Alignment

 Did you see the alignment last week?

No,  not the ones in France the one in the sky .

And not this one, either.

Rather this one

My views looked like this on the 21st of January, a Tuesday:

 There was a lot of hyp about it. So I thought "omen" and found this cartoon:

So I looked around and found there was an inauguration day preceding the "alignment.

Yes I had heard of the election, And the rhetoric that has followed.

It reminds me of a cartoon I once saw -

And that got me thinking about   - Christmas!

Transport Canada issued the following on December 23, 2024:

  Minister of Transport and Internal Trade clears Santa Claus for travel in Canadian airspace

 

 “Using the same military aircraft, radars, and satellites to defend North America,
NORAD is well suited to track Santa’s progress as he delivers his cargo across Canada
and the United States. It is a special moment for all our crews when they have that
rare chance to make contact with Santa.”
The Honourable Bill Blair, Minister of National Defence

So, suffer the little children come Christmas 2025 with 25% import duties!  ???

I suggest all Americans come to Canada to do their black Friday shopping. You'll get even more bang for you buck and do a good turn to somebody (every day).

 

 WOB

Maybe lazy?

 I had not realized the interest in the lunar occultation of Mars this past  Monday until I received letters from Ottawa and Tokyo, incidentally 12 hours ahead of me - thanks, "Hagi"and your students for asking:

I am hard against our building to shelter me and the camera from a cold wind, stronger than a breeze.  When I went out around 8PM/20:00 the Moon was clear and all was well. (Thanks for pointing out that I was "am" not "an" YH. And thanks for reading and writing, too. Make that "YH" - "萩原喜昭” ! )

However, when I returned to start the sequence of "ingression", it had so clouded up that I could not see even a hint of where the Moon might be. So I missed the start. And I was not optimistic about seeing the exit. But still I ought to try.

However, as you will note, I was several minutes late and the occultation was over. That is Mars above and to the right of the Moon;

I did some stretching of the intensity scale as well as colour  - in that first shot of this sequence - to explore possibilities for another time. The last shot is close to what one would see through binoculars. I used my Nikon 1000 to take these images and Paint Shop Pro for "processing".

Thanks for spurring me on - WOB

I used to be apathetic ...

 Now I am a person who gets excited seeing a North American Robin flitting about in a forest.

A month ago I got carried away with a Snowy Owl. Since then I have seen nothing, So you can imagine how I felt the other day when I saw:

These "birds" just don't give a "hoot". Maybe they have been disconnected?

It is a rough life in winter - WOB

The Trial of Winter

 Your Honour, Winter claims to have been framed:

One talks about wind-chill, but the motion of air can be gentle and bind liquid with solid in what might almost be described as a dance:

The swirl of ice responding to the motion of air is like a ballerina responding to music.

The music continues:

In the previous blog the ice was presented as threatening teeth. However, that is not in keeping with these wild ice forms moulded by Winter's breath;

Dress appropriately and enjoy the sculpture of Winter's breath.

WOB

The Teeth of Winter

 It really is about poor insulation.

Too much heat loss - like loosing hair on the head -

Pretty, but also pretty dangerous, too.

WOB