Graphic of the Day - Summer Solstice 2019

My First & Only Blue Blood Supermoon

Earlier this morning at a quarter to 3 a.m. I checked out the blue supermoon before it turned red while I slept. I was awakened by my cat or my bladder or something at 4:35 a.m. and went out and rechecked the moon. At that point it was further to the west behind a huge oak tree sans leaves so I could see it perfectly if I stood in the right place. It was in all its blue blood supermoon splendor at that point. I went to bed thinking I'd miss it and was blessed by not missing it at all. My only regret is that I did not have a good camera with which to capture it. The last one of these visible in North America was in 1866 so I'm pretty sure I won't see another one.
*Note: supermoons are when the full moon happens when the moon is at or near its closest orbit to Earth while a blue moon is the second full moon to occur in a given month while a blood moon is when the moon is partially eclipsed enough that it casts a partial shadow upon the earth which makes it appear reddish in the sky. Photo courtesy of USFS (all rights reserved).

Graphic of the Day - Super Blue Blood Moon Eclipse

This graphic leaves out the fact this also a blue moon making it a Super Blue Blood Moon! Blue bloods in space: who knew?!

Lovely Lullaby Lonely

Tonight late I discovered this beautiful example of progressive trance from Russian trance producer Dennis Kenzo featuring Russian singer Svetlana Pisareva a.k.a. Sveta B. As previously stated on this blog, I'm boycotting all things Russian due to the actions of the corrupt regime governing that imprisoned land. However, I make an exception when it comes to electronica. Married to this sumptuous trance track released in 2012 is some amazing footage of our planet captured from the International Space Station in recent years. Crank up your speakers and enjoy! Note: best listened to in the middle of the night such as right now as I compose this post. Enjoy an extended chill-out version of this track posted a couple of days later HERE.

Spring Has Sprung!

Nocturnally Scintillating Noctiluca Scintillans

Somehow this magical 2015 outbreak of the plankton-like bioluminescent Noctiluca scintillans in Hobart, Tasmania in 2015 escaped my attention until I noticed THIS yesterday. It refers to an ongoing (as in March, 2017) outbreak occurring in Preservation Bay, Tasmania. While researching these two blooms, I noticed images of the same thing occurring in Maldives Islands as well. Apparently, the presence of this organism in this quantity can be a bad thing, but boy is it beautiful. I'd love to see a bloom of this organism but will have to settle for red tide along the California coast for now (something I have yet to witness). These images come from both Tasmanian outbreaks mentioned above. 

Photo by Paul Fleming (all rights reserved)

Photo by Dave Reynolds (all rights reserved)

Photo by Helen Wisby (all rights reserved)

Photo by Kev Morse (all rights reserved)

Photo by Lena Wisby (all rights reserved)

Photo by Lena Wisby (all rights reserved)

Photo by Ammonite (all rights reserved)

Photo by Leoni Williams (all rights reserved)

Photo by Leoni Williams (all rights reserved)

Photo by Jo Malcomson (all rights reserved)

Photo by Jonathan Esling (all rights reserved)

Photo credit unknown

Titanic Touchdown

Tonight on Twitter I noticed a tweet linking to this article and read it and watched its accompanying video which is above. I find this otherworldly footage fascinating and wondrous. I'm surprised I missed seeing this before now, but better late than never. In case you're wondering and haven't yet clicked on the link, this is about Saturn's moon Titan.

Happy Solstice Day!

I'm not going to rehash all the details of Christianity creating Christmas to replace Saturnalia and other pagan celebrations around the time of the Winter Solstice and New Year. However, I do wish to remind folks that today being the Winter Solstice made it a big deal to many ancient pagan pre-Christian groups. And, were it not for those elements we would be celebrating Christ's birth later in the Winter when he was actually born. Some of my more legalistic and anal-retentive Christians abhor Christmas for this reason, forgetting that it really doesn't matter when we celebrate Christ's birth provided that we as Christians celebrate His death EVERY day! Given my previously-mentioned issues with S.A.D., I find anything festive that emphasizes LIGHTS this time of year to be a good thing. Furthermore, given this is a relatively cold and dark time of year, any festival which emphasizes celebration of Winter and joy and reinforcement of filial and community bonds through get-togethers and gift-giving is a good thing. In fact, given that God created the Winter Solstice, why don't Christians celebrate that annual astronomical event with as much vigor as any pagans in history?

Now I'm Not As S.A.D.

As some of you may know if you have followed this blog closely enough for long enough, I have a bit of an issue with Seasonal Affective Disorder (S.A.D.). Consequently, this time of year is my least favorite as you might imagine, especially combined with the recently previously mentioned significant family death anniversary dates that happen every year within this general timeframe.

In light of this (pun intended) I noticed night-before-last on the way home from mom's house around dusk that there was longer twilight and sunset had happened minutes later than had been the case for weeks previously. This made made me very happy! Tonight (the last night of Autumn 2016) I did a little research and here are some hard facts:

• Each year in Paso Robles, the earliest sunset time first occurs on November 29th when sunset happens at 4:50 p.m. PST.
• This sunset time remains in place through December 12th each year at Paso Robles, CA. 
• Due to the vicissitudes of astronomical movements and geometry, even after sunset starts coming later in the evening on December 13th, sunrise continues to come later in the morning and that change is greater causing the overall length of day to continue to shorten through December 21st when the Winter Solstice signals a return to ever-lengthening days. 
• Hours of daylight at Paso Robles shorten down to a minimum of time at 9  hours, 45 minutes from December 18th through December 26th. 
• Two nights ago when I first noted this season that the sun was setting later and the twilight was longer, sunset was at 4:52 p.m. PST. It appears I'm so light-sensitive that I detected that two-minute differential. 

