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Just another simple little sunlit wedge shot from this chase going into the album.
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 now in the capable hands of a B&M crew.
CPKC GP20C-ECO 2280 and VTR GP38-2 209 lead train NPWJ past tall cornfields approaching Newbury Crossing Road at MP D6.6 on the former B&M Conn River Mainline.
Newbury, Vermont
Friday August 11, 2023
T-Centralen (Swedish for "The T-Central"; T being an abbreviation for "tunnelbana", the Swedish word for "underground" or "subway") is a metro station that forms the heart of the Stockholm metro system, in the sense that it is the only station where all three of the system's lines meet. That, its central location, and its connections with other modes of transport make it the most used metro station in Stockholm.
Wikipedia
Cu tren EC 276 "METROPOLITAN" Budapest Nyugati p.u. - Praha hlavni nadrazi
With service 276 "METROPOLITAN" Budapest Nyugati p.u - Praha hlavni nadrazi
Budapest Nyugati p.u.,
07.08.2023
I still don't know to this day as to whether or not Walsall Corporation still technically owned Walsall's trolleybuses during the system's final months of operation under the control of West Midlands PTE? I say this because as far as I know, West Midlands PTE did not have the powers to operate the town's trolleys, the powers having been granted by Parliament to Walsall Corporation.
Following the WMPTE takeover in October 1969, all ex corporation buses and trolleybuses had the municipal coats-of-arms displayed on their panels painted out. In place of the coats of arm were affixed the new WMPTE vinyl WM logos. However, the trolleybuses were exempted and never carried the WM logo. That said, as with the motorbus fleet the operational trolleybuses did carry the legal address for West Midlands PTE on their front lower nearside side panels indicating that the WMPTE was the operator.
It has been suggested by some that that the lack of WM logos on the trolleybuses was at the bequest of the former General Manager and Chief Engineer, Edgley Cox. Cox was against the PTE ending trolleybus operations in the town and is said not to have wanted the trolleybuses to wear the new WM logo? Anyway, someone reading this might know the answer and can hopefully enlighten us as to what the actual situation was?
The picture shows trolleybus 857 turning from Ross Road into Harden Road at Coalpool during the last summer of trolleybus operations in 1970. The Willowbrook bodied Sunbeam F4 had been new in April 1955, a remarkable vehicle when new as this batch of trolleybuses were amongst the first 30ft long, 2-axle, 8ft wide passenger vehicles in Britain.
On the last day of trolleybus operations in Walsall on 3rd October 1970, 857 had been already withdrawn and was not used again. Along with most of the other remaining trolleybuses it was eventually sold for scrap. Today, two ex Walsall trolleybuses of this particular type survive in museums, these being 862 at the Black Country Museum, Dudley, and 872 at the Sandtoft Trolleybus Museum near Doncaster. A third ex Walsall F4 of the type 864 survived for a good number of years, but it was broken up in 2016 due to its deteriorating condition through decades of standing outside.
NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy watches as a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket with Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft aboard launches from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Thursday, May 19, 2022, from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center 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)
GMCR GP9 804 and VTR GP40-2 307 are near MP 6.5 on Washington County Railroad's M&B Division with a handful of empty gons destined for the top of The Hill at Websterville for loadout at Northeast Materials granite quarry.
They are passing the Vermont Granite Museum and their rail equipment display. The locomotive is former Barre & Chelsea GE 70 toner #14 built in Sept. 1947. It served for 20 years until throwing a rod in 1967 while working over on the St. Johnsbury and Lamoille County Railroad. Never returned to service it was repatriated to Barre in the mid 70s as a display piece paying homage to the granite history that built the community. With it is one of 50 40ft steel frame granite quarry flats built by Laconia Car company in 1911. This car served more than a half century hauling granite slabs down the mountain.
The particular rails this train is on are ex CV, 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.
To learn more about the Vermont Granite museum display equipment click this link: www.timesargus.com/news/business_vermont/new-railroad-exh...
Barre, Vermont
Friday April 24, 2020
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London | Architecture | Night Photography | London Underground
EXPLORE # 63
15 months, 168 photos and 100, 000 views in photostream ! Thank you to all my flickr friends for their support and encouragement.
To celebrate I am going back in the London Underground to advise all the tourist to Mind the Gap! ;-}
The London Underground is a metro system serving a large part of Greater London and neighbouring areas of Essex, Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire in the UK. It is both the world's oldest underground railway and the oldest rapid transit system. It was also the first underground railway to operate electric trains. It is usually referred to as the Underground or the Tube—the latter deriving from the shape of the system's deep-bore tunnels—although about 55% of the network is above ground.
The Underground has 268 stations and approximately 400 km (250 miles) of track, making it the longest metro system in the world by route length, and one of the most served in terms of stations. In 2007, over one billion passenger journeys were recorded.
The nickname "the Tube" comes from the circular tube-like tunnels and platforms through which the trains travel. This photograph shows the southbound station platform at Angel tube station on the Northern Line.
The London Underground's 11 lines are the Bakerloo line, Central line, Circle line, District line, Hammersmith & City line, Jubilee line, Metropolitan line, Northern line, Piccadilly line, Victoria line, and Waterloo & City line. Until 2007 there was a twelfth line, the East London line, but this has closed for conversion work and will be transferred to the London Overground when it reopens in 2010.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Underground
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London Underground: Mind the Gap !...
To the human eye, Mercury may resemble a dull, grey orb but this enhanced-colour image from NASA’s Messenger probe, tells a completely different story. Swathes of iridescent blue, sandy-coloured plains and delicate strands of greyish white, create an ethereal and colourful view of our Solar System’s innermost planet.
