2017-2018 Met Opera Season Premiere of Thaïs Is Saturday, Nov. 11

Summary: The 2017-2018 Met Opera season premiere of Thaïs is Saturday, Nov. 11, during the 2017-2018 Met Opera season’s seventh week.

Ailyn Pérez makes her role debut in the title role of John Cox's revived staging of Massenet's Thaïs during the 2017-2018 Met Opera season: The Metropolitan Opera @MetOpera via Facebook Feb. 15, 2017

The 2017-2018 Met Opera season premiere of Thaïs is Saturday, Nov. 11. The 2017-2018 Met Opera season’s seventh week also includes two performances each of Adès’s The Exterminating Angel and Puccini’s Madama Butterfly and Turandot.

The Metropolitan Opera’s season premiere of Thaïs by French Romantic era composer Jules Massenet (May 12, 1842-Aug. 13, 1912) takes place Saturday, Nov. 11, at 1 p.m.EST (Eastern Standard Time). Massenet’s opera about an Alexandrian courtesan’s true purity of heart in Byzantine Egypt has a total of seven performances in November and December.

Six performances, including the season premiere, take place in November. The month’s five additional performances are scheduled for Wednesday, Nov. 15, at 7:30 p.m.; Saturday, Nov. 18, at 8 p.m.; Wednesday, Nov. 22, at 7:30 p.m.; Saturday, Nov. 22, at 8 p.m.; Tuesday, Nov. 28, at 7:30 p.m.

December’s single performance is scheduled for Saturday, Dec. 2, at 8 p.m.

Staging by John Cox provides the setting for the 2017-2018 Met Opera season’s performances of Thaïs. The English opera director’s debuted Monday, Dec. 8, 2008, as a new production at the Metropolitan Opera. His production team consists of Duane Schuler, lighting director, and Sara Jo Slate, choreographer.

French fashion designer Christian Marie Marc Lacroix is credited as costume designer for the 2008-2009 new production’s title role, sung by Renée Fleming. American operatic soprano Ailyn Pérez sings the title role for the 2017-2018 Met Opera season.

Thaïs is the 2017-2018 Met Opera season’s seventh season premiere and eighth premiere. Thaïs rates as Met Opera’s 74 most performed opera, according to the Metropolitan Opera’s performance statistics through Oct. 31, 2016.

November’s first full week equates to the 2017-2018 Met Opera season’s seventh week. In addition to the season premiere of Thaïs, the week offers two performances each of two Puccini operas, Madama Butterfly and Turandot, and of Thomas Adès’s The Exterminating Angel.

Madama Butterfly by Italian opera composer Giacomo Puccini (Dec. 22, 1858-Nov. 29, 1924) starts the 2017-2018 Met Opera season’s seventh week with a performance Monday, Nov. 6, at 7:30 p.m. A second performance takes place Thursday, Nov. 9, at 7:30 p.m.

Madama Butterfly’s season premiere happened Thursday, Nov. 2. Puccini’s tragic opera about a young Japanese geisha’s naiveté about love’s impermanence rates as the 2017-2018 Met Opera season’s sixth season premiere and seventh premiere.

As of Oct. 31,2016, Madama Butterfly is the Metropolitan Opera’s seventh most performance opera.

The week’s second opera is The Exterminating Angel by Thomas Adès. The modern opera about a surreal dinner party is performed Tuesday, Nov. 7, at 7:30 p.m. and Friday, Nov. 10, at 8 p.m.

The opening performance of Adès’s third opera marked The Exterminating Angel’s American premiere. The Met Opera debut took place Thursday, Oct. 26.

The week’s third opera is Puccini’s Turandot. The week’s two performances are Wednesday, Nov. 8, at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday, Nov. 11, at 8 p.m.

The 2017-2018 Met Opera season premiere of Puccini’s opera about riddles as a path to true love took place Thursday, Oct. 12. Turandot appears as the fifth season premiere in the 2017-2018 Met Opera season.

As of Oct. 31, 2016, Turandot places as the 25th most performed opera in the Metropolitan Opera’s repertory.

The takeaways for the 2017-2018 Met Opera season are that the season premiere of Thaïs is Saturday, Nov. 11, and that the season’s seventh week also offers two performances each of Thomas Adès’s The Exterminating Angel and of two Puccini operas, Madama Butterfly and Turandot.

The 2017-2018 Met Opera season's production of Thaïs revives staging debuted during the 2008-2009 season under English opera director John Cox's direction; French fashion designer Christian Lacroix is credited with costumes for the new production's title role, performed by American soprano Renée Fleming: The Metropolitan Opera @MetOpera via Facebook Nov. 2, 2017

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Ailyn Pérez makes her role debut in the title role of John Cox's revived staging of Massenet's Thaïs during the 2017-2018 Met Opera season: The Metropolitan Opera @MetOpera via Facebook Feb. 15, 2017, @ https://www.facebook.com/MetOpera/photos/a.10158357868585533.1073741928.20807115532/10158357949005533/

The 2017-2018 Met Opera season's production of Thaïs revives staging debuted during the 2008-2009 season under English opera director John Cox's direction; French fashion designer Christian Lacroix is credited with costumes for the new production's title role, performed by American soprano Renée Fleming: The Metropolitan Opera @MetOpera via Facebook Nov. 2, 2017, @ https://www.facebook.com/MetOpera/photos/a.10159666478675533.1073741943.20807115532/10159666478840533/

For further information:

Marriner, Derdriu. “2017 Met Opera Premiere of Adès’s The Exterminating Angel Is Oct. 26.” Earth and Space News. Monday, Oct. 16, 2017.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2017/10/2017-met-opera-premiere-of-adess.html

Marriner, Derdriu. “2017-2018 Met Opera Season Premiere of Madama Butterfly Is Nov. 2.” Earth and Space News. Monday, Oct. 23, 2017.
Available @ 2017-2018 Met Opera Season Premiere of Madama Butterfly Is Nov. 2

