We weren’t far enough south to see the full ring of fire, but in Colorado we saw a pretty cool partial eclipse. Starting from the first image is at 9:45 AM MDT and the last in the sequence is at maximum at 10:36 AM MDT.
After reading a bit about dopamine I’ve come to realize that almost all human behavior (and that of mammals in general) can be understood as the biological drive for dopamine. Nature created the ultimate reward system by allowing us to naturally create a brain chemical that makes us happy, but only will trigger its release if we do ‘good’ according to the rules of nature.
When you eat, you get dopamine. When you exercise, you get dopamine. Sugar surges it to very high levels. So depressed people go for sugar for a reason.
Money doesn’t buy you happiness. But it could buy you a steady stream of dopamine sources. But more dopamine means that the threshold for dopamine happiness rises so people need ever more dopamine stimulation to be happy.
Most people know of ritalin. But what does it actually do that helps people with ADHD? It raises dopamine levels so people aren’t actively seeking dopamine sources while trying to ‘concentrate’. Seriously.
People get addicted to sources of dopamine and so will most any animal.
Compliments give us dopamine too. But don’t harm us the way sugar can by loading us up with excess carbohydrates or requiring pharmaceuticals. So bring on those compliments and kind words.
I was up at 3:45 AM to set up the telescope and get some photos of the Blood Moon eclipse. The next total lunar eclipse will be Mar 14, 2025.
On Friday, June 24, 2022 the planets were arranged in the night sky in order of their distance from the sun. From Mercury just below the horizon (from our location), to Venus, the Moon (standing in for Earth), Mars, Jupiter, and finally Saturn in a southeasterly arc.
Evan and I woke up early to enjoy the show on a relatively warm summer morning. Our reflector telescope isn’t quite as powerful as we had hoped when we bought it but we still could see Jupiter and its moons, the rings of Saturn (better than the image shows), and details of the surface of the moon.
Don’t forget to plan ahead:
