After a successful launch on Feb. 15, six NASA science instruments and technology demonstrations continue their journey to the Moon aboard Intuitive Machines’ lander named Odysseus. The company confirmed communications contact with its mission operations control in Houston, and its lander continues to perform as expected.

Known as IM-1, Intuitive Machines successfully transmitted its first images back to Earth on Feb. 16. These were captured shortly after separation from SpaceX’s second stage, on Intuitive Machines’ first journey to the Moon as part of the agency’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative and Artemis campaign.

All powered NASA science instruments on board the Intuitive Machines Odysseus lander have completed their transit checkouts, received data, and are operating as expected, including LN-1 (Lunar Node 1). LN-1 has made three successful passes with NASA’s Deep Space Network, establishing real-time communications with ground stations on Earth. The anticipated landing time is now 4:24 p.m. EST on Thursday, Feb. 22.

This image is a view of Earth captured by a 186-degree wide field of view camera aboard Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C lunar. The start of this image sequence occurred 100 seconds after separation and lasts for two hours.

Credit: Intuitive Machines

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My last successful trip to Cad West.

Bald Eagle nabs at alewife at the fish ladder.

Bowes Castle is a medieval castle in the village of Bowes in County Durham, England. Built within the perimeter of the former Roman fort of Lavatrae, on the Roman road that is now the A66, the early timber castle on the site was replaced by a more substantial stone structure between 1170 and 1174 on the orders of Henry II. A planned village was built alongside the castle. Bowes Castle withstood Scottish attack during the Great Revolt of 1173–74 but was successfully looted by rebels in 1322. The castle went into decline and was largely dismantled after the English Civil War. The ruins are now owned by English Heritage and managed as a tourist attraction. There is free admission during daylight hours.

Bowes Castle was built within the ruins of the Roman fort of Lavatrae. The route was one of the few upland passes to link England and Scotland and had remained strategically important during the medieval period. The castle site lay within the Honour of Richmond, a grouping of lands traditionally owned by the Counts of Brittany during the early medieval period, but the land itself was a demesne estate, owned by the Crown.

Around 1136, Alan de Bretagne, the Count of Brittany, built a timber castle in the north-west corner of the old fort. The use made of the older Roman fort at Bowes was similar to that at the nearby castles of Brough and Brougham to the west, on the same Roman road over the Stainmore Pass. Bowes Castle was inherited by his son, Conan, and when he in turn died in 1171, it was claimed by Henry II.

Royal concerns over security led to Henry II investing heavily in a new castle structure on the site between 1171 and 1174. It was unusual for a new royal castle to be built in this part of England during the 12th century, and Henry appears to have been driven by the military threat from Scotland before and during the Great Revolt of 1173 to 1174. Henry II spent almost £600 on the castle between 1170 and 1187, most of it in the first few years, rebuilding the older structure under the supervision of the Count of Brittany's local tenants, Torfin, Osbert and Stephen of Barningham.

The rebuilt castle featured a hall-keep, an uncommon design in English castles; built of stone, this was a three-storied structure 82 feet (25 m) long, 60 feet (18 m) wide and 50 feet (15 m) high. Internally the keep was divided to form a long hall and a solar and was lit by large, rounded windows. The keep had architectural similarities to various nearby castles in the region, but in particular to those at Middleham and Outhgill. A ditch formed an inner defensive bailey around the keep, with the ramparts of the old fort forming a larger, outer bailey. A mill, then an essential part of any castle, was built by the River Greta to supply flour for the garrison . The village of Bowes was built after the castle and formed a planned site running up to the castle, complete with a church and a market place; this form of planned village is again unusual in England.

In England, the Great Revolt against Henry's rule involved a coalition of rebel barons, bolstered by support from the King of Scots and European allies. King William the Lion pushed south from Scotland in 1173 and Bowes Castle was damaged in the raids; work was carried out in anticipation of further attacks the following year, including repairs to the chamber, gates and the construction of bulwarks around the keep. The next year William, King of Scots directly besieged the castle, but was he forced to retreat after the arrival of a relief force led by Henry's illegitimate son Geoffrey, then the Bishop of Lincoln.

Henry II was successful in quelling the Great Revolt, capturing William the Lion at the Second Battle of Alnwick and imprisoning him until a peace treaty was agreed, extending Henry's authority north into Scotland. In the subsequent years the security situation in the north of England improved significantly. King John gave control of Bowes Castle to Robert de Vieuxpont, an important administrator in the north, in 1203 and he retained control of the fortification until 1228. John stayed there himself in 1206 and in 1212, and the castle was also used briefly to hold John's niece Eleanor of Brittany, who had been placed under the custody of Vieuxpont. Henry III granted it briefly to William de Blockley and Gilbert de Kirketon, until it was given to Duke Peter of Brittany in 1232, and then to William de Valence. In 1241 Peter II, the Count of Savoy was made the Earl of Richmond and was then given Bowes by the king.

The castle remained in the hands of the Earls of Richmond until 1322, by when it was in a poor state of repair. Edward II then gave Bowes Castle to John de Scargill instead; the local tenants of the Earl of Richmond rebelled and attacked the castle. The lord of the castle was away at the time, and the attackers burnt part of a hall, drank four tuns of wine and stole armour, springalds and other goods. Conflict with Scotland led to further raids against the castle and the surrounding manor; the neighbouring fields were abandoned as a result and by 1340 the castle was in ruins and the manor worth nothing.

Still ruined, Bowes Castle was reclaimed by the Crown in 1361; between 1444 and 1471 it was controlled by the Neville family, powerful regional landowners, before reverting to the Crown once again. James I sold the castle in the early 17th century and most of the remaining fortifications were dismantled in the mid-17th century after the English Civil War. By 1928, the castle was in a poor condition, with little interest being shown in it from locals or its owner, Lady Lorna Curzon-Howe. Facing death duties on her estate, Curzon-Howe agreed to pass the castle into the care of the Office of Works in 1931.

In the 21st century, the castle is controlled by English Heritage and operated as a tourist attraction. The ruins of the keep survive, largely intact, and are protected as a Grade I listed building and as a scheduled monument.

“Wouldn't take nothing for my journey now.”

― Maya Angelou

Another moment in time...treasure it.

Kruger NP - November 2015

South Africa

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While I was taking pictures of this jumping spider, a fly had the bad idea to land nearby. The spider approached it swiftly, froze, then suddenly jumped on the naive insect and catched it in an admirable manner. Here is a picture of the agile hunter enjoying its prey.

Successful 150m hop by SpaceX's Hopper

1. I was successful in trapping one of the "newcomers" at my cat colony this morning. S/he is now at the vet awaiting surgery [see below]. Update: The cat I trapped is a female and I got her in time before she came in heat. Whew !!!!.

2. I visited the "school cat" stray that I rescued two weeks ago. She is doing fine....although still very timid. [ See below]

3. A local cat shelter gave me 50 lbs of cat kibbles for my starving cats...AND are going to help me find homes for them as "barn cats".

