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Jez Timms on Unsplash

And now the sun in tinted splendor sank,
  The west was all aglow with crimson light;
The bay seemed like a sheet of burnished gold,
  Its waters glistened with such radiance bright.

At anchor lay the yachts with snow-white sails,
  Outlined against the glowing, rose-hued sky.
No ripple stirred the waters’ calm repose
  Save when a tiny craft sped lightly by.

Our boat was drifting slowly, gently round,
  To rest secure till evening shadows fell;
No sound disturbed the stillness of the air,
  Save the soft chiming of the vesper bell.

Yes, drifting, drifting; and I thought that life,
  When nearing death, is like the sunset sky:
And death is but the slow, sure drifting in
  To rest far more securely, by and by.

Then let me drift along the Bay of Time,
  Till my last sun shall set in glowing light;
Let me cast anchor where no shadows fall,
  Forever moored within Heaven’s harbor bright.

This poem is in the public domain.

Olivia Ward Bush-Banks - née Olivia Ward; (1869 – 1944) was an American author, poet and journalist of African-American and Montaukett Native American heritage. Ward celebrated both of her heritages in her poetry and writing. She was a regular contributor to the Colored American magazine and wrote a column for the New Rochelle, New York publication, the Westchester Record-Courier. More at Wikipedia

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Star light, star bright: is there a green star out tonight? Other than the Sun, all stars are so far from Earth that they appear as points in the sky. They are mostly white, but sometimes noticeably red or blue. This color typically relates to the temperature: blue stars are hotter than red stars. What about other colors? The featured image is an illustration showing WD J1330+6435, a white dwarf star, surrounded by an accretion disk with gas and rocks orbiting the star. White dwarfs are small, faint stars that are left over when a star like the Sun exhausts its nuclear fuel. Astronomers recently found that some white dwarf stars, despite their name, would appear yellow, green, cyan, pink, or purple. In these cases, trace elements that were accreted to these stars interact with the stellar atmosphere and shift its normally white color. But, alas! I wish I may, I wish I might, but they are too faint to see tonight...

Photo by Mark A. Garlick/University of Warwick

Jim Buckley’s Red Dragon sculpture from 1985 during River Lee flooding, October 2023.

Podstawko, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. View source.

Photo taken near Franschhoek, South Africa.
Byron Breytenbach on Unsplash

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Jinkies, look at all those ghosts! It took 100 hours of observation and a special oxygen filter for today’s image to capture three faint nebulas hidden in the Cassiopeia constellation. IC 59 and IC 63, the original Ghosts of Cassiopeia, haunt the region near multi-star system γ Cassiopeia. Energetic light from γ Cassiopeia causes the hydrogen gas in IC 59 and 63 to glow red. Their dust reflects and scatters some blue-ish white starlight. Newly discovered Objects 1, 2, and 3 appear as blue phantoms, revealing the presence of ionized oxygen. But ionized by what? Like at the bow of a speeding boat, γ Cassiopeia may be piling up material as the system moves through interstellar gas and dust. It follows that Object 3 may be the compressed and heated oxygen of that bow shock. Object 1 could be a planetary nebula if a central white dwarf is identified. The origins of these astronomical apparitions remain a mystery to be solved. Read here for more information on how you can help the observing team behind today's APOD.

Photo by Louis Leroux-Géré, Thibault Rouillée, Vincent Martin, Cédric de Decker (Starfront Observatories)

A small hoverfly in the sun (female Episyrphus balteatus).

Alvesgaspar, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons. View source.

Did You Know? | Kudos365 Curiosity series

1. The world's largest desert is Antarctica.
A desert is defined primarily by how little precipitation it receives, not by temperature or sand. Antarctica covers about 5.5 million square miles, making its polar desert larger than the Sahara.

2. Sea otters sometimes use rocks as tools.
Sea otters can place a rock on their chest while floating and repeatedly strike shellfish against it to open them. Some individuals also carry favored rocks with them, storing them in loose folds of skin beneath their forelimbs.

3. The smell after rain has a name. 
That distinctive earthy scent is called petrichor. Moisture helps release compounds from soil and plants into the air. One important contributor is geosmin, a substance produced by soil microorganisms that the human nose can detect at remarkably low concentrations.

4. The deepest known point in Earth's oceans is almost seven miles down.
The Challenger Deep, in the Mariana Trench of the western Pacific, reaches approximately 10.9 kilometers—nearly 7 miles—below sea level. At that depth, water pressure is more than a thousand times the atmospheric pressure experienced at sea level.

5. The Great Lakes contain about one-fifth of the world's surface fresh water.
Together, Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario hold roughly six quadrillion gallons of water. By surface area, they form the largest freshwater lake system on Earth and contain about 20 percent of the world's fresh surface water.

6. Butterflies taste with their feet.
Butterflies have chemical receptors on their legs and feet that help them identify substances when they land. Female butterflies can use these receptors to help determine whether a plant is suitable for laying their eggs.

7. Earth's inner core is about as hot as the surface of the Sun.
Temperatures near Earth's center are estimated to reach roughly 5,000–6,000°C (9,000–11,000°F). Despite this enormous heat, the inner core remains solid because of the tremendous pressure deep inside the planet.

8. The first practical traffic light appeared before automobiles dominated city streets.
A gas-powered traffic signal was installed near London's Houses of Parliament in 1868 to manage horse-drawn vehicles and pedestrians. It used semaphore arms by day and red and green gas lamps at night. Unfortunately, the device exploded the following year, injuring the police officer operating it.

Sometimes the familiar world becomes much more interesting when we look a little closer: Explore. Discover. Learn.

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