View allAll Photos Tagged visually
Not visually spectacular, but after three months travelling in South America, with its fair share of stray dogs, this place was quite a surprise.
It's a park in Central Lima that is a sanctuary for stray cats. Volunteers feed the cats and they can be adopted. They all seem pretty happy with the deal.
Or should I say Super Duper Moon?
It just means that the moon as at perigee in it's slightly elliptical orbit. That means it is slightly larger visually than it has appeared for the last 70 years. It looks the same to me...:) I enjoyed seeing this full moon in a cloudless sky.
__________________________________________
The moon revolves around the third nearest planet called Earth, of the star Sol, in an arm of the spiral galaxy called Milky Way. The next nearest galaxy Is Andromeda. We are in a local cluster of galaxies.
Spiral Galaxy: Milky Way
Star: Sol
Planet: Earth is Sol's third Planet
Earth's Only Satellite: Moon
Camera: Canon Powershot SX 60 HS
All things considered, it's not too shabby for a bridge camera...:)
I really should use a tripod so I could use a slower shutter speed and a lower ISO. That would reduce the pixel to pixel noise which varies as the the inverse square root of the number of photons captured on a pixel. The more photons, the lower the noise.
This pixel-to-pixel noise limited shot was hand held. I was leaning backwards against a low fence for support since my balance is poor. I tried to hold my breath. I supported the far end of the lens barrel with my left hand. I held the camera body and pressed the shutter button with my right hand,
All things considered, it's not too shabby for a bridge camera...:)
As I recall, my old Panasonic Lumix FZ70 had better IS (image stabilization.) I'm sorry I had to replace it when it malfunctioned.
IMG_5606 - Version 3
- IMG_5622 - Version 2
Suffolk Sportscars is dedicated to production of the visually exact reproduction of the legendary Jaguar SS100. It is a true and pure Jaguar, fully recognised and accepted by all the Jaguar car clubs around the world.
The Jaguar SS100 was originally designed in 1935 by William Lyons, the founder of Jaguar Cars Limited. You will find a history of the Jaguar SS100 within this section.
The Jaguar SS100 is one of the most important cars ever produced in England. It marked the high point of English sports car design before the start of World War 2. When the leading motoring writers of Europe selected their choice of the 100 most important cars of the 20th century, they included the legendary Jaguar SS100. As only 314 were ever made this is certainly an achievement. Every serious book about sports cars includes articles and photographs of the Jaguar SS100. This landmark car acted as the mainspring for the development of the remarkable lineage of post war Jaguar sports cars.
We have now made well over 200 of our Suffolk SS100 Jaguar reproductions and are well on our way to achieving my ambition to make as many as William Lyons. We hope that this website will give you the confidence in our products and that you may take the opportunity to come and visit us at Woodbridge. I can tell you that even after 20 years of making the SS100, I still get a smile and goosebumps whenever I'm ready to go for a drive. The overall shape and stying of the car is evocative of the golden age of great pre-war sports cars.
Now we combine all the superb visuality of the car with modern brakes, steering, power and safety to meet the demand of today's driver.
Visually the most stunning of Lothian's 30 open-top buses is 249 - SJ66LKO in its advert for Edinburgh's landmarks.
I do lots of kinds of photography that never show up on Flickr. There is actually quite a narrow range of types of photography that are generally appreciated here. Specialty or specialized stuff is not well received, So be it.
From time to time -- not so often -- I like to just show different things. This is a Quaker Oats switch engine, given a bit of processing treatment. Some like this sort of thing, many don't. I do.
A visually striking collection of interstellar gas and dust is the focus of this week's Hubble Picture of the Week. Named RCW 7, the nebula is located just over 5300 light-years from Earth in the constellation Puppis.
Nebulae are areas of space that are rich in the raw material needed to form new stars. Under the influence of gravity, parts of these molecular clouds collapse until they coalesce into protostars, surrounded by spinning discs of leftover gas and dust. In the case of RCW 7, the protostars forming here are particularly massive, giving off strongly ionising radiation and fierce stellar winds that have transformed it into what is known as a H II region.
H II regions are filled with hydrogen ions — where H I refers to a normal hydrogen atom, H II is hydrogen that has lost its electron. The ultraviolet radiation from the massive protostars excites the hydrogen, causing it to emit light and giving this nebula its soft pinkish glow. Here Hubble is studying a particular massive protostellar binary named IRAS 07299-1651, still in its glowing cocoon of gas in the curling clouds towards the top of the nebula. To expose this star and its siblings, this image was captured using the Wide Field Camera 3 in near-infrared light. The massive protostars here are brightest in ultraviolet light, but they emit plenty of infrared light which can pass through much of the gas and dust around them and be seen by Hubble. Many of the other, larger-looking stars in this image are not part of the nebula, but sit between it and our Solar System.
The creation of an H II region marks the beginning of the end for a molecular cloud. Over only a few million years, the radiation and winds from the massive stars gradually disperse the gas — even more so as the most massive stars come to the end of their lives in supernova explosions. Only a fraction of the gas will be incorporated into new stars in this nebula, with the rest being spread throughout the galaxy to eventually form new molecular clouds.
[Image Description: Clouds of gas and dust with many stars. The clouds form a flat blue background towards the bottom, and become more thick and smoky towards the top. They are lit on one side by stars in the nebula. A thick arc of gas and dust reaches around from the top, where it is brightly lit by many stars in and around it, to the bottom where it is dark and obscuring. Other large stars lie between the clouds and the viewer.]
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, J. Tan (Chalmers University & University of Virginia), R. Fedriani (Institute for Astrophysics of Andalusia)
CC BY 4.0 INT
Visually Oregon City seems either too dark or too bright, e.g. here the new lights on the bridge made the river seem very dark visually, but photographically it balanced out very nicely. Click here to view other images in this Study Series. From a fun night in Oregon City with the PDXNightowls. NB18369
Fire appliances with extending ladders are among the most visually impressive fire rescue vehicles.
Fire engines with wooden escape ladders mounted on fully rotating turntables became commonplace during the 1920s. In the early 1930s, chassis builder Leyland Motors secured the sole UK franchise for German ladder builder Metz and began to market 100 feet (30 metres) all-steel turntable escapes. The turntable ladder was power operated and split into sections (usually four). The Leyland - Metz appliances were supplied to many major fire brigades, including this one for Birmingham. It was delivered in time for the grand opening of the new Central Fire Station on 2 December 1935.
It soon had to work hard during World War Two (1939-1945), notably the serious air raids on Coventry and Birmingham in 1940-1941.
This 1935 City of Birmingham fire engine, BOF 389, has a Leyland Tigress chassis and Leyland 8.6 diesel engine. It was replaced in the early 1950s and, at some point, passed into preservation. It joined the Transport Museum Wythall collection in 1988.
As visually complicated as the ABANDONED CADILLAC photo might appear, it really was a fairly simple setup, right on my kitchen table.
[ here's the finished photo:]
www.flickr.com/photos/24796741@N05/7028272255/in/photostr...
