The Big Wobble

A Sailing Stone in Death Valley

2012-02-22T14:51:00.001-08:00

Image Credit: Nathan Alexander, Wikipedia Explanation: How did this big rock end up on this strange terrain? One of the more unusual places here on Earth occurs inside Death Valley, California, USA. There a dried lakebed named Racetrack Playa exists that is almost perfectly flat, with the odd exception of some very large stones, one of which is pictured above. Now the flatness and texture of large playa like Racetrack are fascinating but not scientifically puzzling -- they are caused by mud flowing, drying, and cracking after a heavy rain. Only recently, however, has a viable scientific hypothesis been given to explain how 300-kilogram sailing stones ended up near the middle of such a large flat surface. Unfortunately, as frequently happens in science, a seemingly surreal problem ends up having a relatively mundane solution. It turns out that high winds after a rain can push even heavy rocks across a temporarily slick lakebed.

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Moon Boulder's 100 Million-Year-Old Roll

2012-02-16T01:10:00.000-08:00

Could the moon hold more secrets than we previously thought?
Nasa has shared two amazing new photos of what appears to demonstrate strong gravity on the moon.
Two shots of a boulder, and the tracks it left behind on the lunar surface as it took a tumble through the dust around 100 million years ago.
The rock that rolled was found in the Schiller crater, which it tumbled down to its final resting place.
The boulder nine-metres in diameter, is about the length of a mini van, and, to the eye, left the kind of lurching trail you'd expect from a pebble dashed across sand.
Nasa spokesman James Ashley says: "The lonely journey of this large boulder is apparent from its track in a sloping regolith surface. A casual glance might suggest that it happened last week, or even that its rolling might resume at any moment."
Because of the moon has less atmosphere than a Wetherspoons on a Tuesday morning, the surfaced if often pummelled by showers of asteroids, meteoroids and comets which leave marks across the surface.

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A February Moon's Halo

2012-02-11T13:49:00.000-08:00

Image Credit & Copyright: Rafael Schmall

Explanation: Lighting the night last Tuesday, February's Full Moon is sometimes called the Snow Moon. But the Moon was not quite full in this mosaicked skyscape recorded on February 2 south of Budapest, Hungary, and there was no snow either. Still, thin clouds of ice crystals hung in the cold, wintry sky creating this gorgeous lunar halo. Refraction of moonlight by the six-sided crystals produce the slightly colored halo with its characteristic radius of 22 degrees. Just below the Moon is bright star Aldebaran. Also well within the halo at the right is the Pleiades star cluster. At the lower left, near the halo's edge lie the stars of Orion with bright Capella, alpha star of the constellation Auriga, just beyond the halo near the top of the frame.

APOD

Holland ready for the Elfstedentocht!

2012-02-07T13:50:00.000-08:00

I think I posted, just a week ago, something in the line of, "we didn't have a winter this year," since then the temperature has plummeted here in North Holland, we have had temperatures in the last couple of days of around -17C in the evenings. As you can see below the has frozen hard enough to skate on and if the temperature stays under 0 for the coming days Holland will have its first Elfstedentocht since 1997 and the whole country will go crazy. Here is a brief history of the Elfstedentocht.
As early as 1760, there has been mentioning of skaters visiting all eleven cities of Friesland on one day. Therefore, the Elfstedentocht was already part of Frisian tradition, when in 1890, Pim Mulier conceived the idea of an organised tour, which was first held in 1909. After this race, the Vereniging De Friesche Elf Steden (Association of the Eleven Frisian Cities) was established to take care of the organisation.
The winters of 1939/40, 1940/41 and 1941/42 were particularly severewith the race being run in each of these winters. The 1940 race, run three months prior to the entry of The Netherlands to World War II, saw over 3,000 competitors start at 05:00 on 30 January, with the first five finishing at 16:34. The event dominated the front pages of Dutch newspapers.
The Elfstedentocht of 1963 is known as "The hell of '63" when only 1% of the contestants finished the race, due to the extremely low temperatures -18°C and a harsh eastern wind. Conditions were so horrendous that the winner of '63, Reinier Paping, became a national hero, and the tour itself legendary.
After '63, the next Elfstedentocht did not take place until 1985, over 20 years later. Times had changed. In 1963 and before, one of the best methods to stay warm during the tour was to put newspapers underneath the clothes. During the 20 years between the tours of '63 and '85, clothing, training methods and skates became much more advanced, changing the nature of skating forever.
The tour of 1985 was ended prematurely. As early as 22:00 in the evening, skaters were taken off the ice because of thawing. In 1986 the Dutch Crown Prince Willem-Alexander participated in the Elfstedentocht, under the name W.A. van Buren. In January 2010, the Dutch website Sportgeschiedenis.nl [geschiedenis = history] published allegations that since Willem-Alexander had not registered until the day of the race, his entry was irregular.
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A sunken houseboat is seen on the frozen Zwanenburgwal canal in Amsterdam after its water pipes burst

Making use: People skate across frozen canals in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, which have been closed to commercial shipping

People skate on the frozen Prinsengracht canal in Amsterdam, Netherlands

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Winter finally arrives in North Holland

2012-02-03T10:51:00.000-08:00

My palm trees in the back garden take a battering from the snow this morning.......
After several months of warm dry almost spring like weather winter finally arrives in North Holland. Around 10cm of snow was dumped on Alkmaar this morning accompanied with a wicked North Easterly wind bearing down from Siberia.
Europe has been under attack the last few days from a cold front with many deaths reported from East Europe with temperatures there plumeting to around -30deg, not so bad here, North Holland is expected to reach around -10 tonight but with the warm balmy winter we have had so far -10 will feel much colder I think!

Ducks and Swans group around the only part of the water not yet frozen.

I took this picture a few days ago, a 25deg difference in temperature.

Radar shows North Holland can't escape the snow!

Blue Marble Earth from Suomi NPP

2012-01-30T00:15:00.000-08:00

Image Credit: NASA/NOAA/GSFC/Suomi NPP/VIIRS/Norman Kuring Explanation: Behold one of the more detailed images of the Earth yet created. This Blue Marble Earth montage shown above -- created from photographs taken by the Visible/Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instrument on board the new Suomi NPP satellite -- shows many stunning details of our home planet. The Suomi NPP satellite was launched last October and renamed last week after Verner Suomi, commonly deemed the father of satellite meteorology. The composite was created from the data collected during four orbits of the robotic satellite taken earlier this month and digitally projected onto the globe. Many features of North America and the Western Hemisphere are particularly visible on a high resolution version of the image. Previously, several other Blue Marble Earth images have been created, some at even higher resolution.

APOD

Mammatus Clouds Over Olympic Valley

2012-01-28T19:48:00.000-08:00

Credit & License: Matt Saal (Wikipedia) Explanation: What's happened to these clouds? Normal cloud bottoms are flat because moist warm air that rises and cools will condense into water droplets at a very specific temperature, which usually corresponds to a very specific height. After water droplets form that air becomes an opaque cloud. Under some conditions, however, cloud pockets can develop that contain large droplets of water or ice that fall into clear air as they evaporate. Such pockets may occur in turbulent air near a thunderstorm, being seen near the top of an anvil cloud, for example. Resulting mammatus clouds can appear especially dramatic if sunlit from the side. These mammatus clouds were photographed last August over Olympic Valley, California, USA.

