Stunning ultra slow motion (3,200 fps) footage of unusual insects taking flight recorded and narrated by Professor Adrian Smith of NC State University who used a blacklight to attract exotic species like the plume moth, eastern firefly and the rosy maple moth, which he describes as a ‘flying Muppet’.
Unkind.
A new natural history short by zefrank in which we learn of the hummingbjïrd, its double-barrelled tongue and its degenerate addiction to sugar.
Previously: True Facts About Matthew
Hostels In Ireland tweetz:
This beautiful little guy was recently spotted near our @KillarneyIntHos
Name that owl.
inb4u with ‘Barney’.
The spectacular fruit of photographer and stormchaser Paul M.Smith’s ongoing mission to capture images of rare Red Sprite lightning.
Jellyfish, column, carrot-style – it’s all good.
Related: Sprites Rouges
Digital animations interpreting the trills, squads and coos of birds recorded during a visit to the Amazonian jungle by Austalian artist Andy Thomas, who tells Colossal:
I am fascinated with the idea of generating digital art that references the beauty and complexity of nature. I hope this piece will encourage people to research the many amazing varieties of birds that call the Amazon home, and remind us of how fragile and important this place is to us all.
Previously by Andy Thomas: Eye Candy: Synthetic Nature
An utterly (in fairness) stunning shot of a storm cell approaching New York in 2012 by Dhani Jones.
THESE are Northern Lights.
A spectacular aurora captured outside Östersund in Sweden in 2016. To wit:
Six photographic fields were merged to create the featured panorama spanning almost 180 degrees. Particularly striking aspects of this aurora include its sweeping arc-like shape and its stark definition. Lake Storsjön is seen in the foreground, while several familiar constellations and the star Polaris are visible through the aurora, far in the background. Coincidently, the aurora appears to avoid the Moon visible on the lower left. The aurora appeared a day after a large hole opened in the Sun’s corona allowing particularly energetic particles to flow out into the Solar System. The green colour of the aurora is caused by oxygen atoms recombining with ambient electrons high in the Earth’s atmosphere.
(Image: Göran Strand)
A spectacular view of the tallest mountains on Earth, topped by the Milky Way. To wit:
Visible above the snow-capped mountains in the featured image is the arcing central band of our home galaxy. The bright spot just above the central plane is the planet Jupiter, while the brightest orange spot on the upper right is the star Antares. The astrophotographer braved below-zero temperatures at nearly 4,000-meters altitude to take the photographs that compose this image. The featured picture is a composite of eight exposures taken with same camera and from the same location over three hours, just after sunset, in 2019 April, from near Bimtang Lake in Nepal. Over much of planet Earth, the planets Mercury (faint) and Venus (bright) will be visible this week after sunset.
