNAL), Dark Energy Survey Camera (DECam), Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO), NoirLab/National Science Foundation/AURA, European Southern Observatory (ESO); Acknowledgment: J. Schmidt
#NASA #NASAMarshall #Hubble #galaxy #galaxy
MARC GP39 #72 leads an eastbound local through Beltsville, MD as the sun sets on a June evening in 1994. Metrorail's inappropriately named Green Line construction is well underway. What was once a lush second growth forest has been cleared for the transit system's maintenance yard.
Fujichrome 100, Nikon N8008
“A young man, wearing nothing but a linen garment, was following Jesus. When they seized him, he fled naked, leaving his garment behind” (Mark 14:51–52)
Follow Seginus, a time traveller and ranger in the ‘Search & Rescue’ department of the United Human Settlements (UHS), the Solar System’s human habitat with man-made planets, space stations, and other habitable planets, in his journey through space and time who travelled from the year 31021 to the time of Jesus to find and rescue three lost time travellers, Diantha, Aleksy, and Leandros. What happens when Jesus not only assists him in his journey but also in reuniting him with his long-lost lover and finally revealing the true mission for Seginus?
The book is available on Amazon Kindle
www.amazon.com/Seginus-Eternal-Traveller-Ganesh-Shenoy-eb...
Just the low angle head on take from this spot.
Vermont Rail System's legendary septuagenarian diesel number 405 performs a photo runby with a three car Trains magazine charter special at the Jersey Girls Dairy at the Thompson Road crosding near MP B16.5 of Vermont Railway's Bellows Falls Subdivision (the ex Green Mountain Railroad née Rutland mainline).
This line traces its history back to 1849 when the Rutland Railroad's mainline from the Connecticut River town to Burlington opened by way of its namesake community. The venerable Alco RS-1 rolled out of the Schenectady plant in November 1951 as one of a half dozen of the model and served the erstwhile Class 1 until it shut down for good in 1961. While her siblings were scattered to the wind she never left her home state being picked up by Nelson Blount (founder of Steamtown) and then staying with the Green Mountain Railroad in freight service even after Steamtown left in 1983. She has remained in service on her home rails for 73 years and still occasionally is called up to freight duty, though now largely enjoys an easier life on excursion and passenger duty such as this.
Chester, Vermont
Saturday September 28, 2024
Hubble was recently retrained on NGC 6302, known as the "Butterfly Nebula," to observe it across a more complete spectrum of light, from near-ultraviolet to near-infrared, helping researchers better understand the mechanics at work in its technicolor "wings" of gas. The observations highlight a new pattern of near-infrared emission from singly ionized iron, which traces an S-shape from lower left to upper right. This iron emission likely traces the central star system’s most recent ejections of gas, which are moving at much faster speeds than the previously expelled mass. The star or stars at its center are responsible for the nebula's appearance. In their death throes, they have cast off layers of gas periodically over the past couple thousand years. The "wings" of NGC 6302 are regions of gas heated to more than 36,000 degrees Fahrenheit that are tearing across space at more than 600,000 miles an hour. NGC 6302 lies between 2,500 and 3,800 light-years away in the constellation Scorpius.
Image credit: NASA, ESA and J. Kastner (RIT)
Milky Way with Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) at the upper right of the image.
20 sec. exposure, ISO 5000, f3.5
OM1-MarkII, 18mm
Considered a long-period comet, Comet C/2023 A3—also known as Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS or Comet Purple Mountain-ATLAS—recently made its closest approach to the Sun, after having traveled from the Oort Cloud. It’s forecasted to be brightest on October 9 around magnitude -3, and around magnitude +2 on October 12 when the comet is at its closest point to Earth.
Where Did C/2023 A3 Come From?
Comets get the designation long-period if their orbits are more than 200 years long; C/2023 A3’s orbit is at least 80,000 years long. It most likely came from a region called the Oort Cloud, which is a spherical volume surrounding the planets that may have formed early on in our solar system’s history when icy objects were flung outward away from the Sun due to the gravitational action of the planets.
How Was This Comet Named?
Each part of a comet’s name has a purpose! It helps us identify what kind of comet it is, when it was discovered, and where it was discovered.
Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS)’s name can be broken down like this:
C/ means that this comet is classified as a non-periodic comet, which is the designation for comets that don’t have a regular orbit around the Sun or comets whose orbits are more than 200 years long
2023 identifies the year this comet was discovered
A3 tells us the time period of the year that this comet was discovered with an alphabetic letter and a number to signify how many other comets were discovered in this time period
A = the first half of January, B = the second half of January, and so on and so forth, except the letter I and Z are never used
Tsuchinshan-ATLAS = the names of the two observatories that jointly get credit for discovering the comet. Pronunciation: [zz-jing-shan]-ATLAS. Transliteration: Purple Mountain [Observatory]-ATLAS.
For the first time, scientists using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have witnessed a massive object with the makeup of a comet being ripped apart and scattered in the atmosphere of a white dwarf, the burned-out remains of a compact star. The object has a chemical composition similar to Halley’s Comet, but it is 100,000 times more massive and has a much higher amount of water. It is also rich in the elements essential for life, including nitrogen, carbon, oxygen, and sulfur.
These findings are evidence for a belt of comet-like bodies orbiting the white dwarf, similar to our solar system’s Kuiper Belt. These icy bodies apparently survived the star’s evolution as it became a bloated red giant and then collapsed to a small, dense white dwarf.
Caption: This artist's concept shows a massive, comet-like object falling toward a white dwarf. New Hubble Space Telescope findings are evidence for a belt of comet-like bodies orbiting the white dwarf, similar to our solar system's Kuiper Belt. The findings also suggest the presence of one or more unseen surviving planets around the white dwarf, which may have perturbed the belt to hurl icy objects into the burned-out star.
Credits: NASA, ESA, and Z. Levay (STScI)
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 scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.
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This mosaic of Caloris basin is an enhanced-color composite overlain on a monochrome mosaic featured in a previous post. The color mosaic is made up of WAC images obtained when both the spacecraft and the Sun were overhead, conditions best for discerning variations in albedo, or brightness. The monochrome mosaic is made up of WAC and NAC images obtained at off-vertical Sun angles (i.e., high incidence angles) and with visible shadows so as to reveal clearly the topographic form of geologic features. The combination of the two datasets allows the correlation of geologic features with their color properties. In portions of the scene, color differences from image to image are apparent. Ongoing calibration efforts by the MESSENGER team strive to minimize these differences.
Caloris basin has been flooded by lavas that appear orange in this mosaic. Post-flooding craters have excavated material from beneath the surface. The larger of these craters have exposed low-reflectance material (blue in this mosaic) from beneath the surface lavas, likely giving a glimpse of the original basin floor material. Analysis of these craters yields an estimate of the thickness of the volcanic layer: 2.5–3.5 km (1.6–2.2 mi.).
The MESSENGER spacecraft is the first ever to orbit the planet Mercury, and the spacecraft's seven scientific instruments and radio science investigation are unraveling the history and evolution of the Solar System's innermost planet. In the mission's more than three years of orbital operations, MESSENGER has acquired over 250,000 images and extensive other data sets. MESSENGER is capable of continuing orbital operations until early 2015.
Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington
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 scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.
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A silhouette of me looking at the Milky Way from the Fish River Canyon in Namibia. I know the correct grammar is "The Milky Way and I", but that sounds far too impersonal to describe the awe and wonder that you experience standing under the stars in the Desert.
This single 5 second exposure "beginner astro-photo" has special significance as it was one of my first Astophotography images that rekindled my lifelong interest in Astronomy and Astrophysics. Technical imperfections and all (which I decided to keep unfixed for sentimental reasons), this single short exposure was one of the catalysts that made me embark on a personal lifelong learning adventure in an attempt to better understand our place in the Cosmos.
I got my first small Telescope soon after I took this photo. Feel free to visit my Astrophotography Gallery with a collection of old and new images of the observable Universe, on my journey of discovery.
"Not all those who wander are lost." - J. R. R. Tolkien.
“I have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night.” - Sarah Williams.
About the Milky Way, and Earth'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
Astrometry info for this photo:
nova.astrometry.net/user_images/774720#annotated
Click on this link to view an image that illustrates ''our Solar System's position within the Milky Way Galaxy''.
