Marie Winn's Central Park Nature News: 2009-02-22

Our hero

Pale Male with twig at nest, Feb 21, 2009
Photo courtesy of PaleMale.com

Several sharp-eyed readers have written in about the photo I used two days ago, illustrating a report about Pale Male. Linda Maslin of Blue Bell, PA wrote:

Hi Marie,

I think that's one of Lincoln's "stinkers," not out hero!

Linda

She's right.

I've double-checked the photo above and it is indisputably "His Guyness."

My hero

Pale Male on way to nest --February 24, 2008
Photo courtesy of PaleMale.com

Obviously to err is human...

In regard to yesterday's post, Blogger Robert B Schmunk http://bloomingdalevillage.blogspot.com writes:

Marie,

The image you posted on your blog on Wednesday is obviously not a real photo. The moon in the image is about 15 times wider than the sun. But when seen from the surface of Earth, the moon and the sun subtend almost exactly the same angular distance. That they are the same apparent width is why solar eclipses are so darned interesting, with the "diamond necklace" effect when they line up perfectly. Some Googling reveals that the image is a piece of art done by a German named Inga Nielsen. Her homepage is at http://nielsen.sp01.ab-webspace.de/ and the image is in her gallery at http://nielsen.sp01.ab-webspace.de/gallery/details.php?image_id=63 There's also a piece about it on the NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day at http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap060620.html about this.

Here is the text from the NASA site, that appeared on June 20, 2006 :

Hideaway
Illustration Credit & Copyright: Inga Nielsen Explanation: Is this a picture of a sunset from Earth's North Pole? Regardless of urban legends circulating the Internet, the answer is no. The above scene was drawn to be an imaginary celestial place that would be calm and peaceful, and therefore titled Hideaway. The scene could not exist anywhere on the Earth because from the Earth, the Moon and the Sun always have nearly the same angular size. This is particularly apparent, for example, during solar eclipses. Still, the scene drawn is quite striking, and the crescent part of the "moon" shown is approximately accurate given the location of the parent star. In reality, the North Pole of Earth looks different. Starting earlier this month, the North Pole even has a web camera returning near-live pictures

PS Here's a link to bookmark for the Astronomy Picture of the Day, provided by Mary Birchard: http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod

Brrrrrr

Very cold in Central Park these days. So I thought I'd post a photo from a place a bit north of here.

Sunset and moonrise at the North Pole.

Jimmy Lewis sent in the [unattributed] photo above, along with the following [also unattributed] text:

A scene you will probably never get to see. This is the sunset at the North Pole with the moon at its closest point.You also see the sun below the moon. An amazing photo and not one easily duplicated. You may want to pass it on to others. The Chinese have a saying: 'When someone shares with you something of value, you have an obligation to share it with others."

PS The Grackles and Red-winged Blackbirds are coming into the park. Can the Phoebe be far behind?