Source Data: www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Search?SearchText=iridescent+&...
converted PNM file - Adjusted in Photoshop CC2017 for clarity and noise reduction
With giant storms, powerful winds, auroras, and extreme temperature and pressure conditions, Jupiter has a lot going on. Now, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has captured new images of the planet. Webb’s Jupiter observations will give scientists even more clues to Jupiter’s inner life.
“We hadn’t really expected it to be this good, to be honest,” said planetary astronomer Imke de Pater, professor emerita of the University of California, Berkeley. De Pater led the observations of Jupiter with Thierry Fouchet, a professor at the Paris Observatory, as part of an international collaboration for Webb’s Early Release Science program. Webb itself is an international mission led by NASA with its partners ESA (European Space Agency) and CSA (Canadian Space Agency). “It’s really remarkable that we can see details on Jupiter together with its rings, tiny satellites, and even galaxies in one image,” de Pater said.
This image comes from the observatory’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam), which has three specialized infrared filters that showcase details of the planet. Since infrared light is invisible to the human eye, the light has been mapped onto the visible spectrum. Generally, the longest wavelengths appear redder and the shortest wavelengths are shown as more blue. Scientists collaborated with citizen scientist Judy Schmidt to translate the Webb data into images.
In this wide-field view, Webb sees Jupiter with its faint rings, which are a million times fainter than the planet, and two tiny moons called Amalthea and Adrastea. The fuzzy spots in the lower background are likely galaxies “photobombing” this Jovian view.
“This one image sums up the science of our Jupiter system program, which studies the dynamics and chemistry of Jupiter itself, its rings, and its satellite system,” Fouchet said. Researchers have already begun analyzing Webb data to get new science results about our solar system’s largest planet.
Read more about the image and how it was processed by Judy Schmidt here: blogs.nasa.gov/webb/2022/08/22/webbs-jupiter-images-showc...
Image credit: Webb NIRCam composite image (two filters) of Jupiter system, unlabeled (top) and labeled (bottom). Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, Jupiter ERS Team; image processing by Ricardo Hueso (UPV/EHU) and Judy Schmidt.
Image description: This image is labeled. A wide field view showcases Jupiter in the upper right quadrant. The planet’s swirling horizontal stripes are rendered in blues, browns, and cream. Electric blue auroras (labeled Northern and Southern Aurora) glow above Jupiter’s north and south poles. A white glow emanates out from the auroras. Along the planet’s equator, rings glow in a faint white. These rings are one million times fainter than the planet itself! At the far left edge of the rings, a moon (labeled as Andrastea) appears as a tiny white dot. Slightly further to the left, another moon (labeled as Amalthea) glows with tiny white diffraction spikes. The rest of the image is the blackness of space, with faintly glowing white galaxies in the distance. Also labeled are spikes of light eminating from the Southern Aurora, which are diffraction spikes. At far left there is also another faint line labeled as a diffraction spike from Jupiter's moon Io.
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)
I'm going to begin a rare (for me) "theme week" today based on one of the most enjoyable days I've had trackside in a while. So, first, I hope you'll tolerate a little context as to why that is...
There's two things that have made the hobby of railroad photography a less pleasant activity for me in recent months. The first is what I'll call "mob chases." Thanks to the internet, there's a Facebook group for almost every railroad now, and it's therefore very easy to find out when a "special" engine or beloved shortline railroad is running. Case in point: I've been chasing the Batten Kill Railroad for years. Many of my successes there have simply been the result of taking drives to Greenwich Junction on nice days to see if they were running. Sometimes they were, and sometimes they weren't. With that approach, there were times I was the only person chasing the train, and other times where it was just a handful of guys who always respected each other and treated each other with kindness. Now--thanks to an infamous Batten Kill Facebook group and a Batten Kill Facebook chat, every single Batten Kill run has become a highly-publicized event. I've gotten more than enough photos of Batten Kill Alco RS-3 #4116, but the recent addition of an Alco RS-36 in a D&H lightning stripe-inspired scheme has peeked my interest as a history buff of the former D&H Washington Branch. I had one good chase of the RS-36, but my last chase was generally a pain due to the "mob" and people constantly getting in my shots so that they could get their close-up cell phone video of the engine. Even when I DID get a decent shot, I knew there was no point in sharing it anywhere other than with my friends on Flickr. Like clockwork, within a couple hours after each Batten Kill run, the Batten Kill Facebook group becomes littered with a diarrhea of photos of the engine, and most of them are not of very high quality. Even if I posted one photo from the chase (which would be my typical approach), it would get lost in the sea of other photos.
The second thing that has made railroad photography less pleasant for me in recent months is, of course, the COVID-19 pandemic. No, it's not because I worry about getting sick or getting others sick (and, just for the record, I AM taking the virus seriously--I'm careful to "social distance" and I wear a mask in situations where that isn't possible). It's because of some railfans who have lost the ability to treat others with kindness due to their fear of the virus. Though I personally have not had any "incidents," I've now heard from way too many friends about their getting yelled at by other railfans for standing "too close" to them, etc. If you happen to be one of those who can't treat others with kindness during a time that's difficult for everyone, here's a word of advice: Don't go train chasing right now. Expecting the chase to revolve around you and expecting others to not start a photo line alongside you is very selfish.
Anyway, with the aforementioned current problems in the hobby, Memorial Day Weekend couldn't have been a better time for me, my wife, and my son to leave town and drive roughly four hours away to New York State's more remote North Country to visit her family in Potsdam. We drove up this past Thursday, and with the OK from my wife, I planned to spend the better part of Friday seeing what I could photograph in St. Lawrence County's sparse but interesting railroad scene. With CSX having recently sold their St. Lawrence Subdivision to CN and June 30th being the latest takeover date, it was certainly a key time to be in the area. But, there are other good options as well: Vermont Rail System's New York and Ogdensburg (NYOG), and the Massena Terminal.
