orion

Tonight we gather to sing scientific songs of praise to Orion and all hunters. Against a star speckled dome we find the firm bright shoulders of the Hunter, Betelgeuse and Bellatrix. But now I wonder, should we upend convention and follow Herschel’s heed when viewing the constellation from a Southern Sky and name Rigel and Saiph the shoulders of Orion, while the knees bend through nodes and vectors of Betelgeuse and Bellatrix. [Read More]

Brighter than our sun, Bright as the window beyond death, The light in the universe Cleans the eyes to stone. They prayed for lives without visions, Free from visions but not blind. They could only drone the prayer, They could not set it down. And windows persisted, And the eyes turned stone. They all had faces like statue Greeks, Marble and calm. And what happened to love In the gleaming universe? [Read More]

When the Pleiades fall, I wake looking for my goatskin bag to drink. When (the Pleiades) rise, I wake looking for cloth/clothes to wear. - A Tuareg Berber proverb When I was a little girl, my favourite stars were the three clear ones – the belt of Orion. They were the three sisters, up far in the sky. They reminded me of my own three sisters who were older, sometimes distant and not always interested in their tomboy-baby sister. [Read More]