Good Morning Gloucester

So it pained me to watch this video of these people who nursed this bird back to health, release it to return to it nature only to watch it fly smack into a building and die.

to get Your GMG Cap or Hoodie- http://www.storenvy.com/stores/11582-all-things-gloucester

10:35am 09/18/2015

The September GAAC meeting will be this week, on the 18th, not the second Friday as is usual. In October we will be returning to our regular meeting schedule.

In the sort of colorful and engrossing presentation we’ve come to expect from Gary Meehan, at our September 18 GAAC meeting Gary will discuss his ongoing efforts to image the solar system. He will explain the equipment he uses in some detail, and will run through some of the issues that need to be considered in order to obtain the best results. 

Gary’s presentation is, of course, loaded with images, especially his new pictures of the Sun, Moon, and Jupiter. And those of you who want to give it a try are in luck: in addition to leading us on a tour through his recent astrophotos, Gary will also demonstrate the series of procedures that he uses to convert video data into a final image product. 

And there’s more! At this meeting we’ll be celebrating what looks to be the upcoming decision to replace Gloucester’s streetlights with lower color temperature 3000k astronomy-friendly LED’s, and we’ll be thanking the principles involved in advocating for this decision. There will be cake.

The Gloucester Area Astronomy Club meets on the second Friday of the month (usually), at the Lanesville Community Center, 8 Vulcan Street in Lanesville. Everything is always free. For more info, see http://gaac.us, and see our Facebook page at http://facebook.com/gaacpage. You can follow GAAC on twitter, @gaacster.

Is there anything the Kimberley’s can’t do? Multiple drone rescues 125 feet in the air,  Indian delights for dinner,  how hum,  just another day in the life of two beautiful people.  Love you guys.  Thanks for feeding us 🙂

While I’ve been there many, many times, the beauty of the Rose Garden at Lynch Park in Beverly always takes my breath away just a little bit.  There’s something about how gorgeous it is…and how it sits boldly, so close to the oceanfront, that always surprises me.  A great place to head for a picnic lunch if you’re looking to squeeze every last drop out of summer.

A photo of an ancestor, a vintage sled, boxes of photos, gizmos and gadgets, and memories, memories, memories.

These Salps or Salpae were at Good Harbor Beach, where there were multitudes of strands of them riding on the incoming tide in the river.  They are very cool gelatinous little creatures, which I had never heard of or seen before.  The first photo is a couple of strands floating in a plastic cup.  The other two are out of the water (although I put them right back after photographing them) on land.  When you remove them from water, the strand immediately breaks up into individual animals, but when you return them to the water, they find each other and rejoin again.  Very fascinating creatures.

A salp (plural salps) or salpa (plural salpae or salpas^[1]) is a barrel-shaped, planktonic tunicate. It moves by contracting, thus pumping water through its gelatinous body. Salp jet propulsion is one of the most efficient in the animal kingdom.^[2] The salp strains the pumped water through its internal feeding filters, feeding on phytoplankton.

Salps are common in equatorial, temperate, and cold seas, where they can be seen at the surface, singly or in long, stringy colonies. The most abundant concentrations of salps are in the Southern Ocean^[3] (near Antarctica), where they sometimes form enormous swarms, often in deep water, and are sometimes even more abundant than krill.^[4] Since 1910, while krill populations in the Southern Ocean have declined, salp populations appear to be increasing. Salps have been seen in increasing numbers along the coast of Washington.^[5]

Salps have a complex lifecycle, with an obligatory alternation of generations. Both portions of the lifecycle exist together in the seas—they look quite different, but both are mostly transparent, tubular, gelatinous animals that are typically between 1 and 10 cm (0.39 and 3.94 in) tall. The solitary life history phase, also known as an oozoid, is a single, barrel-shaped animal that reproduces asexually by producing a chain of tens to hundreds of individuals, which are released from the parent at a small size. The chain of salps is the ‘aggregate’ portion of the lifecycle. The aggregate individuals are also known as blastozooids; they remain attached together while swimming and feeding, and each individual grows in size. Each blastozooid in the chain reproduces sexually (the blastozooids are sequential hermaphrodites, first maturing as females, and are fertilized by male gametes produced by older chains), with a growing embryo oozoid attached to the body wall of the parent. The growing oozoids are eventually released from the parent blastozooids, and then continue to feed and grow as the solitary asexual phase, thus closing the lifecycle of salps.

The alternation of generations allows for a fast generation time, with both solitary individuals and aggregate chains living and feeding together in the sea. When phytoplankton is abundant, this rapid reproduction leads to fairly short-lived blooms of salps, which eventually filter out most of the phytoplankton. The bloom ends when enough food is no longer available to sustain the enormous population of salps. Occasionally, mushroom corals and those of the genera Heteropsammia are known to feed on salps during blooms^[6]

The incursion of a large number of salps (Salpa fusiformis) into the North Sea in 1920 led to a failure of the herring fishing.^[7]

One reason for the success of salps is how they respond to phytoplankton blooms. When food is plentiful, salps can quickly bud off clones, which graze the phytoplankton and can grow at a rate which is probably faster than that of any other multicellular animal, quickly stripping the phytoplankton from the sea. But if the phytoplankton is too dense, the salps can clog and sink to the bottom. During these blooms, beaches can become slimy with mats of salp bodies, and other planktonic species can experience fluctuations in their numbers due to competition with the salps.

