Curious Thoughts of an Insane Mind

clouds on mars, photographed by mars express, 16th january 2014.

around 43°s 258°e, one the eastern icaria planum. details from a sequence of 5 monochrome images, colourized with a bit of art and a bit of science.

Portraits from Western China (1930s) 

Airglow over the Atacama

One of the several rising steps that climbs to the main cordillera of the Andes through the driest desert on Earth resembles a beach abutting onto a sea of clouds below and provides the backdrop for this gorgeous photo of airglow above the southern skies with our galaxy in the sky above. The ripples are caused by atmospheric waves and produce a completely different pattern to those in the skies above the Tibetan Plateau I shared once before (see http://on.fb.me/1MC62j0).

It’s not just auroras that fill our sky with eerie light. The weaker phenomenon in the photo is called airglow (aka nightglow), and unlike the aurora, which is focussed towards the poles by Earth’s magnetic field, it can be seen from anywhere on Earth with luck and a dark sky or long exposure photo.

It will be most powerful telescope ever built—and Canada helped create it: http://ow.ly/RvsfW

NGC 7049

Ice Climbing in Jasper National Park