Starship Asterisk*

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_Schieffelin wrote:
<<Eugene Schieffelin (January 29, 1827 – August 15, 1906) has been considered the primary person responsible for introducing the European starling (Sturnus vulgaris) to North America. Schieffelin was the seventh son of Henry Hamilton Schieffelin (1783–1865) and Maria Theresa (née Bradhurst) Schieffelin (1786–1872). His father, a prominent lawyer, was named in honor of Governor Henry Hamilton for whom his grandfather Jacob Schieffelin served as secretary for during the American Revolutionary War. The Schieffelin family was one of the oldest families in Manhattan.

Schieffelin belonged to the American Acclimatization Society, a group that aimed to help exchange plants and animals from one part of the world to another. In the 19th century, such acclimatization societies were fashionable and supported by the scientific knowledge and beliefs of that era, as the effect that non-native species could have on the local ecosystem was not yet known.

In 1890, Schieffelin released 60 imported starlings from England into New York City's Central Park. He did the same with another 40 birds in 1891. According to an oft-repeated story, Schieffelin supposedly introduced starlings as part of a project to bring to the United States all the birds mentioned in the works of William Shakespeare. He may have also been trying to control the same pests that had been annoying him thirty years earlier, when he sponsored the introduction of the house sparrow to North America. The successful spread of starlings has come at the expense of many native birds that compete with the starling for nest holes in trees. The starlings have also had negative impact on the US economy and ecosystem. European starlings are now considered an invasive species in the United States.>>

• King Henry IV, part I: I, iii

HOTSPUR: I'll have a starling shall be taught to speak
. Nothing but 'Mortimer,' and give it him
. To keep his anger still in motion.
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• King Henry V, : III, vii

Cousin Ricky wrote: ↑Sat Jan 22, 2022 4:08 pm
I was never able to picture a face in the Moon until I saw it explained in detail in a book, meticulously matching lunar maria to facial features. And now, in the years since I read that book, I just can't see the face any more.

• Higher contrast plus lower resolution helps:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_in_the_Moon wrote:

Near full moon over Berlin, Germany, in December 2015

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Ann wrote: ↑Sat Jan 22, 2022 6:42 am Amazing!!! I have never seen so many starlings at once, and I have certainly never seen them create a complex "dancing figure"!

Ann

neufer wrote: ↑Sat Jan 22, 2022 6:42 pm

Cousin Ricky wrote: ↑Sat Jan 22, 2022 4:08 pm
I was never able to picture a face in the Moon until I saw it explained in detail in a book, meticulously matching lunar maria to facial features. And now, in the years since I read that book, I just can't see the face any more.

• Higher contrast plus lower resolution helps:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_in_the_Moon wrote:

Near full moon over Berlin, Germany, in December 2015

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Cousin Ricky wrote: ↑Sun Jan 23, 2022 3:51 pm
So, you’re saying I should look at the Moon without my glasses?

• Or vice versa.

neufer wrote: ↑Sat Jan 22, 2022 6:42 pm

Cousin Ricky wrote: ↑Sat Jan 22, 2022 4:08 pm
I was never able to picture a face in the Moon until I saw it explained in detail in a book, meticulously matching lunar maria to facial features. And now, in the years since I read that book, I just can't see the face any more.

• Higher contrast plus lower resolution helps:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_in_the_Moon wrote:

Near full moon over Berlin, Germany, in December 2015

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Cousin Ricky wrote: ↑Wed Feb 16, 2022 2:58 am

neufer wrote: ↑Sat Jan 22, 2022 6:42 pm

Cousin Ricky wrote: ↑Sat Jan 22, 2022 4:08 pm
I was never able to picture a face in the Moon until I saw it explained in detail in a book, meticulously matching lunar maria to facial features. And now, in the years since I read that book, I just can't see the face any more.

• Higher contrast plus lower resolution helps:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_in_the_Moon wrote:

Near full moon over Berlin, Germany, in December 2015

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After seeing your photograph, I waited until a full Moon and tried again. The Moon was too bright to see anything (yes, I know it’s easier before it gets dark, but there’s a big hill to my east), so I went back for my Moon filt... *rummage, rummage* where is that #@&%ing moon filter?

Um, I grabbed my otherwise useless broadband light pollution filter, and tried again. I saw nothing. So I put away the filter and waited for my eyes to adjust to looking at the Moon without it. If I squinted at it just so, I could almost convince myself that that mare is an eye, that smudge could be interpreted as a mouth that got on the wrong side of a boxing glove, ... uh... maybe a Picasso? And I’m pretty sure that the moon is in a different libration state that it was in your photo.

And without glasses? I just see a mottled fuzzy blob.

Seriously, how do people look at the Moon and see a face? My pareidolia doesn’t stretch that far.

Also, what happened to my Moon filter? And why was my long-lost Barlow sitting inside the box for the 26 mm Plössl that I never use[1]? But then where did the 26 mm Plössl get to?

[1] Why don’t I use it? Because I already had a 25 mm Plössl. You can get overloaded with those bundled eyepieces.