CeresNature: August Stargazing

Sleeping In The Forest

I thought the earth remembered me, she took me back so tenderly, arranging her dark skirts, her pockets full of lichens and seeds. I slept as never before, a stone on the riverbed, nothing between me and the white fire of the stars but my thoughts, and they floated light as moths among the branches of the perfect trees. All night I heard the small kingdoms breathing around me, the insects, and the birds who do their work in the darkness. All night I rose and fell, as if in water, grappling with a luminous doom. By morning I had vanished at least a dozen times into something better.

-Mary Oliver

The Swan

Did you too see it, drifting, all night, on the black river? Did you see it in the morning, rising into the silvery air - an armful of white blossoms, a perfect commotion of silk and linen as it leaned into the bondage of its wings; a snowbank, a bank of lilies, biting the air with its black beak? Did you hear it, fluting and whistling a shrill dark music - like the rain pelting the trees - like a waterfall knifing down the black ledges? And did you see it, finally, just under the clouds - a white cross streaming across the sky, its feet like black leaves, its wings like the stretching light of the river? And did you feel it, in your heart, how it pertained to everything? And have you too finally figured out what beauty is for? And have you changed your life?

- Mary Oliver

8.24.2010

August Stargazing

Astronomers sometimes use mnemonic devices (simple memory aids) to help in remembering the names of celestial objects.

One of the best known astronomy mnemonics is "Arc to Arcturus, then drive a spike to Spica."

Begin by finding the Big Dipper, one of the sky’s most prominent asterisms (star patterns). If you extend the arc formed by the Dipper’s handle, you'll soon find yourself at the bright star Arcturus, in the constellation Boötes.

From there, it’s a straight line to Spica, the brightest star in Virgo. Can you see the color difference between yellowish Arcturus and blue-white Spica?

CeresNature

August

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Sleeping In The Forest

The Swan

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8.24.2010

August Stargazing

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