Astronomy Tuesday

This Hubble image of the reflection nebula NGC 1333 looks like an impressionist painting.

Image Credit: Science - NASA, ESA, STScI, Processing - Varun Bajaj (STScI), Joseph DePasquale (STScI), Jennifer Mack (STScI)

More from the Botanic Garden

 

Sunday bird blogging

A female mallard in the Brooklyn Botanic Garden last week.

Saturday reflections

A picture from Lower Manhattan near Ground Zero in April. I loved the variety of shapes and textures framing the reflections here.

Astronomy Tuesday

The Japanese astronomer Koichi Itagaki discovered this supernova in the Pinwheel Galaxy, M101, on May 19th. It's relatively nearby, as the universe goes, so astronomers will be watching it and collecting data over the next several months as it slowly starts to fade.

Image Credit and Copyright: Craig Stocks

Bonus butterfly blogging

An Eastern Tiger Swallowtail in Fort Tryon Park.

Sunday bird blogging

I did go to Central Park this week, for the first time in what felt like forever. I saw a few late warblers in full breeding plumage, but didn't get any good photos. This gray catbird, on the other hand, was more cooperative.

Saturday reflections

Another reflection from downtown Manhattan last month, including the spires of the Oculus, the modernist transit hub near Ground Zero.

This was my first Saturday to sleep in, and it was raining, which made it even sweeter. I should not be shocked by how undisciplined I immediately become given the opportunity—I do have decades of prior experience with laziness and time-wasting—but I think Monday will be soon enough to start making lists and checking off chores. There are so many things I want to do this summer, and I'm already thinking about ideas for next semester.

I'm not quite a lady of leisure

Yet.

I still have some admin/grading chores to complete, but I taught my last class of the semester last Saturday, so this is technically summer vacation. I have done a little cleaning, a little reading, and a lot of nothing in particular, but Wednesday Jayne and I drove to Brooklyn to visit the lovely Botanic Garden on what turned out to be a perfect late spring day. I may even bestir myself to post some more pictures.

Astronomy Tuesday

NGC 5128, better known as Centaurus A, is one of the brightest galaxies in the sky. Its peculiar shape is the result of a collision with a smaller spiral galaxy, with which it will eventually merge. The more interesting feature in this photo are the red trails in the upper left. They are filaments from a jet of ionized matter being ejected from the supermassive black hole at the galaxy core.

Image Credit and Copyright: Marco Lorenzi, Angus Lau and Tommy Tse; Text: Natalia Lewandowska (SUNY Oswego)

Sunday bird blogging

One more week and I'm on vacation. I can't promise I'll blog more then; I need a whole new set of routines for this new life I've stumbled into and I'm not sure what they'll be.

But here's a cardinal.