Marriner, Derdriu. “2017-2018 Met Opera Season Premiere of Turandot Is Thursday, Oct. 12.” Earth and Space News. Monday, Oct. 2, 2017.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2017/10/2017-2018-met-opera-season-premiere-of.html

The Metropolitan Opera (metopera). "Stageadvice that's also #sageadvice from my dresser Angie on the best way to tie your boots for a show! She's always looking out for me and my colleagues." Instagram. April 21, 2016.
Available @ https://www.instagram.com/p/BEfDpyfof1F/?taken-by=metopera

The Metropolitan Opera @MetOpera. "Massenet’s Thaïs November 11-December 2." Facebook. Feb. 15, 2017.
Available @ https://www.facebook.com/MetOpera/photos/a.10158357868585533.1073741928.20807115532/10158357949005533/

The Metropolitan Opera @MetOpera. "Renée Fleming in the title role of Massenet’s “Thaïs.”Photo: Ken Howard/Metropolitan OperaTaken during the final dress rehearsal on December 5, 2008 at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City." Facebook. Nov. 2, 2017.
Available @ https://www.facebook.com/MetOpera/photos/a.10159666478675533.1073741943.20807115532/10159666478840533/

“New Production: Thaïs." MetOpera Database > [Met Performance] CID: 352738 Thaïs {64} Metropolitan Opera House: 12/08/2008."
Available @ http://archives.metoperafamily.org/archives/scripts/cgiip.exe/WService=BibSpeed/fullcit.w?xCID=352738

"Thaïs." PBS > WNET > Great Performances at the Met.
Available @ http://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/gp-at-the-met-thais/552/

Snow on the Mountain Halloween Parties: Ghostly Roots, Sap, Shoots

Summary: Snow on the mountain Halloween parties scare guests and hosts, a little or a lot, when supplemented by same-flowering crown-of-thorns and scarlet plume.

Snow on the Mountain (Euphorbia marginata); Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge, southwestern Oklahoma; Aug. 2, 2007: George Bishop/US Fish and Wildlife Service Headquarters (USFWS Headquarters), CC BY 2.0, via Flickr

Snow on the mountain Halloween parties audition ghostly white margins on the mature foliage of native North American herbaceous plants potted for less or more scary All Hallows Eve parties Oct. 31st.

The herbaceous nonwoody annual in the Euphorbiaceae family of cactus-like, spurge-related herbs, shrubs and trees bears all-white or white-edged bracts and green-yellow blooms with white appendages. It contains a ghostly, milky, white sap that causes irritating rashes upon contact with sensitive skin and various degrees of food poisoning in cattle and horses. The blistered, inflamed reactions of allergy-induced, toxin-ingested irritation of the esophagus, eyes, mouth, mucous membranes, skin and throats of livestock and people demand posted precautionary signage.

Otherwise, the ghostly, milky, white flowery and leafy displays of snow on the mountain emerge in June or July and endure all the way through October.

The ghostly, snow-like foliar edges of the native North American annual furnish the scientific name Euphorbia marginata (Euphorbus's [flourished 1st century A.D.] [spurge with white] margins).

Snow on the mountain, described by German-American botanist Friedrich Traugott Pursh (Feb. 4, 1774-July 1, 1820) from Großenhain, Saxony, gets alternate-arranged, elliptical, oblong or oval leaves. The 0.79- to 3.94-inch- (2- to 10-centimeter-) long, 0.5- to 1-inch- (1.27- to 2.54-centimeter-) wide foliage has blunt- or sharp-pointed tips and rounded to short-tapered bases. It includes smooth margins and is light to medium green higher up on the 1- to 6-foot- (0.32- to 1.83-meter-) tall stems and yellow lower down.

Snow on the mountain Halloween parties juggle all-white or white-edged floral, petal-like leaves called bracts, green-white somewhat hairy stems, green-yellow branch-tipped flower clusters and green-yellow foliage.

Snow on the mountain keeps year-round colors in United States Department of Agriculture hardiness zones 10 to 11 and within microclimates in zones two to nine.

Mature, 1- to 2-foot- (0.32- to 0.61-meter-) thick shrubs locate cup-shaped, 0.16- to 0.24-inch- (4- to 6-millimeter-) long inflorescences on red-yellowed stems atop branching, short taproots. Every flower cluster maintains along its upper rim four glandular appendages, each with a green, kidney-shaped, 0.02-inch- (0.5-millimeter-) long glandular pit surrounded by petal-like, white-winged extensions. Petal-, scent-, sepal-free flowers, whether male with yellow anthers on stamens or seedy females with three-celled, three-styled pistils, need nectar- and pollen-seeking bees, flies and wasps.

Self-seeding of ash-colored seeds in white-haired capsules occurs six to eight weeks before spring's last frost, well in advance of snow on the mountain Halloween parties.

Female flowers produce 0.19- to 0.28-inch- (5- to 7-millimeter-) long capsules, 0.24 to 0.32 inches (6 to 8 millimeters) across, atop stout-stalked, 0.39-inch- (10-millimeter-) long pedicels.

The knobby, oval, 0.12- to 0.18-inch- (3- to 4.5-millimeter-) long seeds quit their capsules quickly in drought-tolerant, sun-absorbent, well-drained meadow-, prairie-, roadside-, slope- or upland-like soils. Mourning dove-friendly, toxic seeds require chalky, clayey, limey, loamy, rocky, sandy pHs, 6.8 to 7.2, from which snow on the mountain removes air-, soil-, water-borne pollutants. Snow on the mountain, commonly named smoke on the prairie, variegated spurge and white-margined spurge, shows less attractively clumped growth habits in other than minimal shade.

Snow on the mountain Halloween parties terrify guests and hosts, less or more, with related, simultaneously blooming scarlet plume (Euphorbia fulgens) and torturous crown-of-thorns (E. milii).

