Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD)

[Dekalb_Blues]

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http://earthsky.org/tonight









(This is not to say, as some infidels aver, that the Infinite Creator is just another attention-whore Whom we are all co-dependently enabling!)

http://www.idialstars.com/zube.htm  I have just discovered the star with the bestest name in the universe. I am thinking of legally changing my name to
Zubenelgenubi, and then back again, so that I can truthfully designate myself The Artist Formerly Known As Zubenelgenubi. 
Well, that might be too much trouble, come to think of it; instead, I think I might just start calling my pet axolotl Beauregarde by this name. He's at the
veterinarian's undergoing trans-surgery to achieve salamandericality (he has always told me he feels like a salamander trapped in an axolotl's body).




https://thefirelizard.wordpress.com//?s=...&search=Go


Song of the Salamander -- Bruce McClure, 2013


You immortal terrain, everlastingly present and eternally now, you who are as beginningless as you are endless, you who are blanketed by the ageless dust,
are you not unmindful that without the life-generating fire of the Salamander, you of yourself are inert, unknowing of time, imprisoned within matterless,
spiritless, unconscious unawareness of absolute zero? Without time there can be no motion; without motion there is no change; without change there are no
interactions between immutable particles; without interactions no animations spring from your lifeless soil.

Praised be the Salamander who sparks your immortal terrain with immortality! Oh, you immortal terrain, changeless amidst change, you are the protean world
of metamorphic metempsychosis, with successions of migrating souls incessantly crossing your ever-present stage. Oh, immortal terrain, your ova, your mean-
ingful conglomerations of soil, water, and sunshine, when blessed with the breath of life by the sylphs of the air, become somatic bodies who fleetingly dance
across your terrestrial playground until they exit and then disbecome . . .

All beginnings, all births, what are you if not terminations of previous consummations? If not inversions of hourglasses of time? Oh, sentient creatures, know
you not that you derive your existence from time which is motion which is time? For without the orbs of the Sun and the Moon and the planets who continually
move along the zodiacal highway of time, know you not that our movements might as well all fbe or naught? For without the orbs who correctly position them-
selves upon the stellar sphere, we could neither measure durations of Earthly transformations nor chart the pilgrimage of Earth's shifting sands. Oh, wondrous
orbs of the heavens, you who with your ever-recurring, ever-recycling motions trace the efflorescent flow of time, you are divine Seer who reads the palimpsest
palm of Earth!

Oh, ever-present terrain, the eyeglass of your encircling horizon peers at the refracted images of past and future and sees origins and destinies obliquely through
the distance haze. Yet when I read the message inscribed upon the heavens, when I see that scroll that remains uneffaced by the passage of time, I understand
the ageless notation and clearly see that the beginningless past and the endless future are conjoined upon the meridian of the ever-present, ever-solipsistic, ever-
expanding eternal Now, which is time which is motion which is time.


https://www.hodinkee.com/articles/van-cl...ntroducing

[Nía]

Hubble Finds an Einstein Ring

This image is packed full of galaxies! A keen eye can spot exquisite elliptical galaxies and spectacular spirals, seen at various orientations: edge-on with the plane of the galaxy visible, face-on to show off magnificent spiral arms, and everything in between.

With the charming name of SDSS J0146-0929, this is a galaxy cluster — a monstrous collection of hundreds of galaxies all shackled together in the unyielding grip of gravity. The mass of this galaxy cluster is large enough to severely distort the space-time around it, creating the odd, looping curves that almost encircle the center of the cluster.

These graceful arcs are examples of a cosmic phenomenon known as an Einstein ring. The ring is created as the light from a distant objects, like galaxies, pass by an extremely large mass, like this galaxy cluster. In this image, the light from a background galaxy is diverted and distorted around the massive intervening cluster and forced to travel along many different light paths toward Earth, making it seem as though the galaxy is in several places at once.

Source: NASA Image of the Day, 2018 April 6

[Dekalb_Blues]

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Q: What do you think Nietzsche meant by "Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. 
And when you look long into an abyss, the abyss also looks into you." (Beyond Good and Evil,  Leipzig: 1886)? What kind of monster? 
What does it mean to look into an abyss?

A: This is one of the aspects of Nietzsche that is easily overlooked by people who want to see him as simply nihilistic and destructive.