APOD

What a differance a year makes

2012-01-25T13:56:00.000-08:00

What a differance a year makes, I came across these old photos from last winter ( the ones with the snow, haha! ) and realized they were taken more or less the same place Patrick had taken the warm looking one's towards the end of summer last year, October/November, so I thought I would re-post them a: because they are beautifull and b: because they show a wonderfull contrast of two seasons here in North Holland.
The last two previous winters in Holland have been extremely cold but this year, at least up till now winter has yet to arrive, it feels almost like spring here!

See more of Patricks wonderful Photo's here

Solar Geomagnetic Proton storms battering Earths defenses now!

2012-01-24T11:53:00.000-08:00

Image Credit & Copyright: Bjørn Jørgensen
Explanation: What's that in the sky? An aurora. A large coronal mass ejection occurred on our Sun five days ago, throwing a cloud of fast moving electrons, protons, and ions toward the Earth. Although most of this cloud passed above the Earth, some of it impacted our Earth's magnetosphere and resulted in spectacular auroras being seen at high northern latitudes. Pictured above is a particularly photogenic auroral corona captured last night above Grotfjord, Norway. To some, this shimmering green glow of recombining atmospheric oxygen might appear as a large eagle, but feel free to share what it looks like to you. This round of solar activity is not yet over -- a new and even more powerful solar flare occurred yesterday that might provide more amazing aurora as soon as tonight.

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M9 Update/Proton Readings Up.

Uploaded by MrCometwatch on 24 Jan 2012

Update
http://www.nasa.gov/mpg/160602main_what_is_a_cme_NASA%20WebV_1.mpg
the links used on this video are @ http://www.mrcometwatch.com

CME IMPACT: As expected, a CME hit Earth's magnetic field on Jan. 24th at approximately 1500 UT (10 am EST). Geomagnetic storms are likely in the hours ahead. If it's dark where you live, go outside and look for auroras.

In Lofoton, Norway, the CME's arrival produced a surge in ground currents outside the laboratory of Rob Stammes:

"The expected CME arrived and showed up on my instruments at 15.10 UTC--a fantastic shockwave followed by a magnetic storm," says Stammes. "This could be a happy day for many aurora watchers." Aurora alerts: text, voice.

Indeed, the first auroras, post-impact, have been sighted in Scandinavia. Ashton Seth Reimer sends this picture from Longyearbyen, Norway:

"All day I was anticipating a beautiful auroral display," says Reimer. "In Longyearbyen, we certainly weren't disappointed. The display lasted for an solid hour before pushing south. I hope the rest of you enjoy the display as much as we did up here."

more images: from Jens Buchmann of Kiruna, Sweden; from Alister Chapman of Karasjok, Norway

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Extraordinary light display of Northern Lights .... in the skies above YORKSHIRE!

2012-01-23T12:54:00.000-08:00

These extraordinary colours filled the sky above Yorkshire last night as the Northern Lights unfolded over the British Isles.

Subtle hues of purple, yellow, orange, and even neon green filled the heavens.

The aurora borealis, normally only visible in the Arctic Circle, reached so far South because of an unusually powerful solar explosion.

The stunning lights are expected to be visible again tomorrow and Wednesday night after a further strong solar storm early today.

The lonely Tan Hill Pub on the Pennine moorland in North Yorkshire is dwarfed as the stunning light show fills the sky above

Two walkers on the moors of the Pennines in County Durham pause to take in the flickering light show

Green glory: Photographer Reed Ingram Weir took this beautiful picture from the A1 near Alnwick, Northumberland

Stargazers in parts of Scotland, Northern Ireland, Ireland and north-east England were able to see the dazzling display.

The Northern Lights have appeared more vividly and are visible over a wider area than normal because of a coronal mass ejection, (CME), a burst of electrically charged particles thrown out by the Sun, which was noticed by astronomers last week.
CMEs send streams of highly charged particles across space to collide with atoms in the upper earth atmosphere. They occur when the confined solar atmosphere suddenly and violently releases bubbles of gas and magnetic fields.
A large CME can contain a billion tons of matter accelerating to several million miles per hour in a spectacular explosion.

The night sky above the A1. Stargazers in Northern Ireland, Ireland and in North East England were also able to see the dazzling display

Stargazers in parts of Scotland, Northern Ireland, Ireland and in North East England were also able to see the dazzling display.[

In spite of light pollution obscuring much of the lower horizons of the night sky, the dramatic glowing mass that is the Milky Way galaxy shines (top left to bottom right) creating a dazzling display in Teesdale, County Durham

Photographer Paul Kingston captured the breath-taking sight over the Tan Hill Inn in the Pennines on Sunday evening.
He said: 'To the naked eye it was so subtle, that at first I didn’t realise exactly what I was seeing - but a long exposure in the camera made it suddenly jump out at me, and then, as my eyes became more and more attuned I could see it flickering across the sky more and more clearly - a fantastic sight and one I have never seen, or expected to see in this part of the country.'
Peter Richardson, 49, a bar man at the Tan Hill pub said: 'It was very surreal. We are used to seeing spectacular sunsets and sunrises in this part of the country, so I didn’t know what to expect when I heard we could see the Northern Lights.

'There was a gentle array of colours, mainly oranges and greens.

'It was nice to see, very pretty. Two girls that work at the pub came out too and they were really impressed, they were absolutely blown away.

'Part of me was thinking it’s very spiritual and existential, but part of me was thinking it’s freezing!

'You could see the colours were shifting in the skies, it was great as a piece of living theatre.

'The pictures look absolutely stunning, it was a lot more visible on the photos than to the naked eye.'

Walkers on the moors of the Pennines in County Durham also paused to take in the flickering light show that filled the sky above them.

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Saturn's Hexagon Comes to Light

2012-01-22T01:08:00.000-08:00

Image Credit: Cassini Imaging Team, SSI, JPL, ESA, NASA
Explanation: Believe it or not, this is the North Pole of Saturn. It is unclear how an unusual hexagonal cloud system that surrounds Saturn's north pole was created, keeps its shape, or how long it will last. Originally discovered during the Voyager flybys of Saturn in the 1980s, nobody has ever seen anything like it elsewhere in the Solar System. Although its infrared glow was visible previously to the Cassini spacecraft now orbiting Saturn, in 2009 the mysterious hexagonal vortex became fully illuminated by sunlight for the first time during the Cassini's visit. Since then, Cassini has imaged the rotating hexagon in visible light enough times to create a time-lapse movie. The pole center was not well imaged and has been excluded. This movie shows many unexpected cloud motions, such as waves emanating from the corners of the hexagon. Planetary scientists are sure to continue to study this most unusual cloud formation for quite some time.

Help APOD: Take a short survey and get a prize.

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Europe and US Be Aware - Winter Is Returning. A look back at the warmest autumn and winter (so far ) on record

2012-01-12T12:54:00.000-08:00

I have heard on the grapevine our extremely warm autumn and very mild winter will be over this weekend replacing early blooming Daffodils, Snowdrops, Dandelions and birdsong with a cold Arctic blast and probably snow fall, so I thought I would post a few pictures of just how beautiful it was here in North Holland.

