Photo #1 (April 2007)

 THE ROSETTE NEBULA

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting--
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.
           - Wild Geese by Mary Oliver

Credit: Star Shadows Remote Observatory      

The Rosette Nebula, discovered by John Flamsteed in about 1690, is a vast cloud of dust and gas, extending over an area of more than one degree across, or about five times the area covered by the full moon.  Within the nebula, open star cluster NGC2244 is situated, consisting of young stars which recently formed from the nebula's material, and the brightest of which make the nebula shine by exciting its atoms to emit radiation.

IJHC - WHR Observations

Spring speaks of rejuvenation, the earth waking to the warmth of the longer days, plants sprouting as they respond to this warmth. We, the two-legged who control the destiny of this planet, may also respond to the calls of the geese and all other living things that await our wakening to their needs.