hitchhiker: image of "don't panic" towel with a rocketship and a 42 (Default)
hitchhiker ([personal profile] hitchhiker) wrote2024-05-12 04:39 pm

the world turned upside down

i tried to see the aurora on both friday and saturday, but it was too cloudy and light-polluted. i did manage to take a night vision picture that showed a bit of pink haze. i'll take it :)

but also stargazing always reminds me of a charming little poem by piet hein, so here it is...


ASTRO-GYMNASTICS

Go on a starlit night,
stand on your head,
leave your feet dangling
outwards into space,
and let the starry
firmament you tread
be, for the moment,
your elected base.

Feel Earth's colossal weight
of ice and granite,
of molten magma,
water, iron, and lead;
and briefly hold
this strangely solid planet
balanced upon
your strangely solid head.

― Piet Hein
amaebi: black fox (Default)

[personal profile] amaebi 2024-05-13 05:45 am (UTC)(link)
:)
minoanmiss: supernova remnant (Starflower)

[personal profile] minoanmiss 2024-05-13 06:01 am (UTC)(link)

I love that poem. I should return it to my PIYPD rotation.

freyjaw: (spiral galaxy)

[personal profile] freyjaw 2024-05-13 08:33 am (UTC)(link)
Wow! Nice! Thanks for sharing.

We were too far south to see the aurora. I did see it in Rochester, MN, and Durham, NC.
valdelane: default (Default)

[personal profile] valdelane 2024-05-13 06:05 pm (UTC)(link)
I like it!