The first railroad that typically gets going for the day is the NYOG, so that was my first focus. The short explanation of the NYOG is that it is a VRS-owned shortline that operates over former Norwood & St. Lawrence (later St. Lawrence and Raquette River) tracks between Norfolk and Norwood, then former Rutland (later Ogdensburg & Norwood and then St. Lawrence and Raquette River) tracks between Norwood and Ogdensburg.
Arriving at the NYOG's former Norwood & St. Lawrence enginehouse in Norfolk around 7:00 AM, I waited. A couple trucks were parked outside the engine house, so that was a good sign. From some last-minute intel, I learned that the "dreaded" 205 was in Ogdensburg, while the more favorable 801 was in the enginehouse in Norfolk. Would the crew "taxi" to Ogdensburg and get on the 205 (like they did the last couple times I chased), or would they start up the 801 and run down to Norwood first? After about 30 minutes or so, the door to one of the enginehouse stalls opened to reveal the 801! It started up, then shortly thereafter emerged. After getting a couple shots, I drove just down the road to get into position for a shot I've been wanting to get of them passing an old water crane from the line's steam era. While I lined up the shot, the 801 picked up a couple cars back by the enginehouse--even better! The light was perfect, and I was even able to work in nearby customer APC Paper into the shot as well. I fired off several frames before hurrying just down the street to also get the shot of them passing the former Norwood & St. Lawrence depot. After that, I was able to do two more sets with them before they reached the CSX interchange at Norwood. I was beaming, and if that little chase down the former Norwood & St. Lawrence ended up being all I did that day, it still would have been a huge success But, little did I know that it was just the beginning...
New York and Ogdensburg Railway
Norfolk, NY
Friday, May 22, 2020
A pair of Norfolk & Western geeps comes off of the turntable in the Baltimore & Ohio yard in Connellsville, Pennsylvania. Until 1975, the main Connellsville interchange for the N&W, and predecessor Pittsburgh & West Virginia, was with the Western Maryland in remote Bowest, across the Youghiogheny River. The Chessie System’s abandonment of parts of the WM ended the Alphabet Route (NKP, W&LE, P&WV, WM, RDG, L&HR, NYNH&H) alternative to direct freight routing over either NYC, PRR, B&O, or Erie. By the time of this photo, the N&W Connellsville Secondary, was largely operated as a turn out of Rook Yard in Pittsburgh. The turn’s power is a GP7 originally from the Nickel Plate repainted in the 1970’s NW block lettering scheme, and an original N&W GP9 still in its original 1957 paint.
Please don't use this image on websites, blogs or other media without my explicit permission. © All rights reserved
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London Set | Architecture Set | Night Set | London Underground
EXPLORE # 271
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Streaming Train in a Urban London UK Underground station...very quiet for a change, apart from a lost ghost train architecture. City of London Urban, Metropolitan
The London Underground is a metro system serving a large part of Greater London and neighbouring areas of Essex, Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire in England. It is the world's oldest underground railway system. It is usually referred to as the Underground or the Tube - the latter deriving from the shape of the system's deep-bore tunnels - although about 55% of the network is above ground.
The Underground has 268 stations and approximately 400 km (250 miles) of track,[1] making it the longest metro system in the world by route length,[4] and one of the most served in terms of stations. In 2007, over one billion passenger journeys were recorded.
Transport for London (TfL) was created in 2000 as the integrated body responsible for London's transport system. It replaced London Regional Transport. It assumed control of London Underground Limited in July 2003.
The Underground has been featured in many movies and television shows, including Sliding Doors, Tube Tales and Neverwhere. The London Underground Film Office handles over 100 requests per month. The Underground has also featured in music such as The Jam's "Down in the Tube Station at Midnight" and in literature such as the graphic novel V for Vendetta. Popular legends about the Underground being haunted persist to this day.
The Underground currently sponsors and contributes to the arts via its Platform for Art and Poems on the Underground projects. Poster and billboard space (and in the case of Gloucester Road tube station, an entire disused platform) is given over to artwork and poetry to "create an environment for positive impact and to enhance and enrich the journeys of ... passengers".[
The London Underground's 11 lines are the Bakerloo line, Central line, Circle line, District line, Hammersmith & City line, Jubilee line, Metropolitan line, Northern line, Piccadilly line, Victoria line, and Waterloo & City line. Until 2007 there was a twelfth line, the East London line, but this has closed for conversion work and will be transferred to the London Overground when it reopens in 2010.
Transport for London (TfL) was created in 2000 as the integrated body responsible for London's transport system. It replaced London Regional Transport. It assumed control of London Underground Limited in July 2003.[21]
TfL is part of the Greater London Authority and is constituted as a statutory corporation regulated under local government finance rules.[22] It has three subsidiaries: London Transport Insurance (Guernsey) Ltd., the TfL Pension Fund Trustee Co. Ltd. and Transport Trading Ltd (TTL). TTL has six wholly-owned subsidiaries, one of which is London Underground Limited.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waterloo_tube_station
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Underground
London Underground in Urban Architecture England
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The Gran Prix XL1000 is Pontiac's newest addition to the full-size luxury hover-car line. The Gran Prix XL1000 comes with a removable hard top to convert the car to an roadster configuration for an open air driving experience. For days when planetary weather patterns do not cooperate, the hard top can be installed to allow for smooth and comfortable hovering in even the most oppresive of conditions. Featuring a highly tuned Super Duty 465ci V-8 combustion engine driving the new Series 12 magnetrons from Sirius Cyberdine Industries, the Gran Prix XL1000 provides a smooth, dependable ride with plenty of available thrust at the touch of the accelerator. Head down to your local planetary system's Pontiac dealer today to test-drive one for yourself, and see why Pontiac is an industry leader in luxury hover-car manufacturing.
