Explanation: Which part of this picture do you find more interesting -- the land or the sky? Advocates for the land might cite the beauty of the ancient domes of the Bungle Bungle Range in Western Australia. These picturesque domes appear as huge layered beehives and are made of sandstones and conglomerates deposited over 350 million years ago. Advocates for the sky might laud the beauty of the Milky Way's central band shown arching from horizon to horizon. The photogenicMilkyWayband formed over 10 billion years ago and now includes many well-known nebulae and bright stars. Fortunately, you don't have to decide and can enjoy both together in this beautiful 8-frame panorama taken from the dark skies of Purnululu National Park about two months ago.
I was wrong when I guessed that today's APOD would feature the Beehive Cluster. It's a good thing that I was wrong, because these human-made beehive constructions are breathtaking. And the Milky Way above is certainly splendid.
I'm fairly certain humans had nothing to do with it.
Know the quiet place within your heart and touch the rainbow of possibility; be
alive to the gentle breeze of communication, and please stop being such a jerk. — Garrison Keillor
The milky way has some dark clouds that resemble a giant emu sprawled across the sky. My recollection is that this was identified by some Aboriginal cultures and represents the only constellation defined by an absence of stars. Maybe we could have an APOD about this one day.
It’s kind of like looking into your backyard from your porch… you see a little of your "house" and a little of the "yard" (maybe a lot of the yard in this case)… serene and awe inspiring…
<<Bungle, the Glass Cat is a character in the Oz books of L. Frank Baum. Bungle first appears in The Patchwork Girl of Oz, the seventh of Baum's fourteen Oz books.
King Henry V Act 2, Scene 2
KING HENRY V: All other devils that suggest by treasons
Do botch and bungle up damnation
With patches, colours, and with forms being fetch'd
From glistering semblances of piety.
The magician Dr. Pipt tests his Powder of Life by animating an ornamental glass cat figurine, for the specific purpose of catching mice for his wife Margolotte. But the Glass Cat turns out to be exceptionally vain, and unwilling to do any work. Margolotte names it Bungle. The Glass Cat is transparent, except for its hard blood-red ruby heart, two large emeralds for eyes, and its bright pink brains, which look rather like a collection of marbles and can be seen working in the cat's head. It has a tail of spun-glass.
In personality, Bungle is almost stereotypically catlike — cool and reserved and aloof as well as vain. The cat "is so determined not to show emotion that when implored to bring help she sets off very slowly and runs only when out of sight." Through its incessant prowling throughout the Land of Oz, however, the Glass Cat has acquired intimate knowledge of its complex terrain; and it is generally willing to exploit this knowledge to the benefit of Dorothy and her friends. In The Magic of Oz, for example, the Glass Cat guides the rescue party that saves Trot and Cap'n Bill from entrapment on the Magic Isle. And the Cat is virtually invulnerable to harm, which is a great advantage in its various adventures.
It was quickly reasoned that it was Bungle's pink brains that had made her so conceited, and the Wizard of Oz eventually replaced them with clear ones to make her more agreeable. After her adventures with Ojo the Lucky and the Patchwork Girl, the Cat ended up being a pet of Princess Ozma in the Emerald City.
While various writers have explored the theme of invisibility, both before and after H. G. Wells, Baum was unusual in creating a character that is transparent but visible. At least one other writer has taken up Baum's inspiration: James Alan Gardner's transparent woman, Oar, in his novels Expendable (1997) and Ascending (2001), has a Bungle-like vanity, but also a positive impact, much like Baum's cat.>>
What is the aboriginal name for these domes? Or is 'bungle" an Anglicised version of the name like Ohio is an Anglicised version of the Native American name "Big River, Big" (incidentally home of the Cincinnati Bungles)?
P.S. - Way cool snapshot of a Bungle on Mars by Curiosity! - Thanks Neufer.
<<Wolfe Creek Crater is a well-preserved meteorite impact crater (astrobleme) in Western Australia., It is accessed via the Tanami Road 150 km south of the town of Halls Creek. The crater is central to the Wolfe Creek Meteorite Crater National Park. The crater averages about 875 metres in diameter, 60 metres from rim to present crater floor and it is estimated that the meteorite that formed it had a mass of about 50,000 tonnes, while the age is estimated to be less than 300,000 years (Pleistocene). Small numbers of iron meteorites have been found in the vicinity of the crater, as well as larger so-called 'shale-balls', rounded objects made of iron oxide, some weighing as much as 250 kg.
It was brought to the attention of science after being spotted during an aerial survey in 1921, investigated on the ground two months later, and reported in publication in 1931. The European name for the crater comes from a nearby creek, which was in turn named after Robert Wolfe (early reports misspell the name as WolfCreek), a prospector and storekeeper during the gold rush that established the town of Halls Creek.
The local Djaru (Jaru) Aboriginal people refer to the crater as Kandimalal. There are multiple Dreaming stories about the formation of the crater. One such story describes the crater's round shape being formed by the passage of a rainbow snake out of the earth, while another snake formed the nearby Sturt Creek. Another story, as told by an Elder, is that one day the crescent moon and the evening star passed very close to each other. The evening star became so hot that it fell to the ground, causing an enormous explosion and flash, followed by a dust cloud. This frightened the people and a long time passed before they ventured near the crater to see what had happened. When they finally went there, they realised that this was the site where the evening star had fallen to the Earth. The Djaru people then named the place “Kandimalal” and it is prominent in art from the region.>>