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NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

On May 25, 1961 U.S. president John Kennedy announced the goal of landing astronauts on the Moon by the end of the decade. By November 9, 1967 this Saturn V rocket was ready for launch and the first full test of its capabilities on the Apollo 4 mission. Its development directed by rocket pioneer Wernher Von Braun, the three stage Saturn V stood over 36 stories tall. It had a cluster of five first stage engines fueled by liquid oxygen and kerosene which together were capable of producing 7.9 million pounds of thrust. Giant Saturn V rockets ultimately hurled nine Apollo missions to the Moon and back again with six landing on the lunar surface. The first landing mission, Apollo 11, achieved Kennedy's goal on July 20, 1969. Watch: the November 11 Transit of Mercury from Earth or from Space.

Read the recipe and instructions to prepare this delightful Portobello mushrooms dish at  a fork and a pencil

My friend from so long ago
The World has changed so.
We were young, you and I
But years have now passed us by.

Would that I could feel your pain
as my love for you will remain
by your side, until our goodbye.
Keeping you safe from harm, I'll try.

Delusional? Perhaps that's what I am.
But one thing is certain, I do understand
The need for love in this World.
Not the hate and fear that is spread
By those who appear to be in control
And lie, cheat and rob with much vitriol.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

This cosmic skyscape features glowing gas and dark dust clouds along side the young stars of NGC 3572. A beautiful emission nebula and star cluster in far southern skies, the region is often overlooked by astroimagers in favor of its brighter neighbor, the nearby Carina Nebula. Stars from NGC 3572 are toward the upper left in the telescopic frame that would measure about 100 light-years across at the cluster's estimated distant of 9,000 light-years. The visible interstellar gas and dust is part of the star cluster's natal molecular cloud. Dense streamers of material within the nebula, eroded by stellar winds and radiation, clearly trail away from the energetic young stars. They are likely sites of ongoing star formation with shapes reminiscent of the cosmic Tadpoles of IC 410 better known to northern skygazers. In the coming tens to hundreds of millions of years, gas and stars in the cluster will be dispersed though, by gravitational tides and by violent supernova explosions that end the short lives of the massive cluster stars.

Photo by Josep Drudis

Words a flutter, through the air.
Words that are said with little care.
Words that hurt, but you're unaware.
Words can't be withdrawn, being there.
Words are of love and of hate.
Words are those when we relate.
Words for today become tomorrows disarray.
Words of sorrow, for those we pray.

Write again? Perhaps I shan't
for write I will and I'll rant
about the unfairness of life today,
for those where illness comes to stay,
while cures for disease is kept at bay.
What kind of God are you now?
When suffering and strife you allow?
Praying both night and day
with few results is my dismay.

Here sit I
naked to thee.
My leaves all gone,
much like a tree,
but lest just suppose
that's not me
for I am a Rose,
dormant to see.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Hurtling through a cosmic dust cloud a mere 400 light-years away, the lovely Pleiades or Seven Sisters open star cluster is well-known for its striking blue reflection nebulae. It lies in the night sky toward the constellation Taurus and the Orion Arm of our Milky Way Galaxy. The sister stars and cosmic dust cloud are not related though, they just happen to be passing through the same region of space. Known since antiquity as a compact grouping of stars, Galileo first sketched the star cluster viewed through his telescope with stars too faint to be seen by eye. Charles Messier recorded the position of the cluster as the 45th entry in his famous catalog of things which are not comets. In Greek myth, the Pleiades were seven daughters of the astronomical Titan Atlas and sea-nymph Pleione. Their parents names are included in the cluster's nine brightest stars. This deep and wide telescopic image spans over 20 light-years across the Pleides star cluster.

Photo by Adam Block

I await you now.
I await you still.
No matter when,
I always will
Be there for you
Both here and then
For you are now
My life long friend.