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Hey everyone, here's a BRAND NEW BUILD from me! Jumping back into the retro-futuristic hover car game here. This one was a bit difficult to get looking just right and went from a six-stud to seven-stud width which presents its own set of challenges on a build of this nature. Going from closed car to roadster only requires replacing a few simple pieces. Minifig driver by my son. Hope you enjoy, comments and constructive criticism appreciated as always and thanks for looking!
VLIX E9A 4096, a former UP E9A in very faded New York Central paint, was trailing CSX GP40-2 6341 on train Q409 at Lansdowne. Enroute from the Danbury Railroad Museum in Connecticut, the crusty E-unit is headed to the C&O Historical Society in Clifton Forge.
The old wagon may hold interest, but that 6341 is just as significant. Built in 1981 as Chessie System's B&O 4447, it is the final 4-axle locomotive purchased by the Chessie and deserves preservation in its own right.
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.
You can watch a video of this odd machine in action here.
You can view the images separately here.
On the heels of Tuesday’s 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.
“Combined with the deep field images released the other day, these images of Jupiter demonstrate the full grasp of what Webb can observe, from the faintest, most distant observable galaxies to planets in our own cosmic backyard that you can see with the naked eye from your actual backyard,” said Bryan Holler, a scientist at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, who helped plan these observations.
Read more: blogs.nasa.gov/webb/2022/07/14/webb-images-of-jupiter-and...
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.
This image:
Jupiter, center, and its moon Europa, left, are seen through the James Webb Space Telescope’s NIRCam instrument 2.12 micron filter. Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, and B. Holler and J. Stansberry (STScI)
Image description:
Jupiter dominates the frame, appearing to glow with bands of bright white, light yellow, and darker, brownish oranges. The stripes circle the planet, with one especially thick bright band across the planet’s center. A spot of glowing bright white interrupts the darker brown band about a third from the bottom of the planet. To the left of Jupiter, Europa appears as a tiny, black circle with a bright starburst erupting from its edges. The background of the image is pure black.
Explore #68 April 20th, 2009
About
Getting up a 3am to shoot these amazing dawns is the highlight of my week, but its funny to think that the light we see took eight minutes to reach us. I can easily spend eight minutes thinking about my next shot!
Thanks again to Matt for lending me his Cokin Tobacco filter for this shot.
Enjoy.
- Canon 50D.
- ISO 100, f9, 1/15, 24mm.
- Canon 24-70 f/2.8 L lens.
- Tripod.
Processing
- 100% off camera.
- Cokin Tobacco Grad.
- Borders and logo in Lightroom 2.2.
The Sun
The Sun (Latin: Sol), a yellow dwarf, is the star at the center of the Solar System. The Earth and other matter (including other planets, asteroids, meteoroids, comets, and dust) orbit the Sun, which by itself accounts for about 98.6% of the Solar System's mass. The mean distance of the Sun from the Earth is approximately 149,600,000 kilometers, or 92,960,000 miles, and its light travels this distance in 8 minutes and 19 seconds. Energy from the Sun, in the form of sunlight, supports almost all life on Earth via photosynthesis, and drives the Earth's climate and weather.
Budapest and Budapest region has excellent public transportation system(s) which also we used during this visit, too. Fares are adequate and the operators have a clear understanding what a timetable is.
This train took us to Vác (photos below).
GMCR GP9 804 and VTR GP40-2 307 trundle slowly thru the capital of the Green Mountain state with a handful of empty gons destined for the top of The Hill at Websterville for loadout at Northeast Materials granite quarry.
The train is running along side the linear trail that sits between the railroad and Stone Cutter's way in the heart of downtown near about MP 1.5 on the Washington County Railroad's M&B Division. These particular rails are ex CV, 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 routes between this point at Barre. Just out of sight to the left in days of old was the former M&W engine house. Though it is long gone, the turntable survives as part of the park.
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.
Montpelier, Vermont
Friday April 24, 2020
Green Sea Turtles basking in the sun 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 filter.
Film: Adox HR-50
Developer: Beerenol (Rainier Beer)
In this long exposure image, Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, right, is seen illuminated by spotlights ahead of Boeing's CST-100 Starliner Orbital Flight Test mission, Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2019, at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Also visible are the Vehicle Assembly Building, left, and Launch Pad’s 39B, second from left, and 39A, second from right at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. The uncrewed Orbital Flight Test, launching onboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket, will be Starliner’s maiden mission to the International Space Station for NASA's Commercial Crew Program. The mission, currently targeted for a 6:36 a.m. EST launch on Dec. 20, will serve as an end-to-end test of the system's capabilities. Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)
Moon, Mars, Saturn, Venus and Mercury align in the predawn sky in Sao Paulo.
At Saturn's right top Scorpious (The Scorpion) constellation is also visible among the clouds.
NASA's Dawn spacecraft has gone silent, ending a historic mission that studied time capsules from the solar system's earliest chapter.
Dawn missed scheduled communications sessions with NASA's Deep Space Network on Wednesday, Oct. 31, and Thursday, Nov. 1. After the flight team eliminated other possible causes for the missed communications, mission managers concluded that the spacecraft finally ran out of hydrazine, the fuel that enables the spacecraft to control its pointing. Dawn can no longer keep its antennas trained on Earth to communicate with mission control or turn its solar panels to the Sun to recharge.
