Wednesday, February 5, 2025

The Procession of Planets

 

The cold black winter night sky is crisp and clear. It is a black felt blanket infused with twinkling silver stars. Ptolemy’s Queen Cassiopeia, the mother of Andromeda and Queen of Ethiopia sails by confident in her beauty, followed by the courageous Orion the Hunter with his loyal companion Sirius the dog star at his heel.

Tonight, the stars are a backdrop to the headliners of the evening, the Planets with their continuous bright light streaming down to the awestruck observer.

Tonight, the Gods are at play, as the spheres have been racked up into an equilateral triangle and split with the cue ball moon rolling across the night sky at furiously fast speeds, each unique and with vastly different hues, compositions and properties. Each planet is resplendent in its individual orbit and characteristics, drawn to each other like a family at Thanksgiving but eager to spin off in their various directions, for their own purposes, when social norms, trajectories, and gravity permit.

Jim (Feb '25)

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