A WEEK for STARS....

"For my part, I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream..."

-Vincent Van Gogh

Visible in the eastern sky, just before sunrise, in the week of Aug 12th, 2025.Jupiter and Venus in conjunction with each other. I watched as they appeared in the predawn sky from 3:22 am till almost 6 am. It was worth it, to see this rare sight, with only the crickets in the pale dark to keep company with.

Venus, so bright, with its slightly golden companion, Jupiter,  only 0.86 degrees apart, in the constellation of Gemini. 

"... a clear night sky, with twinkling stars. When it happens to me, after all these years, it still takes my breath away..."

                                                                                                            -Carl Sagan

"Lift up your eyes to the heavens. Who created all of these? He who brings out the starry host one by one, and calls them by name..."  -Isaiah 40:26
 

Even though they looked so close, they were actually millions of kilometres apart.

"Yours is the light by which my spirit's born; you are my moon, my sun and all my stars..." - e.e. cummings

Jupiter and Venus appeared at the same time as the Perseid meteor shower. I never saw the meteor shower...too many cloudy nights...until  it cleared up  those few mornings.

For about four days I could easily watch them above the eastern tree line over  the back hill.

"God made two great lights. The greater light to govern the day, and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars..."        -Genesis 1:16

Venus is closest to our blue planet. It's known as earth's twin, even though it is scorching hot and spins slowly in the opposite direction.

Jupiter is a gas giant, and has the shortest day , taking about 9 hours to swirl around just one time. 

"If people sat outside and looked at the stars each night, I bet they'd live a lot differently..." 

                        -Bill Watterson

On Aug 19th 2025  a crescent moon, shining at 15 % of the sun,  will slide in to the sky to make a triangle, seen best on Aug 20th, right near the two planets.

I read there is something called " earthshine" , never heard of it before. That's where we get the old saying of the "old moon cradled in the arms of the new moon." (earthshine is the reflection of light from the nighttime side of earth).

"A white star born in the evening glow, looked to the round green world below and saw a pool in a wooded place...She said: 'I give you my light to keep'. Fathomless as the sky is far, hold forever your tremulous star!" 

                                                                                    -Sara Teasdale (excerpt from "The Star")

Photographs 2025   Campbell River, B.C., Canada

SMOKING HOT....

AUGUST( 1915) by Lizette Woodworth Reese ( 1856-1935) Poet  Laureate 1931. Wrote "A Handful of Lavender 1891" and   "A Wayside Lute 1909"                   

                                                
No wind. No bird.

The river flames like brass.

On either side, smitten as with a spell

Of silence, brood the fields.

In the deep grass, edging the dusty roads, lie as they fell

Handfuls of shriveled leaves from tree and bush.

But along the orchard fence and at the gate,

Thrusting their saffron torches through the hush,

Wild lilies blaze, and bees hum soon and late.

Rust coloured the tall straggling briar,

Not one Rose left.

The spider sets its loom up there

Close to the roots, and spins out in the sun

A silken web from twig to twig.

The air is full of hot rank scents.

Upon the hill drifts the moon's single cloud, white, glaring, still...

"There may be great fire in our soul, yet no one ever comes to warm itself at it, and the passers-by see only a wisp of smoke...." -Vincent van Gogh

Photographs 2025 Smoky weather and skies over Mt. Washington range, Campbell River, B.C.

SEA FEVER

SEA FEVER ( 1916) by John Masefield ( 1878-1967)

I must go down to the seas again, 

to the lonely sea and the sky.

And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by;

And the wheel's kick and the wind's song and the white sail's shaking,

And a grey mist on the sea's face,

and a grey dawn breaking.

I must go down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide

Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;

And all I ask is a windy day ,with the white clouds flying,

And the flung spray and the blown spume,

and the sea gulls crying.

I must go down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life, 

to the gull's way and the whale's way where the wind's like a whetted knife; and all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover,

And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick's over.....

 Photographs 2025 Campbell River, B.C. 

                     ("Sea fever" is in the public domain)