Merry Christmas

This picture is a few years old, but it's one of my favorite things in New York at Christmas—standing in Rockefeller Center near the tree, looking across Fifth Avenue at Saks.

Astronomy Tuesday

Another image from the ZWO Astronomy Photographer of the Year awards. This was a runner-up in the nebula category, but since the object on the right is the Christmas Tree nebula, it seemed an appropriate pick for this week.

Image credit: © Shaoyu Zhang

Sunday bird blogging

A timid fledgling robin peeking out from under a bench in Hell's Kitchen last summer.

Saturday reflections

A view on 34th Street looking towards Herald Square.

Urban poetry

This mural was on the wall adjacent to the sleeping birds sign on West 24th Street.

I have no idea who those gentlemen flanking the Tin Man are, and Google provided no hints.

Hell's Kitchen

Walking home from where the bus dropped me off on Fifth Avenue a few days ago, I passed through the Theatre District, and the sign for Hell's Kitchen: the Musical was a nice signpost reassuring me that I was almost home.

Astronomy Tuesday

NGC 6960, the Veil Nebula, in another of the winners in the ZWO Astronomy Photographer of the Year for 2025.

Image credit: © Zixiong Jin (China)

Astronomy Tuesday

This amazing image was one of the winners in the ZWO Astronomy Photographer of the Year for 2025. It was taken during the lunar occultation (when the moon passes in front of another celestial object) of Saturn in August.

Image credit: “Saturnrise” © Tom Williams (UK)

Saturday reflections

The porthole on a washer in our laundry room makes a fun frame.

That brand-new white comforter I was congratulating myself for buying just a few days ago? Well, it had an unfortunate encounter with a chocolate protein shake and I spent much of Wednesday schlepping up and down the five flights of stairs between my apartment and this washing machine, when I really should have been doing class prep.

Those stairs are not getting easier with age, arthritis, and injury, but one thing I have acquired is the ability to laugh things off and then just deal with them—that stupid accident would have had me pissed off at myself for days in my youth. (I was much less sanguine about having no internet all day Thursday and having to install the new modem and router that had been sitting in boxes on my living room carpet waiting for a convenient time. I hope my mother was covering her ears up in heaven because there were several hours of loud, nonstop cursing.)

Urban poetry

Bryant Park becomes a Christmas market during the holidays, and picking my way through the crowds on on the adjacent sidewalk on my way home tonight was annoying. It was so cold and these people are so slow!

But this line of pedicabs waiting for fares cheered me up, though my admittedly Scroogey self would have probably gone for the one not dressed as Santa Claus. Just because.

I did actually take a pedicab once, many years ago. I'd been to a corporate Christmas party, and it had started to snow. I wasn't dressed for the weather, and there wasn't a cab to be found (pre-Uber days) and so when the guy on the bicycle offered to take me home for what a cab would have cost, I climbed aboard. And it was strange, but fun, and I will probably never do it again.

Another day in this endlessly fascinating and amusing city

I saw this sign on West 24th Street on my way back from the dermatologist yesterday.

I was tempted to take a peek but I did not disturb the birds.

Astronomy Tuesday

It's been a long time. I do occasionally see images from the Webb telescope and think, Oh I should post that. And I don't.

But I especially love this Webb look at Sagittarius B2. This molecular cloud near the core of the Milky Way is one of the largest in the galaxy. This image was taken in near-infrared, which doesn't capture all of the clouds of dust and gas but is better for seeing the stars. And such stars!

Image credit: Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Adam Ginsburg (University of Florida), Nazar Budaiev (University of Florida), Taehwa Yoo (University of Florida); Image Processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI)