SAVING THE WORLD’S COSMOPOETRY -
BOOK II of
COSMOPOETRY DIARY IN THE PANDEMIC
CHAPTER II (episodes 21-40)
Design: Florin Alexandru Stancu
21
ROMANIAN ASTRO-CULTURE DAY 2021
Part I: Astro-photo-poem by Andrei Dorian Gheorghe
The birthday of the Romanian national poet
Mihai Eminescu
(author in 1883 of “the longest love poem in the world”,
“Luceafarul” - which means “the brightest star”,
usually the planet Venus, in Romanian folklore),
January 15,
officially became the Romanian Culture Day a few years ago.
So in 2021, one day before it (January 14),
I decided to invent for myself
the Romanian Astro-Culture Day,
which I began trying to photograph the oldest Bucharestian observatory
(Military Astronomical Observatory, made in 1895)
under the Noon Sun.
Unfortunately, the results were modest because of the surrounding trees -
only a dark silhouette.
But a sunny puddle directed me
to the lake of the Youth Park,
where a few swans suggested me to go
to see a (thin) solar halo…
Finally, the Sun dressed a golden aura right near the children’s observatory
(the newest Bucharestian astronomical observatory).
On the next morning I checked the sky again
and tried to contribute to Romanian Culture Day 2021
through an astro-photo-tipuristrigatura (the shortest Romanian poetic form):
Here’s Venus, the brightest “star”.
Eminescu is not far!
In these conditions, I thought to complete
my celebration of Romanian Culture Day 2021 with
the third heavenly body (after the Sun and the brightest star)
reproduced in the Romanian coat of arms.
I found it in the Children’s World Park.
But this time I tried an astro-photo-haiku:
The Moon going to
children’s observatory
veiled by Venus’ Belt
Part II: Text plus photo, effects and processing by Valentin Girgore
(with verses by Mihai Eminescu)
It should be a day of national importance.
But… nothing!
The media aberrates on topics of national loss,
while authorities and institutions of the state are busy to save us.
We don’t have time for culture.
We don’t need culture.
But Eminescu, Caragiale, Alexandrescu
and other poets, dramatists and fabulists are always available.
They have produced value for the Romanian society.
They took action.
They were uncomfortable
especially for the “chosen ones” of the society.
“O, universe, come down with your bow of stars,
With your mysterious harmony in spheres and suns,
Descend in rains of rays with your constellated dome
And penetrate for a moment the breath of a man.”
-Mihai Eminescu
(English translation from Romanian by Andrei Dorian Gheorghe)-
22
ASTRAL NEGOTIATIONS
Astro-photo-poem by Andrei Dorian Gheorghe
On January 21, 2021
I went to the Commodity Exchange in Bucharest
(inaugurated in 1899 on the Uranus Street!)
to negotiate some sunlight in hard winter times
and I received a few useful addresses.
But at the first address
I found only a reproduced sun.
Fortunately, at the second address,
opposite to the Palace of Parliament
(conceived by the former totalitarian regime
as the “palace of atheism”),
I could see
even the Sun near the
Palace of Patriarchy.
I will return to that place at night
to negotiate some moonlight.
23
DAY AND NIGHT
(Bucharest, January 17, 2021)
Astro-photo-poem by Andrei Dorian Gheorghe
Snowfall, the Sun’s route,
sunset, pink clouds, Moon -
just a winter day
Mars under the star
Hamal - just the beginning
of a winter night
24
IN THE DAYLIGHT
Astro-photo-poem by Valentin Grigore
Flames on window
and two small expeditions (not too far):
always gracious swans on the Bratesti Lake
and, accompanying the Sun to his set,
a light pillar.
25
NEGATIVE TEMPERATURE WITH CELESTIAL AURAS
(Bucharest, January 21-22, 2021)
Astro-photo-tanka by Andrei Dorian Gheorghe
Winter day stories
with just a story sun and
just story sunsets
heating the entire sky
for a story moon
26
IN MEMORY OF HARALD ALEXANDRESCU
Astro-photo-poem by Andrei Dorian Gheorghe
In January 23, 2021,
after a quiet sunrise, at noon,
a solar tangent arc made me remember
the astronomical idol of my generation,
Dr. Harald Alexandrescu
(born in January 1945),
who invited SARM in January 2000
to organize Cosmopoetry Festival galas
at the Bucharest Municipal Observatory.
