Delphinus, a dolphin leaping among the waves
of stars. An early constellation, quite small,
cataloged by Ptolemy, the dolphin that carried
Arion, a poet, safely away from enemies.
A dolphin nearby Lyra. Arion’s lyre song.
As a child, in my troubled home,
I would climb to my bedroom rooftop
to see the stars. My small telescope
finding easily the Dippers, Orion, Taurus, Gemini,
finally, little Delphinus who took me away.
.
Do you see a dolphin in these stars? I don’t – and I do.
Eridanus the River is faint tonight even
in this dark sky near Orion flowing
like the Nile, Euphrates or River Po.
Homer thought this River of Ocean encircled
a flat Earth, flowing, burning into eternity.
Aldebaran in the constellation Taurus sent light –
65 years ago – that I see tonight.
Light that’s about as old as me.
The red giant, older than our Sun,
is still the brightest star in Taurus.
The light bathes me in irrational hope.
January 6, 7 and 8, 2020 shows a bright waxing gibbous moon in front of the constellation Taurus the Bull. Even with the lunar glare, you might see Aldebaran and the Pleiades star cluster, also known as the Seven Sisters.
Perhaps not lonely but solitary by choice
in a dark corner where being bright
means more attention from this distant observer
gazing at you in wonder and disappearing,
lost, like one swallowed by a whale.
This poem is inspired by a star named Fomalhaut which s a white Autumn Star. the brightest star in the constellation of Piscis Austrinus and one of the brightest stars in the sky. Its Arabic name means the mouth of the fish or whale. In this false-color composite image, taken with the Hubble Space Telescope, we see the orbital motion of the planetary system around it – Fomalhaut b (later named Dagon). Fomalhaut is much hotter than our Sun, 15 times as bright, and lies 25 light-years from Earth. It is blazing through hydrogen at such a furious rate that it will burn out in only one billion years, 10% the lifespan of our star. Based on these observations, astronomers calculated that Dagon is in a 2,000-year-long, highly elliptical orbit. The planet will appear to cross a vast belt of debris around the star roughly 20 years from now. If the planet’s orbit lies in the same plane with the belt, icy and rocky debris in the belt could crash into the planet’s atmosphere and produce various phenomena. The black circle at the center of the image blocks out the light from the bright star, allowing reflected light from the belt and planet to be photographed. Credit: NASA, ESA, and P. Kalas (University of California, Berkeley and SETI Institute)
This morning, the waning crescent Moon fronted
Gemini the Twins – Castor and brother Pollux.
Not identical. They don’t really look alike.
Pollux is brighter, more golden. Favored child?
All of us unique. All are stars.
Sapphire-blue Vega far away on the skydome
is the once and future North Star.
Brightest in Lyra, the Harp of Orpheus
that charmed trees, rocks and the Sirens
tempting the Argonauts with their own music.
Writing the Day 