Snow on the Mountain (Euphorbia marginata); Wind Cave National Park, southwestern South Dakota; Sept. 18, 2007: NPS (National Park Service) photo by Jim Pisarowicz, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Snow on the Mountain (Euphorbia marginata); Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge, southwestern Oklahoma; Aug. 2, 2007: George Bishop/US Fish and Wildlife Service Headquarters (USFWS Headquarters), CC BY 2.0, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/50838842@N06/8471001301

Snow on the Mountain (Euphorbia marginata); Wind Cave National Park, southwestern South Dakota; Sept. 18, 2007: NPS (National Park Service) photo by Jim Pisarowicz, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Euphorbia_marginata_NPS-1.jpg?uselang=fr

For further information:

"Euphorbia marginata." Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center > Native Plants > Plant Database.
Available @ http://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=EUMA8

"Euphorbia marginata." Missouri Botanical Garden > Gardens & Gardening > Your Garden > Plant Finder.
Available @ http://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/PlantFinder/PlantFinderDetails.aspx?kempercode=e473

"Euphorbia marginata Pursh." Tropicos® > Name Search.
Available @ http://www.tropicos.org/Name/12800160

"Euphorbia marginata Pursh Snow on the Mountain." United States Department of Agriculture > Natural Resources Conservation Service > Plants Database > Plant Profile.
Available @ https://plants.usda.gov/core/profile?symbol=euma8

Pursh, Frederick Traugott. 1814. "14. Euphorbia marginata." Flora Americae Septentrionalis; Or, A Systematic Arrangement and Description of the Plants of North America. Vol. II: 607. London, England: White, Cochrane, and Co.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/401934

"Snow-on-the-Mountain (Euphorbia marginata)." Illinois Wildflowers > Weeds > Plants.
Available @ http://www.illinoiswildflowers.info/weeds/plants/snow_mountain.htm

Palm Plant Health Care: Abiotic, Biotic Stress Culture and Management

Summary: Culture and management involve abiotic cultural, mechanical and weather and biotic disease, nutrient and pest stress treatments in palm plant health care.

biotic stress of a mature conk of Ganoderma zonatum at base of palm tree: Edward L. Barnard, Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, Bugwood.org, CC BY 3.0, via Forestry Images

Palm plant health care applies abiotic and biotic stress treatment, fertilization, propagation and transplanting to palm trees and adjusts them to species-specific needs, according to an article in Arborist News October 2017.

The article Palms: Woody Giants of the Monocots Part II: Culture and Management broaches most palms' propagation by seed and date palms vegetatively by plantlet offshoots. It calls for counterbalanced cutting all fronds off sabal palms, whose new roots come from trunk bases, not from regenerated severed roots like most palm trees. Success demands doing transplanting when growing seasons begin, matching original growing depths, moisturizing soils, mulching and staking for six to eight months or until roots re-establish. The Southeast three or four times annually and Texas and the West twice or thrice yearly expect palm-formulated, slow-release nitrogen fertilizers with magnesium, micronutrients and potassium.

Macronutrient-poor soils furnish magnesium, nitrogen and potassium deficiencies whereas micronutrient deficiencies follow from micronutrient-sufficient soils with high calcium and pH levels and from non-formulated, standard fertilizers.

Magnesium, nitrogen and potassium deficiencies respectively generate chlorotic (yellowed) lower, older frond leaflet tips, chlorosis on all fronds and translucent-spotted, yellow-orange, black-flecked lower, older frond leaflets. Six- to 8-inch (15.24- to 20.32-centimeter) granular-applied and liquid-injected and 18- to 20-inch (45.72- to 50.80-centimeter) liquid-injected fertilizer treatment circles around trunks help halt macronutrient deficiencies. Treatments include magnesium sulfate against magnesium deficiencies, manganese sulfate against manganese-deficient new fronds' curled stunting into frizzle tops and Solubor against boron-deficient crowns' deformed, twisted epinasty. Pests such as crown-feeding borers, frond-preying palm leaf skeletonizers and sap-sipping aphids, leafhoppers, mites and scale join nutrient deficiencies as biotic palm plant health care concerns.

Skeletonizers keep palm damage cosmetic whereas giant palm borers, palmetto weevils as strong-flying borers of central growing buds and South American palm weevils kill stressed plants.

Bacteria-like, leafhopper-transmitted, planthopper-transported mycoplasmas leave date palms with lethal yellowing vascular disease and date, sabal and windmill palms with frond-reddening, spear leaf-dropping Texas phoenix palm decline. The fungal pathogen Ganoderma zonatum menaces southeastern palms with basal stem rot of vascular bundles and woody tissues and manifests spore-producing conks and wilted lower fronds. Lopsided wilting of fronds into half-brown, half-green leaflets numbers among initial symptoms of Fusarium wilt, whose fungal pathogen necrotizes palm tree vascular tissue into slow deaths.

Cool, rainy weather occasions palm plant health care concerns over pink rot's cooked pink salmon-colored spores at frond bases and over sudden crown drop's premonitory lean.

Graphiola leaf spot prompts hairlike spore-bearing bumps on date palm leaflets, unperniciously unlike Thielaviopsis rot's broken, internally decaying trunks with brown, foul-smelling blood and crown diebacks.

Diamond-shaped fruiting bodies qualify as namesake hallmarks of diamond scale disease in California fan palms queued, away from their desert homelands, along fungal pathogen-friendly, humid coasts. Abiotic cultural, mechanical and weather stresses realize bicycle chain-, climbing spur-, spray irrigation-, string trimmer- and tiki carving-eroded trunks and freeze-, lightning- and salt spray-killed canopies. The abiotic stress of water imbalances shows up as trunks constricted into hour-glass profiles from drought and under-watering and trunks vertically cracked from downpours and over-watering.

The Davey Institute technical advisors Leonard Burkhart, Jr., and A. D. Ali track and treat palm plant health care for the West and the South-Southeast regions.

