At peak magnitude, seek out the goddess of love planet in a clear blue sky in the west-southwest during daylight hours, being extremely careful to keep eyes diverted from the sun.
Phoebes find the structures we build adaptable to their own need for shelter while raising young. In turn, our lives are enriched by observing their activities and hearing their “fee bee” vocalizations in our midst.
On eclipse day, from 2 to 4 p.m., Great Barrington’s Mason Public Library is hosting amateur astronomer Rick Costello, four telescopes with shielded optics in tow.
The excellence of the measles vaccine and experience with Rinderpest led to the idea of eliminating the measles virus, but a decline in vaccine acceptance after a false autism scare ended that hope.
"A total eclipse of the sun is the most spectacular, awe-inspiring sight in all of nature. Once seen, it can never be forgotten." — Fred Espenek, NASA’s “Mr. Eclipse”
When I went back to Leopold’s “Thinking Like A Mountain” essay in his book “A Sand County Almanac,” published in 1949, I felt that his experiences, expressed here, quicken one’s own responses to wildlife and wild lands.
I am reminded of astronaut Chris Hatfield’s statements about his spacewalk experience from the International Space Station: “I was attacked by raw beauty. It was stupefying. It stops your thoughts … The power of the presence of the world as told to me by my ability to see it.”
When I came to live in Mount Washington in the 1990s, I was introduced to the Taconic Plateau and the Town of Mount Washington as one of “Earth’s Last Great Places,” a Nature Conservancy (TNC) program that measured and recognized ecological health—biodiversity being a prime indicator.
When many of us sow at least one keystone perennial herbaceous plant, shrub, or tree in the environs of our home, we will be creating biodiversity-rich corridors.
