We Are Made Out Of Stars

Loving Meera Lee's illustrations, especially the one above. You can find her work for sale here, & there's an interview with her on the Poketo blog (along with the illustration above on a pullover). xoxo

(illustration by Meera Lee; hat tip to Lori)

Winter Solstice

Winter in the northern hemisphere arrives today with the solstice. There is nothing we can do about it; take heart that this means the days begin to get longer with every passing day. So you can fight it, or you can celebrate. Don't curse the darkness, light some candles. xoxo

A winter poem section with essay via The Poetry Foundation.

Everything you need to know about the winter solstice.

This photograph reminds us of a winter fairy tale, so here's a Czech version of a familiar story.

(photograph by Lissy Elle Laricchia)

Stars, Planets, Heavens

"December 2012 presents a great big plateful of planetary delights, with all five visible planets shining in the night sky in the first half of the month...That’s only the start of what’s to come this month, as the new moon leaves a dark sky for watching the prolific Geminid meteor shower on the nights of December 12, 13 and 14, and the full Long Night Moon beautifies the night of December 27." ~ EarthSky Tonight

Things are a bit crazy here & it cannot all be blamed on the cat. Meanwhile, looking up at the clouds during the day & the night sky (or the online stand-in, oh my) is some relief. So, too, is reading through the stars, planets, heavens label on the Poetry Foundation website. xoxo

(mixed media print by Catrin Welz-Stein via My Modern Met)

Summer Stars

The Summer Triangle consists of three bright stars – Vega, Deneb and Altair – in three separate constellations. If you can find the Summer Triangle, you can use it to locate three of the sky’s smallest constellations: Vulpecula the Fox, Delphinus the Dolphin and Sagitta the Arrow. ~ EarthSky Tonight

It's that time of year: the Summer Triangle is here. Click through to EarthSky's smart & beautiful (& beautifully written) website for lots of links, photographs, graphs, explanations that even we can understand. You can follow them on Facebook, too, so that you don't miss a day's post.

ciao-starry-meow/GG

(photograph by Mariusz Sikorski)

The Transit of Venus

Beginning on June 5, for a period of about seven hours, the planet Venus will pass directly in front of the sun as seen from Earth. This is the long-awaited transit of Venus, whereby this world appears as a small, dark dot sailing along in front of the solar disk. The June 5-6, 2012 transit will be the last transit of Venus in this century. ~ EarthSky Tonight

Do not miss this once in a lifetime event. Learn what you can from the EarthSky site & then hop over to NASA's Sun-Earth Day 2012 site. There you will find all the materials necessary to teach yourself (or students) about the transit, including a live webcast from Mauna Loa, Hawaii.

ciao-meow/GGCM

(photograph collage via NASA/LMSAL)

The Evening Star

If you’ve been watching the western sky after sunset, you’ve seen the planet Venus. It looks eerily bright now – brightest in the evening sky for all of 2012! If you haven’t seen it yet, look outside shortly after sunset, and you can’t miss this planet. It’s an eerie light in the western sky. Venus’ brightness will surprise you if you’ve never noticed it before. ~ From EarthSky Tonight

Our Venus fixation continues through June when the last Transit of Venus this century occurs. Until then, especially if surrounded by trees as we are, you can keep up with the brightest evening star on EarthSky. And you can read Louise Glück's poem The Evening Star. And we'll be back tomorrow at some point. Not the best of times.

ciao/GGCM

(photograph by Angélica Vis)

The Moon & Venus (with Jupiter)

You’ll find two bright objects near the moon tonight (March 26, 2012) in the western twilight sky. The brighter one – closer to the moon tonight – is Venus. The other one is Jupiter. Enjoy this spectacular sky scene! And don’t forget to look for Venus tomorrow, when it’ll be at its farthest from the sun on the sky’s dome for this evening apparition of the planet. ~ Earthsky/Tonight

We won't even try to explain what's going on in the sky. Or underneath it either. We're reading up about the last Transit of Venus this century. That will be in early June. We missed it in 2004; this will *not* happen again.

Back tomorrow, much earlier.

ciao-meow/GGCM

(photograph by Gordon M. Robertson)

Winter Night Sky

"For most of the world, the moon and the blazing planet Venus will be closest together for the month this evening, on Thursday, January 26, 2012. It’ll be hard to miss this brilliant couple in the southwest or western sky at dusk and early evening. The moon and Venus rank as the second- and third-brightest celestial objects, respectively, after the sun. They’ll set in the west at early to mid evening."-via EarthSky/Tonight

It's a bit daunting to go outside at night to look at the sky (in the winter, in the city). So we're "watching" via EarthSky's Tonight & also by following NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center on Twitter. Superb photographs & videos at the click of a mouse.

We're busy here doing some research for friends on their way to France & Italy in the coming months. Venice is on one of the itineraries. Hence, the moon-over-Venice photograph. For beautiful photos of Venice & the moon (& many other subjects), visit our friend Julie at Being Ruby. And heads-up, carnevale starts on February 11th!

ciao-starry-meow/GGCM

(photograph by Alex Hanoko)

Summer Triangle of Stars

"More than any other month, July is the month of the Summer Triangle. At mid-northern latitudes, the Summer Triangle’s stars – as if a trio of school kids on vacation – stay out from dusk till dawn, dancing amidst the stars of our Milky Way galaxy. As our Earth turns tonight, Vega, Deneb and Altair travel westward across the sky.

The Summer Triangle shines high overhead in the middle of the night, and sparkles in the west as the rose-colored dawn begins to color the sky." -- Read the rest & see the configurations so you can follow the triangle series starting tonight. Via Earthsky Tonight.

ciao-starry-meow/GG Sky Watch

(photograph by Beata Rydén)