Well, I’ve arrived at the Division for Planetary Sciences meeting of the American Astronomical Society here at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. And lemme tell you, Ithaca is GORGES. (For those that don’t get the town slogan, just navigate the hilly campus for a bit: most traverses of campus involve a suspension bridge or two.)

It’s not just pretty terrain but also a pretty time of year: The leaf pundits have us at near peak foliage. The view out over Lake Cayuga, one of New York’s finger lakes, is stunning. One can understand why Carl Sagan loved it here. A lovely and fitting place for a planetary science conference. Some 800 other people seem to agree. The lucky 200 that booked years in advance (planetary scientists have a knack for planning long into the future – at least those bound for Pluto) got to stay on site at the Statler Hotel, the Cornell-operated hotel that serves as a something of a classroom for those in Cornell’s famous School of Hotel Administration. Onward to the book o’ abstracts: 650 of them await…(note to eds: the clock on the library tower reads 8:30 am — on time for the first session!)