Tag: science

the moon you know, the moon you don’t…

the moon you know, the moon you don’t…

by David Koblentz ♥ 0 Leave a Comment
sky space moon astronomy
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com
“We ran as if to meet the moon.”
― Robert Frost
Do we take the moon for granted?  Our little companion in perfect orbit (synced so close to ours that one side faces us all the time).  Other planets have tons of moons (Saturn has 62!) but our little friend is out just in the right place where we can have full eclipses (that is actually super rare in our little solar system – but not here on water world!)   So my last post was all about musings on the moon (in poem form), so for those with a little nerdy science streak l ask… did you get all the little references? granted some are obvious, I mean we have known this moon our whole lives right?  just curious… so, if you don’t want spoilers read no further, here is all the little tidbits I was thinking about writing that poem…
seven seas ? OK, obvious… Pangea ? OK, not brilliant… master of all seasons ? I was trying to invoke how we take for granted our place in a hemisphere, so the moon could care less, it is the same when the southern hemisphere is in winter or the northern hemisphere is in winter… dead eye’s watch? the moon is quite dead, nothing there… blinks as slow ? I needed some vehicle to explain the phases, so I chose sound witch travels way slower than light, and we see moonlight… born of earthly rock ? I am referencing the theory that the moon is born of a cosmic collision (one of many but I think it makes the most sense, not 100% proven obviously – this is also referenced in the line “twin composition“)… millennia of collision ? pretty obvious, the moon has been bombed by asteroids or other bodies, the evidence is there of a violent past, there was all sorts of stuff flying around the solar system when it was forming, there is still tons of stuff out in the kuiper belt and the oort cloud waiting to make impact at some point… I think the rest of the piece is pretty clear
so anyway, if you made it this far? damn.. thanks for riding down the rabbit hole with me, I appreciate all reads and eyes, and any comments are gladly taken even if you think I am a dumb stump stuck in the mud, I am probably not, but how would I know if I was ?
super blood wolf fish hamster moon thing.

super blood wolf fish hamster moon thing.

by David Koblentz ♥ 1 Comment

img_2526

clearly the phenom was cool (space.com site), that’s my photo from my deck sunday night when I was walking Samantha (a black lab mix rescue dog – she’s 10-ish), but it also inspired this…

1.22.2019 the night watcher

before the seven seas
before the age of pangea
master of all seasons
a dead eye’s watch
blinks as slow as sound
born of earthly rock
millennia of collisions tell
this barren face does watch
down upon creation
ever in the shadow
of the twin composition
not privy to the tidal lives
evolving below this stoic eye
left to turn and spin in cold
destined to observe and never hold
and how many human eyes have wandered
up at you on nights like these
wondered what has come and gone
as you bear witness back to sun
from the first step of life upon this earth
cursed to watch from orbit’s perch

notes… I have a bunch of science nods in this one, I won’t uncover them all now (hey man it is late here on the E C)… I’ll get to it though and re-post, there is a bunch of nerdy stuff in there with the literary flowers.

Music ? (for those adventurous in the electronic realm) :

IPeiqi – landscape

call it deep tech/trance/tech ambient… I dunno, I love it.

and thank you to all who read my stuff, I bow and say thanks.

more musing about stars…

more musing about stars…

by David Koblentz ♥ 0 Leave a Comment
sky space dark galaxy
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

As you might know I am a stargazer and a SETI aficionado so it influences my work often, and this would be one of those works, when I think of topics things just flow, it is just the way I write, I mean, cmon man how can you not look up there and wonder! ?

1.2.19 “constellation”

if I might be a constellation
once a nebula in contemplation
expanding outward toward the never
procession onward with the season’s lever
all from a man’s eye might notice the change
and map these stars with lighted frames
magical creatures and mystical charms
our imaginings drawn upon cosmic forms
our first attempt to travel there
even if only to see beyond
but imagine a world outside our own
light that travels at the speed of dawn
still yet older than our ancient spawn,
might I be a constellation
and favor back
plot the earth with mine own tack
and see a marble of brightest blue
tracking cross my nightly view
and report to all in time’s sake
stories, myths, and legend’s take
upon that which what we devise
a range of spectrum in these eyes
to pass down the rumination of stars
the engine of pure imagination – ours

