Spring in the City

On the way to and from the Met, I walk about 15 blocks up and down the east side of Central Park.  I am always looking for photographs, of course.  I have seen some nice views of the city through the trees of central park.  I like the contrast between the softness of the trees and the glass and metallic buildings.  A nice contrast.

"Dr. Mac" Speaks

I went to the Long Island Macintosh Users Group tonight.  They had a special speaker as the program, Bob "Dr. Mac" Levitus.  He has published 75 books on the Mac operating systems, and on iPhones, and iPads.   I *thought* that the speaker was going to be there in person, but unfortunately, it was a Skype session from Anchorage, Alaska.  I needn't have worried, however.  It was a terrific presentation of how to be more efficient while using Macs, and an introduction to some particular applications that would be helpful.  He was very helpful and funny as well.  His knowledge of the Mac operating system is just astounding!  It was a great evening.

Flying the Curtiss Pusher

When our astronomy club visited the Cradle of Aviation Museum, I stopped to try out a full-size model of a 1911 Curtiss Pusher.  The model is only of the center section of the airplane.  I think that this is for kids, but hey, I am a kid, so I tried it out.  What's interesting about the controls for this machine, is that only some of them are similar to a modern airplane.  The "steering wheel" turns the rudder which is in the front, the stick moves the foreplane, for pitch control.  There are no rudder pedals for the feet.  But the most unusual control is that for the ailerons, out on the wings, and you move those by pressing your back into the "shoulder cradle" and tilting your body from side to side.  Man oh man, would I ever think that I could fly an airplane with such unusual controls!

It's Hard to Type Like This

This is Kathy and Grace, the kitty.  Grace is a very affectionate cat, and at times during the day, she needs to be held, not just in your lap, but draped over your shoulder.  She will not take "no" for an answer!  Can you tell?  So Kathy types with one hand until Grace has been held long enough to climb back down and go about her normal kitty life.

Train for a Wedding Dress

There is an exhibit at the Met called "Manus x Machina: Fashion in an Age of Technology," an exploration of technology's impact on fashion.  This particular piece is a train for a wedding dress, designed by Karl Lagerfeld for House of Chanel (In case you want to buy one of these.) I am not sure how practical it is - I think that the train is more than 25 feet long!  I was more interested in the women photographing the dress with their phones.  I only spent about 15 minutes in the exhibit - I guess I fail the fashion test!

"There's a Little Black Spot on the Sun Today"

Today was the day of the Transit of Mercury.  I went to the beach in Bayville and set up my telescope.  Just like the Transit of Venus in 2004, the sky was cloudy for almost an hour after Mercury started to cross the Sun.  Mercury is the lower black dot, by the way.  The upper gray area on the sun is a sunspot.  I did get some photographs through breaks in the cloud, just at the beginning.  The transit lasted over seven hours. These transits don't happen very often - only about 13 or 14 per century.  The last three transits occurred in 1999, 2003, and 2006.  The next will occur on November 11, 2019, and then the one after that will be on November 13, 2032.  It is an amazing thing to see a planet cross the face of the sun - it is, in fact, mind boggling.  It is surprising how small Mercury is, compared to the Sun. The lyrics to Sting's song, in the title of the blog, came to mind almost immediately when I saw Mercury on the face of the Sun. Please click on the image to see it much larger.

In Celebration of Mothers!

We drove to my sister Betsey's home in Connecticut for a Mother's Day luncheon.  It was a wonderful day for all of us to be gathered together - something that doesn't happen all that often.  So here is a portrait of both mothers and daughters. From left to right, for those of you have read about some of these people: my sisters Betsey and Joan, Kathy, my sister Karen, Jonathan's wife Lauren, and Joan's daughter Jenny.  While sitting on the couch Lauren sat next to me with her daughter Evelyn and began feeding her.  Her husband Jonathan is in the background.  This photo seems to be the essence of Mother's Day.