Europe and US Be Aware - Winter Is Returning.

Click on image to enlarge

The wonderful windmills are literally a stone throw from my house

The autumn was so warm the leaves were still on the trees well into November.

Egmond Aan Zee

Finally I took this picture towards the end of October, unbelievable temperatures!

See more of Patricks wonderful Photo's here

Shuttle Plume Shadow Points to the Moon

2011-11-27T01:10:00.000-08:00

Image Credit: Pat McCracken, NASA Explanation: Why would the shadow of a space shuttle launch plume point toward the Moon? In early 2001 during a launch of Atlantis, the Sun, Earth, Moon, and rocket were all properly aligned for this photogenic coincidence. First, for the space shuttle's plume to cast a long shadow, the time of day must be either near sunrise or sunset. Only then will the shadow be its longest and extend all the way to the horizon. Finally, during a Full Moon, the Sun and Moon are on opposite sides of the sky. Just after sunset, for example, the Sun is slightly below the horizon, and, in the other direction, the Moon is slightly above the horizon. Therefore, as Atlantis blasted off, just after sunset, its shadow projected away from the Sun toward the opposite horizon, where the Full Moon just happened to be.

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LARGE ORB or SPHERE NEAR SUN Spencer Butte, Eugene, Oregon October 22, 2011

2011-10-24T00:29:00.000-07:00

SUBJECT: Large Orb Or Sphere Photographed Near Sun
DATE: October 22, 2011
LOCATION: Spencer Butte, Eugene, Oregon
EQUIPMENT: Nikon D3000 DSLR With Nikon 55mm-200mm Zoom Lens Mounted ToTripod With Fluid Head

My first response was "LENS FLAIR", but please note, lens flair does not cast shadows or produce shadows. It appears that the large anomanly has a shadow and is in motion in relation to the SUN and the horizon.
Also, additional OBJECTS appear in almost each frame.
The beginning of this video clip is paced to analyze any motion and or differences.
Each frame thereafter is presented at a slower pace for careful analysis.
Windows Movie Maker was used to create this still-shot video.
I find that Windows Movie Maker allows for the large JPEG produced by the Nikon D3000 much easier than an older version of Premere 6.0.2.
No cropping of the original JPEGS!
Formerly, I would have used Photoshop 7.0.1 for any JPEG editing chores.
SEE the ORIGINALS HERE WITH TIMESTAMPS in the PROPERTIES:
http://www.thomhartmann.com/users/eddieondrums/blog/2011/10/higher-coordinati...

A Triple Sunrise Over Gdansk Bay

2011-10-23T12:23:00.000-07:00

Explanation: How can the same Sun rise three times? Last month on Friday, 2009 July 10, a spectacular triple sunrise was photographed at about 4:30 am over Gdansk Bay in Gdansk, Poland. Clearly, our Sun rises only once. Some optical effect is creating at least two mirages of the Sun -- but which effect? In the vast majority of similarly reported cases, mirages of the brightest object in the frame can be traced to reflections internal to the camera taking the images. Still, the above image is intriguing because a sincere photographer claims the effect was visible to the unaided eye, and because the photographer took several other frames that show variants of the same effect. Therefore, polite readers are invited to debate whether the above image captures a particularly spectacular example of common reflections inside a standard digital camera, shows one of the most spectacular examples of atmospheric lensing yet recorded, or was caused by something completely different. If the discussion converges, the consensus will be posted here at a later date.
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A Strange Sunrise Over Argentina

2011-10-10T03:47:00.000-07:00

Image Credit & Copyright: Luis Argerich
Explanation: Why would a rising Sun look so strange? No one is yet sure. What is clear is that the above unusual sunrise was captured last month from Buenos Aires, Argentina. The body of water in the foreground is Rio de La Plata, considered by many to be the widest river in the world. Although the above image is actually a combination of a normal and a very short exposure needed to avoid oversaturating the bright Sun, the photographer saw this unusual structure with his own eyes, indicating that this effect was caused by neither reflections nor distortions in the camera or lens. What looks like arms on this monster illusion might actually be, for example, low level clouds just thick enough to scatter sunlight without completely blocking the Sun. Additionally, the distortion visible on the lower part of the Sun's image might indicate a Etruscan Vase or Fata Morgana mirage possibly created by a curious refracting layer of air over the water. Unusual atmospheric phenomena are frequently thrilling to see personally, and although most can be traced to well known phenomena, others, for lack of more data, remain mysterious.

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The beginning of sorrows: Take heed that no man deceive you.

2011-10-07T12:00:00.000-07:00

But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.

THE FINAL CAMPAIGN The rivalry between the king of the north and the king of the south whether by military, economic, or other means—is nearing its end. Revealing the details of a conflict yet to come, Jehovah’s angel said: “There will be reports that will disturb him [the king of the north],
out of the sunrising and out of the north, and he will certainly go forth in a great rage in order to annihilate and to devote many to destruction. And he will plant his palatial tents between the grand sea and the holy mountain of Decoration; and he will have to come all the way to his end, and there will be no helper for him.”—Daniel 11:44, 45.
The Book Of Daniel and You

Matthew 24

King James Version (KJV)

Matthew 24

¹And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple: and his disciples came to him for to shew him the buildings of the temple.
²And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.
³And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?
⁴And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you.
⁵For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.
⁶And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.
⁷For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
⁸All these are the beginning of sorrows.
⁹Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake.
¹⁰And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another.
¹¹And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.
¹²And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.
¹³But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.
¹⁴And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.
¹⁵When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:)
¹⁶Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains:
¹⁷Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house:
¹⁸Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes.
¹⁹And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days!
²⁰But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day:
²¹For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.
²²And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened.
²³Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not.
²⁴For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.
²⁵Behold, I have told you before.
²⁶Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not.
²⁷For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
²⁸For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together.
²⁹Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:
³⁰And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
³¹And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
³²Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh:
³³So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.
³⁴Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.
³⁵Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.
³⁶But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.
³⁷But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
³⁸For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark,
³⁹And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
⁴⁰Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
⁴¹Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
⁴²Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.
⁴³But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up.
⁴⁴Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.
⁴⁵Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season?
⁴⁶Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing.
⁴⁷Verily I say unto you, That he shall make him ruler over all his goods.
⁴⁸But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming;
⁴⁹And shall begin to smite his fellowservants, and to eat and drink with the drunken;
⁵⁰The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of,
⁵¹And shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Bill Bainton: "Nibiru, do only I notice?"

2011-10-05T05:04:00.000-07:00

I received these three photo's from a gentleman called Bill Bainton, no message was attached except "Nibiru, do only I notice?" and a link to a Website National Weather Service, Alaska Regi...
Can anyone out there explain?

Unprecedented warm front has Holland in the grip of tropical weather, SOLAR ACTIVITY?

