Explosion in the Sky

I have included an email alert from Space Weather below.  This is quite fascinating; the amazing pictures and video must be seen at the Space Weather website since they are copyrighted.  My question is what, exactly, ruptured the Russian rocket booster’s fuel tanks?  Hmm?

Space Weather News for Feb. 21, 2007 from their archives:
http://spaceweather.com/archive.php?view=1&day=21&month=02&year=2007

On February 19th, late-night sky watchers across Australia witnessed a bright explosion followed by a debris cloud that hung in the sky for nearly an hour.  At first a mystery, the source of the blast is now understood.  It was a Russian Briz-M rocket booster misplaced in orbit last year by the failed launch of an Arabsat communications satellite.  The fuel tanks of the Briz-M ruptured on Feb. 19th, producing a vivid naked-eye display and more than 1000 pieces of debris.  Experts are calling this a “major breakup event,” comparable to or even worse than last month’s Chinese anti-sat test.

Are Honeybees Smarter Than We Think?

There was an AP report recently on the Internet stating that domesticated honeybee colonies are dying out in large numbers across the country.  I had been discussing this scenario with others a few days ago elsewhere; the essence of the discussion was these honeybees have been compromised by harmful substances.  Here is one news report:

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/148826/honeybees_are_dying_all_over_the_united.html

Imagine my surprise last night when I read my daily dreams email from Brian’s mailing list concerning his dream about honeybees.  Here’s the dream, dream number and Brian’s description of his dream.  Brian’s website is http://www.briansprediction.com/ and is also included in my links column on the right of my weblog.

DD5100 2.14.2007 (2.13.2007 nights dreams)

  

Honeybees are being poisoned by their own honey, and they know it, so they are leaving their hives before they all die.  The poison is coming from a genetically altered plant that the bees use to make honey…also says that this same honey can hurt humans.

(Note:  Brian constructs a separate webpage at his website for each of his many thousands of posted dreams along with reader input and verifying info.  As of this moment I am not able to directly link to this particular dream but that may change soon.)

2-16-07  Ahh.  Here is the link to this particular dream:  http://www.briansprediction.com/dd/5100.htm

Oil Slick Cloud?

Found at www.spaceweather.com

I’m not a meteorologist by any stretch of the imagination but I am having such a hard time accepting many of the simple explanations given for phenomena such as the following.  And water droplets or ice crystals are often given as the reason.  End of story.  There’s always been water droplets and ice crystals in the atmosphere but I never saw anything like this before, or many other strange apparitions, and I have been alive for 50 years. 

It seems to me the nature and chemical composition of the atmosphere has changed (been changed) which makes anomalies such as this one more frequent these days.  And I have to ask, what is such a cloud masking or outlining which would not be apparent if the atmosphere was not different than it used to be?

‘OIL SLICK’ CLOUD: On Jan. 25th, cold air from Canada descended over Ohio, producing scattered snow showers and some very unusual clouds. “My wife thought this cloud looked like an alien spacecraft,” says photographer Ed Kreminski, “but my kids thought it looked like a blimp on it’s way to cover a sporting event.”

Photo details: Olympus E-1, 50-200mm lens, ISO 100

A better analogy, says atmospheric optics expert Les Cowley, might be “an oily pool in the sky.”

“The colors of oil films on puddles appear when light reflected from the top and bottom of the film merges together,” he explains. “Light waves interfere, strengthening some colors and weakening others.”

The same thing is happening in this iridescent cloud–except instead of oil, we have tiny water droplets. “The cloud is thin and it contains many droplets of about the same size.” This combination produces an interference effect akin to an oil slick–without the greasy residue.

Barely Viewing Saturn

Last night I went out to see if I could glimpse Saturn’s rings.  The Space Weather website instructed to check the eastern sky two hours after sunset.  I had to brace my binoculars on the porch railing while squatting to look through them and I was just barely able to see Saturn’s rings.  A telescope would have been much better but I don’t have one and my buddy said it was too cold to go out and set up his spotting scope. 

Waning Moon Madness

Once again, during the waning moon, the stuff has hit the fan on the world stage and all sorts of bizarre and troubling events have toppled into view.  Wow.  Overload.  And we still have almost a week to go before the new moon.  Best wishes to everyone!

Golden Eagle Sighting

My buddy thinks he saw a soaring Golden Eagle today in town and if his identification is correct I take this as a very good esoteric sign indeed.  I handed him one of my bird books and he is sure that is what he saw.

Comet McNaught Has Spiral Jets?

Oh, my Goodness!  lol!  Tell me this comet is not a craft.  The southern hemisphere is really being saturated with comet dust!  Anyone experiencing comet dust syndrome yet? 

From the cool Space Weather website, 2/06/07:  www.spaceweather.com

COMET MCNAUGHT: Now that the full Moon is out of the way, observers in the Southern Hemisphere are spotting Comet McNaught again. Last night, “it was visible to the unaided eye,” says Chris Picking of Wairarapa, New Zealand. A 3-minute exposure on his off-the-shelf digital camera produced this image:

Current estimates of the comet’s brightness place it between 3rd and 4th magnitude. That’s about 2500 times dimmer than it was at maximum in mid-January. Ironically, as the comet fades it becomes an easier target for sensitive telescopes, and some interesting things are coming to light: A team of astronomers using the ESO’s 3.5-meter New Technology Telescope in Chile have just announced their discovery of “strong spiral jets extending at least 32,000 km from the comet’s nucleus.” [Ref: C. Snodgrass et al., IAU Electronic Telegram 832.] Stay tuned for updates.

 

Cetaceans Keep Their Tanks Clean

For anyone interested, cetaceans in captivity are trained to pick up “trash” in their tanks and give it to their trainers.  I watched this in action at Mystic Aquarium last fall.  They are rewarded with fish.  Anyone thinking of giving captive cetaceans “gifts” may want to keep this in mind.  It seems that when dolphins, for example, learn a new task, the knowledge of this task spreads to other dolphins elsewhere in captivity via their group or soul mind and they learn the task more easily.