mick laBriola

Here we see NGC 4423, a galaxy that lies about 55 million light-years away in the constellation Virgo. In this image NGC 4423 appears to have quite an irregular, tubular form, so it might be surprising to find out that it is in fact a spiral galaxy. Knowing this, we can make out the denser central bulge of the galaxy, and the less crowded surrounding disc (the part that comprises the spiral arms).  If NGC 4423 were viewed face-on it would resemble the shape that we most associate with spiral galaxies: the spectacular curving arms sweeping out from a bright centre, interspersed with dimmer, darker, less populated regions. But when observing the skies we are constrained by the relative alignments between Earth and the objects that we are observing: we cannot simply reposition Earth so that we can get a better face-on view of NGC 4423! Of course, celestial objects do not remain sedentary in space, but often move at extremely rapid velocities relative to one another. This might suggest that, should a galaxy be moving in a fortuitous direction relative to Earth, we might be able to view it from a substantially different perspective once it has moved far enough. This is theoretically possible, but the reality is that the distances in space are simply far too big, and human lifetimes far too short, for a noticeable difference in relative alignment to occur. In other words, this is more-or-less the view of NGC 4423 that we will always have!  [Image Description: A broad spiral galaxy is seen edge-on, so that its spiral arms can’t be seen. Visible dust and stars trace the disc of the galaxy, surrounded by a glowing halo above and below. The colour of the galaxy changes smoothly between the outer disc at the ends and the bulge in the centre. A few bright stars surround the galaxy on a dark background.]

Robert Dwayne Womack (/ˈwoʊmæk/; March 4, 1944 – June 27, 2014) was an American singer, musician and songwriter. Starting in the early 1950s as the lead singer of his family musical group the Valentinos and as Sam Cooke‘s backing guitarist, Womack’s career spanned more than 60 years and multiple styles, including R&B, jazz, soul, rock and roll, doo-wop, and gospel.

Womack was a prolific songwriter who wrote and originally recorded, (with his brothers, the Valentinos), the Rolling Stones‘ first UK number one hit (“It’s All Over Now“) and New Birth‘s “I Can Understand It“. As a singer, he is most notable for the hits “Lookin’ for a Love“, “That’s the Way I Feel About Cha“, “Woman’s Gotta Have It“, “Harry Hippie“, “Across 110th Street“, and his 1980s hits “If You Think You’re Lonely Now” and “I Wish He Didn’t Trust Me So Much“.

In 2009, Womack was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Womack was born in Cleveland‘s Fairfax neighborhood, near East 85th Street and Quincy Avenue, to Naomi Womack and Friendly Womack, the third of five sons. Friendly Jr. and Curtis were Bobby’s older brothers, and Harry and Cecil were his younger brothers. They all grew up in the Cleveland slums, so poor that the family would fish pig snouts out of the local supermarket’s trash. He had to share a bed with his brothers. His mother told him he could “sing his way out of the ghetto.” Recalling his childhood, Bobby said, “we came up very poor. My kids have had a much better life than I’d ever thought of livin,'” and, “the neighborhood was so ghetto that we didn’t bother the rats and they didn’t bother us.

Zenzile Miriam Makeba (4 March 1932 – 9 November 2008), nicknamed Mama Africa, was a South African singer, songwriter, actress, and civil rights activist. Associated with musical genres including Afropop, jazz, and world music, she was an advocate against apartheid and white-minority government in South Africa.

Born in Johannesburg to Swazi and Xhosa parents, Makeba was forced to find employment as a child after the death of her father. She had a brief and allegedly abusive first marriage at the age of 17, gave birth to her only child in 1950, and survived breast cancer. Her vocal talent had been recognized when she was a child, and she began singing professionally in the 1950s, with the Cuban Brothers, the Manhattan Brothers, and an all-woman group, the Skylarks, performing a mixture of jazz, traditional African melodies, and Western popular music. In 1959, Makeba had a brief role in the anti-apartheid film Come Back, Africa, which brought her international attention, and led to her performing in Venice, London, and New York City. In London, she met the American singer Harry Belafonte, who became a mentor and colleague. She moved to New York City, where she became immediately popular, and recorded her first solo album in 1960. Her attempt to return to South Africa that year for her mother’s funeral was prevented by the country’s government.

Makeba’s career flourished in the United States, and she released several albums and songs, her most popular being “Pata Pata” (1967). Along with Belafonte, she received a Grammy Award for Best Folk Recording for their 1965 album An Evening with Belafonte/Makeba. She testified against the South African government at the United Nations and became involved in the civil rights movement. She married Stokely Carmichael, a leader of the Black Panther Party, in 1968, and consequently lost support among white Americans. Her visa was revoked by the US government when she was traveling abroad, forcing her and Carmichael to relocate to Guinea. She continued to perform, mostly in African countries, including at several independence celebrations. She began to write and perform music more explicitly critical of apartheid; the 1977 song “Soweto Blues“, written by her former husband Hugh Masekela, was about the Soweto uprising. After apartheid was dismantled in 1990, Makeba returned to South Africa. She continued recording and performing, including a 1991 album with Nina Simone and Dizzy Gillespie, and appeared in the 1992 film Sarafina!. She was named an FAO Goodwill Ambassador in 1999, and campaigned for humanitarian causes. She died of a heart attack during a 2008 concert in Italy.

