Joan's Lens

the world through my (camera) lens (and other notes)
Took a walk through Grove Street Cemetery. We came across a stone wall that had dozens of gravestones bearing this angelic (?) carving.

Took a walk through Grove Street Cemetery. We came across a stone wall that had dozens of gravestones bearing this angelic (?) carving.

Fall is upon us. I took this photo last November on a solitary photo expedition. I love how the last bits of sunlight seemed to hang on the ends of these plants.

Fall is upon us. I took this photo last November on a solitary photo expedition. I love how the last bits of sunlight seemed to hang on the ends of these plants.

From Being Blog: T'shuva: Recognizing Holiness

A lovely piece on the practice of turning inward and encountering the holy around us.

beingblog:

by Laura Hegfield, guest contributor

Found Heart-White Mts, NH, USA

I was watching the gathering clouds and their shifting shadows on those familiar mountains for quite a while. I saw you, but it wasn’t until I turned and took a step that I could truly see you.

With an intake of breath, my heart expanded in awe,…

from the archive. Land of #Lincoln. (Taken with instagram)

from the archive. Land of #Lincoln. (Taken with instagram)

Wrigley settling into his new #home (Taken with Instagram at our house)

Wrigley settling into his new #home (Taken with Instagram at our house)

kenyatta: China and Europe Both Have Plans To Prevent Deadly Asteroid Apophis from Hitting Earth in 2029 (or 2036) Apophis is a 46 million tonne asteroid that will pass within a hair’s breath of Earth in 2029. However, Apophis’s trajectory is likely to take it through a region of space near Earth known as a keyhole that will ensure the asteroid returns in 2036. Nobody knows how close Apophis will come on that pass. But if there’s a chance of a collision, we’ll have only 7 years to work out how to avoid catastrophe. Researchers at Tsinghua University in Beijing say their preference is to use a solar sail to place a small spacecraft into a retrograde orbit and on collision course with Apophis. The retrograde orbit will give it an impact velocity of 90km/s which, if they do this well enough in advance, should lead to a collision large enough to do the trick. In 2002, the European Space Agency began a program called Don Quijote to find out how best to perform such a deflection. Don Quijote involves sending two spacecraft to a near Earth asteroid; one to smash into it and the other to watch while in orbit above the impact crater. The goal is to change the asteroid’s semimajor axis by more than 100 metres and to measure the change with an accuracy greater than 1 per cent. via Technology Review This blows my mind. An asteroid could collide with the earth in less than 20 years??

kenyatta:

China and Europe Both Have Plans To Prevent Deadly Asteroid Apophis from Hitting Earth in 2029 (or 2036)

Apophis is a 46 million tonne asteroid that will pass within a hair’s breath of Earth in 2029. However, Apophis’s trajectory is likely to take it through a region of space near Earth known as a keyhole that will ensure the asteroid returns in 2036.

Nobody knows how close Apophis will come on that pass. But if there’s a chance of a collision, we’ll have only 7 years to work out how to avoid catastrophe.

Researchers at Tsinghua University in Beijing say their preference is to use a solar sail to place a small spacecraft into a retrograde orbit and on collision course with Apophis. The retrograde orbit will give it an impact velocity of 90km/s which, if they do this well enough in advance, should lead to a collision large enough to do the trick.

In 2002, the European Space Agency began a program called Don Quijote to find out how best to perform such a deflection.

Don Quijote involves sending two spacecraft to a near Earth asteroid; one to smash into it and the other to watch while in orbit above the impact crater. The goal is to change the asteroid’s semimajor axis by more than 100 metres and to measure the change with an accuracy greater than 1 per cent.

via Technology Review

This blows my mind. An asteroid could collide with the earth in less than 20 years??

(via npr)

kitchen #bouquet (Taken with Instagram at Mom and Dad’s)

kitchen #bouquet (Taken with Instagram at Mom and Dad’s)

more #dahlias (Taken with Instagram at Mom and Dad’s)

more #dahlias (Taken with Instagram at Mom and Dad’s)

homegrown dahlias. Hoping we’ll have more of these in a week (Taken with Instagram at Mom and Dad’s)

homegrown dahlias. Hoping we’ll have more of these in a week (Taken with Instagram at Mom and Dad’s)