For Nietzsche, the construction of the self is not a religious act, an obligation, or an act of submission to nature, as variously seen 
by 'moralities' -- it is an art form. In The Joyful Science (Leipzig: 1882) he says something to the order of 'One must make of one's Self a 
work of art, carving away something here, growing something there, repurposing some mass of unavoidable ugliness elsewhere to present 
a more pleasant view from the distance...' (I do not have a copy here, and I cannot find it online, if someone can give me the words...)

A monster is one whose 'self' lacks 'art'.

Power may be the medium of morality, and its goal, but tasteless use of power is like tasteless use of any other medium. To see his 
aesthetic, you can look at his own artistic process, which he displayed over and over again by choosing mythological or poetic 
representations, or you can look at his critiques of other's work. Particularly, I think it is why he bothered to publish Nietzsche contra Wagner
(Leipzig: 1889). He accuses Wagner's music of being an assault on the audience, brandishing its scale in a way that shocks the senses and 
bruises the organs, and of having too little consistency and comprehensibility -- winding an endless melody, rather than a theme.

In this context, I think the quote about monsters indicates there are aesthetic choices that we should restrain ourselves from making 
even though they would be effective. We should choose scale, elegance and consistency. If others' use of power lacks art, we should 
not simply confront them with more power, if that involves less art. We should restrain ourselves.

In particular, I think 'an abyss' is a sort of monster, the monster of complete cynicism and true nihilism -- the completely empty man 
that early 'beatnik' post-modernism seems to favor. There is always power to be uncovered by renunciation of boundaries, but pursuing 
an utter lack of restraining form leaves one 'powerfully empty', and perhaps incapable of recovering one's artistic nature.

https://philosophy.stackexchange.com/que...-the-abyss



https://www.pinterest.co.uk/caitlinmaet/come-on-try-it/






Cover from Yves Naud, U.F.O.s and Extraterrestrials in History, 4 vols. (Geneva: Ferni Publishers, 1978)






Salvador Dali, Argus (1963).  
For a chance to own Matisse's vibrant minimalist linocut Space-Octopus Ascendant (1944), see
http://clarkfineart.com/artists/20th-cen...ariant-vi/

[Nía]

NGC 6960: The Witch's Broom Nebula



Source: Astronomy Picture of the Day, 2018 April 08


Source: Astronomy Picture of the Day, 2018 April 09


Dragon Aurora over Norway



Source: Astronomy Picture of the Day, 2018 April 10

[Nía]

M22 and the Wanderers



Source: Astronomy Picture of the Day, 2018 April 12

[Dekalb_Blues]

^ Typical view in rear-view fisheye mirror of UFO leaving our local galactic vicinity on a beer run



"The European Space Agency’s Gaia spacecraft team has dropped its long-awaited trove of data about 1.7 billion stars. You can see 
a new visualization of all those stars in the Milky Way and nearby galaxies above, but you really need to zoom in to appreciate just 
how much stuff there is in the map. Yes, the specks are stars. 

In addition to the 1.7 billion stars, this second release of data from Gaia contains the motions and color of 1.3 billion stars relative to
the Sun, as well as how the stars relate to things in the distant background based on the Earth’s position. It also features radial 
velocities, amount of dust, and surface temperatures of lots of stars, and a catalogue of over 14,000 Solar System objects, including 
asteroids. There is a shitload of data in this release."


-- from https://gizmodo.com/incredible-new-view-...1825526275
See also: https://sputniknews.com/science/20180425...milky-way/
 

  Massive interstellar cloud of dust & ionized gases

  As above, so below, kinda sorta 

When it's sidereal time for beddy-bye, who want?:
 


Now for the trusty matching pajamas!:

 High-tech onesies as worn in the nap room for the night shift at Mt. Palomar

Now playing (quietly) in said nap room:
  

[isis]

Rings Around the Ring Nebula



Source: Astronomy Picture of the Day, 2018 July 15

[isis]

Stripping ESO 137-001



Source: Astronomy Picture of the Day, 2018 August 25

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Source: APOD, 2018 August 30

The nearly 1 degree wide telescopic field of view spans about 100 light-years

[ada]

Explanation: You've probably seen a circle around the Sun before. More common than rainbows, ice halos, like a 22 degree circular halo for example, can be easy to spot, especially if you can shade your eyes from direct sunlight. Still it's rare to see such a diverse range of ice halos, including sundogs, tangent, infralateral, and Parry arcs, all found in this snapshot from planet Earth. The picture was quickly taken in the late morning of September 4 from Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada. The beautiful patterns are generated as sunlight (or moonlight) is reflected and refracted in six-sided water ice crystals in Earth's atmosphere. Of course, atmospheric ice halos in the skies of other worlds are likely to be different.