I've had that bridge model for some time and wanted to use it in a different way.
After I placed it on the "road surface" the whole scene fell into place because the piers of the structure seemed to make a stronger statement than the iron works.
After that decision, It was a just a question of what era to represent.
When lighting the set, it was immediately clear that a dramatic over head source was the way to go. The pattern of the girders falling on the automobiles defined the story.
An interesting aspect of that lighting was it created an odd flattening of the background; there was no sense depth, even though the backdrop was over 3 feet away.
This Saturday may 9, VICE Nights Club takes a bold leap forward. We're unveiling "The New Visually Intoxicating Vibe", and it's about to redefine what our venue even means. 🌀
DJ Roux and DJ Night will be on the decks from 1:00 PM SLT, spinning their finest deep house selections 🎧. DJ Kastor will then seal the night with his signature hypnotic techno.
Every year, 15th October is celebrated around the world as White Cane Safety Day. The day celebrates all the achievements of blind and visually impaired people. It also raises awareness about blindness and vision loss among people.
Description of the photo:
The photo depicts a drawing of a foldable white cane with the words "White Cane Safety Day" written above the cane in Braille.
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Ah, the visually amazing El Camino.
Truly one of the "Love It or Hate It" body styles of the late 50's.
A veritable buffet of Show Car, Space Age and Surreal automotive design.
What's not to like?
This photo is an out take from the promotional images I did for West Coast Precision Diecasts.
The buildings, way in the background, are part of the MIT campus, here in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
This AI-generated image is a perfect example of what architects call "starchitecture" - a building so visually dramatic it becomes a landmark before the first brick is even laid. While a Santiago Calatrava-inspired mall would undoubtedly be a "bionic" masterpiece of white steel and soaring ribs, the question of its sensibility is a complicated one. In the current 2026 retail climate, we aren’t seeing the "death of the mall" so much as a great bifurcation. The middle-market malls you grew up with are indeed shuttering at record rates, but high-end, "destination" malls are actually seeing a resurgence.
The financial viability of such a project hinges on the fact that retail has shifted from a commodity business to an experience economy. People no longer drive to a physical location just to buy a pair of jeans they could order via an AI concierge in three seconds; they go for the "theatrical" environment. A Calatrava-style structure - much like his Oculus in New York or the City of Arts and Sciences in Valencia - functions more like a secular cathedral or a museum than a store. In 2026, premier "Class A" malls that lean into this immersive, high-art aesthetic are reporting visit gains, while "zombie malls" with generic designs are being converted into medical offices or apartments.
However, the "built anywhere" part of your premise is where the sensibility starts to crumble. A state-of-the-art, neofuturistic mall is incredibly expensive to build and maintain. The skeletal, organic forms Calatrava is known for require specialized engineering and high-grade materials that drive up the "rent-per-square-foot" to levels only ultra-luxury brands can afford. If you drop this masterpiece in a mid-sized suburb with average household incomes, it becomes a "white elephant" - a beautiful structure that can't generate enough revenue to cover its own air conditioning and debt service.
There is also the "anywhere" fallacy regarding cultural context. Part of the reason malls are struggling globally is that consumers are craving authenticity and local connection. A "spaceship" mall that looks the same in Dubai as it does in Dallas often fails to build a long-term community bond. The most successful new developments in 2026 are moving away from the "sealed box" model and toward biophilic, open-air designs that integrate with the local environment. A Calatrava design is stunning, but if it feels like an alien vessel landed in a parking lot, it risks becoming a tourist curiosity rather than a functional piece of the city's social fabric.
Ultimately, building a mall like this is only sensible if it isn't just a mall. To survive today’s financial headwinds, such a project must be a mixed-use hub - integrating luxury housing, high-end dining, and perhaps a transit link. If the goal is purely to sell clothes, it’s a financial ghost ship in the making. But if the goal is to create a cultural destination where "shopping" is just a side effect of "being there," it might just be one of the few types of physical retail that still makes sense.
While visually, you might find this jarring, to me this is actually what I saw today. Not the blown out sky I got from a tradional shot.
I have never seen the castellers at work before but I caught some in Sitges in October. Apart from being visually exiting you have to imagine loud brass bands playing and hundreds of spectators cheering. It is catalunya at it most thrilling. It is always a small child who goes to the top this was a girl of eight you can see her red helmet. If this happened in England the health and safety police would be there to stop up. But imagine being a child on top of a tower of her friends and relatives Viva
I was not expecting this event so had no tripod so it was hand held it a large crows so its far from perfect but considering the situation I was pretty happy with the results
The tradition of building castells originated in Valls, near the city of Tarragona, in the southern part of Catalonia towards the end of the 18th century. Later it developed a following in other regions of Catalonia and, since 1981, when the first castell of 9 levels of the 20th century was built, it has become very popular in most of Catalonia
In Catalan the word castell means castle.
A castell is considered a success when stages of its assembling and disassembling, can be done in complete succession. The assembly is complete once all castellers have climbed into their designated places, and the enxaneta climbs into place at the top and raises one hand with four fingers erect, in a gesture said to symbolize the stripes of the Catalan flag. The enxaneta then climbs down the other side of the castell, after which the remaining levels of castellers descend in highest-to-lowest order until all have reached safety.
Aside from the people who climb to form the upper parts of the tower, others are needed to form the pinya, or bottom base of the castell, to sustain its weight. Members of the pinya (most often men) [3] also act as a 'safety net' if the tower structure collapses, cushioning the fall of people from the upper levels.
The castell is built in two phases. First, the pinya the base of the tower is formed. People forming higher levels of the tower move to a position from which they can easily get to their place in the tower. This is done slowly and carefully,[4] and as subsequent base levels are completed the castellers in the pinya determine if their base is solid enough for construction to continue. Then, when the signal to proceed is given, bands begin to play traditional music as a hush comes over spectators of the event. The upper layers of the tower are built as quickly as possible in order to put minimal strain on the lower castellers, who bear most of the weight of the castell. The disassembly of the castell, done amidst the cheering of the crowd, is often the most treacherous stage of the event.
THANKS FOR YOUR VISIT HAVE A GREAT DAY
I enjoy modern… Visually & mentally… but how amazing does it feel to walk into the 90’s and feel… and even taste it… 🎄❤️ The most immense happiness is in the most minor things… There are many misunderstandings in life… way too many… we don’t listen… we don’t hear… what people say & what they mean… and what they say & what we hear is not always the same thing…
All I want for Christmas is for you
You're the gift that's made my dreams all come true
All I need for Christmas is here
Finding every sweet surprise wrapped up in your eyes
Waiting there for me underneath the tree
We'll then spend the day exchanging kisses
Smile and say What a Christmas this is
Long before the snowflakes appear
Without bells or mistletoe or the tinsel silver glow
You just look at me and Oh!
Christmas is here!
Someone asks me today if she should not speak to her fiance ever again because of something she heard… and I said, “yes, you should not speak to him if you want to quit him.” Ignoring someone is an excellent way to get them out of your life 200% of the time. But if you want to ignore because of something you “think”… assumption is a hypothesis not worth testing. If you would ignore it because of love… just make sure they speak your “language” before you lose them.
Interesting visually but darned prickly. I had to dodge a couple of these to safely get close enough for this photo.
A full moon at perigee is visually larger up to 14% in diameter and shines 30% more light than one at its farthest point, or apogee.
A supermoon is the coincidence of a full moon or a New moon with the closest approach the Moon makes to the Earth on its elliptical orbit, resulting in the largest apparent size of the lunar disk as seen from Earth.[3] The technical name is the perigee-syzygy of the Earth–Moon–Sun system.[a] The term "supermoon" is not astronomical, but originated in modern astrology.[4] The association of the Moon with both oceanic and crustal tides has led to claims that the supermoon phenomenon may be associated with increased risk of events such as earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, but this effect is very slight.
Taken from Wikipedia.
Commentary.
Hever Castle began as a country house in 1270.
Later, in the 15th. Century, whilst in need of repair,
it was converted to a Manor House owned by Geoffery Boleyn.
He had a Tudor House built within its walls.
His grandson inherited the estate from his brother in 1505.
One of his children was Anne Boleyn, future wife of Henry V111.
When Anne’s father died the property came into the possession of the King.
In subsequent centuries the estate was owned by wealthy family after wealthy family.
With its connections to Royal History the venue attracts huge numbers of visitors, all year, from all over the world.
The grounds are truly splendid. There is a Yew Maze and Water Maze, gardens and lakes, as well as the moat around the castle itself.
In summer, jousting and archery displays entertain the visitors.
There is a children’s Adventure Playground, an Italianate Garden, rose gardens, herb garden, and fine examples of hedge and bush topiary, as well as three restaurants.
The setting is adorned by a plethora of superb mature trees,
both coniferous and deciduous.
I would bargain that few visitors would be disappointed
by so many visually inspiring sights.
A visually pleasing and creative charcuterie platter, that I was lucky to share with friends while visiting the Liquidity Bistro in the Okanagan on the May long weekend.
©Maria Janicki. All rights reserved. Image may not be used or reproduced without permission. Contact me for further information.
”That’s part of the magic of photography. Look at a picture and you have no idea what was going on. The only thing you can know is what’s visually depicted, and we all know photographers lie. That’s where the fun comes in. To be able to tell a lie with “reality” is a very tough trick.” – Richard Kalvar
NGC 7822 Question Mark Nebula is a striking and visually captivating emission nebula in the constellation Cepheus, located approximately 2,900 light-years away. The complex encompasses the emission region designated Sharpless 171 and the young cluster of stars named Berkeley 59.
This vibrant and colorful region forms part of the larger star-forming complex called the Cepheus Flare. In this grand area, the dynamic interplay of radiation emanating from young, hot stars illuminates the surrounding gas and dust. The youngest portions of this complex are only a few million years old - very young by stellar standards!
The complex also includes one of the hottest stars discovered within one kpc of the Sun, namely BD+66 1673, which is an eclipsing binary system consisting of an O5V that exhibits a surface temperature of nearly 45,000 K and a luminosity about 100,000 times that of the Sun! The star is one of the primary sources illuminating the nebula and shaping the complex's formations.
The nebula showcases intricate and fascinating structures, including dark dust lanes intertwined with glowing pockets of ionized hydrogen, making it an endlessly intriguing subject for astrophotography enthusiasts.
The nebula gets its name from the shape when seen in a very wide field of view. The region covered by this image is a close-up that focuses on the void in the larger mass of the nebula at the top of the image. More detailed framing info will shared later on.
Telescope: Redcat 51 GenIII FL-250 FR4.9
Imaging Cameras: Player One – Poseidon-C Pro
Mounts: Pegasus Astro NYX-101
Filters: Astronomik L-1 UV-IR 2”, Askar Colour Magic 2" Duo-Narrowband 6nm D Package
Accessories: Pegasus Astro FocusCube3
Guiding Telescope: 32mm UniGuide Scope
Guiding Cameras: Player One Sedna-M
Frames: UV/IR 179×300″ (gain: 120.00, offset 25) f/4.9 -10°C (Stars only)
Ha/OIII 383×300″ (gain: 120.00, offset 25) f/5.6 -10°C
OIII/Sii 401×300″ (gain: 120.00, offset 25) f/5.6 -10°C
Integration: 65Hr 20min
Darks: 16
Flats: 16
Flat Darks: 16
Dark-Sky Scale: 6.00
Software: N.I.N.A., PHD2, PixInsight, BXT, NXT
“Visually Warm”
Susquehanna Sunset January 29, 2025
Strong winds and lake affect snow but,still was able to capture a visually warm moment.
Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania
Sadly not a patch on previous times I've been. Visually less of everything across the board. It's clear reenactors, stall holders, vintage vehicles etc., have given it a miss in advance.
The event organisers [Pike and Shot] say 80% of the groups let them down. Cant blame the groups for the mass exodus. You're the organisers, they have supported this event for over 10 years. The fault is on your doorstep.
I was watching and listening to the fella firing up the Rolls Royce engine. He was furious to put it mildly (as seen in my video). He received a call to start it earlier than scheduled. He had to! He did with reluctance and was subsequently drowning out the singers nearby. When he challenged the staff about it they were not so sympathetic. Awful for him. To his credit he apologised to the small crowd of what happened that he was instructed to start the engine early. So for me, this was a live example of the organisers causing unrest as the event unfolded.
Having been to several 1940s events this year, this was the bottom of the pile. When I spoke with quite a few visitors and stall holders etc., they were expecting so much more, as in the past.
Singer: Miss Trixie Holiday
The other singer, not in this video, was Ricky Hunter. Decided not to include him in my video because he spent way too much time looking at his phone, playlist, drinking water, while singing, rather than entertain the crowd. He was a last minute guest singer anyway. He had not been invited for over 5 years.
Entrance fee was £10! (reduced to £4 very late on into the second day). No concessions. No signposting to the event. No map or itinerary. Limited parking. A bare bones event. Purely the fault of the organisers and Rufford Abbey Estate collectively.
Without Prejudice.
If the word perfume is to ever be used to describe scenery, that part of nature would probably look like something very close to this.
I give you the fragrance of paradise, visually scented.
The photo shows the Braille letters BRL - short for the word Braille.
4th January is celebrated as World Braille Day every year. The whole month of January is Braille Literacy Month.
Many people say that in the era of modern technology Braille is outdated. However, that is absolutely not true. Just like sighted people must know how to read and write, blind and visually impaired people must be able to use a system for reading and writing, too. In fact, it is even more important for blind and visually impaired people to be able to read and write. Being literate is a basic skill that everybody must master. Sure, screen readers are great and make life a lot easier if you can't use a phone or a computer screen. But still - these apps and programs are not a substitute for the basic ability of reading and writing. So, if you are visually impaired or blind, I encourage you to learn Braille! As a Braille user I can tell you from experience that it will open up a whole world of new possibilities for you just as it has for me!
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See more photos of this, and the Wikipedia article.
