We were up at Fort MacArthur today to visit with a blogging friend. While we were there, I walked around with Cabela and took several photos of flowers in bloom. This is a photo of a pink iceplant flower. There were many flowers open and I thought this one was very pretty. Click on the image to enlarge.
When I surfed over to the Astronomy Picture of the Day this morning, I saw this 3D image of Helene, one of the moons orbiting Saturn.
I grabbed my pair of 3D glasses and saw what this moon would look like if you could see it in stereo. I thought it would be nice to archive it with the 3D stuff and to share it. Of course, if you don’t have a pair of 3D glasses handy, you can view the 2D image here.
This is the technobabble blurb from APOD:
Get out your red/blue glasses and float next to Helene, small, icy moon of Saturn. Appropriately named, Helene is one of four known Trojan moons, so called because it orbits at a Lagrange point. A Lagrange point is a gravitationally stable position near two massive bodies, in this case Saturn and larger moon Dione. In fact, irregularly shaped ( about 36 by 32 by 30 kilometers) Helene orbits at Dione’s leading Lagrange point while brotherly ice moon Polydeuces follows at Dione’s trailing Lagrange point. The sharp stereo anaglyph was constructed from two Cassini images (N00172886, N00172892) captured during the recent close flyby. It shows part of the Saturn-facing hemisphere of Helene mottled with craters and gully-like features.
We are back at the California house this evening. We had a couple of surprises awaiting us in the backyard. One of them is this beautiful flower on our Golden Torch Cactus. Click on the image to enlarge.
Monday, I posted a photo of the flower pods on my Red Bird of Paradise. To my surprise, the first three flowers opened up yesterday morning. I don’t have to tell you how much I love these shrubs and I’m ecstatic to have my very own blooms. Click on the image to enlarge.
This is the “before” view of the back patio taken on the eve of the beginning of construction on a screened enclosure. Verna and I thought about it for a while and decided that this would be a good, if not necessary, improvement.
First of all, it would keep the dogs, Bear and Cabela, from wandering off. We currently have to keep the little one on a leash, or she will give chase to every bird, rabbit and squirrel that frequent our back lot. Conversely, it keeps most critters out. Neighbors have reported rattlesnakes and Gila monsters in the area, so keeping those out of the patio seems to be a real good thing, not to mention insects.
I should be able to post a photo of the completed enclosure next week. Click on the image to enlarge.
I have been looking forward to having my own beautiful Red Bird of Paradise flowers in the courtyard. Well, it’s about to happen. I will have more images of this beautiful (and my favorite) shrub’s flowers soon. Click on the image to enlarge.
