Contributor Posts

A few balloons
hung in the air.
No breeze to chase them,
so they stayed there,
stuck in the clouds.

Small,
tiny,
words
come
to
mind,
describing
this
creature
to
you.
A
bird,
in
hand,
t'was
where
it
began.

Where is the magic,
when did it leave,
for the life of another,
much younger than I?
You said the words,
they came from your mouth.
Do not call me your friend,
as you no longer see me.
Please don't pretend.
I'm what I should be.

A vision of life died recently
when my beloved moved
to a memory recovery facility.
No longer will she live with me
but will receive care she needs.
An adjustment in our life plan,
a necessary one I will concede .

No more the laugh.
No more the cry.
Every day passes.
Not knowing why.
You are gone now,
Without a goodbye.

The Palpa Lines, discovered in 1997, are located north of the better known Nazca Lines on the south coastal desert of Peru. They are believed to be part of the Paracas Culture (800 BCE – 100 BCE) and to pre-date the Nazca Lines.

https://www.filmingperu.com/

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Named for a forgotten constellation, the Quadrantid Meteor Shower puts on an annual show for planet Earth's northern hemisphere skygazers. The shower's radiant on the sky lies within the old, astronomically obsolete constellation Quadrans Muralis. That location is not far from the Big Dipper, at the boundaries of the modern constellations Bootes and Draco. In fact north star Polaris is just below center in this frame and the Big Dipper asterism (known to some as the Plough) is above it, with the meteor shower radiant to the right. Pointing back toward the radiant, Quadrantid meteors streak through the night in the panoramic skyscape, a composite of images taken in the hours around the shower's peak on January 4, 2022. Arrayed in the foreground are radio telescopes of the Chinese Spectral Radioheliograph, Mingantu Observing Station, Inner Mongolia, China. A likely source of the dust stream that produces Quadrantid meteors was identified in 2003 as an asteroid. Status Updates: Deploying the James Webb Space Telescope

Photo by Cheng Luo

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

A male Adelie penguin performed this Ecstatic Vocalization in silhouette during the December 4 solar eclipse, the final eclipse of 2021. Of course his Ecstatic Vocalization is a special display that male penguins use to claim their territory and advertise their condition. This penguin's territory, at Cape Crozier Antarctica, is located in one of the largest Adelie penguin colonies. The colony has been studied by researchers for over 25 years. From there, last December's eclipse was about 80 percent total when seen at its maximum phase as the Moon's shadow crossed planet Earth's southernmost continent. Status Updates: Deploying the James Webb Space Telescope

Photo by Point Blue Conservation Science

A bright, piece of life
is more grey today,
as my beautiful wife,
is not here to stay.
Her Advanced Dementia,
Alzheimer's, took her away.
Now all the brightness
has changed to grey.

Ellie, oh Ellie,
I'm missing you so.
I turn in the bed
and you aren't there,
while all my senses,
see you everywhere.
I am such a wimp
and want you to be safe,
cared for every day.
To be loved and nurtured,
in every, possible way.
I am sorry for not
being there, as I now wallow,
in my own self despair.

Your life is special,
it belongs to you.
Caring for yourself
and others too,
is good for your Soul.
It's what you do.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

That's not a young crescent Moon posing behind cathedral towers after sunset. It's Venus in a crescent phase. About 40 million kilometers away and about 2 percent illuminated by sunlight, it was captured with camera and telephoto lens in this series of exposures as it set in western skies on January 1 from Veszprem, Hungary. The bright celestial beacon was languishing in the evening twilight, its days as the Evening Star coming to a close as 2022 began. But it was also growing larger in apparent size and becoming an ever thinner crescent in telescopic views. Heading toward a (non-judgemental) inferior conjunction, the inner planet will be positioned between Earth and Sun on January 9 and generally lost from view in the solar glare. A crescent Venus will soon reappear though. Rising in the east by mid-month just before the Sun as the brilliant Morning Star. Status Updates: Deploying the James Webb Space Telescope

Photo by Tamas Ladanyi