Magazine Posts

Westward, he rode,
over mountain and plain,
crossing many valleys,
of the lands domain.

Travelling on horseback,
he was doing his best,
pursuing the journey
of the first Pony Express.

Through the eyes
of the beholder,
her beauty came through.
She has skin like satin,
to name just a few.

Her lips the color of
the reddest rose,
the eyes were, as if,
made of coal.

When she smiled, her teeth,
white as new snow.
She was short, but was
proportioned, just so.

You would never leave her,
for there's no place to go.

A new day,
actively being aware,
working hard to survive,
no time to spare.

Hit the "bricks running",
don't mind the stair,
many tasks lie ahead,
no time to spare.

Danced the light, lightly,
reflection in her eyes.
A beautiful smile,
leading to sighs.

Men who adored her,
young but unwise,
pursued her with passion,
leading to sighs.

Sleeping was her desire,
not wanting to rise,
she was wanted by others,
leading to sighs.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Would you like to see a total eclipse of the Sun? If so, do any friends or relatives live near the path of next April's eclipse? If yes again, then you might want to arrange a well-timed visit. Next April 8, the path of a total solar eclipse will cross North America from western Mexico to eastern Canada, entering the USA in southern Texas and exiting in northern Maine. All of North America will experience the least a partial solar eclipse. Featured here is a map of the path of totality. Many people who have seen a total solar eclipse tell stories about it for the rest of their lives. As a warmup, an annular solar eclipse will be visible later this year -- in mid-October.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

What's that red ring in the sky? Lightning. The most commonly seen type of lightning involves flashes of bright white light between clouds. Over the past 50 years, though, other types of upper-atmospheric lightning have been confirmed, including red sprites and blue jets. Less well known and harder to photograph is a different type of upper atmospheric lightning known as ELVES. ELVES are thought to be created when an electromagnetic pulse shoots upward from charged clouds and impacts the ionosphere, causing nitrogen molecules to glow. The red ELVES ring pictured had a radius of about 350 km and was captured in late March about 100 kilometers above Ancona, Italy. Years of experience and ultra-fast photography were used to capture this ELVES -- which lasted only about 0.001 second.

Photo by Valter Binotto

https://unsplash.com/@eberhardgross

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Are stars better appreciated for their art after they die? Actually, stars usually create their most artistic displays as they die. In the case of low-mass stars like our Sun and M2-9 pictured here, the stars transform themselves from normal stars to white dwarfs by casting off their outer gaseous envelopes. The expended gas frequently forms an impressive display called a planetary nebula that fades gradually over thousands of years. M2-9, a butterfly planetary nebula 2100 light-years away shown in representative colors, has wings that tell a strange but incomplete tale. In the center, two stars orbit inside a gaseous disk 10 times the orbit of Pluto. The expelled envelope of the dying star breaks out from the disk creating the bipolar appearance. Much remains unknown about the physical processes that cause and shape planetary nebulae.

Tom Turcich set out on a seven-year journey to find the meaning of life. He walked around the world, visiting over 60 countries and covering almost 40,000 miles. Along the way, he talked to people about their beliefs, cultures, and values. He found that people's answers to the meaning of life varied greatly, from "finding joy in the everyday" to "serving others". He also learned the importance of connection and breaking down the barriers between people. Despite the hard times and loneliness, Tom found fulfillment and joy on his journey. He made lifelong connections, found appreciation for the world, More at the Guardian ➜

"Back 40 years ago the tulip fields of Skagit Valley looked like a Mondrian abstract, geometrically colorful grids laid out with Mt. Baker in the background, a photographer’s wetdream. A few folks rolled up from the cities, braving the weather and us locals, but not so many the farmers took notice. Like a lot of innocent beauty in this world, the Chamber of Commerce decided to, well, what we refer to today as ‘monetize’ those candy colored flowers. Organize, advertise, centralize — monetize! The town’s surrounding the fertile fields in the Skagit floodplain joined forces, hoping the next flood would be human"..... Read more

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

A composite of images captured about a week apart from mid August 2022 through late March 2023, this series traces the retrograde motion of ruddy-colored Mars. Progressing from lower right to upper left Mars makes a Z-shaped path as it wanders past the Pleiades and Hyades star clusters, through the constellation Taurus in planet Earth's night sky. Seen about every two years, Mars doesn't actually reverse the direction of its orbit to trace out the Z-shape though. Instead, the apparent backwards or retrograde motion with respect to the background stars is a reflection of the orbital motion of Earth itself. Retrograde motion can be seen each time Earth overtakes and laps planets orbiting farther from the Sun, the Earth moving more rapidly through its own relatively close-in orbit. High in northern hemisphere skies the Red Planet was opposite the Sun and at its closest and brightest on December 8, near the center of the frame. Seen close to Mars, a popular visitor to the inner Solar System, comet ZTF (C/2022 E3), was also captured on two dates, February 10 and February 16.

Photo by Tunc Tezel

Camille Pissarro (1830 - 1903) Danish-French Impressionist and Neo-Impressionist painter born on the island of St Thomas (now in the US Virgin Islands, but then in the Danish West Indies). His importance resides in his contributions to both Impressionism and Post-Impressionism. He "acted as a father figure not only to the Impressionists" but to all four of the major Post-Impressionists, Cézanne, Seurat, Gauguin, and van Gogh.