Messier 106 – A celestal wonder

Close to the Great Bear (Ursa Major) and surrounded by the stars of the Hunting Dogs (Canes Venatici), this celestial wonder was discovered in 1781 by the metric French astronomer Pierre Mechain. Later, it was added to the catalog of his friend and colleague Charles Messier as M106. Modern deep telescopic views reveal it to be an island universe — a spiral galaxy around 30 thousand light-years across located only about 21 million light-years beyond the stars of the Milky Way. Along with a bright central core, this colorful composite image highlights youthful blue star clusters and reddish stellar nurseries tracing the galaxy’s spiral arms. It also shows remarkable reddish jets of glowing hydrogen gas. In addition to small companion galaxy NGC 4248 near the picture’s right edge, background galaxies can be found scattered throughout the frame. M106 (aka NGC 4258) is a nearby example of the Seyfert class of active galaxies, seen across the spectrum from radio to x-rays. Active galaxies are believed to be powered by matter falling into a massive central black hole. Credit & Copyright: Ken Crawford (Rancho Del Sol Observatory)

Iguazu Falls – New video on vimeo

Iguazu Falls are among the most monumental Water Falls in the world, situated in Argentinia. In the year 2000 spiritual teacher Sri Chinmoy established a plaque dedicating the site as “A Sri Chinmoy Peace Falls”. This video offers you the power, majesty and beauty of the Iguazu Falls which following a recent news item nearly dried out because of a long drought period in 2009. Soundtrack by Parichayaka Hammerl.

My Photo Blogs

For more than a year I have a personal Photo Blog, where you can find a new picture almost every day. If you are a photography lover then this site should be in your bookmarks! At the same time I would like to mention three other Photo Blogs which I am moderating. One is featuring HD Photos, that means large size photos with a width of more than 2200 px, then I have a Blog that presents one new photo of spiritual teacher Sri Chinmoy every day and the last is called Kenya Photos and shows  pictures of or around the Rhein-Valley Hospital in Nakuru, Kenya with photos by Ruth Schäfer.

“Lights on” – a visual performance in Linz

“Lights on” is an audio visual performance created for the Ars Electronica Museum in Linz, Austria, which has a facade that contains 1085 LED controllable windows. The windows’ colors are changed in real-time with music that’s broadcasted on speakers surrounding the building. Visuals are coded in openframeworks by Zachary Lieberman, Joel Gethin Lewis and Damian Stewart, music is by Daito Manabe, with support from Taeji Sawai and Kyoko Koyama. The performance is approximately 10 minutes long. It is an edit. Special thanks to the awesome ars electronica / futurelab crew, (maria, wolfgang, andreas), also Iris Mayer, Carolina vallejo and Rhizomatiks for helping make this possible. also a huge thanks to the technicians of Multivision who helped install the LEDs and made this possible. Some additional info about the install are mentioned here: is.gd/BkP2</p9

Children of Light – Exclusive Interview with Elsbeth Maurer

In this interview Swiss author, designer and mother of a special new age child speaks on her experiences with her daugther “Joy”, her books and her concept of “Open Your Heart”. A fascinating woman – a fascinating story! This is episode 25 of my monthly interview series “LIFE Voices”.

“Bless This Garden” – A Film by Chris Light

The video site vimeo is a true source of inspiration for all lovers of shortfims and creative videos. Check it our regularly. Here is an example produced by Chris Light. The title of the piece is “Bless This Garden”.

Circumhorizontal Arc Over Ohio

Why would clouds appear to be different colors? The reason here is that ice crystals in distant cirrus clouds are acting like little floating prisms. Sometimes known as a fire rainbow for its flame-like appearance, a circumhorizon arc lies parallel to the horizon. For a circumhorizontal arc to be visible, the Sun must be at least 58 degrees high in a sky where cirrus clouds are present. Furthermore, the numerous, flat, hexagonal ice-crystals that compose the cirrus cloud must be aligned horizontally to properly refract sunlight in a collectively similar manner. Therefore, circumhorizontal arcs are quite unusual to see. This circumhorizon display was photographed through a polarized lens above Dublin, Ohio last week. (Photo Credit & Copyright: Todd Sladoje)

Soul-Bird Drawings in Guatemala

During his Christmas vacation in Guatemala spiritual teacher Sri Chinmoy (1931-2007) created many of his famous Soul-Bird Drawings on large big hotel window panels in Panachahel. This video features this unique art session. More videos on Sri Chinmoy’s activities on srichinmoy.tv.

Rembrandt Impact Basin on Mercury

Why do portions of this huge crater on Mercury have so much iron? The unusual Rembrandt impact basin was discovered recently in images taken during the robotic MESSENGER spacecraft’s 2008 October flyby of the Solar System’s innermost planet. The unusual Rembrandt spans over 700 kilometers and at 4 billion years old is possibly the youngest large impact basin on the planet. Multicolored images of the crater floor, however, indicate reflections from areas containing unusually high amounts of iron and titanium. These elements indicate that some exposed materials have not been covered by more recent lava floes, and so might originate from an epoch of Mercury’s formation. Data from Rembrandt and across Mercury are now being interpreted as indicating a relatively active and volcanic past for Mercury that includes surface tectonics. Close inspection of the above image will reveal rings of Mercury’s Rembrandt impact basin circling around the image center. Mercury’s limb is visible on the upper left, high cliffs and small craters are visible inside Rembrandt, and the terminator between night and day runs diagonally through the image. MESSENGER is on track to fly past Mercury again this September and enter orbit around Mercury in 2011. (Credit & Copyright: NASA/JHU APS/ASU/CIW; Courtesy Science/AAAS)

Self-Transcendence Six and Ten Day Race 2009 in Queens (NY) finished

May 2 saw the end of the 14th Annual Self-Transcendence Ten Day and Six Day Races organised by the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team, accentuated by dominant performances for both races and genders. Australian Dipali Cunningham In the Ten Day, ultra legend Madhupran Wolfgang Schwerk, 53,from, 50, from Melbourne created the most sensation with a down-to-the-wire effort, surpassing her eight-year-old world road six day women’s record with an amazing 513+ miles. That she turned fifty last year is an even more remarkable fact, besides that she has won 25 of 30 multidays in her career, including ten overall victories. Cunningham said: “I think I am being shown that age is in the mind.” The New York Times reported, that Dipali Cunningham had her best performance when her spirituality took over.  She felt like she was cheating out there because this power and joy entered into her from above. Dipali Cunningham was pushed by American Pam Reed, 48, from Tucson, AZ., who garnered a record herself with 490 miles- the best American womens’ open plus the age group (45-49) for six days. Darren Worts, 38, from Chatham, NJ USA won for the men with 420 miles- his first multiday venture. In the Ten Day, ultra legend Madhupran Wolfgang Schwerk,53,from Solingen, Germany breezed to victory with 777 miles, the third best performance in 10 Day annals and reportedly his last venture into racing beyond 24 hours. Igor Mudryk,34, from Vinnitsa,Ukraine finished second with 712 miles, a personal best of 179 miles! Kaneenika Janakova,38, from Bratislava, Slovakia made it two straight wins in the ladies’ Ten Day event with 707 miles, a personal best by 37 miles and a Slovakian national record. Sarah Barnett from Adelaide, Australia finished second with a PB of 684 miles. There were 44 starters in the 10 Day and 36 in the Six Day Race. The NYT published a video on the event, here is the link.