Last week, I found a gorgeous star site. And lots of completely lovely Iranian star pics.
They made me think of Fatemeh Keshavarz ‘Jasmine and Stars’:
“In Shiraz of the 1960s, where I grew up, summer nights were a journey with a few clear stops. We slept in the courtyard under a sky full of stars, away from the orange, persimmon, and pomegranate trees, but still in the yard. Wooden beds would be brought out at the beginning of the summer. They would be covered first with light textured rugs and then the bedding laid out on top … I would lie there and just look at the sky with wonder, trying to do the hardest thing, fight off sleep just a little longer. How could the whole neighbourhood be sleeping. Most nights, there was a whole crowd of stars overhead. But once in a while there was such an outburst of glittering spots that I would just lie there enveloped in light“.
The image to the right is of a late summer night sky, near the rural village of Saadat Shahr, Fars province. This place is known as Astronomy Town, as the inhabitants are passionate about sky gazing. The three brightest stars are the stars of the Summer Triangle, Deneb in Cygnus (top), Altair in Aquila (left), and Vega in Lyra (right). The foreground landscape includes a kind wild pistachio tree. To identify the stars and constellations, click here, and slide your cursor over the image.