As Someone Who Has Actually Tried To Get An Unflighted Adult Eurasian Eagle Owl Back Into His Box While

as someone who has actually tried to get an unflighted adult Eurasian eagle owl back into his box while actually having a good grip on him, I can tell you with reasonable certainty there is no damn way they were ever going to catch him again.

I for one welcome our new strygine overlord. :)

Backstory: This gentleman escaped from Central Park Zoo in March after his enclosure there was vandalized, and there was a lot of concern over whether or not he could/would survive out of captivity. Unconcerned by this, Flaco settled himself in a particular area of Central Park and spent all the spring, summer, and most of the fall eating large numbers of rats, and genially allowing himself to be photographed by an ever-growing cadre of bird paparazzi.

Then a few weeks ago, possibly irked by repeated mobbing by assorted hawks and corvids, Flaco took off from his normal haunts and went on a brief tour of apartment-building courtyards on the Lower East Side. Now he's on the Upper West Side, within sight of Central Park (so food's no problem, should he feel like heading back that way to hunt), and shouting for everybody to hear that he owns the place. The image above shows him on the water tower of an apartment building at 86th and CPW.

If you look back through the Manhattan Bird Alert and Above 96th Twitter feeds, you'll see many splendid pictures of him. He's a handsome lad, and it's good to see him thriving.

What's in his future? Hard to tell. (Though some people on Twitter are suggesting he should run for mayor.) He may head upstate at some point. But he may decide he's quite happy to be a Manhattanite. As a fellow one, I wish him very well. :)

I'm in the process of giving the Diaspora star map a much-needed aesthetic overhaul. It's turning out pretty well so far! Here's the first stage: up to 10 ly from Sol.

Some notes:

all stars (four and eight points) signify an individual star, colored according to its spectral type.

eight-pointed stars are the homesuns of sapient species.

stars with rings have at least one planet. green rings indicate native life present; red rings indicate prior terraformation by the extinct Hemeran civilization.

the two other markers, one white dot and one white dot with an angled ring, indicate rogue interstellar planets.

the map is arranged by right ascension (celestial X coordinate) and distance, so the +/- number above each system is its declination (celestial Y coordinate).

the arrows at the center indicate the directions of the galactic core and rim, using the symbols of Sagittarius and Orion, respectively (although this map is aligned to right ascension which means the plane we're viewing is actually almost perpendicular to the galactic disk)

Sooo the canon has changed a bit since the last WIP map was posted, and consequently so has the map itself! Notably: the setting is now called Astra Planeta. I'm still working on the sheet that I use to keep track of everything, so little progress has been made on Stage 4, but I'll get there soon.

Changes:

The map got flipped. I realized I'd made an egregious error: right ascension is actually measured west to east, which means counterclockwise if viewed from the north celestial pole. Oops!

I've changed some names (and, while not visible on the map, some system compositions). For those of you wondering why the star formerly labeled Tamanuitera is now Radegast, fear not: I'm keeping Tamanuitera in my pocket for a higher-mass star so I can plausibly give the system more planets with a greater variety! Same goes for the other systems whose names have been changed.

Brown dwarfs are no longer good candidates for Calypsian habitation, now that I've nailed down the basic mechanics of their ecosystem. They're more partial to lower-mass stars, sure, but not infrared-only substars. Brown dwarf systems remain useful only for waystations and some industry.

Added a handful more rogue planets, mostly to serve as waystations between certain major stars with slightly-greater-than-jump-distance separation.

Added Furuhjelm 46! Finally! Still debating if it should have planets or not. Haven't given LP 816-60 a Qaryn number yet though.

I'm in the process of giving the Diaspora star map a much-needed aesthetic overhaul. It's turning out pretty well so far! Here's the first stage: up to 10 ly from Sol.

Some notes:

all stars (four and eight points) signify an individual star, colored according to its spectral type.

eight-pointed stars are the homesuns of sapient species.

stars with rings have at least one planet. green rings indicate native life present; red rings indicate prior terraformation by the extinct Hemeran civilization.

the two other markers, one white dot and one white dot with an angled ring, indicate rogue interstellar planets.

the map is arranged by right ascension (celestial X coordinate) and distance, so the +/- number above each system is its declination (celestial Y coordinate).

the arrows at the center indicate the directions of the galactic core and rim, using the symbols of Sagittarius and Orion, respectively (although this map is aligned to right ascension which means the plane we're viewing is actually almost perpendicular to the galactic disk)

NGC 7293 Helix Nebula in Aquarious constellation

Credit: Vista Telescope

I don't have Spotify so here's my 12 latest from my iTunes :)

1. Various Artists - Minus Ten and Counting (Songs of the Space Age)

2. Leslie Fish & Vic Tyler - Carmen Miranda's Ghost

3. Julia Ecklar & Anne Harlan Prather - Space Heroes & Other Fools

4. Future Folk - Future Folk, Vol. 1

5. We Banjo 3 - Haven

6. Search The City - A Fire So Big The Heavens Can See It

7. Anberlin - Cities

8. Rise Against - Nowhere Generation

9. Christopher Larkin - Hollow Knight (Original Soundtrack)

10. Jeremy Soule - The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

11. Adam Young - Voyager 1

12. Homestuck - Homestuck Vol. 10

oh worm?

》 -kzzzkt- ...aaaAAAAAAAAAAAAA--