COSMOPOETRY INTERNATIONALS XXIV
NEEDING MORE COSMOS

Dedicated to the memory of Steve Sneyd (1941-2018)

II. COSMOPOETRY PANORAMA

STARRY-PLANETARY NIGHTS IN DAMBOVITA COUNTY
1. Venus over the Priseaca Lake
2. Jupiter over Runcu Stone
Photographic astropoem by Valentin Grigore

ASTROHAIKU
By Andrei Dorian Gheorghe

It is certitude:
I have a lot of bright stars
and only one Sun

AR12740
Photo by Eric Coles (USA,
international astrophotography laureate)
processing by Gabriel Corban
(international astrophotography laureate)

CONSTELLATION AND GALAXY
By Tit Tihon (Romania,
residing in Canada)

Constellation and galaxy,
Two flowers drooped in the sky,
Long before we saw them.

Constellation and galaxy,
Two birds with wings of stars
That fly through dark matter.

Constellation and galaxy
Struggle on the shore of the Universe
Among giant waves of light.

Constellation and galaxy,
Two hearts that pulsate in the abyss
One for the other over time.

Constellation and galaxy,
Two entities have found each other
Without beginning at the first beginning,
Without end at the last but one end.

SOUTHERN CROSS AND COALSACK
(Chile, July 2. 2019)
Photo by Valentin Grigore

ANDROMEDA
Photo by Radu Gherase

LOOKING FOR THE LITTLE PRINCE:
PLANET LAZAREA
Astro-photo-poetry series by Attila Munzlinger
(co-vice-president of the Magyar Astronomical Association of Transylvania)

I live right here.
I have more roses and a few extinct volcanoes.

In the vicinity, an old castle.
The Little Prince was not to be found over there.

I crossed the mountains
behind my house.

I even met with the fox
but she didn’t even know
where is the one she tamed
so I continued my journey.

ASTRONOMER DISCIPLE’S ADVENTURES 2019:
WITH CONSTANTIN BRANCUSI’S ENDLESS COLUMN
(in front of the Romanian art masterpiece in Targu Jiu)
Astro-photo-poetry series by Cosmin Sorin Miclos
(president of the Astronomer Disciple Association)

From the Endless Column
to the infinite sky…

ASTROLITERARY CROPS:
MISCELLANEOUS
From technical-humanistic fusion astroarticles by Adrian Bruno Sonka
(coordinator of the Bucharest Municipal Observatory)

… Only a crater, the moat and two boulder fragments
that embraced each other tightly during the old days
in a chemical reunion from which only gravity could loosen…

(From “Bolovan 17 / Boulder 17 (on the Moon)”, September 20, 2019)

… There is a season for anything in this world.
The most popular seasons are those for ski and seaside,
but astronomy lovers know those of the planets.
For instance, there is the season of Mars,
which comes every 2.5 years,
when the planet is approaching Earth and can be seen better.
It is also brighter just because it is closer
and seems bigger through a telescope also because it is closer.
(Good explanation, “Einstein”.)

(From “La Marte în extrasezon / To Mars into extraseason” - November 21, 2019)

Sometimes we hear that two cars collided on a deserted road,
in the wrong lane.
If there are no victims, the situation seems to be amusing:
how could they crash when they had the whole way at their disposal?
At other times it is even more amusing that the planets, too,
seem not to have enough space in the entire sky
and crowd into a single place, even close to the horizon
at the most inappropriate hours.
Such a situation will occur on November 28, 2019.
On that evening, to the west, we’ll find three planets:
Jupiter (the closest to the horizon), Venus (the brightest) and Saturn.

(From “Carambol pe ecliptică / Carom on the Ecliptic”, November 25, 2019)

Samples of accompanying images:

CELESTIAL PHOTO-POEMS 2019:
SPRING
Astro-series of words and images by George Tanase

Spring for the soul…

HONORING THE SUN AND THE MOON IN 2019:
ADVICE FOR YOUNG ASTROPHOTOGRAPHERS
Astro-series of words and images by Gabriel Corban

Fight with yourself,
Drill for new techniques,
Feel what the image wants to unveil…

METEOR GALLERY 2019
(Quadrantids of Winter, Sporadics and Perseids of Summer,
Taurids and Geminids of Autumn)
Photographic astropoem by Valentin Grigore

ASTROHAIKU (NEEDING MORE COSMOS)
By David Asher (UK,
discoverer of asteroids and predictor of meteor showers -
an asteroid is named after him)

Infinite cosmos,
No matter how far we see,
There is always more.

VEIL NEBULA
Photo by Emil Pera
(international astrophotography laureate)

THE 2019 PLANETARIUM FOR MY SOUL
(“Supernova” Planetarium -
inaugurated in summer 2019
at “Unirea” Saline - 200 chairs at a depth of 200 meters - in Slanic Prahova
by Dragos Brasov and the Urania Astronomical Association)
Astro-photo-haiku by Andrei Dorian Gheorghe

Planetarium
seeding bright stars in the hearts
of the visitors

THE LEADER OF THE EURONEAR PROJECT,
OVIDIU VADUVESCU,
CELEBRATING ASTEROID DAY 2019
(PLANETARIUM CASTELLON, SPAIN)

SOLAR FLARES (ASTROHAIKU)
By Andee Sherwood (USA,
staff coordinator of Astronomers Without Borders
and editor of Astropoetry Blog)

Winter warmth, fires glare
Solar flares anoint the dark.
Yule log fires roar.

Andee’s note:
The chill of winter comes quickly, forcing man to bundle-up for heat
once they venture outside, leaving the warmth of a home.
In 2002, our Sun sent out a large flare which made world news
and has inspired me to write this haiku.

SUN PROMINENCES 2019
Photographic astropoem by Maximilian Teodorescu
(international astrophotography laureate)

THE 2019 OBSERVATORY FOR MY SOUL
(Admiral Vasile Urseanu Bucharest Municipal Observatory,
recently renovated, with a new “star hall”)
Astro-photo-haiku by Andrei Dorian Gheorghe

Observatory
inexhaustible through
a star factory

DSO SOUTHERN MINI-FESTIVAL
From an astrohumanistic presentation by Samuel Leske (New Zealand)
at Noi si Cerul / Us and the Sky TV Show

REFLECTION
Astro-haiga by Gerald England (UK,
founder-editor of New Hope International,
Ted Slayer Award laureate,
World Cosmopoetry Champion 2017)

Deepening wind and light
accelerating by yet captured
in a moment of reflection

ROMANIAN ASTRO-MEMORIES
Photo-collected by Adela Muntean

JUPITER
Astro-photo-haiku by Gelu Claudiu Radu (Romania,
residing in Germany)

Gelu’s note: “Capra cu trei iezi” (The Goat with Her Three Kits),
a famous Romanian short story by Ion Creanga (19th century)
was my source of inspiration for this work;
although The Goat with Her Three Kits is also
the constellation Auriga in Romanian starlore
(the star Capella as Goat and three nearby stars as Three Kits),
my thought went to Jupiter and its… four Galilean Satellites
(Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto).

It’s not a giant,
but the Goat with Her Four Kids.
Dance! Just dance, my friends!

JUPITER AND GANYMEDE
Photo by Emil Fruntelata

LOOKING FOR THE LITTLE PRINCE:
PLANET CERNAT
Astro-photo-poetry series by Attila Munzlinger
(co-vice-president of the Magyar Astronomical Association of Transylvania)

Here I found
a lonely tower…

… who thought that
everything revolved around him.

Thus it has completely closed down
in his world.

THE NORTH STAR
By Danut Damian (age 15,
graduate of SARM’s summer school of astronomy (and astropoetry) -
Runcu Stone 2019)

I just wanted to walk outside,
But the Polar Star stopped me:
“Orion has risen
And the weather has become cold.”

Oh Polaris,
You are on all nights with me,
My entire world turns round you.
This is our destiny.

Oh North Star,
You stay fixed up there
Without any risk,
While I am…
Less than an asterisk!

POLARIS
Photo by Andrei Juravle

THE GREAT CHARIOT KEEPING CLOSE TO POLARIS
Photo by Valentin Grigore

INDIGNATION
By Andrei Dorian Gheorghe

“It’s humiliating,”
said the Great Chariot,
“why should I turn round Polaris,
which belongs to… the Little Chariot?

Please choose another North Star.
If not Dubhe or Merak,
at least Alioth.”

THE GREAT CHARIOT READY
FOR AN ASTRONOMY CAMP
Photo by Ciprian Vintdevara
(coordinator of Barlad’s Planetarium and Observatory
and discoverer of a red nova)

EMBRACING THE STARS
By Larry Jaffe (USA,
coordinator of Dialogue among Civilizations through Poetry Readings 2001-2004,
co-founder and coordinator of Poets for Human Rights and Poets for Peace,
Saint Hill Art Festival Lifetime Creativity Award laureate)

It was a simple task
look up to the stars
and pick the one
where you were born

She looked with amazement
through haze and fog
and remnants of memory
to see her star flower

It bloomed in that darkness
brighter than any star before it

It bloomed with contentment
and beauty

It bloomed with sorcery
and discernment

It was everything
it was supposed to be

It is home

SOLAR BRIDE
Photographic astropoem by Ciprian Grigorescu

LOOKING FOR THE LITTLE PRINCE:
PLANET GRAN CANARIA
Astro-photo-poetry series by Attila Munzlinger
(co-vice-president of the Magyar Astronomical Association of Transylvania)

For a moment, I thought I saw the Little Prince,
but it was just another astrophotographer.

I think he also looked for something.

We became friends
and saw other seekers there.

PHENOMENA 2019
Photographic astropoem by Valentin Grigore

FREE ON TITAN
Astro-art-poem by Ion(ut) Moraru

Once I dreamed I wanted to swim
in a sea of liquid methane on Titan.
I opened the freezer, I breathed minus air
and the dense gas filled my volume.
I had to be much easier
or to build a good ship to navigate,
watching great Saturn,
among its not quite comfortable rings.

SATURN
Photo by Eugen Balint

TEARS OF STARS
By Bucur Cezar Mihail

Tears flow from the crying eyes of the stars.
Wounded, Love has been swallowed
By the black hole of forgetfulness,
Even the proud Sun has fallen in sadness,
Promising to wander through space as a supernova.

