TYB
NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day
Dec 29 2022
Horsehead and Flame
The Horsehead Nebula, famous celestial dark marking also known as Barnard 33, is notched against a background glow of emission nebulae in this sharp cosmic skyscape. About five light-years "tall" the Horsehead lies some 1,500 light-years away in the constellation of Orion. Within the region's fertile molecular cloud complex, the expanse of obscuring dust has a recognizable shape only by chance from our perspective in the Milky Way though. Orion's easternmost belt star, bright Alnitak, is to the left of center. Energetic ultraviolet light from Alnitak powers the glow of dusty NGC 2024, the Flame Nebula, just below it. Completing a study in cosmic contrasts, bluish reflection nebula NGC 2023 is below the Horsehead itself. This well-framed telescopic field spans about 3 full moons on the sky.
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
‘UFO’ over the Las Vegas Strip? More likely a rare weather phenomenon
LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — ‘Twas two nights before Christmas and up and down the Las Vegas Strip, people looked up and thought they saw a spaceship.
Spoiler alert: It was probably just a weather phenomenon, though a rare one for the Las Vegas valley.
Workers at the Sapphire Gentleman’s Club on Sammy Davis Jr. Drive posted the first videos of the phenomenon early on the morning of Friday, Dec. 23. From the parking lot, they filmed what appeared to be groups of red and white lights shining in the clouds.
“Honestly, this is really strange,” a voice can be heard remarking of the lights. “I mean, we’re here every night. I’ve never seen anything like this.”
The people recording the event speculated that it was a UFO hovering above the club, and they weren’t alone. Nexstar’s KLAS heard from a worker at a nearby marijuana-growing business who also saw the lights, claiming they stayed in place for more than an hour.
But the night was relatively cool with low clouds in the sky, leading to speculation it was just reflections from the lights along the Las Vegas Strip. This is probably correct, experts suggest, though it only happens during very specific weather events.
A meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Las Vegas told KLAS that since the lights in clouds did not appear to move, and the temperature in the clouds was cold enough, there’s a good chance what people saw this night was a phenomenon known as “light pillars.”
According to one National Weather Service, light pillars are described as the following:
Long pillars of multicolored light streaking the sky seem like the perfect backdrop for impending alien invasion, but in reality, light pillars are a common effect that can be found all over the world.
They do come from above — not extraterrestrials, but tiny crystals of ice hanging in the atmosphere. Ice is very thin, shaped like plates with hexagonal faces. When ice drifts down through the air, it falls close to horizontally. At the top and bottom are the faces with more area. Ice is very reflective, so when light hits those wider faces, it bounces around and reflects off more ice crystals.
That means we get these vertically stacked mirrors floating in the atmosphere. The light hitting it gets reflected up and up (or down and down, depending on the source), and becomes a radiant column in the sky.
Light can come from the sun, moon, cities, street lights — any strong light source.
Other people online have even matched up the lights to some of the large hotel casinos along the strip. The red lights could be from Resorts world, and the other white lights from the Wynn, Encore, Strat, and Palace Station.
https://thehill.com/homenews/3790816-ufo-over-the-las-vegas-strip-more-likely-a-rare-weather-phenomenon/
https://youtu.be/_pFWXqVOX_0
‘Largest Satanic Gathering in History’ to Take Place in Boston
The Satanic Temple is promoting an upcoming convention as the “largest Satanic gathering in history.”
The gathering, called SatanCon, will be taking place in Boston from April 28 – 30th, 2023.
The convention will be celebrating the Satanic Temple’s tenth anniversary.
The Satanic Temple promises on its website that the convention will be “a weekend of blasphemy and remembrance in Boston.”
Though tickets are already on sale, the organization has not announced the location, vendors, or presenters.
However, when you click to book a hotel reservation, you are directed to book a room at the Boston Marriott Copley Place.
Tickets for the convention start at $95.00 and go up to $160.
Those who purchase the “Demon Circle” $160 tickets will receive access to the “Satanic Marketplace,” access to “on-site programming tracks,” an official TST SatanCon 2023 t-shirt, TST SatanCon 2023 stickers, and a SatanCon 2023 button.
Last year’s conference included presentations such as “Devil’s Food” with The Satanic Chef Adam Dodge, Abortion as a (Religious) Right with Mari Davis, and Raising Children in a Satanic Household with Melissa Morley.
The Satanic Temple made headlines last year for seeking a court declaration to allow abortions for their Texas members, claiming that the laws violate their “religious freedom” to perform “abortion rituals.”
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/12/largest-satanic-gathering-history-take-place-boston/
https://twitter.com/satanic_temple_/status/1601364089569157126