Stairway to the Milky Way

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html

Stairway to the Milky Way
Image Credit & Copyright: Marcin Rosadziński

Explanation: What happens if you ascend this stairway to the Milky Way? Before answering that, let’s understand the beautiful sky you will see. Most eye-catching is the grand arch of the Milky Way Galaxy, the band that is the central disk of our galaxy which is straight but distorted by the wide-angle nature of this composite image. Many stars well in front of the Milk Way will be visible, with the bright white star just below the stellar arch being Altair, and the bright blue star above it being Vega. The air glows green on the left, just above the yellow cloud deck. The featured image was taken last month on Portugal’s Madeira Island in the North Atlantic Ocean. Oh, and what happens after you reach the top of these stairs and admire the amazing sky is, quite probably, that you then descend down the stairs on the other side.
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html

If you go to the apod website and click onto the word “stairway” above you will find this:

Is that cool, or what?!

Because The Eclipse Brought The Night

(https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html)

Because the Night You Asked

by Crystal Spring Gibbins

for Josh

Because the night you asked me
the moon shined like a quarter
in the sky; because the leaves
were the color of wine at our feet;
because, like you, there was a private
sense of absence in my every day;
because in your arms my heart grows
plump as a finch; because we both
pause at the sight of heavy branches
burdened with fruit, the sound
of apples dropping to the ground;
because you hold no secrets;
because I knew what I wanted;
because we both love the snow,
the ice, the feeling of a long deadening
freeze and the mercy of a thaw;
because you gave me an empty
beach on a warm day in fall,
and a feeling that we might stay
for awhile, just the two of us,
looking out across the water,
I said yes.

“Because the Night You Asked” by Crystal Spring Gibbins from Now/Here. © Holy Cow! Press, 2017. (writersalmanac.org)