care for a cuppa?

this is an amazing skill that i would practice it i had an appropriate pot!

let's never go back

art by safwat saleem.

pockets of the internets

i dont do this very often, but i've been building up a collection of cool links which dont necessarily warrant entire entries on their own.   so, check out these fun corners of the internet if you have some time to enjoy:

- if you want to know what it's really like to live in australia, check out 26 daily occurrences in australia.  all totally true.  

kangaroo chillin at a pristine beach

- for a fantastic digital representation of time, please visit here is time.  very well done site.

- i havent actually read any of these, but the NY Times recommends these science books.  i've wanted to read quiet by susan cain and the power of habit by charles duhigg for a while.   let me know what you think of any you have read.

- my birthday is on may 26th, in case you needed an idea.   i also really like hand-written notes and postcards!  (thanks, ST ;)

- we all could learn a lesson from this couple on how to let loose and have fun!  also, i chose the second song last weekend for a (too late) evening of karaoke with friends!

- if you've ever wondered why the sky is blue (spoiler: it's not because it reflects the ocean), listen to our titanium physicists podcast on this question and also, what skies on other planets might look like!

- i was wondering why so many people were finding this blog by searching for "space whale."   i think i finally found the answer, but i can't believe it. 

ring of fire timelapse

this wonderful timelaspe of last week's annular eclipse over australia presents a rare sight.   what an opportunity to catch an eclipse at the horizon and capture all the funky atmospheric effects of such an occurrence! 

the smushed sun (and moon) occurs because the light passing through so much of earth's atmosphere gets bent upwards.

Ring of Fire - May 10 2013 Annular Solar Eclipse, Pilbara, Western Australia from Colin Legg on Vimeo.

the video is created from images taken by geoff sims and colin legg.

expedition 35 crew returns from the ISS

three men who have been on the international space station for the last several months, including commander chris "space oddity" hadfield, arrived safely back on earth's surface today via the russian soyuz capsule. 



it's a great vision to watch so many nations work together, people as humans, to make such a reality possible.

space oddity

sadly, commander chris hadfield is leaving the international space station (ISS) and wont be sending down his regular awe-inspiring images for us to enjoy.  see some of his previous posts: space nacho, nuts in space, space rock damage, or towel-wringing in zero-g.

but the guy sure knows how to go out with style.  he made this video, a space station cover of david bowie's space oddity, and i think it's pretty much the most awesome thing in the universe right now:

mars and its robots

planetary astronomer and clever data visualisation enthusiast, alex parker, posted this cute little cartoon of mars on twitter this week with the caption "mars isnt much of a 'sharer'."

it's true, there arent any responsive rovers roaming around other planets or moons, but that doesnt mean mars cant have fun with its robots ;)

annular solar eclipse - on the news!

there was an annular solar eclipse this morning, visible along a thin strip in northern australia.  luckily, most of australia could see the sun partially blocked by the moon, and i went on live TV to talk about the event to ABC reporters!

live on the news, talking about the solar eclipse!  (photo credit: henry lee)

big thanks to henry lee for putting together the above image, which includes a screen shot of the ABC news program and a pinhole camera shot of the partial eclipse in progress.   

after my news spot, i rushed outside with my eclipse glasses to see the event for myself.  here's a shot of the maximum partial eclipse that we could see in sydney. you can see a dark sunspot near the top of the sun!

Credit: Anthony Horton

last night i made a simple pinhole camera to play with today, by poking holes in a postcard.  if on any day you poke a small hole in a piece of paper and project sunlight through the hole onto a surface, you will see a small circular image of the sun.  normally the image of the sun will be circular (because of the shape of the sun, not because of the shape of the hole!), but during an eclipse, while the moon is eating away at some of the sun, the projected image looks like little pacmans.  do you see them? 

so far my favorite photo of the event comes from sydney astronomer and photographer geoff sims, who traveled out to western australia to capture the distorted, squishy sun as it rose just above the horizon, covered by the moon.  

Credit: Geoff Sims

and finally, a peaceful shot of the eclipse over the ocean.

Credit: Stuart Harrington

fun day so far!

find an artist

a quote from avigdor pawsner spotted at this isnt happinesss.