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NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Why doesn't the nearby galaxy create a gravitational lensing effect on the background galaxy? It does, but since both galaxies are so nearby, the angular shift is much smaller than the angular sizes of the galaxies themselves. The featured Hubble image of NGC 3314 shows two large spiral galaxies which happen to line up exactly. The foreground spiral NGC 3314a appears nearly face-on with its pinwheel shape defined by young bright star clusters. Against the glow of the background galaxy NGC 3314b, though, dark swirling lanes of interstellar dust can also be seen tracing the nearer spiral's structure. Both galaxies appear on the edge of the Hydra Cluster of Galaxies, a cluster that is about 200 million light years away. Gravitational lens distortions are much easier to see when the lensing galaxy is smaller and further away. Then, the background galaxy may even be distorted into a ring around the nearer. Fast gravitational lens flashes due to stars in the foreground galaxy momentarily magnifying the light from stars in the background galaxy might one day be visible in future observing campaigns with high-resolution telescopes.

The Veronica mountain also called Wayna Willka, is a 5,893 m (19,334 ft) mountain in the  in the Andes of Peru.  "Apu", in the ancient religion and mythology of Peru, Ecuador, and Bolivia, is the term used to describe the spirits of mountains and sometimes solitary rocks, typically displaying anthropomorphic features, that protect the local people. The term dates back to the Inca Empire.
https://www.filmingperu.com/

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Where are all of these meteors coming from? In terms of direction on the sky, the pointed answer is the constellation of Gemini. That is why the major meteor shower in December is known as the Geminids -- because shower meteors all appear to come from a radiant toward Gemini. Three dimensionally, however, sand-sized debris expelled from the unusual asteroid 3200 Phaethon follows a well-defined orbit about our Sun, and the part of the orbit that approaches Earth is superposed in front of the constellation of Gemini. Therefore, when Earth crosses this orbit, the radiant point of falling debris appears in Gemini. Featured here, a composite of many images taken during the 2020 Geminids meteor shower shows over 200 bright meteors that streaked through the sky during the night December 14. The best meteor shower in November, the Leonids, peaks tonight and tomorrow. Unfortunately, this year, dim meteors during the early-morning peak will be hard to see against a sky lit by a bright gibbous moon. Still, a few bright Leonid meteors should be visible each hour.

Photo by Wang Jin

The tree has few leaves, left to see.
Is starkly naked, its limbs are bare.
Another chapter in the life of a tree,
Once covered in foliage with care.

Lean into my shoulder.
Match your pace to my gait,
for I will protect you.
This is my pledge and fate.

I'm writing these words,
which left my brain
and now appear on
the tip of my pen.
Do you suppose the words are
from the ink in the pen,
not from the inside, my gray,
old brain, full of love,
as it should remain?

You came to me,
in a vision,
I soon lost.
Unable to find
the image again.
Was it good
as I dreamt
it to be,
or just another
of my fantasies?

Why are you lonely?
There are people around,
who care for you.
There are friends to be found,
wherever you go.
Who will support you
and other friends you know.

When the dream dies.
When your hopes go away.
When you realize,
Life is no longer a play
about controlling your life.

Please, can't you
say to me,
how you miss all
of my good company.

Here's to you,
daughter of mine,
who only exists
in the back of my mind.
My wife wanted two Sons,
which we now have.
They are both great,
but a father, without a daughter,
is in my minds travesty.
I love all the women
who came into my life,
but love intensely,
the one who's my wife.

At this time in life
my physical ability
is out paced by
my physical practicality.
Don't worry about me
my physical romancality.
He's safe, he's old,
my physical fragility
is dangerously close to
my physical finality.