Ice, Not for Your Drink, But in Nature

The kind of ice I am showing is water ice on Earth. There are different chemical ices on other planets.
The ice forms I was looking at form in lakes and on the ocean.
Ice forms at 32 degrees F. That’s my scientific fact for the day.

I will use WC for Wikipedia Commons.

This first picture is of part of the South Atlantic Ocean. It was taken by the International Space station. NASA.

This picture of an iceberg taken in 1949. It was taken by, Rear Admiral Harley D. Nygen, NOAA, National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration.

A picture of icebergs taken from a helicopter  by, Brocken Inaglory, WC.

The next five pictures were taken of ice on lakes.

This is called Frozen lake in Regent’s Park  by, Peter Smyly WC.

Frozen lake in Central Park, Manhattan, New York  by, Carrier,WC.

Frozen lake at sunset  by, Elzzumerino, WC.

By, Keith Evans, WC.

This last picture is of ice flowers on the ocean  by, National Park Service.

 

 

 

Chestnuts And Heat Expansion

I read somewhere that when you roast Chestnuts, you only need to poke their shells with a fork.

This is what raw Chestnuts look like. They are inside of their outer shells. The picture was taken by, Benjamin Gimmel, Wikipedia Commons.

This is a picture is taken by, Peacher, German Wikipedia.

I will use WC for Wikipedia Commons.

This is a picture of Chestnut trees  by, Schmzo WC.

A lone Chestnut Tree  by, Jaknouse, WC.

Here is a picture of raw Chestnuts that were shelled  by, Douglas P. Perkins, WC.

A picture of baked Chestnuts  by, Maderibeza, WC.

When water is heated it expands. This drawing gives an idea of this.

When I poked the Chestnuts with a fork and put them in the oven, it wasn’t long before they exploded. The water in the Chestnuts expanded and them broke the shells. When water gets hot enough, it becomes steam. When it gets cold enough, it becomes ice.
Before this I had always sliced the flat part of the shell with a knife. I went back to this after the experiment. I’d get someone who knows how to slice the Chestnuts. We have to be very careful around knives. This is just a little warning I feel the need to give.

Two example of expansion. The first is railroad tracks that contract in the cold and expand in the heat. They buckle. The picture is by, US Government.

This last picture is of the steam phase of Castle Geyser in Yellowstone National Park  by, Brocken Inaglory, WC.

Sundials

If it’s sunny out, you can see what time of day it is by looking at a sundial. I am sure there is a very complicated explanation for all this, but I just like to look at a sundial and know what time of day it is.
There are lovely sundials in many parts of the world.

A drawing of the sun and a sundial. The sun casts a shadow straight down at noon. In the morning, the shadow is left of the center. In the afternoon, the shadow is left of center.

All of the pictures are from Wikipedia Commons.

The first three pictures are by John Carmichael. He made these sundials and then took pictures of them.

This sundial is in Colorado Springs in Colorado, US. It is the Chinook Trails Monumental Obelisk.

This is on a wall at a private house. It has a light bulb that goes on behind the face of the sundial when it gets dark.

The third picture is called  Surprise Crossing granite sundial. It is in Arizona, US.

This sundial is at the Hisoey church in Norway  by, User:Friman.

This picture was taken  by, Rami Tarawneh. It is Folke Garten, Bremen.This last picture is by, Jerome Villafruela. It is in Anduze, Gard, France.

 

Rabbits, There Are a Lot of them

People who have rabbits as pets like them a lot. Rabbits are quiet, don’t get busy to the point of distraction and they are sweet beings.
There are a lot of different colors and kinds of rabbits. They do chew and can make their way though a variety of materials in short order. Rabbit proofing can keep one occupied for days.

Most of the pictures are from Wikipedia Commons. I will use WC for those.