4. Tomorrow we're suppose to get 3' inches of rain...which is a lot for us in one day.....I'm so glad I trapped one of the cat's today, but still need to trap one more.

June is getting off to a great start.

NASA successfully launched a NASA Black Brant IX suborbital sounding rocket carrying two space technology demonstration projects at 6:15 a.m. today.

The rocket carried the SOAREX-8 Exo-Brake Flight Test from NASA’s Ames Research Center in California and the Radial Core Heat Spreader from NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Ohio. Preliminary analysis shows that data was received on both projects.

The payload flew to an altitude of 206 miles and impacted in the Atlantic Ocean approximately 10 minutes after launch. The payload will not be recovered.

The flight was conducted through NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate.

The next launch from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility is a Terrier-Improved Malemute suborbital sounding rocket early in the morning on August 11 carrying the RockSat-X university student payload.

For more information on NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility, visit:

www.nasa.gov/wallops

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NASA successfully launched a super pressure balloon from Wanaka Airport, New Zealand, on Tuesday, May 17, on a potentially record-breaking, around-the-world test flight!

The purpose of the flight is to test and validate the super pressure balloon technology with the goal of long-duration flight (100+ days) at mid-latitudes. In addition, the gondola is carrying the Compton Spectrometer and Imager (COSI) gamma-ray telescope as a mission of opportunity.

Two hours and 8 minutes after lift-off, the 532,000-cubic-meter (18.8-million-cubic-foot) balloon reached its operational float altitude of 33.5 kilometers (110,000 feet) flying a trajectory taking it initially westward through southern Australia before entering into the eastward flowing winter stratospheric cyclone. NASA estimates the balloon will circumnavigate the globe about the southern hemisphere’s mid-latitudes once every one to three weeks, depending on wind speeds in the stratosphere.

Credit: NASA/Bill Rodman

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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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The variety of waterfowl and wading birds in Oregon is phenomenal. This set represents a fraction of what can be found there.

This substantial, two-storeyed brick residence was erected in 1902-03 for John Lamb, co-proprietor of the successful Queen Street drapery establishment of Edwards & Lamb, and a businessman with enlightened attitudes toward his employees. Named ‘Home’, (also known as Lamb House) the house has remained in the sole ownership of the Lamb family since its construction. Designed by eminent architect Alexander B Wilson, the residence embraced the Federation Queen Anne style and is recognised as one of Wilson’s greatest domestic works.

Kangaroo Point, originally part of the land of the Jagera and Turrbul people, was one of the earliest localities used for colonial purposes following the establishment of the Moreton Bay Penal Settlement. The Kangaroo Point Cliffs were quarried for their Brisbane tuff, used in building works for the colony, and the area was farmed from 1837. Following the opening of the colony for free settlement in the 1840s, land along the peninsula was offered for sale. Industry and shipping was established along the river front, with modest working-class dwellings dotting the lower-lying areas. By the 1850s, the higher land at Kangaroo Point was attracting wealthy residents who erected substantial homes overlooking the Brisbane River.

The highest part of Kangaroo Point was River Terrace, running atop the Kangaroo Point Cliffs. By 1875 the terrace was recognised as ‘beauteous… with its unrivalled coup d’oeil of the great city’, and recommended to visitors for sightseeing. Subdivisions along the east side of the terrace were offered for sale from the 1850s, but the western side was reserved for public purposes, providing a dramatic clifftop promenade between the Kangaroo Point State School and St Mary’s church, at the Main Street intersection, and Leopard Street, a continuation of River Terrace.

By the turn of the 20th century Kangaroo Point was a highly appealing residential area, both for its quiet, leafy nature and for its proximity to the city, with ferry and bus services linking the area to the central business district. In 1901, a parcel of eight undeveloped subdivisions on Leopard and Wild streets, at the highest elevation overlooking the Gardens Point, were sold by the mortgagee. The subdivisions surrounded an older residence, ‘Rockfield’, built on the corner of Leopard and Wild streets, circa 1890, for Captain Daniel McGregor. The undeveloped sites had first been offered for sale in October 1852 and granted to John McCabe in 1855. They were transferred to land agent GT Lang in 1882, before they were purchased in August 1901 by John Lamb.

English-born John Lamb and his business partner to-be Thomas Edwards arrived in Australia on the ship Cuzco in 1881. After settling briefly in New South Wales, they established a drapery and clothier business in Brisbane’s premier shopping district, Queen Street, in 1884. Edwards and Lamb was one of a number of locally-established drapery firms opened between the 1860s and 1890s, which were the forerunners of Brisbane’s major department stores. By 1888, Edwards and Lamb had made ‘such rapid strides that… it is one of the representative mercantile house of the kind in the colony.’ The firm openly supported workers’ rights, and was actively engaged in the Early Closing Association movement, which campaigned for shorter working hours for retail workers. The movement’s first chair and secretary were both recruited from Edwards and Lamb, and in the 1890s the firm employed Frank McDonnell as a manager-cum-union organiser until McDonnell’s elevation to Queensland Parliament in 1896. This was quickly followed by the passage of the Factories and Shops Act 1896, and the introduction of early closing in its 1900 replacement. McDonnell credited Edwards and Lamb for his success.

Following the death of Thomas Edwards in 1897, John Lamb purchased Edwards’ share in the business, and continued it on his own. In 1899, Lamb married Sarah Jeane Stephens in Maryborough, and by 1901 the couple had two children, with a third due in 1902. With his family growing, and his business on firm footing, Lamb purchased the Kangaroo Point sites and moved into temporary accommodation in Leopard Street, pending the construction of a new family residence.

Lamb’s timing coincided with a period of steady residential growth in Brisbane. The city had suffered in the 1890s from the combined effects of an economic depression and extensive flooding, and commissions for substantial houses had fallen off. By 1900, the economy was recovering, and businessmen and retailers engaged Brisbane’s prominent architects to design a number of large residences in the inner-city and suburban areas, from Waterton, at Chelmer, circa 1900, for insurance agent Thomas Beevor Steele (architect unknown) (QHR 602340); Drysllwyn, in Auchenflower, c1905, by architect Claude William Chambers, for mining entrepreneur William Davies (QHR 600051); Endrim, at Toowong, 1906, by unknown architect, for tram company director JS Badger (QHR 650071); Turrawan, at Clayfield, 1906, by Hall and Dods, for doctor Arthur Halford (combined surgery/house)(QHR 602452); Cremorne, at Hamilton, circa 1906, by Eaton and Bates, for publican James O'Connor (QHR 600218); Feniton, at New Farm, 1906, by RS Dods, for the Trude family (QHR 650078); to Weemalla, at Corinda, 1909, by RS Dods, for insurance company manager RM Steele (QHR 602820).

