Come with us as we take a ride into Painted Cave: California’s largest sea cave – and the FOURTH largest in the world! See the beautiful rainbow colors on the walls and learn some fun facts about the cave and the birds you can hear (sound on)!

This short video is dedicated to all our subs as a special thank you for helping us reach over 700 subs now!

Or watch it on our YouTube channel here and explore more of our nature content! Learn more about our videographer Hannah here!

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This winter, it was all about the hoar frost and the hair ice. The hair ice captured our eyes for sure – but if you’re anything like us, hearing the word “hoar” got your attention too!

Check out our video to learn the difference in these two types of winter phenomena as well as a third one – rime ice – and to see some awesome up close footage of these beautiful and somewhat rare natural wonders!

Or watch it on our YouTube channel here. To learn more about our videographer Hannah, click here!

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The night sky world has been abuzz with talk of the great Planet Parade of 2025! January skies brought us FIVE bright planets: Saturn, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Neptune, and Uranus! And into February the skies will add one more to the list – Mercury!

We had some clear skies in late January and were able to capture distant Uranus, Jupiter and even two of Jupiter’s moons: Europa and Ganymede! Sky and Telescope has an excellent tool for locating and identifying Jupiter and its moon given the time and date – check it out here!

Ganymede is largest moon in our solar system and the only one with its own magnetic field. Europa is the moon often depicted as our second home in many sci-fi movies – that’s because there’s evidence showing it has a large saltwater ocean and just might be our best bet to support life outside of Earth.

You can see most of these visible planets, including Jupiter, with the naked eye. But to see Uranus and Neptune, as well as Jupiter’s moons, you’ll need some strong binoculars or a telescope. We were able to capture our images with our Canon 100-500mm telephoto lens. While our photos aren’t high def or detailed, it was no less thrilling to be able to see our solar system’s largest planet and some of its moons.

Due to our location, we weren’t able to get Saturn – but you may still be able to just after sunset. Here’s a throwback to when we did capture Saturn back in 2023 with that same Canon lens. You can even see the rings! So exciting!

Did you see or capture any of the planets or other celestial bodies during the great planet parade? We’d love to see your photos! Tag us on socials and tell us how you were able to capture these distant neighbors!

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Big Data, hosted by IEEE, was our students’ first core-rated conference!! There were over 1200 attendees in our nation’s beautiful capital of Washington DC – What an experience! Here are some highlights in case you missed it.

Day One:

Day one kicked off with awesome sessions and posters, yummy food, and our students rocked their oral presentations!

Day Two:

On day two, we learned a little about how they select presenters, posters, and papers. It’s a lot harder than we realized, so we are very proud of our students who made the cut! Then we were treated to an excellent and intriguing keynote speech from Haixun Wang, the VP of Engineering at Instacart before ending the day with an insightful panel discussion on the intersection of big data and AI. And then of course we had more delicious food!

Day Three:

The highlight of day three was everyone’s favorite – the awards banquet! It was full of incredible eats, dancing, and fascinating cultural performances.

If you don’t already, be sure to follow us on our socials to keep up with our conference adventures in real time! And stay tuned for a full length recap video to get a real feel for what it’s like to attend these research conferences.

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I spent a couple of days scouring the park for the best views to the West, holding up my phone to align the sun with the planner in my PhotoPills app and framing some potential compositions. I’m sure hikers thought I was desperately searching for a cell signal.

The first night, I settled next to a small pullout on the side of the road near the Arch Rock trail. The wide open expanses with minimal obstructions seemed the most promising for guaranteed comet sightings. The sunset was magnificent but seemed to drag on for eternity.

Then, after about 30 minutes, a ghostly white tail emerged, and I gasped in bewilderment! Finally, after 80,000 years, I got my first glimpse of comet Tsuchinshan–ATLAS! This icy solar body flies towards us from the cosmographic boundaries of our home system in the Oort cloud. It’s a leftover from the formation of our solar system, as all comets are believed to be, and it was finally in my field of view.

This particular night, October 12, was the comet’s closest approach to us Earthlings – a mere 44 million miles away. Sadly, this “long-period comet” didn’t linger very long. After about 20 or 30 minutes, it vanished behind the distant mountains on the horizon.

The next morning, I discovered an even more dramatic comet-viewing point – the base of Ryan Mountain. There I found a field of tall old growth Joshua Trees, with their spiny fingers curling up towards the stars. This would surely make for some striking foreground subjects in my comet photos. I returned about an hour before sunset to scout my ideal viewing spot, set up my gear, and practice framing some shots.

I didn’t mind the wait. Desert sunsets are glorious transformations. As the sun falls, the fiery hues of the day give way to the deep violets of the night. The fury of the burning air shifts to gentle cool breezes and the desert’s nocturnal inhabitants begin to emerge. The pressing silence of the stifling daytime temperatures is interrupted by the fluttering of bat wings here and there which gives way to occasional sounds of scurrying in the sand by the bunnies and various desert rodents and reptiles.

