An ideal week for planet and stargazing unfolds as November turns to December. Stargazing begins in the afternoon with the setting of the star of our solar system, the sun, as it approaches its most southerly reach on the horizon, nearly directly southwest. Sunset on November 28th is 4:30pm and from December 1 through the...
December 7 - 20_ 45 minutes - 1 hour after sunset.
Fomalhaut off to the left side of this image.
Diagram courtesy of EarthSky.org
800 – Charlemagne arrives in Rome to investigate the alleged crimes of Pope Leo III. 1729 – Natchez Indians massacre 138 Frenchmen, 35 French women, and 56 children at Fort Rosalie, near the site of modern-day Natchez, Mississippi. 1783 – A 5.3 magnitude earthquake strikes New Jersey. 1847 – Whitman massacre: Missionaries Dr. Marcus Whitman,...
Enos, a five year old chimp after his space flight of two orbits around earth
It is a rare project that is fully funded, as well as supported by both the public and its elected representatives, but still can’t get off the drawing board. But the proposed Brooklyn Bridge Beach, which (if built) would become the sole access point at which Lower Manhattan residents could step into the water that...
An architect's rendering of the proposed public access for swimmers and human-powered boats at Brooklyn Bridge Beach.
1582 – In Stratford-upon-Avon, William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway pay a £40 bond for their marriage license. They were married in 1582, when he was 18 and she was 25 years old. She outlived her husband by seven years. 1660 – At Gresham College, twelve men, including Christopher Wren, Robert Boyle, John Wilkins, and Sir...
Broadly speaking, New York City has three languages: English, Spanish, and Other. The first two are almost universally applicable, about as prevalent in the northern Bronx as in the stretches of Brooklyn and Staten Island that face the Atlantic Ocean. But the third is the most interesting, because it varies dramatically by location. In Astoria,...
An interactive map of Lower Manhattan showing the third-most common local language in each Census Tract_ with green signifying Chinese_ light blue representing French, and dark blue denoting "other Indo-European languages."
Broadly speaking, New York City has three languages: English, Spanish, and Other. The first two are almost universally applicable, about as prevalent in the northern Bronx as in the stretches of Brooklyn and Staten Island that face the Atlantic Ocean. But the third is the most interesting, because it varies dramatically by location. In Astoria,...
An interactive map of Lower Manhattan showing the third-most common local language in each Census Tract_ with green signifying Chinese_ light blue representing French, and dark blue denoting "other Indo-European languages."