Eclectic Perambulations in the Noosphere
"These bugs can sometimes be found by the hundreds on a single milkweed plant. Adults and all levels of instars can be mixed together. The adults, being flying insects, can be quite a sight when airborne - the top of their abdomen is really brilliant orange and shows up nicely when the wings are in use."
See more via cirrusimage.com
by Anna Gordon, National Institute of Agricultural Biology, and Fernan Federici, University of Cambridge
Confocal micrograph of wheat stigma hairs (blue) infected with ergot fungus (light pink). The stigma is the female part of the plant. The plant is fertilised by the (male) pollen grain, which sticks to a stigma hair causing growth of a pollen tube into the plant's ovary, causing an embryonic wheat grain to develop.
"To commemorate the upcoming 21st anniversary of the Hubble Space Telescope’s first day in space, NASA astronomers released this beautiful image of two interacting galaxies in the shape of a rose.
Together, the pair of dancing galaxies are called Arp 273. They lie in the constellation Andromeda, about 300 million light-years from Earth. Though connected by a thin bridge of stars, they’re tens of thousands of light-years from each other.
The larger galaxy, called UGC 1810, is about five times as massive as its smaller companion, UGC 1813. Astronomers think the smaller galaxy plunged straight through the larger: UGC 1810’s inner set of spiral arms is highly warped, a telltale sign of distortion by UGC 1813’s gravitational pull. Meanwhile, UGC 1813 shows an intense burst of star formation in its nucleus, possibly triggered by swan-diving through its neighbor.
The image was captured on Dec. 17, 2010 with three colored filters in Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3. Hubble’s 21st birthday is Sunday, Apr. 24."
This was filmed between 4th and 11th April 2011. I had the pleasure of visiting El Teide.
Spain´s highest mountain @(3718m) is one of the best places in the world to photograph the stars and is also the location of Teide Observatories, considered to be one of the world´s best observatories.
The goal was to capture the beautiful Milky Way galaxy along with one of the most amazing mountains I know El Teide.I have to say this was one of the most exhausting trips I have done. There was a lot of hiking at high altitudes and probably less than 10 hours of sleep in total for the whole week. Having been here 10-11 times before I had a long list of must-see locations I wanted to capture for this movie, but I am still not 100% used to carrying around so much gear required for time-lapse movies.
A large sandstorm hit the Sahara Desert on the 9th April (bit.ly/g3tsDW) and at approx 3am in the night the sandstorm hit me, making it nearly impossible to see the sky with my own eyes.
Interestingly enough my camera was set for a 5 hour sequence of the milky way during this time and I was sure my whole scene was ruined. To my surprise, my camera had managed to capture the sandstorm which was backlit by Grand Canary Island making it look like golden clouds. The Milky Way was shining through the clouds, making the stars sparkle in an interesting way. So if you ever wondered how the Milky Way would look through a Sahara sandstorm, look at 00:32.
Music by my friend: Ludovico Einaudi - "Nuvole bianche"
"I spent a week capturing one of the biggest aurora borealis shows in recent years.
Shot in and around Kirkenes and Pas National Park bordering Russia, at 70 degree north and 30 degrees east. Temperatures around -25 Celsius. Good fun."
Music is Gladiator soundtrack "Now we are free"
