Astronomy Tuesday

When galaxies collide! This image from the James Webb telescope shows two spiral galaxies (IC 2163 at the upper left, and NGC 2207,the larger galaxy in the center and lower right)

Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Infrared: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI/Webb; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/L. Frattare

A closer look at those two bison in the video

Some bison

 This herd couldn't decide which side of the road had better grazing, so we sat in a line of cars and waited for them to make up their mind.

Painted Canyon

The badlands in North Dakota are greener and more appealing than their counterparts in the Badlands National Park in South Dakota. This overlook is in Theodore Roosevelt National Park.

The rock formations are similar, with the different types of rock stacked in colorful layers, but I'd actually like to ride a horse down through those trails, while in South Dakota I didn't want to get any closer to that harsh geography than I had to.

Sunday bird blogging

Since we've been revisiting Cierva Cove, here are some more of its resident gentoos, just enjoying their penguiny lives.

Geese in Flight

This is my favorite of the sculptures. It's in the Guinness Book of World Records as the largest scrap metal sculpture in the world, standing 110 feet (33.5 meters) high and 154 feet (46.9 meters) wide. It's the only one of the sculptures that's visible from the interstate, and you can see it coming from a long way off.

The approach has mini-geese mounted on the posts, which look like they're flying up the hill.

Regent

The Co-op, and the view from main street, which may be the most North Dakota thing ever

Saturday reflections

A not very interesting look at the main street in Regent, North Dakota. It's the terminus of the Enchanted Highway, a series of scrap metal sculptures along 32 miles of road through farm country. We met the artist, Gary Greff, who started the project in 1989. He now gets a subsidy from the state, but for many years he financed the project on his own.

Happy new year!

A (bad) phone photo of one of the jumbotrons set up for viewing Zohran Mamdani's inauguration as New York's mayor yesterday. We had tickets for the viewing party, but this was taken from the wrong side of the barricades because the bitter cold and high winds made the idea of standing in a crowd for several hours unappealing, much as I like Mamdani.

Instead we walked a few blocks downtown to the Fraunces Tavern, which has been in business there since 1762, and was a favorite hangout for Washington, Hamilton, and Burr, among others. And which serves a scrumptious grilled cheese sandwich with tomato soup that made up for missing the speeches.

Leaving Cierva Cove

Bringing the kayaks back to the ship as we prepared to set sail.

It's several hours till midnight, but I can already hear the helicopters flying over Times Square a few blocks away. I usually manage to sleep through the cheers greeting the ball drop and hope to do it again.

I think I speak for many people when I say that 2025 sucked in so many ways that I'll be very glad to see it in the rear view mirror. But it helps to remember that it wasn't all terrible, that I saw so much beauty along the way.

Two views

Some amazing blues and greens. I couldn't decide which view I liked better, close up or more perspective (with more ice) so I'm posting both.

And still more color

I'm guessing the green here is lichen, rather than iron in the glacier water, but I could most definitely be wrong.