By, Jeffery J. Nichols, WC

By, Rubyk, English Wikipedia

By, Andreas, English Wikipedia

Cinamon  by, Kinijintje, Netherlands Wikipedia

Butterscotch  by, Grace Castellano, WC

Bunny in zoo  by, Tiia Monto, WC

House Rabbit  by, me, WC (not me, that’s the name of the author)

Havana Rabbit  by, Mjm91, WC

This last picture has the name of the author that is not in English. The author is from Hong Kong, China, WC.
The caption is: Once, I thought she was dead, until I woke her up.

 

Under The Sea

It is quiet under the surface of the sea. There are some sounds. but not like on the surface.
I found these pictures and I hope you like them.
I will put WC for Wikipedia Commons.

These are three picture of Green Turtles off of Pom Pom Island  by, Profmauri WC.

A school of fish  by, Photo2222, WC

A yellow fish  by, Albert Kok, nl. wikipedia

A school of Bannerfish  by, jon hanson from London, UK, WC.

A Ghost Pipe Fish living on Bottle Reef at the northern tip of Pom Pom Island  by, Profmauri, WC.

Darcia Fish  by, Nevit Dilmen, WC.

A school of fish from Maldives  by, Uxbona, WC.A Lutjanus Kasmira school of fish  by, Jim and Becca Wicks, WC.

The last picture is of a Seahorse, Tereffe Islands, Belize  by, Clark Anderson, Aquaimages, English Wikipedia.

 

Grand Teton National Park

If you get a chance to go to grand Teton National Park, put on you walking shoes. There is so much to see, that you could be there a year and not see all of this park.

I will use WC for the Wikipedia Commons pictures. Also, NPS for National Park Service.

The map. This is an US map of the states by EPA. I drew the red line around the state of Wyoming.

You might come across Trumpeter Swans. By, NPS.

There is Sagebrush there as well. By, Daniel Mayer, WC.

There is a historic barn with the  Grand Tetons in the background. Here are two pictures. The first is by, Daniel Mayer and the second is by, Jon Sullivan. Both are from WC.

The Snake River Valley  by, Jon Sullivan, WC.

The Oxbow Bend in the Snake River  by, Michael Gabler, WC.

Surprise Lake  by, S. Zenner NPS.

Hidden Falls  by, S. Zenner, NPS.

Bradley and Taggart Lakes  by, NPS.

This last picture is of String Lake  by, S. Zenner, NPS.

 

 

Friday, December 14, 2012

Photo By, LARRY DOWNING/REUTERS

Panda Bears, The Real Ones, Not The Stuffed Ones

The San Diego Zoo has a new baby Panda Bear. I didn’t find a public domain picture of him. Or her. You can go to their site and watch the Bear Cam. Baby is very active.
In zoos, Panda Bears are beloved by the people who take care of them. They are charming and sweet.
Panda Bears come from Southeast Asia. There are two kinds that I found pictures of, the Red Panda and the Black and white Panda.
Pandas eat leaves and bamboo for the most part. I read that they don’t do much because of the type of food they eat. Then again, they just might not want to do much of anything other than eat and sleep.

All of the pictures are from Wikipedia Commons except for this first one. It was taken by Ailruropoda from English Wikipedia.

Giant Panda  by, Rob Page III.

Red Pandas, also called lesser Panda. They are smaller and longer than the Giant Pandas. By, Nanaosmile.

Another picture of a Red Panda  by, Kevin Law from Los Angeles, USA.

This is Ling Ling from the Ueno Zoo, Japan  by, Claire Houk from New York City, USA.

From Tiergarten, Vienna Austria  by, Manfred Werner.

this picture was taken by, Rachelthevegitarian.

The last two pictures of Bao Bao were taken by, Times.

 

Launching Artificial Satellites, It’s Rocket Science

This post is here because I was looking at the Landsat 8 information and when it would launch. It will launch on February 11, 2013. Landsat 7 is up in space now. Landsat 7 is used to get images of the Earth. When I do a post on Landsat 8, I’ll explain.

For now, here is a satellite picture from Landsat 7. This is an image of Cape Cod and I have used it before this post.