Lamb engaged architect Alexander Brown Wilson to design his new Kangaroo Point house. Wilson was by then a well-established Brisbane architect, having commenced work with the Queensland Public Works Department in 1875 at the age of 16. From 1882 he was employed as architect FDG Stanley’s principal draftsman, before beginning his architectural training in Brisbane and Europe. He became the first Queensland-trained associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects, returning to Brisbane to open his own architectural practice in 1884. He also helped found the Queensland Institute of Architects in 1888, and served four terms as its president. Wilson’s practice quickly developed into a substantial firm, particularly renowned for its church and domestic designs. Prominent examples of Wilson’s domestic work survive in Brisbane, including Leckhampton (1890, QHR 600246), Kinauld (1888, QHR 600225) and Como (1890, QHR 601474), but his most recognised domestic work was his design for John Lamb.

In designing Lamb’s house, Wilson put his personal interpretation on the Queen Anne style. Imported from Britain and the United States, Federation ‘Queen Anne’ was the dominant style in Australian domestic architecture for substantial houses at the turn of the 20th century. Popularised by the influential British architect Richard Norman Shaw, who in the 1870s began designing country houses in an eclectic style combining elements from many periods of traditional English rural building, the style was labelled ‘Queen Anne’ after it became popular in America. In Australia, the style was characterised by: red facebrick walls, often with contrasting white painted ornamentation or timber joinery; complex roof forms with towers and multiple gables; Tudor-style half-timber panelling in gable ends; tall brick chimneys; terracotta detailing; and picturesque asymmetry. Roofs were often French Marseilles tile with a detailed ridge or apex. Verandahs featured ornamental posts, brackets, balustrades and valances. Patterns in leadlight windows, doors and fanlights tended to echo the free curves found in nature as the influence of Art Nouveau on the Queen Anne design became increasingly apparent after the 1900s. Although not as popular or extensively used as in Victoria and New South Wales, the Federation Queen Anne style spread to Queensland and was incorporated into designs from the 1890s until the 1940s. In Queensland the style was often applied to traditional timber houses, influencing their roof forms, timber verandah detailing and other ornamentation.

Notable Queen Anne features of the Lamb residence include its red brick composition, terracotta shingle tiles, chimney post, turned timber posts, gables of suggested half-timbering and Classical motifs on the three-storey tower.

Wilson drew plans for Lamb’s house, and a specification was detailed in September 1901. Wilson’s design for the residence set out a ground and first floor, with a protruding observation tower. It was of brick construction, with a tiled roof featuring half-timbered detailing to gable-ends; and a concrete-finished entrance porch aligned vertically with the observation tower. The front door, accessed by the porch, led to the central staircase via a vestibule, which had a lavatory to one side. On the river (northern) side of the residence was an eastern drawing room and connected western dining room that both featured fireplaces, architraves, large windows, skirting boards and ‘wainscoting’ (dado panelling). On the southern side of the residence was a morning (breakfast) room to the east, which opened onto the front verandah; with the kitchen, scullery and connected service wing to the west. Upstairs, there were six bedrooms, each of a different size; a small housemaid’s store and press; and a bathroom behind the central staircase. An additional stair climbed the observation tower, which had a viewing platform in response to the house’s prominent position atop the Kangaroo Point Cliffs. Externally, there were two water tanks, a service wing, including a washhouse with fuel store and earth closet, and a full-sized tennis court (56 x 17m).[14] Early photographs from the Leopard Street entrance driveway show various concrete render mouldings, including the residence’s name, Home, above the pediment to the entrance porch; and iron entrance gates set within a front fence with polychromatic brickwork and concrete capping.

The specifications also clearly distinguished between the primary and other rooms, requiring cedar and ‘fancy wood’ of a wider profile for timber joinery in the public rooms (including drawing, dining and morning rooms, staircase, vestibule and lavatory) and four principal bedrooms; with pine in the two back bedrooms and kitchen. Pressed metal ceilings and / or ceiling roses were to be located in public rooms and principal bedrooms, with leadlight glazing specified for use in a skylight, the front door, vestibule door, cloak-room (potentially describing the lavatory) window, small windows to dining room fireplace, bathroom windows, some verandah doors, and fanlights over dining room and drawing room windows. The drawing room and main bedroom featured bay windows.

Wilson called for tenders for the brick villa in March 1902. The house was constructed over a twelve month period by builder William Anthony at a contract price of £3,250. Work was underway by June 1902, when the ‘fine two-storied residence… commanding a beautiful prospect’ was described in the Brisbane Courier as the main work occupying Wilson’s ‘architectural skill’.

The eight subdivisions provided a generous 3133m2 site for the house and its features. The house was positioned near the back of the site, taking advantage of the extensive views, with a driveway from Leopard Street curving around the tennis court. The Leopard Street frontage was lined by a polychromatic brick wall and ornate driveway gates, also designed by Wilson. Fig trees were planted along the Leopard Street frontage to the property, with additional trees and gardens along the northern boundary, the tennis court fence and the circular driveway, which terminated in front of the house. A service entrance ran from Wild Street to the kitchen and service wing.

The Lamb family house was completed by April 1903, when Mrs Lamb advertised for a general servant from ‘Home, River terrace’. The youngest of the Lambs’ four children was born in 1905; by 1910, Mrs Lamb, with two servants and a children’s nursemaid, advertised for additional help.

The attraction of Kangaroo Point as a quiet but centrally located suburb for the well-to-do continued well into the 1920s. Its reputation as a leafy garden suburb was enhanced in the 1910s when River Terrace was planted with a line of fig trees and garden beds, improving the clifftop promenade. A photograph taken of the River Terrace promenade in 1919 displayed both the vegetation improvements and the view, which terminated in Home and its neighbouring house, Edgecliffe. In 1928 the suburb was recognised as one of the ‘garden suburbs of Brisbane’, with ‘handsome residences, well-kept gardens, wide-streets, and tree-lined avenues.’ From the 1930s, however, houses along the peninsula (including a number of historic homes) were removed for the construction of the Story Bridge (1940) [QHR 600240], and the suburb became increasingly busy.

Few changes appear to have been made to Home after its construction. Architect Wilson undertook minor repairs to the property in 1911, and a brick garage was added at the Wild Street boundary by 1925, with the circular driveway removed and extended to the garage. A pavilion was later added to the tennis court (extant by 1942). The trees, which had become substantial by the 1940s, were cut back in the late 1950s or early 1960s.

John Lamb senior died in 1920, passing the Edwards and Lamb business to his two sons, John and Frank, and the house to his widow, Sarah. Home was mortgaged in 1922 for the sum of £8,000. Three of the Lamb children did not marry, and continued to reside in the large family residence. Both sons worked for the retail firm, while Sarah and her daughters hosted a number of social and fundraising events at the house in the 1920s and 30s, particularly in aid of the nearby St Mary’s Anglican Church. The three unmarried children also purchased the neighbouring Rockfield in 1941. Following Sarah’s death in 1956, ownership of Home passed to her daughters, who remained resident at the house.

