Saturday reflections

A twofer.

Rockefeller Center reflected in automobile hoods. Same, but different.

Urban poetry

A tangle of trolley lines in Seattle.

Astronomy Tuesday

This is the Dumbbell Nebula, number 27 on our friend Monsieur Messier's list of Things That Are Not Comets.

Small to mid-sized stars like our sun don't die in a blaze of supernova glory; they become planetary nebulae like this, throwing off layers of gas that bloom and eventually fade, while the parent star settles into sensible retirement as a white dwarf.

Image Credit and Copyright: Bill Snyder (Bill Snyder Photography)

Sunday bird blogging

Another look at the homely and the common, New York style: a white-throated sparrow who appears to be deep in thought, but is probably just keeping an eye out for breakfast.

Saturday reflections

Because there is actually no place like home.

These thoroughly mundane apartment buildings on a drab block near the Lincoln Tunnel somehow manage to snag a complete rainbow's worth of reflections.

Urban poetry

Seattle.

I'm thinking they had some excellent refreshments available at that street fair.

Sunday bird blogging

Sandhill cranes coming in for a landing at Creamers Field.

The picture is not that sharp but I still love the way they're caught in sync, those ungainly legs ready to reach for the ground.

Saturday reflections

Traffic waiting at the Whittier tunnel, as reflected in the side mirror of our van.

I've been tweaking the blog design a little -- after six years it's starting to look less than fresh. I like the look of this font but think it might be hard to read, so haven't made a final decision about it yet.

Urban poetry

Seattle.

At first I thought this was an upscale travel agency. Instead, it's the sleekest, most glamorous bail bonds office ever.

Astronomy Tuesday

Here's an unusual solar eclipse: Mercury crossing the sun in 2006.

Image Credit & Copyright: David Cortner

Sunday bird blogging

A pair of laggard kittiwakes by Prince William Sound.

We missed the thousands of migrating kittiwakes that had been there only the week before. There were maybe only a hundred or so left, including these two, who don't appear to be in any hurry to set off on the next leg of their migration.

Saturday reflections

Now that it's officially autumn in the northern hemisphere, here's one of the sneak peeks of the season I got in Alaska: trees just starting to turn at Creamers Field in Fairbanks.