soap and headbands and the aztec sunstone

my mother's day gift from morgana . .

morgana's headbands . .

she finished sewing them this morning, and then wrapped them.

i took a walk to the natural history museum today while chanda was in her modern dance class. (we first went to see a one pm showing of the secret garden, put on by a local homeschooling group.)

i observed the aztec sun stone, which i usually walk right by . . the original stone is at the museum of anthropology in mexico city. the central image represents tonatiuh, the diety of the fifth sun, or age. he is surrounded by images of the four prior ages: jaguar, wind, rain and water.

this is a theodolite, used to measure horizontal angles. it was mounted on a tripod, and the surveyor took bearings of a point on two base line positions.

this is a bronze astrolabe from iran (1730 - used to observe the positions and altitude of the stars).