The Lamb family business – known both as Edwards and Lambs and simply Lamb’s – operated successfully into the mid-20th century, as one of the renowned Queensland draperies which dominated the state’s retailing market until the 1950s. From the small Queen Street store, it expanded to a large commercial operation with a mail order business for country customers, and was ‘always assured of patronage, especially from country people, who know they are dealing with a reputable establishment’. Until 1921 it relied on word-of-mouth, rather than advertising, for its business. Edwards and Lambs’ premises were extended in 1932 and 1938, doubling the floor size and improving the layout, until it developed a ‘world-wide reputation’ by 1949. A Victory Farm was established at Holland Park during WWII, changing to flowers after the war to decorate the business premises. The Lamb brothers also continued to operate Edwards and Lamb with attention to the welfare of its employees, providing a superannuation scheme and mutual benefits society; additional Christmas holidays; and an extra week’s pay on the firm’s 60th anniversary. As neither a private nor public company, the business was the responsibility of the Lamb brothers, and after both passed away, the firm was sold to Factors Ltd. The sale coincided with the demise of the Queensland-based retailers in the 1960s, when they were superseded by drive-in suburban shopping centres, and sold to large southern retailers.

Home’s prominent position and striking style have made it a Brisbane landmark. As early as 1906 the ‘fine residence’ was considered worthy of note amongst the ‘suburban beauties’ of Kangaroo Point, and the ‘stately home’ featured as one of Brisbane’s newer homes photographed for the Queenslander in 1927. Home has featured in numerous publications, including Salon, the Architectural Journal of New South Wales; Towards the Dawn; 150 years of Brisbane River Housing; architectural sketches; blog posts and tourism websites; and picture postcards of the city. Visible along two stretches of the Brisbane River, as well as from the Botanic Gardens, Kangaroo Point Cliffs and South Bank, it has attracted the attention of tourists, and the house was dramatically floodlit for the Royal Visit in 1954. In 2010, Home was recognised by the Australian Institute of Architects as a nationally significant work, as an important landmark, the best known residential work of Wilson, and arguably Brisbane’s most distinguished Queen Anne styled mansion.

**Queensland Heritage Register**

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A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at him. David Brinkley

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Italian postcard by Gruppo Editoriale Lo Vecchio, Genova. Photo: G.E.L. / Silvestre Suoni.

English musician, singer and songwriter John Lennon (1940-1980) rose to worldwide fame with the Beatles, the most commercially successful band in the history of pop. With Paul McCartney, he formed a song writing partnership that is one of the most celebrated of the 20th century. When the group disbanded in 1970, Lennon embarked on a solo career that produced the critically acclaimed albums John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band and Imagine.

John Winston Lennon was born in an air-raid shelter during the Blitz in Liverpool. His parents were Julia (née Stanley) and Alfred Lennon, a merchant seaman of Irish descent, who was away at the time of his son's birth. His parents separated and he would not see his father for 20 years. Throughout the rest of his childhood and adolescence he lived with his aunt and uncle, Mimi and George Smith, who had no children of their own. His mother bought him his first guitar in 1956, an inexpensive Gallotone Champion acoustic. Two years later, when Lennon was 17 years old, his mother, walking home after visiting the Smiths' house, was struck by a car and killed. Lennon failed all his examinations, and was accepted into the Liverpool College of Art only after his aunt and headmaster intervened. He started wearing Teddy Boy clothes and acquired a reputation for disrupting classes and ridiculing teachers. He was thrown out of the college before his final year. As a teenager Lennon had become involved in the skiffle craze. At age 15, he formed his first band, the Quarrymen (after Quarry Bank High School, which he attended) in 1956. Lennon first met Paul McCartney at the Quarrymen's second performance, after which he asked McCartney to join the band. In 1957 Lennon met Cynthia Powell at the Liverpool College of Art. They married in 1962. In 1958, the 18-year-old Lennon wrote his first song, Hello Little Girl, a UK top 10 hit for The Fourmost nearly five years later. McCartney suggested his friend George Harrison as the lead guitarist. Lennon thought Harrison (then 14 years old) was too young. McCartney engineered an audition on the upper deck of a Liverpool bus, where Harrison played Raunchy for Lennon and was asked to join. Stuart Sutcliffe, Lennon's friend from art school, later joined as bassist. Lennon, McCartney, Harrison and Sutcliffe became The Beatles in early 1960. In August that year, the Beatles were engaged for a 48-night residency in Hamburg, Germany. Desperately in need of a drummer, they asked Pete Best to join them. After the first Hamburg residency, the band accepted another in April 1961, and a third in April 1962. Like the other band members, Lennon was introduced to Preludin while in Hamburg, and regularly took the drug, as well as amphetamines, as a stimulant during their long, overnight performances. The Beatles were performing at Liverpool's Cavern Club in 1962, when they were introduced to Epstein after a midday concert. He became their manager. Epstein had no prior experience of artist management, but had a strong influence on their early dress code and attitude on stage. McCartney took over on bass after Sutcliffe decided to stay in Hamburg, and drummer Ringo Starr replaced Best, completing the four-piece line-up that would endure until the group's break-up in 1970. The band's first single, Love Me Do, was released in October 1962 and reached no. 17 on the British charts. They recorded their debut album, Please Please Me, in under 10 hours in 1963. The Lennon–McCartney song writing partnership yielded eight of its fourteen tracks. John was older than the other Beatles and he was very much the leader; he was the quickest wit and the smartest.

