Space Shuttle Rising
"What's that rising from the clouds? The space shuttle. If you looked out the window of an airplane at just the right place and time last week, you could have seen something very unusual -- the space shuttle Endeavour launching to orbit. Images of the rising shuttle and its plume became widely circulated over the web shortly after Endeavour's final launch. The above image was taken from a shuttle training aircraft and is not copyrighted. Taken well above the clouds, the image can be matched with similar images of the same shuttle plume taken below the clouds. Hot glowing gasses expelled by the engines are visible near the rising shuttle, as well as a long smoke plume. A shadow of the plume appears on the cloud deck, indicating the direction of the Sun. The shuttle Endeavour remains docked with the International Space Station and is currently scheduled to return to Earth next week."
via apod.nasa.gov
Daphnia sp. (100X)
by Jose R. Almodovar
"Daphnia are small, planktonic crustaceans, between 0.2 and 5 mm in length. Daphnia are members of the order Cladocera, and are one of the several small aquatic crustaceans commonly called water fleas because of their saltatory swimming style (although fleas are insects and thus only very distantly related). They live in various aquatic environments ranging from acidic swamps to freshwater lakes, ponds, streams and rivers." From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Valles Caldera, New Mexico
"Spanning about 22 kilometers (14 miles), Valles Caldera in New Mexico was formed from the collapse of a magma chamber following ancient volcanic eruptions. The Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus on Landsat 7 satellite captured this natural-color image of the area on May 22, 2002. Plants have colonized parts of the caldera, which is surrounded by a network of valleys. The city of Los Alamos lies to the east."
The Art of Bonsai
"Another famous piece from Walter Pall’s collection is this Sycamore Maple that won the Bonsai Today / Art of Bonsai Photo Contest. Pall was one of the first Europeans to work with indigenous species, which he collects in his beloved Alpine mountain.s He now owns a collection of about 1000 quality trees in varying stages of development and keeps a store reserve of about 1000 handmade pots to compliment the bonsai. Besides his famous conifers he is also well known for his beautiful deciduous trees. Walter’s bonsai usually are strong, powerful trees which he frequently forms in natural shapes. The longer he has been involved with tree development, the more he has moved away from traditional bonsai styling to his own concepts of design."
The Eclipse of Mars Illusion
"See a new color you’ve never seen before!!…Well… at least never before on your monitor. It’s a startling example of how poor the green/cyan element is on TVs and monitors generally. The colour you are about to witness is actually true Cyan … a colour that is heavily diluted on the vast optical illusions 10 majority of monitors (thanks to colour pollution). It’s a pity one needs an optical illusion to demonstrate this, but at least you can see what you’ve been missing ;-) Anyway on with the illusion….
Stare at the white dot in the centre of the red circle. The longer – the better (two minutes and you’ll get a much stronger effect). Always try to keep focused on the white dot. It’ll be worth it.
Soon after staring, you’ll start to see a thin rim of light around the edge. Don’t stop staring though yet! Wait another minute – keeping your head perfectly still.
Once you’ve done this, slowly – move your head backwards – making sure to keep your eyes focused on the dot at all times. The circle’s rim will glow brilliantly with true Cyan! Keep on moving your head slowly backwards, and it’ll glow very hot!…
The blue/cyan colour chart to the right isn’t part of the illusion, but there to demonstrate that the ultra cyan you have just seen is not in the monitor’s color palette! It should be, but isn’t.
It’s an amazing effect."