What Causes of Lightening?

In 1752, Benjamin Franklin conducted his famous kite experiment, as depicted in this c. 1816 painting by Benjamin West. This experiment established the connection between lightning and electricity. Public Domain. via Quanta Magazine

Quanta Magazine explores the causes of lightning and why they’re so mysterious to begin with.

Thunderstorms have captivated humanity for millennia, and yet their inner workings remain deeply mysterious. Storm clouds are opaque. They’re dangerous to approach. And they’re too big to fit in a lab. Inquisitive researchers have been sending kites, balloons, and rockets up into them for nearly three centuries, and they’ve learned a lot. But every time lightning lovers get closer to the action, they discover major gaps in their understanding. For the past 50 years, researchers have focused on one particular gap: How does the jagged channel of white-hot air we call a lightning bolt get started?

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DeskRadar64 – Real-time local ADS-B aircraft tracking

 

Gareth Halfacree on Hackster.io found this artistic flight tracker. It’s remeaniscent of an old-school screen saver but tracks realtime flight info. It uses a Raspberry Pi with a 64×64 RGB LED and a MatrixPortal S3.

System administrator Joseph Little has designed a desk accessory that visualizes live air traffic via ADS-B capture and decoding — but instead of the usual radar-like display, shows it on an LED matrix as colorful paths of light.

Learn More!

More project details available on the DeskRadar website.

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Logging Ham Radio repeater usage with a Baofeng and Adafruit IO #HamSunday

The Whiskey Tango Hotel blog writes:

The Austin N5OAK Ham Radio Club Repeater seems to be pretty active.  That shouldn’t surprise us much because the club has a lot of activities and a lot of enthusiastic members.  Still, we wondered just how active and opened the spare parts drawer to see if it held a solution.

Turns out the spare parts drawer did; take a look at the wiring diagram at the top of the page.   We simply used an Espressif ESP32-C3 Dev Board with an input pin wired to to the output speaker of a Baofeng HT tuned to the repeater frequency.  We monitor the C3 input pin and if it sees a signal the repeater in transmitting.  We push that data to Adafruit IO at the top of each hour to graph the history.

The post lays out the details and has Arduino code. See it here.

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Adafruit Weekly Editorial Round-Up: May is AANHPI Heritage Month, Starlight Groove Tutu – Sound-Reactive LED Skirt, & More

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ADAFRUIT WEEKLY EDITORIAL ROUND-UP

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We’ve got so much happening here at Adafruit that it’s not always easy to keep up! Don’t fret, we’ve got you covered. Each week we’ll be posting a handy round-up of what we’ve been up to, ranging from learn guides to blog articles, videos, and more.

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May is Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month 2026

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Starlight Groove Tutu – Sound-Reactive LED Skirt

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Deep Dive w/Scott: Finishing P4HIL

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The Grim Game: Houdini’s Daring Escapes on the Big Screen at the NYPL

Check out the daring escapes of Houdini at the New York Public Library next Friday. The screening is free and open to all but registration is required.

The year 2026 marks the centennial of legendary escapologist and magician Harry Houdini’s death. In recognition of his amazing life and the Library for the Performing Arts’ current exhibition Mystery & Wonder: a Legacy of Golden Age Magicians in New York, we will screen his 1919 silent film The Grim Game with live piano accompaniment by Makia Matsumura. Houdini plays an intrepid young journalist framed for murder after falling in love with a winsome ingénue played by Ann Forrest. Chases, dramatic escapes, and a real mid-air plane crash are only part of the fun. Following the screening, Dorothy Dietrich, magician and co-founder of the Houdini Museum, and magician and historian Richard Cohn will discuss the making of the film, its re-discovery and restoration, and Houdini’s legacy today.

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Introduction to Meshtastic

 

Adafruit Feather RP2040 with RFM95 LoRa Radio – 915MHz – RadioFruit and STEMMA QT

 

Looking to get into LoRa mesh communication? Meshtastic.org has a thorough introduction and resources to get you started:

Meshtastic utilizes LoRa, a long-range radio protocol, which is widely accessible in most regions without the need for additional licenses or certifications, unlike ham radio operations.

These radios are designed to rebroadcast messages they receive, forming a mesh network. This setup ensures that every group member, including those at the furthest distance, can receive messages.

Learn More!

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More fun ways to communicate with the Adafruit Learning Center – ESP-NOW Walkie Talkies

Ditch the smart phone and communicate with your buddy by building this set of walkie talkies! A Feather ESP32-S3 Reverse TFT runs Arduino code that uses the ESP-NOW wireless protocol to send and receive I2S audio packets, up to 10 seconds each. The w.FL antenna adds extra range to communicate at longer distances indoors or outdoors.

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Encanto and Star Wars: Return of the Jedi with the New York Philharmonic this June

image via New York Philharmonic

 

The Art of the Score 2025-2026 Season wraps up next month with Encanto June 18-21 and Star Wars: Return of the Jedi June 24-27. Some tickets are still available for both films, so if you’re interested now’s the time!

THE ART OF THE SCORE

The ultimate “surround-sound” movie event: a legendary score is brought to life by the New York Philharmonic while you watch the film on a towering screen above the Orchestra!

Read more

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