Cosmic Multicultural Bucharest in the Pandemic (377)
A Terrestrial Binary
By Andrei Dorian Gheorghe (astro-photo-poem-essay) and Florin Alexandru Stancu (design)
On November 17, 2020
I waited a lot to see Alpha Canis Majoris for a few seconds among the clouds,
but, in fact, Sirius is a binary star system, consisting of Sirius A and Sirius B.
On November 23, 2020
I remembered that a similar case exists in Bucharestian religious architecture,
dedicated to an important saint of Eastern Christianity,
which I would name Saint Elefterios’ binary church system.
Yes, it is about two churches,
one founded in the 1740s (with the Sun and the Moon carved on the door and with a huge fireball painted near the entrance),
and the other in 1935 (but inaugurated much later, with external stone portals like sunrises).
Looking at them from the south,
they seem like a single building with several towers.
So that day I went
from Saint Elefterios’ Old Church to Saint Elefterios’ New Church,
a kind of terrestrial reflection of the road
from Sirius A to Sirius B
(in terms of age)
or from Sirius B to Sirius A
(in terms of size).
#poetry