H. P. Read

@readhpr.bsky.social

436 Followers 702 Following

Mathematics educator, science geek, and avocational horn (and occasionally Wagner tuba) player. Secretly half-Vulcan. They/them

M27 the Dumbbell Nebula. It's a planetary nebula (nebulosity surrounding a white dwarf) in the constellation Vulpecula, at a distance of about 1360 light years. To me it looks like kind of like a disk, with the "dumbbell" part of it horizontal across the midsection. The top and bottom of the disk look greenish, and the dumbbell section looks mostly white with pink on the edges.
The Milky Way stretching diagonally across the sky, above trees. It looks, well, like a milky band.
Funko Spock and Kirk acting out Spock's death scene. They are in their monster maroons, kneeling, and separated by a transparent wall. Spock has a white oven mitt on his left hand, and is holding his right hand in a Vulcan salute pressed up against the wall. Kirk is pressing his own right hand against Spock's hand, but with that wall between they cannot touch.
Assorted Spock figures, some with right hand held up in the Vulcan salute. Some of them have a phaser, communicator and/or tricorder. Front row, smaller figures, all standing, (left to right): Captain Spock from TWOK in non-removable monster maroons made of plastic; Mirror Spock with a goatee, a dagger, and a sash around his waste; my smallest and very first TOS Spock (bought when I was a kid, along with the other 6 bridge crew); Kelvin Spock; SNW Spock. Middle row, medium size figures, all seated, left to right: Movie era Spock in his black robe with Vulcan script down the the front; TOS Spock in standard duty uniform; TOS Spock in dress uniform; Captain Spock looking fine in cloth monster maroons. Back row, mostly medium figures, most of them standing, unless otherwise noted, left to right: TMP Spock in the pajama uniform; Spock from ST V in the landing party jumpsuit deal; Giant Spock in TOS uniform towering over everyone else; Spock from the One with the Whales in his white bathrobe outfit, with the headband covering his ears; TOS "Bendy" Spock; large plushie Spock, seated. Plushie Spock cannot perform the Vulcan salute because he has no fingers.
Looking out through a sliding glass door at 5 or 6 baby skunks in my yard, right up against the steps under the door. They are black and white and fluffy.
Action figure of Spock from Strange New Worlds, still in the packaging. His sleeves have two stripes, and is identified as Lieutenant Commander Spock. He has several accessories including phaser and tricorder.
The Sun, with several very large sunspot groupings to the right of center.
The Sun, looking orange through my telescope's solar filter. There are several very large sunspot groupings to the right of the center.
The Sun, looking orange through telescope with solar filter. It has several large sunspot groupings, and a couple of smaller ones.
The cliffside coaster. It is built on an elevated track which was the old bobsled track. (I think the lower track next to it is the new bobsled track.) Visible on the coaster track is a blue car that looks kind of like a go-kart. They tow you up to the top in your kart, then you go around a turn and start down. There are arm levers to control your speed. I went full throttle the entire way down, and only braked when I got to the end of the run. Whee!
Waxing gibbous Moon, about 63% illuminated
Two objects in the sky that look like bright stars, very close together above the trees against blue sky. They are the planets Jupiter and Venus. Jupiter is dimmer. Venus is brighter and to the upper right of Jupiter.
An Eaglemoss model of the TOS Enterprise on a blue kitchen counter. My hand, colored green, grasps the saucer section.
M101 The Pinwheel Galaxy. It's a face-on spiral galaxy that looks like, well, a pinwheel.
The Sun, looking orange through a telescope solar filter. There is a large sunspot in the upper center, with a smaller one just to its upper left, and another medium sized sunspot in the lower center, pretty much directly below the largest one.
Title card for Star Trek Voyager showing the underside of the ship with the title "The Lizard Babies Are All Grown Up Now and They're Pissed"
Star Trek Voyager title card that says "Janeway Runs Around in a Tank Top Kicking Ass"
The Enterprise (no bloody A, B, C or D) orbiting what looks like a Class M planet. There is TOS style episode title that says "Brain and Brain! What is Brain?"
The Enterprise (no bloody A, B, C, or D) orbiting a Class M planet, with a TOS style title "Brain and Brain! What is Brain?"
A double line of faculty all decked out in academic regalia walking up the sidewalk in the middle of the campus green. It was a beautiful spring day, and you can see trees with pink blossoms, and leaves that are that bright green color you only see this time of year. I was one of the two Faculty Marshals who lead the procession and am at the front of the line on the right. I took the job seriously and look positively grim.
Kirk and Spock riding in Gillian Taylor's pickup truck in Star Trek IV: The One with the Whales. In pink text it says: Roses are red Violets are blue I love Italian And so do you
Two lines of faculty lining up outside the Library on a beautiful day. I'm at the front of one of the line on the right decked out in full academic regalia (mortar board, black gown, green hood). The other Faculty Marshal is at the front of the line on the left, wearing a red and black gown, blue hood, and a tam.
The Sun, looking orange through a solar filter, with a pair of sunspots near the top, a smaller one at about 4:00, and one near the very edge of the Sun at about 5:00
Red stripe low in the sky, with blue and purple above it
The 45% illuminated Moon. Large mare are visible, and craters of all sizes.
M51, the Whirlpool Galaxy. It's a face-on spiral galaxy with a bright central core, with a smaller "whirlpool" at the end of one of the spiral arms, which is actually a small companion galaxy. You can make out dust lanes in between the spiral arms. M51 is about 31 million lightyears away.
