Archive for July, 2019

Life On Mars

Sunday, July 21st, 2019

I’m glad I have my virtual friends.
The company of my colleagues tends
to become monotonous in extreme.
I go for a walk so I can scream

and no-one hears me, and that’s a bonus.
I can do without the self-hypnosis,
and concentrate on hydroponics,
my text book on rocket physics

and recipes for cultured meat –
in vitro steak which we can eat
after making bricks with a 3D printer.
My friends tell me they spent the winter

playing blues in down-town Memphis.
I boast I climbed Mons Olympus.
I’m jealous of the pets they keep –
we only have a pair of sheep.

We use their wool to mend our clothes.
Sometimes I regret I chose
to book a passage on Branson’s ship.
I didn’t know it was a one-way trip.

By Colin Waterman

Prophecy

Sunday, July 21st, 2019

Sooth Sayers
Ides of March
Delphic Oracle
Prophet
Clairvoyant
Witch
Apocalypse
Date Change
Dooms Day
Play
Armageddon
Bedlam
Nostradamus
Nemesis sky
Mayan
Astrology
Numerology
Age dies
Scientists cry
Politician says
Cassandra lie
The end is nigh
Are we about to die? Beware
Self fulfulling
Trance dance
glance chance
End of the World?
Or the end of…

The world as we know it
Information streams
Dreams
Futurologists
Sings
Hive mind
Life extension
Space exploration
The Drawn is coming

Sunday’s Moon

Sunday, July 21st, 2019

Sunday’s Moon bulldozes the weekend, violently dragging the week with it
Monday’s Moon sips coffee forlorn at the week ahead
Tuesday’s Moon serenades Wednesday in a cheerful sort of way
Wednesday’s Moon consumes pizza whilst trying to share with the rest of the week
Thursday’s Moon sits in despair at the waning week wondering when all the work’s going to get done
Friday’s Moon exhaustively drags itself to the bar to drink malty piss in relief
Saturday’s Moon relaxes stretched out with a glass of wine sighing deeply
Until…
Sunday’s Moon bulldozes the weekend

From The Moon

Sunday, July 21st, 2019

From The Moon by Tom Brown

From The Moon full colour by Tom Brown

ALIENS


Sunday, July 21st, 2019

Astronomy
Looks
Into
Eternal
Night
Starscape

Anomalistic
Life
Is
Extraordinarily
Never
Seen


All
Landings
Ignite
Euphoric
No
Shows


And
Luna
Instances
Eye
Nothing
Sentient

Alien
Likelihood
Implies
Evidence
Needs
Signs 


Approved
Linguist
Identifies
Extraterrestrial
Numbered
Signals

Accelerated
Lightspeed
Introduces
Experimental
New
Science

Altruistic
Leap
Invents
Exploratory
New
Spacecraft


Astronauts
Land
IOTA
Easily
Nudging
Soil


Alluring
Landscape
Imbues
Excitement
Numerous
Sounds

Anthropoids
Lurch
Into
Eyeshot
Notable
Similarities

Astonishingly
Look
Identical
Explains
Numerical
Semblance

Approximate
Location
Is
Earth
Nascent
Singularity!

By Jason Conway

Waiting Lost on the Salt Sea Shore

Sunday, July 21st, 2019

Waiting lost on the salt sea shore

Waiting lost like never before 

Locked in time and locked in space

 Waiting with unforgiven grace 



Listening lost on the salt sea shore

Listening lost like never before 

Birds do sweep and birds do swoop 

Waiting for the death time coup



Looking lost on the salt sea shore

Looking lost like never before 

Rocks that crumble and mud that seeps

 Waiting for the one that weeps 



Crying lost on the salt sea shore 

Crying lost like never before 

Tears will come and tears will flow

 Waiting for that under toe 



Being lost on the salt sea shore

 Being lost like never before

Skirts that flutter and skirts that swish 

Waiting for her eternal wish

Homeless Moon

Sunday, July 21st, 2019

The street loomed in the silver light
Or rather it lurched as it luminesced
Moon beams reflected a muted rainbow
Just at the edge of perception
A reflection of its own subtle glory
Hung distorted in the river’s ripples

