March 17, 2017
Ice Cave Selfie
Canadian Your Shot photographer Jeff Wallace posed on this ice cave in Athabasca, Canada for scale. He said, “The piece I’m standing on, and huge wall behind me was the ceiling earlier this year. Sometime in September 2015, it collapsed to the floor sealing off the cave. An opening has emerged in the lower right of the frame, allowing folks to explore more of the cave again.”
Explanation: The galaxies of Abell 2666 lie far beyond the Milky Way, some 340 million light-years distant toward the high flying constellation Pegasus. Framed in this sharp telescopic image, the pretty cluster galaxies are gathered behind scattered, spiky, Milky Way stars. At cluster center is giant elliptical galaxy NGC 7768, the central dominant galaxy of the cluster. As the cluster forms, such massive galaxies are thought to grow by mergers of galaxies that fall through the center of the cluster’s gravitational well. Typical of dominant cluster galaxies, NGC 7768 likely harbors a supermassive black hole. At the estimated distance of Abell 2666, this cosmic frame would span about 5 million light-years.
The picture this weekend is from Joey T;
It’s the bottom of “Engineer Hill” in the 11 area of Camp Pendleton taken this week when I was out running. Although Hack Stone might not believe it, I did run to the top of it and have another one from the top to prove it but don’t want to clog your mailbox with 11 MB of pictures.
I thought some old Marines who served on Pendleton might like to see it.
Friday, February 24: The Hameem Desert
A man walks with camels across the Hameem desert, some 105 miles west of Abu Dhabi in that United Arab Emirates on February 24, 2017.
Frank sends this picture for this weekend’s WOT that he took of his dogs when they were at Camp Rudder, Florida the other day.
And you thought I forgot, right? Never! Not in a million years would I do that! I’m going to be embedded with the Marines in Kyrzakistan, so whatever you’re going to do, have some fun with it. You remember Kyrzakistan, don’t you? Lovely place. I think it was referenced by someone who occupied the seat of Secretary of State a while back.
Since someone is impersonating Hondo, I’m including one of the real Hondo’s photos in this Open Thread. It’s gray, foggy and chilly, a perfect day to curl up with a good book, beverages and food within easy reach, and get lost in an adventure. ‘Treasure Island’ – remember that one? Reading keeps your mind in the expansion mode. I’m making a shopping list for Saturday. You all take care.
You thought I’d forget, did you?
Nope. Not a chance. Just waiting for that moment when things got quiet and everyone’s senses were dulled, sated by lunch.
Clear, sunny weather in my kingdom. No damage control needed so far. Clear sailing ahead.