Today a giant prominence.

The sky was mostly clouded this morning, but a few gaps appeared. 

This photo was taken at 09h45m UT. 

Within a few minutes you could easily see the structure slowly changing shape.  

It was amazing to see this life giving solar flare change shape in "real time".

Cycle 25 definitely has many surprises in store. Today giant flares, tomorrow countless sunspots, lightbridges, filaments and plages.  

That's the wonder of solar observing... everyday is different. 

Solar - 19/05/22

The most wonderful discovery made by scientists is science itself. 

Jacob Bronowski

No show Perseids 2009 - Hello to HIYA poetry.

Originally I wrote this back in August of 2009. 

It was going to be a post about meteors, but ended up as an introduction to a poetry form that I'd been mulling over for several months.

Vincent van Gogh

Up on the Preseli Hills:

Two camper vans, tea and cakes, plus guitars, harmonicas, and several good friends, we waited for the night to unfold.

We were all hoping to see the Perseid shower at its maximum that evening, but the Pembrokeshire sky had different ideas, we ended up with total cloud cover for the entire evening.

No matter, we still had good company, lots of tea and cake and we spent several hours talking, laughing and playing guitars.

At about 3.00 am I lay awake peeping at Jupiter through a gap in the cloud, but still no meteors. 

With no meteors to concentrate on, my mind turned to poetry matters, namely the syllabic count of haiku.

Whilst pondering the poetical, I slowly fell back to sleep; a haiku style seed was germinating.

Hello to HIYA.

That morning I had an idea for a poetry form that might be of interest to poets, I call it HIYA. *

Firstly you make a chart as follows:

Then you choose any word you want to make your poem.

For example I will use the letters of my name:  MARK.

Look up each letter of your word on the above chart.  

Write down the corresponding number you see above it.

My word MARK would read as follows:
M=4, A=1, R=9, K=2

Once you correspond a number to each of your letters, you then use this number as a syllable count for each line of your poem.

Poem for the Perseids

                                                                                               Syllable Count

Throughout the night                 4         M

Clouds                               1         A

Rest upon the Preseli hill tops      9         R
I sigh.                              2         K

Any word or combination of words can be used, plus the poem can be split up into any length verse you see fit. 

Have a go, see what you think.

Have a guess what my initial word was in this poem. 

Tea Party for the Perseids

We sit so patiently waiting

Surrounded by clouds

Time for tea

Time for cake

Time to talk with old friends.

That evening back in August of 2009 may not of revealed any meteors, but I'm glad it revealed the HIYA.

*Why is it call it HIYA?

As a child, there was a lady I once knew, who lived at the end of my grandmother's street.

Everytime she spotted me walking past she would shout out "HIYA" at the top of her voice.

Her voice was high and loud !.. I would often be startled out of my daydreaming as I walked past her window.

Plus HIYA sounds a bit like HAIKU.

Old school Sci Fi at its best.

Recently I wrote a quick review about the 1979 television film adaptation of Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles. 

You can find it over on my eBay site.

Here's the review with a few bits added and a few taken away.

Old school Sci Fi at its best.

Absolutely love the "Martian Chronicles",have done since I first saw it as a kid back in the early 1980's. The special effects are not brilliant, infact some of them are terrible, but that's not important.

It's the story (Thank you Ray Bradbury)and the pace of filming combined that make for an unforgettable film experience.

Also the film score is amazing.

For science fiction without the special effects of present day, and to be transported back to being a kid again, and a slower pace of life, you can't go wrong with the Martian Chronicles.

The above television adaptation is excellent, but also I have to mention - if you ever see the Martian Chronicles book, or The Silver Locusts as it is also called, grab it, read it, it's definitely a classic.

Like most of Ray Bradbury's works.

This morning's Sol - 10/05/22

Today's Sol images - 04/05/22

Moonbow over Aberporth.

Moonbow Haiku

I've only ever seen a Moonbow once, it was an unforgettable sight. I was walking down to the beach in Aberporth, the year was 1988, I forget the month. 

The village was quiet, no one else around, which probably means it was outside of the holiday season, and still fairly warm, I guess around the end of September. 

The Moon had not long risen and the darkened sky had just a few scattered clouds. 

And there it was, a magnificent arc of light spanning the village, a rainbow, or more precisely a Moonbow. 

It had none of the colours we normally see, only a white glow with hints of darker/lighter graduation in place of the individual rainbow colours. 

It was fascinating, I realised it was a rare event, so I simply stood in the middle of the road and observed for as long as possible. 

Sadly it was all over in what felt like a minute or so. 

Wow.. that was nearly 34 years ago! .. I wonder if I'll ever see the like again?

Aberporth Church ~ Jupiter in attendance