Magazine Posts

I'm here in the morning,
before the sunrise.
A new day of living,
another day's surprise.
New friends to meet,
with a new guise,
I suppose it will happen,
and will see with my eyes.
There is still joy today,
if you search and are wise.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

What are these two bands in the sky? The more commonly seen band is the one on the right and is the central band of our Milky Way galaxy. Our Sun orbits in the disk of this spiral galaxy, so that from inside, this disk appears as a band of comparable brightness all the way around the sky. The Milky Way band can also be seen all year -- if out away from city lights. The less commonly seem band, on the left, is zodiacal light -- sunlight reflected from dust orbiting the Sun in our Solar System. Zodiacal light is brightest near the Sun and so is best seen just before sunrise or just after sunset. On some evenings in the north, particularly during the months of March and April, this ribbon of zodiacal light can appear quite prominent after sunset. It was determined only this century that zodiacal dust was mostly expelled by comets that have passed near Jupiter. Only on certain times of the year will the two bands be seen side by side, in parts of the sky, like this. The featured image, including the Andromeda galaxy and a meteor, was captured in late January over a frozen lake in Kanding, Sichuan, China.

Photo by Jeff DaiTWAN

Sitting next to my wife
and she says to me,
"I think I'm getting better."
I respond with a positive
comment, but my heart
breaks as there aren't any
known cures for Dementia-Alzheimer's.
She then says," I am trying to get
better." She is adapting to the memory
care facility but does not like being
alone, saying she wants to be
with me. So, I sit here, an emotional mess.
Sorry. I started to write prose and poetry,
to help me through the emotional part
of living with someone who has Dementia.
It doesn't appear to be working at the moment.

Cambridge University scientists James D. Watson and Francis Crick announced on February 28.1953 that they had determined the double-helix structure of DNA (short for deoxyribonucleic acid). DNA was discovered in 1869 but its significant genetic inheritance role was not demonstrated until 1943. Many other Scientists were working on figuring out the structure of DNA. Read more

The words, "I love you"
slips past her lips, pale,
as she stays in a
memories lost jail.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

You don't have to look through a telescope to know where it's pointing. Allowing the telescope to project its image onto a large surface can be useful because it dilutes the intense brightness of very bright sources. Such dilution is useful for looking at the Sun, for example during a solar eclipse. In the featured single-exposure image, though, it is a too-bright full moon that is projected. This February full moon occurred two weeks ago and is called the Snow Moon by some northern cultures. The projecting instrument is the main 62-centimeter telescope at the Saint-Véran Observatory high in the French Alps. Seeing a full moon directly is easier because it is not too bright, although you won't see this level of detail. Your next chance will occur on March 17.

Photo by Jeff Graphy

A $6 million project at Leque Island is already seeing “overwhelmingly positive” signs of a healthier ecosystem ... Read more

The inner workings
of a crazed mind,
confusing at best,
if you can find,
the memories of
those left behind.

Where do you go,
what do you say,
when the words,
"I love you," play
in your mind,
not going away,
all rooted now,
remaining to stay.

Writing of words,
in wee morning hours.
Scratching on paper,
until my hand starts to cramp,
is not a preferred way
but is required now.
Words, clear from my head,
a tearful display,
as I write and write.
Where come they from,
I ask of myself.
Unable to answer
I return to my bed,
to the same spot,
where she once lay.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

"Oh my God! Look at that picture over there! Here's the Earth coming up. Wow is that pretty!" Soon after that pronouncement, 50 years ago today, one of the most famous images ever taken was snapped from the orbit of the Moon. Now known as "Earthrise", the iconic image shows the Earth rising above the limb of the Moon, as taken by the crew of Apollo 8. But the well-known Earthrise image was actually the second image taken of the Earth rising above the lunar limb -- it was just the first in color. With modern digital technology, however, the real first Earthrise image -- originally in black and white -- has now been remastered to have the combined resolution and color of the first three images. Behold! The featured image is a close-up of the picture that Apollo 8 astronaut Bill Anders was talking about. Thanks to modern technology and human ingenuity, now we can all see it. (Historical note: A different historic black & white image of the Earth setting behind the lunar limb was taken by the robotic Lunar Orbiter 1 two years earlier.)