Ultima Thule…

Ultima Thule…

by David Koblentz ♥ 0 Leave a Comment
milky way illustration
Photo by Philippe Donn on Pexels.com

no, it is not some old school classic RPG (I loved the early ones on PC especially V), it is the next destination of the New Horizons probe (the craft is a pretty small thing, maybe the size of a piano traveling @ 32,000 miles per hour), Ultima Thule is located in the Kuiper Belt (think of it as our solar system’s leftovers after the really long wedding party), this knowledge is less than 100 years old in our dialog, amazing to think about, in the past 40 years we have moved out of interstellar space only recently (Voyager) and now are checking out the Kuiper Belt… and this is just our little neighborhood in this little solar system in this one galaxy in billions… there is literally endless possibilities out there… but we are all worried about the latest Iphone, silliness but I understand it, I would love to tell you I am above it, but I love all the little gadgets that distract me from being just a grain of sand on the grandest beach of all…

I see things in motion…

I see things in motion…

by David Koblentz ♥ 0 Leave a Comment
photo of person walking on deserted island
Photo by Tom Swinnen on Pexels.com

12.25.2018 “generations”

so, the wave has begun
the first domino has fallen
a generation has come
to begin an end.
I have seen the wave coming
off on the horizon
everything seems so far off
in the inevitable ocean
but so soon crashing upon the shore
this is the way of things
for we are mere pillars
rock fashioned of sand
drawn down and back into the surf
from which we once rose
in and out the flow
just life
for us to suppose
and follow, as if we have a choice
but we pretend
to have some modicum of control
ever looking at the horizon
and the coming waves
as they come for me
surely, some day

might I be aware
and enjoy the warm rays
bright bouquets to grace the peaks
one more time
upon the waves
that carry my soul away
to some other place
I hope
to some other place
I pray

notes… as I stated in an earlier post, I have been spared death more than most, but that will not be so anymore, and I sense it, I hope I have the strength to relent it and continue on, in the pattern of such things it becomes difficult to reconcile self worth, or more plainly my life’s worth upon this earth, there is no accomplishment any of us can make that will satisfy my view of the world, so I just have to fall back on faith, and fate, and the two combined will be my future, I know what that is but do I accept it ? do I quit? or do I fight and meet the same outcome?  these are the thoughts that cross my mind.  There is so much to life, so much, that needs to be the focus but I must admit, I struggle.

And Voyager 2 has left us…

And Voyager 2 has left us…

by David Koblentz ♥ 0 Leave a Comment
yellow flag on boat
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

After all I am a bit of a science nerd, and the Voyager probes (launched in 1977) are only slightly younger than me, probe #2 has finally left the heliosphere becoming the second man made object to do so, in short the sun’s influence extends out way farther than we can imagine in our day to day terms but there is a horizon where it does end, and our emissaries are out there now for all time (the chances of them colliding with anything is very low, space is quite empty, when you view pictures of galaxies and what not the space in between individual stars is vast, even galaxies colliding do not collide per se but the gravitational forces do the collision work/damage, we are of course, on a collision course with the Andromeda galaxy, not you or me will be around to see it however, nor those who first see it as it will take billions of years even when it happens)

What is the point of all this ?  perhaps a metaphor.  In 40 years what have I accomplished ?  And yet in 40 years our species launched some probes that are now all that might be left of our civilization.  The realization of that achievement of our tech of that day visiting the outer planets and now beyond our reach.  I believe it is a pinnacle of human achievement, and on a personal level we can scale that down the same.  Shoot for the moon they say, nah, shoot for it all, even coming up short leaves you at neptune.  I should take my own advice, and I truly try, maybe every time I look upward, into the sky, I can remember those little probes with less memory power than my phone, racing out into the universe, so far from home, but with all of us on board, in some capacity, for some other life form to discover, maybe a billion years from now, maybe four billion, at that point what does it matter, but at that point we all will matter, touching another form of life, out there, humanity will have existed…

10.30.2018

a path of stars

cosmic dust footprints

to follow, out beyond mars

into the cosmos

maps of constellations guides

mariner of the universal sky

I disappear off into the night

of space, and to explore

the space, of infinite expansion

the universe, final destination

My Voyager series is here.  I often contemplate the universe, surely beyond my comprehension in totality but why not consider it… humans are capable of a great many things (yes both good and bad, we need to choose sides at times).