Coconut palms (Cocos nucifera Linnaeus) infected with Candidatus Phytoplasma palmae PLY, the bacterial parasitic causal agent of Texas Phoenix palm decline, display reddish-brown leaves: USDA Forest Service - Region 8 - Southern, USDA Forest Service, Bugwood.org, CC BY 3.0, via Forestry Images

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

biotic stress of a mature conk of Ganoderma zonatum at base of palm tree: Edward L. Barnard, Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, Bugwood.org, CC BY 3.0, via Forestry Images @ https://www.forestryimages.org/browse/detail.cfm?imgnum=4823065

Coconut palms (Cocos nucifera Linnaeus) infected with Candidatus Phytoplasma palmae PLY, the bacterial parasitic causal agent of Texas Phoenix palm decline, display reddish-brown leaves: USDA Forest Service - Region 8 - Southern, USDA Forest Service, Bugwood.org, CC BY 3.0, via Forestry Images @ https://www.forestryimages.org/browse/detail.cfm?imgnum=1504006

For further information:

Ali, A. D.; and Burkhart, Leonard Jr. August 2017. "Palms: Woody Giants of the Monocots, Part I: Identification and Pruning." Arborist News 26(4): 12-20.

Burkhart, Jr., Leonard; and Ali, A.D. October 2017. "Palms: Woody Giants of the Monocots Part II: Culture and Management." Arborist News 26(5): 12-19.

Craft, Paul; Robert Lee Riffle; Scott Zona. 2003. The Encyclopedia of Cultivated Palms. Second edition. Portland OR: Timber Press.

Gilman, Ed. 2011. An Illustrated Guide to Pruning. Third Edition. Boston MA: Cengage.

Hayes, Ed. 2001. Evaluating Tree Defects. Revised, Special Edition. Rochester MN: Safe Trees.