The Dawn spacecraft launched 11 years ago to visit the two largest objects in the main asteroid belt. Currently, it's in orbit around the dwarf planet Ceres, where it will remain for decades.
This photo of Ceres and the bright regions of Occator Crater was one of the last views NASA's Dawn spacecraft transmitted before it completed its mission. This view, which faces south, was captured on Sept. 1, 2018, at an altitude of 2,340 miles (3,370 kilometers) as the spacecraft was ascending in its elliptical orbit.
Image credit: Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA
It’s all by design! The Great Reset requires a currency crisis, so that we can Build Back Better. We must crash the economy and implement a fiat Central Bank Digital Currency, a Digital ID, and a Social Credit Score System—“Fascism on the Block Chain!” We will weaponize the whole currency system. We will reset the economy to a surveillance economy. It’s the surveillance era! Surveillance Capitalism/Data Capitalism: leading us down the road to Digital Feudalism. Techno-Feudalism…yay! This new Digital Economy will have programmable currency, which will be tied to vast databases that will surveil your behavior. Elvis has entered the building: “We’re caught in a trap! I can't walk out!” Step right up: get your Universal Basic Income Central Bank Digital Currency allowance. Then you can become a Global Citizen of the New World Order Digital Welfare state…woohoo! Please give me Digital Welfare!
We will be able to control every aspect of your lives. With programmable Central Bank Digital Currency we will eventually bar you from buying precious metals. Kiss your gold good-bye! You won’t be able to save your money, because it will have an expiry date. We will program your digital money, so that you can’t spend it outside your 15-minute city/neighbourhood/prison. Like the World Economic Forum mantra says: you will own nothing and be happy! You will literally rent everything you use. If you’re a good little doggy you’ll be rewarded, but if you’re a bad little doggy you’ll be punished. We will regulate who you can see, what you can eat, and where you can go. Digital slavery, here we come!
Trillions of dollars in debt: inflation, stagflation, and hyperinflation. “From dirty cash, to digital trash.” The banks will legally take money out of your bank account when everything collapses. Remember what happened in the Financial Crisis of Cyprus? The banks seized people’s money. Bye-bye savings. Bye-bye middle class. Bank run! Say what? The system’s locked up. Transactions have stopped. I can’t get my money out of the bank! I can’t use my debit card! I can’t use my credit card! My money is gone! Read ‘em and weep, boys; the writing is on the wall.
In a few years down the road we will microchip the sheeple. A new transhuman slave race…woohoo! This slave race will bow to the Image of the Beast—the ultimate ChatGPT. His image will be set up on a wing of the temple. If you can’t get to the temple to worship, his image will show up as a hologram in your transhuman mind. The Beast hologram will say: worship me or die! The AI Beast Computer will hit your kill switch if you don’t bow down to worship him. Watch out, he will know if you’re sincerely worshiping him or not. Isn’t it going to be fun when we’re living in the Book of Revelation? 666: you can’t buy or sell without the Mark of the Beast! Isn’t it interesting to watch as the Beast system is being put in place?
Just another wider frame of this scene cause it's just so cool despite the sad light...or lack thereof.
While I lucked out with sun in most spots of the chase this was a particular disappointment since it was such a cool scene that would have been stunning in full sun. CPKC GP20C-ECO 2280 and VTR GP38-2 209 lead train NPWJ south past Morrison's Custom Feeds mill at about MP L53.2. The track here reminds me of those old photos of the Milwaukee Road branchlines in the Dakotas back in the 1970s that had to be mowed. They did not stop to switch here at this long time steady customer and kept on rolling along through the grass that has grown rampantly due to leakage from hoppers when trains stop here to work.
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.
Barnet, Vermont
Friday August 11, 2023
But we found it!
Karen and I enjoyed a delightful walk around this impressive lake last fall.
"Lost Lake is a lake located in Whistler, British Columbia, Canada. The area around it, Lost Lake Park, is part of the municipal park system's cross-country skiing trails and, until hotel development overshadowed views of the park's swimming docks, was Whistler's long-time nude sunbathing beach."
Wikipedia
Thanks for your visit.
Always appreciated!
Members of the media visited the International Space Station Processing Facility "high bay" on August 11, 2017 to view the Space Launch System's Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage (ICPS). Representative from NASA and Boeing were on hand to answer questions.
The Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage (ICPS) is the first segment for NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) rocket to arrive at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida and is currently in the Space Station Processing Facility. The ICPS will be located at the very top of the SLS, just below the Orion capsule. During Exploration Mission-1, NASA's first test mission of the SLS rocket and Orion, the ICPS, filled with liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen, will give Orion the big in-space push needed to fly beyond the Moon before returning to Earth. The ICPS was designed and built by ULA in Decatur, Alabama, and Boeing in Huntsville, Alabama.
(Photos by Michael Seeley / We Report Space)
In geometrical optics, a focus, also called an image point, is the point where light rays originating from a point on the object converge. Although the focus is conceptually a point, physically the focus has a spatial extent, called the blur circle. This non-ideal focusing may be caused by aberrations of the imaging optics. In the absence of significant aberrations, the smallest possible blur circle is the Airy disc, which is caused by diffraction from the optical system's aperture. Aberrations tend to get worse as the aperture diameter increases, while the Airy circle is smallest for large apertures.
An image, or image point or region, is in focus if light from object points is converged almost as much as possible in the image, and out of focus if light is not well converged. The border between these is sometimes defined using a circle of confusion criterion.
This was the seventh day 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.
