Members Reports

FAVOURITE NEBULA

By Andrei Dorian Gheorghe posted yesterday

FAVOURITE NEBULA By Andrei Dorian Gheorghe . . -What is your favorite nebula? - someone asked me once. . -Graceful clouds of gas, dust and new stars, all nebulae fascinate me. But I will not go to Eridanus under any circumstances because I will be dead if I meet the Witch Head! #poetry

TO SEE OR NOT TO SEE… ALCOR

By Andrei Dorian Gheorghe posted 2 days ago

TO SEE OR NOT TO SEE… ALCOR By Andrei Dorian Gheorghe . . ‘To be or not to be’ or rather I can see it or I can't see it with the naked eye, I said during an observational night. .+ What do you say - a fellow sky observer scolded me -, Alcor is just Mizar's smaller companion in Ursa Major. , Certainly - I replied – you don't know much about Hamlet... #poetry

NASA/JPL: Solar Eclipses: Your Guide to the 2023/2024 Celestial Events (Live Public Talk)

By Andee Sherwood posted 2 days ago

Date: Sept. 21, 2023 Time: 7:00 PM PT Youtube Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lKYm6QBE-Q Two eclipses are crossing over most of the U.S. in the next few months! The first is an Annular Eclipse on Oct. 14, 2023, and the second will be a Total Solar Eclipse on April 8, 2024. An eclipse can be an awe-inspiring celestial event that drastically changes the appearance of the two biggest objects in our sky: the Sun and Moon. It also gives us the opportunity to study our Sun, Earth, and our space environment. Join us for a live discussion on how eclipses happen, the different types of eclipses we can see, what we can learn from them, and how ...

Birth of Stars

By Harley White posted 3 days ago

. . Birth of Stars . . The birth of stars in cosmic skies could life and death epitomize, and though we’re but a dot in space, our earthly home with azure face might mirror all that lives and dies. . The morning rays that luminize in shining golden lantern guise may seem in day’s ascent to trace the birth of stars. . For suns shall set and others rise through midwife Mother Nature wise who cradles all in vast embrace, while through her everlasting grace brings from sidereal demise the birth of stars. . . ~ Harley White . . * ...

"Hubble's Ultraviolet Legacy" (A Free, Virtual Event)

By Donna McCormick posted 4 days ago

This free, virtual lecture will occur on Thursday, September 28, 2023, 7:00-8:00 PM, ET. Registration is required for this event. Go to: https://hubble.eventbrite.com Hamptons Observatory , and co-host Suffolk County Community College, are pleased to present a free, virtual lecture by Dr. Christopher T. Britt. The largest program in Hubble’s history, the Ultraviolet Legacy Library of Young Stars as Essential Standards (ULLYSES) , is laying the groundwork to understand the impact that young stars have on their environments, from the early universe to potentially habitable worlds. Understanding ultraviolet (UV) emission of high and low mass young ...

COMET NISHIMURA AND EPSILON LEONIS IN 2023

By Andrei Dorian Gheorghe posted 6 days ago

COMET NISHIMURA AND EPSILON LEONIS IN 2023 By Andrei Dorian Gheorghe . . ‘O, Nishimura - the comet of the dawn rising from the grass…’ (Valentin Grigore) . A comet of classical beauty, C/2023 P1, passing through Cancer, Leo, Virgo… and making me dream of a flying goddess with flowing hair! . Dear Epsilon Leonis, she was so close to you! . Ras Elased Australis, you could have caught her! . Oh, sad Algenubi, what a wasted hit! . And what a big miss just a cosmic kiss! #poetry

A FAIR COMPLAINT

By Andrei Dorian Gheorghe posted 7 days ago

A FAIR COMPLAINT By Andrei Dorian Gheorghe . . Ariadne complained many times that the heroes Hercules and Perseus are today constellations, but not her savior, the hero Theseus. . However, desperate because there is no more room in the sky for any constellation, the European Space Agency is now trying to give satisfaction to Ariadne and has scheduled a cosmic mission for 2032 called THESEUS (‘Transient High-Energy Sky and Early Universe Surveyor’). . Is this enough for you, Ariadne? #poetry

