IC 1805 is a faint, but huge emission nebula in the Cassiopeia constellation. It is about 330 light-years in diameter and has an angular size of 2 degrees – 4 diameters of the full Moon! The open star cluster in the centre of the heart (Collinder 26) creates intense stellar wind that drives the shape of the gas cloud and causes it to emit the intense red colour. Some of these stars are 50 times more massive than the Sun.
This light travelled for 7,500 years before reaching my camera in Victoria, BC in the early October.
M31 is the deep-sky object that made me want to do astrophography. This light travelled for 2.5 million years before reaching my yard in Victoria, BC in the early September.
The Andromeda is closest galaxy to our Milky Way Galaxy. It is 152,000 light-years in diameter, contains approximately 1 trillion stars and is moving towards us at 110 kilometres per second. Our galaxies will collide in about 4.5 billion years, eventually forming a single giant elliptical galaxy.
The chance of any stars colliding is actually negligibly small, because despite their great numbers, the distances between the stars are tremendous. The two galaxies will simply pass through each other, as they commonly do. In fact, the M31 itself merged with another galaxy 3 billion years ago.
However, both the Milky Way and the Andromeda galaxies have supermassive black holes in their centres, and when they eventually merge, they would form a quasar and release as much energy as about 100 million supernova explosions. According to the current models, there is a 12% chance that our Sun would get ejected from the new galaxy during the collision, in which case the star itself, as well as its planets would be undisturbed. However, if the Sun comes close to the new black hole, it would be torn apart by its gravity.
This will be of little consequence to the life on our planet, though, because much earlier than that, about 1 billion years from now, the Sun’s luminosity will increase by approximately 40%, and there will be no way for liquid water and terrestrial life to exist on Earth.
Time to introduce planetary engineering into our curriculum?
NGC 7635 is a unique-looking emission nebula in the Cassiopeia constellation. It looks like a glowing bubble, and in some sense it is. It’s a shell of ionized H II gas blown out by a massive, hot young star SAO 20575. This central star has a visual magnitude of 8.7 and has a mass of 44 Suns. Its light travelled for 11,000 years before it hit my yard in Victoria, BC on June 7, 2024.
Churaumi aquarium is famous for its scale and a large collection of animals. It is also controversial, basically for the same reasons. It is highly promoted as one of the top attractions in Okinawa, so we expected to see something grandiose. It actually blew the expectations away. Truly fascinating! For what it’s worth, I personally learned a lot. But I wouldn’t have believed that such incredible variety of species could coexist in such close proximity if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes just a day earlier while SCUBA diving at the local coral reefs (didn’t see a whale shark then, though).
Had a great day of SCUBA diving at the amazing Kerama Islands National park. The corals and the variety of brilliant marine life is the best I’ve seen. Thank you, Dorka, for guiding us on this amazing adventure!
This shrine was established at the base of the Hakusan mountain over 2,100 years ago! Hakusan, which stands over three prefectures (Ishikawa, Fukui and Gifu), has been considered a sacred mountain since ancient times, being an important water source for the valleys below. The deity of the shrine is a goddess of matchmaking and family happiness.
Hakusan Hime jinjya has an incredibly tranquil atmosphere – a cool, quiet forest full of the sound of running streams. The 800-years-old sugi cedar, a sacred tree, that stands at the omote-sando walkway is 12 meters in circumpherence at the base and is 45-meters tall! I’ve see several trees during this trip to Japan that reminded me of Studio Ghibli’s “My neighbour Totoro,” and this is one of them.
We were lucky to enjoy some golden light when we came up to the main shrine. The building is both grandiose and elegant at the same time. And the shimenawa rope, which is meant to ward off evil spirits, over the entrance is some of the most impressively thick I’ve seen.
Our daughter, for whom this the first visit to Japan, was soaking up the incredible surroundings and enjoying learning the etiquette of visiting a shrine: make an offering of money, bow twice, clap twice, bow once. When leaving, turn around and bow again.
Kotoji lantern at Kenrokuen garden. This iconic symbol of Kanazawa resembles a bridge on a koto – a traditional Japanese string instrument. It is different from other Japanese lanterns, because it has two pedestals of uneven length – one on the ground and one in the water. Their beautiful curves give the lantern its unique shape, and they are quite difficult to capture precisely in a sketch.
The first full day of our extended visit to Japan. We spent the morning exploring the Tokyo Station neighbourhood and took a Shinkansen train to Kanazawa.
Visited the 21st Century museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa yesterday and saw Shinsuke Yoshitake’s exhibit. Amazing amount of work, creativity and attention to detail! Not to mention, a great sense of humour.
