An amateur astronomer from Rosario, Argentina, has accomplished an historic first: capturing the initial moments of a supernova explosion on film.
Although astronomers spot hundreds of supernovas each year, none had previously spied the bright, brief moment when the shock wave first bursts out from the star’s interior — until now.
Read/listen to my full story at KJZZ’s Arizona Science Desk:
Amateur Astronomer Accidentally Photographs Previously Unseen Supernova Event
As Monday’s solar eclipse draws near, many Phoenicians worry they won’t be able to find viewing glasses — or that they’ll get unsafe knockoffs instead. But Phoenix libraries are offering a fun and educational way for kids to get theirs.
Read/listen to my full story at KJZZ’s Arizona Science Desk:
Phoenix Libraries Offer Programs, Eclipse-Viewing Glasses For Kids
Thomas Edison has long enjoyed the incandescent light of public admiration and textbook domination while Nikola Tesla, the scientist and inventor who pioneered the alternating current that truly powers the modern world, has unjustly languished as a footnote in scientific history. Farsighted, quirky, driven and brilliant, Tesla frequently leapfrogged ahead of his contemporaries to the next step, and the next.
Over the course of his long career, Tesla registered over 111 American patents and around 300 patents worldwide, including radio and alternating current. He designed the Niagara Falls power station that provided electricity to most of the northeastern United States. But his loyalty to his first loves, science and progress, cost him his fame, his fortune and, some argue, his sanity. These are just a few of the …
If it takes a certain daring – or disregard – to crack the case on your computer and blow it free of dust, then it takes even more gumption to tackle cleaning your digital camera sensor. In this article, I’ll walk you through the basics of sensor cleaning, give you the rundown on which tools you’ll need (and which ones you won’t), show you how to get the gunk off your lenses and throw in some general upkeep tips for good measure.
Photography is all about light; it’s right there in the name: photo (“light”) + graph (“means of recording”). So how do you shoot in the gloom between the golden hours? Well, you have a few options. You can pop in a flashbulb. You can try your hand at painting with light – that is, fiddling with f-stops and shutter speeds to let more light in over a longer period. Unfortunately, flashbulbs tend to wash out photos, and setting up longer exposures tends to limit your photographic freedom.
Night-vision cameras and attachments get around these problems, either by amplifying existing light or working with a different kind of ambient “light” – aka infrared radiation, either from body heat (thermal IR) or from an active IR illuminator attached to the camera. Today, infrared and ultraviolet cameras also make useful tools for inspections and field work. But how do they work, and what is their history?
