“Black Sand Magic”
Merry
Thank you all very much for another really cool year. I could say a lot but instead I made a song that you can download for free for Christmas. Don’t even try to pay me for it because it is a gift. I’ll have it on Bandcamp until early January sometime.
Comet Hale-Bopp Over Val Parola Pass
Image Credit & Copyright: A. Dimai, (Col Druscie Obs.), AACExplanation: Comet Hale-Bopp, the Great Comet of 1997, became much brighter than any surrounding stars. It was seen even over bright city lights. Away from city lights, however, it put on quite a spectacular show. Here Comet Hale-Bopp was photographed above Val Parola Pass in the Dolomite mountains surrounding Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy. Comet Hale-Bopp’s blue ion tail, consisting of ions from the comet’s nucleus, is pushed out by the solar wind. The white dust tail is composed of larger particles of dust from the nucleus driven by the pressure of sunlight, that orbit behind the comet. Observations showed that Comet Hale-Bopp’s nucleus spins about once every 12 hours. A comet that may well exceed Hale-Bopp’s peak brightness is expected to fall into the inner Solar System next year.
NASA APOD 23 Dec 2012