2011-09-28T13:49:00.000-07:00

Alkmaar, North Holland, an unprecedented warm front has Holland in the grip of tropical weather at the end of September all the way through to next week, begining of October. The temperature gage hit 28deg today warmer than many parts of Spain, Italy and Greece.
Although the weather over the last few days has been wonderful it is highly unusual, in fact September 2006 was the warmest September on record but on the 28th of that year the gage only hit 20deg.
I believe this tropical front is something to do with the powerful sunspots seen on our Sun, I have checked the Web for other stories and managed to find this which would suggest this unusual weather is global, at least the Northern Hemisphere!
I remember when I was a kid, living in Leeds UK, my neighbor had a telescope and whenever we had beautiful weather, which wasn't often, he would set up the telescope outside his front door and show me the Sun and the little black dots which he said was the cause of the wonderful weather, the little black dots of course where sunspots, since then I have grown up believing sunspots are responsible for wonderful weather, at least up here in The North!

Massive SunSpot AR1302 visible without solar telescope!

2011-09-28T01:11:00.000-07:00

Click on image to enlarge

BIG SUNSPOT: The source of the CME that hit Earth on Sept. 26th is sunspot AR1302. Measuring more than 150,000 km from end to end, the sprawling active region is visible even without a solar telescope. Here it is among the seagulls at sunset on Sept. 27th:

Damien Vens took the picture from the beach in Koksijde, Belgium. "I used an off-the-shelf Nikon D7000 digital camera," he says. "The sunspot was an easy target." (Note to photographers: Never look at the sun through unfiltered optics such as camera viewfinders; even a low-hanging sun can be blindingly bright.)

AR1302 has quieted down since unleashing dual X-flares on Sept. 22nd and 24th. Nevertheless, NOAA forecasters estimate a 25% chance of more X-flares during the next 24 hours. Any such eruptions would be Earth-directed as the sunspot crosses the center of the solar disk. Solar flare alerts: text, voice.

more images: from James W. Young of Seaside, Oregon; from Andy Devey of Barnsley South Yorkshire; from J. Stetson and students in Hinckley, Maine; from Ali Norouzi of Karaj, Iran; from Theo Ramakers of Social Circle, GA; from Stefano Sello of Pisa, Italy; from Phil Greaves of Sydney Australia; from Stefan Plach of Stadt Wehlen, Saxony, Germany;

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A Pileus Iridescent Cloud Over Ethiopia

2011-08-24T04:00:00.000-07:00

Image Credit & Copyright: Esther Havens (Light the World) Explanation: Yes, but how many dark clouds have a multicolored lining? Pictured, behind this darker cloud, is a pileus iridescent cloud, a group of water droplets that have a uniformly similar size and so together diffract different colors of sunlight by different amounts. The above image was taken just after the picturesque sight was noticed by chance by a photographer in Ethiopia. A more detailed picture of the same cloud shows not only many colors, but unusual dark and wavy bands whose origins are thought related to wave disturbances in the cloud.

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Mysterious shadow looms over large volcano

2011-07-06T09:06:00.000-07:00

ORIGINAL CAPTION: Why does the shadow of this volcano look like a triangle? The Mount Teide volcano itself does not have the strictly pyramidal shape that its geometric shadow might suggest. The triangle shadow phenomena is not unique to the Mt. Teide, though, and is commonly seen from the tops of other large mountains and volcanoes. A key reason for the strange dark shape is that the observer is looking down the long corridor of a sunset (or sunrise) shadow that extends to the horizon. Even if the huge volcano was a perfect cube and the resulting shadow was a long rectangular box, that box would appear to taper off at its top as its shadow extended far into the distance, just as parallel train tracks do. The above spectacular image shows Pico Viejo crater in the foreground, located on Tenerife in the Canary Islands of Spain. The nearly full moon is seen nearby shortly after its total lunar eclipse last month. (Credit & Copyright: Juan Carlos Casado)
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Eclipsed Moonlight

2011-06-21T13:03:00.000-07:00

Click on image to enlarge
Image Credit & Copyright: Javier Algarra Explanation: A celestial prelude to today's solstice, the June 15 total lunar eclipse was one of the longest in recent years. It was also one of the darkest, but not completely dark. Even during totality, a somber, red lunar disk could be seen in the starry night sky, reflecting reddened light falling on to its surface. Seen from a lunar perspective, the ruddy illumination is from all the sunsets and sunrises around the edges of a silhouetted Earth. In this sharp portrait of the eclipsed Moon from Granada, Spain, the Moon's edge reflects a bluish tinge as well as it emerges from Earth's umbral shadow. The bluer light is still filtered through Earth's atmosphere, but originates in rays of sunlight passing through layers high in the upper stratosphere. That light is colored by ozone that absorbs red light and transmits bluer hues.
Source

Amazing rare Sun Halo above my garden

2011-06-13T01:18:00.000-07:00

A lazy Sunday afternoon in North Holland, I'm laying on the sun lounger nursing a cold beer listening to a Tennis game on the radio, I open my eyes and look up and to my surprise a wonderful Sun Halo.

I have seen many pictures of this rare phenomenon on the Internet but I have never seen one live, it's the second time this week I have witnessed rare phenomenon above Alkmaar, on Friday I was lucky enough to film a very rare roll cloud Videos here

Rare roll cloud over Alkmaar, Holland

2011-06-11T07:19:00.000-07:00

I was lucky enough to observe a rare and wonderful phenomenon today, a roll cloud over Alkmaar, I have only ever seen pictures of these on the Internet or read about them.

I took a couple of films, sorry about the quality, YouTube doesn't do it justice.

These clouds where actually unheard of until recently , you can't see in the film but it seemed to go on for miles and miles, one long tube, stretching into the horizon!

Videos and pictures here

Redwoods: The Tallest Trees

2011-05-19T13:00:00.000-07:00

Photographer Nick Nichols spent a year planning the nearly impossible: a top-to-bottom photograph of a 300-foot-tall redwood tree, now the centerpiece of the October issue of National Geographic Magazine.

More 'ORB' activity above the Turrialba Volcano, Costa Rica

2011-05-14T10:39:00.000-07:00

More 'ORB' activity above the Turrialba Volcano in Costa Rica, it is incredible just how much unknown phenominan is being reported from volcanoe's around the world at this moment!

Visit Trisagio's photos Here

Another orb above the Turrialba - volcano in Costa Rica, from Trisagio

2011-05-05T13:53:00.000-07:00

A wonderful picture of an orb filmed above the Turrialba - volcano in Costa Rica, if you are a regular visitor to The Big Wobble you will know Trisagio has been sending these fascinating photos for many months now, all the the active volcanoes are showing strange phenomena, UFO activity which the MSM appear to be ignoring, even the the evidence is overwelming.
Trisagio's photos

Unbelievable beautiful! Holland in bloom, wonderful pictures........

2011-04-24T10:58:00.000-07:00

Every year around the middle of April Holland bursts into colour with Tulips and other flowers, this year is no exception, at the moment Holland is the warmest country in Europe, so this morning I jumped out of bed early, drove up the coast and took these unbelievable photo's.

Unprecedented warm and dry spring weather in Holland

2011-04-22T13:11:00.000-07:00

Holland was officially the warmest country in Europe this week, beating Spain, Greece and Italy, we had similar tempeatures to Texas, around 26/27deg
However March and April have been particulary dry causing concern for bush fires and in the Bergen area where I live we have already had a large bush fire, nothing like Texas I admit!
With the busy solar activity I am expecting a very warm summer this year, hopefully as good as 2005 when the warm weather lasted well into November, we live and hope!