Your thoughts and comments are always appreciated, as well as recipes for strata…

Is there anybody out there?

Is there anybody out there?

by David Koblentz ♥ 0 Leave a Comment
air broadcast antenna architecture connection
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

I must admit I have been fascinated for a long time about the possibility of life out there, you know, the great vast out there, surely larger than us, our planet is literally a speck of dust, sure, we don’t like to think about it that way, but we can not all be ostriches about the whole thing, I ponder this topic in my mind, all the time, when I am buzzing about as a normal citizen my mind is trying the rubik’s of the universe out, so I am drawn to SETI (the search for extraterrestrial intelligence), our chances of finding others is slim because of the size of the universe (we will need some luck, but luck is what made the earth … the earth if you look at all the factors involved), we have been sending out signals to the stars via radio and TV transmissions for roughly 100 years now… imagine a million years from now that some civilization receives our signal, it will happen, but will we still be around ?  there is more heady stuff to consider as well because of the sheer distance between stars, for example it may take 100 years for a signal to reach an amenable target, if their technology is like ours (not likely) it may take 100 years to receive an answer, and in that 100 years back so much will happen, furthermore imagine if some advanced society detected us in the 1700’s and sent a signal, we did not have the capability to respond, so our efforts might be the same, we truly have to pass through the eye of the needle at this point in our evolution to find another civilization out in the universe, i will probably not see it in my lifetime, but there is hope, humans are clever little beings, and I believe in their ability. thusly that brings me to this composition:

photo of galaxy
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

“echoes of the universe” 12.5.2018

voices from a distant star

a signal, or false alarm

or arrived to late

as civilizations fall,

our ears as dishes we turn to the sky

to the outer, to the beyond the space of our earth

hoping for a glimpse of life

a gilligan’s island of alien kind

a simple hello

a wave goodbye

as dreams of our longing spirit

we search the sky for a biological twin

or perhaps a mere cousin

on the tree of life, yggdrasil

the branches full with the ornaments of stars

of galaxies, and super spirals

of the enigmas of celestial bodies

and all

and all we seek

is the faintest of all

the loudest whisper

into that ear

“we’re here”

The miraculous frailty of this little planet…

The miraculous frailty of this little planet…

by David Koblentz ♥ 1 Comment
time lapse photo of stars on night
Photo by Jakub Novacek on Pexels.com

I think a good deal about the universe and our (OK, mine) place in it, the factors involved in how the Earth exists (and us by extension) are mind numbing, how we are exactly where we need to be in the solar system (distance from the sun), how our moon is so perfectly aligned that we have full eclipses (no other planet has this exactly, even though other planets have tons of moons, especially in the outer solar system), how our magnetic field has shielded us from the solar wind, how our gravity was able to hold in water (the ocean), I could go on and on…  but lately I have been watching a great show “wonders of the solar system” and came upon some animation of all the rogue junk (mostly asteroids/meteorites that are literally flying past us in the inner solar system)…. check it out, and remember that the next time you get pissed about something silly….

All the Asteroids (and flotsam) flowing through the inner solar system

Jupiter, being the biggest planet, is the biggest culprit, it interacts with the asteroid belt and throws rocks at us, it deflects some as well… and frankly without the Yucatan collision would we be ruling the planet ??

anyway, as I thought about this I also wrote a poem, because that is what I do, I grab my brush and stroke…

10.15.2018

I try to weigh the volume, of my space

in the universe

and I feel infinitesimally small

not even a grain of silicon

am I a part, at least a cog

am I a molecule in the body of god?

notes: as usual, written in my car on the way home tonight, I had to keep muttering it to myself until I reached a good place to pull over and write it down in my horrible hand writing… I so often fear I will stop writing, but honestly I am a fountain lately (since April), so .. I have ton of stuff to post, not sure where to start but the new and shiny just seems…. so new and shiny… thoughts ?

