Duncan Waldron

@ozalba.bsky.social

470 Followers 271 Following

Planetarium astronomer • Feckless dillettante • Scot-ish • Signatory to the Subject-Verb Agreement • Book: http://blurb.com/b/2211254-from… • Eukaryote • Skinflint, First Class • Slightly above just below average

A fresh copy of "Everything will swallow you" upon the Blackwell's delivery receipt.
Stellarium view of Mars and Uranus, less than 7 arcminutes apart just now.
Hubble Space Telescope image of the Crab Nebula. Tangled filaments fill the image, nearly 1,000 years after a massive star blew itself apart in a supernova explosion.
A triptych: three images of a section of beach dune: partly wind-sculpted, partly foot-trodden, and partly traversed by a small crab.
Ampersands in Company Names Although ampersands are thought of as informal, if the ampersand is officially part of a company name, it’s best to use the ampersand instead of writing out the word “and.” For example, you write “Tiffany & Co.,” “Procter & Gamble,” and “AT&T” with ampersands. In general, you write the company’s name the way it wants it written. However, the New York Times Manual of Style and Usage does say to use the ampersand to replace less common abbreviations for “and” in company names. For example, the creative agency Wieden+Kennedy writes its name with a plus sign for the “and,” but the New York Times style guide says to replace it with an ampersand
Short star trails around north celestial pole. Polaris is the brightest star, and the pole is marked by concentric circles.
Looking through a window. The folds of a net curtain diffuse the security grille and out-of-focus shrubbery outside.
Three monks stand before Saint Benedict; a document is being passed between them (from a manuscript made in 1129). WikiCommons.
Web ad showing an opened-up hard disk drive, covered in water droplets. The text reads: Hard Drive Recovery Specialist. Recover Data From Your External Hard Drive Sponsored KLDiscovery Ontrack
Four half-round pastry packages, with crimped edges, uncooked.
A Paterson film developing tank and reel, in their retail boxes.
Two clock faces: one goes to 13 o'clock; the other to 12 o'clock.
A spear-shaped leaf, reduced almost to a skeleton. Scanned as a colour film positive.
A single small rhododendron branch rises and reclines against a beech trunk.
Hubble Space Telescope image of the "Mystic Mountain" - part of the Carina Nebula. A complex mass of dusty material, sculpted by the radiation of nearby stars
A rough-rendered wall of a former cinema, with three pairs of rectangular recesses coloured a darker shade than the wall, two of which seem to be blocked-up sash windows.
Three cylindrical balls of yarn in varying shades of grey.
I've just bought a Humpty Dumpty toy from Aldi. It's brilliant; it comes with Aldi King's horses and Aldi King's men.
Near-vertical auroral rays set against the W-shaped constellation, Cassiopeia. The sky overall is muted shades of violet fading to black above.
Morris Minor shooting brake (station wagon), front view.
A half-frame camera lying on a glass shop counter.
The front ends of three cars, seen from the side, in a covered car park. The tones are dark, with the tarmac appearing almost black.
Whiskey label: "Proper No. Twelve".
Word puzzle, with the challenge being to find a link between the words "who" and "attractive", in as few steps as possible. I have achieved it with just one word: "wife".
Four small mince pies in a container with other sweet comestibles.
A Full Moon through patchy cloud.
60s-era camera with its black, soft-leather pouch.
A grey-and-white cat is inside a paper shopping bag, with his face slightly distorted due to being pushed through the handle.
Sir David Jason as Del Boy, in Only Fools and Horses. Cloth cap, smug expression, red polo-neck sweater, gold chain with "D" pendant, large sheepskin coat, and holding a large cigar.
An actor playing Bell in a 1926 film holds Bell's first telephone transmitter - Wikipedia.
My car speedometer tonight. The reading is 233,792 km - 66,000 short of one light-second.
Advertising image of two rulers, one metallic and one wooden. The text says "Platinum lasts longer. Over 200km longer." We assume Platinum is a model of electric vehicle. The numerals on the rulers seem to be nothing out of the ordinary until you notice that one begins at zero, the other at one. Then, further down the scale, the numerals deviate from the normal 1, 2, 3, etc series, with repeated numerals, big jumps, etc. For example, the metallic one (which is thicker, wider, and longer, suggesting "better") goes 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 16, 9, 10, 10, 12, 14 13, 24, and so on.
Somewhat dull photo, taken in 1904, of the Moon setting behind trees edging a pond. The colour is very subtle.
Local weather forecast for the next week. Monday has a thunderstorm icon.
The Bluesky "What's up?" prompt, with "Literally, everything in the Universe that's not here on Earth." written below.
Stellarium app screenshot of Ursa Major, with Big Dipper highlighted.
A new chopping board of olive wood, with a few dozen frozen peas on it.
Label on a beer bottle. Belhaven Brewery Scottish Ale. Rich nutty smooth.
Strong pink auroral rays over suburban rooftops.
Two pastry tarts, filled with fruit mince, and topped with a six-pointed pastry star.
The Full Moon seen through cloud, with a tree silhouetted in the foreground, slightly overlapping the Moon.
Galvanic
Opulent
Your 2026 word: perilous.
Ich schätze, die Jüngeren würden sich für „Bokeh“ begeistern; mir gefällt einfach, was mit den verschwommenen Kreisen* im Hintergrund passiert ist. * Ich bin mir sicher, der deutsche Begriff dafür ist großartig.
Large hardback book in a dust jacket, with the Eagle Nebula almost filling the cover. Title: The Story of Astronomy, by Patrick Moore.
Two lemons: one normal (if a bit squat) and one big one.
A cheesecake, released from its baking foil, sits on a plate and takes the first cut.
A glass of pale ale, poured with a generous head, on the kitchen bench.
The bottom end of the solar projection screen, clamped to the telescope mount behind the camera. The Sun's image is centred on the white surface.
The Sun, with a large sunspot group across the disk.
Sausages and onion, now with added capsicum.
Browned sausages, sitting on chopped onion and celery, in a small frying pan.