Magazine Posts

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

While drifting through the cosmos, a magnificent interstellar dust cloud became sculpted by stellar winds and radiation to assume a recognizable shape. Fittingly named the Horsehead Nebula, it is embedded in the vast and complex Orion Nebula (M42). A potentially rewarding but difficult object to view personally with a small telescope, the above gorgeously detailed image was taken in 2013 in infrared light by the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope in honor of the 23rd anniversary of Hubble's launch. The dark molecular cloud, roughly 1,500 light years distant, is cataloged as Barnard 33 and is seen above primarily because it is backlit by the nearby massive star Sigma Orionis. The Horsehead Nebula will slowly shift its apparent shape over the next few million years and will eventually be destroyed by the high energy starlight. April: (AWB's) Global Astronomy Month

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Shared around world in early April skies Venus, our brilliant evening star, wandered across the face of the lovely Pleiades star cluster. This timelapse image follows the path of the inner planet during the beautiful conjunction showing its daily approach to the stars of the Seven Sisters. From a composite of tracked exposures made with a telephoto lens, the field of view is also appropriate for binocular equipped skygazers. While the star cluster and planet were easily seen with the naked-eye, the spiky appearance of our sister planet in the picture is the result of a diffraction pattern produced by the camera's lens. All images were taken from a home garden in Chiuduno, Bergamo, Lombardy, Italy, fortunate in good weather and clear spring nights. Notable APOD Submissions: Gallery of Venus passing in front of the Pleiades

Photo by Antonio Finazzi

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

From home this Full Moon looked bright. Around our fair planet it rose as the Sun set on April 7/8, the first Full Moon after the vernal equinox and the start of northern hemisphere spring. April's full lunar phase was also near perigee, the closest point in the Moon's elliptical orbit. In fact, it was nearer perigee than any other Full Moon of 2020 making it the brightest Full Moon of the year. To create the visual experience a range of exposures was blended to capture the emerging foreground foliage and bright lunar disk. The hopefull image of spring was recorded from a home garden in skies over Chongqing, China. April Full Moon Gallery: Notable images submitted to APOD

Photo by Jeff Dai

So many words, stuck in my head.
Some quite lame; others I dread
To stay within my mind's confine,
Will soon appear to paper, line by line,
To be liked or not and be sublime.
Hopefully you will find those that rhyme.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

This surreal timelapse, landscape, panorama spans predawn, blue hour, and sunrise skies. Close to the start of planet Earth's northern hemisphere spring, the flow of time was captured between 4:30 and 7:00 am from a location overlooking northern New Mexico's Rio Grande Valley. In tracked images of the night sky just before twilight begins, the Milky Way is cast across the southern (right) edge of the panoramic frame. Toward the east, a range of short and long exposures resolves the changing brightness as the Sun rises over the distant peaks of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. In between, exposures made during the spring morning's tantalizing blue hour are used to blend the night sky and sunrise over the high desert landscape.

Photo by Paul Schmit

Let us fly on gossamer wings,
Into the air that Nature brings.
Lift up into the beautiful sky,
Flapping our wings, as we try
To soar for hours each day,
Seeing the flowers colorful array.

Azaleas, so pretty to see.
Are you a plant
or a miniature tree?

A frosty morning
Flowered buds all closed
Opening with the Sun

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Dark skies are disappearing from the world. With modernization comes artificial lighting that brightens the night. While these lights allow modern humans to see, much light is wasted up into the sky. This light pollution not only wastes energy, but, when reflected by the Earth's atmosphere back down, creates a nighttime brightness that disrupts wildlife and harms human health, while doing very little to prevent crime. Light pollution is also making a dark night sky a scarcity for new generations. While there is little that can be done in large cities, rural country areas could benefit from lighting that is fully shielded from exposing the night sky where it is not needed. The featured panorama contains 6 adjacent vertical segments taken from different locations across Slovakia -- but with the same equipment and at the same time of night, and then subjected to the same digital post-processing. Although no stars are visible on the left-most city sky, the right-most country sky is magnificently dark. You can help protect the wonders of your night sky by favoring, when possible, dark sky friendly lighting.

Photo by Tomas Slovinsky Text: Matipon TangmatithamNARIT

An inland sea provides great delight
when the stars; those seen at night,
those twinkling gems, in the sky,
bring forth memories of you and I.
A star so bright, in heavenly array
comes to us from light years away.

Hello there, you people.
Give me a shout
and I will tell you
what love is about.
Love is what you do
when you stay in,
rather than go out
to be with your friends.
No matter the time,
no matter the end,
when you are in love,
It's not "Lets Pretend."
Love is for real.
It can start any place,
regardless of color,
regardless of race.
No matter who,
no matter where,
when love is in bloom
it is everywhere,
so step up to the plate,
let us see very clear,
for a long love,
we suffer and endear.
I love my children.
I love them all,
short ones, tall ones,
but most of all,
I'll love you tomorrow
for don't you see
true love is but a memory.