I started wondering, how do they get that thing up high into space. This led to finding more information.
First, I had to look at Earth’s atmosphere. A brief look.
Second, I had to look at the rockets used to launch artificial satellites. Artificial satellites are things like Landsat 8, commonly just called satellites. Natural satellites are objects like the moon.
Atlas V is the rocket I chose to use as an example.
For a bit, I got so confused that it was a wonder I could think at all. My main gripe is the language and technical terms I ran into all throughout my information gathering.  I chose not to use them in this post, unless I really had to do so.

Most of the pictures are from NASA.

This is a diagram of Earth’s atmosphere from NOAA.

This is small diagram of the Landsat 7 orbit.

The orbit period at the bottom says 98.8 minutes.

This is a diagram of satellite orbits.

This is a diagram of the Van Allen Probes orbit. They changed the name from RBSP to Van Allen in honor of Mr. Van Allen, who discovered the radiation belts.

Here are four pictures of Earth’s atmosphere. They were taken by crews of the International Space Station (ISS). The first view is of the top of the atmosphere.

From ISS crew 23. It was taken at sunset.

This was taken by ISS crew 28.

This is the Space Shuttle Endeavour heading back home through Earth’s atmosphere from the ISS.

There isn’t a definite boundary between the Earth’s atmosphere and space. The boundary is at 62 miles high. The effects of the Earth’s atmosphere are noticed at 120 miles high.

This is a diagram of Cape Canaveral. This is where a lot of space vehicles are launched. It is called Kennedy Space Center.

This is a diagram from Lockheed Martin of the Atlas V rocket. It launched the Van Allen Probes into space. Probes look around and send back information they collect.

An artificial satellite has to launch into the correct orbit. Otherwise it can’t do what it was sent to do. This involves a lot of calculation. They need to know where they want the satellite to be in which orbit.

The rocket goes straight up from the launchpad and goes through the layers of Earth’s atmosphere.
After that, the rocket heads east. It heads east because that is the direction the Earth’s orbit.
The speed that the Earth rotates at Cape Canaveral is 894 miles an hour. This helps the satellite go into orbit.
The rocket keeps track of where it is in relation to the Earth. This is called an Inertial Guidance System.
To put it in basic terms. The rocket knows when to turn east at 120 miles high. It fires small rockets and turns the launch vehicle east. The satellite is then released. Rockets fire again and the satellite separates from the launch vehicle.

This is a picture of the Atlas V first stage being put into the launch frame at Kennedy Space Center. These Atlas V pictures are from the Van Allen Probes launch.

The Atlas V first stage is in place.

This is a picture of putting the second stage into the launch frame.

The second stage in place.

This is the Van Allen Probes capsule being lifted above the first and second stages.

This is a picture of the Van Allen Probes capsule being put onto the elevator of the launch frame.

The capsule in place.

On the launchpad.

Atlas V being fueled. This is a different launch. I wanted to show the fueling.

They launched Atlas V after dark. This is a picture of Atlas V with the Van Allen Probes, ready to go.

Ignition.

Liftoff.

Heading up.

This is a picture of an Atlas V booster separation. I couldn’t find one from the Van Allen Probes Mission. The picture is by, United Launch Alliance.

A drawing of the two probes separating from each other.

The last picture is of the two Van Allen Probes in  their radiation belt orbits.

 

 

 

Christmas Wreaths

I tried to make a Christmas wreath once. Once being the keyword. I had a wire frame, conifer branches and the whole bit. I really tried. I really failed. I bought a wreath that was made by someone else.
My hat’s off to anyone who makes wreaths. They look so lovely and simple. They are difficult to make.

All the pictures are from Wikipedia Commons.

The first two pictures were taken in Georgetown, Washington D.C. US.

By, AgnosticPreachersKid

By, User: Bachrach44

Wreaths in different places.

By, Albedo 006

By, James from Boulder, USA

Old Todd County Kentucky Courthouse  by RANDY – PRITCHETT

By 4028mdk09

Nanasawa, Japan  by, Cory

This last picture was taken in the UK on the beach. The wreath in on a pillbox that gunners used to protect the shore in WWII. It was taken by, Evelyn Simak.