Darling! The price is too high to defeat the greenhouse effect,
Mining my pure love with another Tungusk.
Even if the ozone layer will recover,
Love is not ephemeral, so you should continually try to find her.

It is the moment to watch the black hole by telescope,
To take love from it by crane
And to teach her to walk again.

And if you return to me on a comet beam…
Should we take some protector iodine?

We fully feel (a new Big Bang, certainly!)
The breakup of radioactivity…

ABOUT LIFE
Photographic astropoem by Valentin Grigore

ASTRONOMER DISCIPLE’S ADVENTURES 2019:
WITH MIHAI EMINESCU’S “FROM THE STAR”
(in front of a famous astronomical stanza by the Romanian national poet)
Astro-photo-poetry series by Cosmin Sorin Miclos
(president of the Astronomer Disciple Association)

“The icon of the star that died
Is slowly climbing in the sky.
It was when we did not see it,
Today we see it, but it is not,”
(Mihai Eminescu; translation by Andrei Dorian Gheorghe)

NGC 1333
Photo by Mihai Dumitrica

SKY FULL OF TORCHES
By Catalina Teodorescu (age 16,
graduate of SARM’s summer school of astronomy (and astropoetry) -
Runcu Stone 2019)

Today I choose to turn off the light
And to turn on the sky
Full of torches
And longing for us,
To find its mystery
That is written in stars,
To watch, surprised,
Immortal stories.

QUADRANTIDS
Photo by Monika Landy-Gyebnar (Hungary,
international astrophotography laureate)

STREAKS IN THE COSMOS
By Alfredo Caronia (Italy,
discoverer of asteroids,
residing in Romania)

We are a thin thread
among dark abysses;
targeted by curious,
pressing quest for science
which is expressed in passion
and pure tension to discover
the beyond in immense balance
of all that surrounds us and limits us
but that exalts us;
Vast leopardian horizons
and myths of Julius Verne
stimulate
what is still unknown
and a climbing sky
laying in the field of
gravitational imbalances
between interacting forces ,
attracts us
in the mystery game
of space-time abysses,
first fluids then
torn and contracted
in a run-up to death
or beyond it.
The concentric rings of the big bang and black holes
greet, as convergent extremes,
our destiny
which is based on a common first and last act
in nullification of space and time!
Universe witness of himself between vortices of light and dark!
While Dark Matter swims in the cosmos,
unperturbed before the final collapse!

ORION
Photo by Valentin Grigore

ORION
By Paula Panait (age 16,
graduate of SARM’s summer school of astronomy (and astropoetry) -
Runcu Stone 2019)

Many times I’d like to watch you
And to have you closer,
Even for this night
You shine and from the sky
Follow the world,
Finding new mysteries in humanity.

You, hunter,
You, eternal thoughtful traveler,
Always surrounded by stars…

Although when the dawn appears
You hide from the Scorpion
To make room for a new day,
I will await you again, Orion!

NGC 2023 NEXT TO THE HORSEHEAD NEBULA IN ORION
Photo by Ciprian Vintdevara
(coordinator of Barlad’s Planetarium and Observatory
and discoverer of a red nova)

CELESTIAL PHOTO-POEMS 2019:
FEELING
Astro-series of words and images by George Tanase

Is this a kind of magic?

TOO MANY NIGHTS
By Marge Simon (USA,
Rhysling Award laureate)

Too many nights
I’ve let the evening pass
Without a glimpse of starlight.

What would happen
If I left my book unopened
And strolled far beyond the trees

To view the cosmos,
And what if there were none left,
Only an endless dark,

Like a book with blank pages,
A tome of infinite stories
that faded away, unread?

DRACO’S TRIPLET
Photo by Radu Gherase

LOOKING FOR THE LITTLE PRINCE:
PLANET FUERTEVENTURA
Astro-photo-poetry series by Attila Munzlinger
(co-vice-president of the Magyar Astronomical Association of Transylvania)

In this small paradise
I met a beautiful fairy.

But she knew nothing about the Little Prince.
She was preoccupied only to seduce the stars.

ASTRO-ATMOSPHERICS
Photographic astropoem by Jos Nijland (The Netherlands,
Dutch Meteor Society, International Meteor Organization)

CATCH THE THOUGHT
By Thea Ioana Lungu (age 14,
graduate of SARM’s summer school of astronomy (and astropoetry) -
Runcu Stone 2019)

Don’t forget the thought,
catch it and keep it tightly
until the stellar lines
will reveal themselves,
until the stars
will stop their anxiety
and will allow you
to tame their light,
until the centre of the galaxy
will be visible.

MILKY WAY, STARS, MOON…
Photo by Valentin Grigore

TO NEIL ARMSTRONG AND BUZZ ALDRIN
Astro-photo-haiku by Andrei Dorian Gheorghe

We could try to be
the first artists on the Moon
but not the first men

LUNAR VARIANTS
Photographic astropoem by Dan Uza

CROWNED MOON
Photo by Mircea Pteancu
(president of the Galaxis Astroclub)

LUNAR VERSIONS
Photographic poem by Ciprian Grigorescu

THIN MOON OVER CROATIA
Photo by Ovidiu Vaduvescu
(Romanian-Canadian-Spanish astronomer residing in the Canary Islands,
leader of the EURONEAR Project)

VERY THIN MOON
Photo by Radu M. Anghel
(Bacau’s Planetarium and Observatory)

EXTREMELY THIN MOON
Photo by Maximilan Teodorescu
(international astrophotography laureate)

THE CALL OF ASTRONOMY
By Luísa Alvim Aguiar (Brazil)

I always liked to know the reason of things,
and also to observe the sky.