Makeba was among the first African musicians to receive worldwide recognition. She brought African music to a Western audience, and popularized the world music and Afropop genres. Despite her cosmopolitan background, she was frequently viewed by Western audiences as an embodiment of Africa: she was also seen as a style icon in both South Africa and the West. Makeba made popular several songs critical of apartheid, and became a symbol of opposition to the system, particularly after her right to return was revoked. Upon her death, former South African President Nelson Mandela said that “her music inspired a powerful sense of hope in all of us.”

NGC 125 (also known as PGC 1772) is a lenticular galaxy

Sh2-308, also designated as Sharpless 308, RCW 11, or LBN 1052, and commonly known as the Dolphin-Head Nebula, is an H II region located near the center of the constellation Canis Major, composed of ionised hydrogen. It is about 8 degrees south of Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky. The nebula is bubble-like and surrounds a Wolf–Rayet star named EZ Canis Majoris. This star is in the brief, pre-supernova phase of its stellar evolution. The nebula is about 4,530 light-years (1,389 parsecs) away from Earth, but some sources indicate that both the star and the nebula are up to 5,870 ly (1,800 pc) away.

RCW 16 NGC 2467, sometimes called the Mandrill nebula, is ionised by the ultrahot O3 V star HD 64568, the O6 IV subgiant HD 64315, and the B0 V star LSS 830, according to Avedisova. Besides the NGC 2467 star cluster itself, it includes the star clusters Haffner 18and Haffner 19. The bright foreground star on the far left of the image is the B8 IV subgiant HD 64455.

Lewis Allan Reed (March 2, 1942 – October 27, 2013) was an American musician and songwriter. He was the guitarist, singer, and principal songwriter for the rock band The Velvet Underground and had a solo career that spanned five decades. Although not commercially successful during its existence, the Velvet Underground became regarded as one of the most influential bands in the history of underground and alternative rock music. Reed’s distinctive deadpan voice, poetic and transgressive lyrics, and experimental guitar playing were trademarks throughout his long career.

Having played guitar and sung in doo-wop groups in high school, Reed studied poetry at Syracuse University under Delmore Schwartz, and served as a radio DJ, hosting a late-night avant garde musicprogram while at college. After graduating from Syracuse, he went to work for Pickwick Records in New York City, a low-budget record company that specialized in sound-alike recordings, as a songwriter and session musician. A fellow session player at Pickwick was John Cale; together with Sterling Morrison and Angus MacLise, they would form the Velvet Underground in 1965. After building a reputation on the avant garde music scene, they gained the attention of Andy Warhol, who became the band’s manager; they in turn became something of a fixture at The Factory, Warhol’s art studio, and served as his “house band” for various projects. The band released their first album, now with drummer Moe Tucker and featuring German singer Nico, in 1967, and parted ways with Warhol shortly thereafter. Following several lineup changes and three more little-heard albums, Reed quit the band in 1970.

After leaving the band, Reed would go on to a much more commercially successful solo career, releasing twenty solo studio albums. His second, Transformer (1972), was produced by David Bowie and arranged by Mick Ronson, and brought him mainstream recognition. The album is considered an influential landmark of the glam rock genre, anchored by Reed’s most successful single, “Walk on the Wild Side“. After Transformer, the less commercial but critically acclaimed Berlin peaked at No. 7 on the UK Albums Chart. Rock ‘n’ Roll Animal (a live album released in 1974) sold strongly, and Sally Can’t Dance (1974) peaked at No. 10 on the Billboard 200; but for a long period after, Reed’s work did not translate into sales, leading him deeper into drug addiction and alcoholism. Reed cleaned up in the early 1980s, and gradually returned to prominence with The Blue Mask (1982) and New Sensations (1984), reaching a critical and commercial career peak with his 1989 album New York.

Reed participated in the re-formation of the Velvet Underground in the 1990s, and he made several more albums, including a collaboration album with John Cale titled Songs for Drella, which was a tribute to their former mentor Andy Warhol. Magic and Loss (1992) would become Reed’s highest-charting album on the UK Albums Chart, peaking at No. 6.

He contributed music to two theatrical interpretations of 19th-century writers, one of which he developed into an album titled The Raven. He married his third wife Laurie Anderson in 2008, and recorded the collaboration album Lulu with Metallica. He died in 2013 of liver disease. Reed has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice: as a member of the Velvet Underground in 1996 and as a solo act in 2015.