A FEW ROMANIAN WONDERS
AND SOMETHING ABOUT AN ASTEROID CALLED ROMANIA

COSMIC ROMANIA 14

-text and photos Andrei Dorian Gheorghe;
design Florin-Alexandru Stancu;
photographer guests Valentin Grigore, Iulian Olaru and Maximilian Teodorescu-

I like to watch sunrises
More than sunspots and prominences
Because each sunrise is different
And a whole full of essences.

I like to watch sunrises
Because I admire the Creation
And each sunrise may be
A unique source of inspiration.

Watching the sunrise in 15 April 2013 in Bucharest (Capital of Romania)
I remembered that since May 2012
Romania has also become the name of an asteroid
that turns round the Sun in 1123 days
and was discovered by the American astronomer S.J. Bus in 1981.

In fact, there were two initiatives in this sense:

-The first of them (and the accepted one) belonged to the
Romanian-born astronomer Mirel Birlan
(today he works at Paris Royal Observatory)
in association with the American astronomer Richard Binzel,
the asteroid proposed by them being “older” and bigger.

-The second of them belonged to the
Romania-born astronomer Ovidiu Vaduvescu
(today he works at ING in La Palma, being also the leader
of the Romanian-international project of EURONEAR);
he had proposed an asteroid discovered by his team,
but this dream,
an asteroid called Romania and discovered by Romanians
would have meant more years of expectation…

Then, after the decision,
Mirel Birlan said:

“It is extraordinary that the International Astronomical Union accepted
the name of Romania for an asteroid.
Romania was one of the founding members of the IAU,
and now the Romanians can watch the sky
thinking that today
a little Romania is placed on the canopy of heaven.”

Obviously, for me all this story
was another source of inspiration:

AN ASTEROID CALLED ROMANIA

Minor planets
with so many denominations…
Some of them have names of countries,
sentimentalism for nations.

So that my favourite one
in the cosmic hall of fame
is just a small flying rock,
Romania is its name.

That’s why when humanity will conquer the solar system
And space rockets will fly anywhere
I hope that someone will carry the Romanian rainbow-flag
Right to the Belt, to put it over there.

And if you want to know more about this country
(20 million people in 238000 square kilometres in the South-East of Europe,
naturally dominated by the Carpathian Arch
and the flow of the Danube River to the Black Sea),
we invite you to see a few wonders made by Romanians
during their history…
in astronomical landscapes:

MOON-JUPITER CONJUNCTION WITH A LUNAR HALO
OVER THE TARGOVISTE CATHEDRAL
(December 2012)
-photographic poem by Valentin Grigore-

[After the military resistance
in the end of the 14th century and the middle of the 15th century
against the Ottoman Empire,
which decided that the Romanian Land or Wallachia
(the state between the Carpathian Mountains and the Danube River
on the territory of current Romania)
became not a pashalik, but a tributary state,
the Romanians continued to defend the European values
against the Asian invasion
consolidating a spiritual-cultural resistance.
In this respect a main centre was the Targoviste Cathedral (with its printing house),
the Mitropoly of the Romanian Land in the 16th-17th centuries,
this building being re-constructed in the 1890s.]

SUNDOG OVER THE CERNAVODA BRIDGE
AT THE DANUBE RIVER
(January 2007)
-photographic poem by Iulian Olaru-

[Built in 1890-1895 through a Romanian collective effort
led by the engineer Anghel Saligny,
with a length of over 4 km
the Cernavoda Bridge was by far
the longest bridge in Europe at its time.]

MOON AND STARS OVER THE CARAIMAN CROSS,
PRAHOVA VALEY, MERIDIONAL CARPATHIANS
(January 2012)
-photographic poem by Maximilian Teodorescu-

[Built in 1926-1928 through an impressive Romanian effort
at the request of Queen Maria and King Ferdinand
in the memory of the Romanian heroes in World War I,
the Caraiman Cross became officially recognized in 2013
the highest cross (almost 40 m) in the world
at an altitude of over 2200 m.]

THE MOON OVER THE ROMANIAN PARLIAMENT
(March 2013)
-photographic poem by Andrei Dorian Gheorghe-

[The construction of this building began in 1984,
involving an immense national effort
coordinated by a few hundred architects.
A few years after the Romanian Anti-Communist Revolution in 1989
it became the Palace of the Romanian Parliament
and was officially recognized as the heaviest building in the world
and the largest civil-administrative building in the world.]

What can I add finally?
Maybe just:

Romanians are not the world's core
But sometimes they should be known much more!

A FEW ROMANIAN WONDERS AND SOMETHING ABOUT AN ASTEROID CALLED ROMANIA

A FEW ROMANIAN WONDERS
AND SOMETHING ABOUT AN ASTEROID CALLED ROMANIA