Global Astronomy Month 2010

The latest anthology page from our friends at SARM is Global Astronomy Month.

Valentin Grigore writes

Many people wanted another international year of astronomy because they felt that astronomy is not only a simple science and the sky is not only a simple study object, so the Global Astronomy Month came naturally.

GAM meant a special living under the starry canopy connected to the coming of the spring, when the sap of the Earth meets the sap of the Sky, and this union arouses all and gives life.

We had a month with many celestial events:
a splendid lunar circuit
(begun and ended with the full moon),
the planet Saturn like a "planet with handles"
(just as Galileo Galilei had seen it four centuries ago),
beautiful conjunctions,
and a supplementary sky gift,
the Lyrid meteor shower.

And sky lovers also organized a solar week, a lunar week, star parties and even remote astronomy programs.

We felt more,
although we had to confront
the barrier of light pollution,
a measure of human ignorance.

Our souls should reflect the light of the stars
just as it really is,
because astronomy is not only a simple science,
and the sky is not only a simple study object.

The sky is all!

The website has hundreds of photographs of the events they organised plus contributions from around the world.

UK contributions include:

Pluto is turning red
they tell us. Warns us of what
force melts its cold face?

Steve Sneyd

My own haiga which first appeared on Spring Haiku 2010.

and

BENEATH THE ASH CLOUD

Across a clear sky
Unsullied by vapour trails,
A meteor streaks.

John Francis Haines

24th April 2010 was

INTERNATIONAL ASTRONOMY DAY

Let's celebrate cosmology,
planetology and astrometry,
galactic and extragalactic astronomy,
astrophysics and astrochemisry,
stellar astronomy,
astrobiology and astrophilosophy.

Aesthetically,
this itemization of the profound branches
of the "queen of sciences"
appears like a succession of rhymes.

But only watching and feeling the sky
we can celebrate astronomy
through astropoetry.

Andrei Dorian Gheorghe

The Coordinator's Last Words are

SARMs Astropoetry Master Club tried successfully to release this project before May 18th and May 24th, the birthdays of Steliana Gheorghe (1934-2009) and Costica Gheorghe (1927-2007), in order to honour their decisive role in the existence of the international contemporary astropoetry movement.

SARM's Astropoetry Master Club and Friends tried to make in this project not only the largest-ever web page of astropoetry and astropoetic images, but also a record of beauty regarding the cosmic reflection in the human soul.

And after all Astropoetry to the Global Astronomy Month 2010 represented the most beautiful gift for when I turned 50 years.

Andrei Dorian Gheorghe,
2010 May 14th

See it all by visiting Global Astronomy Month

Love & Kisses

Love & Kisses for Valentines Day.

My birthday

The problem with yearly birthdays is that they always occurr on the same day, so if yours happens to fall at an inconvenient time in the calendar they tend to get ignored.

The 1000 Day Birthday Calculator helps you work out when your 1000 day birthday comes round.

The handy calculator is the work of Stewart C. Russell of Scarborough, ON Canada, whose blog is called We saw a chicken ... and is responsible for me discovering that today I am 22,000 days old.

22,000 days, it's not a lot is it?

I'm not expecting a party or cards but maybe someone will send me a copy of the song by the Moody Blues from their album Long Distance Voyager.

The lyrics contain the lines:

Even tho' I know it's only
Me and my dreams
That drive me so let me go please
Let me go onto tomorrow
One day at a time
Now I know the only foe is time

22,000 days, 22,000 days it's not alot,
It's all you got 22,000 days
22,000 nights, 22,000 nights, it's all you know
So start the show and this time
Feel the flow and get it right

Well I'm not waiting until 10th December 2009 for my next 1000-day birthday and anyway that's only eleven day's off my 63rd!

Hyde Photo of the Year 2006: Runner-up

Today's theme on Hyde DP is Photo of the Year. I couldn't pick just one out of all the photos I'd published this year, so selected ten contenders, created a web page and asked all my readers to vote for their choice. I want to thank all the people who took the trouble to vote. The winning picture is shown on Hyde DP. The close runner-up is shown above.

Here are the results, together with links to the original postings and some comments from voters. All ten photographs can be viewed together at The Best of Hyde Daily 2006

1. April 28th: Jack Curvis (139)

He looks so jolly and so not an American.. is he a typical Brit? ** I just love how that picture looks like it belongs somewhere and isn't from where I'm from. ** I just love the smile on Jack's face and the warmth I see in the conversation he's probably having with you. ** I love the man's wonderful outfit and smile. ** for sheer colour and that welcoming smile ** I always prefer people shots and that portrait has lots of elements to make a good photo! ** A guy with a hat like that in a typically english shop. Great.

2. October 27th: Looking up Treacle Brow (114)

I love the way the road bends around the picture, such a lovely place. ** That's very English to me. ** The cobblestone street is so very beautiful. ** It is my image of Hyde, treacle is so English and only in England do you have Brows. ** for layout and pespective.