When I was 3 years old, I asked my Uncle Márcio,
who graduated in physics,
as we gazed to the sky with his telescope,
“Why does the moon not fall?”

And from then on I have never stopped
observing and questioning the universe.

I have always known, since that time,
what I love the most and what I want to do with my life,
Astronomy.

During my academic life I got two medals
at the Brazilian Astronomy Olympic Challenge, a Bronze and Gold one.

Whenever they open free online Astronomy courses in my country
I get myself enrolled.

And on my birthday,
I won a Newtonian 150mm reflector telescope,
in which I already took some photos of the moon,
some observations and showed the moon to other people as well.

AT RIO DE JANEIRO
(April 2019)
Photographic astropoem by Valentin Grigore

ASTRONOMER DISCIPLE’S ADVENTURES 2019:
LOOKING FOR COSMIC STONES
Astro-photo-poetry series by Cosmin Sorin Miclos
(president of the Astronomer Disciple Association)

“Stories of the stones
fallen from space…”

LOOKING FOR THE LITTLE PRINCE:
PLANET LA PALMA
Astro-photo-poetry series by Attila Munzlinger
(co-vice-president of the Magyar Astronomical Association of Transylvania)

I made many friends
on this planet.

All of them scrutinized the starry sky…

… from the smallest…

… to the greatest.

MOON IN COLORS
Photographic astropoem by Maximilian Teodorescu
(international astrophotography laureate)

TO THE TELESCOPE
Astro-photo-poem by Istvan Varga
(co-vice-president of the Magyar Astronomical Association of Transylvania)

Watching the stars through the telescope
is something like
an active meditation for me.

It is a kind of diving
in the Universe.

ELEPHANT TRUNK
Photo by Iosif Bodnariu

THE CONSTELLATION LEO
By Eduard Dorin Ene

I slipped through the dunes of Nil and under the clear sky,
I watched the majestic Lion, transposed into stars.
I am not a “Regulus” nor a neighborhood,
But I always think and dream of more…

I dress from the surrounding brightness
More blinding than the far suns,
A simple receiver of Alpha Leonis,
A “Little King” under new prophylaxes.

My complex stellar system,
With companions and a star,
Have transmitted multiplex signals toward you,
Which, immune and hot, lighten in white and blue.

Turning around
The sidereal axis,
I cannot go to Beta Leonis
Because I feel I flatten…

Oh, Denebola, luminous dwarf star,
Or rather dusty tail of the Lion,
You always show my blue planet’s littleness,
Watched from the nocturnal remoteness.

LOOKING FOR LEO’S TRIPLET
Photographic astropoem by Catalin Paduraru “Sarpe”
(international astrophotography laureate)

LOOKING FOR THE LITTLE PRINCE:
PLANET TENERIFE
Astro-photo-poetry series by Attila Munzlinger
(co-vice-president of the Magyar Astronomical Association of Transylvania)

I tried many paths…

… and many roads on this planet…

… and I arrived on the widest Way.

I met many people like me…

… but I never met the Little Prince.

SUNSET
Astro-photo-poem by Arlene C. Brill (USA,
residing in Turkey)

The setting sun represents the ending of the day.
A time of sadness for some, it is said.
But to me, it is the beginning.
A time to watch for the evening star
And wait for the sky to come alive again.

VISIONS OF THE SUN
Photographic astropoem by Dan Uza

SUN’S LIBERATION
Photographic astropoem by Ciprian Grigorescu

AT SARMIZEGETUSA REGIA, DACIA’S CAPITAL
Astro-photo-poem by Andrei Dorian Gheorghe

Between the andesite sun
And the calendar
I feel not quite circular
But just a bright star!

SUNDIALS
1. At Deutsche Museum (Germany)
2. At Hermeziu (Romania)
3. At Zurich (Switzerland)
Photographic astropoem by Dan Uza

SUNSET
Photo-collage by Maximilian Teodorescu
(international astrophotography laureate)

LOOKING FOR THE LITTLE PRINCE:
PLANET BUTHAN
Astro-photo-poetry series by Attila Munzlinger
(co-vice-president of the Magyar Astronomical Association of Transylvania)

Thus I started again to remote horizons…

… I visited exotic places…

… I saw superb houses…

… and supreme deities.

METEORS AND COMETS
By Ana Ristache (age 12,
graduate of SARM’s summer school of astronomy (and astropoetry) -
Runcu Stone 2019)

When falling stars appear
We see more light in the sky
And the proverb catches value
Even in the Cosmos:

“The small comet
Flips over
The big planet.”

METEORS AND COMETS
Photographic poem by Ciprian Vintdevara
(coordinator of Barlad’s Planetarium and Observatory
and discoverer of a red nova)

STARS ABOVE
By Mara Elena Mladin (age 15,
graduate of SARM’s summer school of astronomy (and astropoetry) -
Runcu Stone 2019);
photo by Daniela Mladin

Sky, stars et al.

