mulberry road

Nostalgia overcame me again. The above photoset is from October 2007, one of the best autumns in the Central Appalachian highlands in my memory. The colors were so vibrant that fall, especially the heath on the open plains of Dolly Sods, which burned like licks of red hot fire amid the spruce and mountain laurel. We only get these special autumns every few years or so, depending on a combination of temperature and moisture. At the time I took this set, my interest in photography was becoming more serious. I had begun to play around with aperature and shutter speed, shadow and contrast, with mixed results. But sometimes nature just fixes things for you - this was one of those days.

From top: Swallow Falls State Park, Maryland (1 &2); Blackwater Falls State Park, West Virginia (3 - 10); and Dolly Sods Wilderness and Scenic Area, West Virginia (11- 15).

String of bead, city of Ur, circa 2475-2300

Ian Sanders

“My next great adventure, aged 90, is going to be dying. There’s either nothing or something. If there’s nothing there’s nothing, that’s it. If there’s something I can’t think of a greater adventure than finding out what it is. I happen to think there is something because of the experiences I’ve had, because of experiences other people have had. Very powerful ones.”

Impalas on a salt flat in the Kalahari Desert, Namibia

Debbie Harry by Chris Stein, 1977

Helen Frankenthaler, Head of the Meadow, 1967 in the home of Andy Williams

titled and dated ""Head of the Meadow" Summer 1967" on the stretcher acrylic on canvas 83 7/8 x 124 1/4 in. (213.3 x 315.5 cm)

In her new studio in the woods of Cape Cod during the summer of 1967, Helen Frankenthaler created Head of the Meadow, a work situated in the pantheon of paintings in which her stain technique crystallized into breathtaking vistas of pure color. Executed during a time when she was making some of her best paintings to date, Head of the Meadow is a superb example from the body of work she executed while splitting time between New York and Provincetown, which presaged the monumental paintings of land, sky, and water she would paint later in her career. Soon after its completion, Head of the Meadow became the first work by Frankenthaler that Andy Williams, the now legendary singer behind such classics as “Moon River,” added to his budding collection of modern and contemporary art, in which the painting remained for decades. (Phillips auctions)

Not particularly insightful Williams quote-

“I really fell in love with Color Field because I just like color” — Andy Williams

Andy had Kenneth Noland too, so maybe he's all right

Comet 3I/ATLAS: A Visitor from Beyond the Solar System

The NASA-funded ATLAS (Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System) survey telescope in Rio Hurtado, Chile, first reported observations to the Minor Planet Center of comet 3I/ATLAS on July 1, 2025. Since the first report, observations made before the discovery were gathered from the archives of three different ATLAS telescopes around the world and Caltech’s Zwicky Transient Facility at the Palomar Observatory in San Diego County, California. These “pre-discovery” observations extend back to June 14.

Comet 3I/ATLAS is the third known object from outside our solar system to be discovered. Astronomers have categorized this object as interstellar because of the hyperbolic shape of its orbital path. (It does not follow a closed orbital path about the Sun.) When the orbit of 3I/ATLAS is traced into the past, the comet clearly originates from outside our solar system.

Comet 3I/ATLAS poses no threat to Earth and will remain far away. The closest it will approach our planet is about 1.8 astronomical units (about 170 million miles, or 270 million kilometers). 3I/ATLAS will reach its closest point to the Sun around Oct. 30, 2025, at a distance of about 1.4 au — just inside the orbit of Mars.

Comets are generally named for their discoverer(s), in this case the ATLAS survey team. The letter “I” is for “interstellar,” indicating that this object came from outside our solar system. It’s the third known interstellar object, hence the “3” in the name.

3I/ATLAS formed in another star system and was somehow ejected into interstellar space, which is the space between the stars. For millions or even billions of years, it has drifted until it recently arrived at our solar system. It has been approaching from the general direction of the constellation Sagittarius, which is where the central region of our galaxy, the Milky Way, is located. When discovered, 3I/ATLAS was about 410 million miles away from the Sun, within the orbit of Jupiter.

3I/ATLAS appeared to be travelling at 245,000 kilometres per hour, making it the fastest object ever detected in our Solar System.

It was also huge. Early estimates suggest the object could be up to 20 km in size. Finally, scientists believe it may even be older than our Sun.