Source: APOD 2018 September 14

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Source: APOD 2018 September 27

[RitaJC]

Super cool thread! Thanks for sharing, everybody!

[ada]

Source: APOD 2018 October 9

[Dekalb_Blues]

~
. . . OR It's A Beautiful Night For A Moonbounce


They Watch the Moon
Trevor Paglen, 2010

This photograph depicts a classified “listening station”deep in the forests of West Virginia. The station is located at the center 
of the “National Radio Quiet Zone,” a region of approximately 34,000 square kilometres in West Virginia and parts of Maryland. 
Within the Quiet Zone, radio transmissions are severely restricted: omnidirectional and high-powered transmissions (such as 
wireless internet devices and FM radio stations) are not permitted.

The listening station, which forms part of the global ECHELON system, was designed in part to take advantage of a phenomenon 
called “moonbounce.” Moonbounce involves capturing communications and telemetry signals from around the world as they escape 
into space, hit the moon, and are reflected back towards Earth.

The photograph is a long exposure under the full moon light.




NOYFB *
[Patch]
Trevor Paglen, 2006

Military culture is filled with a totemic visual language consisting of symbols and insignia that signify everything from 
various unit and command affiliations to significant events, and noteworthy programs. A typical uniform will sport patches 
identifying its wearer’s job, program affiliation, achievements and place within the military hierarchy. These markers of 
identity and program heraldry begin to create a peculiar symbolic regime when they depict one’s affiliation with what 
defense-industry insiders call the “black world” – the world of classified programs, projects, and places, whose outlines, 
even existence, are deeply-held secrets. Nonetheless, the Pentagon’s “black world” is replete with the rich symbolic 
language that characterizes other, less obscure, military activities.
* I.e., "None Of Your Fucking Business"

http://en.bookfi.net/book/1178366

The symbols and insignia shown in the Symbology series provide a glimpse into how contemporary military units answer 
questions that have historically been the purview of mystery cults, secret societies, religions, and mystics: How does one 
represent that which, by definition, must not be represented?

[Note: the practical STS answer to this is that the secretive types make sure to seed fearful memes of their own clever
design into the culture they're influencing so as to keep their grip on the desired master narrative, through endless repetition
of the trusty fear-&-hope-filled tension/release-cycle, e.g.: )
 (Admittedly not the most horrific thing ever, this particular ad!)




Humanity’s longest lasting remnants are found among the stars. Over the last fifty years, hundreds of satellites have 
been launched into geosynchronous orbits, forming a ring of machines 36,000 kilometers from earth. Thousands of 
times further away than most other satellites, geostationary spacecraft remain locked as man-made moons in perpetual 
orbit long after their operational lifetimes. Geosynchronous spacecraft will be among civilization’s most enduring remnants,
quietly circling Earth until the Earth is no more.


Earthrise
(one of the photos contained in The Last Pictures [ca. 2012])

Commissioned by public art organization Creative Time, The Last Pictures marks a distant satellite with a record from the 
historical moment from whence it came. Artist Trevor Paglen collaborated with materials scientists at the Massachusetts 
Institute of Technology to develop a micro-etched disc with one hundred photographs, encased in a gold-plated shell, 
designed to withstand the rigors of space and to last for billions of years. Inspired by years of conversations and interviews 
with scientists, artists, anthropologists, and philosophers, the images chosen for The Last Pictures tell an impressionistic 
story of uncertainty, paradox, and anxiety about the future. 


The Lost Pictures data disc

In November 2012 the communications satellite EchoStar XVI reached geostationary orbit with The Last Pictures mounted 
to its anti-earth deck. The satellite will spend fifteen years broadcasting television and high-bandwidth internet signals before
maneuvering into a “graveyard” orbit where it will become a ghost-ship, carrying The Last Pictures towards the depths of time. 



EchoStar XVI under construction with reflectors fully extended

http://paglen.com/  

[isis]

IC 59 and IC 63 in Cassiopeia



Source: APOD, 2018 October 26

[Dekalb_Blues]

IC 59 and IC 63 in Cassiopeia [predominantly purple pic]

The very picture of a easy-to-get-lost-in deep-purple cosmic dream, isis!