Venus is the first to greet me as we descend into darkness, a bright beacon to my left. Next, the bright orange star Arcturus begins to glimmer faintly to my right and I have my markers! I shift my focus to a small area between them, where I expect the comet to appear. And I wait with even greater anticipation than I did the night before.

Tsuchinshan–ATLAS appeared much higher in the sky this time – almost exactly halfway between Venus and Arcturus.

Its tail seemed to grow longer and the comet was more generous with its time on this second night – giving me the opportunity to explore my creativity AND work on getting some closeup shots!

This carbon depleted, cyanide emitting behemoth has a head or “coma” about 130,000 miles in diameter, with a tail reaching out about 18 MILLION miles! Just what causes the tail you ask?? Well, as the giant ball of ice passes by the sun, it gets roasted and baked. This causes gasses to blast off of the comet, dragging dust particles behind it and giving us quite a show!

After about 45 minutes, my time with Tsuchinshan–ATLAS began to wind down as it slipped closer and closer towards the mountainous horizon. I put away my camera and admired the comet while I pondered what those archaic homo sapiens thought when they saw Tsuchinshan–ATLAS blazing through the sky. What were their lives like, what worries did they ruminate over while staring up at the cosmos? Did they ever stop to look up that long? Did they even delve into philosophical issues such as the meaning of life like me and so many others?

I stood in this vast ancient desert, staring up into the sky with awe, as a member of that distant species – ancestor to us all – possibly did some 80,000 years ago and felt connected to them and to this timeless landscape. The comet has not only bridged space, but the centuries as well.

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It was such a blast – we got to tour the campus and sit in an actual MIT classroom!

We also got to attend fantastic lectures and panels and our students totally rocked their presentations! There was food, food, and more food and it was all fantastic!!

For the total MIT URTC experience, check out our full length video below – And be sure to watch to the end if you’ve ever wondered what’s under MIT’s famous dome!

Congrats to all of last year’s winners and good luck to the presenters this year – including our awesome students – read their acceptances here!!

Or watch it on our YouTube channel here. To learn more about our research program, click here!

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Here’s the recap post on our Instagram of our awesome experience at the OCEANS 2024 Conference in beautiful Halifax, Nova Scotia! This conference was a special treat because our research guru, Derek, was on hand to mentor the students real time to help with their presentations. With over 2000 attendees, it was quite an experience. And we had a lot of fun at the conference social events too!

Be sure to check out our “Conferences” highlights to see all the real time action from the conference. We always try to deliver action updates during these activity-filled events to showcase what research life is like – just another reason to like and follow on Instagram and Facebook!!

Don’t forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel so you’ll be the first to watch when we drop the full length conference experience video!

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These Lesser Scaups appear to be choking on some pretty hefty clams – but are they really choking?! Or just gorging on these massive mollusks?! And if they are simply having their dinner, how on earth are they able to digest these giant clams whole??

We’ll explore this dramatic mystery and give you a glimpse of these little diving ducks battling it out with the giant clams in stunning 4K in our latest video!

Or watch it on our YouTube channel here. To learn more about our videographer, Hannah, click here!

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Happy World Photography Day! We’ve had a summer FULL of orb weavers here at The Curio Cat headquarters in Los Angeles County, much to the delight of our resident photographer Hannah because she loves to play with her new macro lens!

We measured these tiny little arachnids at less than 3mm – see the white spot in the pic below? That’s the spider in our first picture below – just to give you a sense of how miniscule that is – and how powerful those dedicated macro lenses can be!

This was by far one of the tiniest spiders our photographer has been able to capture. Orb weavers are known for their spiral wheel-shaped webs, and what a beautiful web this miniature one created!

And he’s not alone! He has two very hungry neighbors that Hannah managed to capture mid-meal!

Orb weavers are one of the largest families of spiders in the world. They’re super beneficial to your gardens as they eat TWICE their weight in insects each day, keeping your gardens free from pests! So if you see them, let them be!

Check our our short on YouTube here!

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Our winter AI Research Program is now waitlisted – be sure to stay tuned for details about our upcoming program offerings and availabilities.

Our AI student research programs run on a seasonal quarterly system (like most schools) and the dates through next summer are as follows:

Fall 1-on-1 Program: Aug 8, 2024 – Nov 16, 2024 (0/8 spots open)

Winter 1-on-1 Program: Dec 1, 2024 – Feb 15, 2025 (0/8 spots open – waitlist available)

Spring 1-on-1 Program: Feb 23, 2025 – May 10, 2025 (4/8 spots open)

Summer Beginner AI Research program: June 15, 2025 – July 20, 2025

Summer Advanced AI Research program: June 14, 2025 – July 19, 2025

To sign up, or if you have any questions, please fill out our contact form here or email us at hannah@thecuriocat.com today!

Keep up with The Cat on Instagram or Facebook for updates and current events!

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