We normally
Watch them,
But they watch us differently,
Looking like big personalities.

M81 AND M82
Photo by Catalin Paduraru “Sarpe”
(international astrophotography laureate)

AURORA BOREALIS IN ICELAND
Photographic astropoem by Casper ter Kuile (The Netherlands,
Dutch Meteor Society, International Meteor Organization)

METEORS
By Mihail Octavian Panait (age 13,
graduate of SARM’s summer school of astronomy (and astropoetry) -
Runcu Stone 2019)

Science says that a falling star
Is not a bad omen, it is just a meteor,
A bit of sky rock
Which enters the atmosphere,
Catch fire and lights all around.

They appear often in the high air,
And those who see them are amazed
By the beauty of the surrounding sky,
While the usual stars still remain
Symbols of life and love…

STAR PARTY
Photo by Ciprian Vintadevara
(coordinator of Barlad’s Planetarium and Observatory
and discoverer of a red nova)

ALL SHADOWS DIE
By Kim Goldberg (Canada / USA,
Rannu Fund Poetry Prize Laureate for Speculative Literature)

In space so dark all shadows die
a light does flicker from afar
Instruments do scan the sky
in space so dark all shadows die
to find a continent on fire
upon some planet, not a star
In space so dark all shadows die
a light does flicker from afar

NOCTURNAL VISITOR
Photographic astropoem by Octavian Stanescu

LOOKING FOR THE LITTLE PRINCE:
PLANET EVEREST
Astro-photo-poetry series by Attila Munzlinger
(co-vice-president of the Magyar Astronomical Association of Transylvania)

I arrived on the roof of the world…

… and I admired the amazing view.

FUTURE PROBLEMS
By Andrei Dorian Gheorghe

Once in the year 5,000
I was a child who just cried…

“Why are you so furious?” -
the teacher of astronomy asked me.

“My spaceship failed
and I could not fly beyond the clouds
to see a lunar eclipse.” -
was my reply.

“Take it easy, please,” said the teacher,
“I can help you to relax.
Take my spaceship, go to the Moon
and swim a little in the Sea of Tranquility.”

MARE TRANQUILLITATIS
Photo by Mihai Dascalu

COSMIC TRILOGY 2019
Astro-photo-art-poetry by Catalin Voroniuc

1. LUNAR PURGATORY
(astropoem)

I lowered from clearer places (Mare Serenitatis) to you
I wanted to know the strange deserts (Crater Plinius)
You often whisper the honor (Sinus Honoris)
Let’s give to Caesar what is Caesar’s (Crater Julius Caesar)
Let’s look silently at the ideal (Crater Vitruvius)
And let’s give only love from the heart (Sinus Amoris)
Thus we shall calm the primate (Crater Carmichael) from us
You teach me harmony (Sinus Concordiae) so undisturbed
But man wants to explore free the creation (Crater da Vinci)
Your words have become dry sceneries (Montes Secchi)
My trip is to more fecund places (Mare Fecunditatis)
Here I will not accept wisdom in death (Crater Hypatia)
And about your rough fields (Mare Asperitatis)… I’ll abandon them.

2. SOMEWHERE AROUND THE SUN
or
SISYPHEAN NEPTUNE
(astro-photo-poem)

I covet your shores,
Blue empire!
Your waves of methane
Bite my millenary prow.
Don’t allure me all the time
With narwhals and gulls of helium,
I know your chimeras of ice!
Now my anchors hotly look forward
Wanting to feel your loud ice caps.
Get up, unmerciful giant,
Show your core to make me feel human.
I call you and Triton as my witness,
I am an eternal stranger on seas of celestite.

3. ORION
(astro-art-poem)

URANUS AND NEPTUNE
Photo-collage by Maximilian Teodorescu
(international astrophotography laureate)

METEOR AND MOONLIGHT
By Andrei Dorian Gheorghe

Usually a meteor doesn’t need
Moonlight as celestial food,
But he who catches both of them in the same picture
Must certainly be good.

METEOR AND MOON OVER JAPAN
Photographic astropoem by Yasuhiro Tonomura (Japan,
Nippon Meteor Society, Oriental Astronomical Association,
International Meteor Organization)

CELESTIAL PHOTO-POEMS 2019:
CARPATHIANS
Astro-series of words and images by George Tanase

Walking through…
or
going to…

… the realm of dreams.

ASTRONOMER DISCIPLE’S ADVENTURES 2019:
THE CHARM OF THE NIGHT
Astro-photo-poetry series by Cosmin Sorin Miclos
(president of the Astronomer Disciple Association)

With a simple gesture
you can turn on a star.

With a single finger…
Turn off the light, please!

LOOKING FOR THE LITTLE PRINCE:
PLANET ALANYA
Astro-photo-poetry series by Attila Munzlinger
(co-vice-president of the Magyar Astronomical Association of Transylvania)

On this planet I saw a superb castle.

Above it, the eclipsed Moon…

… and many curious people came over there,
but nobody knew about the Little Prince.