After running the power around adjacent the railroad's transload facility here, the crew is getting ready to shove back north to Orleans and stage for a 2 PM departure once the passengers return from their excursion and lunch. The train is seen pulled up to the May Farm Road crossing at about MP L10.8 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
I rode motorcycle in rainstorm with my sister only to take photos and we got soaked in rain for 3 hours. In fact, in the next day I have mid term exam of communication system, microprocessor system practicum, and microprocessor system's project presentation. Maybe I just don't care. They went well though. :)
Red-Footed Boobies on the old sea wall 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 filter.
Film: Adox HR-50
Developer: Beerenol (Rainier Beer)
The Nikon F, Nikon's first pro-level system SLR, was in production from 1959 to 1973. The pictured camera is a late-model pre-Apollo version with the basic non-metered prism.
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The Nikon F, especially with the basic non-metered prism (along with the Pentax Spotmatic) is one of the most beautiful classic 35mm SLR designs. With periodic maintenance and use, there is no reason why these cameras cannot continue to work perfectly, long into the future.
Many of the Nikon F bodies on the market today have been heavily used by professionals and/or stored improperly so they are in bad shape. Models that are in cosmetically perfect shape are not cheap on auction websites, and may still require professional maintenance to work properly. Standard non-metered prisms are often separately offered for sale on auction websites at a premium price to owners whose Photomic metered prisms have stopped working (although in my experience, the prism meters can often be repaired by a competent technician).
I had the good luck to get my hands on a Nikon Photomic FTN when it just hit the market new. It was my dream camera as a serious amateur photographer and student. Mine didn't go into a war zone as many Nikon Fs did around that time, but it went on many back country trips and numerous travels in my backpack. It once fell out of my pack as I was repelling down the side of a mountain, and it survived without a scratch in the original hard case!
The Nikon F is one of the original system SLRs, with an enormous selection of lenses and various other attachments. I think that I took pretty good advantage of the system: numerous prime lenses, two different prisms, at least a couple of different focusing screens, extension tubes, filters, flashes, adapters, etc. However, Nikon also produced a motor drive, expanded film canisters, and any other conceivable specialized professional system component.
Since buying the camera new, after many decades until today, it has been in for full maintenance only a handful of times. If properly maintained, these cameras can be great shooters today for natural light film photography. But to be honest, these days, because of numerous limitations, one would generally leave it on the dry box shelf as a display piece, and instead use something only a slight bit newer!
One of the positive attributes of the Nikon F is its very nice solid body feel, similar to a Leica M3 in build quality. Of course, the standard non-metered prism has no indicators in the viewfinder except the focusing aids. On the Photomic FTN, the light meter is very effective and is similar to many later Nikon cameras, with its center-weighted measuring system. Unfortunately, this early viewfinder display only includes the shutter speed and match needle; there is no indicator for aperture setting. The Photomic FTN meter only works with Nikon mount lenses that include the meter prong, This is one reason why a relatively newer model like the Nikon F2 Photomic AS is a better option for actual use; with the F2 Photomic AS you can use all of your AF Nikkor lenses (without the prong) as well as Ai lenses. (Of course, modern G-type lenses without aperture rings are out of the question). Some people complain about the need on the FTN to reset the meter, adjust the aperture, and then twist to set the meter to the lens's maximum aperture. However, in practice, it is second nature and really fast. The aperture ring does encounter slight resistance from the meter pin when setting the aperture smaller than f/5.6. This is just a feature of the Photomic FTN and I can remember it has been like that on my sample since it was new.
It is also a bit of a hassle to remove the camera back to insert film, but again film loading is reasonably efficient; certainly easier than on a Leica M3!
This camera would, needless to say, not be a good fit for modern flash photography. Although users have taken many good flash photos with the camera, the 1/60 second maximum electronic flash synchronization speed is far too slow for fill flash, and of course you need to use manual flash or old style non-TTL auto flash (with the F system's slip-on flash bracket).
The shutter release on the Nikon F is positioned very close to the back of the body and has to be pressed quite far down to release the shutter. However, as can be seen in the accompanying photo, the Nikon AR-1 shutter release adapter (or a currently available clone) really improves the feel and accessibility of the shutter release. By comparison, the shutter release button of the F2 is in a more comfortable position near the front of the body, and has a better hair-trigger feel (although it is also improved by the same AR-1). The Nikon F still works great for available light photography on a tripod. With the Nikon F's mechanical shutter, you can take long time exposures for hours without fear of wearing out the battery. Just set the shutter to B and use a cable release, or use the T setting for really long exposures. On the other hand, the 1/1000 maximum shutter speed is really low by today's standards, although it was considered normal by photographers for many years. For people who shoot films like Tri-X, the one stop faster 1/2000 maximum shutter speed on the F2 and F3 makes a significant difference.
Copyright © 2015 Timothy A. Rogers. All rights reserved.
(DSC_5845fin2)
Altogether, the Town of Inuvik has 950 water and sewer connections, 16 km of above ground Utilidor and less than a kilometre of buried line. The older Utilidor lines, which are much bulkier, were installed in the late 1950s when the federal government built Inuvik. Following an agreement with the Government of Northwest Territories (GNWT) in June 2000, the Town of Inuvik became the system's owner and operator of the entire Town's water and sewage infrastructure.
The Town has made replacing the older Utilidor lines a priority, with an on-going program to replace 500 metres of water and sewer lines each year, at an annual cost of around 1.5 million dollars. However, unlike southern systems, Inuvik's arctic utilities system are much more costly to build and complex to operate due to factors such as extended cold winters and thaw-sensitive permafrost ground.