A round cluster of stars. The stars are densely clustered in the center, where it's just a bright blob on the image. M3 is about 34,000 lightyears away and contains approximately 500,000 stars.
The Sombrero Galaxy, M104. There is a distinct horizontal line across the middle of it (the "brim" of the sombrero) and a central halo above and below the brim. M104 is about 31 million lightyears away and about 3/10 the size of the Milkyway Galaxy.
Seestar S30 Pro telescope sitting on a folding chair for scale. It's on a small tripod, and is kind of space-agey looking (you might not know it's a telescope to look at it). The arm with the lenses is open. It retracts for storage.
Box with an image of a kid wearing a white helmet that says SPOCK in large block letters. The helmet has a visor, chin strap, and a flashing red light on top.
A patch of narcissus flowers surrounded by dead leaves on the ground. The flower has a tube-like structure in the center, surrounded by white petals. The stems are tall enough that most of them are leaning over.
45% illuminated Moon. You can see a lot of craters.
The Whirlpool Galaxy, which is a grand-design spiral galaxy. It has a bright center with spiral arms around it, and another bright area at the end of the outermost spiral arm.
Scatter plot of date the crocuses are up and open from 2002 through 2026, with regression line. Just for the fun of it I used flowers for the markers on the scatter plot. The regression line shows a negative slope. The overall trend is for the crocuses to open earlier in more recent years.
Chart recording the date I first saw the crocuses fully opened over the years. The dates are as follows. April 13, 2002 April 16, 2003 April 18, 2004 April 2, 2006 April 21, 2007 April 4, 2010 April 10, 2011 April 14, 2013 April 22, 2014 April 19, 2015 April 2, 2016 April 13, 2017 April 21, 2018 April 13, 2019 April 4, 2020 March 25, 2021 March 24, 2022 April 1, 2023 March 29, 2024 April 6, 2025 April 9, 2026
A patch of purple crocuses surrounded by dry grass and dead leaves. They are cheerful happy flowers.
View out my office window looking out across the campus green, covered in snow with snow coming down. Part of a residence hall is in the foreground, and the hospital is on the opposite side of the green.
Five colorful ice orbs lined up in a row on a crappy old table outside on my screen porch. They are roughly the size of cantaloupes and tinted in various colors from food coloring.
A large metal mixing bowl filled with five water balloons sitting on a crappy old table on my screen porch. You can see snow and trees beyond the porch.
Video taken of me standing on my porch in cold weather. You can see snow on the lawn. I pick up a bottle of steaming water and fling the water into the air. It vaporizes into frozen steam.
A plate of noodle casserole. It is made of extra wide noodles, ground beef, chunks of tomato, and melted cheese.
Picture of a much younger me, wearing a polo shirt under a white v-neck sweater, and a pair of enormous glasses. I have a serious expression on my face and am looking off to one side.
A 16 ounce container of Lake Champlain Chocolates Traditional Hot Chocolate mix on the instructor's desk in a classroom.
Snow covered yard strewn with many brown oak leaves
A shot of the sky with red and green aurora
Pile of tuning slides (nine of them) pulled from my horn on a large yellow cloth, with tubes and bottles of slide grease and valve oil.
Two rows of carved pumpkins, lit up in different colors. There are several different traditional jack-o-lanterns, a cat, a peace sign, and representation of the Ursa Major constellation.
A scen3 from Star Trek TOS Journey to Babel. Amanda, Sarek, Kirkl and the fake Andorian enjoy refreshments at a fancy reception. A table holds a variety of drinks and food, including platters of blue, green, red, and orange food cubes.
A wind turbine on a cloudy day, with a line of people climbing stairs to go up inside of it.
Several wild turkeys walking around in my yard, in their way to the woods
A bright orangish-red eft, with little spots on its back that are kind of hard to see in the photo, crawling on the road. It has a blunt nose and a long skinny tail, and four limbs splayed out to the sides.
Screenshot of the Trekle game, which is a Star Trek themed version of Wordle. The word LIRPA has been entered, and there is a nasty message stating "Word not found in computer".
Compilation video of me playing a quartet arrangement of the Bach Chorale "Wachet Auf". For the first strain I play all four parts on French horn. On the repeat I play all four parts on Wagner tuba. Then for the last strain I play two of the parts on horn and two parts on Wagner tuba.
A bunny sitting in the grass.
Chart showing my food preferences could not be tied to any one social class. I've got medium amounts of lower class, lower middle class, and middle class, nothing in the upper class, and a tiny bit in upper middle class.
Rectangular display partitioned into squares of widths 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, and 8. They are colored 1 (yellow), 1 (blue), 2 (red), 3 (green), 5 (green), 8 (purple).
Sign at the entrance to the Extreme Mini-Golf course listing rules and most importantly urging participants to HAVE FUN!
Holding up my right hand with my fingers closed in a fist and thumb pointing upward. To apply the right hand rule you line up the fingers of your right hand in the direction of vector a, then curl your fingers around to vector b through angle theta, and your thumb points in the direction of a cross b.
A patch of flowers surrounded by brown grass and dead leaves. The flower are kind of shaped like daffodils, with tubular yellow centers surrounded by flat white petals. They are happy looking flowers.
Me playing my Wagner tuba,which is a peculiar relative of the French horn. The valves are operated by the left hand like the horn, but the bell points up into thin air instead of down and backward like a proper horn. It's large and ungainly and a little goofy looking and it sounds really cool and I love it.