When the deep purple falls over sleepy garden walls
And the stars begin to flicker in the sky
Through the mist of a memory you wander back to me
Breathing my name with a sigh
In the still of the night once again I hold you tight
Though you're gone, your love lives on when moonlight beams
And as long as my heart will beat, lover we'll always meet
Here in my deep purple dreams
Here in my deep purple dreams

Fun factoid: Pianist Peter DeRosa's 1933 instrumental "Deep Purple" proved such a pop hit that in 1938 suitably dreamy lyrics 
(about romance 'n' lost love 'n' stuff, naturally!) were provided by Mitchell Parish, promptly turning it into an even bigger pop-hit
amongst Earthlings (who, because of their several-million-years'-worth of genetic heritage of heterosexual mating habits are just 
suckers for anything along this line, even in these latter days when the memes have successfully transferred to any number of
other sexual-symbiotism schemes, sometimes involving other species, inanimate objects, and indeed even immaterial abstractions). 
English Guitarist Ritchie Blackmoore's grandmother considered this her favourite song, and often played it in her home, where 
he heard it many a time during his childhood. It made such an impression on him that in 1968 he suggested its title as the new 
name for his soon-to-be-very-popular-indeed progressive/hard/heavy-metal rock group (which was then performing under the
name Roundabout) . . . 
Note: the unused second-choice for band-name was Concrete God.







 

You know, all this luminous haze of pan-Galactic panoramic purple pulchritude suggests a great song-title:

https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegal..._1172.html
https://www.space.com/22581-purple-haze-...photo.html
https://noisey.vice.com/en_us/article/wn...mi-hendrix
http://uforeview.tripod.com/hendrix.html
http://aquarianradio.com/2014/07/22/maui...teve-omar/



Hey, that song-title would make a great name for a TV series about an earnest (yet comically clueless) group of benign aliens
trying to pass as human whilst on recon and species-study duty on our solar system's third planet, Earth . . . but for copyright-royalty
reasons you'd probably have to change it a bit, say, substitute "rock" for "stone" . . .


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6JN8pY1bOw&t=144s

All of which reminds me that I worked and strived mystically for years and years and finally realized the the Truth: that the Cosmos was within me --

-- and all I got for it was this lousy t-shirt!

[Cyan]

We ofcourse over on this side of the fence have a different opinion as to our alien friends, they aren't coming to shoot up the UN, BUT, that picture of the 3 layered storm is still the best picture of first contact I have and the video I linked of my own making is the best alien contact video I've seen, but thats just me.

Edit: sorry the video of mine I linked was the wrong one, its about the nuclear era and rights of invidivuals and not the first contact video.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B91iW5...FpWdEtBMDg this is the proper one. Once again, my apologies.

[RitaJC]

The image for today, October 30, 2018: Orionids Meteors over Inner Mongolia

[ada]

Source: APOD 2018 November 14

[isis]

Comet 46P/Wirtanen



Source: APOD, 2018 November 15

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The Tarantula Nebula



Source: APOD, 2018 November 17

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IC 1871: Inside the Soul Nebula



Source: APOD, 2018 November 28

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Source: APOD 2018 December 11

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Source: APOD 2018 December 12

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Source: APOD 2018 December 20

[ada]

Source: APOD 2018 December 26

[Nía]

Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2018: the winning images

[Dekalb_Blues]

~
 Nut = Stellar Mother

"A song celebrating the Great Cosmic Mother of the Universe and all the manifest beauty of Her infinite being."
Heloise Pilkington, a pretty darn good singer, does the honours.



The lovingly admiring intent behind the vibe here is very similar:


When you come to perceive certain phenomena at a certain scale, you yourself are liable to be reciprocally perceived by 
the sentience at that scale. Hence the ancient counsel which has since undergone a lessening via the cultural whisper-
down-the-alley-type process, but which started as: "Seek, and you shall be found." 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dB0D5S2GGT0

So . . .


 "Galactic Emergence"

"We are the stars that sing . . . we sing with our light . . ." (American Indian shaman song)


Remember, one being's far-off wish-upon-a-star is another being's nearby Sun -- light-based Life's wish come true!




  A very bright idea!

[ada]

Source: APOD 2018 December 27

[ada]

Explanation: On January 3, the Chinese Chang'e-4 spacecraft made the first successful landing on the Moon's farside.

Source: APOD 2019 January 5

[isis]

Vela Supernova Remnant Mosaic



Source: APOD, 2019 January 10

[ada]

Source: APOD 2019 January 27