Coinciding with our vacation to Bermuda last week, was the America’s Cup Yacht Preliminaries.
As seen from the bow of our cruise ship, Norwegian Breakaway, the America’s Cup Village is seen just behind Celebrity Summit, in Bermuda’s Great Sound.Over the preceding months and many locations, preliminary races determined the ultimate “challenger” to the current “defender” (USA’s “Oracle.”) Above, New Zealand’s “Emirates” (in contest with Great Britain’s “Land Rover”) takes the lead with Gibbs Hill Lighthouse in the background, and has now earned that challenger privilege.The boats have evolved over 147 years, from more conventional sailing yachts, to highly refined and sophisticated racing platforms, now utilizing hydrofoils to significantly reduce drag and increase speed. Rules prohibit any energy sources other than the sea, air and human input. The helmsman, (see image above) who is ultimately responsible for navigation and articulation of control surfaces under race conditions, must continuously evaluate and decide when and where to guide the boat and how to do it. His hands are on a multi-remote laced steering wheel. Also, as the boat’s direction and roll-attitude changes, the entire crew will run across to the opposite (upper) pontoon to man duplicate stations. Great theater! Just after winning this heat over Land Rover, Emirates is seen here coming down off the foils. The boats often exceed 44 knots (50 mph) in racing.
Although all the 50′ catamarans are essencially the same, teams have virtually unlimited options as to trimming and power usage, including navigating savvy, and human endurance. For example, Emirates utilizes bicycle-like human power stations, while Oracle uses the more traditional hand cranked “grinders.” The science of these vessels and the methods employed are awesome, details of which can be found here .
As usual, click on the image for a closer look, and thanks for viewing. Comments are always welcome. M 🙂
Venus is currently a crescent phase, as it swings quickly along its orbit between Earth and the sun.
Nikon D5200 DSLR, cropped (enlarged) from original size (below.) f13, 600mm Tameron (150-600) telephoto, ISO 1250, 1/4000″ Handheld Original frame of image on top, same capture, at 6:09 PM 3/11/17, 10 minutes after sunset. Venus is in the center. Can you see it??For comparison, Tri-X film version with EXA 35mm camera, 1/25th sec, through 10″ Newtonian reflector telescope. Taken December 1st, 12:30 PM many years ago, and recently digitally post processed. Being so bright, it can be seen and photographed in the daytime.
Venus has been shinning brightly for the last few months after sunset, but is quickly approaching what is called Inferior Conjunction, as it passes roughly between the Earth and the Sun in 11 days, 3/22/17. The planet will re-emerge as the “morning star” visible a week or two later, rising before sunrise.
As usual, click on the image for a closer look, and thanks for viewing. Comments are always welcome. M 🙂
Looking down W. 57th St. at twilight this week, four of the newest buildings including the second tallest in the city, dominate the view. But, look at the closest on the left….
Designed by Danish Architect Bjark Inges, this spectacular residential building features impressive amenities, and a spectacular open air court yard.
“VIA 57 West” is so dramatically shaped that it looks different from every viewpoint, as shown here from the west, (above) and north-west an hour earlier. (below)
As usual, click on the image for a closer look, and thanks for viewing. Comments are always welcome. M 🙂
Exposure, lighting, shadows and geometry. The “algorithm” of the digital camera and the “mind” of the observer. That and more, all play a part in what we ‘see’ in an image. In this case a glimpse back ten years from our family room, contrasting with the hall (wallpaper long since gone) and the “office.”
From the “office,” apologies for creating new words,
I dreamed that the Earth was being threatened by Jupiter’s “Great Red Spot!”
…No, that’s not really true, not even the dream part. BUT, the clouds above do look a little like planet Jupiter’s atmosphere with its “Great ‘Red’ Spot,” just above and behind the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant here in New Jersey! Furthermore, the smokestack may be attempting to suck power out of the “spot,” as JCP&L investigates more sustainable energy sources; similar to my previous suggestion raised about New York’s Con Ed last year, here,
For reference, here is the real thing: (Stock photo from Wikipedia.)
And below, my younger day’s attempt at “astrophotography.”
Jupiter and its “Great Red Spot” (8″ f/12 reflector, 75x; EXA 35 mm SLR, 1/25th sec. Tri-X B&W film,) captured a long, long time ago in my parents back yard, way before digital imaging, and by today’s standards – pretty meager!
Thanks for viewing. Click on or finger stretch images for increased detail, and comments are always welcome: M 🙂
Located on Madison Ave at E. 36th street, The Morgan Museum and Research Library containing the private holdings of financier J.P Morgan and other benefactors, is an incomparable collection of original manuscripts, books, paintings, sculptures, cylinder seals and other fine works of literary and imaginary art, accessible to the public in its grandiose historic setting.
From the Rotunda, one enters the three-story Morgan Library, as also seen above.