Sinking fecal pellets and bodies of salps carry carbon to the sea floor, and salps are abundant enough to have an effect on the ocean’s biological pump. Consequently, large changes in their abundance or distribution may alter the ocean’s carbon cycle, and potentially play a role in climate change.

Salps are related to the pelagic tunicate groups Doliolida and Pyrosoma, as well as to other bottom-living (benthic) tunicates.

Although salps appear similar to jellyfish because of their simple body form and planktonic behavior, they are chordates: animals with dorsal nerve cords. Such evolutionary development leads in turn to vertebrates, animals with backbones.

Salps appear to have a form preliminary to vertebrates, and are used as a starting point in models of how vertebrates evolved. Scientists speculate that the tiny groups of nerves in salps are one of the first instances of a primitive nervous system, which eventually evolved into the more complex central nervous systems of vertebrates.^[8]

^{From Wikipedia}

I woke up singing this song this morning.  Since none of us can say with certainty that we won’t, I felt compelled to ask the question, and ask you to seriously contemplate the answer for yourself.  If you died tonight, where would you be?  Listen to this song by Big Daddy Weave and think about it.  Do you know where you would be?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhn-UoWWibI

NORTH SHORE ARTS OFFERING
Painting Restoration Assessments by Roy Blankenship, Fellow, AIC and NSAA member.

Saturday, September 19^th, 1:30 – 3 pm.
Up to three paintings.  Free of Charge.  Open to the public.

 If you have a painting that is showing signs of aging, and would like a one to one Restoration Assessment (this is NOT an appraisal of value) by a professional painting restorer, come to the North Shore Art Association on Saturday, September 19^th, from 1:30 pm to 3 pm.   For up to three paintings you can enjoy a restoration assessment by artist member, restorer, and Fellow of The Institute of Conservators, Roy Blankenship.

Roy Blankenship has consulted and professionally restored fine art for museums, galleries, public, private, and institutional collections including many of the priceless paintings owned by the New England Historic Genealogical Society in Boston.  In addition to his 47 years experience in art restoration, both he and his wife Lois Showalter Blankenship are professional artists.  More info www.royblankenship.com.

The North Shore Arts Association’s galleries are open, free to the public, Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday, Noon to 5 p.m. More information on all North Shore Arts Association events is available by visiting  their website at www.nsarts.org, and by email at arts@nsarts.org, or by telephone 978 283-1857.

CAM Connections Third Tuesdays

Reconnecting older adults to art and their community

The Cape Ann Museum is pleased to welcome older adults and care partners to CAM Connections , on Tuesday,  September 15 at 10:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.. This program meets on the third Tuesday of every month and is free and open to the public. Reservations are required – to make a reservation or for more information please call (978)283-0455 x12 or email katelachance@capeannmuseum.org.

The Cape Ann Museum CAM Connections Third Tuesdays program brings art, culture and history to underserved seniors in the Cape Ann community. The program offers personal engagement with the Museum collection through small group art conversations. The heart of the program is to create space for a meaningful experience in the welcoming environment of the Museum, where participants can share responses and reflections as well as form new social connections. Individuals with memory challenges and their care partners are warmly welcomed.

Third Tuesdays offers seniors the experience of slowing down and becoming still to look closely at art with others. During small group conversation, participants view paintings, objects and artifacts in an open-ended discussion format, stimulating personal curiosities and stories, while having fun, growing and learning together.

The Cape Ann Museum, a regional center of local art, history and culture, has a treasured collection that resonates with the personal and collective history of seniors with ties to the region. Committed to improving the lives of seniors, CAM Connections values the arts as healing and believes active engagement with the arts offers needed connection, reduces isolation and promotes health and well being. Past participants have witnessed the many ways the Museum’s unique collection offers a bridge to a meaningful and enriching life experience.

Trails & Sails at the Cape Ann Museum
Hopper’s Houses – A Guided Walking Tour

A tour in downtown Gloucester to view houses immortalized by renowned American realist painter Edward Hopper

The Cape Ann Museum is pleased to present, in tandem with The Essex National Heritage Commission’s Trails & Sails Weekend of Walks and Water, a guided walking tour of select Gloucester houses made famous by American realist painter Edward Hopper on Saturday, September 19 at 10:00 a.m. Tours last about 1 ½ hours and are held rain or shine; participants should be comfortable being on their feet for that amount of time. The tour, along with Museum admission, is offered at no charge on a first come, first served basis. Space is limited, no reservations. For additional information please email info@capeannmuseum.org or call (978) 283-0455 x10 during Museum hours.

American realist painter Edward Hopper is known to have painted in Gloucester on five separate occasions during the summer months between 1912 and 1928. His earliest visit was made in the company of fellow artist Leon Kroll. During his second visit to Cape Ann in 1923, Hopper courted the young artist Josephine Nivison. He also began working in watercolor, capturing the local landscape and architecture in loosely rendered, light filled paintings. In 1924, Hopper and Nivison who were newly married returned to Gloucester on an extended honeymoon and continued to explore the area by foot and streetcar. During his final two visits to the area, in 1926 and 1928, Hopper produced some of his finest paintings. This special walking tour will explore the neighborhood surrounding the Museum, which includes many of the Gloucester houses immortalized by Hopper’s paintings.

AND MORE on the CAPE ANN CALENDAR on GMG…