3. April 10th: Hyde Chapel (93)

Breathtaking. ** Wonderful. ** Scenery has good balance. Green color gives me relax feeling. Of course, Chapel itself is beautiful! Houses at the front is nice too, the view far away seems like an ocean. This kind of photo takes me to quick trip to another world!

4. November 18th: Salvation Army Buskers (64)

I love the Salvation Army buskers. ** It's a classic!

5. July 10th: Booth's Well (62)

It illustrates the past(Mad Hatter), present (the flowers), and the future (stained glass-time memorial)...also has a 2006 date which stamps its mark in time.

6. August 18th: Old Railway Cutting Wall (60)

Old railway lines are a passion. ** This wall full of ferns is just beautiful. ** I think the heritage of a location is most important.

7. July 30th: Stained Glass in Hyde Bus Station (58)

Lovely and evokes emotion. ** Wonderful.

8. June 2nd: It's a Dogs Life (56)

I have a golden retreiver ** Wonderful.

9. September 12th: Mayor Rings a Bell (30)

I really like 'Mayor rings a bell'. Clanging in a New Year, I guess. ** Lovely and evokes emotion.

10. September 9th: Inside the Theatre Royal (16)

I'm a firm beleiver in the preservation of the Theatre Royal.

Bauble

I took this photograph of a bauble in a vain attempt to emulate excellent pictures taken by Edwin in Kuala Lumpur and Lisa in Hong Kong.

A picture of the tree on which this bauble was hung can be viewed on Hyde Daily Photo.

Christmas Crib

For the last few years or so we haven't gone in for a lot of Christmas decorations. However we do continue one family tradition. At the beginning of December we unearth this crib and display it until January 6th when it gets packed away until the following year.

Christine bought this wooden crib and these figures as a kit more than thirty years ago. She had steady hands then and put it together carefully. She painted all the figures herself. Although they all fit snugly in the crib, they often seem to end up in different positions each year.

Happy Birthday, Christine

Today is Christine's birthday. We celebrated it yesterday. Our local taxi-driver Rolly picked us up in his mini-bus. He'd taken out a row of seats so Christine's wheelchair fitted towards the front. We picked up our sons, Craig and Ian from their respective homes and went over to Chester. There we collected our good friend Maureen and went for a lovely lunch at the Grove Bistro down by the river.



After lunch we had a sail on the Lady Diana Showboat. The boat has a ramp which enables easy wheelchair access. Although cold, the sun came out and the trip down the Dee was very pleasant.

November 5th

After I posted a picture of a fireworks shop on Hyde Daily Photo under the theme something about to disappear, it became evident that many foreigneers had no idea why fireworks were associated with November 5th.

Posts on other UK Daily Photo sites, notably London and Bath have expanded on the theme.

This old poem of mine was written in Glasgow, 40 years ago. It was published the following year in the Pontefract & Castleford Express.

RECOLLECTIONS: NOVEMBER 5th 1966

It was just the other day.
Bonfire night the fifth of November.
I went down myself
to where the suburb children
had built their bonfire
and as I watched the effigy
slowly being burnt,
I thought to myself I ought not to be here -
it is a Yorkshireman whom they burn.

My thoughts floated back
to the little close in Petergate
where in 1570
in the Church of St. Michael-le-Belfry
behind the great Minster of York,
Guy Fawkes was baptised.
And as a rocket shot out of a one-pint milk-bottle,
shooting high over tenement roofs,
I thought I ought not to be here -
it is a Yorkshireman whom they burn.

My thoughts escaped
to the Old Hall at Scotton
where Guy's childhood was spent.
There, in those rooms, did he plot
with the Brothers Wright?
And I thought of their home,
Ploughland, on the Spurn Road
where Holderness cocks a snoot at the sea.
Just then they lit some Roman candles
and the explosion of a banger
woke me and arrested my thoughts.
Then I remembered, I ought not to be here -
it is a Yorkshireman whom they burn.

My thoughts escaped once more;
down South to Kettering and Newton Hall
where met the unlucky thirteen,
six Yorkshiremen and seven others,
then plan to annihilate King and Parliament for ever,
with thirty-two hundredweight of powder.
And as the bonfire cast shadows on the ground
I remembered I ought not to be here -
it is a Yorkshireman whom they burn.

Oh how I pictured,
as the body on the fire
began to disintegrate in the flames,
the sufferings felt by Guy
as he neither lay nor sat nor stood
in the Cell of Little Ease until,
on the 31st day of January
in the year sixteen hundred and six,
he was executed,
hung, drawn and quartered.
I knew as I watched the dying embers of the fire,
I ought not to be here -
it is a Yorkshireman whom they burn.

GERALD ENGLAND