THE SUMMER TRIANGLE ABOVE THE URSEANU OBSERVATORY

By Andrei Dorian Gheorghe posted 9 days ago

THE SUMMER TRIANGLE ABOVE THE URSEANU OBSERVATORY By Andrei Dorian Gheorghe , , ‘Once a visitor looked at the star Vega through a telescope and shouted: <It’s burning!!!>' (Mihai Dascalu, the telescopist of the municipal astronomical observatory in Bucharest) . In September 2023, I revisited the Bucharest Municipal Observatory and, on its terrace, I saw how Saturn at opposition was trying to climb the dome (while inside it the visitors were looking through a telescope at the same encircled planet), Arcturus (as always) was trying to avoid the Big Dipper, and Cassiopeia looked like the first letter of an unseen ...

Empyreal Iris

By Harley White posted 10 days ago

. . . Empyreal Iris . . An Iris empyreal blooms above in nebula’s open cluster thereof whose flower petals ethereal grew like fleur-de-lis of a glorious blue amongst the manifold meadows of stars fluorescing the fields of heavens’ afars. . In Cepheus constellation one views this bright cosmic cloud of indigo hues, which might evoke art by Vincent van Gogh, the notable iris studies we know, that painter whose works unheeded, unsold are since his demise now grandly extolled. . This leads to the question of what has worth plus how things are valued by us on earth. ...

Cosmic passion through night camps – J’pura Astronomy Club, University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Sri Lanka

By Muthuthanthrige Attygalle posted 10 days ago

Cosmic passion through night camps – J’pura Astronomy Club J’pura Astronomy Club is an organization consisting of astronomical enthusiasts from the University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Sri Lanka. We possess more than 1,000 active members among various faculties and we are one of the most prominent undergraduate circles inside the institution. The whole of the students is eligible to be a member of the club within their academic years. The club is led by an executive committee of members and division heads with the guidance of senior treasurer Dr. (Mrs.) Lilani Attygalle. Currently, the J’pura Astronomy Club undertakes numerous efforts to popularize ...

El eclipse en Colombai

By Ángela Patricia Pérez Henao posted 11 days ago

Gracias a Astronomer Without border, en Colombia más de 45 lugares de observación tendrán las gafas solar viewer. Esperamos poder levantar la mirada con decenas de miles de familias, para que por turnos y por pocos minutos disfruten de este gran fenómeno. https://rac.net.co/index.php/eclipse-de-sol-2023/.

MARTIAN BOULDERS

By Andrei Dorian Gheorghe posted 13 days ago

MARTIAN BOULDERS By Andrei Dorian Gheorghe . Sad because my astropoems were not interesting to Earthlings, I moved to the Red Planet. . Here I often collect boulders from the Utopia Planitia impact basin and visit its satellites (where I am much easier than on my former planet) collecting other boulders from the Stickney crater on Phobos and from the Swift and Voltaire craters on Deimos. . . Sometimes I bring them to Earth and notice that such boulders are more interesting to people than my astropoems. . And then those boulders become for me superior Martian astropoems. #poetry

BRIGHT THEORIES

By Mirosław Wójcik posted 14 days ago

Image details: Artist’s impression of HD 45166, the star that might become a magnetar Credit: ESO/L. Calçada ––– | BRIGHT THEORIES | A ccording to bright theories everything should be already ordered Past closed maybe with small exceptions. Future clearly drawn Therefore, in the world of science, one great unification has already been done It is not, however, entirely unified or fully complete(d) In tiny matters, by contrast, bright theories conceal a kind of potential They exalt above mediocrity all crucial plans not bounded by the impossible . Mirosław Wójcik ...

