what about the plastic animals?

Manhattanhenge

Manhattan's east-west streets are thirty degrees off true east-west. That means the dates on which the sun sets directly parallel to the streets fall about three weeks either side of the summer solstice. Neil deGrasse Tyson, director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History, has coined the term Manhattanhenge for the two dates.

True Manhattanhenge, when half the sun's disk is above the horizon and parallel to the streets, is actually tonight. I took these photos last night on the bridge over 42nd St. in Tudor City, when the whole disk of the sun was sitting on top of the horizon. It draws quite a crowd.  One person it didn't draw was a teenager talking into her cellphone "There's a bunch of people on the bridge taking pictures of the sunset or something.  It's weird."

The best place to see the sunset is on the east side of Manhattan where you can see all the way across the island.  The bridge may be crowded but it is a safe place to stand in the middle of the street. 

Rainbow

On Sunday afternoon I was doing important consumer research in Madison Square Park when I realized the sky would soon be right for a rainbow.  I walked over to the west side and, sure enough, there was a faint rainbow over the Empire State Building.  Seeing how faint the rainbow was, I adjusted the image to bring out the colors.  The result wasn't very attractive but at least the rainbow was clearly visible.  I put both images on Flickr and people went crazy for the adjusted image.  It is now the most often favorited item on my photostream. Go figure.

Second Peaks

This is the original photo shrunk down to 600x400 pixels. 

Since Judy mentioned meringue I am reminded of a question.  What does one do with several leftover egg whites?  I made ice cream the other day, a delicious chocolate ginger, and now I have whites from four extra large eggs.  The only thing I can think to do is whip them into a meringue and eat them.

Peaks

Peaks of a tent against a cloudy sky on the Columbia campus.  I messed with the levels on this one, but not too much.

Sunday Sunset

Every once in a while I'll look outside in the late afternoon and think "that would make a nice sunset over the Hudson picture".  I live in the center of the island, so the quickest way to get to the river is to take the subway down to 96th St.  From there, Riverside Park is just a couple of blocks away. 

Invariably, the sky goes awry by the time I get to the river.  Either the clouds dissipate completely, or, more often, there's a fog or haze over the river.  Last night it was a low level cloud deck moving in from the west.  The clouds in the top photo were barely visible five minutes before I took the picture.  At least the red glow just as the sun sank beneath the horizon was nice.

To ease the pain of another crappy sunset I stopped at a diner for dinner before walking home.  One special was poached salmon.  The waiter tried to talk me into a grilled salmon but I was in the mood for a healthier meal.  The fish came with a side of steamed vegetables.  Dinner was bland but otherwise fine.  As he handed me the bill the waiter asked how I liked the fish.  "Usually," he said "only old people order the poached salmon.  Really old people."

Sunset Over Hoboken

Ack!  I don't have any Thanksgiving themed photos.  The sunset over Hoboken as seen through a chain link fence will have to do. 

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  I'll be in upstate New York, eating turkey and staying away from the internet for a few days.

Turkey Dinner in Connecticut

That's the open faced turkey sandwich at the Cromwell Diner in Cromwell, Connecticut.  The turkey and potatoes were fine.  The vast sea of yellow gravy was unexpected.  In the upper right can be seen the daily vegetable special.  What possessed me to order "Hawaiian" carrots is a mystery as I knew they would be awful.  Drowning baby carrots with a sickly sweet pineapple coating is not a good idea.

The sunset outside the Shell station more than made up for the icky vegetables.  A few minutes later, when I was on the interstate and couldn't safely take a picture, the yellow had gone out of the sky and the clouds were a brilliant scarlet.

Two Sunsets

28 September 2007

1 October 2007

Fall is a good time for sunsets in New York.  The summer haze is gone, winter's milky sky is still a couple months away, and the sun is slow to set.   

This evening's sunset can also be seen as an exciting animated gif, in which the clouds and sun pillar move.  If you look closely you can see a puff of diesel exhaust from a truck on Lenox Ave.

Superior Moon Rise

Moon rise and ferry

Moon rise over Lake Superior and Madeline Island.

Jeff and I stayed the next to Lake Superior just outside Bayfield, Wisconsin.  Bayfield has the duel distinction of being Wisconsin's smallest city and northernmost city.  By comparison, more people live on my block than in Bayfield, but Bayfield is the gateway to the Apostle Islands and is a tourist destination itself.  The Bayfield Apple Festival is next weekend!

We started up a fire and cooked dinner.  After eating we wandered down to the lake shore to take in the view.  It was nice.  As we started back to the Rialta we caught a bright orange light behind the trees.  It was the moon.  The rising full moon was an amazing glowing orange.  These photos hardly do it justice as it was one of the most beautiful sights I've ever seen.

Sunset Abstract

'Tis the season for beautiful sunsets.