American Doll and Toy Museum: This is Halloween!

American Doll and Toy Museum: This is Halloween!:  Enjoy!

Metamorphosis (2007)

 In this time travel tale, that I'm watching as I write, Erzebet's story is told through flashbacks between her lifetime and the present.  Thurzo appears in the 20th century as well, and of course, there are 20th century vampire myths.  Erzebet's home is now Bathory Monastery.  A young beautiful woman appears to the 20th century travelers seeking the monastery and offers to guide them, and she is of course, a beautiful vampire int he 20th century.  The old myths about her are resurrected, and a modern sympathetic diagnosis of madness is included.  Interesting.  Here is a plot summary from IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0431265/plotsummary

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. ...

RIP Anne Boleyn

 Once again, we honor Queen Anne Boleyn on the anniversary of her unfair and untimely death on May 19, 1536 around twelve noon.    I am nearing completion of my own book about her, and would like very  much to make a trip to Hever Castle.   

May 22 Skyward, by Dr. David Levy

 

 Skyward by our guest blogger, Dr. David Levy

 

May 2022

 

 

Pegasus

 

In the late summer of 1964 I was leaving the Observatory of the Royal Astronomical Society’s Montreal Centre with some friends, one of whom was David Zackon.  I asked the group if they would like to drop by my house to observe with a 3.5-inch reflector.  Before they had a chance to answer,  David upped the ante  by asking if we’d like to come by his house to look through an 8-inch reflector. 

 

When we arrived at his place, we found a very competent 8-inch reflector with a focal ratio of 7.  It gave us wide field views of Jupiter and Saturn plus a few other nice things to see.  It was rather pleasant.  Just a week later, David telephoned me to invite me for a second look.    As we used the telescope to view Saturn, David was adjusting one of the mount’s large bolts.  As I looked at Saturn I remarked, “I think that’s Titan,” after seeing one of the planet’s large moons. David looked up toward me and said, “No, it is still loose.”

 

   David told me that he was soon to leave for his university year, and each year he had a tradition of lending the 8-inch to someone who would use it.   He then began asking me a few questions, and I told him that I had observed most of the planets, especially Jupiter.

 

“And the Moon, I suppose.”

 

“Yes.  And just a few weeks ago I completed the Lunar training program.”

 

“The whole program?  All three hundred craters?”

 

“Yes, and the 26 (lettered A to Z)  mountain ranges, valleys, and the Straight Wall.”

 

“You did all this with a 3 ½-inch telescope?”

 

“Yes.”

 

“David, you’ve just borrowed an 8-inch telescope.”

 

It is difficult to describe the feeling of joy I felt as the new telescope and I returned home and I spent the rest of the night getting acquainted with it. The following day I decided to name it Pegasus, after the large satellites that NASA was launching at the time in on their new Saturn 1 rockets.  When my grandfather found out about this a few days later he was thrilled.  “I am especially proud of David, he said, “for having the insight to know that you would put it to good use.”

 

Over the next several months Pegasus was used heavily.  When David returned from school, Constantine Papacosmas, another good friend, suggested that my parents purchase the telescope for me.  David agreed, and we settled on a $400 price for it.

  

On December 17, 1965, I used Pegasus to begin my comet searching program.  Twenty-two years later, on the evening of October 11, 1987, Pegasus and I discovered Comet C/1987Y1.

 

The name Pegasus has since been attached to other fine Pegasus telescopes.  One of them is a large 20-inch belonging to  Lario Yerino from Kansas City.  I used this fine telescope one autumn while attending the Heart of America Star Party.

 

Pegasus of Lario

The third Pegasus belongs to Carl Jorgensen, one of my closest friends and someone I have known since 1963.  He brings it each year to our Adirondack Astronomy Retreat in the mountains near Lewis, NY.  Under the peaceful and beautiful Adirondack sky, when my left eye touches the eyepiece of this telescope, my mind wanders back to those earlier years when I began using my Pegasus during the springtime of my life.

 

Pegasus of Carl

Pegasus Orignial

Local doll museum previews open house

Local doll museum previews open house: Did you have a favorite doll as a kid? Executive Director Ellen Tsagaris joined us today to talk about how the American Doll and Toy Museum celebrates all kinds of toys. For more information visit …