Magazine Posts

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Along a narrow path that mostly avoided landfall, the shadow of the New Moon raced across planet Earth's southern hemisphere on April 20 to create a rare annular-total or hybrid solar eclipse. A mere 62 seconds of totality could be seen though, when the dark central lunar shadow just grazed the North West Cape, a peninsula in western Australia. From top to bottom these panels capture the beginning, middle, and end of that fleeting total eclipse phase. At start and finish, solar prominences and beads of sunlight stream past the lunar limb. At mid-eclipse the central frame reveals the sight only easily visible during totality and most treasured by eclipse chasers, the magnificent corona of the active Sun. Of course eclipses tend to come in pairs. On May 5, the next Full Moon will just miss the dark inner part of Earth's shadow in a penumbral lunar eclipse.

Photo by Gwenaël Blanck

It's becoming too much,
when my tears,
fall on the paper,
when I am writing.

A small stand of willows,
on the side of a hill.
A quiet haven,
all silent and still.

A small stand of willows,
where deer lay,
a safe shelter at night,
in daylight, they played.

A small stand of willows,
Nature's sheltered room,
Twas where young love,
took root and would bloom.

A small stand of willows,
where it all began,
but love will be over,
when it is, days end.

He met a girl
and was smitten.
Who would have thought,
it was a new kitten.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Spanning light-years, this suggestive shape known as the Seahorse Nebula appears in silhouette against a rich, luminous background of stars. Seen toward the royal northern constellation of Cepheus, the dusty, obscuring clouds are part of a Milky Way molecular cloud some 1,200 light-years distant. It is also listed as Barnard 150 (B150), one of 182 dark markings of the sky cataloged in the early 20th century by astronomer E. E. Barnard. Packs of low mass stars are forming within, but their collapsing cores are only visible at long infrared wavelengths. Still, the colorful stars of Cepheus add to this pretty, galactic skyscape.

Photo by Jeff Herman

A World of uncertainty,
a sign of our times,
where other comments,
are manufactured by design.

Lies which are written,
though the truth was known,
only to be spread for gain,
by others who are home grown.

What has happened,
in a life we reject,
with indifference to others,
lacking common respect?

You called my name,
I turned to stare,
looking all over,
You were not there.

The echos in my mind,
were missing, no sound.
Have you found a new life,
has it been found?

I would read novels,
tales of western yore,
about Billy the Kid,
the Dalton Gang, and more.

The early days, in the West,
travelling before rail,
when covered wagons,
used the Oregon Trail.

Imagine the adventure,
as you travelled along,
miles after miles,
toward your new home.

I remember some stories,
told when on their way.
He wrote many novels,
about the West, Zane Grey

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There was a time,
remembering it well.
You told me then,
"Go to Hell."

I believe, I've found it,
a place I know well.
It's where you're living,
next to where I dwell.

Yesterday, the first day,
was where it began
beginning the path,
of where it will end.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

On some nights the sky is the best show in town. On this night, auroras ruled the sky, and the geomagnetic storm that created this colorful sky show originated from an increasingly active Sun. Surprisingly, since the approaching solar CME the day before had missed the Earth, it was not expected that this storm would create auroras. In the foreground, two happily surprised aurora hunters contemplate the amazing and rapidly changing sky. Regardless of forecasts, though, auroras were reported in the night skies of Earth not only in the far north, but as far south as New Mexico, USA. As captured in a wide-angle image above Saariselkä in northern Finnish Lapland, a bright aurora was visible with an unusually high degree of detail, range of colors, and breadth across the sky. The vivid yellow, green, red and purple auroral colors are caused by oxygen and nitrogen atoms high in Earth's atmosphere reacting to incoming electrons. Open Science: Browse 3,000+ codes in the Astrophysics Source Code Library

Photo by Juan Carlos Casado

When words are too harsh,
and their usage, too mean,
one should apologize, quickly,
before mean, becomes obscene.