American Doll and Toy Museum: The Doll Museum and Covid 19

American Doll and Toy Museum: The Doll Museum and Covid 19: What does a doll museum in quarantine do? Like so many other small businesses and non profits; American Doll and Toy Museum is shut...

Guest Blogger; Dr. David Levy on Comets

We an still look to the heavens for hope and inspiration:

Skyward for April 2020.

The Great Comet of 1844, and the Great Comet of 2020?

Just a week before Christmas 1844 (December 19, 1844) a sea captain named  Wilmot discovered a bright comet without using a telescope.  The comet was easily bright enough to be seen with the unaided eye, and remained so throughout January, and then, with a telescope, it could be followed through the end of March.  The comet was as bright as Halley’s comet was, earlier, at its appearance in 1835.  At the time there was some speculation as to whether this comet might have been on a similar orbit to that of the Great Comet of 1556, but George Bond, after having investigated that possibility, ruled it out by concluding the orbits were not similar enough.

          What cannot be ruled out is that the comet of 1844 might have been a large fragment of a much larger, and earlier, comet.  On December 28, 2019, last year, the ATLAS project discovered a very faint comet (ATLAS is an acronym for Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System.) The comet was magnitude 19.6 at the time of its discovery, too faint even for large amateur telescopes. ATLAS used a 0.5-meter (20-inch) diameter telescope near the top of Mauna Loa in Hawaii.

Early in 2020 the ATLAS comet rapidly brightened.  On March 15 I looked at the irregular cigar-shaped galaxy Messier 82.  Just beneath it in the field of view was Messier 81, a large galaxy that is gravitationally interacting with M82.  By themselves, these two galaxies are lovely.  But when I moved the telescope just a little lower,  the comet appeared.  It was easy to see but I was not aware at the time that this was the comet that was brightening so quickly.

          If all goes well, the comet will pass by the Earth on May 23, and then pass perihelion—its closest point to the Sun, about a week later.  If it rivals its earlier cousin, the Comet of 1844, it could be as bright as Jupiter, or maybe even as bright as Venus, being easily visible without any telescope or binoculars. Or it could fizzle.  There have been several comets that were supposed to become bright, like Kohoutek in 1973, Austin in 1990, and ISON in 2012, but either they failed to live up to expectations, or they simply broke apart and vanished. 

          Comets do their own thing, as if they have minds of their own.  I am fond of saying that comets are like cats; they both have tails, and they both do precisely what they want.  Soon we shall see what mood Comet ATLAS is in as it prepares to round the Sun next month.  With some luck, it will remind us of the Great Comets of the nineteenth century that scrawled their filmy signatures across the sky.

Beating the Virus Blahs with Dolls

In these days of uncertainty, social distancing, and emotional isolation and fear, it helps to fall back on what we love.  Here are some ways to spend time at home, yet enjoy dolls.

1. Join Pinterest and start a Board.  There are terrific boards on dolls and doll-related items.  
2. Join Facebook; there are terrific pages for dolls and doll stores.  Ask to join the group, and if it is not closed, and administrator who invites people in will include you. 
3. Explore other social media like Twitter, Tumblr, and Flickr  for doll related photos and images. You can also set up albums of your own doll photos on Google and on the social media discussed above.
4. Visit The Library of Congress online at loc.gov and explore resources for dolls, including thousands of photos and other images.  You can also explore titles for doll books.
5. Dust and rearrange your doll displays.  Facebook and Pinterest are great places to get ideas.
6. Look for clearances sales online, and think outside the doll house.  Craft stores, hobby shops, fabric stores, and gift shops are great sources for dolls, books, related items, and supplies for doll making, doll clothes, repairs, and miniature projects.
7. Make a doll; go to Etsy for inspiration.  You can favorite certain stores and sellers and get newsletters.  
8. Watch movies about dolls and toys: Toy Story, Child of Glass, Dolls, Dollie Dearest, Shirleymania, Barbie Nation, Barbie Films, Raggedy Ann Films, Documentaries, etc.
9. Check out films on YouTube about dolls; good searches are Doll Collection, Doll Museum, Dolls History, names of dolls like Monster High, Barbie Collection, Names of stores and specific museums. 
10. Find a doll blog, like American Doll & Toy Museum or Dr. E’s Doll Museum Blog, and post something nice.