On this site you can zoom through the cosmos and see our galactic neighbourhood of 100 000 stars from different dimensions. So if you don’t know yet how to beam yourself through the universe or have a powerful starship in your garage, this is a good way to travel around.

Google Maps and NASA have just published a new global view and animation of Earth’s city lights. It is a composite assembled from data acquired by a satellite over nine days in April 2012 and 13 days in October 2012. It took 312 orbits to get a clear shot of every parcel of Earth’s land surface and islands. This new data was then mapped over existing Blue Marble imagery of Earth to provide a realistic view of the planet. Credit: NASA Earth Observatory/NOAA NGDC. Here are some pics on Mashable, and below a video of the pics. You find more on the NASA site.

A fantastic, light-filled view of our dear home planet’s beauty.

The Black Marbe. Credits: NASA

A friend send me this morning a link to an article in the German Spiegel magazine about a new discovery of astronomers of a quasar, being the brightest object discovered in the cosmos.

This quasar by name SDSS J1106+1939 from the sign of Leo sends out annually the matter mass of 400 suns into the cosmos with about 30 million km/h. This matter stream radiates about 100 times more energy than the entire milky-way, and it contains about 2 million million times (2 trillion) more energy than our sun radiates, as will be reported in a research to be published in the next issue of the American “Astrophysical Journal”. It is 5 times higher than the maximum energy discovered before.

This stream has been registered by the Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile. Astronomers think that quasars are super mass rich black holes, which normally absorb matter, but also throw out a part of the matter back into the cosmos. The quasar radiates 1000 light years into the surrounding galaxy. You find more articles about this quasar on the web, like this one here.

The time of the discovery of this tremendous source of light seems to be in an interesting synchrony with the upliftment of our system at the present moment.

Below is an illustration by the ESO of this Quasar.

Credit: ESO/L. Calçada

Last Sunday the weather was grey and high fog covered the sky. At noon it cleared up and we decided to go on the nearby Belpberg mountain. When driving up the hill we came again into thick fog and first thought it was a bad idea to go up. But then we pierced through the clouds and there was an incredible golden autumn light with a brilliant view of the Alps.

Coming out of the fog reminded me of coming out of the fog of dreamy-drowsy thoughts in meditation, when you are a bit sleepy. It sometimes happens that suddenly the inner sky clears up and consciousness, which is always there like the blue sky, becomes vast and radiant of light. Enjoy the photos.

Magical light through the fog

Mystical stones between the trees

Piercing sun rays

Autum sun reflections

Transparency

Walking up the hill

The view opens up

No question where to go – the path is clear…

The Bernese Alps with view over to Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau

On the ridge

Two helicopters arrived

Dreaming of jumping through the air

The sea of fog in the valley, and above – resplendent light

The sun reflecting in the sea of fog

A farmhouse just coming out of the fog

Little village on the mountain

Walking into the Light

An impressive video of a ride on the Atlantic Road at the north-west coast of Norway. It was built in 1983-1989 and seems to be running through the roaring sea. The video was done the day after the storm “Dagmar” hit the shore and caused a lot of damage in the area.

The symbolic impact of the images is like an illustration of passing through rough times in one’s life. It reminded me of my feelings during a period one year ago till this spring. You are going ahead on your way, but there are gale-force winds and sometimes the road seems to be covered by spindrift clouding your vision.
Now the inner times have totally changed – my wife just called it the velvet blackness of unmanifest potential, quoting a thought of Barbara Ann Brennan in Light Emerging.

Map images from Wikipedia

Photo from the video (c)

Here is the trailer of a fantastic documentary about the Birds of Paradise in New Guinea – nature’s creativity and colourful originality at its best, with feathered beings I never saw before. The video of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and National Geographic was published this autumn. An exposition in the National Geographic Museum was launched today. Enjoy.

A picture from the video (c) National Geographic

A very touching video (5.5 min) by the Greek film director and producer Constantin Pilavious about patience and understanding between a father and his son. The beauty and depth lies in its simplicity. Greek with English subtitles.

And I saw another video by Constantin Pilavious, with silent beauty. Well done and worth seeing. He writes:

“Once upon a time in a country far far away a boy lived, very different from all the others. His name was Eftichis. Everything ran smoothly in his life until one day, many many years ago an incident made him see life from a different perspective. And suddenly, a big secret was revealed.”

Last Thursday was the only good day in a series of rainy days. So I took off to go with my wife to Mount Harder above Interlaken. While going up the valley was still packed with clouds which later dissolved. Autumn nature was displaying its full beauty.

Looking down while going up. In the “Harderbahn” above Interlaken

At the hill station

In the valley the clouds looked like floating cotton

A majestic view to the Mount Jungfrau, Eiger and Mönch.

View of Interlaken – situated “inter the lakes” of Lake of Brienz and Lake of Thun. The leaves are getting fiery colours

The lake of Brienz shining in deep turquoise colours

The lake of Thun with view of Mount Niesen

A fantastic panorama platform over the steep mountainside

“Living at the edge”

Walking down a steep mountain path. You have to be very concentrated, for the ground was still slippery from the rain of the last days.

Curious cows…

… and curious walkers

Houses of fairyland in the forest

A little pause, with view to Mount Jungfrau and Interlaken

A waterfall on the way down

Heaven and earth meeting in an old bathtub – a watering place for the cows

A robin lays her four eggs in a hanging basket and the home owners set up a camera to film the results. The mother looks so bewildered at the end …. where are those kids? It reminds of the destiny of parents with the children growing up and flying away. A life-story in 03:33 minutes. If your life runs just like this, it is time to reorient to some higher purpose…

A fantastic video with symphonic music and scenes of unleashed powers of the elements – earth, water, fire, air – awe-inspiring. Have a look into the centre of a hurricane!