Details, quoting from Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum | Lockheed P-38J-10-LO Lightning
In the P-38 Lockheed engineer Clarence "Kelly" Johnson and his team of designers created one of the most successful twin-engine fighters ever flown by any nation. From 1942 to 1945, U. S. Army Air Forces pilots flew P-38s over Europe, the Mediterranean, and the Pacific, and from the frozen Aleutian Islands to the sun-baked deserts of North Africa. Lightning pilots in the Pacific theater downed more Japanese aircraft than pilots flying any other Allied warplane.
Maj. Richard I. Bong, America's leading fighter ace, flew this P-38J-10-LO on April 16, 1945, at Wright Field, Ohio, to evaluate an experimental method of interconnecting the movement of the throttle and propeller control levers. However, his right engine exploded in flight before he could conduct the experiment.
Transferred from the United States Air Force.
Manufacturer:
Date:
1943
Country of Origin:
United States of America
Dimensions:
Overall: 390 x 1170cm, 6345kg, 1580cm (12ft 9 9/16in. x 38ft 4 5/8in., 13988.2lb., 51ft 10 1/16in.)
Materials:
All-metal
Physical Description:
Twin-tail boom and twin-engine fighter; tricycle landing gear.
Long Description:
From 1942 to 1945, the thunder of P-38 Lightnings was heard around the world. U. S. Army pilots flew the P-38 over Europe, the Mediterranean, and the Pacific; from the frozen Aleutian Islands to the sun-baked deserts of North Africa. Measured by success in combat, Lockheed engineer Clarence "Kelly" Johnson and a team of designers created the most successful twin-engine fighter ever flown by any nation. In the Pacific Theater, Lightning pilots downed more Japanese aircraft than pilots flying any other Army Air Forces warplane.
Johnson and his team conceived this twin-engine, single-pilot fighter airplane in 1936 and the Army Air Corps authorized the firm to build it in June 1937. Lockheed finished constructing the prototype XP-38 and delivered it to the Air Corps on New Year's Day, 1939. Air Corps test pilot and P-38 project officer, Lt. Benjamin S. Kelsey, first flew the aircraft on January 27. Losing this prototype in a crash at Mitchel Field, New York, with Kelsey at the controls, did not deter the Air Corps from ordering 13 YP-38s for service testing on April 27. Kelsey survived the crash and remained an important part of the Lightning program. Before the airplane could be declared ready for combat, Lockheed had to block the effects of high-speed aerodynamic compressibility and tail buffeting, and solve other problems discovered during the service tests.
The most vexing difficulty was the loss of control in a dive caused by aerodynamic compressibility. During late spring 1941, Air Corps Major Signa A. Gilke encountered serious trouble while diving his Lightning at high-speed from an altitude of 9,120 m (30,000 ft). When he reached an indicated airspeed of about 515 kph (320 mph), the airplane's tail began to shake violently and the nose dropped until the dive was almost vertical. Signa recovered and landed safely and the tail buffet problem was soon resolved after Lockheed installed new fillets to improve airflow where the cockpit gondola joined the wing center section. Seventeen months passed before engineers began to determine what caused the Lightning's nose to drop. They tested a scale model P-38 in the Ames Laboratory wind tunnel operated by the NACA (National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics) and found that shock waves formed when airflow over the wing leading edges reached transonic speeds. The nose drop and loss of control was never fully remedied but Lockheed installed dive recovery flaps under each wing in 1944. These devices slowed the P-38 enough to allow the pilot to maintain control when diving at high-speed.
Just as the development of the North American P-51 Mustang, Republic P-47 Thunderbolt, and the Vought F4U Corsair (see NASM collection for these aircraft) pushed the limits of aircraft performance into unexplored territory, so too did P-38 development. The type of aircraft envisioned by the Lockheed design team and Air Corps strategists in 1937 did not appear until June 1944. This protracted shakedown period mirrors the tribulations suffered by Vought in sorting out the many technical problems that kept F4U Corsairs off U. S. Navy carrier decks until the end of 1944.
Lockheed's efforts to trouble-shoot various problems with the design also delayed high-rate, mass production. When Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, the company had delivered only 69 Lightnings to the Army. Production steadily increased and at its peak in 1944, 22 sub-contractors built various Lightning components and shipped them to Burbank, California, for final assembly. Consolidated-Vultee (Convair) subcontracted to build the wing center section and the firm later became prime manufacturer for 2,000 P-38Ls but that company's Nashville plant completed only 113 examples of this Lightning model before war's end. Lockheed and Convair finished 10,038 P-38 aircraft including 500 photo-reconnaissance models. They built more L models, 3,923, than any other version.
To ease control and improve stability, particularly at low speeds, Lockheed equipped all Lightnings, except a batch ordered by Britain, with propellers that counter-rotated. The propeller to the pilot's left turned counter-clockwise and the propeller to his right turned clockwise, so that one propeller countered the torque and airflow effects generated by the other. The airplane also performed well at high speeds and the definitive P-38L model could make better than 676 kph (420 mph) between 7,600 and 9,120 m (25,000 and 30,000 ft). The design was versatile enough to carry various combinations of bombs, air-to-ground rockets, and external fuel tanks. The multi-engine configuration reduced the Lightning loss-rate to anti-aircraft gunfire during ground attack missions. Single-engine airplanes equipped with power plants cooled by pressurized liquid, such as the North American P-51 Mustang (see NASM collection), were particularly vulnerable. Even a small nick in one coolant line could cause the engine to seize in a matter of minutes.
The first P-38s to reach the Pacific combat theater arrived on April 4, 1942, when a version of the Lightning that carried reconnaissance cameras (designated the F-4), joined the 8th Photographic Squadron based in Australia. This unit launched the first P-38 combat missions over New Guinea and New Britain during April. By May 29, the first 25 P-38s had arrived in Anchorage, Alaska. On August 9, pilots of the 343rd Fighter Group, Eleventh Air Force, flying the P-38E, shot down a pair of Japanese flying boats.
Back in the United States, Army Air Forces leaders tried to control a rumor that Lightnings killed their own pilots. On August 10, 1942, Col. Arthur I. Ennis, Chief of U. S. Army Air Forces Public Relations in Washington, told a fellow officer "… Here's what the 4th Fighter [training] Command is up against… common rumor out there that the whole West Coast was filled with headless bodies of men who jumped out of P-38s and had their heads cut off by the propellers." Novice Lightning pilots unfamiliar with the correct bailout procedures actually had more to fear from the twin-boom tail, if an emergency dictated taking to the parachute but properly executed, Lightning bailouts were as safe as parachuting from any other high-performance fighter of the day. Misinformation and wild speculation about many new aircraft was rampant during the early War period.
Along with U. S. Navy Grumman F4F Wildcats (see NASM collection) and Curtiss P-40 Warhawks (see NASM collection), Lightnings were the first American fighter airplanes capable of consistently defeating Japanese fighter aircraft. On November 18, men of the 339th Fighter Squadron became the first Lightning pilots to attack Japanese fighters. Flying from Henderson Field on Guadalcanal, they claimed three during a mission to escort Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress bombers (see NASM collection).
On April 18, 1943, fourteen P-38 pilots from the 70th and the 339th Fighter Squadrons, 347th Fighter Group, accomplished one of the most important Lightning missions of the war. American ULTRA cryptanalysts had decoded Japanese messages that revealed the timetable for a visit to the front by the commander of the Imperial Japanese Navy, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto. This charismatic leader had crafted the plan to attack Pearl Harbor and Allied strategists believed his loss would severely cripple Japanese morale. The P-38 pilots flew 700 km (435 miles) at heights from 3-15 m (10-50 feet) above the ocean to avoid detection. Over the coast of Bougainville, they intercepted a formation of two Mitsubishi G4M BETTY bombers (see NASM collection) carrying the Admiral and his staff, and six Mitsubishi A6M Zero fighters (see NASM collection) providing escort. The Lightning pilots downed both bombers but lost Lt. Ray Hine to a Zero.
In Europe, the first Americans to down a Luftwaffe aircraft were Lt. Elza E. Shahan flying a 27th Fighter Squadron P-38E, and Lt. J. K. Shaffer flying a Curtiss P-40 (see NASM collection) in the 33rd Fighter Squadron. The two flyers shared the destruction of a Focke-Wulf Fw 200C-3 Condor maritime strike aircraft over Iceland on August 14, 1942. Later that month, the 1st fighter group accepted Lightnings and began combat operations from bases in England but this unit soon moved to fight in North Africa. More than a year passed before the P-38 reappeared over Western Europe. While the Lightning was absent, U. S. Army Air Forces strategists had relearned a painful lesson: unescorted bombers cannot operate successfully in the face of determined opposition from enemy fighters. When P-38s returned to England, the primary mission had become long-range bomber escort at ranges of about 805 kms (500 miles) and at altitudes above 6,080 m (20,000 ft).
On October 15, 1943, P-38H pilots in the 55th Fighter Group flew their first combat mission over Europe at a time when the need for long-range escorts was acute. Just the day before, German fighter pilots had destroyed 60 of 291 Eighth Air Force B-17 Flying Fortresses (see NASM collection) during a mission to bomb five ball-bearing plants at Schweinfurt, Germany. No air force could sustain a loss-rate of nearly 20 percent for more than a few missions but these targets lay well beyond the range of available escort fighters (Republic P-47 Thunderbolt, see NASM collection). American war planners hoped the long-range capabilities of the P-38 Lightning could halt this deadly trend, but the very high and very cold environment peculiar to the European air war caused severe power plant and cockpit heating difficulties for the Lightning pilots. The long-range escort problem was not completely solved until the North American P-51 Mustang (see NASM collection) began to arrive in large numbers early in 1944.
Poor cockpit heating in the H and J model Lightnings made flying and fighting at altitudes that frequently approached 12,320 m (40,000 ft) nearly impossible. This was a fundamental design flaw that Kelly Johnson and his team never anticipated when they designed the airplane six years earlier. In his seminal work on the Allison V-1710 engine, Daniel Whitney analyzed in detail other factors that made the P-38 a disappointing airplane in combat over Western Europe.
• Many new and inexperienced pilots arrived in England during December 1943, along with the new J model P-38 Lightning.
• J model rated at 1,600 horsepower vs. 1,425 for earlier H model Lightnings. This power setting required better maintenance between flights. It appears this work was not done in many cases.
• During stateside training, Lightning pilots were taught to fly at high rpm settings and low engine manifold pressure during cruise flight. This was very hard on the engines, and not in keeping with technical directives issued by Allison and Lockheed.
• The quality of fuel in England may have been poor, TEL (tetraethyl lead) fuel additive appeared to condense inside engine induction manifolds, causing detonation (destructive explosion of fuel mixture rather than controlled burning).
• Improved turbo supercharger intercoolers appeared on the J model P-38. These devices greatly reduced manifold temperatures but this encouraged TEL condensation in manifolds during cruise flight and increased spark plug fouling.
Using water injection to minimize detonation might have reduced these engine problems. Both the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt and the North American P-51 Mustang (see NASM collection) were fitted with water injection systems but not the P-38. Lightning pilots continued to fly, despite these handicaps.
During November 1942, two all-Lightning fighter groups, the 1st and the 14th, began operating in North Africa. In the Mediterranean Theater, P-38 pilots flew more sorties than Allied pilots flying any other type of fighter. They claimed 608 enemy a/c destroyed in the air, 123 probably destroyed and 343 damaged, against the loss of 131 Lightnings.
In the war against Japan, the P-38 truly excelled. Combat rarely occurred above 6,080 m (20,000 ft) and the engine and cockpit comfort problems common in Europe never plagued pilots in the Pacific Theater. The Lightning's excellent range was used to full advantage above the vast expanses of water. In early 1945, Lightning pilots of the 12th Fighter Squadron, 18th Fighter Group, flew a mission that lasted 10 ½ hours and covered more than 3,220 km (2,000 miles). In August, P-38 pilots established the world's long-distance record for a World War II combat fighter when they flew from the Philippines to the Netherlands East Indies, a distance of 3,703 km (2,300 miles). During early 1944, Lightning pilots in the 475th Fighter Group began the 'race of aces.' By March, Lieutenant Colonel Thomas J. Lynch had scored 21 victories before he fell to antiaircraft gunfire while strafing enemy ships. Major Thomas B. McGuire downed 38 Japanese aircraft before he was killed when his P-38 crashed at low altitude in early January 1945. Major Richard I. Bong became America's highest scoring fighter ace (40 victories) but died in the crash of a Lockheed P-80 (see NASM collection) on August 6, 1945.
Museum records show that Lockheed assigned the construction number 422-2273 to the National Air and Space Museum's P-38. The Army Air Forces accepted this Lightning as a P-38J-l0-LO on November 6, 1943, and the service identified the airplane with the serial number 42-67762. Recent investigations conducted by a team of specialists at the Paul E. Garber Facility, and Herb Brownstein, a volunteer in the Aeronautics Division at the National Air and Space Museum, have revealed many hitherto unknown aspects to the history of this aircraft.
Brownstein examined NASM files and documents at the National Archives. He discovered that a few days after the Army Air Forces (AAF) accepted this airplane, the Engineering Division at Wright Field in Dayton, Ohio, granted Lockheed permission to convert this P-38 into a two-seat trainer. The firm added a seat behind the pilot to accommodate an instructor who would train civilian pilots in instrument flying techniques. Once trained, these test pilots evaluated new Lightnings fresh off the assembly line.
In a teletype sent by the Engineering Division on March 2, 1944, Brownstein also discovered that this P-38 was released to Colonel Benjamin S. Kelsey from March 3 to April 10, 1944, to conduct special tests. This action was confirmed the following day in a cable from the War Department. This same pilot, then a Lieutenant, flew the XP-38 across the United States in 1939 and survived the crash that destroyed this Lightning at Mitchel Field, New York. In early 1944, Kelsey was assigned to the Eighth Air Force in England and he apparently traveled to the Lockheed factory at Burbank to pick up the P-38. Further information about these tests and Kelsey's involvement remain an intriguing question.
