Ele Willoughby

Aw ☺️

I’m glad this thing he invented is something people are enjoying!

Fulgora laternaria - Wikipedia

Almost forgot- the 12yo decided it’s Peanut-headed Lanterfly Awareness Day!

This little dude’s head looks as much like a little lizard (to fool predators) as as it does a peanut. They knock their heads on hollow trees to make vibrations? Will emit foul odours to deter predators. Got a lot going on

Delicacies In The Garden of Plenty, by Sarah Peebles, Kyle Brenders, Nilan Perera 4 track album

Bandcamp Friday! My partner Sarah, who is, sensibly, not on here, would like you to consider this album; all of the proceeds go to second harvest, a food rescue org here in Toronto. Cover art by @minouette.bsky.social !!

secondharvestca.bandcamp.com/album/delica...

Toronto, be careful out there. Streets and sidewalks have lots of basically invisible black ice.

Elisabeth Koopmann-Hevelius Set Her Sight on Being an Astronomer Elisabeth Koopmann-Hevelius , linocut print 11" x 14" by Ele Willoughby, 2026 For the 11th #PrinterSolstice2526 prompt angle, I've made a po...

star catalog & maps based on their observations.

You can find a longer bio on my blog:

first printed images of a woman astronomer at work.

They rebuilt after a devastating fire which destroyed their home. He nursed her through smallpox. After his death, she took over the completion & publication of
the Prodomus documenting 2 decades of observations with her own preface, a

skills allowed her to befriend & correspond with astronomers across Europe.

When Johannes published his Machina coelestis in 1673 he included 2 engravings showing Elisabeth using the octant & sextant with him respectively (so they could
measure angles between celestial objects). These were the

older. In 1662, his first wife died. She reminded the elder astronomer of his promise. They fell in love & wed in 1663. She ran his household, had 4 children (3 survived childhood), assisted his observations & pursued her own interests in astronomy. She excelled at & loved observing. Her language

about the moon, the first geographical book about a body other than the Earth. By 1650 he already had an international reputation, a complex of 3 houses & the largest observatory in Europe. The young Elisabeth approached him & he promised he would show her the splendour of the night sky when she was

in locations). One of the earliest recorded women astronomers, born in Danzig, she was fascinated with astronomy from the time she was a child. The year she was born, local politician, brewer & astronomer Johannes Hevelius (1611-1687) published his beautifully & elaborately illustrated Selanographia

Prodromus Astronomiae ('Elements of Astronomy'), in 1690, after he had died. I am highlighting the Lynx constellation, because it was named for its sharp eyes, & Johannes & Elisabeth were the last of the great naked-eye astronomical observers (because he fear telescopes would introduce distortions

My linocut portrait of Elisabeth Hevelius using a giant sextant on the right side and part of the new constellation named and depicted by Johannes Hevelius based on observations he made with her, featuring the Lynx. The star map is printed in a black vertical stripe. Then there’s a gradient of gold to red, so the sextant is largely gold and she’s mostly in red.

For the #PrinterSolstice2526 prompt angle, my #linocut of astronomer Elisabeth Koopmann-Hevelius (1647-1693) 👩🏼‍🔬🧪🔭 #histsci using a brass sextant to make astronomical observations & some of the new constellations her husband Johannes Hevelius named based on their observations, & she published in 🧵

Precisely. Mercator projection is a terrible choice for a regional map but an excellent choice for plotting your transects at sea.

Exactly!

Very central I think! Even just Mercator’s life alone was shaped by turbulent history and he had a huge impact on history. You get art, history, math, geography, history of publishing and technology, exploration, philosophy, theology, international relations… and so on.

Literally terrifying to contemplate

It’s always struck me as an unreasonable complaint to hold the misuse of his projection against him. As a marine geophysicist using nautical charts it’s so clear how useful it is!

Oh! The Mercator Museum in nearby Sint-Nikolaas has a copy of this print in their collection.

Thank you! I’m glad his project of self-declared animal awareness days is a little respite from doomscrolling.

Someone on Mastodon has replied that Mercator doesn’t deserve to be celebrated, and I (with my doctorate in geophysics) should “get a globe and learn.” 😂

Grade-A mansplaining from a man who can’t be bothered to read a short thread to learn that Mercator’s projection is actually for navigation.

Bathypterois grallator - Wikipedia

Today the 12yo decided it’s Tripod Fish Awareness Day!

He says I’m not to call it the “fish on stilts” but it really does ‘stand’ like that on its three
extended rigid fin rays.

the explosion in exploration that came after his paradigm breaking world maps.

#geographer #geography #linocut #printmaking #mapart #maps #Mercator

you might be lead to over-estimate the size of the arctic archipelago and underestimate the immensity of the African continent, due to the ubiquity of this projection. But its goal was not to represent relative area (which it does poorly). However, his achievement was fundamental to

projection distorts the size and shape of large objects, as the scale increases from the Equator to the poles, where it becomes infinite.

The Mercator projection will be quite familiar to you. It is generally used as a sort of ‘default’ projection, even today. If you are Canadian, like me,

of its ability to represent lines of constant course, known as rhumb lines or loxodromes, as straight segments. While the linear scale is constant in all directions around any point, thus preserving the angles and the shapes of small objects (which makes the projection conformal), the Mercator

as an engraver. He produced beautiful world maps (a version of which is depicted in this print), globes, but his name has gone down in history for the Mercator Projection. The Mercator projection is a cylindrical map projection which became the standard map projection for nautical purposes because

Square linocut print of Mercator (with cap, large beard, lace collar and jacket in black) on his own map of the circular world in green.

Happy birthday to Gerardus Mercator (1512-1594) renown Flemish cartographer. 🧪🐡⚒️ #histsci

What made Mercator a great #cartographer, was in fact his abilities as a #mathematician -and like those of us scientists who feel compelled also to create art he was wasn’t hindered by his immense abilities 🧵

The 12yo wants me to announce pre-existing animal awareness days and let people know they aren’t his.

He didn’t declare World Rat Day, but they do make good pets, if you live outside Alberta. (They take their rat ban seriously.)

My small linocut print “Da shu: The Rat: The Big Mouse” shows a side view of a rat with some chatter (uncarved bits) and the Chinese character for rat, in black on white.

A throwback for World Rat Day from my collection of Chinese Zodiac prints.

minouette.etsy.com/listing/1260...

#Rat #WorldRatDay #ChineseZodiac #linocut #printmaking

Tardi G is a perfect name!