Goat takes a chill pill!

2011-04-16T14:46:00.001-07:00

Away from the "DOOM" signs of spring are everywhere in the Northern Hemisphere. I took this picture of a Goat taking a chance to cool off in an oil drum on Friday.
As you can see he is feeling pretty good with himself!

STEADY SKIES OVER JAPAN: More Orbs?

2011-04-08T00:15:00.000-07:00

With all the "ORB" activity filmed recently above Japan this picture is extremely interesting.
I found this picture on Spaceweather today it's a beautiful picture of the Moon taken before the quake yesterday but what I can't understand is Spaceweather or the photographer don't mention the bright light caught streaking across the sky?

Only a few hours before a new and powerful earthquake shook Japan on April 7th, amateur astronomer Mitsuo Muraoka of Hatoyama, Saitama, photographed a conjunction of the crescent Moon and the Pleiades:

MITSUO MURAOKA

Image taken:

Apr. 7, 2011

Location:

Hatoyama,Saitama,Japan

Details:

I took this picture,conjunction of the moon and M45 19:25 p.m. on Apr.7th.2011. Source

View from the street, which always catches our attention.

2011-04-02T14:58:00.000-07:00

For years many have passed this house and marveled at the floral display at 3725 No. Vassault St. in Tacoma . Last year there was no display and we had wondered if the Asian man who owns this house was ill. This year the display was back in force and we stopped this past Sunday to photograph it. We went up to the owner and told him how much we had enjoyed his garden all these years and he invited us to tour his creation. We found the backyard to be as beautiful as the front. He is Vietnamese, shy, very soft spoken, and speaks very little English, so we couldn't discuss too much with him about the garden.

Here is the master gardener! I wish we could have communicated.

MESSENGER at Mercury : Big blast?

2011-03-31T13:44:00.000-07:00

Click on image to enlarge Credit: NASA/JHU APL/CIW Explanation: On March 17, the MESSENGER spacecraft became the first to orbit Mercury, the solar system's innermost planet. This is its first processed color image since entering Mercury orbit. Larger, denser, and with almost twice the surface gravity of Earth's moon, Mercury still looks moon-like at first glance. But in this view its terrain shows light blue and brown areas near craters and long bright rays of material streaking the surface. The prominent bright ray crater Debussy at the upper right is 80 kilometers (50 miles) in diameter. Terrain toward the bottom of the historic image extends to Mercury's south pole and includes a region not previously imaged from space.

Note: Ask yourself, is the big blast from a comet? Then why is a small mountain in the middle?
Source

More crazy Dutch Gardens, an assortment of German WWII Concrete Bomb Bunkers

2011-03-25T14:04:00.000-07:00

Well this is not a garden but a farmers field, just outside the pretty seaside town of Egmond Aan Zee a whole village of German WWII bomb bunkers, strategically I have no idea why they are here except maybe to defend troops against English and American Bombers, or maybe they where built for a defense against an English invasion?
See more links to crazy Dutch Gardens below

More Crazy Dutch Gardens

A Russian Fighter Jet A Naked Lady On A Rocket Some Busses And Trains!
Unhappy Dutch guy builds Kremlin in his back yard.
How not to build a wind-turbine

Another crazy garden in Holland please don't ask me to explain

Spring arrives in North Holland

2011-03-25T13:34:00.000-07:00

Last weekend spring officially arrived in North Holland but to be honest we have had beautiful weather for the last two weeks, the tulip fields will once again be in full bloom soon. I took this picture with my cell phone today in Egmond Aan Zee, a traditional Holland post card.

Boston Moonrise

2011-03-24T08:07:00.000-07:00

Click on image to enlarge
Image Credit & Copyright: Dennis Di Cicco (TWAN) Explanation: Last week's Full Moon was hard to miss. Rising on March 19, its exact full phase occurred within an hour of perigee, the closest point in the Moon's orbit to Earth. As a result it appeared some 14 percent larger and 30 percent brighter than a Full Moon near apogee, the most distant point in the elliptical lunar orbit. Seen here, the near perigee Full Moon still hugs the horizon, distorted by atmospheric refraction night skyscape was shot from Prospect Hill in Waltham, Massachusetts, roughly 10 miles from the Boston skyline. Just to the left of the orange lunar disk is the distinctive control tower at Boston's Logan International Airport. Topped by lights, the tall, twin towers of the cable-stayed Zakim Bridge spanning the Charles River are also included in the scene. If you managed to miss this perigee Full Moon, make a note on your calendar. Your next chance to see the Moon this large and bright, this time at full phase within only a few minutes of lunar perigee, will be next year on May 6. as it rises over Boston, Massachusetts, USA. The telescopic
source

SQUARE SUPER MOON

2011-03-23T01:07:00.000-07:00

Like so many other people around the world, James Helmet of Alaska went outside on the evening of March 19th to watch the super perigee Moon rise in the east. "Imagine my surprise," he says, "when I saw that it was almost square." He took this picture from the Colville River Delta on Alaska's north slope:

Atmospheric optics expert Les Cowley explains what happened: "This is a very strong mirage produced by rays bent while crossing intense vertical temperature gradients between a layer of cold air beneath warmer air. The lunar disk details are vertically stretched, suggesting that the mirage is part of a fabled Fata Morgana. If we could see distant mountains they would likely be distorted into fantastical vertically elongated shapes resembling castles and tall spires. The high Arctic is famous for these mirages."

more super moonshots: from Peter Rosén of Central Stockholm, Sweden; from Göran Strand of Rörvattnet, Sweden; from Ron Wayman of Tampa Florida; from Guillaume Cannat of Palavas-les-Flots, France; from Rory Glasgow of Huntsville, Texas; from Phil Harrington of Fire Island, New York; from Megan O'Leary of East Sandwich, MA; from Zakaria Hamdi of Djedeida, Debila, Eloued, Algeria; from P-M Hedén of Vallentuna, Sweden; from Jacob Kuiper of Steenwijk, The Netherlands; from Bader Eddine Hamdi of Djedeida, Debila, Eloued, Algeria; from Kendall Gelner of Denver, Colorado; from Miguel Claro of Cabo Espichel, Sesimbra, Portugal.

Source

Super Moon was just super!

2011-03-20T00:34:00.000-07:00

No Earthquakes, No Tsunamis, No Windstorms just Beauty!Parthenon Moon
Image Credit & Copyright: Anthony Ayiomamitis (TWAN) Explanation: Did you see the Full Moon last night? Near the horizon, the lunar orb may have seemed to loom large, swollen in appearance by the famous Moon illusion. But the Full Moon really was a large Full Moon last night, reaching its exact full phase within an hour of lunar perigee, the point in the Moon's elliptical orbit closest to planet Earth. A similar near perigee Full Moon last occured on December 12, 2008. The difference in the Moon's apparent size as it moves from perigee to apogee, its farthest point from Earth, is about 14 percent. Of course, a nearly Full Moon will rise again tonight, lighting the skies on the date of the Equinox or equal night. The Full Moon also looms large in this well-planned, telescopic lunar portrait. Captured earlier this year, the rising lunar orb is dramatically matched to the 2,500 year old Parthenon, in Athens, Greece.
APOD

SUPER FULL MOON: The super full Moon of March 19th was the biggest and closest full Moon of the past 18 years. It might also be the most photographed full Moon--ever. Photographers around the world lined up to take pictures like this:

"I've been planning this shot for a long time," says Paco Bellido of Cordoba, Spain. "Using Google Earth, I calculated the best place to set up my camera; then I followed my GPS to the spot. I waited for the Super Moon to rise and--voilá!--there it was behind Espejo's Castle."

