Dr. E's Doll Museum Blog: Fall

Dr. E's Doll Museum Blog: Fall:  Happy First Day Of Fall!!!!!

American Doll and Toy Museum: In Memoriam Anne Rice and bell hooks

American Doll and Toy Museum: In Memoriam Anne Rice and bell hooks:   Those of us who are writers have lost two giants this past week, Anne Rice and bell hooks. I studied and taught both in my college litera...

RIP Your Late Majesty Elizabeth II

 She did the day after her own coronation and the birthday of Elizabeth I.  She also died one day after the birthday of my late beloved best friend who was born the day and year of her coronation.  Rosemary's middle name was "Coron" in honor of The Queen.

Elizabeth II was related to the Boleyns through her mother.

Rest in Peace everyone.

Elizabeth I

 We wish HRH Elisabeth I a Happy Birthday in Heaven, as I do my dear friend  Rosemary, born on the same day as Queen Elizabeth II's coronation.  May they both rest in peace.

Boleyns a scandalous family and Erzebet in Harold Schecter's The Serial Killer Files

 The documentary or whatever about.  the Boleyns is on PBS tonight, 7pm cst.  We'll see how it is.   These  films are usually more entertainment then truth.  It may be blaming the victims.  

The second book briefly discusses Erzebet and furthers word for word the stories of bathing in blood, which are false, and takes no account of the works of Kraft and Thorne.  The book is a good basic source, but there are other inaccuracies, including the the idea that Sawney Beane and his murderous clan were real, when they are really the name of a Band and folklore. Bean has also inspired films and novels.   Still, both are interesting views and reads.

I have Pinterest Boards on Anne Boleyn and Erzebet on all my accounts, one under my name with the gargoyle photo, another set under my name with the antique doll photo I also use on Google. 

See, Who was Sawney Bean? https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-21506077

Our Guest Blogger with Skyward

 

SSkyward

 

SSeptember 2022

 

    On first looking through Baade’s window

 

   Much have I travell'd in the realms of gold,

   And many goodly stars and clusters seen;

   Round celestial islands have I been

  With telescope after telescope to the night sky hold.

  Oft of one wide expanse had I been told

  That Galileo ruled as his demesne;

  Yet did I never breathe its pure serene

  Till I heard Baade speak out loud and bold:

  Then felt I like some watcher of the skies

  When a new star cluster swims into his ken;

  Through his majestic window looks upon the Milky Way   

  He star'd at the centre of our galaxy.

   Like a diamond shining in the sky, with a wild surmise—

SSilent, through the mists of space and time.

  (--Keats, Chapman’s Homer sonnet, adapted for this article.)

     Lying in the western portion of Sagittarius, the archer, is a small region of sky that has unusual importance for astronomers around the world and which to med is one of the most beautiful things in the whole sky.  It was most thoroughly studied by the German astronomer Walter Baade while using the great 100-inch Hooker reflector at Mt. Wilson Observatory in California while searching for the center of the Milky Way galaxy.   Before this time, the location of the Milky Way Galaxy’s center was not well understood.

Walter Baade had an interesting and unusual life.   In the mid-1930s, he lost his application papers for United States citizenship.  Consequently, in 1941 he was classified as an enemy alien and was held virtually under house arrest.  Somehow a compromise was reached and he was allowed to state his address as Mount Wilson observatory. With a monopoly of observing time on the great 100-inch telescope, he concentrated his efforts on the Milky Way galaxy. 

One of Baade’s most important projects was a search for a region of the sky that could be close to the center of the galaxy.  He took good advantage of the wartime blackout over the city of Los Angeles.  Intended to help obscure the city from attacking warplanes from Japan,  it also darkened the sky significantly so that Baade could try to find areas near the galactic center.  Although he did not find it, he did uncover a small area in Sagittarius relatively free of dust.  This “window” was slightly south of the main center of the galaxy.  The globular cluster NGC 6522 is at the middle of this area, and NGC 6528 is near its edge.

Astronomers still use this window to study stars in the Milky Way’s central bulge.  Important information on the internal structure of the Milky Way is still being better understood by measurements made through this "window". The window’s shape is irregular in outline and delimits about 1 degree of the sky, an area of about 2 moon diameters.   It is centered on NGC 6522, which might be, at 12 billion years, the oldest star cluster in the sky. Baade’s window is the largest of the six areas through which stars in the Milky Way’s central bulge can be seen.   Stars observed through Baade's Window can be called BW (for Baade’s Window) stars, similarly giant stars can be called BW giants.  OGLE and other observation programs have successfully detected extrasolar planets orbiting around central stars in this area.

On a rare clear evening during the summer of 2022, I gazed at the clusters and stars through this window.     I shall never forget the exquisite majesty of this distant region which, thanks to Walter Baade, allows me to peer toward the middle of the enormous Milky Way galaxy which is our home.

 Adam B   /Mount Lemmon SkyCenter/University of Arizona

 

 

American Doll and Toy Museum: Our History - American Doll and Toy Museum

American Doll and Toy Museum: Our History - American Doll and Toy Museum:   American Doll and Toy Museum was established in 2019.   We moved to our permanent location in 2020.   We opened to the public in 2021. ...