The Beatles achieved mainstream success in the UK during the beginning of 1963. Lennon married his girlfriend Cynthia Powell when she was pregnant. Lennon had to perform on the evening of his wedding day, and would continue to do so almost daily from then on. Epstein, fearing that fans would be alienated by the idea of a married Beatle, asked the Lennons to keep their marriage secret. Julian was born on 8 April 1963. Lennon was on tour at the time and did not see his son until three days later. After the tour, Lennon went on holiday to Spain with Brian Epstein, leading to speculation about their relationship. Questioned about it later, Lennon said, "Well, it was almost a love affair, but not quite. It was never consummated. But it was a pretty intense relationship. It was my first experience with a homosexual that I was conscious was homosexual.” In a later fictional film about this vacation, The Hours and Times (Christopher Munch, 1991), Lennon was played by Ian Hart. In another film about the Hamburg years of the Beatles, Backbeat (Iain Softley, 1994), Hart again played Lennon. After a year of Beatlemania in the UK, the group's historic February 1964 US debut appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show marked their breakthrough to international stardom. A two-year period of constant touring, song writing an film making followed. Richard Lester made two films with The Beatles, A Hard Day’s Night (1964) and Help! (1965). Lennon also wrote two books, In His Own Write and A Spaniard in the Works. The Beatles received recognition from the British Establishment when they were appointed Members of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 1965 Queen's Birthday Honours. Lennon grew concerned that fans attending Beatles concerts were unable to hear the music above the screaming of fans, and that the band's musicianship was beginning to suffer as a result. His song Help! (1965) expressed these feelings. The following January he was unknowingly introduced to LSD when a dentist, hosting a dinner party attended by Lennon, Harrison and their wives, spiked the guests' coffee with the drug. The Beatles had their final commercial concert on 29 August 1966. Instead of appearing live, the band began making their own ‘pop clips’, which were featured on television programs of the time. Deprived of the routine of live performances, Lennon felt lost and considered leaving the band. Since his involuntary introduction to LSD in January, he had made increasing use of the drug, and was almost constantly under its influence for much of the year. 1967 saw the release of Strawberry Fields Forever, and the group's landmark album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, which revealed Lennon's lyrics contrasting strongly with the simple love songs of the Lennon–McCartney's early years. In August, after having been introduced to the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the group attended a weekend of personal instruction at his Transcendental Meditation seminar in Bangor, Wales, and were informed of Epstein's death during the seminar. They later travelled to Maharishi's ashram in India for further guidance, where they composed most of the songs for The Beatles and Abbey Road Lennon played in the anti-war, black comedy How I Won the War (Richard Lester, 1967) starring Michael Crawford. McCartney organised the group's first post-Epstein project, the self-written, -produced and -directed television film Magical Mystery Tour (1967). While the film itself proved to be their first critical flop, its soundtrack release, featuring Lennon's acclaimed, Lewis Carroll-inspired I Am the Walrus, was a success. With Epstein gone, the band members became increasingly involved in business activities, and in February 1968 they formed Apple Corps, a multimedia corporation composed of Apple Records and several other subsidiary companies. In the cinema, The Beatles could be heard in the animation film Yellow Submarine (George Dunning, 1968). John and Cynthia divorced after he had fallen in love with Yoko Ono. At the end of 1968, Lennon featured in the film The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus (not released until 1996) in the role of a Dirty Mac band member. The supergroup, composed of Lennon, Eric Clapton, Keith Richards and Mitch Mitchell, also backed a vocal performance by Yoko Ono in the film

John Lennon married Yoko Ono in 1969, and changed his name to John Ono Lennon. The couple spent its honeymoon at the Amsterdam Hilton campaigning with a week-long Bed-In for Peace. At their second Bed-In for Peace in Montreal in 1969, they recorded Give Peace a Chance. It became the main anti-Vietnam protest song. Lennon detailed this period in the Beatles song The Ballad of John and Yoko. They also released a series of 14 lithographs called Bag One depicting scenes from their honeymoon, eight of which were deemed indecent and most of which were banned and confiscated. Lennon's creative focus continued to move beyond the Beatles and between 1968 and 1969 he and Ono recorded three albums of experimental music together: Unfinished Music No.1: Two Virgins (known more for its cover, a nude photograph of Lennon and Ono, than for its music), Unfinished Music No.2: Life with the Lions and Wedding Album. Their live album Live Peace In Toronto became a Top Ten hit. In 1969, they formed the Plastic Ono Band, which featured Ono, guitarist Eric Clapton, bassist Klaus Voormann and drummer Alan White. They released the album Live Peace (1969) and the singles Cold Turkey (about his battle with heroin addiction) and Instant Karma! In September 1969, Lennon told the other Beatles that he planned to leave the group, and agreed not to inform the media while the group renegotiated their recording contract. He was outraged when McCartney publicised his own departure on releasing his debut solo album in April 1970. Lennon's own debut solo album, John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band (1970), was received with high praise. Stephen Thomas Erlewine at AllMusic: “a scathingly honest confessional work inspired by his and Ono's primal scream therapy. Lennon supported the album with an extensive interview with Rolling Stone, where he debunked many of the myths surrounding the Beatles.” The album featured the songs Mother, in which Lennon confronted his feelings of childhood rejection, and the Dylanesque Working Class Hero. In protest at Britain's involvement in the Nigerian Civil War, its support of America in the Vietnam war and (jokingly) against the single Cold Turkey slipping down the charts, Lennon returned his MBE medal to the Queen, though this had no effect on his MBE status. He moved to Manhattan in 1971, where his criticism of the Vietnam War resulted in a lengthy attempt by Richard Nixon's administration to deport him, while some of his songs were adopted as anthems by the anti-war movement and the larger counterculture. Lennon's next album, Imagine (1971), got a more guarded critical response. But the title song became his most famous post-Beatles track, although the lyrics offended religious groups. In December 1971, Lennon and Ono released Happy Xmas (War Is Over). The new year saw the Nixon administration take what it called a ‘strategic counter-measure’ against Lennon's anti-war and anti-Nixon propaganda, embarking on what would be a four-year attempt to deport him. While Lennon was recording Mind Games (1973), he and Ono decided to separate. The ensuing 18-month period apart, which he later called his ‘lost weekend’, was spent in Los Angeles and New York in the company of May Pang. Lennon contributed I'm the Greatest to Starr's album Ringo (1973). Lennon then recorded the album Walls and Bridges (1974) with the #1 single Whatever Gets You thru the Night, featuring Elton John on backing vocals and piano. Lennon co-wrote Fame, David Bowie's first US number one, and provided guitar and backing vocals for the recording. He and Ono were reunited shortly afterwards. Lennon released Rock 'n' Roll (1975), an album of cover songs. Stand by Me, taken from the album and a US and UK hit, became his last single for five years. The same month, Elton John topped the charts with his cover of Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, featuring Lennon on guitar and back-up vocals. Lennon disengaged himself from the music business in 1975 to raise his second son Sean Lennon, who was born on John's 35th birthday in 1975. John wrote the song Beautiful Boy for Sean. Lennon took on the role of househusband, and gave all his attention to his family. He wrote Cookin' (In the Kitchen of Love) for Starr's Ringo's Rotogravure (1976), performing on the track in June in what would be his last recording session until 1980. He appeared in the film Fire in the Water (Peter Whitehead, 1977) with Nathalie Delon. In 1980, he re-emerged with Ono with the single (Just Like) Starting Over and the album Double Fantasy (1980). Three weeks after the album’s release, on 8 December 1980, John Lennon was murdered. Mark David Chapman shot Lennon in the back four times at the entrance to his New York apartment. Within minutes after being shot, John Lennon was dead at age 40. He was cremated and Ono scattered his ashes in New York's Central Park, where the Strawberry Fields memorial was later created. As of 2012, Lennon's solo album sales in the United States exceeded 14 million and, as writer, co-writer or performer, he is responsible for 25 number-one singles on the US Hot 100 chart. The cover of Rolling Stone issue featuring a nude Lennon hugging and kissing a fully clothed Yoko Ono taken by photographer Annie Leibovitz was voted the top magazine cover of the last 40 years by a panel of magazine editors, artists and designers chosen by the American Society of Magazine Editors. The photo was the cover of Rolling Stone's tribute to Lennon after his death. Ironically, the picture was taken on the last day of Lennon's life.

