Cloudwatching

    Two beautiful Spring days in a row, but I have to spend them in my windowless basement office. I should be lying on my back in a field staring at clouds, but instead I’m looking at photographs from space on the Internet. All the same, I’m still able to see images in the shapes.
    Like this mysterious, ethereal Space Mermaid, floating above the Orion nebula.
“Glory of the Achaeans / stop thy ship and come to us.”
    Beware, O readers, for her siren song may lure unwary cosmonauts onto the rocks of the triple NGC 1973-75-77 stars, shown at the top of the photograph. Best to stop your ears, and sail on.
    But no, there lies a much more disturbing image…
    I’m loath to show this, since such a sighting in the sky could be construed as an evil portent in these troubled times. But here, hovering in the Great Nebula in Carina, NGC 3372, is none other than the Lord of Darkness, himself!
“What is light without dark?”
    Before there is any rioting in the streets, I should hasten to add that it’s not really the Lord of Darkness, just the Lord of the Darkness character as played by Tim Curry in Ridley Scott’s movie Legend (1985). So please don’t use this to go off starting mass suicides and raving about the End Times.
    Still, it’s a pretty impressive likeness of Rob Bottin\’s Oscar-nominated makeup. It’s all there: the horns, the barrel chest. It’s nice to know the universe is a fan. Maybe they just got the special edition DVD — though that raises the question whether they watch PAL or NTSC.
    Note: the above images are from the Anglo-Australian Observatory.