One of Brownstein's most important discoveries was a small file rich with information about the NASM Lightning. This file contained a cryptic reference to a "Major Bong" who flew the NASM P-38 on April 16, 1945, at Wright Field. Bong had planned to fly for an hour to evaluate an experimental method of interconnecting the movement of the throttle and propeller control levers. His flight ended after twenty-minutes when "the right engine blew up before I had a chance [to conduct the test]." The curator at the Richard I. Bong Heritage Center confirmed that America's highest scoring ace made this flight in the NASM P-38 Lightning.
Working in Building 10 at the Paul E. Garber Facility, Rob Mawhinney, Dave Wilson, Wil Lee, Bob Weihrauch, Jim Purton, and Heather Hutton spent several months during the spring and summer of 2001 carefully disassembling, inspecting, and cleaning the NASM Lightning. They found every hardware modification consistent with a model J-25 airplane, not the model J-10 painted in the data block beneath the artifact's left nose. This fact dovetails perfectly with knowledge uncovered by Brownstein. On April 10, the Engineering Division again cabled Lockheed asking the company to prepare 42-67762 for transfer to Wright Field "in standard configuration." The standard P-38 configuration at that time was the P-38J-25. The work took several weeks and the fighter does not appear on Wright Field records until May 15, 1944. On June 9, the Flight Test Section at Wright Field released the fighter for flight trials aimed at collecting pilot comments on how the airplane handled.
Wright Field's Aeromedical Laboratory was the next organization involved with this P-38. That unit installed a kit on July 26 that probably measured the force required to move the control wheel left and right to actuate the power-boosted ailerons installed in all Lightnings beginning with version J-25. From August 12-16, the Power Plant Laboratory carried out tests to measure the hydraulic pump temperatures on this Lightning. Then beginning September 16 and lasting about ten days, the Bombing Branch, Armament Laboratory, tested type R-3 fragmentation bomb racks. The work appears to have ended early in December. On June 20, 1945, the AAF Aircraft Distribution Office asked that the Air Technical Service Command transfer the Lightning from Wright Field to Altus Air Force Base, Oklahoma, a temporary holding area for Air Force museum aircraft. The P-38 arrived at the Oklahoma City Air Depot on June 27, 1945, and mechanics prepared the fighter for flyable storage.
Airplane Flight Reports for this Lightning also describe the following activities and movements:
6-21-45 Wright Field, Ohio, 5.15 hours of flying.
6-22-45Wright Field, Ohio, .35 minutes of flying by Lt. Col. Wendel [?] J. Kelley and P. Shannon.
6-25-45Altus, Oklahoma, .55 hours flown, pilot P. Shannon.
6-27-45Altus, Oklahoma, #2 engine changed, 1.05 hours flown by Air Corps F/O Ralph F. Coady.
10-5-45 OCATSC-GCAAF (Garden City Army Air Field, Garden City, Kansas), guns removed and ballast added.
10-8-45Adams Field, Little Rock, Arkansas.
10-9-45Nashville, Tennessee,
5-28-46Freeman Field, Indiana, maintenance check by Air Corps Capt. H. M. Chadhowere [sp]?
7-24-46Freeman Field, Indiana, 1 hour local flight by 1st Lt. Charles C. Heckel.
7-31-46 Freeman Field, Indiana, 4120th AAF Base Unit, ferry flight to Orchard Place [Illinois] by 1st Lt. Charles C. Heckel.
On August 5, 1946, the AAF moved the aircraft to another storage site at the former Consolidated B-24 bomber assembly plant at Park Ridge, Illinois. A short time later, the AAF transferred custody of the Lightning and more than sixty other World War II-era airplanes to the Smithsonian National Air Museum. During the early 1950s, the Air Force moved these airplanes from Park Ridge to the Smithsonian storage site at Suitland, Maryland.
• • •
Quoting from Wikipedia | Lockheed P-38 Lightning:
The Lockheed P-38 Lightning was a World War II American fighter aircraft built by Lockheed. Developed to a United States Army Air Corps requirement, the P-38 had distinctive twin booms and a single, central nacelle containing the cockpit and armament. Named "fork-tailed devil" by the Luftwaffe and "two planes, one pilot" by the Japanese, the P-38 was used in a number of roles, including dive bombing, level bombing, ground-attack, photo reconnaissance missions, and extensively as a long-range escort fighter when equipped with drop tanks under its wings.
The P-38 was used most successfully in the Pacific Theater of Operations and the China-Burma-India Theater of Operations as the mount of America's top aces, Richard Bong (40 victories) and Thomas McGuire (38 victories). In the South West Pacific theater, the P-38 was the primary long-range fighter of United States Army Air Forces until the appearance of large numbers of P-51D Mustangs toward the end of the war. The P-38 was unusually quiet for a fighter, the exhaust muffled by the turbo-superchargers. It was extremely forgiving, and could be mishandled in many ways, but the rate of roll was too slow for it to excel as a dogfighter. The P-38 was the only American fighter aircraft in production throughout American involvement in the war, from Pearl Harbor to Victory over Japan Day.
Variants: Lightning in maturity: P-38J
The P-38J was introduced in August 1943. The turbo-supercharger intercooler system on previous variants had been housed in the leading edges of the wings and had proven vulnerable to combat damage and could burst if the wrong series of controls were mistakenly activated. In the P-38J model, the streamlined engine nacelles of previous Lightnings were changed to fit the intercooler radiator between the oil coolers, forming a "chin" that visually distinguished the J model from its predecessors. While the P-38J used the same V-1710-89/91 engines as the H model, the new core-type intercooler more efficiently lowered intake manifold temperatures and permitted a substantial increase in rated power. The leading edge of the outer wing was fitted with 55 gal (208 l) fuel tanks, filling the space formerly occupied by intercooler tunnels, but these were omitted on early P-38J blocks due to limited availability.
The final 210 J models, designated P-38J-25-LO, alleviated the compressibility problem through the addition of a set of electrically-actuated dive recovery flaps just outboard of the engines on the bottom centerline of the wings. With these improvements, a USAAF pilot reported a dive speed of almost 600 mph (970 km/h), although the indicated air speed was later corrected for compressibility error, and the actual dive speed was lower. Lockheed manufactured over 200 retrofit modification kits to be installed on P-38J-10-LO and J-20-LO already in Europe, but the USAAF C-54 carrying them was shot down by an RAF pilot who mistook the Douglas transport for a German Focke-Wulf Condor. Unfortunately the loss of the kits came during Lockheed test pilot Tony LeVier's four-month morale-boosting tour of P-38 bases. Flying a new Lightning named "Snafuperman" modified to full P-38J-25-LO specs at Lockheed's modification center near Belfast, LeVier captured the pilots' full attention by routinely performing maneuvers during March 1944 that common Eighth Air Force wisdom held to be suicidal. It proved too little too late because the decision had already been made to re-equip with Mustangs.