Hubble's Ultraviolet Legacy (A Free, Virtual Lecture)

By Donna McCormick posted 15 days ago

This free, virtual lecture will occur on Thursday, September 28, 2023, 7:00-8:00 PM, ET. Registration is required for this free, virtual event. Go to: https://hubble.eventbrite.com Hamptons Observatory, and co-host Suffolk County Community College, are pleased to present a free, virtual lecture by Dr. Christopher T. Britt. The largest program in Hubble’s history, the Ultraviolet Legacy Library of Young Stars as Essential Standards ( ULLYSES ), is laying the groundwork to understand the impact that young stars have on their environments, from the early universe to potentially habitable worlds. Understanding ultraviolet (UV) emission of high and ...

ABOUT A STAR WITH A HEART ATTACK

By Andrei Dorian Gheorghe posted 16 days ago

ABOUT A STAR WITH A HEART ATTACK By Andrei Dorian Gheorghe . . ‘A good thought about astropoetry, a field we loved now and in the life to come.’ (Virgil V. Scurtu, 1942-2023) . Many people enjoyed the public astronomical presentations, radiating an enchanting culture, of Virgil V. Scurtu. Teacher, astronomer at a university observatory, passionate about variable stars and meteors, admirable writer and astronomy publicist, he named his daughter Nova and wanted to write a book (from which he had already made several articles) as a parallel between cannons and telescopes to demonstrate the superiority of universal ...

LIKE SOMEWHERE IN CASSIOPEIA

By Andrei Dorian Gheorghe posted 17 days ago

LIKE SOMEWHERE IN CASSIOPEIA By Andrei Dorian Gheorghe . . Andromeda, how did you feel when your mother Cassiopeia betrayed you? . I felt like a kangaroo - she answered me - jumping through the obscure galaxies called Dwingeloo. #poetry

BLUE MOON

By Andrei Dorian Gheorghe posted 22 days ago

BLUE MOON By Andrei Dorian Gheorghe . . Seen from Earth, the Moon looks rather yellow, but strangely, when there are two Full Moons in a month, the second one is nicknamed the Blue Moon, as in an absurd planetary story. . In the hot summer of 2023, on the night of August 30-31, I saw the Blue Moon (which was also a Supermoon) appearing crowned by clouds, so I used my personal airplane to see it better from above the clouds. (Greedily admired by Saturn then and, from Piscis Austrinus, watched with envy by Fomalhaut, our natural satellite looked like a celestial ball with strange markings relaxing in Aquarius' pool.) . Later during another Blue ...

THANK YOU, ALASTAIR MCBEATH!

By Andrei Dorian Gheorghe posted 24 days ago

THANK YOU, ALASTAIR MCBEATH! By Andrei Dorian Gheorghe . Perseids - celestial demonstrations of meteors’ friendship… Do the fast and luminous meteors understand human friendship? (Andrei Dorian Gheorghe) Alastair McBeath was the first vice-president of the International Meteor Organization for over two decades (and the meteor section director of Britain’s Society for Popular Astronomy), in which he produced the annual calendar of meteor showers. (Unfortunately, he had to retire for health reasons.) He was also a great astro-mythologist and man of culture, becoming the main contributor ...

Phantasmal Realms

By Harley White posted 24 days ago

. . Phantasmal Realms . . Phantasmal realms are seen on high as seeming ghosts that death defy, galactical in cosmic ways while visioned in a spectral haze, unwilling still to bid goodbye. . ‘Midst earthly days we live and die immersed in pains and pleasures nigh as inwardly we tend to praise phantasmal realms. . Yet deep within some may descry in lieu of insubstantial sky or pageantry of mortal phase, reality that life obeys, an inner world beyond where lie phantasmal realms. . . ~ Harley White . / * * * * * * * * * . ...

Milky Way Haiku (5)

By Andee Sherwood posted 28 days ago

Mil ky Way Haiku (5) by Andee Sherwood . The following haikus were composed during the Milky Way Star Festival celebration. . . View the Milky Way A vail of cloudy stardust Our true home in Space. --- Millions of stars glow far beyond the Milky Way. Can you count them all? --- A thing of wonder, fairy lights beam back to Earth. Milky Way magic... --- Fly millions of miles To the heart of the Milky Way to rest amongst the stars. --- Dreaming of starlight a trip through the Milky Way good sleep, sweet dreams. ------------- #poetry # ...