A lonely figure wrapped in trench coat
With broken seams jerked like a lost puppet
Caught on every word and miss-remembered cues
A hope burned within the creature
That one of the candescent windows
Would open and beckon them in

Frost began to rim the moon
Diffusing the light to a crystal shimmer
Spreading out and clogging in the air
With ice that hurt the lungs to breathe
The light now was nothing but glitter
Obscuring the murder of Unknown

Moon Art Blast-Off

Saturday, July 20th, 2019

My Dad died half way through writing his moon memory – I have his notes and I know where it was going – but I can’t know all the detail, he used to wake me up to see shooting stars and stare at the moon, he bought me second hand books with forewords from Carl Sagan

My dad offered to look after my kids so I could study space rocks but other life crud got in the way – but he was willing to do that and did do that for my PGCert he thought I was more intelligent than him but I wasn’t I just got to stay at school

My dad told me stories and made up adventures, the moon has so many tales and I wish to tell you all of them as well and though we all look to the sky and see the same moon – for each and everyone of us it is something different, unique and personal

I hope to show these myriad of moons with the Moon Art Blast-Off and the longer duration sci-art projects such as the Moon Mega Make, there will be a lot of arty mooness over the next 24 or more hours

Lastly here is my dad as a little boy dressed resplendent in his favourite cosplay of the day – he is an astronaut before they were a reality – it’s time for some #moonmania and beyond

Leonard Pym in the 40's-50's

Lunar Eclipse

Wednesday, July 17th, 2019

Last night was spent collecting Moon Memories and trying to watch an lunar eclipse that was mainly hidden by annoyingly wispy clouds that you could almost see through!

It was a partial eclipse last night – the sort that turns the moon red – a blood moon – I saw a slither of fire-ruby red in Gloucester Park but it was smudged but the cloud and laying just above the noisy blinking lights of the fair ground.

This particular lunar eclipse actually started before the moon had risen in the sky – or at least in this part of the world that was the case. I could see friends posting fabulous pictures of the moon rise just a few miles over from where I stood – this was frustrating but kind of the way it is with astronomy to be honest.

I went home dejected but then managed to capture this image even with our kitten Potassium trying her best to cat-eclipse the moon for me!

Lunar eclipse partial 16th July 2019 Gloucester

We were going to get the telescope out and have a proper bash at getting some awesome photographs but the clouds never cleared enough to make that possible. In the end I managed to snap a few of the Earth’s shadow leaving the lunar surface with my hand held camera – I didn’t even have the tripod and there wasn’t time to play very much with exposure lengths before it was swallowed once more in a thicker more menacing cloud bank.

Cloud bank swallowing the eclipse

The Space Race

Tuesday, July 16th, 2019

A simplified timeline summary of the Space Race between the Americans and Russians.

Russians

4th Oct 1957 Sputnik-1 first artificial satellite

3rd of Nov 1957 Laika the dog went into space

12th April 1961 Yuri Gagarin was the first Earth orbit

America

1958 -1963 Project Mercury 6 successful flights

1961 -1966 Project Gemini

1961-1972 Project Apollo put 12 astronauts on the moon

From this you can see that the Russians had a strong and early lead with some humiliating and disastrous moments for the US. But the Americans sort to level the playing field realising that they could not play catch up to the Russians so they simply picked a target that could not use the technology as either nation had it. That challenge was going to the moon and it needed a lot of money and good engineers – engineers were sourced from all over the place not just from within the US.

The Russians started well but then saw their efforts dissolve into failures along the levels of the Americans and so dove tailing the two nations space explorations stories.

These moments in history have inspired countless pieces of music, poetry, art and fiction and film.