"3rd times's a charm"

   For two nights, Thursday and Friday, I drove to the hill north of town looking for NEOWISE, but clouds obscured the view. Last night there wasn't a cloud in the sky and there was NEOWISE moving rapidly from west to east. No tail was visible without a telescope. The speed it traveled across the sky surprised me. If there are no clouds tonight I may seek a return engagement. It's not coming back for 6800 years so.........

"An amazing comet that thrilled early-morning stargazers earlier this month is now visible in the evening sky, and it's a sight you won't want to miss. After all, this comet won't be back for 6,800 years, NASA says. 

Comet NEOWISE can now be seen just after sunset for observers in the Northern Hemisphere, according to NASA. (Sorry, Southern Hemisphere skywatchers, it's not visible there.) The comet made its closest approach to the sun July 3 but was only visible before dawn until now.

"If you're in the Northern Hemisphere, you can see it," said Joe Masiero, deputy principal investigator of NEOWISE, the NASA space telescope that discovered the comet, in a NASA Science Live webcast Wednesday (July 15).  "As the next couple of days progress, it will get higher in the evening sky, so you're going to want to look northwest right under the Big Dipper." (The Big Dipper is a ladle-shaped star pattern that is part of the constellation Ursa Major, the Big Bear.)"

    With the musical, and now a movie, Hamilton, as in Alexander, has been all the rage.A good companion piece is Elizabeth Cobb's, The Hamilton Affair: A Novel. Cobb has her PHD from Stanford so is a serious historian who tried to remain faithful to history while writing a novel about Alexander and Elizabeth Hamilton. Jim Lehrer writing on the book jacket: "Historic scholarship and creative music have suddenly turned Alexander Hamilton into one of the hottest of the nation's Founding Fathers. The Hamilton Affair promises to turn up the heat even further. Elizabeth Cobb's superb novel about the many lives and perils of Hamilton and his wife Eliza adds delights and insights that are as fascinating as they are fun. Think of it as a terrific-and must read-companion to all things Hamilton."  

   I agree and heartily recommend it.

Takk for alt,

Al

Just for fun, more students.