A break from the astronomy–though last evening offered really good seeing and high transparency, and I had the best views I’ve ever had of Jupiter and of M13.
The ash trees are dying. All of them. Everywhere. On this continent.
I’ve always liked ash trees. They have a rugged bark, white wood, long delicate fingers of foliage. And for about twenty years now, a hitchhiker from foreign parts, the emerald ash borer, has been patiently extirpating them.
I assume that’s why there’s a dead ash on the property, and another looking very peakèd right beside it.
Haven’t found S-galleries yet, but I have heard a rumor that the borer has come to town. (S-galleries: winding S-shaped worm tracks on the surface of the wood, beneath the bark. Filled with sawdust and frass, which is a nifty synomym for larva poo.)
One of our other big ash trees had to come down a year ago, because its trunk was split along ten feet of its height and it was a matter of time before it fell on the house. The two had grown up and grown old together.
In other words, I could be wrong about the borer having arrived; but why would my tiny hacienda be exempt from a vast calamity?
The felled tree has slowly been turning into another kind of ash in the woodstove. It’s been heating us for almost two months now. I huffed and puffed with wedges, sledges, axes and gluts as long as I could yesterday. I’ll have it done this summer for sure. Do you like my free gym?
New York State has thrown up its hands and given up. Save the seeds (the samaras, another nifty word, meaning seed-pods)–preserve the species and hope for a better day. That’s literally all they can do. I’m going to try a soil drench just in case it’s not too late, but I think it’s probably too late.
American chestnut, American elm, and now several species of our beautiful Fraxinus. Three signature trees that defined the American landscape. Three iconic arboreal losses to… exactly what was it?
Selfishly, the losses will open up a large chunk of the ecliptic, increasing my somewhat limited view of the night sky by a large percentage. But I wish it weren’t happening like this.
Even overexposed and blurred by the movement of about one second of arc, it’s fun to share a picture of Jupiter and its moons. Very improvised setup, just an old Canon pocket camera put up to the eyepiece (for the record, a 25mm Plössl from the Celestron Omni series, with a 2× Barlow and a Baader neodymium filter).
So, I have bought what I need, and am now going to enjoy it.
The mailman has been busy here. I’ve received my Orion mount extender, and once again I can stand more or less upright while viewing the heavens.
It’s true–I’m the family scientist, at least by temperament and inclination, hobbies and enduring passions. (Let me add–surprisingly for a religious believer, perhaps–my outlook on life.) I speak both of my former, biological family, and my family of choice.
t turned ridiculously cold, so my early experiences with this new telescope involved kneeling on an icy patio in a down parka. But there’s much more to the transition to a new telescope than that.
