iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Ted Stryk @tedstryk.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

The bitter oranges outside Millennium Manor. I don't know why they're called bitter oranges. "Really sour" is a much better description.

Oranges outside Millennium Manor between Maryville and Knoxville, Tennessee

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Ted Stryk @tedstryk.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Who did this? Brice Turang's name was changed to "Expensive" for a little while in the MLB app #cubs #brewers #mlb #cubsbrewers #brewerscubs

In the MLB app play by play of the Brewers Cubs game tonight, Brice Turang's name was briefly replaced with the word "Expensive"

The full view of what it was showing when Brice Turang's name was changed to expensive

If you clicked on him, you got his actual name, as seen here.

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Ted Stryk @tedstryk.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

There were a lot more clouds here than it looks like. The ones you can see are just the low ones. I was lucky to catch the moon at all, which peeked out briefly. There was something poetic about the red moon over the bridge, lit up for Dolly Parton over the Tennessee River in Knoxville.

A better version of the eclipsed moon over the Henley Steet Bridge and the Tennessee River in Knoxville, Tennessee, lit up in honor of Dolly Parton.

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Ted Stryk @tedstryk.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

The eclipsed moon with the Henley Street Bridge in Knoxville, Tennessee, which crosses the Tennessee River. It is lit up in honor of Dolly Parton and her coat of many colors.

The bridge lit up in rainbow over the Tennessee River

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Ted Stryk @tedstryk.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

The solar eclipse of 2017 was 9 years ago. I was involved in organizing the event at my home institution, where we watched the eclipse. In my lifetime, this will never happen again

The total solar eclipse of 2017, seen from Roane State Community College

A wide-angle view of the eclipse above Harriman.

My my family getting ready to watch totality

The almost totality eclipsed sun over Knoxville with the Sunsphere. It was close enough that the corona could briefly be seen there. This is from a camera that I left in the bushes to remotely take picture. The quality was far worse than I expected.

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Ted Stryk @tedstryk.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

Today in 1976, 50 years ago, the Viking 1 lander touched down on Chryse Planitia, Mars, and became humanity's first long term outpost on another world (the Venera Venus landers lasted an hour or two, Viking 1 lasted over 6 years).

A view from Viking 1 in 1976, showing Martian dunes and the boulder "Big Joe."

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Ted Stryk @tedstryk.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

Today in 2020, I photographed Comet Neowise from downtown Knoxville. With the pandemic raging, it was fascinating to see people all take pictures of it from around where they live instead of traveling to exotic locations.

Comet Neowise against the Knoxville skyline with the Sunsphere on the left.

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Ted Stryk @tedstryk.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

This keeps happening. I'm actually in Alaska right now. It's also happening back home. Other than a flight layover in 2025, I haven't been to Texas in many years. I want to know what is wrong with Bluesky's location system, and why it is that the Texas legislature feels like it can bother people.

Blue sky erroneously saying I'm in Texas

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Ted Stryk @tedstryk.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

The Psyche Mars flyby images remind me of Triton. I think it's because Mars and Triton are the only two worlds we've visited with thin, normal altitude atmospheres that are still able to produce clearly visible features such as clouds blowing downwind (even if Triton's may all come from geysers).

Mars from Psyche (2026) and Triton from Voyager 2 (1989)

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Ted Stryk @tedstryk.bsky.social · 12/05/2026

I read these posts together and was concerned.

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Ted Stryk @tedstryk.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

It's in the background though. I wonder what degree it can be removed.

Close up of Juno Io image from perijove 74.

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Ted Stryk @tedstryk.bsky.social · 08/04/2026

Strange seeing the eclipse photos from a few years ago (2024) pop up in my memories just after seeing the Artemis II eclipse. We watched from Paducah, Kentucky.

The last bit of the photosphere going behind the eclipsed sun

The sun just going into totality with a little bit still visible on the lower left.

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Ted Stryk @tedstryk.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

"There are people out there."

My son Chase looking through the telescope.