Consult Google & Wikipedia for more information and other interesting facts.
Martin Heigan
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Amtrak E60CP-954 is on its way north with train #20, the Southern Crescent. It and its train have just been hauled up from Washington's Union Station, on Chessie System's Washington Sub, to Chessie System's Bay View yard connection to the Northeast Corridor. AMTK P30CH-700 had the honor. All due to a wreck / derailment in Amtrak's B&P tunnel in Baltimore.
What is now CSX's Sparrows Point Industrial Track is overhead.
When the Little Green Men started to work on the factory floor at Magrathea certain items of equipment had to be modified in order to conform to their religious objection to applying direct drive to a wheel.
The standard Container Carriers were modified by Llwyngwril System's vehicle design department, using a special outboard engine. The resulting vehicle was strange, unique and surprisingly safe and effective.
Here's a wide angle look from this same spot that captures the full length of the colorful consist.
Taken on day seven of the American Association of Private Railroad Car Owners (AAPRCO) Autumn Explorer VI that saw the special travel north from St. Johnsbury to Orleans before returning back south to Bellow Falls via VRS' Washington County Railroad, the former Canadian Pacific and Boston and Maine Conn River mainline.
Having made their 2 PM scheduled departure from Orleans the train is approaching the May Farm Road crossing at about MP L10.8 on the Lyndonville Subdivision of the WACR's Connecticut River Division as they pass cars at the railroad's busy Barton transload yard.
It is led by VTR 206 a GP38-3 206 blt. Oct. 1969 as SOU 2718 and originally a high nosed straight GP38. Trailing is VTR 313 a GP40FH-2 that was rebuilt from original NYC GP40 3078 (blt. 8-67) for New Jersey Transit commuter service. She later ended up working for Iowa Pacific on their assorted passenger operations until that company went belly up and then was purchased in the bankruptcy auction by VRS in 2020.
The train consists of seven private cars in order as follows:
Blue Ridge Club blt. 1950 by Pullman-Standard
Pacific Home: blt. 1949 by Budd
www.rideaprivatecar.com/directory-private_rail/listing/pa...
Northern Dreams: blt. 1955 by Pullman-Standard
Northern Sky: blt. 1955 by ACF
Dover Harbor: blt. 1923 by Pullman
Colonial Crafts: blt. 1949 by Pullman-Standard
NYC 3: blt. 1928 by Pullman
As for the railroad, the Connecticut and Passumpsic Rivers Railroad first arrived here in 1863 they built north from Barton on to Newport and then finally to the Canadian border in 1867. It operated independently until 1887 when it was leased by the Boston and Lowell only six months before the B&L itself was leased to the Boston and Maine which affected practical control from then on.
In 1926 the B&M leased the line from Newport to Wells River to the Canadian Pacific which ultimately bought it outright in 1946. If interested here's a cool article from a century ago about that lease which was newsworthy enough to make the New York Times!
www.nytimes.com/1926/06/01/archives/cpr-gets-new-line-acq...
The Canadian Pacific Railway had been operating in the state of Vermont for 115 years when they finally retrenched in 1996 and sold their 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 has surpassed 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.
Barton, Vermont
Friday October 10, 2025
Vermont Rail System's legendary septuagenarian diesel number 405 performs a photo runby with a three car Trains magazine charter special at the Jersey Girls Dairy at the Thompson Road crosding near MP B16.5 of Vermont Railway's Bellows Falls Subdivision (the ex Green Mountain Railroad née Rutland mainline).
This line traces its history back to 1849 when the Rutland Railroad's mainline from the Connecticut River town to Burlington opened by way of its namesake community. The venerable Alco RS-1 rolled out of the Schenectady plant in November 1951 as one of a half dozen of the model and served the erstwhile Class 1 until it shut down for good in 1961. While her siblings were scattered to the wind she never left her home state being picked up by Nelson Blount (founder of Steamtown) and then staying with the Green Mountain Railroad in freight service even after Steamtown left in 1983. She has remained in service on her home rails for 73 years and still occasionally is called up to freight duty, though now largely enjoys an easier life on excursion and passenger duty such as this.
Chester, Vermont
Saturday September 28, 2024