Sources: Stephen Thomas Erlewine (AllMusic), Wikipedia and IMDb.

More, more, more? Take a look at our postcard albums Vintage Pop Stars, French Pop Stars, British Pop Stars, and American Pop Stars!

"Successful landing.."

Atterrissage réussi de mon petit pote sur la planete strobist :) Inspiration de la photo de mon pote Jay !! :)

Successful landing of my little friend on the strobist planet :) Inspiration from the photo of my friend Jay !! :)

My shot :

Location : Grenoble

Time & Date : Saturday 17 of September

Camera : Nikon D300s

Lens : Sigma 10-20mm f/4-5,6 DC EX HSM

Exif : ƒ/10 | ISO 200 | 1/200s | @19mm

Flash/Strobist info : SB-900 at the right into a snoot at 1/8 power and 50mm; Cactus KF36 behind, into the washing machine with full CTB gel at 1/16 power; triggered by cactus trigger V4

Tripod : —

Filter(s) : —

Postraitement : aperture / photoshop CS5 + Color EFex Pro : Levels, pro and tonal contrast and saturation of all

Toutes vos critiques, commentaires et fav sont les bienvenus !

All criticisms, comments, and fav are welcome !

Merci / Thanks

My facebook : Thibault Bevilacqua Photography

Barred owl successfully hunting a wood-duck baby .

A successful day of viewing migratory birds across Butte County has to include at least one fly up of Snow Geese. There must have been tens of thousands of geese down in the flooded checks when suddenly they were UP! Watching these geese rise in waves across the rice checks and listening to their chaotic chorus is an inspiring sight!

via Instagram ift.tt/1VYf9RQ

Another successful nesting as chick had fledged recently. Mid April till Mid Jun, 2mth!!?? One of the longest nesting for Barbet? xlolx

Of the successful de-hazing shots from Hong Kong, this is one of my favorites. I never thought I would be such a fan of government housing, but these buildings do make for a great tableau! I left a little bit of haze in there because I think it helps to add a sense of depth to the image. I had to zoom in there close to see what was happening on that sports field. At first, I thought it was baseball… but baseball is not popular in China (it is in Japan). It's two soccer fields, or football as they call it in most of the world.

- Trey Ratcliff

Click here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

Webb continues on its path to becoming a focused observatory. The team has successfully worked through the second and third out of seven total phases of mirror alignment. With the completion of these phases, called Segment Alignment and Image Stacking, the team will now begin making smaller adjustments to the positions of Webb’s mirrors.

After moving what were 18 scattered dots of starlight into Webb’s signature hexagonal formation, the team refined each mirror segment’s image by making minor adjustments, while also changing the alignment of Webb’s secondary mirror. The completion of this process, known as Segment Alignment, was a key step prior to overlapping the light from all the mirrors so that they can work in unison.

Once Segment Alignment was achieved, the focused dots reflected by each mirror were then stacked on top of each other, delivering photons of light from each segment to the same location on NIRCam’s sensor. During this process, called Image Stacking, the team activated sets of six mirrors at a time and commanded them to repoint their light to overlap, until all dots of starlight overlapped with each other.

In this image: This hexagonal image array captured by the NIRCam instrument shows the progress made during the Segment Alignment phase, further aligning Webb’s 18 primary mirror segments and secondary mirror using precise movements commanded from the ground.

Credit: NASA/STScI

Read more: blogs.nasa.gov/webb/2022/02/25/webb-mirror-alignment-cont...

After successfully attempting the theme of ”The Dance”, I always wanted to do something that was based on Music & an opportunity came soon my way .. .

A nice theme along with a beautiful Model , a lovely location and a great Team always pays off ...

So Sit back and njoy “The Music”

Kingfisher returning to the perch with trout

Obliging bird from Sunday morning and very successful. Best viewed large!

Sara Braun Hamburger and her husband, Jose Nogueira, were part of Punta Arenas’ most notable and successful families.

In 1955 after her death, Braun's mansion was purchased by the Union Club of Punta Arenas.

In 1983, the descendants of the Braun-Menéndez family donated Palacio Sara Braun to the Chilean State, with all its original furniture and ornaments.

Today, besides the museum, the palace includes a hotel, a clubhouse, and a restaurant.

THE HISTORY LESSON:

Palacio Sara Braun and Museo Regional de Magallanes are testament to the staggering wealth produced by the region's vast 19th-century sheep and cattle estancias.

The museums are the former residences of several members of the families Braun, Nogueira, and Menéndez, who believed that any far-flung, isolated locale could be tolerated if one were to "live splendidly and remain in constant contact with the outside world."

And live splendidly they did in these veritable palaces, until the falling price of wool and the nationalization of estancias during the early 1970s forced the families to lose a large percentage of their holdings, and their descendants to relocate to places such as Buenos Aires.

The Palacio Sara Braun is now partially occupied by the Hotel José Nogueira and the Club de la Unión, a meeting area for the city's commercial and political leaders.

The homes are national monuments and have been preserved in their original state, allowing visitors to appreciate the finest European craftsmanship available at the end of the 19th century.

French architects planned the neoclassical exteriors, and craftsmen were brought from Europe to sculpt marble fireplaces and hand-paint walls to resemble marble and leather.

The interior fixtures and furniture were also imported from Europe.

For some visitors the knowledge that these families to a large extent exterminated native Indians and suppressed labor movements in the region on their quest for wealth may temper the appreciation for the grandeur of these palaces.

If one wants European grandeur, one normally goes to Europe, not to Patagonia. Still, both museums are impressive.

In 1848, President Manuel Bulnes founded the city of Punta Arenas with the aim of reinforcing national sovereignty in the strategic area of ​​the Strait of Magellan.

The difficulties of the geographical environment, poor communication, and extreme weather, constituted a challenge for the first Chileans who settled in the area and greatly discouraged colonization.

Seeking to activate Magellan's economy, Governor Diego Dublé Almeyda imported a bunch of sheep from the Falkland Islands in 1876, starting sheep farming, which later became the main source of wealth and work in the region.

In 1880, this initiative was already bearing significant fruit and the growing exports of wool and meat motivated the arrival of new Chilean and foreign settlers,who invested considerable capital in urban and commercial infrastructure.

Sara Braun, born in Latvia, was part of this migration process. She arrived in Punta Arenas in 1874 and married the shipping businessman José Nogueira, a partner of her parents.

Widowed in 1893, Sara inherited her husband's entire fortune and continued to increase her wealth through businesses that also allowed her to help the Magellan community with philanthropic works.

In 1895 she commissioned the French architect Numa Mayer to build her new home, an exuberantly elegant French neoclassical mansion that was opened in 1905.

