Willow on the trampoline with a new Hubble Space Telescope shot as background.

From APOD: Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn, and cauldron bubble — maybe Macbeth should have consulted the Witch Head Nebula. This suggestively shaped reflection nebula is associated with the bright star Rigel in the constellation Orion. More formally known as IC 2118, the Witch Head Nebula glows primarily by light reflected from bright star Rigel, located just off the upper right edge of the full image. Fine dust in the nebula reflects the light. The blue color is caused not only by Rigel’s blue color but because the dust grains reflect blue light more efficiently than red. The same physical process causes Earth’s daytime sky to appear blue, although the scatterers in Earth’s atmosphere are molecules of nitrogen and oxygen. The nebula lies about 1000 light-years away

For this weeks Creative Photo, I peered into cosmic genesis and found the likeness of my little cherub gently encouraging infant stars into the Small Magellanic Cloud crèche.

If your curious about this small satellite galaxy NGC 602 (pictured) near the Small Magellanic Cloud it’s 200 thousand light-years distant. Surrounded by natal gas and dust, NGC 602 is featured in this stunning Hubble image of the region. Fantastic ridges and swept back shapes strongly suggest that energetic radiation and shock waves from NGC 602′s massive young stars have eroded the dusty material and triggered a progression of star formation moving away from the cluster’s center. At the estimated distance of the Small Magellanic Cloud, the nebula background picture spans about 200 light-years, but a tantalizing assortment of background galaxies are also visible in the sharp Hubble view. The background galaxies are hundreds of millions of light-years or more beyond NGC 602.

Here I am all Doodled up and ready to go. I suspect I’ll have about a 7 month cruise before getting to Mars. Spend about 9 months on the planet bouncing around, exploring lava caves and sifting for precious metals before jumping back in my ride and taking another 8 or 9 months to retun to good ol’ Earth. Anyone wanna come along?

This is my Thursday Doodle for Doodle Week. If you haven’t guessed, today’s theme is Doodle Vacation.

This is day two of Doodle Week and the theme for today is Doodle Space. Here’s my Doodle Space Doodle. You can check out all the Doodles at the Flickr Doodle Week Group.

For today’s Space Doodle, I thought I’d give you directions to the little red planet. If you happen to be rocketing around the Solar System, be sure and drop by for a visit.

cheers!

Here’s a hi-res (3888×2592 pixels) Zenwalk Linux wallpaper.

I would like to respectfully acknowledge Wurundjeri People of the Kulin Nation who are the Traditional Owners and Custodians of the land I currently reside.

Using traditional Australian Aboriginal symbols, the image depicts the future dreaming of man leaving the cradle of humanity. The concentric circles the ‘campsites’ or colonies as man takes to the stars. Undulating patterns mirroring trials and tribulations persist in following the journey. The U shapes of mankind identify a new civilization emerging in the stars.

The background image is a Hubble Space Telescope shot of the Orion Nebula.

Created using the GIMP opensource image editing software on Zenwalk Linux.

For more information on Aboriginal Painting or to view real Aboriginal artists work please visit:
www.aboriginalartonline.com/index.php
www.aboriginalart.org/
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Aboriginal_art

Note: I am not of Aboriginal descent and do not claim to understand the complexities and full symbolism of traditional Aboriginal art. I hope that by learning more about the Aboriginal culture and art I can gain a greater appreciation and understanding.

Here’s another Zenwalk Linux wallpaper. This one is based on my Nebula In My Backyard II image. The image featurres a photo off my balcony early one morning superimposed upon a Hubble Space Telepscope shot of the Orion Nebula. Download a hi-resolution version (1800×1200) here.

On the weekend I wandered around Melbourne with my family. While crossing the street I snapped this photo of the church opposite Federation Square. The background is a Hubble Space Telescope shot of the NGC 3603 star forming region.

(from Wikipedia)

NGC 3603 is a giant H II region^[1] in the Carina spiral arm of the Milky Way around 20,000 light-years away from our solar system. It was discovered by John Frederick William Herschel in 1834. It is home to an open cluster (centre of the image) containing about 2000 bright stars, each of which is much brighter and more massive than our Sun, and the only giant H II region in our galaxy that is visible at optical wavelengths.

NGC 3603 is visible in the telescope as a small rather insignificant nebulosity with a yellowish tinge due to the effects of interstellar absorption. In the mid-1960s optical studies coincided with radio astronomical observations which showed it to be an extremely strong thermal radio source. Later observations in other galaxies introduced the concept of ‘starburst’ regions, in some cases whole galaxies, of extremely rapid star formation and NGC 3603 is now considered to be such a region. In 1987 a supernova (known as SN 1987A) occurred in the Large Magellanic Cloud. This was the first supernova to be close enough for detailed observation with satellite based telescopes. One result was the discovery that prior to the main explosion it had thrown off a relatively small amount of material in a very distinctive pattern, a bit like an hourglass perpendicular to a detached glowing ring. One star in NGC 3603 (Sher 25, the number comes from the 1960s optical observations) was found to have thrown off matter in a pattern similar to that found for the supernova 1987A. This coincidence has aroused intense interest.

Call me an adult with an overactive imagination, a dreamer or a delusional geek but sometimes I just can’t help but wonder … What would my backyard look like if Earth was a little closer to the Orion Nebula?

Ah, now that’s worth pulling out the deck chairs and a pondering over a tequila sunrise.

Hubble’s Sharpest View of the Orion Nebula:
The Orion Nebula is a cavern of tumultuous gas and dust where thousands of stars are forming. The energy released by the young stars transforms their place of birth, whipping their surroundings into fantastic forms.