After a career in astronomical research
at Bucharest’s State Observatory,
he became the coordinator of the Municipal Observatory
between 1984 and 2005 (when he unfortunately died)
and the most important popularizer of astronomy
in Romania at that time.
In 1986 he led the best expedition
for the observation of Comet Halley in Southeast Europe
(when his youngest secretary was Valentin Grigore,
the future president founder of SARM),
and in 1999 he was solicited for an interview
by the famous French magazine “Ciel et Espace”.
Harald preferred a modest life
and since 1980 he lived at the last floor of a block
at another edge of my neighborhood,
in an apartment oriented to south,
from where he could admire the circulation
of heavenly bodies from east to west.
On that afternoon I made a small pilgrimage to his block
and I found an ante-war house
with a fresco of astral inspiration,
seeming like a cluster of star systems.
Finally I watched on the direction preferred by Harald,
and this time the Sun,
assaulted by clouds and circulating
from east to west through south,
looked like the head of a comet.
27
WINTER COMETS
Astro-photo-poem by Valentin Grigore
Comet C/398P/Boattini has a period of 5.53 years.
I caught it on January 5, 2021,
in the constellation Orion,
among small and thin galaxies.
Comet C/156P/Russell-LINEAR has a period of 6.45 years.
I caught it in the evening of January 17, 2021,
close to the M33 Galaxy (Triangle),
when the Moon (30% illumination) was downer,
on the border between Pisces and Cetus.
Veils of thin clouds crossed the sky
during my exposure.
28
NEAR THE BUCHAREST MUNICIPAL OBSERVATORY
Astro-photo-poem by Andrei Dorian Gheorghe
On January 20, 2021,
after a complicated morning,
the Sun defeated the clouds at noon.
Then I saw the Afternoon Sun pushing, commanding and calling
Admiral Vasile Urseanu’s cosmic yacht.
And one more time
I learned to navigate to
the sunset, the Moon and Sirius.
29
WINGS AND CROWN
(Bucharest, January 19, 2021)
Astro-photo-tanka by Andrei Dorian Gheorghe
After a fiery
dusk, Moon and a mauve morning,
the Sun showed his wings
and then the Moon replied with
a changeable crown
30
ON THE TRACES OF ION OTESCU
Astro-photo-poem by Andrei Dorian Gheorghe
On January 24, 1859
the modern state of Romania was founded through the union
between the principalities of Wallachia and Moldova.
162 years later I began to celebrate that event in my neighborhood,
photographing the Sun and the Moon during the evening twilight.
Soon after, in accordance to the patriotic theme,
I found the Moon again, this time over the Mihai Viteazul College,
where the great Romanian astromythologist Ion Otescu (or Ottescu)
taught mathematics and was even a director in the past.
Between 1897 and 1907,
Ion Otescu gave sky maps to rural teachers and priests in the Romanian Kingdom,
asking them to find how the peasants named the constellations
to help their orientation for the agricultural works.
He presented the results at the Romanian Academy in 1907 in a book,
“Romanian Peasants’ Beliefs in Stars and Sky”,
which I had the honor to translate into English
(with the British vice-president of the International Meteor Organization,
Alastair McBeath)
and to publish it on the internet in 2009.
In his book, Otescu indicated 42 “Romanian” folk constellations
(39 are certain and 3 are supposed)
in the northern sky
and also published the Romanian Sky Myth,
in which Man (the constellation Hercules) wants to bring the sky closer
and together with his army (consisting of friends, domestic animals and utensils)
fight the Devil (the constellation Draco) and his army (usually, bad animals),
wins the battle and all the belligerents become constellations.
Finally on that evening I wanted to photograph a few significant stars,
but the fog flooded the sky,
allowing in exchange a new spectacular show of the Moon.
However, I could photograph the brightest star, Sirius,
part of the constellation Mastiff (in the “Romanian” old sky),
a member of the army of the good.
