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Unforgettable images of deep space
“From the dramatic Horsehead Nebula to the mysterious glowing Bow of Orion, a series of unforgettable images have been entered into the Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2009 competition.
More than 500 photographs have been submitted from around the world all from amateur astro-photographers with their own observatories who are passionate about capturing outer space. Some true beginners even used their mobile phones to upload snaps to a special competition section on the Flickr website, although none of these was shortlisted.
Exposure time, which is the total amount of light allowed to fall on the photographic film or image sensor, varied from 20 minutes to more than 20 hours to achieve different effects.
Commodore 64 Emulator approved for iPhone
“After a couple of months of rejection, the C64 Emulator has finally been approved for the iPhone, minus ‘BASIC’, and is available at the app store now. It comes with 5 bundled games and will certainly give you that retro fix for your iPhone.”
Light to create sound under water!
“Researchers at the Naval Research Laboratory claim to have come up with a better tool for underwater acoustics. The new system uses laser light to create sound underwater from a distance.
This technology could allow planes a much easier method of communicating with submarines without the need for a floating buoy.
Excerpt:
Efficient conversion of light into sound can be achieved by concentrating the light sufficiently to ionize a small amount of water, which then absorbs laser energy and superheats. The result is a small explosion of steam, which can generate a 220 decibel pulse of sound.
Optical properties of water can be manipulated with very intense laser light to act like a focusing lens, allowing nonlinear self-focusing (NSF) to take place. In addition, the slightly different colors of the laser, which travel at different speeds in water due to group velocity dispersion (GVD), can be arranged so that the pulse also compresses in time as it travels through water, further concentrating the light. By using a combination of GVD and NSF, controlled underwater compression of optical pulses can be attained.”
Browser speed test: Chrome 4 vs. Opera 10 vs. Firefox 3.5
“In a three-way cage match, LifeHacker threw Chrome 4, Firefox 3.5, and Opera 10 into the ring and let the three browsers duke it out to see which would emerge as the fastest app for surfing the web.”
Huge Irish sky explosions get investigated
“Astronomers in Ireland have appealed to the public to contact them with eyewitness accounts of a massive explosion in the sky over the country.
From the BBC: ‘Astronomy Ireland chairman David Moore said: “So far, reports have been registered by residents in west Cork, Kerry, Cavan and as far north as Donegal, thus suggesting that this spectacular event may have been witnessed by people all over the country. In the past two decades there have been two major explosions in the skies over Ireland. When we investigated these, we were able to conclude that one was a Russian military satellite that exploded over the country, and the other was a rock from space.”‘”
Canadians to pay ‘IPod fee’?
“The Canadian Private Copying Collective is pushing for the implementation of an iPod fee in Canada to compensate them for ‘losses’ when people copy music to their digital music players.
They have collected a fee from every CDR sold in Canada since 1997 and now want to extend that to digital music players.”
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