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NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Yes, but can your tree do this? If you look closely at the ground in the featured image, you will see many images of yesterday's solar eclipse -- created by a tree. Gaps between tree leaves act like pinhole lenses and each create a small image of the partially eclipsed Sun visible in the other direction. The image was taken in Burleson, Texas, USA. Yesterday, people across the Americas were treated to a partial eclipse of the Sun, when the Moon moves in front of part of the Sun. People in a narrow band of Earth were treated to an annular eclipse, also called a ring-of-fire eclipse, when the Moon becomes completely engulfed by the Sun and sunlight streams around all of the Moon's edges. In answer to the lede question, your tree not only can do this, but will do it every time that a visible solar eclipse passes overhead. Next April 8, a deeper, total solar eclipse will move across North America. Album: Selected eclipse images sent in to APOD

Photo by Shawn Wyre

Jacob Isaackszoon van Ruisdael - (1629 – 1682), was a Dutch painter, draughtsman, and etcher. He is generally considered the pre-eminent landscape painter of the Dutch Golden Age, a period of great wealth and cultural achievement when Dutch painting became highly popular. More

Warm air, suddenly cooled,
humidity has turned to dew.
Branches shaking, as leaves fall,
what clothes to wear, if any, at all.

Residents, too many,
for the support they need,
for daily functions of being,
dressed or to feed.

Why must a life,
end in this way?
Is there a reason?
I know but can't say.

Forlorn the World,
in sadness lain,
loss of lives by terrorist,
Why?

When will hatred end?
Is this truly, God's way?
It is hard to fathom
the rational needed,
to believe what we do,
is right.

Empathy,
Compassion,
Not everyone is gifted,
with those attributes.
How unbelievably sad.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Want to see a ring around the Sun? It's easy to do in daytime skies around the world. Created by randomly oriented ice crystals in thin high cirrus clouds, circular 22 degree halos are visible much more often than rainbows. This one was captured by smart phone photography on May 29, 2021 near Rome, Italy. Carefully blocking the Sun, for example with a finger tip, is usually all that it takes to reveal the common bright halo ring. The halo's characteristic angular radius is about equal to the span of your hand, thumb to little finger, at the end of your outstretched arm. Want to see a ring of fire eclipse? That's harder. The spectacular annular phase of today's (October 14) solar eclipse, known as a ring of fire, is briefly visible only when standing along the Moon's narrow shadow track that passes over limited parts of North, Central, and South America. The solar eclipse is partial though, when seen from broader regions throughout the Americas. Watch: NASA live streams of the Ring of Fire Eclipse (Saturday, Oct. 14, 2023 11:30 a.m. – 1:15 p.m. EDT)

Photo by Vincenzo Mirabella

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Gorgeous spiral galaxy Messier 33 seems to have more than its fair share of glowing hydrogen gas. A prominent member of the local group of galaxies, M33 is also known as the Triangulum Galaxy and lies a mere 3 million light-years away. The galaxy's central 30,000 light-years or so are shown in this sharp galaxy portrait. The portrait features M33's reddish ionized hydrogen clouds or HII regions. Sprawling along loose spiral arms that wind toward the core, M33's giant HII regions are some of the largest known stellar nurseries, sites of the formation of short-lived but very massive stars. Intense ultraviolet radiation from the luminous, massive stars ionizes the surrounding hydrogen gas and ultimately produces the characteristic red glow. In this image, broadband data were combined with narrowband data recorded through a hydrogen-alpha filter. That filter transmits the light of the strongest visible hydrogen emission line.

Photo by Reinhold Wittich

Here we are,
mere shadows now,
of what we there then,
and with questions about how.

How do we give,
when we are away?
How do we live,
in our life's array?