This crazy quilt of a picture is the photo that I took of last night’s sky. Let me try to decode it for you. The concentric arcs are star trails. They are caused by the earth’s rotation. This long exposure photo was shot for 33⅓ minutes. (It just happened to run that long.) The length of these arcs is the distance that these stars traveled in that time. On the righthand side is the north pole. All of the stars are circling that. The bright lines are jets, headed across the pole to Europe. They are pretty much headed in the same direction. The finer lines, going every which way are meteors. They are part of the Perseids.
This wider view of the Uranian system with Webb’s NIR camera features the planet Uranus as well as six of its 27 known moons (most of which are too small and faint to be seen in this short exposure). A handful of background objects, including many galaxies, are also seen. Image description: The planet Uranus is on a black background just right of center. Just below the planet at the 7 o’clock position is a faint blue point labeled Puck. Brighter blue points at 8 o’clock, 5 o’clock, and 3 o’clock are labeled Ariel, Miranda, and Umbriel, respectively. Two additional blue points at 7 o’clock and 5 o’clock are labeled Titania and Oberon.
We made it to the cabin (again). At the bridge, the weather was not storming, yet. The front was still north of it. This is rather a rendering of what our crossing might have looked like had we dawdled. Not to worry though, there was still plenty of action on the bridge. In short, we were so busy Instagram-like documenting our crossing that we almost had an accident.
We safely arrived at the cabin less than an hour later. Once here, Anne exchanged proofs-of-life with Harry, returning him to Jane Control, at least in my mind. No loss of life on our watch! The cabin was pretty much like I left it, except all the windows were open and a small craft warning was blowing in off of the lake. Jay and Carl are moments away. Then we’ll all enjoy the fine-looking pesto that Jane left us for dinner.
It was a pleasure minding Harry for the past week. His care requirements are way easier than that of a three-year-old. Our stay with him was bookended with its two highpoints. On the first night, I arrived in time to attend his 99th birthday celebration. He gave a short speech, basically telling everyone a joke that was well received with much laughter. Yesterday, Anne and I took Harry for a ride in the country. He really enjoyed the drive. This morning he found a surprise left him in his refrigerator by the food Faries. Anne could not finish her brunch yesterday and boxed it up, then left it in Harry’s fridge. He was quite pleased with the peach French toast this morning.
