New Memorial

For nearly 100 years, Robert E. Lee's 10,000-pound monument rode high over the city of Charlottesville, Virginia. Now, it's been melted into bronze slabs and another memorial in town has risen to national prominence.

It's on the University of Virginia campus, titled the Memorial to Enslaved Laborers. It stands as the antithesis to the Confederacy, honoring the slaves forced to work at the university in the 1800s as carpenters, blacksmiths, roofers, stone carvers and other back-breaking trades.

"All these men, women, and children lived with dignity, resisted oppression, and aspired for freedom. For more than four decades, the entire University was a site of enslavement," according to the UVA President's Commission on Slavery. "Now, we’re confronting our past, uncovering new knowledge, and using that knowledge to teach, heal, and shape the future."     READ MORE...

Backyard Photography of Galaxyk

In the summer of 2020, the world was enthralled with the Comet Neowise, which only makes an appearance every 6,800 years. Brennan Gilmore was so enthralled that it kicked off a passion for astrophotography that continues today. 

Two years after beginning his journey photographing the stars, he has accomplished a major goal: photographing the Andromeda galaxy.

Our neighbor in the sky, Andromeda is a spiral galaxy similar to our own Milky Way. Sitting 2.5 million light-years away, it remains a bright spot in the atmosphere and was something that Gilmore first photographed two years ago. 

However, it took him some time to build up the skills and acquire the equipment to achieve an image he was happy with. The final result was well worth the wait, as the image went viral after he posted it online and even ended up in Newsweek.

Gilmore captured the stunning image from his backyard in Charlottesville, Virginia, over the course of several nights. Using a four-inch telescope and astronomy camera, he took hundreds of photos of Andromeda. 

From there, he carefully culled his images, using only the very best for the final photograph.

In the end, all of his efforts paid off. The final photo, created from 290 individual frames, is incredibly detailed. Many of Andromeda's one trillion stars are visible through its gas halo. 

Gilmore thought of every detail, including the exposure so that even the core of the galaxy isn't overexposed. This allows viewers to drink in the stars and ponder on this far away neighbor, which is actually headed toward our own galaxy.  READ MORE...