Sunset in Light from Hydrogen

The Sun illuminates the Earth in a full spectrum of light during the day, but at sunset much of the ordinary light is filtered out by the Earth’s atmosphere. This leaves mostly the red wavelength of light which is produced by hydrogen from the Sun. Beautiful sunsets are created by the hydrogen light painting cloudsContinue reading “Sunset in Light from Hydrogen”

Dr. Harter’s Wild Cherry Bitters

We recently visited the Silver Springs and in their display of a old bottles was a short, squatty brown bottle proclaiming ”Dr Harter’s Wild Cherry Bitters. I chuckled in excitement since I have my very own Dr Harter’s bitters bottle. The style of the glass manufacture suggests that they were made before 1910. The museumContinue reading “Dr. Harter’s Wild Cherry Bitters”

Sunbeam and Silhouette

The Sun’s last rays, like fingers clinging to the edge of night, poked between trees and through a window to illuminate bottles and silhouette a wooden dolphin. The middle bottle had witnessed more than a centuries worth of sunsets in the central American plains, while its two companions had seen nearly as many. The dolphinContinue reading “Sunbeam and Silhouette”

Moon, Up Close and Personal

Friends brought their children over last night for a lunar nerdfest and were rewarded with these views of the Moon. The upper image shows a curved mountain range crossing the middle portion. The crater Eratosthenes grazes the range at the middle of the image and to its lower left the magnificent crater Copernicus dominates theContinue reading “Moon, Up Close and Personal”

At the Space Center

The traditional way for astronauts to arrive at the Kennedy Space Center was in a T-38, the world’s first supersonic trainer jet. It also tragically resulted in unexpected changes in astronaut rosters due to accidents, including one where the astronauts Elliot See and Charles Bassett were lost when their T-38 collided with the Vehicle AssemblyContinue reading “At the Space Center”

Rainbows and Showers

Like a blister, the “Bay of Rainbows” (Sinus Iridium) pouches out from the Ocean of Showers (Mare Imbrium) on the Moon. The bay is rimmed by the remains of the semicircular wall of a large crater seen catching the rays of the rising sun in this image. Perhaps this is the rainbow that the cartographerContinue reading “Rainbows and Showers”