Astronomy Tuesday

Another image from the Webb Telescope. NGC 3132, the Southern Ring Nebula. There are two stars at the center of this nebula. One is dying, and shedding layers of gas and dust, which the other stars stirs into patterns with its gravity.

Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI

Sunday bird blogging

One of the American woodcocks that stopped over in Bryant Park last spring.

I've been working on slides and lesson plans and observation writeups all day. I'm hoping it will all look better in the morning.

Saturday reflections

A car turned an Upper East Side street into a desaturated abstract.

Happy Thanksgiving

I took this picture through a taxi window: people eating in one of the sidewalk sheds that have become a permanent fixture on the streets of New York since the first lockdown ended. (Indoor dining was still not allowed so all of the restaurants built outdoor spaces.) And almost three years later, they're still here.

As is Covid, though we all seem to be trying our best to forget that. In my chat group of grad students/teachers there are still people posting every week: “Hey everyone who was in Oral Skills on Thursday night, I just tested positive.”) And when I first processed this picture, I thought that the woman in the center was wearing a mask, and I laughed when I realized it was just one of the reflections.

I am thankful for many things this year. I got to leave the country again and see a little of Costa Rica. I got to go to Minneapolis and reconnect with my brother. I kept plowing through the Master's program and now, in just a few weeks, I will be done.

And I just had a chocolate cupcake for breakfast because I'm an adult and no one can tell me not to.

Astronomy Tuesday

Now that's a starry night! This double star cluster in Perseus was first recorded in 130 B.C. by the Greek astronomer Hipparchus.

Hipparchus spent his last years on Rhodes, which is the only Greek island I've actually visited, and the pleasant memories of that trip make me inclined to forgive him for having invented trigonometry. 

Image Credit and Copyright: Tommy Lease

Sunday bird blogging

I haven't shared one of these in a long time: a house finch in Central Park.

Saturday reflections

Another night shot, from Third Avenue this summer.

Astronomy Tuesday

NGC 7380 is called the Wizard Nebula and, as usual, I don't see a wizard anywhere. But it is gorgeous.

Image Credit and Copyright: Ioan Popa

Urban poetry

I thought I must have posted this picture already, but apparently not.

I loved the way this van, in the Guadalupe district of San José, coordinates so perfectly with the startling green on that building. Does the driver park there on purpose?

Sunday bird blogging

This cardinal appears to have gotten up on the wrong side of the nest this morning.

Saturday reflections

Another of the night reflections I took this past summer. This was on East 23rd Street.

Tree studies

Dealing with photography has felt like just another chore recently, something I kind of like but don't have time for. But this past week was stressful, and playing with filters and effects on some of my photos of trees from Monteverde was soothing and distracting. And fun!

Plaza de la Libertad Electoral

In downtown San José.

Astronomy Tuesday

I slept through the lunar eclipse last night, but fortunately many talented photographers did not. This image is from Andrew McCarthy, who posts stunning images regularly on Twitter (@AJamesMcCarthy), and sells prints at his website.

Image credit: Andrew McCarthy/Twitter

Urban poetry

Random photos from a cab ride home a few weeks ago: an upper level store window on 57th Street, and cars on Ninth Avenue.

Sunday bird blogging

Starlings having a pool party in the Loch in Central Park.

Saturday reflections

Okay, a little late. COVID and all the usual winter viruses are running rampant through the Saturday English program; my classes were canceled and I slept for eighteen hours.

This is Foshay Street in Minneapolis last summer.

Astronomy Tuesday

The gases in the dark nebula LDN 43 are dense enough to block not only the light from background stars, but also the extensive star nursery it contains.

Image Credit and Copyright: Mark Hanson and Mike Selby; Text: Michelle Thaller (NASA's GSFC)