The P-38J-25-LO production block also introduced hydraulically-boosted ailerons, one of the first times such a system was fitted to a fighter. This significantly improved the Lightning's rate of roll and reduced control forces for the pilot. This production block and the following P-38L model are considered the definitive Lightnings, and Lockheed ramped up production, working with subcontractors across the country to produce hundreds of Lightnings each month.
Noted P-38 pilots
Richard Bong and Thomas McGuire
The American ace of aces and his closest competitor both flew Lightnings as they tallied 40 and 38 victories respectively. Majors Richard I. "Dick" Bong and Thomas J. "Tommy" McGuire of the USAAF competed for the top position. Both men were awarded the Medal of Honor.
McGuire was killed in air combat in January 1945 over the Philippines, after racking up 38 confirmed kills, making him the second-ranking American ace. Bong was rotated back to the United States as America's ace of aces, after making 40 kills, becoming a test pilot. He was killed on 6 August 1945, the day the atomic bomb was dropped on Japan, when his P-80 Shooting Star jet fighter flamed out on takeoff.
Charles Lindbergh
The famed aviator Charles Lindbergh toured the South Pacific as a civilian contractor for United Aircraft Corporation, comparing and evaluating performance of single- and twin-engined fighters for Vought. He worked to improve range and load limits of the F4U Corsair, flying both routine and combat strafing missions in Corsairs alongside Marine pilots. In Hollandia, he attached himself to the 475th FG flying P-38s so that he could investigate the twin-engine fighter. Though new to the machine, he was instrumental in extending the range of the P-38 through improved throttle settings, or engine-leaning techniques, notably by reducing engine speed to 1,600 rpm, setting the carburetors for auto-lean and flying at 185 mph (298 km/h) indicated airspeed which reduced fuel consumption to 70 gal/h, about 2.6 mpg. This combination of settings had been considered dangerous; it was thought it would upset the fuel mixture and cause an explosion. Everywhere Lindbergh went in the South Pacific, he was accorded the normal preferential treatment of a visiting colonel, though he had resigned his Air Corps Reserve colonel's commission three years before. While with the 475th, he held training classes and took part in a number of Army Air Corps combat missions. On 28 July 1944, Lindbergh shot down a Mitsubishi Ki-51 "Sonia" flown expertly by the veteran commander of 73rd Independent Flying Chutai, Imperial Japanese Army Captain Saburo Shimada. In an extended, twisting dogfight in which many of the participants ran out of ammunition, Shimada turned his aircraft directly toward Lindbergh who was just approaching the combat area. Lindbergh fired in a defensive reaction brought on by Shimada's apparent head-on ramming attack. Hit by cannon and machine gun fire, the "Sonia's" propeller visibly slowed, but Shimada held his course. Lindbergh pulled up at the last moment to avoid collision as the damaged "Sonia" went into a steep dive, hit the ocean and sank. Lindbergh's wingman, ace Joseph E. "Fishkiller" Miller, Jr., had also scored hits on the "Sonia" after it had begun its fatal dive, but Miller was certain the kill credit was Lindbergh's. The unofficial kill was not entered in the 475th's war record. On 12 August 1944 Lindbergh left Hollandia to return to the United States.
Charles MacDonald
The seventh-ranking American ace, Charles H. MacDonald, flew a Lightning against the Japanese, scoring 27 kills in his famous aircraft, the Putt Putt Maru.
Robin Olds
Main article: Robin Olds
Robin Olds was the last P-38 ace in the Eighth Air Force and the last in the ETO. Flying a P-38J, he downed five German fighters on two separate missions over France and Germany. He subsequently transitioned to P-51s to make seven more kills. After World War II, he flew F-4 Phantom IIs in Vietnam, ending his career as brigadier general with 16 kills.
Clay Tice
A P-38 piloted by Clay Tice was the first American aircraft to land in Japan after VJ-Day, when he and his wingman set down on Nitagahara because his wingman was low on fuel.
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Noted aviation pioneer and writer Antoine de Saint-Exupéry vanished in a F-5B-1-LO, 42-68223, c/n 2734, of Groupe de Chasse II/33, out of Borgo-Porreta, Bastia, Corsica, a reconnaissance variant of the P-38, while on a flight over the Mediterranean, from Corsica to mainland France, on 31 July 1944. His health, both physical and mental (he was said to be intermittently subject to depression), had been deteriorating and there had been talk of taking him off flight status. There have been suggestions (although no proof to date) that this was a suicide rather than an aircraft failure or combat loss. In 2000, a French scuba diver found the wreckage of a Lightning in the Mediterranean off the coast of Marseille, and it was confirmed in April 2004 as Saint-Exupéry's F-5B. No evidence of air combat was found. In March 2008, a former Luftwaffe pilot, Horst Rippert from Jagdgruppe 200, claimed to have shot down Saint-Exupéry.
Adrian Warburton
The RAF's legendary photo-recon "ace", Wing Commander Adrian Warburton DSO DFC, was the pilot of a Lockheed P-38 borrowed from the USAAF that took off on 12 April 1944 to photograph targets in Germany. W/C Warburton failed to arrive at the rendezvous point and was never seen again. In 2003, his remains were recovered in Germany from his wrecked USAAF P-38 Lightning.
• • • • •
Quoting Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum | Boeing B-29 Superfortress "Enola Gay":
Boeing's B-29 Superfortress was the most sophisticated propeller-driven bomber of World War II and the first bomber to house its crew in pressurized compartments. Although designed to fight in the European theater, the B-29 found its niche on the other side of the globe. In the Pacific, B-29s delivered a variety of aerial weapons: conventional bombs, incendiary bombs, mines, and two nuclear weapons.
On August 6, 1945, this Martin-built B-29-45-MO dropped the first atomic weapon used in combat on Hiroshima, Japan. Three days later, Bockscar (on display at the U.S. Air Force Museum near Dayton, Ohio) dropped a second atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan. Enola Gay flew as the advance weather reconnaissance aircraft that day. A third B-29, The Great Artiste, flew as an observation aircraft on both missions.
Transferred from the United States Air Force.
Manufacturer:
Date:
1945
Country of Origin:
United States of America
Dimensions:
Overall: 900 x 3020cm, 32580kg, 4300cm (29ft 6 5/16in. x 99ft 1in., 71825.9lb., 141ft 15/16in.)
Materials:
Polished overall aluminum finish
Physical Description:
Four-engine heavy bomber with semi-monoqoque fuselage and high-aspect ratio wings. Polished aluminum finish overall, standard late-World War II Army Air Forces insignia on wings and aft fuselage and serial number on vertical fin; 509th Composite Group markings painted in black; "Enola Gay" in black, block letters on lower left nose.
Is this ensemble that visually compelling that you must stare?
I hope your answer is "yes!"