Marriner, Derdriu. 16 September 2017. “Predawn Leaf Water Potentials Indicate Crown Dieback and Water Status.” Earth and Space News. Saturday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2017/09/predawn-leaf-water-potentials-indicate.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 19 August 2017. “Palm Tree Identification and Pruning of Native and Naturalizable Palms.” Earth and Space News. Saturday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2017/08/palm-tree-identification-and-pruning-of.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 22 July 2017. “Commonly Planted, Potentially Phytoremediating Street Tree Species.” Earth and Space News. Saturday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2017/07/commonly-planted-potentially.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 17 June 2017. “Root Loss From Root Pruning and Root Shaving of Stem-Girdling Roots.” Earth and Space News. Saturday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2017/06/root-loss-from-root-pruning-and-root.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 27 May 2017. “Age and Canopy Area Cost Less and Tell More in Urban Tree Inventories.” Earth and Space News. Saturday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2017/05/age-and-canopy-area-cost-less-and-tell.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 22 April 2017. “Urban Root Management: Big Infrastructure, Small Space, Stressed Roots.” Earth and Space News. Saturday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2017/04/urban-root-management-big.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 12 March 2017. “Flexural Elasticity Modulus: Trees and Watersprouts Bend or Break.” Earth and Space News. Sunday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2017/03/flexural-elasticity-modulus-trees-and.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 18 February 2017. “Plant Health Care Diagnostics When Plants and Places Wrong One Another.” Earth and Space News. Saturday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2017/02/plant-health-care-diagnostics-when.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 14 January 2017. “Tree Fertilization for Fine Root Growth and Whole Root System Effects.” Earth and Space News. Saturday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2017/01/tree-fertilization-for-fine-root-growth.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 17 December 2016. “Abiotic and Biotic Stress in Low Maintenance Tree Health Care Programs.” Earth and Space News. Saturday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2016/12/abiotic-and-biotic-stress-in-low.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 19 November 2016. “Organic Amendments to Compacted Degraded Urban Highway Roadsides.” Earth and Space News. Saturday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2016/11/organic-amendments-to-compacted.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 15 October 2016. “Tree Protection Zones by Arborists for All Construction Project Phases.” Earth and Space News. Saturday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2016/10/tree-protection-zones-by-arborists-for.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 17 September 2016. “Stormwater Runoff Landscaping With Urban Canopy Cover and Groundcover.” Earth and Space News. Saturday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2016/09/stormwater-runoff-landscaping-with.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 13 August 2016. “Changing Places: Tree Nutrient Movement Down, Tree Water Movement Up.” Earth and Space News. Saturday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2016/08/changing-places-tree-nutrient-movement.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 16 July 2016. “Treated or Untreated Oriental Bittersweet Vine Management Cut-Stumping.” Earth and Space News. Saturday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2016/07/treated-or-untreated-oriental.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 18 June 2016. “Tree Injection Site Procedures: Manufacturer's Instructions and Labels.” Earth and Space News. Saturday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2016/06/tree-injection-site-procedures.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 22 May 2016. “Electrical Utility Area Temperate Urban Street Trees: Pruned Regrowth.” Earth and Space News. Sunday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2016/05/electrical-utility-area-temperate-urban.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 16 April 2016. “Tree Injection Methods: Treatment Option in Integrated Pest Management.” Earth and Space News. Saturday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2016/04/tree-injection-methods-treatment-option.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 6 March 2016. “Bare-Rooted Ornamental Urban Transplants: Amendments Against Mortality.” Earth and Space News. Sunday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2016/03/bare-rooted-ornamental-urban.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 28 February 2016. “Bark Protective Survival Mechanisms Foil Deprivation, Injury, Invasion.” Earth and Space News. Sunday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2016/02/bark-protective-survival-mechanisms.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 23 January 2016. "LITA Model: Linear Index of Tree Appraisal of Large Urban Swedish Trees." Earth and Space News. Saturday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2016/01/lita-model-linear-index-of-tree.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 19 December 2015. “Tree Lightning Protection Systems: Site, Soil, Species True Designs.” Earth and Space News. Saturday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2015/12/tree-lightning-protection-systems-site.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 24 October 2015. “Tree Lightning Protection Systems Tailored to Sites, Soils, Species.” Earth and Space News. Saturday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2015/10/tree-lightning-protection-systems.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 15 August 2015. “Tree Friendly Urban Soil Management: Amend, Fertilize, Mulch, Till!” Earth and Space News. Saturday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2015/08/tree-friendly-urban-soil-management.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 13 June 2015. “Tree Friendly Urban Soil Management: Assemble, Assess, Assist, Astound.” Earth and Space News. Saturday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2015/06/tree-friendly-urban-soil-management.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 18 April 2015. “Tree Wound Responses: Healthy Wound Closures by Callus and Woundwood.” Earth and Space News. Saturday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2015/04/tree-wound-responses-healthy-wound.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 15 February 2015. “Urban Forest Maintenance and Non-Maintenance Costs and Benefits.” Earth and Space News. Sunday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2015/02/urban-forest-maintenance-and-non.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 13 December 2014. “Tree Dwelling Symbionts: Dodder, Lichen, Mistletoe, Moss and Woe-Vine.” Earth and Space News. Saturday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2014/12/tree-dwelling-symbionts-dodder-lichen.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 18 October 2014. “Tree Cable Installation Systems Lessen Target Impact From Tree Failure.” Earth and Space News. Saturday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2014/10/tree-cable-installation-systems-lessen.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 16 August 2014. “Flood Tolerant Trees in Worst-Case Floodplain and Urbanized Scenarios.” Earth and Space News. Saturday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2014/08/flood-tolerant-trees-in-worst-case.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 14 June 2014. “Integrated Vegetation Management of Plants in Utility Rights-of-Way.” Earth and Space News. Saturday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2014/06/integrated-vegetation-management-of.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 12 April 2014. “Tree Twig Identification: Buds, Bundle Scars, Leaf Drops, Leaf Scars.” Earth and Space News. Saturday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2014/04/tree-twig-identification-buds-bundle.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 15 February 2014. “Tree Twig Anatomy: Ecosystem Stress, Growth Rates, Winter Identification.” Earth and Space News. Saturday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2014/02/tree-twig-anatomy-ecosystem-stress.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 14 December 2013. “Community and Tree Safety Awareness During Line- and Road-Clearances.” Earth and Space News. Saturday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2013/12/community-and-tree-safety-awareness.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 13 October 2013. “Chain-Saw Gear and Tree Work Related Personal Protective Equipment.” Earth and Space News. Sunday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2013/10/chain-saw-gear-and-tree-work-related.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 12 October 2013. “Storm Damaged Tree Clearances: Matched Teamwork of People to Equipment.” Earth and Space News. Saturday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2013/10/storm-damaged-tree-clearances-matched.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 17 August 2013. “Storm Induced Tree Damage Assessments: Pre-Storm Planned Preparedness.” Earth and Space News. Saturday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2013/08/storm-induced-tree-damage-assessments.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 15 June 2013. “Storm Induced Tree Failures From Heavy Tree Weights and Weather Loads.” Earth and Space News. Saturday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2013/06/storm-induced-tree-failures-from-heavy.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 13 April 2013. “Urban Tree Root Management Concerns: Defects, Digs, Dirt, Disturbance.” Earth and Space News. Saturday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2013/04/urban-tree-root-management-concerns.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 16 February 2013. “Tree Friendly Beneficial Soil Microbes: Inoculations and Occurrences.” Earth and Space News. Saturday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2013/02/tree-friendly-beneficial-soil-microbes.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 15 December 2012. “Healthy Urban Tree Root Crown Balances: Soil Properties, Soil Volumes.” Earth and Space News. Saturday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2012/12/healthy-urban-tree-root-crown-balances.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 13 October 2012. “Tree Adaptive Growth: Tree Risk Assessment of Tree Failure, Tree Strength.” Earth and Space News. Saturday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2012/10/tree-adaptive-growth-tree-risk.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 11 August 2012. “Tree Risk Assessment Mitigation Reports: Tree Removal, Tree Retention?” Earth and Space News. Saturday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2012/08/tree-risk-assessment-mitigation-reports.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 16 June 2012. “Internally Stressed, Response Growing, Wind Loaded Tree Strength.” Earth and Space News. Saturday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2012/06/internally-stressed-response-growing.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 14 April 2012. “Three Tree Risk Assessment Levels: Limited Visual, Basic and Advanced.” Earth and Space News. Saturday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2012/04/three-tree-risk-assessment-levels.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 19 February 2012. “Qualitative Tree Risk Assessment: Risk Ratings for Targets and Trees.” Earth and Space News. Sunday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2012/02/qualitative-tree-risk-assessment-risk.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 18 February 2012. “Qualitative Tree Risk Assessment: Falling Trees Impacting Targets.” Earth and Space News. Saturday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2012/02/qualitative-tree-risk-assessment.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 10 December 2011. “Tree Risk Assessment: Tree Failures From Defects and From Wind Loads.” Earth and Space News. Saturday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2011/12/tree-risk-assessment-tree-failures-from.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 15 October 2011. “Five Tree Felling Plan Steps for Successful Removals and Worker Safety.” Earth and Space News. Saturday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2011/10/five-tree-felling-plan-steps-for.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 13 August 2011. “Natives and Non-Natives as Successfully Urbanized Plant Species.” Earth and Space News. Saturday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2011/08/natives-and-non-natives-as-successfully.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 11 June 2011. “Tree Ring Patterns for Ecosystem Ages, Dates, Health and Stress.” Earth and Space News. Saturday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2011/06/tree-ring-patterns-for-ecosystem-ages.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 9 April 2011. “Benignly Ugly Tree Disorders: Oak Galls, Powdery Mildew, Sooty Mold, Tar Spot.” Earth and Space News. Saturday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2011/04/benignly-ugly-tree-disorders-oak-galls.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 12 February 2011. “Tree Load Can Turn Tree Health Into Tree Failure or Tree Fatigue.” Earth and Space News. Saturday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2011/02/tree-load-can-turn-tree-health-into.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 11 December 2010. “Tree Electrical Safety Knowledge, Precautions, Risks and Standards.” Earth and Space News. Saturday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2010/12/tree-electrical-safety-knowledge.html

Caravaggio Nativity Art Theft October 1969 Has a Casualty or Survivor?

Summary: Rumors of destruction by rough gangs and storage flourish since the Caravaggio Nativity art theft Oct. 18, 1969, and follow precedents in war casualties.

view of Palermo's ancient harbor (center) with the Kalsa neighborhood, scene of the 1969 Caravaggio Nativity art theft, in Palermo's historic center, to the southeast (center right): Bjs, CC BY SA 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons

Rumors of accidental destruction in hideaways or of deliberate destruction after incidental damage during takeaways abound in the unsolved mystery of the Caravaggio Nativity art theft Oct. 18, 1969, in Palermo, Sicily.