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Ted Stryk @tedstryk.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

This Artemis II eclipse is giving me Clementine 1994 vibes with Venus in the background.

The moon in earthshine, the solar corona, and the planet Venus towards the top from the Clementine spacecraft in 1994.

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Ted Stryk @tedstryk.bsky.social · 06/04/2026

A color corrected version of the first shot.

The Moon on the morning of April 6th using my phone and a 10-inch (0.25m) reflector.

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Ted Stryk @tedstryk.bsky.social · 06/04/2026

Okay, going to my pictures of the moon during the Artemis flyby, this one, just before I lost it, is my favorite because of the foreground trees on the lower right. It gives perspective.

The moon on April 6th, 2026, with trees in the foreground visible on the right.

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Ted Stryk @tedstryk.bsky.social · 06/04/2026

Strange looking up from my front yard at the moon through wispy clouds and knowing that there are people out there, right now, looking at it from nearby. Artemis II goes around the moon today!

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Ted Stryk @tedstryk.bsky.social · 06/04/2026

This went really well. Suzuki signed my son's ball.

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Ted Stryk @tedstryk.bsky.social · 05/04/2026

While we will see the Orientale basin from Artemis II, it's not the first time that humans have seen it from the vicinity of the Moon. It was viewed in earthshine from Apollo 17 in 1972. That said, the sunlit views from high above that we are about to receive promise to be spectacular.

A photomosaic of the rim of Mare Orientale from Apollo 17. The illumination is from reflected light from earth.

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Ted Stryk @tedstryk.bsky.social · 20/03/2026

Keenan Golder presents at our research colloquium on his work on smooth plains on Mercury.

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Ted Stryk @tedstryk.bsky.social · 08/03/2026

Pluto and Charon from the approaching New Horizons spacecraft on July 14, 2015.

Charon (upper left) and Pluto (lower right)

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Ted Stryk @tedstryk.bsky.social · 08/03/2026

Oh, come on, send Tony too.

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Ted Stryk @tedstryk.bsky.social · 06/03/2026

My bombshell discovery! 😃

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Ted Stryk @tedstryk.bsky.social · 04/03/2026

The Davy crater chain (Catena Davy) from Luna 22, which orbited the moon in 1974.

A long scan of the lunar surface centered on the Catena Davy crater chain.

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Ted Stryk @tedstryk.bsky.social · 04/03/2026

No eclipse this morning, but the moon in the clouds with a nice little jet contrail over was nice.

The moon in the clouds setting into the trees.

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Ted Stryk @tedstryk.bsky.social · 03/03/2026

The only decent shot I got of the lunar eclipse before clouds rolled in. Taken from my front yard in Powell, Tennessee. This is from my phone . I started setting up the camera, and when I looked back up the moon was in the clouds.

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Ted Stryk @tedstryk.bsky.social · 03/03/2026

Today in 1972, Pioneer 10 was launched, becoming humanity's first spacecraft to cross the asteroid belt, encounter Jupiter, and leave the planetary system.

Jupiter, with the great red spot and the shadow of Io, from Pioneer 10

Jupiter from Pioneer 10 near closest approach. Radiation caused the scanning photometer that built up this image to shift several times.

Jupiter and Io from Pioneer 10 as it left the Jovian system behind.

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Ted Stryk @tedstryk.bsky.social · 21/02/2026

Enceladus, moon of Saturn, from the Cassini spacecraft on November 4, 2016. It is still odd not having views like this anymore. The run between 2004-2017 made it feel normal. I hope JUICE and Clipper, both in the Jovian system, have a similar effect.

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Ted Stryk @tedstryk.bsky.social · 20/02/2026

These little worlds are fascinating. Given the little swarms around Uranus and Neptune, plus the whole host of KBO objects, it is enough to wet one's appetite, but our datasets are so limited.

All Members of the Solar System Beyond Saturn and Smaller Than 80 Kilometers In Diameter for Which We Have Disk-Resolved Imagery shown at 1 km/pixel (at least in the original version, Bluesky may alter the scale).