Thousands of books in pristine condition, date back centuries. One section contains tens of massive bibles, including the Gutenberg.
Apparently no expense was spared, as attested in the detail of the ceiling and skylight of this 1906 Manhattan treasure chest.
Below: A large collection of “Cylindrical Seals” are on display, dating back thousands of years. The cylinder, meticulously engraved, would render a relief image when impressed in a soft medium.
We enjoyed visiting this museum while in “The City” last week.
As usual, click on the image for a closer look, and thanks for viewing. Comments are always welcome. M 🙂
Its time to fly. Mom and Dad conceive, raise the young and teach!
Above, Mom (left) sternly begins coaxing the kid to leave the nest, and fly. It happens every year. The mother will fly around the nest, carrying a fish in its claws, sometimes for days at a time, until the young one finally gets the idea – to eat, you must fly! The wordless lesson is priority one.
Meanwhile, Dad waits patiently a few hundred yards way.
As Usual, click on images for higher resolution, and comments are always welcome. M 🙂
About 8:58 AM EDT this morning, Mercury (The round black dot) is seen beginning its transit in front of the sun. (Sunspots are visible above.) Image at about 600 mm f 6.3, 1/400 sec, hand held.
As usual, click on to view closer, and Comments are always welcoms. M 🙂
Some astronomy pastime tonight (March 21, 2016,) as Jupiter and the moon were pretty close together in the eastern sky about two hours after sunset.
Above: The slightly over-exposed moon, and Jupiter just visible to the left. 400mm telephoto lens, ISO 4000, 1/1600 sec, f6.0, hand held
Above: In circle: A 200x close up of a slightly longer and slightly distorted exposure of Jupiter (to left,) showing three of four “Jovian” moons tonight, with the fourth out of frame in the magnified insert.
Above: An accurate graphic representation of the positions of the four brighter moons of Jupiter at about the same time the images above were taken, orientated horizontally. By the time the night is over, the two closest to Jupiter will have passed in front of the planet. (Courtesy “Javascript Jupiter”.)
Above:An image of Jupiter taken by a younger version of myself some years ago, using Extachrome Color film 35 mm SLR camera and the telescope below.
Above: 8″ newtonian reflector telescope
As usual, click on the image for a closer look, and thanks for viewing. Comments are always welcome. M 🙂
With my son Steve, daughter Holly, and seven year old grandson Tyler we spent the night in Moab, and were beginning our first full day. Now we were in the heart of the Colorado Plateau (Utah,) one of the most impressive scupltured and gorged terrains in the world.
This post contains 21 images.
ARCHES NATIONAL PARK – MORNING:
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NEXT: COLORADO RIVER SCENIC BYWAY, RT. 297 – MID DAY
The series below
These 500 foot (150m.) cliffs, right along the river, offer climbers world class rock faces.
A little further, my grandson leads the way to a fallen strata slab exposing nearly 200 million year old dinosaur tracks…AWESOME! Talk about being in his climbing glory!
Further above the tracks, Tyler “discovers” petroglyphs on the cliff faces, and uncle Steve confirms the sighting.
NOTE: PLEASE SCROLL DOWN AFTER THE BLANK AREAS ABOVE AND BELOW THE SECOND IMAGE BELOW> THE WORDPRESS EDITOR IS BEING PERSNICKETY, AND I WANT TO PUBLISH THIS BEFORE I DIE!
Along the Colorado River, Potash Road, Rt. 297
Rock Climbing
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NEXT: CANYONLANDS NATIONAL PARK – LATE AFTERNOON to SUNSET:
The Series Below
Incomparable switchbacks of the Shafer Trail dropping 1400 feet (426 m.) from the Caynyonlands “Island in the Sky” Mesa
The mesas to the south-east, and snow topped La Sal Mountains beyond
Holly and Tyler
the forth image below, there is a car visible just below and right of center, way down on the 100 mile long White Rim Trail, ringing the “Island” Mesa.
NEXT: BULLFROG MARINA, GLEN CANYON NATIONAL RECREATION AREA:
Under a million stars, it took five hours on virtually isolated roads to to reach our stay for the night. It was around 11:00 PM in Bullfrog, an outpost at this time of the year where the sky is virtully void of “light pollution.” This slightly wide angle picture was taken at an exposure to approximate the actual experience. It shows the winter Milky Way. Also the Andromeda Galaxy (M 31,) is visible just right and below center, some two million LY distant. Here, in this dark, moonless sky, naked eye oservers might be able to see another galaxy, elusive M33, which is also in this image, although very faint, just right of center, 1/10 up from bottom. A star cluster known as the “Double Cluster,” is to the left.
The last two days of our four day adventuere will be posted around 12/6/15
As ususal, thanks for viewing, and comments are always welcomed. M:-)
