Thursday, February 3, 2011

The Most Amazing thing a Sky can do






CRYSTAL FOLLIES
In his book Kaleidoscope Sky, naturalist Tim Herd explains the gamut of wonders that one can see in our atmosphere, some of which are shown in this gallery.
An Austrian ski resort provided this image of ice crystals. The crystals act like prisms, bending the sunlight at no less than 22 degrees. Thus, that ring you see is called a 22-degree halo, and its inside appears dark because light is bent away from it.








WHEN BOATS FLY
Don't believe the cartoons--mirages don't happen solely in the desert. Light bends anytime it passes through air, but when the air temperature varies dramatically over a short distance, causing it to have great fluctuations in density, it can bend light so much that a mirage occurs.
This image is called a superior mirage because it makes the boat look taller than it actually is. And superior mirages always include a portion of the picture that's inverted, as you can see here.

THE EYE OF SAURON?
With this chimney blocking the glare of the sun, we can see a faint 22-degree halo in the sky over Finland. This is called a circumscribed halo because we can see it go all the way around.
Halos happen all the time; they're more common than rainbows. But you have to block the sun's glare to see them.

TWO SUNSETS IN ONE DAY
The refraction of sunlight usually makes the sun appear flatter or more oval on the horizon during sunsets. This sunset over the Pacific Ocean, photographed by the European Southern Observatory in Chile, is a more pronounced version of that visual effect.
Refraction severely flattens the top of the sun, but its light is brighter because of a shorter trip through the atmosphere. The double sun seen below is called an inferior mirage. This is the most common type of mirage, the one we see all the time on highways on hot days.
AURORA IN RED
Subatomic particles fly out from the sun constantly, in what we call the solar wind. Luckily for living beings, the Earth's magnetosphere deflects most of these particles away from us.
But at the planet's far polar regions, some of these particles enter our atmosphere and provide the sweeping light shows we know as auroras.
Auroras emit light in colors across the visible spectrum, but just a few dominate, with green being the most common color. Ionizing oxygen high in the Alaska skies allowed for these rare red aurora rays.
DESERT STRIKE
You might remember this one from elementary school science class: Negative charges accumulate in the lower parts of clouds; positive charges accumulate in the ground.
When the voltage exceeds the air's capacity to insulate it--zap! This long, lone lightning bolt struck out across the Arizona sky near the Silverbell Mountains.

DANK RAINBOW
"Corona" usually refers to the outer layer of the sun, visible only during solar eclipses.
A corona here on Earth occurs when sunlight passes through tiny water droplets, separating into different bands, as you see here.
LOOK WHAT I CAUGHT IN MY WEB
Rainbows can form when light shines through water droplets in the air--the standard rainbow that we see not infrequently.
But if the sun shines in at a low angle, they can also appear when water droplets affix to certain surfaces, like the dew on this spiderweb. Grass, heather, and other small plants are also good surfaces for dewbows.
NOT READY FOR NIGHTFALL
Sometimes mountaintops shine in the pinkish light seen here, even when the sun has yet to come over the horizon or, more commonly, when it has already descended below the horizon at dusk.
This is called alpenglow, and it happens because the sunlight reflects downward off snow, water, or ice particles low in the atmosphere.
TAKING THE "BOW" OUT OF "RAINBOW"
This flat rainbow is called a circumhorizontal arc, a rare phenomenon that can form only when the sun is above 58 degrees in the sky and shines through plates of ice crystals. This one showed up in Spokane, Washington, in 2006.

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Facts about Light !!


