Didn’t know what to title this thread and I didn’t want to limit it to a specific topic.
Wondering if anyone had a chance to view Comet ZTF (The green comet) . Those of you who live away from the city might have a better chance to see it than I do, too many road and street lights here where I live in suburbia. In the southern hemisphere where I live, Mars is north.
“CometZTF will appear close enough to bright objects to find it easily with binoculars. It will be near the location of Mars on the nights of 10-11 February, and then near Aldebaran on the 14th.”
From - astrodon.social@JohnBarentine
I looked with 20 x 50mm binoculars on Sunday night when it was supposed to be at it’s brightest, but it was a no show for me here , have the same problem with light pollution too. I once could see the haze of the nebula in Orion with binoculars from my backyard, it’s barely visible when I look now. I’ve seen two comets with a naked eye years back, one was Halley’s at night and the other (can’t remember which one it was) just before sunrise. When I was a kid my Dad told me one morning he saw a “star with a tail” as he called it, he saw it again next morning. He was an early riser, I told him to wake me up, I wanted to see it too but I didn’t get the chance, he said he tried to wake me up but I wanted to sleep. I was so disappointed I never saw the “star with a tail” my Dad got excited about. Since then I look, whenever one makes an appearance.
I didn’t know how much Lego building blocks have progressed in recent years until today. I visited my daughter and saw some intriguing artificial flowers on the table, it was a Lego flower bouquet she got from her partner on Valentine’s Day. So cute! .
I didn’t see the comet. During the peak time it was too cloudy here (Southern coast of NC) to see it. However, a few weekends earlier when I was out taking in a sunset, I inadvertently saw the launch of one of the Space X missions from Cape Canaveral. In all honesty, I had no prior knowledge of it and at first, had no idea what I was seeing. Fortunately, there was a professional photographer there that explained everything to me as it was unfolding. He’s also the one that told me about the comet. This is not my footage (though I shot some) but it was taken in the same vicinity (Emerald Isle) of where I was.
“This video isn’t really about Britney” -
“Hollywood’s voracious appetite, to replace real celebraties with artifical knock off versions of themselves that will never complain or change or die.” (40min.)
A total sun eclipse occured today in the North West Cape of Western Australia. I live in South Aust., it was a partial eclipse here, but it wasn’t visible due to cloud cover.
The last sun eclipse I witnessed was several years ago, or it could have been a decade ago. It was late in the afternoon, the sun was setting when the eclipse occured. I took a photo of it through the trees and over my neighbours back fence, that photo has been my avatar since.
I have never witnessed a total eclipse, I’ve seen three partials. First one when I was a kid, we were taught at school to make a projector pin hole on a piece of card, but I want to look directly at it. I remember asking my dad if he had a welding sheild I could use.
Apple has announced its long rumoured “spatial reality” head set called the Vision Pro… “a revolutionary spatial computer that seamlessly blends digital content with the physical world, while allowing users to stay present and connected to others.”
Quite expensive at the moment, well for me anyway. Imagine the future, almost everyone could be walking around with goggles.
I’ve been lucky enough to see 2 total solar eclipses (so far), and would highly recommend it. MUCH better than a partial.
The first eclipse was in Montana in February. All the animals gathered on the hills as the snow slowly became ash colored. The temperature dropped about 20 degrees. When it went total, all the stars came out and there was a sunset in all directions. It was breathtaking.
The second time was fairly recently. We were chasing clear spots in the sky and ended up in a nice little town called Cambria, Illinois. They had a city park with hot dogs and refreshments. When it went total, all the street lights came on, the bats came out, etc.
Oddly enough, this same town will be in the 2024 eclipse.
I’ll try to dig up some pictures, but it’s hard to do it justice. We’re starting to plan for next year too :).
NASA’S OSIRIS-REx - A capsule containing samples of an asteroid landed in Utah recently, 24th Sept. “Ä journey of a billion miles…and opening a time capsule to our ancient solar system” Pretty exciting, it also scares me a bit. I’ve watched too many sci-fi movies I think. I’m a bit paranoid that something is going to crawl out of those samples un-noticed and invade the earth.
Edit - Well, apparently not - OSIRIS-REx will not bring home space germs.
On that note, I watched again one of my favourite animated films. I like what the Orchestra Master says to the Animator -“Non siamo qui per abbuffarci” - “We are not here to gorge”
Bruno Bozzetto, from - “Allegro Non Troppo”, Maurice Ravel - “Bolero”
There’s going to be an annular eclipse here on Saturday, coinciding with the last weekend of the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta. It’s not as impressive as a total (you can’t look directly at it), but still pretty cool when most of the sun’s light is blocked. I’ll try to get a picture or two.
I found a paper wasp building a nest on my frangipani shrub this afternoon. When I approached it close with the camera, its wings shot up, so I opted for a zoom in pic.
On a totally unrelated topic, headphones. I have an overhead cans that are now 4-5 years old. Music sounds tinny and terrible through them though the noise cancellation still is ok. Thinking to Black Friday, what is the opinion of the musos here… what is better-air pods that look like macaroni in ears 1 st generation (can’t afford 2 gen, sadly). All my music apps are Apple. Or are decent old fashioned cans. which I currently have better? I’m looking for best sound quality, but still want noise cancelling. Please help I’m depending on your input. Bose are out of my price range sadly.
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