THE ASTROPHOTOGRAPHER
(M92, M45, M31 and the Rosette Nebula)
Astro-photo-quatrain by Cristian Danescu

I’ve just caught in my instrument
The light of the star that was. It’s true!
So I’ll play with it a little
And then I’ll share it with all of you.

A MAN ON EARTH
Astro-photo-poem by Nelu Rugan

Man, when you are on Earth
Don’t forget to watch the stars
The sky asks you many questions
The sky offers many answers
The stars make you dream and hope
Man, look up and think

COSMOS
Astro-photo-poem by John Goldsmith (Australia,
member of The World At Night,
producer of Celestial Visions,
World Cosmopoetry Champion 2016)

CAPTIVE SUN
Astro-photo-poem by Valentin Grigore

Stars on the branch and captive Sun.
Just stay a little with us, don’t go away!

Could we ever stop the Sun?

LUMINOUS NIGHTS
In the spirit of astro-photo-poetry,
by Mark Gee (New Zealand,
international astrophotography laureate) -
from a 2019 presentation made by Haritina Mogosanu
(executive director of the New Zealand Astrobiology Network)
at Noi si Cerul / Us and the Sky TV Show

HONORING THE SUN AND THE MOON IN 2019:
“POEMS” IN HONOR OF THE UNIVERSE
Astro-series of words and images by Gabriel Corban
(international astrophotography laureate)

I’m trying to keep up the interest especially in
the Solar Chromosphere and its amazing beauty
(and sometimes in other solar details and the Moon).

Of course, the processing, in whatever style it is done,
attracts a lot because there are solutions of expression
that lead to true jewelry
and make us feel the divine and unique beauty of the Universe.

In fact, processing inevitably always personalized,
is also a way of writing “poems” in honor of the Universe,
when the results are not tasteless.

GUIDE FOR THE IDENTIFICATION OF THE PLANET JUPITER
Article
(in the spirit of technical astro-art-prose poem)
by Adrian Bruno Sonka
(coordinator of the Bucharest Municipal Observatory)

Even the dogs can see the planet Jupiter in June 2019,
when, watched from Earth,
it is at “opposition” (in the part opposite to the Sun).

Simpler said:
when the Sun is not in the sky,
it is Jupiter…

The planet is visible all night long, from a small distance:
only 648,000,000 km.

The result:
Jupiter is very bright and can be seen even by mistake.

Watch the eastern sky after 23:00 and you will see Jupiter.
It looks like a very big yellowish star that does not flicker.

June 10, 2019, 23:00.
Which do you think is Jupiter?
Look for this view in the sky, too.

June 20, 2019, 23:00.
Which do you think is Jupiter?
Look for this view in the sky, too.

June 30, 2019, 23:00.
Which do you think is Jupiter?
Ouch, another bright star has appeared.
Look for this view in the sky, too.

Clear skies!

FROM BETTY’S TREASURES
Astro-photo-art-design-cartoon-poetry by Elisabeta Petrescu
(artist astronomer at the Bucharest Municipal Observatory)

1. Composition of technical astroart and astrophotography

A rocket and the Moon at Bucharest Astrofest 2019…

… a bit of the Moon,
Mars,
Asteroid Romania,
Jupiter and Satellites,
Comet Lovejoy,
SN 2014J in M82,
M35 Star Cluster…

…and the Great Chariot at the Bucharest Municipal Observatory
(public astroartwork)…

2. Huya - true story
Tragicomic astro-cartoon-poem

A unique astronomical phenomenon,
Asteroid (38628) Huya passed over a star (2019-03-18).

He who goes inattentive to walk
loses just the honorary talk…
and the astronomical event.

LOOKING FOR THE LITTLE PRINCE:
PLANET UYUNI
Astro-photo-poetry series by Attila Munzlinger
(co-vice-president of the Magyar Astronomical Association of Transylvania)

I crossed even the Great Ocean…

… I saw how the sky mirrors
in his clear water…

… and I jumped into
an astrophotography tournament.

FROM VENUS TO NEPTUNE
Photo-collage by Constantin Sprianu

ASTRAL SYMPHONY
By Zigmund Tauberg (age 92,
World Cosmopoetry Champion 2016)

From close worlds
And far worlds
Stellar crowds transmit all around
A mute symphony
Through traveling rays.
The ear doesn’t feel it
But the Cosmos knows it.
It doesn’t carry voices or words,
But it penetrates souls
And the tune flies
Through the immense space.
Hearts are thrilled
By the old, continual longing
And in the living pass,
From the celestial spheres,
The astral symphony
Gives
Sense to infinity.

FROM SARM’S OVERSEAS EXPEDITION 2019:
PEARLS OF LATIN AMERICA
Photographic poem by Valentin Grigore
1. Mano del Desierto
2. Easter Island
3. Valle de Marte
4. Lake Titicaca
5. Salar de Uyuni

REPLY TO ZIGMUND TAUBERG’S ASTRAL SYMPHONY
By Andrei Dorian Gheorghe

Heavenly spheres bring astral symphonies,
But northern lights can provoke an emotional shock,
So the auroras would rather represent
A gender that we could name… “cosmic hard rock”!

