Pas de Cinq

It keeps getting better. Saw three of the four planets low on the horizon yesterday just after dusk. Venus was very bright, Mars and Saturn less so. Mercury was hiding in the glare of the setting sun. I'll look again tonight.

For the next few days they'll be joined by a sliver of a crescent moon, technically marking the beginning of Ramadan (more commonly it's marked by the new moon, but some say you have to actually SEE the crescent following the new moon). And the gravy: Venus and the crescent moon form a facsimile of the Islamic flag.

Actually, the flag is more accurately the facsimile of the actual thing. But you get the drift. Assalamu alaikum.

MORE GRAVY: as Artsparker points out, the Perseid meteor shower peaks tonight! Wait til after midnight, when you're on that part of the Earth that is plowing directly into the comet dust. Set your alarm.

Pas de Quatre

Nice twilight sky this weekend. A four planet dance.

Step outside. Feel the cool air on your skin, listen to the crickets. Look up.

Every Changing Shape

No one knows if there is life on Mars, but the planet itself sure behaves like a living thing, displaying a startling variety of faces.  Puts me in mind of that wonderful TS Eliot line: "I must borrow every changing shape to find expression."

Maybe we need to broaden our definition of life.

This first one, reminiscent of zebra stripes, of tattoos, is from the sand dunes in the middle latitudes.

This one is from one of the poles, right after an avalanche, which evidently accounts for the variations in color.  Looks less like a landscape than a painting of a landscape.  Feels like you could dive right in to those deep blues. 

Got these at either Space Gizmo or Bad Astronomy, don't remember which; they've been in my pocket awhile.  Ultimately, of course, they are from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

Skin

This looks, to me, like a close-up of human skin. It's not. It's a photo of sand dunes on the surface of Mars, taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. So you could say it's skin, just the skin of a planet instead of a person. Regardless, it's gorgeous.

Thanks, yet again, to Bad Astronomy for the pic.

Beauty

Not a tattoo on human skin.

Not a design on cloth.

Not a work of art.

It's sand dunes on Mars. Sand dunes, dust, swirling dust devils. Go to Bad Astronomy for a more complete explanation of what's what; it's where I stole the picture from.

The picture was taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

I'd say more, but am frankly left rather speechless. Just gorgeous.

Otherworldly

Sweet picture, eh? Looks like a sea creature to me, or perhaps some microscopic organism.

Actually it's Victoria crater on Mars, as seen by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. It the one the robot Opportunity has been exploring for the last year or so. If you click on the image you can acually see the rover's tracks off to the left.

The weblike structures at the borrom of the crater are sand dunes.

Thanks to Bad Astonomy for the picture. And to NASA, of course, for actually taking the picture.