Source: http://www.timebie.com/sun/pasoroblesca.php

Supermooning

This morning in the 5 a.m. hour local time, the largest supermoon in 69 years reached fullness. Consequently, when I viewed it last night and tonight it was just before and just after the actual fullness of moon being achieved. Both nights offered up splendid views of the supermoon that was the subject of intense photographic pursuit around the world. Below are my two favorite such images, one from last night and one from last night or tonight both of which I discovered on Twitter.

This image was captured last night by Bill Hunt.
Mr. Hunt tweeted about this image: ".... shot by cell phone through a new @ExplScientific 12-inch Truss Dobsonian."

This image was taken tonight by Kris Smith. It features the International Space Station passing in front of the supermoon.
To me it looks like a Tie Fighter! 

Graphic of the Day - Anthropomorphizing Pluto

I've wanted to share this funny graphic since I saved it last year soon after NASA's New Horizons probe passed by Pluto and snapped many amazing images.

An Aurally Sumptuous Sweet Disposition

After not finding much new amazing electronic music of note for a number of months I have hit a new mother lode.... it is Egyptian progressive house DJ Hazem Beltagui. Here he remixed Australian band Temper Trap's "Sweet Disposition" of which the video of the original track can be viewed HERE. I typically prefer a female voice to any vocals in my electronic dance music, but the falsetto of vocalist Dougi Mandagi can be goose bump-inducing sans remix but in Beltaqui's remix it sounds angelic. For those who foolishly believe all Arabs are Muslims or all Muslims are extremists, and thus cannot contribute anything to the collective civilization of the modern world, all I can say is this Arab DJ's sound is the bomb! He is in my view the most exciting DJ I have heard in quite some time and I will be following him closely. Play this track with the sound turned up and give yourself permission to dance even if you must be alone if you are self-conscious. Also, this kind of music being rather essentially nocturnal is best enjoyed after dark in my opinion. The accompanying breathtaking time-lapse videography is a most effective paring with this track. Enjoy!

Picture of the Day - Equinox 2016 From Space

Enhanced false-color image of yesterday's spring equinox 2016 as viewed from Meteosat-5 in geostationary orbit above Africa and the South Atlantic Ocean. Note equal sun exposure at both poles. For more images of this equinox and one from last December's solstice go HERE. Image courtesy of EUMETSAT (all rights reserved).

Graphic of the Day - Solar Cycles

I'm not sure from when I found this but here it is in all its glory. It shows snapshots of our star from each year from 1996 through last year. Image courtesy unknown.

Graphic of the Day - So Elemental A Table Too

When looking at/thinking about minerals it is important to think about not only the elements which comprise them (or that they are if they are elemental minerals) but also it is important to think about from whence and when those elements originated. Being the visual creature I am given I am a male of my species, I really like this modality of explaining the origins of various types of known elements. In the Nuclear Science class I am currently taking at Cal Poly we have delved into the origins of the various elemental groupings and I have learned things I never knew before which has been exciting. I enjoy having filled any important gaps in my knowledge of how things work and how they came to be. This is the second time that some formulation of the periodic table has appeared in this Graphic of the Day column on my blog with the previous one being HERE. Chart courtesy of NASA's Cmglee (all rights reserved).

Another Come Home

I found "Come Home" by Canadian electronic music artist Nigel Good tonight on Youtube. Both this LTN-remixed progressive house track and its accompanying video are well-worth listening to/watching. DJ LTN is Louis Tan of Indonesia. This is a different "Come Home" track than the one I posted in December, 2014. 

Picture of the Day - This Aurora Is Finnish

This is one of the best images of the Aurora Borealis I have ever seen. It was taken last night in Finland and features not just the usual green light pattern but even some blue and peach coloration in odd patterns. Image courtesy of Antti Pietikäinen (all rights reserved).

Picture of the Day - Full Earth-Rise

This image was cobbled together from a series of images captured October 12, 2015, by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. This HD image composite was released December 18, 2015. For more about it read HERE. This is stunning and really puts a lot of things in perspective. Image courtesy of NASA (all rights reserved).

Graphic of the Day - Celestial Sphere

Artist Pablo Carlos Budassi created this unusual representation of the known universe which he explained this way: “Our Sun and the solar system are at the very center of this image. They are followed by the outer ring of Milky Way Galaxy, one of the two major arms of Milky Way, a ring of other closer galaxies like Andromeda, rest of the cosmos, cosmic microwave background radiation leftover from the big bang, and finally a ring of plasma also generated by the big bang.” Read more about it HERE. To view a more expanded version of this image click HERE and for massively expanded version click on the image in the window accessed via that link. Image courtesy of Pablo Carlos Budassi via Wikipedia (all rights reserved).

Graphic of the Day - So Elemental A Table

This is my favorite presentation of the periodic table which stands to reason given I am very much a visually-oriented creature.
Note: click on the image to zoom in for closer view.