Charting the Unknown: An Observationalist’s Log

  Apollo 11 didn’t lack insight — but it only succeeded when the right action was chosen.   “That’s one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind” — Most people are familiar with these words, but how many people know that Neil Armstrong was only seconds away from saying “ We didn’t land on the Moon because the computer kept rebooting” ? Apollo 11’s Eagle Lunar Module, in flight Minutes before the planned moment of the first landing, Apollo 11 was skimming the lunar surface at over 1,300 kilometers per hour. The astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were concentrating on flying their strange-looking lunar lander and making sure they weren’t running out of fuel. The last thing they needed was the computer flashing esoteric error messages on the LED screen. But at a critical juncture, the primitive dashboard on their onboard computer started raising an alarm. Not a single alarm, many. While the astronauts continued flying, the engineers at Houston Mission Contro...

 A Glossy Ibis ( Plegadis falcinellus / מגלן חום ) collecting sticks for the family nest - and what a stick it's found!

A Black-Crowned Night Heron ( Nycticorax nycticorax  אנפת לילה) hanging out in Ramat Gan's National Park.

Like a great celestial swan, Voyager 1 is flying  —  swiftly, boldly, albeit a little stiffly in places.  NASA/JPL-Caltech It moves through interstellar space with enormous momentum, far beyond the planets that once defined its mission, carrying instruments that continue to report from a region no man‑made craft has ever reached. Yet every action it takes is constrained by a finite and steadily diminishing supply of energy, each signal carefully weighed against what it costs to send. There is a quiet elegance in that balance. Voyager does not insist on doing everything it once did. It does not pursue peak capability when conditions no longer allow it. Instead, it adapts -- releasing some functions so that others can continue, prioritizing what matters most over what is merely possible. In engineering, we have a name for systems that behave this way. We call it graceful degradation . On April 17, 2026, engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory sent a carefully prep...

In honor of Israel's 78th Independence day celebration which took place this week, here's my annual picture of the national bird - the Hoopoe ( Upupa epops דוכיפת) - celebrating as Israelis do, by having a big meal in a park!  Granted, the Hoopoe has not lit a fire to have a braii or barbecue as is traditional, but it's doing the best it can.  As part of the 2008 celebration of Israel's 60th anniversary, president Shimon Peres announced the results of a national poll where the Hoopoe was voted "National Bird". How long ago that seems! 

The muted light of early dawn required a 1/4-second exposure to reveal the birds and their reflections. As an added benefit, the longer exposure lent the birds in flight a haunting, ghostlike presence.