Bright sparks, wow and a cute little thing

After last week's doom and gloom I thought I'ld better make up for it.
Driving to work early in the morning this time of year means that I'm in my car before sunrise. The day is breaking but the sun not up yet which results in vibrant colours. Nope, no pictures, I'm driving :-)

Two bright "stars" were clearly visible against the blue sky and these two "stars" were very close together making me conclude that they probably weren't stars as it were the only two heavenly objects visible (except for the moon). The next day they were still there but a bit further apart so I deduced that they had to be planets. But which? A quick internet search learned me that it was Jupiter and Venus:

Monday 18 August 05:45 (local): Venus is 11,9' north of Jupiter (-1,3m). They are closest at 07:10,at a height of 21°. The planets are in ENE about 8° above the horizon, 12' separation.

Those of you who saw it too may have marvelled at it just like I did. Staring at the infinity of universe always is very comforting to me.


Talking about the universe, here's a picture from astronaut Reid Wiseman currently serving as flight engineer aboard the International Space Station for Expedition 41. If that ain't "wow" I don't know what is...

The US celebrated Aviation Day this week. Wiki learned me that it was established in 1939 by Franklin Roosevelt, who issued a presidential proclamation which designated the anniversary of Orville Wright's birthday to be National Aviation Day.So let's celebrate as well with a picture from the unlimited Farnborough source. This time it is from this year's event, and I chose something that epitomises the joy of flying: the Starduster. It's a nice little homebuilt, if you want one, you can order plans and parts here.

And to get you into the right mood, here's the brave show it put up at Farnborough: