Contributor Posts

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Gamma Cassiopeiae shines high in northern autumn evening skies. It's the brightest spiky star in this telescopic field of view toward the constellation Cassiopeia. Gamma Cas shares the ethereal-looking scene with ghostly interstellar clouds of gas and dust, IC 59 (top left) and IC 63. About 600 light-years distant, the clouds aren't actually ghosts. They are slowly disappearing though, eroding under the influence of energetic radiation from hot and luminous gamma Cas. Gamma Cas is physically located only 3 to 4 light-years from the nebulae. Slightly closer to gamma Cas, IC 63 is dominated by red H-alpha light emitted as hydrogen atoms ionized by the star's ultraviolet radiation recombine with electrons. Farther from the star, IC 59 shows proportionally less H-alpha emission but more of the characteristic blue tint of dust reflected star light. The cosmic stage spans over 1 degree or 10 light-years at the estimated distance of gamma Cas and friends.

Photo by Guillaume Gruntz

Waiting for you to decide,
I'm walking the steps of my mind,
searching for those memories,
I have left behind.

Must I be this person,
who runs away, to hide,
when the only thing missing
is my foolish male pride.

The uncertainties of life
have come into play,
as assumed functions,
continue to stay.

Seek not Yee all,
of riches and fame,
as you may leave,
while others remain.

Working hard to
put your nose to the wheel,
as life progresses,
bad memories may heal.

Winds, gusting, blowing rain,
splatter against my jacket and face,
soaking through fabric to skin.
A cold, wet, rainy day, to race.

Sitting next to my beloved
in Memory Care, for awhile.
She's sleeping but awakes,
giving me a lovely smile.

I love visiting my wife,
she has been my rock,
Dementia raised its ugly head,
as I sit in daily shock.

Quick grow the shadows,
beneath the tree,
as the Sun slowly,
sinks into the Sea.

What a feeling there is,
at the ocean shore,
as the sound of Gulls,
make me want more.

Swims the dreamer,
nevermore.
Nightmares a threat,
every shore.

Good memories,
nevermore.
Love is lost for,
evermore.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

History's second known periodic comet is Comet Encke (2P/Encke). As it swings through the inner Solar System, Encke's orbit takes it from an aphelion, its greatest distance from the Sun, inside the orbit of Jupiter to a perihelion just inside the orbit of Mercury. Returning to its perihelion every 3.3 years, Encke has the shortest period of the Solar System's major comets. Comet Encke is also associated with (at least) two annual meteor showers on planet Earth, the North and South Taurids. Both showers are active in late October and early November. Their two separate radiants lie near bright star Aldebaran in the head-strong constellation Taurus. A faint comet, Encke was captured in this telescopic field of view imaged on the morning of August 24. Then, Encke's pretty greenish coma was close on the sky to the young, embedded star cluster and light-years long, tadpole-shaped star-forming clouds in emission nebula IC 410. Now near bright star Spica in Virgo Comet Encke passed its 2023 perihelion only five days ago, on October 22.

Photo by Dan Bartlett

Sometimes it helps to go back and look at what was written. This was on January 6, 2018

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

History's first known periodic comet, Comet Halley (1P/Halley), returns to the inner Solar System every 76 years or so. The famous comet made its last appearance to the naked-eye in 1986. But dusty debris from Comet Halley can be seen raining through planet Earth's skies twice a year during two annual meteor showers, the Eta Aquarids in May and the Orionids in October. In fact, an unhurried series of exposures captured these two bright meteors, vaporizing bits of Halley dust, during the early morning hours of October 23 against a starry background along the Taurus molecular cloud. Impacting the atmosphere at about 66 kilometers per second their greenish streaks point back to the shower's radiant just north of Orion's bright star Betelgeuse off the lower left side of the frame. The familiar Pleiades star cluster anchors the dusty celestial scene at the right.

Photo by David Cortner