A VISION OF AURORA BOREALIS IN NORWAY
Photo by Alex Conu (Romania,
residing in Norway,
The World At Night Photographer of October 2019)

NOCTILUCENT CLOUDS IN POLAND
Photo by Pawel Kalinowski (Poland)

A VISION OF AURORA BOREALIS IN SWEDEN
Photo by Mihai Florea (Romania,
residing in Sweden)

NOCTILUCENT CLOUDS IN GERMANY
Photo by Adrian Zota (Romania,
residing in Germany)

STARRY RONDEAU
By Harley White (USA,
Astronomers Without Borders top astropoet)

In stellar skies the nights bestow
our firmament’s majestic show
with portraits of creations past
that stretch into the heavens vast
surpassing Michelangelo.

We yearn this welkin world to know
through avid searching to and fro
and seek a sculpted cosmic cast
in stellar skies.

Withal, the astral art aglow
o’erspread above in grand tableau
to awe wide-eyed enthusiast
shall mortal earthly life outlast,
as goes the great galactic flow
in stellar skies…

FROM SARM’S OVERSEAS EXPEDITION 2019:
SOUTH-AMERICAN SKY
(Chile, July 2019)
1. Nebulae, Jupiter and the Galactic Center
2. Pleiades and Magellanic Clouds
3. Airglow with Zodiacal Light and Milky Way
Photographic astropoem by Valentin Grigore

PERFUME OF ASTRONOMY
By Maria Popa and Stefan Costache
(president of the Astronomer Experience Astroclub)

Is astronomy the instrument
that we will use to write answers,
or the shovel that
will bury us in uncertainty?

Oh, it is rather the perfume that
tickles the senses of our soul,
filling it with love to
even the creation itself.

FROM THE MAGAZINE
“STIINTA SI TEHNICA / SCIENCE AND TECHNIQUE”
EXPEDITION 2019:
SOUTH-AMERICAN SKY
(Brazil and Chile, July 2019)
Photographic astropoem by Catalin Beldea
(international astrophotography laureate)

EXOPLANET - REFERENCE 0
By Victor Chifelea

In my inter-stellar peregrinations
I arrived on a so timid planet
that it didn’t show any dimension.

On that realm I could not
find orientation to the cardinal points.

I could distinguish
neither the height of heaven
nor the abysses without bottom.

The colors were one and the same
and all that surrounded me
seemed to be an endless continuum
veiled by a noisy silence of lead.

I suddenly felt myself lost and captive
in that uniform abyss
and I could escape only when I calculated
that the only reference point
was just me.

SOLITARY
Photographic astropoem by Cristina Tinta Vass Garlesteanu

MARS COLONY 1 UNDER ATTACK
By David Kopaska Merkel (USA,
editor of Dreams and Nightmares,
former editor and president of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Poetry Association,
Rhysling Award laureate,
SFPA Grand Master 2017,
World Cosmopoetry Champion 2017)

Nobody knew
What happened to the mice,
Evolved to survive, people say,
Like that explains it.
Grandpa was working in red dome
When it happened,
Bloody scrap of suit,
all Grandma got back;
She was never the same since.

Don’t know who thought of putting out the moss,
The tardigrades come for the moss;
You don’t see them,
Wouldn’t want to,
with their sucking, tooth-ringed mouths,
And so many bulbous, jiggly legs.

They deal with the mice though,
Never bother anything else,
Unless... you forget the moss.

MARS
Photo-collage by Maximilian Teodorescu
(international astrophotography laureate)

TRAVELLING THROUGH SPACE
By Dominic Diamant

Going by spaceship to Mars and further
We want to be messengers of life
Through new spaces,
Looking for other worlds.

Always young and happy,
Incited by the heap of stars,
We look for the supreme good
And go toward that fantastic ataraxia
Beyond the tumult of life
And the resignation of death.

M11
Photo by Mihai Dumitrica

LOOKING FOR THE LITTLE PRINCE:
PLANET ANTOFAGASTA
Astro-photo-poetry series by Attila Munzlinger
(co-vice-president of the Magyar Astronomical Association of Transylvania)

I arrived on the friendliest planet…

… where an immense hand
peacefully greeted the Universe.

Thus we greeted the world, too.

SUBTLE SIGN
Astro-photo-poem by Antonio Martinez Picar
(Royal Observatory of Belgium,
born in Venezuela)

“Knock - knock”... no answer.
Let’s see... come out of there.

Silence. Almost imperceptible in spite of the tiny space.

“I know you’re there,” I insisted.
Nothing.

Rarely have I seen so much shyness together.
It was as if the whole Universe, in its boundless humility,
suddenly was shy in my presence.

For a moment I thought of dropping the whole thing,
but since I am very stubborn
(someone once told me that the correct word is persistent),
I tried again:
“Hey, I know I’m a difficult guy; I can’t stop digging,
trying to understand everything about you...
well, more like trying to get to know intimate details.
And I see that’s scary.
But if you see it from another dimension, you’ll realize that,
despite the discomfort, deep observing is also a beautiful way
to strengthen our bonds.
To feel closer.
To belong even more.
And the truth is that I need more from you.”

Silence. Now enormous. Huge. Very dark.

“This is as far as I go,” I thought, “I’m not going any further”.
However, something made me wait a little and pay more attention.
Then I perceived a very subtle sign on the other side of the barrier
that separated us, coming from the unknown.
A light, a shooting flash perhaps.