Barefoot feet (indulge me, dance, frolic)

Barefoot feet (indulge me, dance, frolic)

by David Koblentz ♥ 1 Comment

“barefoot feet” 7.29.2018

I read an article, that suggested, we walk around with barefeet, to feel more connected to the earth, I’m not sure, but worth a try, first things first, I notice not everything is as smooth as you and I may think, a driveway, a sidewalk, full of kinks and angles, so used to shoes to smooth these out, not particularly painful, just an odd sensation compared to the old sensation, and then there is the grass, a seeming tickling epiphany of senses, fibers reaching hands to massage my toes and between, heels feel soft with deadened blows, on this green carpet ride, (I try to forget the bugs) or dirt underfoot, I imagine – just the sensations.

I am taken back, to my youth, I quite remember well, being a little barefoot devil, I guess I did not know ‘better’ then, or care rather, (memory), especially the shore, the beach, I could not wait to emancipate my feet from the burdensome shackles of flip-flops and race across the scorching sands into the quenching surge of the tide, twisting my feet under the surf, until I felt the danger of no escape, of being pulled under further, the cool sinking quick sand enveloping my toes, my soles wiggling, chasing crabs, kadima balls, flying kites, digging holes to nowhere, all under the watchful eye of summer sun all the while making my neck red, all the while with no shoes

barefoot feet, I suggest, you give it a whirl, travel back in time, in your mind, to simpler things, where shoes were a mere nuisance

This was written in response to an article I read from Laird Hamilton, sure, he looks amazing for his age, I found it a little presumptuous but also interesting, the great thing about an open mind is your store is open 24 hours for new customers to come in.

note: this is what I call free form, there is meter in there at times, at times I am just talking to you in my mind, the words… they just come out this way, especially this one since I had to go back and transcribe this from one of my journals… man my handwriting is ass… I think I captured the gist of things mostly, but like all of life I won’t hit a home run that often or every time… just have to keep stepping into the batter’s box I suppose.

The Northern Lights (are overrated…)

The Northern Lights (are overrated…)

by David Koblentz ♥ 0 Leave a Comment
snow light sky winter
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Well… ok, maybe not so much (the aurora borealis is pretty darn cool after all), but I was watching this massively awesome BBC series “Wonders of the Solar System” and was enlightened (pun) by the fact that the phenomena is not limited to this little sphere we call Earth, in fact, that massive red giant (no, not Colin McGregor or the Kool Aid Man)… I am speaking of course of our celestial big brother Jupiter, as it turns out Jupiter has these light displays on both the north and south poles… The “lights” are all formed due to the solar radiation (called the solar wind) thrown out constantly by the sun deflected by the magnetic field of the planets (in short, it is slightly more complicated than that).   Just another chapter in how amazing this universe is (even our little tiny corner which is the everything we will ever know).  Sure, I am a bit late to the party on this… but I can admit that.

So anyway, this poem also formed from a ball of dust and the ort cloud (my head) last night… (and here is my Voyager inspired poems, I think I might start a collection page of my science based/themed work instead of these ad hoc links, but that is just a thought)….

9.30.2018 “miracles of the solar system”

I contemplate the world, spinning

a veritable grain of sand

on this continent, thinking

might I levitate in place

and the ground beneath

will rotate around under, my feet

as I will to absorb the total cycle of the sun

my mind to become flat and limitless

to expand outward to the edges of the universe

a platform, a table for all to sit upon

the knowledge, the power, of a billion suns

could this lonely spot of life

handle the vastness of an expanse

that weighs in blocks

not perceivable by human scales of thought

of this, just this one, on the shoulders of many

just to understand this

a world spinning

a night companion orbits round

what seems just out of touch

we have only touched once

so familiar

but these are miracles, in the every day flesh

for granted

sunrise and sunset

lest we forget

the immense fate and circumstance

for our faces

to be met daily

by the rising, of the life giving star

we so casually call, ours

the sun

Music ? I have posted this before but I have to post it again (and probably again), to me it fits the vastness of space… ambient space music supreme.

Seti – Pharos (CD-1 Arecibo)

Your thoughts and comments are welcome and appreciated, and might even be read.. by me of all people.