Barbara Ryden

@bsryden.bsky.social

627 Followers 401 Following

Writer of astrophysics textbooks, servant to cats

"A star is basically a pretty simple structure." "You'd look pretty simple, Fred, at a distance of ten parsecs." Fred Hoyle (1915-2001) and Roderick Redman (1905-1975) at Cambridge Observatory [1954]
A cat sniffs a copy of Physics for Cats.
New York Times, Wednesday, January 19, 1921, page 6. Headlines are: "COOLIDGE HAS FAITH IN OUR MORAL FIBRE" and "DREYER NEBULA NO. 584 INCONVEIVABLY DISTANT"
Small plush hippo rests between the forelegs of the sphinx statue at Miramare Castle.
Two cats engage in cat napping, side by side.
An egret flies over Mirror Lake, on the main campus of the™ Ohio State University. A fountain plays at the far end of Mirror Lake.
A gray and white cat (named Trim) and an orange tabby cat (named Finn) are sprawled side by side on an end table next to a sofa.
An Allarm to Europe (title page)
Fairly large astronomer standing next to a very petite dress once worn by Caroline Herschel.
An astronomer is wearing a space-cat-themed shirt. A nametag is clipped to the shirt, reading "Barbara Ryden AUTHOR"
Cover slide for the Friday, April 10 lecture of Ast 2142 (Black Holes) at The Ohio State University. The slide includes two images: on the right, the "Earthset" photo from the Artemis II mission; on the left, the "Earthrise" image from the Apollo 8 mission, cropped to match "Earthset."
A gray and white cat (named Trim) and an orange tabby cat (named Finn) are sleeping back-to-back on a fleece blanket.
Orange tabby cat. Underneath the cat is a lap.
A gray and white cat and an orange tabby cat are snuggled together atop a fleece blanket.
Barbara Ryden (wearing a nametag saying "Barbara Ryden") stands in front of a large sign saying "AAS".
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]
An orange tabby cats sits inside a cardboard box.
Orange tabby cat, sitting comfortably on a human lap
A gray and white cat (Trim) licks the head of an orange tabby cat (Finn).
An orange tabby cat examines the book Physics for Cats, by Tom Gauld.
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]
AD 1858: Antonio Snider-Pellgrini proposed continental drift in his book La Création et ses mystères dévoilés.
An orange tabby cat, lying on a human's lap, looks up at the camera.
A doe and two halfgrown fawns, hanging out in a back yard.
Footnote from Celestial and Stellar Dynamics: "The tidal Love number k_T is often written as k_2, since it encodes information about the l=2 mass moment. It is named after the mathematician A. E. H. Love; thus "tidal Love" is not a reference to your expected emotional state when atudying tides."
Finn carefully sniffs a copy of Physics for Cats.
Two cats snoozing. Finn (on the left) is burrowed into a comforter; Trim (on the right) is curled up on top of a folded blanket.
Winne the Pooh (after mass consumption of honey and condensed milk) gets wedged in the door of Rabbit's house. Illustration by E. H. Shepard
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Epigraph for chapter 7 of Astrophysical Gas Dynamics: L'appétit vient en mangeant. (Appetite comes with eating.) François Rabelais Gargantua, book 1, chap. 5 (1534)
Sydney Harris cartoon: Man at a cocktail party confides, "My big mistake was going into cosmology just for the money."
Cartoon by Sydney Harris: spaceship cruises past a series of signs, reading SPACE IS BIG SPACE IS DARK IT'S HARD TO FIND A PLACE TO PARK BURMA SHAVE
Epigraph to Chapter 6 of Astrophysical Has Dynamics: It was at a meeting of the British Association in London in 1933 that I remember that [Horace] Lamb remarked, "I am an old man now, and when I die and go to Heaven there are two matters on which I hope for enlightenment. One is quantum electrodynamics, and the other is the turbulent motion of fluids. And about the former I am really rather optimistic." Sydney Goldstein
An orange tabby cat sits on a human's lap and hugs them around the waist.
Two cats sleeping on a fleecey blanket covered with stars.
Epigraph for chapter 9 of Pinsonneault & Ryden "Stellar Structure and Evolution": No memory of having starred Atones for later disregard Or keeps the end from being hard. (Robert Frost)
Epigraph to Chapter 5 (Mangetohydrodynamics): The world may be utterly crazy, And life may be labour in vain; But I'd rather be silly than lazy, and would not quit life for its pain. -- James Clerk Maxwell [1858]
Tests of the Big Bang: Wed, Apr 14 1) Sometimes the light's all shining on me 2) Other times I can barely see 3) Lately, it occurs to me what a long strange trip it's been
An orange tabby cat (named Finn) lounges upside down by the front door of a house.
The beginning of Chapter 4 ("Advanced Shocks") of Astrophysical Gas Dynamics, to be published in 2026. The epigraph of the chapter is Captain Renault: I am shocked, *shocked*, to find that gambling is going on in here. [Julius Epstein, Philip Epstein, and Howard Koch. Casablanca screenplay, 1942]
I am standing at the base of Cooper's Hill (site of the famed Cheeserolling contest).
View from the pier in St Mawes, Cornwall. A sign states, "Sorry no crabbing from pontoon."
Finn (an orange tabby cat) with his lobster-shaped cat toy.
Peanuts cartoon for 1977 Jul 13 panel 1: Lucy, wearing a baseball glove, misses a fly ball. panel 2: Charlie Brown tells Lucy, "There's no excuse for missing a ball like that! There's absolutely no excuse!" panel 3: Lucy responds, "The moons of Saturn got in my eyes!" panel 4: Charlie Brown concedes, "I take it back... That wasn't a bad excuse..."
epigraph for chapter 3 of Astrophysical Gas Dynamics: "In space, no one can hear you scream." [Barbara Solinger Gips, advertising tagline for Alien]
Epigraph for Chapter 2 of Astrophysical Gas Dynamics: "When the gap between ideal and real becomes too wide, the system breaks down" Barbara Tuchman (1912-1989) A Distant Mirror, Foreword [1978]
Trim (gray and white cat) and Finn (orange tabby cat) cuddle together
A copy of Celestial and Stellar Dynamics, by Barbara Ryden (part of The Ohio State Astrophysics Series). A teddy bear wearing a sweater with the motto "Density is Destiny!" sits behind the book.
Saturday Evening Post cover, January 2, 1943: a baby (symbolizing the new year) bayonets a swastika. [J. C. Leyendecker, artist]
Finn the cat is snuggled within a folded comforter, with only his head and front legs sticking out.
A copy of The Milky Way Smells of Rum and Raspberries, by Dr Jillian Scudder, is being propped up by a teddy bear.
Cleveland Astronomical Society pin (my precious).
Cover art for Saturday Evening Post, Jan 2, 1943: Baby 1943 bayonets a swastika. (artist = J. C. Leyendecker)
Snowman-shaped glass is filled with Guinness stout; can from which the Guinness was poured is next to it.
Start of first chapter of "Astrophysical Gas Dynamics" (to be published 2026). Chapter epigraph is from Margaret Atwood's poem "Variation on the word Sleep": I would like to be the air that inhabits you for a moment only. I would like to be that unnoticed & that necessary.
Hiker in graveyard, contemplating the banqueting house at Chipping Campden. And sheep.
Two cats and a teddy bear, hanging out together on a futon
Office ceiling tiles, with one tile dislodged and one soaked with water.