I just realized that it was ten years ago that my brother Dave, tnatj died. Here's my post from that day, including a couple of hundred comments from filkers.

At the end of the year, I realized that I should put together some sort of viewing guide for this August's total solar eclipse. It's largely based on what I teach my students, but it has some bonus other stuff. I've already posted it on Facebook, but here it is for my LJ friends.

Professor Pete’s Eclipse watching guideThere will be a total solar ( Read more... )

I haven't been posting for months, but I do read here, and today I found that I couldn't read comments. Is anyone else having that problem (at least I'll be able to read the email notifications of your comments)?

Here's a little bunny I saw at County Farm Park a week or two ago. It was not afraid of me, so I could take this picture, which I am quite pleased with:


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I would like to point out that I did *not* bring googly eyes to Gallup Park, and did not peel the backing off the adhesive. I will also point out that squirrelykat did not place them on the railing of the pedestrian bridge between islands.

The OmNom Tree:

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I took this picture before class Monday. The inner dark part (umbra) of that sunspot is something like twice the diameter of earth. I could actually make it out "naked eye," just looking through my No.14 welder's glass.


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As I type, Mercury has passed halfway in front of the sun in a rare (like once-a-dcade-ish) event called a Transit of Mercury. Not only do you need safe viewing precautions, but at least binoculars to make out tiny Mercury against the sun (unlike the much rarer transit of Venus a few years back where you just had to worry about going blind ( Read more... )

I don't even know where I actually walked on April 3. But there was some cool moss. And here's a picture of it:


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I've actually taken a few nature pics over the past few months. I've only been walking a couple of times a week, and then it's been with Monica who has lots to talk about, so I'm not looking so hard for photo subjects. But I'll post three photos from March. The first two are from March 20, when I believe I was at Furstenberg Nature Area. Here's ( Read more... )

On Sunday, I actually went on a healthy lifestyle choice with Monica, and we saw this bird--a White-Breasted Nuthatch--who kindly posed for my camera:


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