31
SEPARATION LINE
(Bucharest, January 25, 2021)
Astro-photo-haiku by Andrei Dorian Gheorghe
Electric wire
separating earthly lights
from heavenly stars
32
NEAR ANOTHER OLYMPUS
Astro-photo-poem by Andrei Dorian Gheorghe
In Greek mythology,
Mount Olympus was the place where
the gods named the constellations
adopted later by the International Astronomical Union
for the northern hemisphere.
In Bucharest, an old street is named just Olympus,
and close to it, a small square (from the 19th century)
has a sublime name: Concordia!
On January 25, 2021
I also saw in the sky
the planet Mars and the stars
Hamal, Sheratan and Mesarthim
(in the constellation Aries)
talking about universal love,
about Creation and Lord,
about darkness and light…
in perfect concord.
33
INDUSTRIAL MOON
(Bucharest, January 24 and 28, 2021)
Astro-photo-poem by Andrei Dorian Gheorghe
West-southwest sunset
and east-northeast zone
with industrial moon
… and four days later,
industrial full moon.
34
A STORY WITH ALDEBARAN
(Bucharest, January 2021)
Astro-photo-poem by Andrei Dorian Gheorghe
The Sun is the main hero of the Zodiac,
but once the Haloed Sun made me talk
to another important member of the Zodiac -
the main Taurian star.
“Dear Aldebaran,” I said,
“we respect you very much.
For us you look like
the director of the Hyades
and the brightest star
in the constellation Taurus,
for which artists dedicate artworks
everywhere on Earth
(only in my town I know a few samples
on an artesian fountain,
a monument and a block).”
“I am a red giant,” replied Alpha Tauri,
“and the star cluster you name the Hyades
is as far from me as your modest sun.
I don’t know what you think you see,
but I warn you not to play
“corrida” with me!”
35
END OF JANUARY, 2021
Astro-photo-poem by Andrei Dorian Gheorghe
The third wave of snow
during the first pandemic winter
made me feel like
an intangible snow being
looking for celestial spheres.
36
OVER THE SNOW
(Bucharest, January 28, 2021)
Astro-photo-poem by Andrei Dorian Gheorghe
A white dove signifying the day
and a black dove signifying the night.
(It is surprising that such a small bird
saved the world during the Biblical Flood,
so it is not surprising that Noah’s Dove
became an official constellation later,
but it is quite amazing that such a small constellation
hides - until now! - a star cluster, two galaxies,
an exoplanet and even a black hole!)
Then… the (Haloed) Sun,
Bucharest during the neutral evening twilight,
and, unleashed, the rise of the (Full) Moon.
37
FULL MOON
Astro-photo-poem by Valentin Grigore
Dusk at the Dealu Monastery.
The Full Moon rising,
like a wheel.
A few hours later, after midnight,
a self-denouncement:
I photographed a lunar halo in the centre of Targoviste
at one o’clock,
during the night quarantine!
But it was so fine!
38
LOOKING FOR FLOWERS
Astro-photo-poem by Andrei Dorian Gheorghe
On January 28, 2021
I saw a beautiful and frail solar halo
over Bucharest’s Botanic Garden
(which was created in the 1880s by Dimitrie Brandza).
I found this garden closed because of the pandemic
and could take only a few pictures
(including one with its superb administrative palace
in Neo-Brancovenesc style)
through the fence.
No beautiful and frail flowers.
Only trees and snow.
So that I watched the evening sky
looking for flower-stars
and the first of them
was just the planet Mars.
39
TRADITION
(Bucharest, January 1. February 4, February 13, 2021)
Astro-photo-haiku by Andrei Dorian Gheorghe
The great crossing of
children’s observatory -
Winter Sun’s matter
40
2021. BUCHAREST WITH WINTER FRIENDS
Astro-photo-poem by Andrei Dorian Gheorghe
A solar halo and a bird (January 4),
another solar halo (January 31),
a solar aura (February 4)…
Solar stimulants for me to inaugurate
the 2021 series of dialogues in the wind
about the world and Universe
with my old friends
(this time with “Sandu the Troubled” and “Engineer Sache”
on February 5).
Above us,
clouds socialized, too,
dressing in sunset colors.
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