From the Department of Interior’s Twitter feed: Looking for a wow photo? This picture of the Milky Way over Natural Bridges Natl Monument should do the trick. pic.twitter.com/RfuDj7KXSA
Owachomo Bridge? Photographer? I wish Interior would put in all the details with their photos.
3 Comments | 
Astronomy, National Parks, photography, Travel, Utah | Tagged: Arches National Park, Astronomy, Milky Way, photography, Travel, Utah | 
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Posted by Ed Darrell
Love this photo for many reasons.
U. S. Department of Interior on Twitter: Amazing photo of a night heron in J.N. “Ding” Darling NWR by intern Libby Errickson. @USFWSSoutheast #Florida pic.twitter.com/PA04nE4hhD
Let me count the ways I love it:
More:
Video on the refuge, from the Ding Darling Society:
Leave a Comment » | Bird Watching, National Wildlife Refuge, photography, Political cartoons, Wildlife | Tagged: Bird Watching, Ding Darling NWR, Night Heron, photography, Wildlife | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Photo after photo, I come increasingly to understand why my oldest brother, Jerry, wanted to spend his life and eternity in the Yellowstone.
Wholly apart from the thermal “features” and geological wonders, the area is just smashingly beautiful day in and day out, in even the mundane areas away from the celebrated features.
Here’s a part of the Madison River, just flowing through its streambed, at sunset.
Yellowstone National Park’s Twitter feed: Spring sunset on the Madison River. pic.twitter.com/8nZSxJvBeZ
Leave a Comment » | photography, Public Lands, Travel, Yellowstone | Tagged: Madison River, photography, Public Lands, Travel, Yellowstone National Park | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
U.S. Department of Interior, Twitter feed: Beautiful view of the Moon over Mabius Mobius Arch in the Alabama Hills Recreation Area. #California @BLMca pic.twitter.com/u0KYyJ6p0S
Interesting points, reasons to like this image:
More:
2 Comments | Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Geography - Physical, geology, Hiking, photography, Public Lands, Travel | Tagged: Alabama Hills Recreation Area, BLM, California, geography, geology, Hiking, Mobius Arch, photography, Travel | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Milky Way over Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park. Photo by Gavin Heffernan and Harun Mehmedinović, from the video (which also features Grand Canyon National Park)
Phil Plait’s column/blog at Slate, Bad Astronomy, put me on to this one. Wow.
You can see it at Vimeo, and read a lot more about the making of the film.
YIKÁÍSDÁHÁ (Navajo for Milky Way or “That Which Awaits the Dawn”)
And that they do. The Milky Way is the star of the show; the galactic bulge, disk, and dark fingers of vast dust lanes as clear as if this were taken from space. Well, sort of; I was impressed by the mix of clouds and sky, to be honest. The contrast was interesting, and it’s rather amazing the Milky Way could stand out so clearly above the cloud line.
One thing I want to point out specifically: At 2:10 in, a meteor flashes and leaves behind a curling wisp of what looks like smoke. This is called a persistent train, the vaporized remains of the meteoroid itself, and can glow for several minutes. The upper level winds from 60–100 km above Earth’s surface are what blow it into those curlicues.
More details, for more films from these guys:
Shot and Produced by: Gavin Heffernan and Harun Mehmedinović
Music: A Seated Night (Ambient) by Moby. Courtesy MobyGratis.com / Unknown Native Chant
Thanks: Northern Arizona University, Grand Canyon National Park, Monument Valley Tribal Park.See other Sunchaser Timelapses on Vimeo here: vimeo.com/album/189653
LIKE Sunchaser Pictures on Facebook! facebook.com/SunchaserPicturesPage
LIKE Bloodhoney on Facebook! facebook.com/blood.honey.by.harun.mehmedinovicFor more from the artists:
Leave a Comment » | Astronomy, National Parks, Nature, Navajo, Outdoor Recreation, photography, Time-lapse photography, Travel | Tagged: Arizona, Astronomy, Bad Astronomy, Milky Way, Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park, Nature, Outdoor Recreation, Phil Plait, photography, Timelapse, Travel | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
One way to get the kids out of their sleeping bags in the morning, no? Just alert them to the passing California condor, looking for something that doesn’t move, to eat.
USFWS PacificSouthwest: “Now that is up close and personal! Melissa Galieti snapped this picture of #Condor 470 ‘Fuego,’ May 5 in Big Sur, California. pic.twitter.com/QKvURadqaV
Only way to get closer to these majestic birds is to do what our cousin Amanda Holland did, and work with the Condor recovery project.
Might be a life’s work in there somewhere.