The palace, built of brick masonry on stone foundations, has two floors and a wooden roof. covered with iron in the form of scales.

The facade has a portico with columns,a terrace and a winter garden covered by a metal frame.

Inside it has a music room, a golden room, a billiard room and a library, as well as bedrooms and other rooms, all decorated with furniture and ornaments imported from Europe.

After Sara Braun's death in 1955, the property was acquired by the Club de la Unión de Punta Arenas, an institution that preserved the building and its original furniture.

Since 1992, the José Noguera Hotel has been operating on the palace's premises, in addition to the headquarters of the Punta Arenas Union Club and the La Taberna restaurant.

The Sara Braun Palace was declared a Historical Monument in 1981 for its architectural value and for being a reflection of the contribution of foreign colonies to Magellan history.

French postcard, Réf. 525. Photo: Herb Ritts.

American actor and producer Tom Cruise (1962) became, with his charismatic smile, the most successful member of Hollywood's Brat Pack, the golden boys and girls of the 1980s. Top Gun (1985) made him an action star, but with his roles in The Color of Money (1986), Rain Man (1988) and Born on the Fourth of July (1989) he proved himself to be an all-round star and excellent actor. During the 1990s, he continued to combine action blockbusters like Mission Impossibe (1996) with highly acclaimed dramas like A Few Good Men (1992), Eyes Wide Shut (1999) and Magnolia (1999). He received more praise for his roles in Minority Report (2000) and Collateral (2002) and was, for years, one of the highest paid actors in the world. Although he continued to score major box office hits with the Mission Impossible franchise, his later work was overshadowed by his outspoken attitude about Scientology, which alienated him from many of his viewers.

Tom Cruise was born Thomas Cruise Mapother IV in 1962 in Syracuse, NY. He is the only son of Mary Lee (Pfeiffer), a special education teacher, and Thomas Cruise Mapother III, an electrical engineer. He has three sisters: Marian, Lee Anne De Vette and Cass. In 1974, when Cruise was 12, his parents divorced. Young Tom spent his boyhood always on the move, and by the time he was 14 he had attended 15 different schools in the U.S. and Canada. He finally settled in Glen Ridge, New Jersey, with his mother and her new husband. Deeply religious, he enrolled in a Franciscan seminary with the ambition to join the priesthood. He dropped out after one year. At high-school, he was a wrestler until he was sidelined by a knee injury. Soon taking up acting, he found that the activity served a dual purpose: performing satiated his need for attention, while the memorisation aspect of acting helped him come to grips with his dyslexia. Moving to New York in 1980, he studied drama at the prestigious Neighborhood Playhouse, in conjunction with the Actors Studio, New School University, New York. He signed with CAA (Creative Artists Agency) and began acting in films. His film debut was a small part in Endless Love (Franco Zeffirelli, 1981), starring Brooke Shields. It was followed by a major supporting role as a crazed military academy student in Taps (Harold Becker, 1981), starring George C. Scott and Timothy Hutton. In 1983, Cruise was part of the ensemble cast of The Outsiders (Francis Ford Coppola, 1983). The Hollywood press corps began touting Cruise as one of the 'Brat Pack', a group of twenty-something actors who seemed on the verge of taking over the movie industry in the early 1980s. Cruise's first big hit was the coming-of-age comedy Risky Business (Paul Brickman, 1983), in which he entered film-trivia infamy with the scene wherein he celebrates his parents' absence by dancing around the living room in his underwear. From the outset, he exhibited an undeniable box office appeal to both male and female audiences. Cruise played the male lead in the dark fantasy Legend (Ridley Scott, 1985) and the action film Top Gun (Tony Scott, 1986) with Kelly McGillis and Val Kilmer. Top Gun (1986) established Cruise as an action star. However, he refused to be pigeonholed, and followed it up with a solid characterszation of a fledgling pool shark in The Color of Money (Martin Scorsese, 1986), for which co-star Paul Newman earned an Academy Award. In 1988, he played the brother of an autistic savant played by Dustin Hoffman in the drama Rain Man (Barry Levinson, 1988). However, Cruise had not yet totally convinced critics he was more than a pretty face while he also starred in Cocktail (Roger Donaldson, 1988), which earned him a nomination for the Razzie Award for Worst Actor. His chance came when he played paraplegic Vietnam vet Ron Kovic in Born on the Fourth of July (Oliver Stone, 1989). For his role, he won a Golden Globe Award and received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor.

In 1990 Tom Cruise renounced his devout Catholic beliefs and embraced The Church Of Scientology claiming that Scientology teachings had cured him of the dyslexia that had plagued him all of his life. He was introduced to Scientology by his ex-wife Mimi Rogers. Though Cruise's bankability faltered a bit with the expensive disappointment Far and Away (Ron Howard, 1990) with his-then wife Nicole Kidman, A Few Good Men (Rob Reiner, 1992) brought him back into the game. By 1994, the star was undercutting his own leading man image with the role of the slick, dastardly vampire Lestat in the long-delayed film adaptation of the Anne Rice novel Interview with the Vampire (Neil Jordan, 1994), opposite Brad Pitt and Antonio Banderas. Although the author was vehemently opposed to Cruise's casting, Rice famously reversed her decision upon seeing the actor's performance, and publicly praised Cruise's portrayal. In 1996, Cruise scored financial success with the reboot of Mission: Impossible (Brian De Palma, 1996), but it was with his multilayered performance in Jerry Maguire (Cameron Crowe, 1996), that Cruise proved once again why he is considered a major Hollywood player. For Jerry Maguire, he won another Golden Globe and received his second Oscar nomination. According to IMDb, Cruise is the first actor in history to star in five consecutive films that grossed $100 million in the United States: A Few Good Men (1992), the thriller The Firm (Sydney Pollack, 1993), Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles (1994), Mission: Impossible (1996) and Jerry Maguire (1996). 1999 saw Cruise reunited onscreen with Kidman in a project of a very different sort, Eyes Wide Shut (Stanley Kubrick, 1990). Hal Erickson at AllMovie: "The film, which was the director's last, had been the subject of controversy, rumour, and speculation since it began filming. It opened to curious critics and audiences alike across the nation, and was met with a violently mixed response. However, it allowed Cruise to once again take part in film history, further solidifying his position as one of Hollywood's most well-placed movers and shakers. Cruise's enviable position was again solidified later in 1999, when he earned a third Golden Globe and a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as a loathsome 'sexual prowess' guru in Magnolia (Paul Thomas Anderson, 1999)."

