Day: April 6, 2021

Mars and the Pleiades Beyond Vinegar Hill

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Is this just a lonely tree on an empty hill? To start, perhaps, but look beyond. There, a busy universe may wait to be discovered. First, physically, to the left of the tree, is the planet Mars. The red planet, which is the new home to NASA’s Perseverance rover, remains visible this month at sunset above the western horizon. To the tree’s right is the Pleiades, a bright cluster of stars dominated by several bright blue stars. The featured picture is a composite of several separate foreground and background images taken within a few hours of each other, early last month, from the same location on Vinegar Hill in Milford, Nova Scotia, Canada. At that time, Mars was passing slowly, night after night, nearly in front of the distant Seven Sisters star cluster. The next time Mars will pass angularly as close to the Pleiades as it did in March will be in 2038. via NASA https://ift.tt/3cRMawk

Wikipedia article of the day for April 6, 2021

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Wikipedia article of the day is The Rite of Spring. Check it out: Article-Link Summary: The Rite of Spring is a ballet and orchestral concert work by the Russian composer Igor Stravinsky. It was written for the 1913 Paris season of Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes company, with choreography by Vaslav Nijinsky and stage designs and costumes (pictured) by Nicholas Roerich. The ballet caused a near-riot in the audience when first performed, on 29ย Mayย 1913 at the Thรฉรขtre des Champs-ร‰lysรฉes in Paris, but rapidly achieved success, and later became recognised as one of the most influential musical works of the 20th century. The score has many novel features, including experiments in tonality, metre, rhythm, stress and dissonance. The scenario is the celebration of spring by various primitive rituals, at the end of which a sacrificial victim dances herself to death. After its explosive premiere the ballet was not performed until the 1920s, when Lรฉonide Massine’s rechoreographed version was the first of many innovative productions directed by the world’s leading choreographers. Providing “endless stimulation for performers and listeners” alike, The Rite is among the most recorded works in the classical repertoire.