The category of accidental destruction breaks down into subcategories of adverse ecological associations, detrimental environmental conditions or severe natural disasters and of rough manhandling by perpetrators. It correlates with purportedly destroyed Chácara do Céu Museum art theft casualties Feb. 24, 2006, and Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum art theft casualties March 18, 1990.

Destruction does not describe logical dispositions of stolen artworks since retrieval of masterpieces sometimes demands immunity or leniency for controllers and perpetrators and rewards for informants. It explains the disappearance forever of two other oils by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (Sept. 29, 1571-July 18, 1610) in times of war, not of peace.

Caravaggio's Portrait of a Courtesan, housed as part of Marchese Vincenzo Giustiniani's collection in the Kaiser-Friedrich Museum and presumably destroyed during Allied bombing of Berlin during World War II, is known only through photographs: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Wartime bombing felled Ritratto di cortigiana (Portrait of courtesan [Fillide Melandroni, Jan. 8, 1582-July 3, 1618]) and San Matteo e l'angelo (Saint Matthew and the Angel).

The 25.98- by 20.87-inch (66- by 53-centimeter) portrait and the 87.79- by 72.05-inch (223- by 183-centimeter) religious artwork get Berlin, Germany, as their last known whereabouts. Provenance records have for both paintings the last known specific physical address of the Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum, hit during Allied bombing of Berlin (Aug. 25, 1940-April 20/21, 1945). The museum rubble indicates neither survived even though the Allied bombing of the Dresden Museum (Feb. 13-15, 1945) invokes a precedent for survival against all odds.

Admirers, collectors, critics and historians judge as miraculous, on par with reclaiming the Caravaggio Nativity art theft casualty, retrieving the Sistine Madonna (Madonna di San Sisto).

Caravaggio's Saint Matthew and the Angel, presumably destroyed during Allied bombing of Berlin during World War II, is known only through a black-and-white photograph (left) of the painting, from which a colorized photographic version (right) is derived: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Art-lovers know Raffaello Sanzi da Urbino's (March 28, 1483?-April 6, 1520) altarpiece of 1512 because of rescue by Russian forces in 1945 and return in 1955.

Inventories list the Caravaggio Nativity's likewise miraculous survival of Allied bombing of Sicily (July 9/10, 1943-Aug. 17, 1943) and of Sack of Palermo construction booms (1950s-1980s). Clan competitions, and rivalries and turf conflicts maintain demilitarized and militarized zones of operations, manifest militaristic objectives and military-like organizations and mar boot camp-like training initiation. Stephen Kurkjian, Boston Globe reporter, Master Thieves author and Pulitzer Prize recipient, noted gang rivalries and turf wars as needling the brutally cunning Gardner Museum intervention.

The Caravaggio Nativity art theft perpetrators obtained Gardner Museum art crime-like occurrences in an after-hours, late-night opportunity, cutter, knife or razor-blade means and peripheral property damage.

Soviet safekeeping of Raphael's Sistine Madonna altarpiece gives hope of resurfacing of other artworks thought to have been destroyed during World War II; Sistine Madonna in Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden, east central Germany, June 1, 2012, during celebration of painting's 500th anniversary: cea + (cea), CC BY 2.0, via Flickr

Lynda Albertson, Chief Executive Officer of the Association for Research into Crimes Against Art in Rome, Italy, provides a positive perspective for the purloined Caravaggio Nativity. Art crimes queue into standard operating procedures since "I think it is often used as collateral for other illicit activity, and kept in a safe place."

Ludovico Gippetto, founder of Extroart, likewise renders safe returns as realistic and realizable since "The turnover in stolen art is second to the turnover from drugs."

Charlie Hill, Scotland Yard Art and Antiques Unit former member, states that mafiosi "want to test the water and see how people will react" to terms.

Seventy to 80 Caravaggio masterpieces tend toward threatened species status, with one Caravaggio Nativity art theft, one Saint Sebastian truant 300-plus years and two wartime casualties.

Street artist Andrea Ravo Mattoni with his December 2016 spray painting of Caravaggio's Natività con i santi Lorenzo e Francesco d'Assise in Piazza De Gasperi, San Salvatore di Fitalia, Messina province, northeastern Sicily: ARCA ‏@ARCA_artcrime via Twitter Dec. 14, 2016

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

view of Palermo's ancient harbor (center) with the Kalsa neighborhood, scene of the 1969 Caravaggio Nativity art theft, in Palermo's historic center, to the southeast (center right): Bjs, CC BY SA 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Palermo-Panorama-bjs-3.jpg

Caravaggio's Portrait of a Courtesan, housed as part of Marchese Vincenzo Giustiniani's collection in the Kaiser-Friedrich Museum and presumably destroyed during Allied bombing of Berlin during World War II, is known only through photographs: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fillide_Melandroni.png?uselang=fr

Caravaggio's Saint Matthew and the Angel, presumably destroyed during Allied bombing of Berlin during World War II, is known only through a black-and-white photograph (left) of the painting, from which colorized photographic versions are derived:
Bode Museum, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Michelangelo_Merisi_da_Caravaggio_-_St_Matthew_and_the_Angel_-_WGA04127.jpg
Mickeytheangel, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Caravaggio_MatthewAndTheAngel_byMikeyAngels.jpg

Soviet safekeeping of Raphael's Sistine Madonna altarpiece gives hope of resurfacing of other artworks thought to have been destroyed during World War II; Sistine Madonna in Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden, east central Germany, June 1, 2012: cea + (cea), CC BY 2.0, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/centralasian/7314023718/

Street artist Andrea Ravo Mattoni with his December 2016 spray painting of Caravaggio's Natività con i santi Lorenzo e Francesco d'Assise in Piazza De Gasperi, San Salvatore di Fitalia, Messina province, northeastern Sicily: ARCA ‏@ARCA_artcrime via Twitter Dec. 14, 2016, @ https://twitter.com/ARCA_artcrime/status/809110853018591233

