WhatBirdcom is a site for identifying North American birds by either step-by-step search, bird browser or by shape, color or place you saw it.
Link via Daniel.
Category Archives: Science
Laser!
ZeitWissen: Spaß mit Lasern. “In der Disco ist es uns zu laut, aber die Lasershows finden wir toll. Also besuchten wir das internationale Treffen der ‘LaserFreaks’, brachten unsere eigene kleine Show mit – und versuchten, auf gar keinen Fall in den Laserstrahl zu gucken.”
Von Amélie Putzar und Stefanie Schramm.
Der Artikel enthält auch ein paar nette Tricks, die man vielleicht in der Schule nachmachen kann. Mal sehen, ob mein Laserpointer reicht, um einen Luftballon zum Platzen zu bringen oder ein Streichholz anzuzünden.
Lunation
Astronomy Picture of the Day: Lunation. “Our Moon’s appearance changes nightly. This time-lapse sequence shows what our Moon looks like during a
lunation, a complete lunar cycle.”
Birds!
“The Cornell Lab of Ornithology is a great source for all kinds of information on our feathered friends. The bird identification section is particular useful. There are also NestCams.”
Shamelessly stolen from MetaFilter a couple of weeks ago. I just remembered the link because we recently acquired a book on birds. (We also bought one to identify all the birds we saw on our trip to the USA this summer.)
Sun and moon halos and much more
While looking for an explanation for sun dogs earlier today I discovered Eva Seidenfaden’s great collection of photos: “www.paraselene.de (deutsche Version) is a gallery of images with brief explanations dedicated to atmospheric optics and astrophotography”.
I have seen sun dogs before and knew that there were more halos, arcs and the like (Halos, Nebensonnen, Bögen etc.) but thought they were only, if ever, visible in Antarctica – this misconception might stem from the fact that I first saw photos of these phenomena at an exhibition called Arctica – Antarctica (Arktis – Antarktis) at the Bundeskunsthalle (Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der BRD) in Bonn. In any case, Eva Seidenfaden has some exceptionally beautiful photos, and I urge you to browse her collection yourself!