I got a huge amount of editing work done this morning, sitting at my cousins’ dining table. Last night they asked intelligent questions about my project, with genuine enthusiasm. That set the stage. Then this a.m., no distractions, nothing to do but write. I should get my house fumigated more often.
Thin crescent moon high in a dusk sky, with Venus just visible, and some tree tops below.
The crescent moon and Venus in a darker sky, framed by a garden wall below and some trees. The wall has an orange cast due to light coming from a house at left.
I’m enjoying seeing people’s moon and Venus pictures tonight. These are my iPhone snaps.
Upper left the Moon at waxing crescent phase the Pleiades star cluster at lower right.
Waxing Crescent Moon and the Pleiades. 2034UT 19 April 2026. 🔭 🧪 🎨 #astrophotography #SciArt #photography #StormHour #ThePhotoHour
“Even as they debated the Obama plan’s possible burden on the power industry [… ] not a single justice [… ] mentioned the dangers of a warming planet as one of the possible harms the court should consider.”
Astonishing. One wonders how informed these justices are.
www.nytimes.com/2026/04/18/u...
This is indeed useful for research. I knew a few of these search strategies, but not all.
A street lamp on a tree-lined street at dusk. A thin crescent moon and bright, star-like Venus in the sky. Photo: Bill Dunford
Lamplight
Thanks! We’ve been getting spot treatments for years and regular inspections so hopefully it won’t go as far as your sister’s house. That sounds really bad.
It’s like this in my neighborhood of old houses. One friend put off termite inspections until she retired, and then there was a ton of damaged wood. The inspector told her the only reason her house was still standing was because the termites were holding hands! 😂
Foto des Pferdekopfnebels im Sternbild Orion, aufgenommen mit einer gekühlten Astrokamera durch ein Teleskop Celestron C8. Zu sehen ist ein rötlicher Nebelstreifen von links oben (=Norden) nach rechts unten (=Süden), vor dem sich eine scharf begrenzte Dunkelwolke abzeichnet, die an die Form eines Pferdekopfes erinnert. Unten links ist zudem ein blauweißer Reflexionsnebel zu sehen
The Horsehead Nebula (IC 434) was my little side project in late winter; the total exposure time of this image is 7h 49min (North is left). Processing turned out to be surprisingly difficult, since the nearby star Alnitak left a lot of reflections in the field of view 🔭
@kat-astro-bot.bsky.social
Unpainted wood ceiling, with a few painted beams supporting it.
Room with both unpainted ceiling and unpainted wood wall.
Not sure it’s a problem with painted things. This is our ceiling.
Thanks! It’s an enforced spring cleaning.
"We are mostly concerned about the consequences of the disruption on fertilizers," says Jorge Moreira da Silva. "If we miss the planting season, the farmers, particularly in Africa, won't have productivity. The prices will go up and hunger and starvation will be spread." https://to.pbs.org/4tKU0wq
A few months ago there was a rather mortifying incident in which termites suddenly swarmed out of the vaulted wood ceiling in our living room *while someone was visiting.* A So Cal phenomenon.
Scheduled the fumigation so now we are spending all free time doing the prep work for that. 😭 IYKYK.
Re: Librarian Spy, which looks interesting—I recently read a NF book, “The Spy in the Archive” by Gordon Corera. Pretty quick-moving and fun to read despite sober topic.
If I had known your town had such a gorgeous library I might have stopped there on my recent trip to MA! 😍
I finished revising the two chapters of the Frost book that formed the basis of my talk in Salem. (Yay!) It’s always striking to me how helpful it is to give a talk on a chapter before finishing it. You streamline your argument, and you learn what people find puzzling or particularly interesting.
A black, single-layer cake. The top is decorated with a pastel-rainbow telescope and galaxy map behind it.
A different view of the cake, showing the galaxy map spilling over the side.
DESI finished its originally planned survey last night!! ..and will keep going :)
I made a cake to celebrate. 🌌🔭
@desisurvey.bsky.social
Pond, with high rise buildings just visible in the distance. Blue sky with puffy clouds. One small yellow flower in the foreground greenery to the left.
Double-crested cormorant with orange face markings, perched on a board in the water. Reeds in front.
The rain stopped this afternoon and we went birding at the San Joaquin marsh and water treatment plant. I’ve been very busy so just posting as a proof of my existence.
I can get a lot of pleasure from reading cookbooks—even before trying the recipes—and I even enjoy reading *about* cookbooks. This crop is enticing.
www.latimes.com/food/list/fa...
This is awful. 🧪🔭
Super fun and informative on writing history!
A double pleasure for those of us who were listening at the inception of Drafting the Past and heard Megan Kate Nelson the first time.
🔭
Gift article for those who missed this earlier. Watch the video linked in the article too. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/06/s...
I admire Kamran Javadizadeh’s writing so much.
For lovers of Frost’s astronomical imagery, there’s a great section on how the stresses in the lines of “I Will Sing You One-O” vary in a way that shows “earthly clocks hurrying to synchronize with their celestial counterpart.”
🔭
This is an actual post. This is not funny. This is beyond desperate. This is a deeply unwell man who doesn’t belong anywhere near the levers of power. Every member of his cabinet and Congress is complicit in not demanding his removal now.
Thank you!
Snow-capped mountains under blue skies.
Palm trees at an airport in Southern California.
Fresh snow on the Rockies this morning. But tonight I’m finally home. 😴
This is wildly under-reported
And thanks to Scott Manley on Twitter for pointing out this photo taken with moonlight, not sunlight, illuminating Earth. 🔭
The Strait of Gibraltar is lower left on the astronaut’s photo, and auroral lights over the South Pole to the upper right.
The glow to lower right is, I think, the zodiacal light, a reflection of sunlight off inner solar system dust. Venus at lower right too. 🔭
Right image is Strait from ISS.