I created this ensemble around a very clingy Baltogs wet look white lycra spandex leotard from nydancewear.com and matching wet look white lycra spandex miniskirt from coquetryclothing.com (which I've… discarded) and embellished it with my white satin under bust corset from canalboat.com, sheer white lycra mesh elbow length gloves and white fully fashioned Premier French Heel stockings, both from secretsinlace.com and finished off with my white stiletto pumps with 5" heels from electriqueboutique.com
To see more pix of me in other tight, sexy and revealing outfits click this link:www.flickr.com/photos/kaceycdpix/sets/72157623668202157/
To see more pix of me in my body hugging leotards & bodysuits click this link: www.flickr.com/photos/kaceycdpix/sets/72157622755507602/
To see more pix of me in my Baltogs lycra spandex dancewear click this link: www.flickr.com/photos/kaceycdpix/sets/72157617535517907/
To see more pix of me in clothes from Coquetry Clothing click this link: www.flickr.com/photos/kaceycdpix/sets/72157626739774869/
DSC_1602-12
Edited Hubble Space Telescope image (I ran it through a haze reduction filter) of NGC 3314, two spiral galaxies that are visually overlapping from our perspective.
My first attempts with a black mirror. I'm quite pleased with the result, actually :-)
While I initially started out with different combinations of coloured pencils, I decided to post this photo here on my Flickr. Why? Well, I decided to use it as a way of explaining the question that I got the other day about my white cane: "Do the colours on your cane mean anything?" And the answer is yes!
While today white canes can be colourful, too (different colours of grips, tips, etc), there is a kind of an international "code" about white canes, too.
1) A white cane that is completely white indicates that the user is completely blind.
2) A white cane with a red bottom part (like the one I have) indicates that the user is visually impaired and still has some usable vision left.
3) A striped red and white cane indicates that the user is deafblind.
So, next time you see someone with a white cane, pay attention to the colours of the cane. This way, you'll know how to act around them and perhaps help them if they ask for help.
Keep the comments clean! No banners,a wards or invitations, please!
One of the more visually unusual but none the less critical pieces of kit to regularly grace our skies is the RSAF G550 CAEW. A key battle space management tool, and integral to controlling the congested and crowded sky over Singapore it’s welcome return to Pitch Black shows how important the exercise in. They don’t have many to spread around !
The Izapa Ruins are historically significant but visually lacking the impact other sites. This shot shows about 50% of what has been uncovered to date which a mere fraction of the ruins.
The HAL tour spent about 90 minutes here, 30 would have been sufficient.
From Mundo Maya:
Founded around the year 1,500 B.C., Izapa was the most important ceremonial, political, and religious center of the Pacific coast for almost a thousand years. Its importance was due to commercial factors, as well as for being the region’s religious center. Its position favored migrations and the trade of jade, cocoa, and obsidian, however its ruins do not house spectacular structures or famous paintings like other sites, as it lost a great deal of importance during the Mayan Classic period.
Izapa, originally inhabited by Mize-zoque people, began its development around 600 B.C. and reached its peak as a regional center toward the upper Preclassic period, due mostly to the climactic characteristics of where it is located, with its fertile soil and high humidity, which allowed the creation of an intensive agricultural system and surplus stock.
The location and planning of its ceremonial center is full of astronomical references, to the point that many archaeologists believe that Izapa had a key role in the construction of Mesoamerican calendars and the Mayan calendar in particular. Its orientation, on a slightly askew angle from the geographical north and its alignment with the Tacaná volcano, have led to the conclusion that its best structures and pyramids for astronomical observation match the dusk of the winter solstice in the northern hemisphere.
The ancient city of Izapa was explored by Matthew Stirling in 1935; by Philip Drucker, from the Smithsonian Institution in 1947 and 1948; and was inspected by Eulalia Guzmán in 1935 and 1944.
Various stelae narrate some of the myths collected in the Popol Vuh.
The archaeological zone is quite wide, it has an area of two kilometers and is comprised of groups of mounds.
Today, it is only possible to visit Group F, north of the highway to Talismán, it is the most restored area, which groups together most of the stelae and stone sculptures. Groups A and B, to the south, are accessible through dirt roads, but the area is covered in vegetation. Most of the stelae are in Groups A and B, which correspond to the site’s Preclassic occupation.
"Ocean Enchantress" is a captivating monochrome photograph, expertly captured on a Fujifilm GFX 100, that pays tribute to the strength, beauty, and determination of a woman surfer. Dressed in a skin-tight bikini, the athlete confidently rides her surfboard in the ocean, showcasing her ample chest, large round behind, and her toned, muscular, athletic figure.
This tasteful composition thoughtfully balances sensuality and allure with respect, emphasizing the power and grace that accompany her passion for surfing. Set against a picturesque ocean and beach backdrop, the skillful use of contrast and texture enhances the artistic expression of the image, creating a visually striking narrative of perseverance and empowerment.
"Ocean Enchantress" is a stunning tribute to the beauty of athleticism and the indomitable spirit of the modern woman, making it a perfect addition to any gallery that appreciates the fusion of strength, grace, and determination.
It's one thing to read a description of how far Lake Ontario has risen this spring and it's another thing to see it visually. A picture really is worth a thousand words.
On today's group bike ride we had to turn around and retrace our steps when we found that our usual path connecting Ontario Place to the mainland was impassible due to the flooding.
This is a view of the breakwater that usually runs parallel to the Toronto shoreline from Ontario Place to protect the shore; It has disappeared. Look at the photo below to see what it looked like a month ago on a bike ride. The comparison is shocking.
There is extensive flooding on the Toronto Islands just a mile or two from this location. It's hard to omagine the volume of water we are talking about, considering that the entirety of this huge lake has risen this visibly.
”That’s part of the magic of photography. Look at a picture and you have no idea what was going on. The only thing you can know is what’s visually depicted, and we all know photographers lie. That’s where the fun comes in. To be able to tell a lie with “reality” is a very tough trick.” – Richard Kalvar
A visually intense, dense collage from the late 20th Century. Something about Donkey Party Game and Vincent Van Gogh's sunflowers and more, much more. High Art/Low Art. The Beatles from their second album and a Girly Bird screaming upside down at them is in here too. The battleship Texas pennant hangs. A lady at a political convention drapes a Flowers bumper sticker across her forehead. And donkey tales. Poor VV Gogh's 19th century masterpiece gets reduced to background and cultural reference.
What a visually stunning first encounter this handsome Hawk Moth caterpillar was... we found two older instars as well, one green and one so brown it was almost black! They will be posted tomorrow...
Not as dramatic visually, but this image blows me away. As well as the colourful version of the Crab Nebula I shared a few days ago, I also collected some data without a filter - the upshot is the stars are more visible in post processing including the star that powers the whole thing. I didn't think I could capture it with equipment I had, but checking my image against several others with better resolution - I'm pretty confident I got it. That diminutive black dot shining at around 16th magnitude is only 20-30 km across, a neutron star, smaller than the island of Montreal, and yet we can see it here on Earth, 6000 light years or about 60 quadrillion km away.
This is a calibrated stack of 60 two minute sub frames.
Astrotech AT102ED Refractor
0.8X Reducer/Flatenner
UV/IR Cut Filter Filter
ZWO ASI533MC Pro Camera