Leave a Comment » | endangered species, photography, Science | Tagged: California Condor, endangered species, photography, Science | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
From the U.S Department of Interior Twitter feed: To celebrate being named to the @TIME #Twitter140, here is an amazing photo from @JoshuaTreeNP. pic.twitter.com/F4DS5Xv9vq
Milky Way in a long exposure with a light-painted tree in Joshua Tree National Park, California.
More:
1 Comment | Astronomy, National Parks, Outdoor Recreation, photography | Tagged: Astronomy, Joshua Tree NP, Milky Way, Outdoor Recreation, photography | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Another stunner from our public lands, from the Department of Interior’s Great American Outdoors Tumblr:
Department of Interior: Let’s end #ArborDay with this great shot from Redwood National Park in #California. pic.twitter.com/SzlkQASYFI
Today is Arbor Day, too?
1 Comment | National Parks, photography, trees | Tagged: Arbor Day, Department of Interior, photography, Redwood National Park, trees | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Passenger jet and Moon. Photo by Rodger Schmitt, from Lake Powell, Utah.
Handheld Nikon. Nikon stabilizing lens. Good hands, I’d say.
Third to last time I was out near Lake Powell, I was with Rodger (and about a dozen others) organizing hearings of the President’s Commission on Americans Outdoors. We flew into Page, Arizona, on an Otter II coming up from Phoenix flying low, looking for elk, and legally buzzing Rainbow Bridge (impressive from the air, too).
We had a luncheon meeting at Wahweap Marina, as I recall; no time for boating.
Then we were off to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. There we inspected pine trees 30 feet tall, growing between the ties of the then-abandoned rail lines. (And did a lot of other stuff.)
Today trains carry tourists to the South Rim on those tracks, the trees gone. Progress, really.
Rodger carries on in the knowledge that use of the outdoors, especially these public lands, heals souls, and sometimes gives you great photos.
Rodger said I could borrow the photo. Thanks!
Leave a Comment » | Astronomy, Moon, Outdoor Recreation, Public Lands | Tagged: Astronomy, Lake Powell, Moon, Outdoor Recreation, photography, Public Lands, Rodger Schmitt | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Here’s just exactly the sort of thing that happens in nature that drives creationists nuts. How could this happen without God personally working to confuse and/or delight the photographer? Not to mention the physicist and mathematician.
Photo from the Twitter feed of Science Porn: “Go home waves you’re drunk. This is called cross sea btw pic.twitter.com/5Cv1UUo8QX”
Where? Somewhere in France, one might gather from the flag on the structure (lighthouse?).
Turns out to be a Wikipedia photo, with this intriguing caption:
Crossing swells, consisting of near-cnoidal wave trains. Photo taken from Phares des Baleines (Whale Lighthouse) at the western point of Île de Ré (Isle of Rhé), France, in the Atlantic Ocean. The interaction of such near-solitons in shallow water may be modeled through the Kadomtsev–Petviashvili equation.
Oh, you remember that one, don’t you? The Kadomtsev–Petviashvili equation?
At least we confirmed it was taken in France.
They do everything differently in France, don’t they?
Update:Got an e-mail suggestion that I include the equation itself. You may certainly click to Wikipedia to find it; here’s what it says over there:
In mathematics and physics, the Kadomtsev–Petviashvili equation – or KP equation, named after Boris Borisovich Kadomtsev and Vladimir Iosifovich Petviashvili – is a partial differential equation to describe nonlinearwave motion. The KP equation is usually written as:
where
. The above form shows that the KP equation is a generalization to two spatial dimensions, x and y, of the one-dimensional Korteweg–de Vries (KdV) equation. To be physically meaningful, the wave propagation direction has to be not-too-far from the x direction, i.e. with only slow variations of solutions in the y direction.
Like the KdV equation, the KP equation is completely integrable. It can also be solved using the inverse scattering transform much like the nonlinear Schrödinger equation.
Certainly the longest equation ever published at Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub.
10 Comments | Creationism, Nature, photography, Science | Tagged: Creationism, Humor, Nature, photography, Science, Science Porn | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Upper and Lower Antelope Canyon, near Page Arizona, get more visitors annually than just about any other canyon except the Grand Canyon. They cover only a few miles.
You’re not familiar with Antelope Canyon? You’ve seen the photos, even if you don’t know the name of the place — it’s a slot canyon, carved as with a wandering knife into the sandstone at the top of the cliffs leading to the Colorado River.
Over at EarthSky, I found a view you haven’t seen before.
Antelope Canyon at night by Sergio Garcia Rill. Stunning contrast of rock painted by light, and stars. From EarthSky.com. Visit Sergio’s website and read more about this adventure.
Details from EarthSky.com:
Sergio Garcia Rill captured this beautiful image from within Upper Antelope Canyon in Arizona, which is the most visited slot canyon in the United States. A slot canyon is significantly deeper than it is wide. It’s formed by water rushing through rock. Sergio wrote:
During my recent trip to Arizona, I stopped by Page to get a chance at touring the now famous canyons (Upper and Lower Antelope) and I also had a chance to visit Upper Antelope at night.
