Astronomy Picture of the Day has a nice image of the Rosette Nebula by Nicolas Outters up for Valentine’s Day. You can always count on space to outdo the greeting card companies, with views like the crater on Eros, the heart in NGC 346, or the mesas of Mars .

Reading Greg Beatty’s humorous valentine “Shoemaker-Levy 17” in the current issue of Astropoetica inspired me to pull up a few other poems to fit the various moods of the day:

• “Pisces,” by Daniel E. Blackston
• “Taurus,” by Daniel E. Blackston
• “In Praise of Eccentricity,” by Greg Beatty
• “The Fine Girl Responds,” by Greg Beatty
• “Deep Impact,” a haiga by Deborah P. Kolodji and Zolo
• “Between Quadrants,” by John Grey
• “Starsick,” by Steve Klepetar

As this list is by no means exhaustive, I recommend a visit to our archives to fill out your astro-bouquet.

Enjoy.

The Winter Issue of Astropoetica is now up, featuring:

• Winter Solstice, by Eric Gadzinski
• Middle Night, by Mary Alexandra Agner
• Deep Impact, by Deborah P. Kolodji and Zolo
• Shoemaker-Levy 17, by Greg Beatty
• Mother Earth on a Starry Couch, by Arlene Ang
• Robbery, by John Grey
• Devo, by Cheryl Snell
• The Heavy Degenerate’s Prayer, by Greg Beatty
• When Mars comes close, by Kevin C. Little, Jr.
• The Mice, by Meg Smith
• Nutation, by Greg Beatty
• We Shrug Our Shoulders, by Sommer Sterud
• Valediction, by N. M. Courtright
• The Astronomer’s Last Nights, by Arlene Ang
• A Person, Not an Iceberg, by Greg Beatty
• In December, The City & The Sea, by N. M. Courtright
• Waning Crescent, by M. Frost
• Cosmologist’s Rendezvous, by Linda Neuer
• A Perfect Storm (M17), by Mary Cresswell
• chaos, by Jessica Langer
• E = mc², by Briony Dennis
• Star Census, by Pat Tompkins
• The Myth Museum, by Nut and Geb, by Briony Dennis
• Perspectives, by Lark Beltran
• i find it hard to believe in stars, by John Borneman
• Because in My World, by Dan Mitrut
• Genesis, by Andrei Dorian Gheorghe
• International Astropoetic Dialogues (7), by Andrei Dorian Gheorghe and John Francis Haines
• Universal Impressions, by the Romanian young astropoets of SARM

Winter proofs for Astropoetica went out today. Dress rehearsals always make nervous, but I rely on the chance to work out all the kinks before show time. (Not that I ever make mistakes. Ahem.)

Expect a new issue full of astronomical goodness shortly.

I’ve been deep in illustration mode for Astropoetica’s next issue, and I’ve been particularly stuck trying to track down a high res version of an image appearing in Science News eleven years ago. (Yes, I am that obsessive.) I don’t know why this one is giving me so much trouble, but after a series of quasi-random tangents, I ended up here:

SAURON (Spectrographic Areal Unit for Research on Optical Nebulae)

The science team members even refer to themselves as the Nazguls.

I’ve quite nearly forgotten my original quest, overcome as I am by nerd joy/dread. If you think you have more self-possession that someone like, say, Peregrin Took, I highly recommend The SAURON Ballet.

I’m not sure that I have the will to tear myself away…

This about sums it up:

http://70.86.201.113/imageserv2/temporary/PBF075ADZuthulu.html