The Town of Inuvik's water and sewage infrastructure encompasses:
Water supply, treatment and storage facilities at Hidden Lake and at East Channel.
The Lake B pump house and pipeline.
The trunk water Utilidors from Hidden Lake to the town site and the trunk sewage lines from the town site to the lagoon.
The entire Utilidor system within the town site.
Ancillary systems such as circulation and heating stations and the water temperature monitoring system, and the structures and foundations of Utilidors and vaults.
Trunk sewage mains running to the lagoon.
The sewage lagoon system.
Utility lands and easements.
The Utility also encompasses operations, maintenance administrative and management staff, shop building and headquarters space within the Town Hall, vehicles, tools and equipment.
2018 Road Trip to Tuktoyaktuk, NWT via Dempster Highway and the Inuvik-Tuktoyaktuk Highway or ITH (Tuk Highway).
The system's first tunnels were built just below the surface using the cut and cover method. Later, circular tunnels – which give rise to its nickname the Tube – were dug through the London Clay at a deeper level. The early lines were marketed as the UNDERGROUND in the early 20th century on maps and signs at central London stations.
I had originally shown up in Rutland to chase 263 on the GMRC, however it didn't end up running today. Luckily, FLSW had arrived in Rutland and started their work in Rutland's yard. Here they are seen crossing Park Street next to Vermont Rail System's shop and the lashup that would have led 263.
After exactly 3 years >> www.flickr.com/photos/100175216@N06/24785865785/ << I was lucky enough to record another astonishing conjunction among some of the Solar System's planets; this time among Jupiter, Venus, The Moon and Saturn; all aligned in the predawn sky in Sao Paulo.
At Jupiter's right Scorpious (The Scorpion) constellation is also visible, while the Moon and Saturn pass through Sagittarius (The Archer).
Afocal, Sony W320, ISO800 1s, f/2,8 5,7mm. 7:47 UTC.
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 crossing Mill Road at MP L26.8 in the village of West Burme. At right is a vintage section man's car house still dressed in weather beaten CP red paint with an old telegraph pole standing beside it.
Burke, Vermont
Friday August 11, 2023
Eta Carinae (NGC 3372) - The Carina Nebula.
"Backyard Astronomy" - photographed in the Light Pollution of the City. To see the difference, follow the link below to a more recent photo of the same Deep Sky Object in darker skies: www.flickr.com/photos/martin_heigan/26196012013/
About the Carina Nebula:
The Carina Nebula is the closest giant star-forming region to our Solar System, in the Carina–Sagittarius Arm of the Milky Way Galaxy (7 500 light years from Earth). It is situated in the Southern Hemisphere Constellation Carina (The Keel). The Carina Nebula (also called The Grand Nebula or Eta Carinae Nebula) is one of the largest Diffuse Nebulae in our skies, and contains at least two stars with a combined luminosity over five million times that of the Sun. The star Eta Carinae is at least a hundred times more massive than our star (the Sun), and is a candidate for a Supernova.
Telescopes are like time machines, and this is what the Carina Nebula looked like 7 500 years ago (as the light took that long to reach us, traveling at 300 000 km/s or 186 411 mi/s).
About this image:
Quick test exposures in light polluted skies after months of cloudy weather. Photographed mainly in the visible wavelengths of light, and the Hydrogen Alpha (Hα) Infrared spectral line of 656.28 nm. The mount was Polar Aligned, but due to the weather there was no time for Autoguiding or longer exposures to capture more of the subtle Hydrogen Nebulosity detail.
Star Colors:
You will notice that star colors differ from red, orange and yellow, to blue. This is an indication of the temperature of the star's Nuclear Fusion process. This is determined by the size and mass of the star, and the stage of its life cycle. In short, the blue stars are hotter, and the red ones are cooler.
Light Pollution Map:
Photographed at 26° Latitude South, close to the light polluted suburbs to the West of Johannesburg (Gauteng Province, South Africa). Light Pollution Map.
Tech:
Lights/Subs: 25 x 30 sec RAW exposures.
Calibration Frames: Bias and Dark frames from my Library.
Pre-Processing and Linear workflow in PixInsight, and finished in Photoshop.
Gear:
GSO 6" f/4 Imaging Newtonian Reflector Telescope.
Baader Mark-III MPCC Coma Corrector.
Astronomik CLS Light Pollution Filter.
Celestron AVX Mount.
Canon 60Da DSLR.
Astrometry Info:
nova.astrometry.net/user_images/1060749#annotated
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''.
Martin
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A measure of the unavailability of a system’s energy to do work; also a measure of disorder; the higher the entropy the greater the disorder.
My work bench. No wonder my output is so low!
Date acquired: May 05, 2014
Today's color image features both Mercury's terminator and limb. The terminator is the striking separation of night and day on Mercury. It is seen in this image with the change from dark, on the left of the image, to light. Mercury's limb is also captured, as we can see the edge between sunlit Mercury and space.
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. During the first two years of orbital operations, MESSENGER acquired over 150,000 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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Uttar Pradesh - Allahabad - Man with Elephantiasis Syndrome
IND1730.1.F
Nikon F3 / Kodachrome 64
Many thanks for your visits, comments, faves and invitations.
Have a nice weekend!
Lymphatic filariasis is a human disease caused by parasitic worms known as filarial worms. Usually acquired in childhood, it is a leading cause of permanent disability worldwide, impacting over a hundred million people and manifesting itself in a variety of severe clinical pathologies. While most cases have no symptoms, some people develop a syndrome called elephantiasis, which is marked by severe swelling in the arms, legs, breasts, or genitals. The skin may become thicker as well, and the condition may become painful. Affected people are often unable to work and are often shunned or rejected by others because of their disfigurement and disability.
