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Tuesday 28 February 2012

Venus Waning

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Jupiter, Moon and Venus in conjunction: photo by VirtualAstro, 26 February 2012 (via Meteorwatch)





Baby it's cold outside
in the deep cobalt

blackness of the laughing
planetarium the inside
of the soul is not seen




Jupiter, Moon and Venus in Conjunction, seen from Manila Bay area, the Philippines: photo by Journey to the Stars, 26 February 2012

13 comments:

Hazen said...

Saturday, I went out to a nearby hill just before sunset, to watch the planets emerge as the sky darkened, and maybe catch Mercury’s low arc above the horizon. Low clouds blocked Mercury from view but made for another kind of spectacle as the sun dove below the rim of the world. Then, up high, Venus popped out, below and to the left of the inverted parabola of the moon. It was cold (yeah, baby) and a hard wind was blowing and Jupiter was taking his own sweet time coming into view, so I went home. Five minutes later, on my deck, it was dark enough to see that big boy at the top of a backwards L, tilting to the south—Venus:Moon:Jupiter. Celestial!

TC said...

Yes, the sky show has definitely contributed a bit of motivation amid the winter longeurs, causing the body to shift from in to out.

Wobbling about by night, covertly eyeballing the heavenly bodies above the city blocks...

Once-in-a-lifetime.

Maybe in the next life there will be sleep.

STEPHEN RATCLIFFE said...

Tom,

Isn't it amazing that people around the world can see what we can see here (up there "in the deep cobalt blackness") -- Norway, Manila, Berkeley, Bolinas . . .

2.28

pink edge of cloud above black shoulder
of ridge, white of flower against fence
in foreground, wave sounding in channel

in not saying anything here,
the history of itself

that is, however everything
a picture, between it

blue white of sky reflected in channel,
shadowed green pine on tip of sandspit

TC said...

Yes, amazing. Even perhaps bracing.

vazambam (Vassilis Zambaras) said...

The Squint-eyed Kid joined the long list of twilight stargazers at 18.50 Hellas time--even took some photos but it remains to be seen if my eye was up to the occasion.

Issa's Untidy Hut said...

Walking home from a dinner out with friends, Laurie and I gazed into the world of the Sunday night city laudromaters and then up at the marvelous triangular conjunction of heavenly bodies (because Pittsburgh is an amazing place where both can be done with relative ease).

The relationship amongst all things, which is most often obscured, somehow that evening was very clear, indeed.

Martha King said...

Saw it or them all bright against moon in Brooklyn through our kitchen door. A bit brisk to go out without coats. Baz
Had to duck and squint. Will there be wonders? He asked. Sorry I said. THAT is the wonder!

Martha King said...

Saw it all in Broklyn. Baz had to duck and squint. We watched from inside the kitchen, wimpy wise, amazingly clear in midst of big city.

TC said...

Odd slant view here tonight, now-triangulated Appulse viewed from late Avenue vacant save for huddled sleepers in shop doorways seeking in dream (perhaps) that eternal conjunction -- with Venus, or with a bite to eat, a warm place to catch a few z's?

Cloud cover, Alaskan storm coming in. Planets and streetlights in apparition of apposition seen from slumped senior seat on bus, degraded capture, maybe not so great... but partial glimpses.

Really astrology approaches these sky sightings so much more accurately from an archaic POV.

One might try considering the parabolic aspects -- as if neolithic artistes had taken time out from working on their cave paintings to beam up this grand sky show.

But I don't know.

(Maybe in the next life... meanings... wonders... sleep?)

TC said...

(It rained all night on earth almost causing forgetfulness of the spectacle hid in heavens above. Score one for the terrestrial elements... plus a half point for short term memory loss.)

Issa's Untidy Hut said...

Tom:

I'm back again for the poem, which seems to roll around between thumb and forefinger, a rare, nearly impenetrable gem, all the more beautiful for just these qualities.

aka I like very much.

Don

TC said...

Don,

It thanks you very much, and is touched.

aditya said...

so you come back home (cold no doubt) with a poem and tell her she started it- that's a fine way to get around the daily.. monitions.. i see-- all along a beautiful poem not to forget.