For further information:

Antonello De Messina @AntonelloDeMess. 2 May 2017. "L'oratorio di San Lorenzo. Replica of the stolen Caravaggio. Bellissimo Nativity." Twitter.
Available @ https://twitter.com/AntonelloDeMess/status/859471622884995073

ARCA ‏@ARCA_artcrime. 14 December 2016. "Thanks to street art Andrea Ravo Mattoni Sicilians can again admire Caravaggio's nativity painting, stolen by the Mafia in Palermo in 1969." Twitter.
Available @ https://twitter.com/ARCA_artcrime/status/809110853018591233

Kirchgaessner, Stephanie. 10 December 2015. "'Restitution of a Lost Beauty': Caravaggio Nativity Replica Brought to Palermo." The Guardian > Arts > Art & Design > Art Theft.
Available @ https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/dec/10/restitution-lost-beauty-stolen-caravaggio-nativity-replica-brought-palermo

Kurkjian, Stephen. 2015. Master Thieves: The Boston Gangsters Who Pulled Off the World's Greatest Art Heist. New York NY: PublicAffairs.

Marriner, Derdriu. 20 October 2017. "Caravaggio Nativity Art Theft in Sicily: Unsolved Since October 1969." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2017/10/caravaggio-nativity-art-theft-in-sicily.html

Mattoni, Andrea Ravo. "Caravaggio, Nativity." Andrea Ravo Mattoni > Progetti e Opere.
Available @ http://andrearavomattoni.com/en/progetti-e-opere/caravaggio-la-nativita/

Mattoni, Andrea Ravo (andrea_ravo_mattoni). 12 December 2016. "Questo quadro fu trafugato a Palermo fra il 17 e 18 ottobre del 1969 dell'oratorio di San Lorenzo, é la "Natività con i santi Lorenzo e Francesco d'Assise" di Caravaggio. É il sesto dipinto del mio progetto "recupero del classicismo nel contemporaneo" L'ho realizzato a San Salvatore di Fitalia in provincia di Messina, spray su muro. Volevo ringraziare il comune di San Salvatore di Fitalia, il Sindaco Rosario Ventimiglia e l'assessore Francesco Lollo per aver ospitato un'altro mio lavoro, e poi ringrazio in particolar modo la Damiano Organic e il suo CEO Riccardo Damiano, per aver finanziato e reso possibile l'intera operazione." Instagram.
Available @ https://www.instagram.com/p/BN7Sf3fAgZ-/

McNearney, Allison. 9 October 2016. "Did the Mafia Steal Caravaggio's 'Nativity of St. Francis and St. Lawrence'?" The Daily Beast > Arts + Culture > Lost Masterpieces.
Available @ http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/10/09/did-the-mafia-steal-caravaggio-s-nativity-of-st-francis-and-st-lawrence.html

Prosperin delle grottesche. 12 December 2016. "La Natività di Caravaggio rivive nel murales di Andrea Ravo Mattoni." Caravaggio400.Blogspot.
Available @ http://caravaggio400.blogspot.com/2016/12/la-nativita-di-caravaggio-rivive-nel.html

Schütze, Sebastian. 2017. Caravaggio: Complete Works. Cologne, Germany: Taschen.

Sooke, Alastair. 23 December 2013. "Caravaggio's Nativity: Hunting a Stolen Masterpiece." British Broadcasting Corporation > Culture > Art > State of the Art > Art History > History.
Available @ http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20131219-hunting-a-stolen-masterpiece

"Theft of Caravaggio's Nativity with San Lorenzo and San Francesco." Federal Bureau of Investigation > What We Investigate > Violent Crime > Art Theft > FBI Top Ten Art Crimes Art Crime Team.
Available @ https://www.fbi.gov/investigate/violent-crime/art-theft/fbi-top-ten-art-crimes/nativity-with-san-lorenzo-and-san-francesco

Watson, Peter. 1984. The Caravaggio Conspiracy: A True Story of Deception, Theft, and Smuggling in the Art World. New York NY: Penguin/Doubleday.

Norma Nilotica Asterism in Constellation Aquarius Honors Nile Flooding

Summary: Norma Nilotica asterism in constellation Aquarius honors the yearly Nile flooding signaled by the starry Water Bearer’s downturned urn in July.

Aquarius the Water Bearer with Norma Nilotica asterism (center right), as depicted in A Celestial Atlas (1822), Plate XXI: Alexander Jamieson, Public Domain, via U.S. Naval Observatory Library

Introduced in 1822 by Scottish rhetorician Alexander Jamieson (1782-July 1850), Norma Nilotica asterism honors the annual Nile River flooding signaled by a downturned water jar as the asterism’s parent constellation, Aquarius the Water Bearer, sets headfirst in July.

Jamieson’s star catalog, A Celestial Atlas, presents Norma Nilotica asterism in Plate XXI as a component in a prominent depiction of Aquarius the Water Bearer constellation. Norma Nilotica denotes a gauge, or ruler, for measuring the height of the Nile River. The asterism’s name is carefully labeled along the golden-colored gauge’s eastern length.

Norma Nilotica asterism appears in the upper western region of Aquarius the Water Bearer constellation. Delphinus the Dolphin constellation perches to the asterism’s north. Capricornus the Sea Goat constellation nudges Norma Nilotica asterism from the south.

Jamieson’s depiction places Norma Nilotica on a slight northwest/southeast slant. The slender asterism points northwestward toward the bow in the neighboring constellation of Antinous the Youth. Roman Emperor Hadrian (Jan. 24, 76-July 10, 138 CE) created the constellation in 132 CE as a starry memorial to his favorite companion, Antinous (ca. November 111-October 130 CE), a purported Nile River drowning victim. Constellation Antinous became obsolete after its exclusion in 1922 from the 88 modern constellations established by the International Astronomical Union (IAU). Antinous the Youth constellation’s stars now belong to Aquila the Eagle constellation.

