The Martian

Posted on April 9, 2024 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Book, dailyprompt, dailyprompt-1901, Earth, Mars, Reading, Science fiction, Space, the MartianLeave a comment

If you could be a character from a book or film, who would you be? Why?

The, Martian is the book I’m currently reading and the film was recently on TV.

I like it because the story by Andy Weir is more science based for a sci-fi film than fantasy. It depicts an astronaut who is abandoned on Mars after a freak accident. His colleagues assume he is dead and have to leave because their escape rocket is about to topple over which would trap them on Mars.

Why do I want to be the character in the film? I like the problem solving that has to happen to save the astronaut. He has to work out how to increase his food supply, chemically create water, travel across Mars and communicate with Earth after the communication system was destroyed. There are humourous episodes throughout the film, and tension increases as various mishaps occur. Not all the science is right but it is an enjoyable film. If I knew I was going to survive and come home I would do it.

Cats

Posted on March 9, 2024 Posted in Cat, UncategorizedTagged Bed, Black and white cat, Cat, Humour, Life, Poem, Poetry, Shape, Sleep, Space, Tuxedo catLeave a comment

Three cats on the bed

Like a Venn diagram

Each in a space

Far enough away

Not to menace

Or chase.

It’s fine for them

Keeping warm

But what shape

Do I have to make

To sleep in the space

That’s left?

Parking problem

Posted on February 26, 2024February 26, 2024 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Car, Car park, chockablock, Fine, Hospital, Life, Parking, paying, pharmacy, Space2 Comments

I was looking for a parking space at the hospital today. It took a while but I got one, then I struggled to fit square in the space and leave enough room for cars on either side. I went to the parking meter and paid for an hour.

When I got to the pharmacy I had to wait twenty minutes for new tablets, but that was not unusual. I had half an hour left when I got back to the car, and the distance to get off the car park was about 200 yards.

Guess how long it took to get out? Half an hour! Cars were queuing all the way up to the barrier. You could turn right or left, but the car park leads onto a road that goes through the hospital grounds. And that was chockablock with cars and buses. Both ends of it lead onto traffic lights and then main roads. So it was effectively pretty gridlocked, with only small numbers of cars released every few minutes. My main worry? Will I get fined for staying over the hour I paid for?

New Horizons visit to Pluto

Posted on November 3, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged 14 July 2015, Astronomy, Charon, dailyprompt, dailyprompt-2108, History, new horizons, Pluto, Space, voyager 1, voyager 22 Comments

What historical event fascinates you the most?

It’s hard to believe it’s been eight years since the New Horizons space craft flew by the now minor planet Pluto and it’s moon Charon.

The rest of the solar system had already been explored over the previous decades by other probes sent out by NASA including Voyagers 1 and 2 which had undertaken a grand tour of the systems gas and ice giant planets. These are now over 18 light hours away.

When New Horizons arrived at Pluto on 14 July 2015 it found a tiny world with a heart shaped feature on its surface. The predominant colours are reds, whites and dark greys. The surface is mottled and pock marked in some places, and smooth in others. The photos of the encounter are spectacular and can be seen online. The Wikipedia page about New Horizons is very informative. I don’t propose to reiterate all the information here.

I chose this mission because it happened in my lifetime. I could have chosen other missions or historical events, but I wanted to chose something that represented the farthest influence or encounter that humanity has ever made. Hopefully we will continue to find out more about our solar system, our galaxy and the universe in the future.

In my dreams

Posted on September 5, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged astronaut, Astronomy, Dream, Imagined, Mars, Poem, Poetry, Space, Thought2 Comments

In my dreams I’ve flown to Mars

Months in space beyond our globe.

Spinning microgravity ship

Holds me in its gentle arms

Final days and then descent

Falling through a cold thin air.

Retro rockets saved the day

Landing on a desert of red.

Never going there again

Cost too much and I’m afraid

I’d never spend another night

On Elesyums Planitia’s slopes of red

I’d rather spend my dreams in bed.

An astronaut? Not me, I’ve said.

Deleting photos..

Posted on June 17, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Blog, blog memory, deleted, Full, Making space, Photos, Pictures, Poem, Poetry, Space3 Comments

My blog gets full

So I delete

Old photos

Which I think aren’t neat.

The old

The blurred

The doubled ones

I don’t like doing it

But I can’t afford

To keep them all

Apologies if

You don’t see

What you seek..

Faces

Posted on June 3, 2023 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged Artrage, Faces, Learning, Life, Memory, optimised photos, Phone, Sketching, Space, Time2 Comments

Another couple of drawings/experiments, I do love learning and playing with art, but then I want to know how do I optimise my photos on my phone? My old antivirus used to do it, but now I’ve changed phones I can’t seem to work out what to do.

Should I use something in settings, or will there be an optimiser in my gallery. It’s worrying because my media here keeps telling me it’s full. When I upload optimised photos it’s not as bad. And along th e same lines, how do I sync my phone and my PC? It would help sort things out….

Jupiter’s pole

Posted on March 14, 2023 Posted in Fine Art, UncategorizedTagged Acrylic on canvas, Astronomy, Clouds, Juno probe, Jupiter, Painting, Pole, SpaceLeave a comment

Probably my most abstract image, actually me trying to paint one of the poles of Jupiter taken by the Juno probe a few years ago. It just popped up in my Facebook memories. I find blending difficult for paintings like this. Acrylic dries to quickly to get a fluffy feel to the clouds. I might revisit this and add a bit more to it.

More wind and rain and satellites…..?

Posted on January 9, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged bad weather, Boeing 747, Cornwall, Flight, historic, Rain, Space, Weather, WindLeave a comment

Please stop raining? It’s wet and windy, again. Gone are days of snow, I know we still have them, but instead whirling clouds come across the Atlantic and dump rain on mostly the north west of Britain. In fact in the last twenty four days it’s apparently rained on twenty two of them.

And amidst all of this stormy weather something unusual and historical is happening in the South West. At the moment (22.45pm on 9.1.23) a Boeing 747 owned by Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin company is flying into the bad weather off the coast of Cornwall. It has a rocket tucked underneath one wing which is due to be launched from it. The rocket contains some satellites and these will hopefully reach space in the next few hours.

It’s amazing that Britain will have launch capability for the investigation and use of space. And in such a different way, not a huge rocket from the land but a more interesting method. I hope it works.

Digital earth and moon

Posted on December 2, 2022December 2, 2022 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged Art, Blue and white, Collaboration, Digital drawing, digital tablet, Draw, Earth, Moon, Sketchfu, Sketching, Sky, SpaceLeave a comment

This was an old drawing I did online a few years ago. It was at the website called Sketchfu (closed about five years ago). I’ve always loved astronomy and this was a good challenge to try and get a reasonably accurate drawing using very simple tools. The hardest thing was getting the image blurred enough to feel realistic. Colours were chosen from a couple of hundred choices. There were only five sized circular pens and a slider to alter the opacity. Plus an eraser to clear away mistakes. You could add layers so you could show your progress, or do a collaboration with other artists, the only real problem was the images took ages to load.

Mallaband-Brown

Tag: Space