Barbara Ryden

Finally... some "introverted astronomer" representation in the media!

Not me. But you've done such a great job with Flaubert, I think you should continue with Bierce!

Are you going to switch to Ambrose?

A gray and white cat and an orange tabby cat are snuggled together atop a fleece blanket.

Happy #Caturday. If you are in the path of a winter storm, Trim and Finn recommend that you keep warm.

I ❤️ Love

Thank you! The book's success is due to Marc's amazing knowledge of stellar interiors... plus a few strategically placed footnote jokes.

Stellar Structure and Evolution: a very fine textbook.

My blind cat is tidy, my sighted cat is messy.

Barbara Ryden (wearing a nametag saying "Barbara Ryden") stands in front of a large sign saying "AAS".

It is not strictly required, when attending a meeting of the American Astronomical Society, to pose in front of the big AAS sign. However, I couldn't resist the opportunity. #aas247

Sounds fishy to me; but then, one man's meat is another man's poisson.

Epigraph for chapter 8 of Astrophysical Gas Dynamics: When Newton saw an apple fall, he found In that slight startle from his contemplation - 'Tis said (for I'll not answer above ground For any sage's creed or calculation) - A mode of proving that the earth turn'd round In a most natural whirl, called "gravitation"; And this is the sole mortal who could grapple, Since Adam, with a fall or with an apple. Lord Byron, "Don Juan," Canto X [1823]

I haven't quite decided if this is the ideal epigraph for chapter 8. Too Byronic, do you think, or just Byronic enough?

Snug

An orange tabby cats sits inside a cardboard box.

Happy Boxing Day from Finn the cat!

I once read that Reber's mom (née Harriet Grote, hence Reber's unusual first name) would hang laundry to dry on the supports of the radio telescope. Did your father ever report having to dodge damp sheets?

Orange tabby cat, sitting comfortably on a human lap

Happy #Solstice! I hope everyone in the northern hemisphere is keeping warm (preferably with the help of a cat).

A gray and white cat (Trim) licks the head of an orange tabby cat (Finn).

I hope you are having a well-groomed #Caturday (perhaps with a little help from a friend).

Beast wishes,
Barbara

Oh, I know Archie Leach! He went to school in Bristol with my buddy Paul Dirac.

"A little watermelon clears us of this deed."

"Some are born grape, some achieve grapeness, while others have grapeness thrust upon them!" [Takes a bow, exits]

An orange tabby cat examines the book Physics for Cats, by Tom Gauld.

Happy #Caturday! At this point, my cats' knowledge of physics is starting to catch up with mine.

I feel a sudden urge to take up knitting.

Dare I hope that you have a cat named Ganymede with a tail twice the normal length?

REVOLUTION IN SCIENCE. NEW THEORY OF THE UNIVERSE. NEWTONIAN IDEAS OVERTHROWN. Yesterday afternoon in the rooms of the Royal Society, at a joint session of the Royal and Astronomical Societies, the results obtained by British observers of the total eclipse of May 29 were discussed. [Times, November 7, 1919, page 12]

Oh, darn! This means I missed this year's "Revolution in Science" Day. (Headline in the Times of London from Nov. 7, 1919 about the same eclipse results.)

📖❤️

"They do offend our sight!"

AD 1858: Antonio Snider-Pellgrini proposed continental drift in his book La Création et ses mystères dévoilés.

Why didn't geologists take Snider- Pelligrini seriously in 1858? Partly because of the lack of a known mechanism for plate techtonics. Partly because of his involvement in a wonky French plan to colonize Texas.

An orange tabby cat, lying on a human's lap, looks up at the camera.

#Caturday night.

A doe and two halfgrown fawns, hanging out in a back yard.

The deer are taking over, one back yard at a time.

Leave them where the *faculty* can get to them...