I couldn’t really get too many shots with the sky (since the openings were very narrow and limited) but I liked this one in particular since I got a chance to set it up and do the light painting myself a couple of chambers behind from where my guide and another participant were working on another shot.
Thank you, Sergio.
Visit Sergio Garcia Rill’s Facebook page.
Click here for info about traveling to Upper and Lower Antelope Canyon.
Readers here may remember Page was the final destination of my late oldest brother, Jerry. To his credit, he urged me to make a special trip to see Antelope Canyon, because most of the times I visited, it was closed, or impassable. Alas, I have not yet been to the place.
This is one of the gems of the Diné, the Navajo Nation, and another good reason to get familiar with redrock country.
1 Comment | Astronomy, Deserts, Navajo, photography, Travel | Tagged: Antelope Canyon, Astronomy, Deserts, EarthSky.org, Navajo, photography, Travel | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
http://twitter.com/History_Pics/status/453395574080172032
1932? Heck, that’s every Friday in some offices I’ve worked in — and schools.
2 Comments | History images, Humor, photography, Prohibition, Protest | Tagged: 1932, History, Humor, photography, Prohibition, protest | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Photo from the Dallas Karting Complex. Dallas, evening of March 27, 2014. Photographer unidentified. David Worthington.
Funny thing is, this photo probably didn’t require much processing to look like this. Advances in lighting, especially LEDs and color, mean that Dallas’s skyline can look much like this any night.
Just add a thunderhead to the northeast, and voila!
Nota bene: Mr. Higginbotham discovered the photographer to be David Worthington, who is selling prints. I recommend Dallasites contact him to get one. (Anyone else, too; it’s a great shot.)
1 Comment | Architecture, Dallas, photography, Texas, Weather | Tagged: Architecture, Dallas, photography, Texas, Weather | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Found on Twitter, via @SciencePorn – One of the most beautiful pictures I’ve ever seen. Star photography by Nicholas Buer pic.twitter.com/RlwvSQNBAy. Much larger view here.
Nicholas Buer works hard to get these shots — a bit of a master, no?
This one was the Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) for January 27, 2014 (click that link for a much larger and more glorious view). Much more detail there, revealing that this is much more of the Milky Way than you’d usually see.
From the Northern to the Southern Cross
Image Credit & Copyright: Nicholas Buer Explanation: There is a road that connects the Northern to the Southern Cross but you have to be at the right place and time to see it. The road, as pictured above, is actually the central band of our Milky Way Galaxy; the right place, in this case, is dark Laguna Cejar in Salar de Atacama of Northern Chile; and the right time was in early October, just after sunset. Many sky wonders were captured then, including the bright Moon, inside the Milky Way arch; Venus, just above the Moon; Saturn and Mercury, just below the Moon; the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds satellite galaxies, on the far left; red airglow near the horizon on the image left; and the lights of small towns at several locations across the horizon. One might guess that composing this 30-image panorama would have been a serene experience, but for that one would have required earplugs to ignore the continued brays of wild donkeys.
Leave a Comment » | Astronomy, photography, Travel | Tagged: Astronomy, Astronomy Picture of the Day, Milky Way, Nicholas Buer, photography, Travel | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Another great shot from America’s public lands:
Department of Interior Great American Outdoors Tumblr caption: One of the world’a great natural wonders – the glistening white sands @WhiteSands_NPS. #NewMexico pic.twitter.com/dbzPpIfSRW
One of the problems of touring places like White Sands National Monument is that most tourists arrive mid-day; most spectacular views are probably close to sunrise or sunset, when the sky adds colors other than “bright” to the scene.
Like No Place Else on Earth
Rising from the heart of the Tularosa Basin is one of the world’s great natural wonders – the glistening white sands of New Mexico. Great wave-like dunes of gypsum sand have engulfed 275 square miles of desert, creating the world’s largest gypsum dunefield. White Sands National Monument preserves a major portion of this unique dunefield, along with the plants and animals that live here.
Yes, the same White Sands where the Trinity Project first triggered an atomic weapon, in 1945 — but the blast site is actually about 100 miles north of the National Monument on the military’s White Sands Missile Range. Historical reasons to visit, as well as nature and beauty reasons.
I assume that’s some sort of yucca in the photo; can you tell more specifically?
More, related:
3 Comments | Deserts, Geography - Physical, National Parks, Travel | Tagged: Department of Interior, geography, photography, Travel, White Sands National Monument | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Ed Darrell on Texas's Colorado River
Come on in, the water's fine. Come often: Cleanliness is next to godliness.
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 