In 2000, Tom Cruise scored again when he returned as international agent Ethan Hunt in Mission: Impossible II (John Woo, 2000), which proved to be one of the summer blockbusters. Like its predecessor, it was the highest-grossing film of the year, and had a mixed critical reception. He then reteamed with Jerry Maguire director Cameron Crowe for a remake of the Spanish film Abre los Ojos/Open Your Eyes (Alejandro Amenábar, 1997) titled Vanilla Sky (Cameron Crowe, 2001) with Cameron Diaz and Penelope Cruz. Though Vanilla Sky's sometimes surreal trappings found the film receiving a mixed reception at the box office, the same could not be said for the following year's massively successful Sci-Fi chase film Minority Report (Steven Spielberg, 2001), or of the historical epic The Last Samurai (Edward Zwick, 2003). For his next film, Cruise picked a role unlike any he'd ever played; starring as a sociopathic hitman in the psychological thriller Collateral (Michael Mann, 2004). He received major praise for his departure from the good-guy characters he'd built his career on, and for doing so convincingly. He teamed up with Spielberg again for the second time in three years with an epic adaptation of the H.G. Wells alien invasion story War of the Worlds (Steven Spielberg, 2005). The summer blockbuster was in some ways overshadowed, however, by a cloud of negative publicity. It began, when Cruise became suddenly vocal about his beliefs in Scientology, the religion created by science fiction author L. Ron Hubbard. Cruise publicly denounced actress Brooke Shields for taking medication to combat her postpartum depression, going so far as to call the psychological science a "Nazi science" in an Entertainment Weekly interview. In 2005, he was interviewed by Matt Lauer for The Today Show during which time he appeared to be distractingly argumentative in his insistence that psychiatry is a "pseudoscience," and in a Der Spiegel interview, he was quoted as saying that Scientology has the only successful drug rehabilitation program in the world. This behaviour caused a stirring of public opinion about Cruise, as did his relationship with 27-year-old actress Katie Holmes. The two announced their engagement in the spring of 2005, and Cruise's enthousiasm for his new romantic interest created more curiosity about his mental stability. He appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show, where he jumped up and down on the couch, professing his love for the newly-Scientologist Holmes. The actor's new public image alienated many of his viewers. As he geared up for the spring release of Mission: Impossible III (J.J. Abrams, 2006), his ability to sell a film based almost purely on his own likability was in question for the first time in 20 years. Despite this, the film was more positively received by critics than the previous films in the series, and grossed nearly $400 million at the box office. Cruise moved on to making headlines on the business front, when he and corporate partner Paula Wagner in 2006 officially "took over" the United Artists studio, which was all but completely defunct. One of the first films to be produced by the new United Artists was the tense political thriller Lions for Lambs (Robert Redford, 2007), with Redford, Cruise and Meryl Streep. The film took an earnest and unflinching look at the politics behind the Iraq war but was a commercial disappointment. This was followed by the World War II thriller Valkyrie (Bryan Singer, 2008) with kenneth Branagh and Carice van Houten.

Tom Cruise would find a solid footing as the 2010s progressed, with blockbusters like Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (Brad Bird, 2011) and Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (Christopher McQuarrie, 2015). He is known for doing many of his own stunts in these films, even exceptionally dangerous ones. The Mission Impossible franchise earned a total of 3 billion dollars worldwide. Cruise reteamed with Cameron Diaz in the action-comedy Knight and Day (James Mangold, 2010). He starred as Jack Reacher in the film adaptation of British author Lee Child's 2005 novel One Shot (Christopher McQuarrie, 2012). He also starred in big budget fantasy projects like Oblivion (Joseph Kosinski, 2013) and Edge of Tomorrow (Doug Liman, 2014). Tom Cruised was married three times. His first wife was actress Mimi Rogers, with whom he was married from 1987 till their divorce in 1990. His second marriage with Nicole Kidman from 1990 till 2001. They adopted two children Isabella Jane Cruise (1992) and Connor Antony Cruise (1995). he lived together with Vanilla Sky (2001) co-star Penélope Cruz from 2001 - 2004. His 2006 marriage to Katie Holmes ended in a divorce in 2012. They have one daughter, Surie Cruise (2006). Recently, Cruise returned on the screen as Ethan Hunt in the sixth installment of the Mission Impossible series, Mission: Impossible – Fallout (Christopher McQuarrie, 2018). In 2020, he will also return as Pete "Maverick" Mitchell in Top Gun: Maverick (Joseph Kosinski, 2020), in which Val Kilmer will also reprise his role from the first film.

Sources: Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Wikipedia and IMDb.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

This shot from Henry Head in Botany Bay shows just how successful ascidians are.

First successful fully automated run. Other than hitting the power buttons the scope ran itself- from unparking to parking at the end. A bright moon, so I stuck with a trusty favorite the Perseus double cluster through the more forgiving 320mm fl apo.

I will also be able to "delay start" when darkness comes late (like in June) or when a target doesn't rise until after bedtime. I haven't tried yet, but the goal is to also be able to run multiple targets as darkness allows. A rare clear winter night around here is about 18 hours long, enough for 3 full imaging runs.

My point, certainly, is not to let the thing run while I sit inside and eat potato chips, more to give the flexibilty to do other things without having to babysit the imaging. Other things could be visual telescoping, going to the park for the view to the south, or I guess sitting on the sofa and eating potato chips.

Equipment

Imaging Telescopes Or Lenses

Astro-Tech AT66ED

Imaging Cameras

QHYCCD QHY163C

Mounts

Celestron Omni CG-4

Accessories

Astro-Tech .8x Reducer/Field Flattener · OnStep Telescope Mount Goto Controller · Rigel Systems Stepper motor

Software

Adobe Photoshop · Aries Productions Astro Pixel Processor (APP) · Open PHD Guiding Project PHD2 · Stefan Berg Nighttime Imaging 'N' Astronomy (N.I.N.A. / NINA)

Acquisition details

Dates:

Sept. 5, 2022

Frames:

161×120″(5h 22′)

Integration:

5h 22′

Avg. Moon age:

9.28 days

Avg. Moon phase:

69.64%

Basic astrometry details

Astrometry.net job: 6272151

RA center: 02h19m07s.2

DEC center: +57°06′36″

Pixel scale: 2.423 arcsec/pixel

Orientation: 113.026 degrees

Field radius: 1.918 degrees

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After successful completion of its final tests, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is being prepped for shipment to its launch site.

Engineering teams have completed Webb’s long-spanning comprehensive testing regimen at Northrop Grumman’s facilities. Webb’s many tests and checkpoints were designed to ensure that the world’s most complex space science observatory will operate as designed once in space.

Now that observatory testing has concluded, shipment operations have begun. This includes all the necessary steps to prepare Webb for a safe journey through the Panama Canal to its launch location in Kourou, French Guiana, on the northeastern coast of South America. Since no more large-scale testing is required, Webb’s clean room technicians have shifted their focus from demonstrating it can survive the harsh conditions of launch and work in orbit, to making sure it will safely arrive at the launch pad. Webb’s contamination control technicians, transport engineers, and logistics task forces are all expertly prepared to handle the unique task of getting Webb to the launch site. Shipping preparations will be completed in September.

Read more: www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2021/nasa-s-james-webb-space...

Image credit: NASA/Chris Gunn