If the world was completely open to you, and you could move anywhere, start anything, and it was you and you alone right now, where would you go & why?
Here's one of my favorite new websites:
Alaska Stock Images
I have to admit - it makes me want to move to Alaska. : )
Saturday, September 15, 2007
Monday, September 10, 2007
Sky
I grew up in a small town where cold winters and very few streetlights made the stars seem exceptionally brilliant at night. I have wonderful memories of walking the deserted streets late at night, wrapped in a blanket, looking up at the sky and being awed by the beauty and majesty above. Summer nights, winter nights - it didn't matter. If you walked outside at night, you noticed the stars. I clearly remember as a little-little girl walking from my grandmother's door to the car out front, with no porch light or streetlight around, and marvelling at the placement of the stars above. I learned young to look up at night, for there was brilliance to behold.
The stars are foundational for me. Some people still get to go to grandma's for Thanksgiving dinner, Sunday dinner, or anytime at all, and/or still get to go back to the home they grew up in for Christmas Eve and morning - or anytime at all. I get to remember the stars and how they were always there for me as I grew. And still are. I find peace and security in that fact. Always constant, always comforting, they quietly hang overhead, still there as my life unfolds.
They twinkled and shone while I cried, danced, sang, dreamed, and laughed. Childhood, teen years, college years, post-college. They still twinkle and shine while I still cry, dance, sing, dream, and laugh.
I always feel like God knows ME when I stare at the stars. I feel like I belong. In the vast span of space, I exist, and I am unique, and I matter. I never fail to gain that sense of love and belonging when I take the time to appreciate existing under the stars. Blanketed by comforting blackness, and crowned with serene and majestic stars above. It's one of my favorite things about this life.
And one of the most missed since I moved to the 'city'.
The Astronomy Picture of the Day website is one of my favorite. Here's the link, and below it I've attached today's picture & explanation. Double click on the picture to see a much more impressive view, and check out the 'Archive' link at the bottom of the webpage for literally YEARS of photos.
Astronomy Picture of the Day
A Scorpio Sky Spectacular
Credit & Copyright: Stéphane Guisard
Explanation: If Scorpio looked this good to the unaided eye, humans might remember it better. Scorpio more typically appears as a few bright stars in a well known but rarely pointed out zodiacal constellation. To get a spectacular image like this, though, one needs a good camera, color filters, and a digital image processor. To bring out detail, the above image not only involved long duration exposures taken in several colors, but one exposure in a very specific red color emitted by hydrogen that brings out great detail. The resulting image shows many breathtaking features. Vertically across the image left is part of the plane of our Milky Way Galaxy. Visible there are vast clouds of bright stars and long filaments of dark dust. Jutting out diagonally from the Milky Way in the image center are dark dust bands known as the Dark River. This river connects to several bright stars on the right that are part of Scorpio's head and claws, and include the bright star Antares. Numerous red emission nebulas and blue reflection nebulas are visible throughout the image. Scorpio appears prominently in southern skies after sunset during the middle of the year.
I grew up in a small town where cold winters and very few streetlights made the stars seem exceptionally brilliant at night. I have wonderful memories of walking the deserted streets late at night, wrapped in a blanket, looking up at the sky and being awed by the beauty and majesty above. Summer nights, winter nights - it didn't matter. If you walked outside at night, you noticed the stars. I clearly remember as a little-little girl walking from my grandmother's door to the car out front, with no porch light or streetlight around, and marvelling at the placement of the stars above. I learned young to look up at night, for there was brilliance to behold.
The stars are foundational for me. Some people still get to go to grandma's for Thanksgiving dinner, Sunday dinner, or anytime at all, and/or still get to go back to the home they grew up in for Christmas Eve and morning - or anytime at all. I get to remember the stars and how they were always there for me as I grew. And still are. I find peace and security in that fact. Always constant, always comforting, they quietly hang overhead, still there as my life unfolds.
They twinkled and shone while I cried, danced, sang, dreamed, and laughed. Childhood, teen years, college years, post-college. They still twinkle and shine while I still cry, dance, sing, dream, and laugh.
I always feel like God knows ME when I stare at the stars. I feel like I belong. In the vast span of space, I exist, and I am unique, and I matter. I never fail to gain that sense of love and belonging when I take the time to appreciate existing under the stars. Blanketed by comforting blackness, and crowned with serene and majestic stars above. It's one of my favorite things about this life.
And one of the most missed since I moved to the 'city'.
The Astronomy Picture of the Day website is one of my favorite. Here's the link, and below it I've attached today's picture & explanation. Double click on the picture to see a much more impressive view, and check out the 'Archive' link at the bottom of the webpage for literally YEARS of photos.
Astronomy Picture of the Day
A Scorpio Sky Spectacular
Credit & Copyright: Stéphane Guisard
Explanation: If Scorpio looked this good to the unaided eye, humans might remember it better. Scorpio more typically appears as a few bright stars in a well known but rarely pointed out zodiacal constellation. To get a spectacular image like this, though, one needs a good camera, color filters, and a digital image processor. To bring out detail, the above image not only involved long duration exposures taken in several colors, but one exposure in a very specific red color emitted by hydrogen that brings out great detail. The resulting image shows many breathtaking features. Vertically across the image left is part of the plane of our Milky Way Galaxy. Visible there are vast clouds of bright stars and long filaments of dark dust. Jutting out diagonally from the Milky Way in the image center are dark dust bands known as the Dark River. This river connects to several bright stars on the right that are part of Scorpio's head and claws, and include the bright star Antares. Numerous red emission nebulas and blue reflection nebulas are visible throughout the image. Scorpio appears prominently in southern skies after sunset during the middle of the year.
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