Theunexpectedthingstocome
This is a tumblelog, kinda like a blog but with short-form, mixed-media posts with stuff I like. Scroll down a bit to start reading, or a bit more to read more about me.
This guy hand-forged his own wedding ring. OUT OF A METEORITE.
That’s it. Game over. You will never have a wedding ring cooler than that of redditor laporkenstein. Not only did he fashion the band himself, in the formidable fires of… well… his garage — he forged the damn thing out of a chunk of meteorite. (A Gibeon meteorite, to be exact.)
Such a breathtaking photo by Anna Pavlova. Check out some more greatness on her photostream.
Lick Observatory Moonrise
Image Credit & Copyright: Rick BaldridgeExplanation: As viewed from a well chosen location at sunset, the gorgeous Full Moon rose behind Mount Hamilton, east of San Jose, California on March 7. The lunar disk frames historic Lick Observatory perched on the mountain’s 4,200 foot summit. Both observatory and Moon echo the warm color of sunlight (moonlight is reflected sunlight) filtered by a long path through the atmosphere. Substantial atmospheric refraction contributes the Moon’s ragged, green rim. Of course, the March Full Moon is also known as the Full Worm Moon. In the telescopic photo, Lick’s 40 inch Nickel Telescope dome is on the left. The large dome on the right houses Lick’s Great 36 inch Refractor.
Aurora Borealis over Faskrudsfjordur, Iceland by Jónína Óskarsdóttir
March 8, 2012
“No words can describe the experience of the northern lights show tonight.”
Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark II. Lens: Canon 14mm f/2.8L USM II. ISO 1600, 1s exposure.
Earth Photography: It’s Harder Than It Looks
From my orbital perspective, I am sitting still and Earth is moving. I sit above the grandest of all globes spinning below my feet, and watch the world speed by at an amazing eight kilometers per second (288 miles per minute, or 17,300 miles per hour).
This makes Earth photography complicated.
Even with a shutter speed of 1/1000th of a second, eight meters (26 feet) of motion occurs during the exposure. Our 400-millimeter telephoto lens has a resolution of less than three meters on the ground. Simply pointing at a target and squeezing the shutter always yields a less-than-perfect image, and precise manual tracking must be done to capture truly sharp pictures. It usually takes a new space station crewmember a month of on-orbit practice to use the full capability of this telephoto lens.
Extreme skydiver readies for supersonic space jump
Extreme athlete Felix Baumgartner is taking the 120,000 feet plunge to help researchers study the effects of space on the human body.
The Moon, photographed by NASA astronaut Ron Garan during his stay at the International Space Station.
