vivid sydney

for the last 5 years, sydney has been lighting itself up for a festival it calls vivid sydney.  conveniently, the light show starts right around my birthday each year and lasts for two weeks :)

the main highlight of the extravaganza is the incredibly detailed light show projected on the side of the iconic opera house.  this year's show that plays over and over each night is called "play."

but the projected animations are not limited to just the opera house.  major buildings lining the harbour front are lit up with changing colours.

there are detailed light shows on several buildings in the city.  my favourite is on the face of the museum of contemporary arts.

this video highlights these shows and some of the other interactive installations found around sydney right now.



also, for the first time this year, they light up the harbour bridge as well.

it was nice to sit in the park outside my flat and watch the sun go down as the lights turn on :)

decoration

i saw this painting by sydney long (1899) at the art gallery of new south wales over the weekend.   i like the color and moodiness and looming full moon halo.  

thinking back on it today, i was reminded of this piece that i saw not too long ago.

and ultimately, this moon kiss graphic.

lunar eclipse on the horizon

love this photo.

UPDATE:  this image is probably not an actual true-to-reality photograph, but i still like the feel of the image created.

astrophoto contest winners

the 2013 Earth & Sky Photo Contest winners have been announced, and what incredible photos they have taken.

here are some personal favorites:

the planet hunters

i caught myself staring at this image of the 2009 total solar eclipse that was skillfully put together by miloslav druckmuller and crew.

to create the image, they stacked 38 individual images together and captured the fine structure of the sun's white corona, a far-reaching layer of the sun that we rarely get the chance to study because it is hugely out-shined by the blinding photosphere - except during a total eclipse. 

it amazes me just how far out the corona reaches - at least three times the width of the sun away.  and its light flickers and changes as super-heated hydrogen bubbles up through the layers of the sun to be released into space, if it escapes the traps of the rolling magnetic fields.

there exists an interesting mystery about our sun's corona.   while the regular surface of the sun, the bright yellow bit hidden by the moon in the image above, has a temperature of about 6000 degrees celsius, the corona reaches a temperature of over one million!  no one really knows how this happens, although "magnetic braids" might give a clue.

we can see evidence of the sun's strong magnetic activity all the time. using specially-designed telescopes, we see solar flares, prominences and other activity happening closer to the sun's surface. 

to gain a feel for the size of our star - you can fit one hundred earths across the middle of the sun.

this last photo is a still from the movie of the "tree of avatar" solar flare - well worth a watch.

the surface of the sun appears alive with activity.  every normal star out there in the universe also experiences these surface bursts and flares, but we cannot study them in as much detail because the stars are so far away.   

this realization makes me appreciate the work of the planets hunters, both professional and citizen scientists, even more.   not only do they have to measure a miniscule dip in the light from the star because a planet passes in front of it and blocks it, but they have to try to be sure that the light dip isnt caused by normal stellar surface activity, nearly impossible to resolve at such large distances.  

despite the recent end of the kepler space telescope's lifespan collecting data of potential planets around distant stars, there is much astronomers have yet to learn from the telescope's plentiful archive.  

as of today, we have found between 719 and 889 exoplanets.   i'm sure more and more will be revealed as the kepler data is explored.  exciting times!

alone in my room

this comic hits close to home...

comic by abstruse goose.

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.