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NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

That's not a bright star and crescent Moon caught between branches of a eucalyptus tree. It's Venus in a crescent phase and Mercury. Near the western horizon after sunset, the two inner planets closely shared this telescopic field of view on May 22, seen from a balcony in Civitavecchia, Italy. Venus, the very bright celestial beacon, is wandering lower into the evening twilight. It grows larger in apparent size and shows a thinner crescent as it heads toward its inferior conjunction, positioned between Earth and Sun on June 3. Mercury, in a fuller phase, is climbing in the western sky though, reaching its maximum angular distance from the Sun on June 4 Still, this remarkably close pairing with brilliant Venus made Mercury, usually lost in bright twilight skies, easier to spot from planet Earth. Gallery: Notable Venus & Mercury Conjunction 2020 Images submitted to APOD

Photo by Marco Meniero

The crashing of waves across the shore,
brings sounds and a scent I adore.
There is nothing quite like, this World of ours,
being here on Earth with wind, Sun and Stars.

My mind is a flutter,
though I worry not,
about our life
and what God has begot.
Old as I am,
I think about you
and of those memories,
we had and did share,
are missing now,
as the Devil may care.
Please leave us alone,
during this long night.
Let us be now.
Let life now be right,
for I say to you,
my miserable Soul
is filled up with
your fake news hyperbole.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Still bathed in sunlight, the International Space Station arced through the evening sky over lake Wulfsahl-Gusborn in northern Germany, just after sunset on March 25. The familiar constellation of Orion can be seen left of the trail of the orbital station's bright passage. On the right, Venus is the brilliant evening star above the western horizon. With the camera fixed to a tripod, this scene was captured in a series of five exposures. How can you tell? The short time delay between the end of one exposure and the beginning of the next leaves small gaps in the ISS light trail. Look closely and you'll also see that the sky that appears to be above the horizon is actually a reflection though. The final image has been vertically inverted and the night skyscape recorded in the mirror-like waters of the small lake.

Photo by Helmut Schnieder

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

What are those dots between Saturn's rings? Our Earth and Moon. Just over three years ago, because the Sun was temporarily blocked by the body of Saturn, the robotic Cassini spacecraft was able to look toward the inner Solar System. There, it spotted our Earth and Moon -- just pin-pricks of light lying about 1.4 billion kilometers distant. Toward the right of the featured image is Saturn's A ring, with the broad Encke Gap on the far right and the narrower Keeler Gap toward the center. On the far left is Saturn's continually changing F Ring. From this perspective, the light seen from Saturn's rings was scattered mostly forward , and so appeared backlit. After more than a decade of exploration and discovery, the Cassini spacecraft ran low on fuel in 2017 and was directed to enter Saturn's atmosphere, where it surely melted. Gallery: Notable Venus & Mercury Conjunction 2020 Images submitted to APOD

I write the words, as they come to me.
From my mind they soon will be,
down on paper, written too hastily.
Why do my hands start to ache?
Is it because of my arthritic shake?
Old am I, like wood from the Sea
lying in the sand, alone, is me.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

What’s higher than the Himalayas? Although the Himalayan Mountains are the tallest on planet Earth, they don't measure up to the Milky Way. Visible above the snow-capped mountains in the featured image is the arcing central band of our home galaxy. The bright spot just above the central plane is the planet Jupiter, while the brightest orange spot on the upper right is the star Antares. The astrophotographer braved below-zero temperatures at nearly 4,000-meters altitude to take the photographs that compose this image. The featured picture is a composite of eight exposures taken with same camera and from the same location over three hours, just after sunset, in 2019 April, from near Bimtang Lake in Nepal. Over much of planet Earth, the planets Mercury (faint) and Venus (bright) will be visible this week after sunset. Experts Debate: How will humanity first discover extraterrestrial life?

Photo by TomasHavel

Runs not from me.
Stay in the room.
Surrender to laughter,
Avoid all the gloom,
For the day is new
and I am with you.

* "How Private Equity Is Ruining American Health Care || Bloomberg Businessweek"

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A life is filled
with love and sorrow,
here on this day
and gone the morrow.