21 concepts: Astronomical factoids to have at your fingertips
Consider Andromeda: When our sister galaxy’s one trillion stars collide with us in four billion years, no stars will make contact and nothing bad will happen.
Columns
Kingston After Dark: An interview with Luis Mojica
If you’re looking for compelling and rapturous soulful next-level indie releases created in the Hudson Valley, then you will be completely missing out on one of the most powerful records of 2019 if you sleep on the lush, jazz-infused chamber-pop poetry of Luis Mojica’s yearningly bold new album, How A Stranger Is Made. A boring run-of-the-mill collection of clichés this record is most definitely not.
Monday’s transit of Mercury: The year’s biggest sky event?
Monday, Nov. 11: It lasts over seven hours, with the middle of the transit happening at around 10:30 a.m., when the Sun isn’t too low. The Mid-Hudson Astronomy Association will set up the correct instruments.
Kingston After Dark: Globelamp, Surmiser, Jack Manley at Tubby’s Saturday night
Tubby’s in Kingston (586 Broadway) regularly hosts acclaimed and interesting music, from well-known names like Thalia Zedek to Oneida to up-and-coming regional acts like Hen In The Foxhouse or Silverdome. This Saturday, Nov. 2 will find the venue hosting a special regional welcome-back show of sorts for psych-folk artist and consistent anti-violence activist Globelamp.
How Saugerties Republicans can parlay two election night victories into four town board seats
Republicans don’t hold any seats on the five-member town board at this time. But under one election night scenario, they may hold four on the board come January.
Ask a naturalist: Which kinds of trees make which color leaves?
Different tree species are associated with different colors. Hickory and sycamore leaves are golden-orange. Ash leaves tend to be yellow and purple. Oaks hold onto their leaves the longest and produce russet-brown foliage. Sugar maples take on an orange or red tone. There is evidence that red leaves are more prevalent when days are warm, dry and sunny, and the nights are cool (but not freezing). Red foliage has also been linked to fungus and drought.
Ask a Naturalist: When were apples first cultivated in the Hudson Valley?
The lower Hudson Valley region and the Lake Champlain region are two of the largest and most important apple production areas in New York state, which ranks second in the nation for apple production and first in the country for canned apple products, although much of that crop is produced in western New York.
On the Rocks: A dark and stormy night
By the midnight of this awful night the storms had passed, and things had settled down. Where there had been colorful marine meadow, now there was the barren desolation of a fresh 10-inch thick deposit of coarse sediment. Few seafloor creatures were still alive; many had been broken up into a shell hash. As the moon rose over the dark sea floor, the last grains of the finer, lighter sediments were falling out of suspension like a marine dust. The new deposit was settling and compacting under its own weight. It was beginning a long process that would very slowly turn it into limestone. That limestone is still there, exposed along Rte. 9W.
Kingston After Dark: Upside down frowns
Thoughts on The Joker, Liz Phair at Utopia Soundstage in Woodstock, and Nikki Belfiglio of Bodega stops in this week to hype the popular band’s appearance at this year’s inaugural O-Positive festival this weekend.
International Observe the Moon Night can be unforgettable
Saturday, October 5: There’s even a backup plan in case of clouds. Saturn and the Moon will be just as nice one night earlier and for several nights later, though they won’t be next to each other any other evening. If you have any kind of telescope, this weekend is the time to drag it out.