Magazine Posts

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Half way between New Moon and Full Moon is the Moon's first quarter phase. That's a quarter of the way around its moonthly orbit. At the first quarter phase, half the Moon's visible side is illuminated by sunlight. For the Moon's third quarter phase, half way between Full Moon and New Moon, sunlight illuminates the other half of the visible lunar disk. At both first and third quarter phases, the terminator, or shadow line separating the lunar night and day, runs down the middle. Near the terminator, long shadows bring lunar craters and mountains in to sharp relief, making the quarter phases a good time to observe the Moon. But in case you missed some, all the quarter phases of the Moon and their calendar dates during 2022 can be found in this well-planned array of telephoto images. Of course, you can observe a first quarter Moon tonight. International: Observe the Moon Night

Photo by Marcella Giulia Pace

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Galaxies abound in this sharp telescopic image recorded on October 12 in dark skies over June Lake, California. The celestial scene spans nearly 2 degrees within the boundaries of the well-trained northern constellation Canes Venatici. Prominent at the upper left 23.5 million light-years distant is big, beautiful spiral galaxy NGC 4258, known to some as Messier 106. Eye-catching edge-on spiral NGC 4217 is above and right of center about 60 million light-years away. Just passing through the pretty field of view is comet C/2023 H2 Lemmon, discovered last April in image data from the Mount Lemmon Survey. Here the comet sports more of a lime green coma though, along with a faint, narrow ion tail stretching toward the top of the frame. This visitor to the inner Solar System is presently less than 7 light-minutes away and still difficult to spot with binoculars, but it's growing brighter. Comet C/2023 H2 Lemmon will reach perihelion, its closest point to the Sun, on October 29 and perigee, its closest to our fair planet, on November 10 as it transitions from morning to evening northern skies.

Photo by Dan Bartlett

Late in the day
of a Fall afternoon,
when laughter will wane,
before its begun

Nothing is forever,
no matter how hard you try,
the ones you love will say goodbye.

Go suffer the Fools, blindly
and other oddities.

Why do Idiots reign supreme?
What must we do to correct,
obvious errors, in business
or government?

We entrust others, with millions
of dollars in tax monies,
yet we do not perform Due
Diligence on Safeguarding the funds.
Why? Why?

Loneliness.
How can you be lonely,
when surrounded by residents
and staff?
Easy, we rely on families and
friends, when living in our home.
Coworkers are many, when
you are employed.

Hidden inside,
this head of mine,
in the darkest recess,
where joy does not shine,

are dreaded thoughts,
about loves of mine,
having difficulties
in this life's design.

Life can be like building
beach sandcastles, in play.
Careful, there is stress,
as waves take the castles away.

Another Hump Day,
now in the book.
Happiness and sadness,
at first look.

The noise quickly changed,
from subtle to a roar,
as residents with walkers,
moved around the floor.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

This timelapse series captured on October 14 is set against the sunrise view from Sunset Point, Bryce Canyon, planet Earth. Of course on that date the New Moon caught up with the Sun in the canyon's morning skies. Local temperatures fell as the Moon's shadow swept across the high altitude scene and the brilliant morning sunlight became a more subdued yellow hue cast over the reddish rocky landscape. In the timelapse series, images were taken at 2 minute intervals. The camera and solar filter were fixed to a tripod to follow the phases of the annular solar eclipse. APOD Album: Annular Solar Eclipse of 2023 October

Photo by Martin Ratcliffe

A great wasteland,
is what we are,
of collectible souls,
near and far.

Lost souls are gathering,
in hidden recess of the mind.
Having succumbed, lost
away, escaped. You won't find.