Spaceweather.com has been inundated by fine pictures like Bellido's. Browse the links for selected moonshots: from Peter Scott of Joss Bay, Kent, England; from Amirreza Kamkar of Qayen, Khorasan, Iran; from Andrew Greenwood of Kerridge Ridge, England; from Stephan Heinsius of Bad Soden, Germany; from Azhy Hasan of Arbil city, Kurdistan, Iraq; from Daisuke Tomiyasu of Higashinada, Kobe, Japan; from Marek Nikodem of Szubin, Poland; from Jan Koeman of Neeltje Jans, the Netherlands; from Ole Ambrosiussen of Hørbylunde bakke, Silkeborg, Denmark; from Fredrik Broms of Kvaløya, Norway; from Francisco Diego of London, England; from Jens Hackmann of Weikersheim, Germany; from Mahdi Zamani of Tehran, Iran; from Marco Langbroek of Leiden, the Netherlands; from Gregory Scheckler of North Adams, Massachusetts; from Miguel Claro of Cabo Espichel, Sesimbra, Portugal; from Peter Rosén from Kevin Palmer of Lindenhurst, Illinois; from Jonathan Sabin of St. Petersburg, Florida; from Bryan Hansel of Grand Marais, Minnesot of Central Stockholm, Sweden;

Spaceweather

Mercury and Jupiter at Sunset

2011-03-18T00:42:00.000-07:00

Image Credit & Copyright: Göran Strand Explanation: When warm sunset hues begin to fade, two celestial beacons now shine in the evening twilight, Mercury and Jupiter. Wandering away from the Sun in planet Earth's sky, Mercury will offer good views this month as spring approaches in the northern hemisphere where the ecliptic plane makes a steep angle with the western horizon. But Jupiter will continue sinking lower in the sky after sunset. In fact, the normally elusive Mercury shines well above Jupiter and the orange sunset glow in this serene sky. Captured earlier this week from the island of of Frösön in northern Sweden, the scene looks across Lake Storsjön toward the village of Hallen and distant mountains. Of course, even better views of Mercury can be had by the MESSENGER spacecraft, now orbiting the Solar System's innermost planet!
APOD

Iapetus, Constructed or natural?

2011-03-17T13:37:00.000-07:00

Click on picture for larger image!

Alien Monolith Found on Saturn's Moon Iapetus?
posted by Hybrid

In the deep reaches of our solar system, orbiting the planet Saturn - exists a moon with a most interesting feature.
The moon is Iapetus.
This planetary body that defies what we know about moons & planets. Recent images sent from NASA's Cassini probe have revealed a gigantic equilateral "ridge" circling the equator. The epic proportions of the ridge are not seen anywhere else in the universe.
The magnitude of this 20 KM high equilateral ridge is almost beyond comprehension. In photographs taken of Iapetus you can clearly see the ridge, visible from space. These are not your "wall of China" proportions.
Read more

Click on picture for a larger image.

NASA's Cassini spacecraft continues its amazing journey around Saturn and its moons by stretching the imagination of scientists who are analyzing new photos taken from orbit around the ringed planet.

From Cassini's recent journey to the moon Iapetus, scientists uncovered a strange "runaway" process where vaporized water ice is moving from the dark areas to the white areas of the moon. But where did that dark stuff come from?

I often think when I see photo's of this moon, if you tapped it with a hammer, would you hear a metallic sound, it certainly looks metallic!

The ridge you see below is more than twice as high as Everest and over 60 miles long, in nature you don't get 60 mile strait lines.

For more info on this strange moon and much much more click here

Strange Mars anomaly photographed by Phoenix Lander

2011-03-13T03:31:00.000-07:00

A Mars Panorama from the Phoenix Lander

Credit: Phoenix Mission Team, NASA, JPL-Caltech, U. Arizona

The anomaly doesn't even show up on this image, click on photo to enlarge and you can clearly see something "STRANGE" on the horizon!

Explanation: If you could stand on Mars, what would you see? The robotic Phoenix spacecraft that landed on Mars in 2008 recorded the above spectacular panorama. The above image is actually a digital combination of over 100 camera pointings and surveys fully 360 degrees around the busy robotic laboratory. Scrolling right will reveal the rest of the panoramic image. Visible in the image foreground are circular solar panels, various Phoenix instruments, rust colored rocks, a trench dug by Phoenix to probe Mars' chemical composition, a vast plateau of dirt and dirt-covered ice, and, far in the distance, the dust colored atmosphere of Mars. Phoenix landed in the far north of Mars and has used its sophisticated laboratory to search for signs that past life might have been possible. Soil analyses have confirmed the presence of ice and gave unexpected indications of perchlorate salts. Whether Martian life could have evolved around such perchlorates is an ongoing topic of research.

Problem enlarging, click here

The yin and yang of the ocean.

2011-03-02T11:05:00.000-08:00

In oceanography, a halocline is cline caused by a strong, vertical salinity gradient within a body of water. Because salinity (in concert with temperature) affects the density of seawater, it can play a role in its vertical stratification. Increasing salinity by one kg/m³ results in an increase of seawater density of around 0.7 kg/m³.
In the midlatitudes, an excess of evaporation over precipitation leads to surface waters being saltier than deep waters. In such regions, the vertical stratification is due to surface waters being warmer than deep waters and the halocline is destabilizing. Such regions may be prone to salt fingering, a process which results in the preferential mixing of salinity.
In certain high latitude regions (such as the Arctic Ocean, Bering Sea, and the Southern Ocean) the surface waters are actually colder than the deep waters and the halocline is responsible for maintaining water column stability- isolating the surface waters from the deep waters. In these regions, the halocline is important in allowing for the formation of sea ice, and limiting the escape of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. Haloclines are also found in fjords, and poorly mixed estuaries where fresh water is deposited at the ocean surface.
In the plot on the right, one can discern three layers:

About 50 m of low salinity water "swimming" on top of the ocean. The temperature is -1.8 °C, which is very near to the freezing point. This layer blocks heat transfer from the warmer, deeper levels into the ice sheet, which has considerable effect on its thickness.
About 150 m of steeply rising salinity and increasing temperature. This is the actual halocline.
The deep layer with nearly constant salinity and slowly decreasing temperature.