Data for Pluto’s Moons (Styx, Nix, Kerberos, Hydra) and Arrokoth from New Horizons Courtesy NASA/SWRI/APL. Data for Naiad (Neptune), Belinda (Uranus), and Cordelia (Uranus) from Voyager 2 Courtesy NASA/JPL

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Ted Stryk @tedstryk.bsky.social · 16/02/2026

In February of 1972, Luna 20 was on the moon in the Apollonius highlands, with its sampling arm hard at work finding a place to drill and then burrowing into the surface. This would be the only one of the three successful Soviet sample return missions to photograph the surface...maybe...

The sampling arm of Luna 20 in two different positions. I am not sure the actual order in which this sequence was taken.

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Ted Stryk @tedstryk.bsky.social · 14/02/2026

The deposits around the volcano Pele on Io looked like a heart as Voyager 1 approached in March of 1979. For today, I rotated it around to emphasize that. By the time Galileo saw it in 1996, the indentation at the top of this image was mostly gone. Happy Valentine's Day!

A heart shaped volcanic feature on Io from Voyager 1.

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Ted Stryk @tedstryk.bsky.social · 07/02/2026

Mariner 10 receding from humanity's first encounter with Mercury in March of 1973. New features slowly rotate into view, including the large crater "Mozart" just below the center of the terminator.

Three progressively more distant views of Mercury from Mariner 10.

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Ted Stryk @tedstryk.bsky.social · 07/02/2026

I hope you enjoyed the 40th anniversary tour of the Uranian system. I hope we see this it again as soon as possible.

The Uranian rings silhouetted against the planet.

Verona Rupes, a large escarpment on Miranda's terminator in Voyager's imagery.

An impact basin on Titania's terminator.

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Ted Stryk @tedstryk.bsky.social · 05/02/2026

Io, moon of Jupiter, from the Galileo spacecraft on April 4, 1997. The dark spot surrounded by the red circle is Pele, a large volcano. The caldera Loki can be seen as a black spot with an island in the middle near the terminator.

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Ted Stryk @tedstryk.bsky.social · 04/02/2026

This is my image processing work, as my bio makes clear - that's what I use this account for. And I am very familiar with historical image sets. So anyway, just so you are aware, you aren't hot about anything here, you're just really, really lazy.

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Ted Stryk @tedstryk.bsky.social · 04/02/2026

Io from the Juno spacecraft on February 3, 2024. The night side can be seen in reflected light from Jupiter. The quality of this dataset is truly stunning.

A high resolution view of a crescent Io with mountains near the terminator.

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Ted Stryk @tedstryk.bsky.social · 03/02/2026

Sixty years ago today, on February 3, 1966, Luna-9 was the first spacecraft to survive landing on the surface of another world. It is wild to think that the Space Age is so young that there are still millions alive now who were adults when this happened.

The lunar surface at a high illumination angle.

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Ted Stryk @tedstryk.bsky.social · 02/02/2026

Oberon, the second largest moon of Uranus, got the worst coverage of all. Still, it can be seen that there is some dark intrusion on the floor of the ray crater near the center of the moon, hinting that it was once active. The last image is Puck, smaller than Miranda, the only one showing detail.

Approaching Oberon. Sadly, owing to its longer orbit/rotation, Voyager did not get much coverage beyond the encounter hemisphere.

The closest thing to a good image of Oberon we have.

A crescent Oberon from the receding Voyager 2.

Puck, or 1985U1, was discovered by Voyager 2 on approach to Uranus. A single image that would have been of Miranda was spared in order to get a look at it. It's surface is even darker than that of Umbriel.

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Ted Stryk @tedstryk.bsky.social · 31/01/2026

With the Uranian moon Umbriel, we enter the territory of worlds which we can only marginally call explored. It is about the same size of Ariel, but with a dark, cratered surface which is punctuated by some bright spots and a bright crater rim called "Wunda."