Facts About Light

The speed of light is generally rounded down to 186,000 miles per second. In exact terms it is 299,792,458 m/s (metres per second – that is equal to 186, 287.49 miles per second).
It takes 8 minutes 17 seconds for light to travel from the Sun’s surface to the Earth.
Every second around 100 lightning bolts strike the Earth.
Every year lightning kills 1000 people.
The currently accepted value is 299 792 km/s based on several measurements.
Red, green and blue are the primary colours of light. Mixing them in various ways will make all other colours, including white.
Light is a form of energy which our sense of sight can detect. It is made of electro-magnetic radiation and travels in a straight path.
The bending of light as it passes from one transparent substance to another, like air to water, is called refraction.
When sunlight is intercepted by a drop of water in the atmosphere, some of the light refracts into the drop, reflects from the drop’s inner surface, and then refracts out of the drop. The first refraction separates the sunlight into its component colours, and the second refraction increases the separation. The result is a rainbow.
There are different colours of light because they are light waves which have different wavelengths. Red light has the longest wavelength while violet light has the shortest wavelength.
The light bulb was invented in 1879 by Thomas Alva Edison.
When you turn on a light bulb only 10 per cent of the electricity used is turned into light, the other 90 per cent is wasted as heat.
Low energy light bulbs last on average up to 12 times longer than traditional fluorescent bulbs.
Low energy light bulbs last on average up to 12 times longer than traditional fluorescent bulbs.
A heavy coat of dust can block up to half of the light.

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Picture Stranded


From The Denver Post's Plog: Hundreds of cars are seen stranded on lake Shore drive Wednesday, Feb. 2, 2011 in Chicago. A winter blizzard of historic proportions wobbled an otherwise snow-tough Chicago, stranding hundreds of drivers for up to 12 hours overnight on the city's showcase lakeshore thoroughfare and giving many city schoolchildren their first ever snow day. (AP Photo/Kiichiro Sato)

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World's Most Beautiful Structures


Taj Mahal,Agra, India
Taj Mahal, Agra, India

According to legend, the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan wanted to build the most beautiful mausoleum on earth to express his love for his favorite wife. Or, perhaps he was simply asserting his political power. The Taj Mahal may have been designed by Ustad Ahmad Lahori, an Indian architect of Persian descent. Persian, Central Asian, and Islamic elements combine in the great white marble tomb. The Taj Mahal is just one of many architectural wonders in a land of majestic tombs and erotic temples.


The Forbidden City, Beijing, China
The Forbidden City, Beijing, China

The Forbidden City was the Chinese imperial palace from the mid-Ming Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty. It is located in the middle of Beijing, China and now houses the Palace Museum. For almost five centuries, it served as the home of the Emperor and his household, and the ceremonial and political centre of Chinese government.


The Millenium Dome, London, England
The Millenium Dome, London, England

The Millennium Dome, designed by Sir Richard Rogers, 1996?99. The Millennium Dome was one of the UK's most controversial public projects.The new millennium officially started in Greenwich, England on 1st January 2001; The World's biggest dome was built on the Meridian Line (The Prime Meridian of the World) in Greenwich to celebrate this historic event.


Burj-Al-Arab Hotel, Dubai
Burj-Al-Arab Hotel, Dubai

Considered one of the world's most luxurious hotels from the day it opened, The Burj Al Arab is a futuristic architectural marvel towering over the Gulf. Its design is stunning - the Burj Al Arab is shaped like a billowing spinnaker sail. Its height is staggering - the hotel measures 332 meters (1053 feet), making it one of the world's highest buildings.

The Burj Al Arab (means "The Arabian Tower" in Arabic) is built on a tiny man-made sea island, a mere football kick from the Dubai mainland. A short causeway links the hotel to the Dubai mainland. The skyscraping Burj Al Arab is firmly rooted. Its foundation pillars reach 40 meters (120 feet) underneath the seabed.


Hagia Sophia, Istanbul
Hagia Sophia, Istanbul

Famous for its impressive size, remarkable architecture and beautiful mosaics and frescoes, the massive ochre-coloured domed structure known as Hagia Sophia is one of Istanbul's most popular attractions. It was commissioned as a cathedral in the 6th century and remained the most important church in Christianity for over 900 years. In the 15th century Mehmet II conquered the city and converted it into a mosque, adding the minarets and fountains. It functioned as such for the next 481 years until the founding of the secular Turkish Republic in 1934 when it was declared a museum. Hagia Sophia is one of the greatest Byzantine buildings in the world, and the vast interior, with its huge soaring dome, is extraordinary. The interior contains different features from its time as a cathedral and then as a mosque, including incredible Byzantine mosaics, icons and marble columns, a mihrab (niche indicating the direction of Mecca), and Islamic calligraphy inscriptions on the dome from the Ottoman period.

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