Norma Nilotica’s southern end is not visible in Jamieson’s depiction. A Celestial Atlas buries the asterism’s southern end within the thick mane collaring the neck of the Water Bearer’s neighbor to the west and southwest, Capricornus the Sea Goat.

Jamieson’s Norma Nilotica asterism comprises six stars. Red giant 3 Aquarii (3 Aqr) resides not quite one-third of the distance from the Nile River gauge’s northern end. The irregular, pulsing variable star is designated as k Aquarii in the system of stellar nomenclature devised by celestial cartographer Johann Bayer (1572-March 7, 1625). K Aquarii lies at a distance of over 445 light years.

Aquarius the Water Bearer holds Norma Nilotica in his left hand. Mu Aquarii (μ Aquarii; Mu Aqr; μ Aqr) marks his left index and middle fingers. The fifth magnitude star lies at a distance of about 155 light years. Mu Aquarii is actually a binary star system. Its companion completes its orbit of the primary star every 4.88 years.

Aquarius the Water Bearer constellation largely resides in the southern celestial hemisphere. As the 10 largest of the 88 modern constellations, Aquarius spreads about 25 degrees southward from the celestial equator, the imaginary circle projected from Earth’s equator outward into space. The Water Bearer’s northern claims, which are dramatically smaller than its southern claims, reach only to about 2.5 degrees northern celestial.

Norma Nilotica asterism lies below the celestial equator. The slender asterism spans southern celestial latitudes of minus 2.5 to minus 10 degrees.

Aquarius the Water Bearer constellation is visible to Earth’s stargazers in the Northern Hemisphere as well as in the Southern Hemisphere. The constellation’s area of visibility stretches from 65 degrees north latitude to 90 degrees south latitude.

At mid-northern latitudes in October, Aquarius the Water Bearer appears well above the southern horizon. The Water Bearer’s eastern asterism, the Water Jar, lies south of the prominent Great Square of Pegasus the Winged Horse. Norma Nilotica asterism rests to the southeast of the Great Square.

The takeaway for Norma Nilotica asterism in constellation Aquarius is that both the starry nilometer and its eastern counterpart asterism, the Water Jar, honor ancient Egypt’s welcoming response to the annual Nile flooding.

Aquarius the Water Bearer with Norma Nilotica asterism (center right), as depicted by British cartographer and engraver Sidney Hall (1788-1831) in Urania’s Mirror (1825), a set of 32 astronomical star chart cards: U.S. Library of Congress, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Aquarius the Water Bearer with Norma Nilotica asterism, as depicted in A Celestial Atlas (1822), Plate XXI: Alexander Jamieson, Public Domain, via U.S. Naval Observatory Library @ http://aa.usno.navy.mil/library/

Aquarius the Water Bearer with Norma Nilotica asterism, as depicted by British cartographer and engraver Sidney Hall (1788-1831) in Urania’s Mirror (1825), a set of 32 astronomical star chart cards: U.S. Library of Congress, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sidney_Hall_-_Urania%27s_Mirror_-_Aquarius,_Piscis_Australis_%26_Ballon_Aerostatique.jpg

For further information:

Burritt, Elijah H. (Hinsdale). Atlas, Designed to Illustrate the Geography of the Heavens. New York NY: Huntington and Savage, 1835.

“The Celestial Sphere.” Hawaiian Voyaging Traditions > ‘Ike (Knowledge) > Hookele (Navigator).
Available @ http://pvs.kcc.hawaii.edu/ike/hookele/celestial_sphere.html

Christoforou, Peter. “Star Constellation Facts: Aquarius, the Water Carrier.” Astronomy Trek > Star Constellations. Nov. 29, 2012.
Available @ http://www.astronomytrek.com/aquarius-the-water-carrier/

Jamieson, Alexander. A Celestial Atlas: Comprising a Systematic Display of the Heavens in a Series of Thirty Maps Illustrated by Scientific Description of Their Contents and Accompanied by Catalogues of the Stars and Astronomical Exercises. London, England: G. & W.B. Whittaker, 1822.
Available via U.S. Naval Observatory Library @ http://aa.usno.navy.mil/library/

Kaler, James B. (Jim). "Mu Aqr (Mu Aquarii)." University of Illinois Astronomy Department > Star of the Week.
Available @ http://stars.astro.illinois.edu/sow/muaqr.html

Marriner, Derdriu. "Five Star Circlet of Pisces Asterism Is Below Great Square of Pegasus." Earth and Space News. Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2017.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2017/10/five-star-circlet-of-pisces-asterism-is.html

Marriner, Derdriu. "Great Square of Pegasus Asterism Has Four Second Magnitude Stars." Earth and Space News. Wednesday, Oct. 4, 2017.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2017/10/great-square-of-pegasus-asterism-has.html

McClure, Bruce. “Aquarius? Here’s Your Constellation.” EarthSky > Constellations Oct. 5, 2016.
Available @ http://earthsky.org/constellations/aquarius-heres-your-constellation

Melville, Henry. Veritas: Revelations of Mysteries Biblical, Historical, and Social, by Means of the Median and Persian Laws. Ed. By F. Tennyson and A. Tuder. London, England: A. Hall & Co., 1874.
Available via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/details/veritasrevelati00melvgoog

Ridpath, Ian. “Urania’s Mirror.” Ian Ridpath > Old Star Atlases.
Available @ http://www.ianridpath.com/atlases/urania.htm

Thompson, Gary D. “An Outline Sketch of the Origin and History of Constellations and Star-Names.” Wayback Machine > Web > Westnet Members > Gary David Thompson. Last updated Oct. 8, 2010.
Available @ https://web.archive.org/web/20101107041531/http://members.westnet.com.au/Gary-David-Thompson/page9m.html

Whitworth, Nigel. “3 Aquarii- HD198026 - HIP102624.” Universe Guide > Star.
Available @ https://www.universeguide.com/star/3aquarii

Whitworth, Nigel. “Mu Aquarii - HD198743 - HIP103045.” Universe Guide > Star.
Available @ https://www.universeguide.com/star/muaquarii