The first image of Umbriel to clearly show a bright spot

Slightly higher resolution but with poorer quality image data.

The second best view of Umbriel, showing a bright spot at the top and clearly showing Wunda, top right, as a circular feature.

The best view of Umbriel, with Wunda at the top and a bright spot on a crater central peak visible on the upper terminator. The previous views didn't have the resolution to show this one.

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Ted Stryk @tedstryk.bsky.social · 30/01/2026

Titania is the largest of the Uranian moons. While Voyager couldn't fly close to it and still get to Neptune, it recorded more images of it than any other moon. The surface appears cratered with some clear tectonic features. The highest resolution images were at 4.5 km/pixel.

The highest resolution color view of Titania (the images are stacked to improve visibility, but they are shown here in black and white)

A crescent Titania as the Spacecraft receded

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Ted Stryk @tedstryk.bsky.social · 29/01/2026

In addition to Miranda, Ariel, the next-innermost major moon of Uranus, received a decently close flyby from Voyager in 1986, revealing a complex, tectonically altered, and just-possibly active moon.

The opposite side of Ariel from closest approach

The canyons of Ariel from the highest resolution imagery.

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Ted Stryk @tedstryk.bsky.social · 27/01/2026

Flying by Miranda with Voyage 2 in 1986. Forty years ago, this moon, with its jumbled surface, awed the world.

From a day out, the fact that this isn't a cratered, dead world was becoming clear.

The best color view, taken before closest approach. I am showing it here in black and white for consistency with the other images.

The high resolution mosaic from closest approach. The best images are at about 250 meters/pixel.

Just after closest approach, Miranda began to fade into the black of space.

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Ted Stryk @tedstryk.bsky.social · 26/01/2026

Like I thought, my account on the old site is basically a zombie account with phantom followers now. Which means there's no reason to save it in case the site is sold.

Bluesky post with 230 likes and 76 reposts

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Ted Stryk @tedstryk.bsky.social · 24/01/2026

Today in 1986, Voyager 2 made humanity's first and only encounter with Uranus, revealing its clouds, rings, and fascinating zoo of moons.

Uranus and its rings as Voyager approached it from the south

Uranus, enhanced to make discrete clouds visible

The rings of Uranus in a deep exposure. The spacecraft tracked rings, so the stars are smeared and appear as trails.

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Ted Stryk @tedstryk.bsky.social · 16/01/2026

Neptune and its moon Triton from Voyager 2 on June 24, 1989, and from the Hubble Space Telescope on July 10, 1991.

Neptune and Triton from Voyager 2 on June 24, 1989

Neptune and Triton from the Hubble Space Telescope on July 10, 1991, using the original Wide Field Planetary Camera (and before the repair mission)

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Ted Stryk @tedstryk.bsky.social · 11/01/2026

239 years ago, William Herschel discovered Oberon & Titania, the largest Uranian moons. All but a few of Uranus' moons are named after characters from Shakespearean plays. Oberon and Titania pay homage to the fairy king and queen in "A Midsummer Night's Dream"

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Ted Stryk @tedstryk.bsky.social · 07/01/2026

The members of the Pluto system, to scale at 1 km per pixel in the original version, from New Horizons in 2015.

Left: Pluto
Right (top): Charon
Right (bottom): Styx, Nix, Kerberos, and Hydra

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Ted Stryk @tedstryk.bsky.social · 04/01/2026

The moon from various spacecraft (left to right): Top Row - Nozomi, Cassini, Deep Impact Middle Row - Nozomi, NEAR, Stardust (takes up two rows) Bottom Row - Messenger, Hayabusa.

The moon at various phases and angled from spacecraft that were heading by on their way somewhere else.

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Ted Stryk @tedstryk.bsky.social · 03/01/2026

I'm so used to posting about moons that this was the original version of this post 😂

The first version of my previous post, captioned "Uranus, moon of Uranus, with its rings on January 23, 1986, as Voyager 2 approached, looking down on the planet's south pole." Uranus is not a moon of Uranus.

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