M42

SOME NEW PHOTOS at TAGD, including this shot of M42 / Orion Nebula from a week ago (which has a slight camera bump, but is a starting point as I learn to shoot deep sky objects).

 

A Brief History Of Everything

A NICE SUMMARY of a the history of the Universe. Early this year I had the chance to hear some leading astrophysicists and cosmologists describe the Universe's first moments, and their description was very much the same. After telling the story, a person in the audience noted, "You mean to tell me that in the first moments of the Universe everything was dark, then there was light, then there was matter ... that sounds an awful lot like Genesis." The reply: "That's not lost on us." 

New Views of Saturn; TEDBlog

A READER FORWARDED this post at TEDBlog about new views of Saturn courtesy Cassini-Huygens. See the full set of images here. (Thanks, Sharon!) Click this shot for a full-sized view of this spectacular image of rings and moons ...

While on the topic, I suppose I once knew that TED had a blog, but had since forgotten, and now thanks to Sharon am once again reminded. Added to my RSS reader (Google Reader).

Comet 17/P Holmes

I'VE POSTED PHOTOS (including the one below) and viewing notes of Comet 17P/Holmes over at TAGD. If you've not stepped out to look at the comet, you should -- especially if you have some binoculars or a telescope handy. More notes on how to do so in the post.

A Massive Burst of Energy

A BURST OF RADIO WAVES so powerful it produced as much energy in five milleseconds as our sun produces in a month. It's astonishing to me such things can exist, that they might travel three billion years before reaching our instruments, and that they may originate in something as exotic as an evaporating black hole. (I didn't even know black holes could evaporate, did you? Steven Hawking thinks so.)

OH MY GOODNESS THIS is cool.

AN ABSOLUTELY EXTRAORDINARY image. Be sure to click on the photo to see it full-sized and in full detail. Feel small?

THIS is very cool.