A halocline can be easily created and observed in a drinking glass or other clear vessel. If fresh water is slowly poured over a quantity of salt water, using a spoon held horizontally at water-level to prevent mixing, a hazy interface layer, the halocline, will soon be visible due to the varying index of refraction across the boundary.
A halocline is most commonly confused with a thermocline - a thermocline is an area within a body of water that marks a drastic change in temperature.
Haloclines are common in water-filled caves near the ocean. Less dense fresh water from the land forms a layer over salt water from the ocean. Underwater cave explorers passing through the halocline stir up the layers.
More here

Red Snow Moon Over Edmonton

2011-02-28T01:23:00.000-08:00

Credit & Copyright: Luca Vanzella Explanation: What's hovering between those buildings? The Moon. The above image was taken two weeks ago as the full Snow Moon started to rise above Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. The odd coincidence between the angular size of the far distant Moon and the angular width of nearby buildings created a striking juxtaposition. Backing away from the buildings so to reduce their angular size was a key to planning the image. The temperature was so low, -25 C, that plumes of steam rose from neighboring oil refineries. The above image was taken during a momentary break in the plumes. The rising Moon appears red here for the same reason that a setting Sun appears red -- because blue light is preferentially scattered away by intervening air. In this case, the shimmering steam plumes likely also caused the Moon to appear slightly compressed. The next full moon, the full Worm Moon, will occur in mid-March.

Professional Astronomers: Browse the Astrophysics Source Code Library

Mammatus Clouds Over Olympic Valley

2011-02-20T01:19:00.000-08:00

Credit & License: Matt Saal (Wikipedia)

Explanation: What's happened to these clouds? Normal cloud bottoms are flat because moist warm air that rises and cools will condense into water droplets at a very specific temperature, which usually corresponds to a very specific height. After water droplets form that air becomes an opaque cloud. Under some conditions, however, cloud pockets can develop that contain large droplets of water or ice that fall into clear air as they evaporate. Such pockets may occur in turbulent air near a thunderstorm, being seen near the top of an anvil cloud, for example. Resulting mammatus clouds can appear especially dramatic if sunlit from the side. These mammatus clouds were photographed last August over Olympic Valley, California, USA.

X-Class Flare

2011-02-17T01:29:00.000-08:00

Credit: NASA / Goddard / SDO AIA Team Explanation: On Valentine's Day (ET) the Sun unleased one of its most powerful explosions, an X-class flare. The blast was the largest so far in the new solar cycle. Erupting from active region AR1158 in the Sun's southern hemisphere, the flare is captured here in this extreme ultraviolet image from the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). The intense burst of electromagnetic radiation momentarily overwhelmed pixels in SDO's detectors causing the bright vertical blemish. This X-class flare was also accompanied by a coronal mass ejection (CME), a massive cloud of charged particles traveling outward at nearly 900 kilometers per second. Skywatchers at high latitudes should be alert for aurorae tonight.

Source

A Triple Sunrise Over Gdansk Bay

2011-02-12T03:52:00.000-08:00

Credit & Copyright: Barry & Noemi Diacon (McMaster U.) Explanation: How can the same Sun rise three times? Last month on Friday, 2009 July 10, a spectacular triple sunrise was photographed at about 4:30 am over Gdansk Bay in Gdansk, Poland. Clearly, our Sun rises only once. Some optical effect is creating at least two mirages of the Sun -- but which effect? In the vast majority of similarly reported cases, mirages of the brightest object in the frame can be traced to reflections internal to the camera taking the images. Still, the above image is intriguing because a sincere photographer claims the effect was visible to the unaided eye, and because the photographer took several other frames that show variants of the same effect. Therefore, polite readers are invited to debate whether the above image captures a particularly spectacular example of common reflections inside a standard digital camera, shows one of the most spectacular examples of atmospheric lensing yet recorded, or was caused by something completely different. If the discussion converges, the consensus will be posted here at a later date.

source

Another "Glowing" Chemtrail over North Holland

2011-02-10T03:38:00.003-08:00

Sent in by Michael & and Esther.
Good morning,
We posted a comment mentioning that we had seen it (glowing chemtrail) on other occasions in our town Heerhugowaard 5 km from Alkmaar.
This picture was taken on the 9th of Dec 2010. When we do see them, its always between 10 and 12 in the morning.

And sure enough the one I posted yesterday(see bottom picture) was taken around 10am.

Heerhugowaard North Holland 9th of Dec 2010, 10am.

Alkmaar North Holland 9th Feb 2011, 10am.

Related
Strange glowing chemtrail over Alkmaar.

Strange glowing chemtrail over Alkmaar.

2011-02-09T11:02:00.001-08:00

My wife caught this "Glowing Chemtrail" on her way into town this morning, unfortunately she only had a LG cell phone handy, apparently the "glow" was the colors of the rainbow!

Six Worlds for Kepler-11

2011-02-03T01:44:00.000-08:00

Click on image to enlarge

Illustration Credit: Tim Pyle, NASA Explanation: Six worlds orbit Kepler-11, a sunlike star 2,000 light-years distant in the constellation Cygnus. The new discovery, based on data from NASA's planet hunting Kepler spacecraft, makes the Kepler-11 system the fullest exoplanetary system known. Compared to our Solar System in this illustration, five of Kepler-11's planets orbit closer to their parent star than the Mercury-Sun distance, with orbital periods ranging from 10 to 47 days. All six are larger than Earth and are likely composed of mixtures of rocky material and gas. Their presence, sizes, and masses have been determined by carefully watching the planets dim the light of Kepler-11 while transiting or crossing in front of the star itself. In fact, in August 2010, Kepler's telescope and camera recorded a simultaneous transit of three of the planets in the system. As announced yesterday, using the transit technique the Kepler mission has now identified over 1200 exoplanet candidates in a field of view that covers only about 1/400th of the sky. The tantalizing result suggests there are many undiscovered planets orbiting the stars in our galaxy.

APOD

Moon and Venus Over Switzerland

2011-02-01T23:21:00.001-08:00

Credit & Copyright: David Kaplan Explanation: Sometimes a morning sky can be a combination of serene and surreal. Such a sky perhaps existed before sunrise this past Sunday as viewed from a snowy slope in eastern Switzerland. Quiet clouds blanket the above scene, lit from beneath by lights from the village of Trübbach. A snow covered mountain, Mittlerspitz, poses dramatically on the upper left, hovering over the small town of Balzers, Liechtenstein far below. Peaks from the Alps can be seen across the far right, just below the freshly rising Sun. Visible on the upper right are the crescent Moon and the bright planet Venus. Venus will remain in the morning sky all month, although it will likely not be found in such a photogenic setting.

Source

TRIPLE PUNCH HOLE CLOUDS

2011-01-30T13:17:00.000-08:00

"I've lived by the sea for many years, but never seen anything like this," reports Wesley Tyler of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. "On Friday, Jan. 7th, there were three punch hole clouds in the same place." He grabbed his camera and recorded the phenomenon:
Considered a mystery for many years, punch hole clouds appear on rare occasions all over the world, sometimes attracting widespread attention, e.g., the famous Moscow UFO cloud of 2009. Recently meteorologists have penetrated the mystery: punch holes form when airplanes fly through thin layers of high altitude clouds. If water droplets in the cloud are supercooled (below freezing but still liquid), they can suddenly turn to snow when shocked by the passage of the plane. This mini-snowstorm occurs over a circular area much wider than the airplane itself.
Not all flights through banks of clouds will produce snow. According to Wired Magazine, only about 7.8 percent of the Earth’s surface is covered with clouds at the right elevation for supercooled droplets to form. Because jet aircraft don’t generally cruise at those altitudes, they may only form hole-punch clouds when they take off or land.
The apparition of three rare cloud-holes in one small area suggests a busy airspace around Myrtle Beach. Indeed, the Myrtle Beach International Airport is just miles from where the photo was taken. Or maybe punch hole clouds are a bit of a mystery after all.

