Saturday reflections

Because I haven't done a taillight in a long time.

Urban poetry

Okay, so this woman with bright red hair just happened to be standing in front of the red awnings of the Westway Diner on Ninth Avenue reading a book called Book of Dissent that happened to have a bright red jacket and -- I don't know. I feel as though she must have been posing for someone; it was all a little too perfect. Or maybe she was meeting a blind date and the book was how she was going to be recognized?

Anyway, she ended up posing for me.

Astronomy Tuesday

I've seen a lot of galaxies, but I have to admit that this image just made my jaw drop. How lucky are we to live in such a splendid universe?

This is UGC 1810, which is in the process of colliding with a galactic neighbor. All the brouhaha has resulted in that striking ring of hot young blue stars around the more traditional spiral form; in another billion years or so, UGC 1810 will pull the kids into line, they'll cool down a little, and the galaxy will look more like a typical spiral.

I'm on jury duty, in Federal Court, so no electronic devices of any kind are allowed. I don't mind having to read a dead-tree book rather than my Kindle, but I do wish I could bring my camera or even my phone. The weather has been gorgeous, if windy, and I could have taken a hundred pictures of the skyline yesterday.

Image Credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble, HLA; Processing and Copyright: Domingo Pestana

Abstract in spring colors

It poured rain all day yesterday, and the paths in the park were still dripping this morning, with deep puddles and shallow streams running down every slope.

Here's the reflection of trees and sky on one of the wet paths.

Sunday bird blogging

Here's a house finch, looking vaguely disapproving of his surroundings. It's something about that big beak -- I think they may be physically incapable of appearing to have a good time.

Saturday reflections

The true New Yorker secretly believes that people living anywhere else have to be, in some sense, kidding. -- John Updike

Much as I love New York, there are other places, many of them, where I could live and be happy. But for the Updikeans among us, here's a whimsical tribute reflected in the windshield of a tour bus.

Urban poetry

Bicycles are automatically abstract. I love the way they paint the sidewalk in patterns of shadow on a sunny morning.

Astronomy Tuesday

Well, this made me smile.

The big fuzzy white lights in the center of the picture, and the smaller, similar ones encircling it, are the Abell 370 galaxy cluster.

And the tiny bluish lights, some of them smashed flat or pulled into arcs, are galaxies behind Abell 370, so far away they wouldn't otherwise be seen. But the galaxy  cluster acts as a gravitational lens, magnifying and distorting whatever's on the other side.

Image Credit: NASA, ESA, Jennifer Lotz and the HFF Team (STScI)

Sunday bird blogging

It may be gray and gloomy today, in the allegedly merry, merry month of May, but the warblers are passing through on their biannual migration vacations.

This pine warbler turned up a few weeks early, discovered the feeders in Central Park, and saw no reason to leave in a hurry.

Saturday reflections

The Radio City sign reflected in a car window on West 51st Street.

More urban poetry

Because sometimes even Lady Liberty needs a little wardrobe adjustment.

Urban poetry

Liberty contemplates the implications of a recent phone conversation.

This is one of the characters who pose for pictures with tourists in Times Square.