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NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

This pretty field of view spans over 2 degrees or 4 full moons on the sky, filled with stars toward the constellation Taurus, the Bull. Above and right of center in the frame you can spot the faint fuzzy reddish appearance of Messier 1 (M1), also known as the Crab Nebula. M1 is the first object in 18th century comet hunter Charles Messier's famous catalog of things which are definitely not comets. Made from image data captured this October 11, there is a comet in the picture though. Below center and left lies the faint greenish coma and dusty tail of periodic comet 67P Churyumov-Gerasimenko, also known as Rosetta's comet. In the 21st century, it became the final resting place of robots from planet Earth. Rosetta's comet is now returning to the inner solar system, sweeping toward its next perihelion or closest approach to the Sun, on November 2. Too faint to be seen by eye alone, the comet's next perigee or closest approach to Earth will be November 12.

Photo by Jose Mtanous

I miss you,
Words easily said.
I look for those days,
which will soon lie ahead.

I hear the rain,
rattle the window,
as I explain,
I'm happy to be inside;
safe and out of the rain.

Plowing the dirt,
place into a pile.
Mark out the plot,
create your own style.
Plant bulbs tomorrow,
bring joy to all those
walking the path of sorrow.

A fence line,
a straight line for most,
interrupted at times
with a fence post.
Barbed wire is tricky,
stretching, it tight,
attaching with wire
to steel fence post,
stuck in the ground.
Steel post are pounded
into the earth.
No hole digging,
in rocky ground.
The fence is completed
many feel it should
be electrified?
What do you think?

When the greatest Pumpkin Sun,
Lights up the cold October sky,
where will all the birds go?
Migratory birds, will be on their way
to a warmer clime, in the South while
other, small birds here will just stay.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Blown by fast winds from a hot, massive star, this cosmic bubble is huge. Cataloged as Sharpless 2-308 it lies some 5,000 light-years away toward the constellation of the Big Dog (Canis Major) and covers slightly more of the sky than a Full Moon. That corresponds to a diameter of 60 light-years at its estimated distance. The massive star that created the bubble, a Wolf-Rayet star, is the bright one near the center of the nebula. Wolf-Rayet stars have over 20 times the mass of the Sun and are thought to be in a brief, pre-supernova phase of massive star evolution. Fast winds from this Wolf-Rayet star create the bubble-shaped nebula as they sweep up slower moving material from an earlier phase of evolution. The windblown nebula has an age of about 70,000 years. Relatively faint emission captured by narrowband filters in the deep image is dominated by the glow of ionized oxygen atoms mapped to a blue hue. Presenting a mostly harmless outline, SH2-308 is also known as The Dolphin-head Nebula.

Photo by Nik Szymanek

You can make this Easy Pork Fried Rice any time of the year thanks to frozen vegetables. Add them straight from the freezer to your skillet.  Want to use frozen rice? That makes dinner even easier! - A little planning is required because of the pork. Click to read Nick Evans' recipe 

Forever is the morning.
Forever is the day,
where I will be
to greet you then,
welcoming you to see,
the beauty which lies within,
the innermost soul of thee.

Please help me understand,
why some people's life is blessed,
while others are cast away?
Survival of the fittest,
cruel at best.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Why would this mission go out as far as Jupiter -- but then not visit Jupiter? Lucy's plan is to follow different leads about the origin of our Solar System than can be found at Jupiter -- where Juno now orbits. Jupiter is such a massive planet that its gravity captures numerous asteroids that orbit the Sun ahead of it -- and behind. These trojan asteroids formed all over our Solar System and some may have been trapped there for billions of years. Flying by these trojan asteroids enables studying them as fossils that likely hold unique clues about our early Solar System. Lucy, named after a famous fossil skeleton which was named after a famous song, is scheduled to visit eight asteroids from 2025 to 2033. Pictured, Lucy's launch was captured with reflection last week aboard a powerful Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida, USA.

Photo by John Kraus