Source

Phobos: Metal or rock?

2011-01-24T14:25:00.000-08:00

Click on image to enlarge

Phobos' South Pole from Mars Express
Credit & Copyright: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin (G. Neukum) Explanation: Where on this moon would you land? The moon pictured above is not Earth's moon but Phobos, the closest moon to the planet Mars. Phobos is so close to Mars that it is expected to break up and crash into the red planet within the next 100 million years. Earlier just this year, however, ESA's Mars Express mission took detailed images of the area surrounding Phobos' South Pole. Visible on the small moon's unusually dark surface are many circular craters, long chains of craters, and strange streaks. Large Stickney Crater, which looms on the far right, was also visible in the corresponding North Polar image taken last year. This and other similar images of Phobos are so detailed, resolving items even 10-meters across, that they are useful for examining proposed landing sites of the future Phobos-Grunt mission. The Russian Phobos-Grunt robotic spacecraft is scheduled to launch toward Phobos later this year and return surface samples in 2014.

Vote: Astronomy Picture of the Year 2010 Source

Spectacular Sunset Over Alkmaar

2011-01-21T14:47:00.000-08:00

I took this today, Sun going down over the west coast, North Holland!

Wonderful New Sphere Images, from the ground!

2011-01-21T00:48:00.000-08:00

NASA Images Earth Sized Spherical Objects Inside Corona of SUN (UPDATE: Now Being Seen From Ground Observatories)

From Big Bear Solar Observatory in California March 5th 2010.

Source

A Supercell Thunderstorm Cloud Over Montana

2011-01-21T00:20:00.000-08:00

Credit & Copyright: Sean R. Heavey Explanation: Is that a spaceship or a cloud? Although it may seem like an alien mothership, it's actually a impressive thunderstorm cloud called a supercell. Such colossal storm systems center on mesocyclones -- rotating updrafts that can span several kilometers and deliver torrential rain and high winds including tornadoes. Jagged sculptured clouds adorn the supercell's edge, while wind swept dust and rain dominate the center. A tree waits patiently in the foreground. The above supercell cloud was photographed in July west of Glasgow, Montana, USA, caused minor damage, and lasted several hours before moving on.

Source

Mushroom cloud over North Holland

2011-01-20T12:35:00.000-08:00

Armageddon? Take the last train!
Some pictures makes you wonder...is this just a landscpae view with train and behind a huge Cumulus cloud...Or does it look like another type of cloud we don't want to see (anymore)...
Taken 26-12-10 (Netherlands/Beemster)

Small Town Called Earth

A Total Eclipse at the End of the World

2011-01-19T23:00:00.000-08:00

Credit & Copyright: Fred Bruenjes (moonglow.net) Explanation: Would you go to the end of the world to see a total eclipse of the Sun? If you did, would you be surprised to find someone else there already? In 2003, the Sun, the Moon, Antarctica, and two photographers all lined up in Antarctica during an unusual total solar eclipse. Even given the extreme location, a group of enthusiastic eclipse chasers ventured near the bottom of the world to experience the surreal momentary disappearance of the Sun behind the Moon. One of the treasures collected was the above picture -- a composite of four separate images digitally combined to realistically simulate how the adaptive human eye saw the eclipse. As the image was taken, both the Moon and the Sun peaked together over an Antarctic ridge. In the sudden darkness, the magnificent corona of the Sun became visible around the Moon. Quite by accident, another photographer was caught in one of the images checking his video camera. Visible to his left are an equipment bag and a collapsible chair.

Source

BE ALERT FOR MOON HALOS

2011-01-19T01:19:00.000-08:00

The Moon is waxing full and ice is in the air. That means it's time to be alert for Moon halos. Håkon Iversen saw this one on Jan. 13th just outside Sortland, Norway:

"I was out looking for auroras (and, indeed, there were some green lights in the sky), but the Moon stole the show," says Iverson. "This halo is one of the most awesome things I've ever seen."

Moon halos are formed by ice crystals, which catch moonbeams and bend them as shown. The brighter the Moon, the brighter the Moon halo, so any halos this week should be very bright indeed. The Moon is full on Jan. 19th. Browse the links below for more examples of what's in store.

moon halos: from Rosenberg Róbert of Adony, Hungary; from Anett Mikalsen of Andøy, Norway

Source

Saturn Storm

2011-01-18T23:19:00.000-08:00

Click on image to enlarge

Credit: Cassini Imaging Team, SSI, JPL, ESA, NASA; Color Composite: Jean-Luc Dauvergne Explanation: Late last year, a new, remarkably bright storm erupted in Saturn's northern hemisphere. Amateur astronomers first spotted it in early December, with the ringed gas giant rising in planet Earth's predawn sky. Orbiting Saturn, the Cassini spacecraft was able to record this close-up of the complex disturbance from a distance of 1.8 million kilometers on December 24th. Over time, the storm has evolved, spreading substantially in longitude, and now stretches far around the planet. Saturn's thin rings are also seen slicing across this space-based view, casting broad shadows on the planet's southern hemisphere.
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2012??? The last Lantern

2011-01-18T13:58:00.000-08:00

When Earth becomes darker and darker and last light shines, catch that light and put it in the last lantern.
For the sake that light always shines in darkness.
It's up to
YOU!

From Patrick

SUN PILLAR

2011-01-16T13:22:00.001-08:00

"Yesterday at sunrise, a column of light jumped straight up from the sun," says Shulamit Widawsky of Fairfax, VA. "It was not a result of the photography. It really looked like this with the naked eye, and lasted for at least ten minutes. What do you call it?" Scroll down for the answer:

This is called a "sun pillar." It is caused by plate-shaped ice crystals fluttering to Earth like leaves falling from trees. Air resistance causes the flat faces of the ice crystals to line up almost parallel to the ground. They catch the light of the morning sun and spread it into a brilliant vertical column. The source of the crystals may be seen in Widawsky's snapshot: icy clouds just above the pillar are responsiible for the display. With air temperatures in the northern hemisphere regularly dipping below freezing, this is a good time of year to see the phenomenon. Look for sun pillars are sunrise and sunset!

more sun pillars: from Chris Deutsch of Effort, Pennsylvania; from Daryl Pederson of south central Alaska; from Robbert-Jan Westerduin of Nijmegen, The Netherlands

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Sunset over Alkmaar

2011-01-16T08:41:00.000-08:00

A wonderful picture of a sunset over Alkmaar taken by Patrick Sinot, we are going to be featuring more of Patrick's wonderful Photography in the coming months! You can visit his site here Patrick Sinot

A dog takes its loyalty to the grave in Brazil

2011-01-16T07:16:00.000-08:00

A dog, "Leao", sits for a second consecutive day, next to the grave of her owner, Cristina Maria Cesario Santana, who died in the week's catastrophic landslides in Brazil, at the cemetery in Teresopolis, near Rio de Janiero, on Jan. 15. Brazilians braced for more rain Saturday, fearing further landslides after walls of muddy water tore through towns and claimed some 550 lives in the country's worst flood disaster on record.

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