Given that I spent some ten years on the concepts of "Nature, Fortune & Dieu" in Montaigne's Essais (1580ff), it is not surprising that I am fascinated by the visual wonders of NATURE shown in both micro- and macrophotography. From the Smallest to the Largest, from the Sub-Atomic & the Microscopic to the Cosmic Expanses, everywhere there reigns an awe-inspiring HARMONY, ORDER & BEAUTY.
It reminds me of the ancient & universal idea of "Microcosm / Macrocosm" so prominently present in the Renaissance, of the "Minima & Maxima" in Giordano Bruno's cosmological dialogue "De l'infinito, universo e mondi" (1584), of Democritus' Atoms speeding through void spaces, as propagated by Lucretius in De Natutra rerum (1st cent. BC), or Leibniz' "monadic" speculations (La Monadologie, 1714) on other worlds or universes, as brilliantly satirized in Voltaire's Candide, ou l'optimisme ≠(1759).
The NASA "Astronomy Picture of the Day" Archive is the major source of inspiration for most of the more or less artfully adapted images presented here in no particular order. Sometimes, Art, Geometry, or Aereal photography are seen in parallel alignment.
The Sun & the Moon & all the Stars
Sky Disk ca. 1800 B.C.
(Bronze Age depiction of the Sun, the Moon, & the Pleiades; found near Halle, Germ.)
Mira, a variable star with a comet's tail
(Mira is a variable red giant star, meaning, that it expands and contracts dramatically in size & brightness. It lies about 400 light-years away in the constellation Cetus)
The Sun, with Halo
(The straw-like, bent object is a plane's contrail)
Full Moon
(a "Supermoon" reflects Philadelphia's skyline onto the Cooper River in Nov. 2016)
Crescent Moon over Aldebaran, the red Eye of the constellation Taurus
(on April 28, 2017, the Moon & Aldebaran, blended in the sky)
The Earth
(NASA's very first "Astronomy Picture of the Day", by Robert Nemiroff & Jerry Bonnell, 16 June 1995)
Jupiter Storm Cloud
(taken from Nasa's Juno. - 28. Feb. 2017, Montaigne's birthday in 1533)
Saturn's Rings, B & A
(taken from NASA's Cassini Probe. - 30. Apr. 2017)
Art, Culture & (mostly) Science
Starry Nights / Starry Skies
Commentary (Van Gogh, 1889 & Whirlpool Galaxy, 2017)
Comet Lovejoy's Tail & Dada-like Needle
(inspired by NASA-Pic, 25apr2017)
Venus Lavaflows & Dada Hand with Heart
(inspired by NASA-Pic, 23jun2013)
Dachauer Moos & Arches of Spring
(Adolf Hölzel, ca. 1901 & NASA-Pic, 29apr2017)
Dynamic Circle Rhythms & The Holographic Principle
(Adolf Hölzel, 1930 & NASA-Pic, 23apr2017)
Ancient Sky Disk & Triply Ultraviolet Sun
(The Nebra Sky Disk, 1800 BC & the Sun during a Venus Transit in June 2012)
Galaxies, Nebulae & Deep Space Objects: large, larger, largest
The Milky Way's Neighbour Andromeda
(This Galaxy lies "only" 2 million lightyears away)
The Helix "Eye of God" Nebula in Aquarius, 700 Lyrs away
(A tiny White Dwarf is at the center of this beautiful star remnant with a 2 Lyr diameter)
The Antennae Galaxies
(A "cosmic wreckage:" two Galaxies collide 60 million lightyears away)
The Cat's Eye Nebula
(this "planetary nebula" is a sun-sized dying star ca. 3,000 Lyrs away)
The Soul Nebula in Cassiopeia
(28 Feb. 2016, in honour of "my" Montaigne's birthday in 1533)
The Heart & Soul Nebula in Cassiopeia
(They are brightly glowing emission nebulae)
Tulip Nebula
(8,000 Lightyears away, near the constellation Cygnus)
Black Hole
(Computer simulation of a Supernova - detected in 2014 - being devoured by a tiny Black Hole)
Whirlpool Galaxy
(First observed by Messier (M51) in the 1740s, it likely inspired van Gogh's late painting "Starry Night" (1889) -- see also: Commentary)
Milky Way's satellite Galaxy NGC 602
("only" 5 million years old, but some 200 thousand lightyears away)
Magellan Cloud I.
(Near the constellation Pisces, it was first observed in Southern skiesin ca. 1511 by the Portuguese explorer (1480-1521)
Magellan Cloud
(Our satellite galxcy is shown here with overlapping, shell-shaped nebulae & bright young stars)
Perseus Galaxies
(Glowing hot gas waves in this cluster of over one thousand galaxies. They are 250 million lightyears away)
Rosetta Nebula
(ca. 5,000 Lys away, with bright, young stars "only" 4 million years old)
Of Creatures & Crystals - small, smaller, smallest
Waterbear
(Micrograph of an eight-legged crature 1 mm long)
Extremophile Microbe
(Thermophile in Grand Prismatic Spring, Yellowstone Park)
Ooids
(Jurassic rock sediments, Utah)
Satellite Landscapes
Landscape near Haderleben, Denmark
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NOTE: Further information, observations, or commentaries will be sporadically supplied. |