It is the first of the mosquito-borne diseases to have been identified. The worms are spread by the bites of infected mosquitoes. Three types of worms are known to cause the disease: Wuchereria bancrofti, Brugia malayi, and Brugia timori, with Wuchereria bancrofti being the most common. These worms damage the lymphatic system by nesting within the lymphatic vessels and disrupting the system's normal function. Worms can survive within the human body for up to 8 years, all while reproducing millions of larvae which circulate through the blood. The disease is diagnosed by microscopic examination of blood collected during the night. The blood is typically examined as a smear after being stained with Giemsa stain. Testing the blood for antibodies against the disease may also permit diagnosis. Other roundworms from the same family are responsible for river blindness.
Prevention can be achieved by treating entire groups affected by the disease, known as mass deworming. This is done every year for about six years, to rid a population of the disease entirely. Medications usually include a combination of two or more anthelmintic agents: albendazole, ivermectin, and diethylcarbamazine. Efforts to prevent mosquito bites are also recommended, including reducing the number of mosquitoes and promoting the use of bed nets.]
As of 2022, about 40 million people were infected, and about 863 million people were at risk of the disease in 47 countries. It is most common in tropical Africa and Asia. Lymphatic filariasis is classified as a neglected tropical disease and one of the four main worm infections. The impact of the disease results in economic losses of billions of US dollars a year.
OSIRIS-REx has spent almost two years circling near-Earth asteroid Bennu. Tomorrow, it swoops in to scoop up a sample. But Bennu has turned out to be more complicated than we expected. Thanks to laser altimetry data and high-resolution imagery from OSIRIS-REx, we can take a tour of Bennu’s remarkable terrain.
When NASA's OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return mission arrived at asteroid Bennu in December 2018, its close-up images confirmed what mission planners had predicted nearly two decades before: Bennu is made of loose material weakly clumped together by gravity, and shaped like a spinning top.
Scientists had expected Bennu’s surface to consist of fine-grained material like a sandy beach, but were instead greeted by a rugged world littered with boulders — the size of cars, the size of houses, the size of football fields.
Take a tour of this fascinating asteroid that could help unlock secrets of the solar system's formation.
Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center; data provided by NASA/University of Arizona/CSA/York University/Open University/MDA
More info/download video files: svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/13729
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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So I'm guessing many of you are getting pretty tired of my vacation photos from the west :-)
A brief intermission is brought to you by, hey! Another multi-day rain that is bringing us some good ol' flooding again!! :-D I'm guessing the system's been clogged up since the spring flooding event, so that even a minor stint of rain like the one we're having now triggers something similar :-)
5-minute exposure.
A view of the Juice thermal development model inside the Large Space Simulator at ESA's technical heart in the Netherlands.
Juice, or the Jupiter Icy Moon Explorer, is ESA's future mission to explore the Solar System's largest planet and its ocean-bearing moons. Planned for launch in June 2022, it will embark on a seven year cruise that will make use of several flybys – of Earth, Venus, Earth, Mars, and again Earth – before leaving the inner Solar System for Jupiter.
In order to ensure that the spacecraft will survive the extreme temperature variations it will experience along the journey, a thermal verification test was completed in May 2018.
The spacecraft model, wrapped in multi-layer insulation, is visible in the foreground, while the high-energy lamps and mirrors of the Sun simulator can be seen in the upper part of the frame. The Sun simulator was used to heat the Sun-facing side of the spacecraft model to around 200ºC. Meanwhile the internal temperature of the vacuum chamber was lowered to -180ºC by thermal shrouds filled with liquid nitrogen to reproduce the cold conditions of the sides that will face away from the Sun.
This hot phase was followed by the cold phase, which simulated the low-temperature environment at Jupiter by maintaining the frigid conditions inside the chamber and switching off the Sun simulation lamps.
More about the testing campaign: Juice comes in from extreme temperature test
Credits: ESA–M.Cowan
The quench system arm and nozzle are seen at the test area where the second and final qualification motor (QM-2) test for the Space Launch System’s booster will take place, Sunday, June 26, 2016, at Orbital ATK Propulsion Systems test facilities in Promontory, Utah. The test is scheduled for Tuesday, June 28 at 10:05 a.m. EDT (8:05 a.m. MDT). Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)
Hull Classification: DD-20
Class & type:
Valley Forge Class Destroyer
Complement:
22 officers, 298 enlisted
Armament:
4x Electromagnetic rail system
16x 50 caliber anti-ship gun, mounted on eight turrets
4x 38 caliber twin-barrel point defense cannons
20x Superluminal torpedo tubes
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The third Valley Forge-class destroyer commissioned by the Union Space Navy, the USS Ticonderoga entered service in 2265.
The "Tico" served with distinction during the pivotal final engagement of "Operation Black Sword", where she and two Hulick-class destroyers, USS Saratoga and USS Ranger, successfully engaged and destroyed a superior enemy taskforce that was en route to attack the civilian hospital complex in the Beta Aquilae star system. By activating their stealth suites and hiding in the system's Kuiper belt, the three destroyers were able to play cat and mouse for 26 hours with the enemy taskforce and lure them into orbit around the system's Jovian gas giant. The planet's gravity well limited the movement of the enemy's larger battlecruisers and carriers, and evened the odds for the more nimble destroyers.
Ships of the Valley Forge-class:
Valley Forge, Bunker Hill, Ticonderoga, Yorktown, Antietam, Gettysburg, Normandy
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Credit to Red Spacecat for his amazing USS Saratoga, which is the inspiration for this design.