Tag: lights

Light from street, Moon and planet

The Moon hangs in the sky to the right of the house, and it’s 390 million km away, so light takes 1.3 seconds or so to make that trip.

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Image 118 – What’s in an image? Sometimes quite a lot, more than meets the eye. I’m posting an image every day or so.

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This photo is of the northern end of Gloucester Street, seen from the eastern side of the River Churn, close to Abbey Way Services.

You’ll notice several sources of light. Light travels at a little over 1 billion km/h, 1.079 billion if you want to be a little more precise. Like anything in motion at a steady speed, you can express distances in terms of travel time. If I fly a helicopter in a straight line to London at 100 km/h and it takes me an hour, then the distance to London must have been 100 km. If it takes only 30 minutes, then the distance was 50 km. You get the idea.

The streetlight, the house and the car are all around 20 m away (or 0.020 km), and doing the arithmetic shows that light would take around 80 billionths of a sec to make that trip.

The Moon hangs in the sky to the right of the house, and it’s 390 million km away, so light takes 1.3 seconds or so to arrive from the Moon.

The planet Venus is visible near the top of the photo, and as I write Venus is about 111 million km away, a distance that light covers in just over 6 minutes.

For comparison, our nearest neighbouring star, Proxima Centauri, is so far away, that its light takes 4¼ years to reach us. Space is BIG!

When: 2nd January 2025
Where: Gloucester Street, Cirencester

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Cirencester

For convenience, here’s a list of all the Cirencester area images:

A417 roadworks, Advent Market, Bishops Walk, Baunton, Canal 1, 2, Castle Street, Christmas lights 1, 2, Church 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, Churn flood, Countryside, Fallen tree, Fleece, Gasworks, Gloucester Street, Hare 1, 2, Hospital, Market Place 1, Phoenix Fest, Riverside Walk, Stone plaque, Stratton Meadow, Tank traps, View, Wonky 1, 2, Yellow Iris

Themed image collections

The links below will take you to the first post in each collection

Cirencester, Favourites, Irish holiday 2024, Roman villa

Useful? Interesting?

If you enjoyed this or found it useful, please like, comment, and share below. My material is free to reuse (see conditions), but a coffee is always welcome!

Reflecting on Christmas lights

A simple reflection can turn a nuisance to be avoided into something beautiful to be captured in a photo!

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Image 117 – What’s in an image? Sometimes quite a lot, more than meets the eye. I’m posting an image every day or so.

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Christmas has come and gone; I’m posting this on New Year’s Day but the lights are still shining on Christmas trees in homes and in Cirencester Market Place and in the roads that lead in and out of the Market Place as well.

This is Cricklade Street, running south from the centre of the town, and after some heavy rain this morning and overnight, the reflected lights add to the scene making it even better.

When we think of puddles we focus on their innate properties – wet, probably dirty, inconvenient (step over them or get your shoes damp) a source of splashes from carelessly driven cars, perhaps suggesting a blocked road drain or, worse, a developing flood.

Yet a simple reflection can turn a nuisance to be avoided into something beautiful to be captured in a photo! And this is what we are supposed to be like if we claim to follow Jesus. I might sometimes be seen as a nuisance to others, I may get in the way, I confess to having some bad habits. Don’t we all? I’m not always careful, not always gentle, not always kind.

But if following Jesus means attempting to become more like him, or allowing him to change me, then I should be like the dirty, inconvenient puddle. In other words I should be changed by reflecting his nature. Nothing beyond that is necessary! If, when you look at me, you instead see something of Jesus reflected in me – my work is done and it’s over to you to respond however you choose. You are not responding to me, you are responding to a perception of Jesus’ nature and character.

When: 1st January 2025
Where: Cricklade Street, Cirencester

< Previous | Index | Next >

Cirencester

For convenience, here’s a list of all the Cirencester area images:

A417 roadworks, Advent Market, Bishops Walk, Baunton, Canal 1, 2, Castle Street, Christmas lights 1, 2, Church 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, Churn flood, Countryside, Fallen tree, Fleece, Gasworks, Gloucester Street, Hare 1, 2, Hospital, Market Place 1, Phoenix Fest, Riverside Walk, Stone plaque, Stratton Meadow, Tank traps, View, Wonky 1, 2, Yellow Iris

Themed image collections

The links below will take you to the first post in each collection

Cirencester, Favourites, Irish holiday 2024, Roman villa

Useful? Interesting?

If you enjoyed this or found it useful, please like, comment, and share below. My material is free to reuse (see conditions), but a coffee is always welcome!

A card in wintertime – 2019

When the days are short and the weather is cold (or wet this year), it’s cheering to see Christmas lights in the streets. Here’s a photo of Black Jack Street in Cirencester taken on 12th December. Lovely!

Whoever you are, whatever faith you do or do not have, and whoever inspires you, I have some simple things to say to you:

Life is not always easy or comfortable – may you have strength, wisdom and courage to carry on despite it all. May peace and grace, joy and blessing always follow you and find room in your heart – whatever your circumstances may be.

For myself, I follow Jesus to the best of my limited ability, for more about what I do, think and believe, browse around this website. You are a welcome guest here. And here’s a true word from Jesus himself:

If you’re struggling and heavily weighed down, come to me, I’ll give you rest. Learn from me, the burden I lay on you is very light because I’m gentle and kindheartedly humble.

(Paraphrased from Matthew 11:28-30.)
Other years

2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020
2019, 2018, 2017, 2016