The Heart of the Milky Way

I spent all day at the Hartness House Workshop which was a series of lectures all day long on so many different topics having to do with astronomy, observing and some talks about imaging in order to gather some scientific data for research.  It is always such a spectacular series of talks from experts in their fields.  I look forward to this talk each year.  Then there was a dinner and a keynote speaker.  By the time I got back to the farmhouse inn it was about `10PM and I was beat but against the forecast, it was perfectly and some of my fellow astronomers had telescopes set up out in a field that the proprietor mows, knowing that some will like to set up their telescopes..  I was too tired for that but decided to get my camera out and to do a few photographs, so that I would have a nice blog post.  I cannot remember the last time I saw the Milky Way.  I think it was when I was out observing at Orient Point about a year or so ago.  Such a joy to stand under a dark skies, full of stars from horizon to horizon!  This is a larger image, so please click on it to see more detail.

 

Meadow Exhibit

About 6 miles after crossing in to Vermont from Massachusetts, there is the Vermont Welcome Center.  It is a wonderful place to make a visit and take a break from driving.  I love to wander around with my camera snd try and find a blog photo.  In this photograph is is a view of the "Meadow Exhibit" which I did not know about from other visits.  There are so may wildflowers in bloom here it is so much fun to walk around and see if I can find a photo.  The dead or dying tree doesn't help here, but I could not find a photograph that did not include that tree.

 

A Stunning Musical Instrument

This is another of the musical instruments on display in the "Heavenly Bodies" exhibit, a series about unusual musical instruments, some of which represent human forms.  This instrument is a Ngombi, a harp, from Gabon.  It is from the mid-20th century.  It is a sacred harp central to the ancestor-focused spiritual practice of the Tsogo culture.  It is often crowned with a female head, it represents the voice and body of Nyingwan Merge, the Sister of God.  When the harp is infused with ancestor voices and animated by the performer’s spirit, it becomes capable of playing itself and is a direct channel for spirits to communicate with the ceremony participants.  This is so stunning to see, I started with a close up photograph of just the top of the harp.  The full length image is below.  What a stunning and beautiful object this is!

 

"Heavenly Bodies" at the Met

I have posted here about two recent exhibits I saw in Manhattan. You have seen the one about the Giacometti sculptures at the Met.  There were two other exhibits at the Met.  One of them was called "Heavenly Bodies" which included a series about unusual musical instruments.  This is a "PianoArc 360"  piano, and as you can see, it is stunning.  It is an electronic instrument because there is no where to have the "piano strings" or musical wires where the keys control the hammers that strike the strings.  I cannot imagine how this is played, but it must be something to watch.  What a cool device!

 

No More Shredded Wheat!

I was walking down the cereal aisle the other day, to get another box of Shredded Wheat Minis, which is what I have for breakfast most days.  With blueberries, of course.  I saw this brilliant flash of orange-red color on the shelf, and I stopped to see what it was.  I was stunned.  THIS is a cereal?  It looks like hundreds of tiny chocolate croissants!  THIS is healthy for children?  A chocolate breakfast cereal?  This is nuts!  Next trip I am going to see how much sugar is in this cereal, compared to, for instance. Shredded Wheat.  Or, maybe instead I will rethink this and start having this for breakfast instead of Shredded Wheat! I love chocolate!

 

The Egret in the Mill Pond

On July 7 Kathy and Amy and Vivian and I went to Cedarmere, the home of William Cullen Bryant, in Roslyn, and I did a series of six photographs there, which I posted on the blog.  There were so many things to photograph that I left a couple of photographs out of the post.  This is one of them.  It is the Mill Pond at the estate and I did a photograph of looking at the pond the long way in the first post.  This is a view across it, with an Egret carefully walking along the shoreline in the shallow water.  I love this photo because the Egret is such a small part of the photograph and yet we see it almost instantly.  I love this photographs because of the richness of all the vegetation, both in the background and along the shore and in the pond.  It is green everywhere!

 

A Different Way to See

I walk this route so many times, and I kind of know all the best views for photographs.  Which is good because if I am walking in a snowstorm or rain or fog or see orange light from sunset, I know right where to go for the best shot.  But I am always looking for "different" ways of seeing these wonderful Sycamore trees.  And I found this view the other day.  I. cannot remember how I came to this, but it is really unusual to have the tree trunk split the photograph right right down the center.  I love how there is a tree shot on the left and a sidewalk and harbor shot on the right.  It is interesting and a nice exercise in an unusual composition.