Finally, the Cosmos opened the door.

M33
Photo by Eduard Andrei Mociran (age 18)

SPONTANEOUS
By Iulian Ionescu

We need more Cosmos
just because our interior cosmos
is dwindling.

DSO, DIFFERENT VISIONS
(M1 AND NGC 6888)
Photographic astropoem by Ciprian Vintdevara
(coordinator of Barlad’s Planetarium and Observatory
and discoverer of a red nova)

HOMAGE TO THE ASTRONOMER-WRITER-NAVIGATOR
AHMAD IBN MAJID (15TH CENTURY)
-September 2019, Ras al Khaimah, UAE-
Astro-photo-poem by Andrei Dorian Gheorghe

“Dear Teacher in Seas, Navigation and Letters,
thanks for sharing your knowledge…
and congratulations,
the Sun has already become
the most luminous guide for sailors.”

“Yes, indeed,
but now I await the stars
to confirm their friendship.”

GIRL WITH THE UNQUIET MIND /
POEM WITH LINES STOLEN FROM STEVE SNEYD
(Variant)
By Andrew Darlington (UK,
top SF & F poet, included in more Rhysling anthologies)

‘when no-one looked
he grimly
hammered nails thru the
mirror he stood before…’

sun persists,
investing dead masonry
with its light

but the studio’s dark,

the mirror’s busted,
there’s no coffee, no booze,
the hot water is cold &
the cold water’s colder

there’s only the
Gas & Optician’s bills,

she’s uncoiling
up outta sleep,
flowing around me

there are nails in the mirror,
insects are pinned to the wall

her memory
healing
on mine…

SUNSPOT AND ISS TRANSIT
Photographic astropoem by Maximilian Teodorescu
(international astrophotography laureate)

MILD SUN
Astro-photo-poem by Ovidiu Petrese

One more night, mild Sun. Could you stay hidden?
Could you await me to sleep crying again?

I watched through the frozen window, following a star or two.
But I dreamed of you to make dew again.

Year after year pass and here I am in your way,
A mute rose chicken, red in petals.

But I know you, I resist and you’ll make me blue, afar,
As the sea told you: I want to be a star.

NATURALIA
Photographic astropoem by Valentin Grigore

LOOKING FOR THE LITTLE PRINCE:
PLANET ATACAMA
Astro-photo-poetry series by Attila Munzlinger
(co-vice-president of the Magyar Astronomical Association of Transylvania)

Finally I arrived in the desert…

… where the Little Prince
had been seen for the last time.

Here a solar eclipse welcomed me…

… a peerless splendor.

ASTRONOMER DISCIPLE’S ADVENTURES 2019:
AT THE INTERNATIONAL ASTRONOMY OLYMPIAD -
PIATRA NEAMT, ROMANIA, 2019
Astro-photo-poetry series by Cosmin Sorin Miclos
(president of the Astronomer Disciple Association)

Come with the light to it!
Come to warmly watch the sky,
An ephemeral haiku.

ASTROLITERARY CROPS:
MARS AND ZUBENELGENUBI
From technical-humanistic fusion astroarticles by Adrian Bruno Sonka
(coordinator of the Bucharest Municipal Observatory)

On three mornings of December,
you can see a cold one and a hot one, side by side.
The cold one is Mars, a remnant from the Sun’s formation,
a rest of matter on which the people want to make a future for themselves.
(…)
The hot one is a star, confuse regarding her identity.
She knows she is a star,
but she was moved by force from one constellation to another,
when the imaginary forms were redesigned in the sky.
Her name is “the southern Scorpion claws”
and she is part of the constellation Scales (Libra).
For an astronomer, to find something from the Scorpion in Libra
is as weird as when you find a beetle in your shoe,
but (what can we do?) the antiques redesigned the constellations
and recycled a few stars.
In the Identity Card of that star,
emitted by the International Astronomical Union,
she is called “Zubenelgenubi” or “Alpha 2 Librae”, a very common name,
quite good to give to children.

(From “Una caldă, una rece / A hot one, a cold one”, December 7, 2019)

Sample of accompanying image:

CELESTIAL PHOTO-POEMS 2019:
A THISTLE
Astro-series of words and images by George Tanase

A thistle on Earth and
a heavenly body around which
we gravitate and stick…

HONORING THE SUN AND THE MOON IN 2019:
URGE
Astro-series of words and images by Gabriel Corban
(international astrophotography laureate)

If an old man like me
can do it…

OUR SPHERE
By Boris Marian (Mehr)

We live in a corner that tries our sphere,
an imperfectly dreamed sphere in space.
What can the image do?
It just shouts…

HOORAY FOR EARTH’S CURVATURE
(Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia/Peru)
Photo by Victor Gorea

“GONE TO SOON”
IN MEMORIAM STEVE SNEYD
By John Francis Haines (UK,
leader of Eight Hand Gang - British network of SF poets)

But is it a place,
Perhaps some strange planet
Or hidden other dimension
And, if so,
In it somewhere
He would want to go
On this his final voyage
Into the unknown?

SOLAR DETAILS
Photos by
1. Maximilian Teodorescu
(international astrophotography laureate)
2. Gabriel Corban
(international astrophotography laureate)