Neptune

The next great conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn will be December 21, 2020. That date is, coincidentally, the date of the December solstice.

The rare occurrence will happen after sunset on Dec. 21, 2020, the start of the winter solstice.

So another thread on..... Mars, this time the early years of the space age

#CountdowntoMars #Mars #Perseverance

1964 was a vintage year. The Beatles, Goldfinger, (consults notes – I was very young at the time), my christening and..... oh yes, JPL sent the first missions to the Red Planet @carolynporco

What people forget is that even then so very little was known about the Red Planet as it was not easy to see with then state-of-the art equipment – in that same year of 1964 the official USAF Cartography Center map of Mars still had canals drawn on it as ridiculous as it seems

Q: Thou are notified that thy kind hath infiltrated the galaxy too far already. Thou art directed to return to thine own solar system immediately.

Picard: That's quite a directive. Would you mind identifying who you are?

Q: We call ourselves the Q.

*entire bridge crew cringes*

Q: Oh? You've heard of me?

Picard: Are you associated with the conspiracy-driven propaganda hate group found on Earth in the early 21st century?

Q: Well I must admit, I have dabbled in such things from time to time... but specifically? No.

*entire bridge crew looks relieved*

Q: But this is precisely why I am here, Picard. You can't deny that you're still a dangerous, savage child race.

Picard: Most certainly I deny it. That nonsense is centuries behind us.

Q: Then prove it, mon capitaine, through trial by combat!

*entire bridge crew cringes again*

Q: I suppose you'd prefer a mock trial and execution? I have a gibbet right here!

*another round of cringes, some shaking their heads sadly*

Q: Now see here, I'm not going to let you steal this from me!

*many of the bridge crew look visibly ill*

Q: This is ludicrous! I'm not going to let the mistakes of the past dictate my options here and now!

Picard: That's what you've gotten wrong, Q. Look at us, look at humanity, here and now. If we hadn't learned from the past, it would not be possible for us to be where are are.

I’d like to share this photograph of Earth from Saturn’s orbit, taken by the Cassini probe in 2013.

Earth is that tiny point to the right & down from the center.

Carl Sagan’s “Pale Blue Dot”, a reflection on a photo of Earth taken by Voyager 1 in 1990, comes to mind:

“Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it, everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. ⬇️

The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, ⬇️

every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there--on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam. ⬇️

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. ⬇️