mick laBriola

The Propeller Nebula (Simeis 57) is part of a vast and rich HII-region in Cygnus, known as Cygnus X Complex.
It was catalogued first in the early 1950s by astronomers at the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory at Simeiz, Ukraine, as the 57th object in a catalogue containing 306 HII regions.

The Propeller Nebula is often incorrectly referred as DWB 111, but DWB 111 identifies only the southern (lower) arm, while the northern one is DWB 119.
The DWB catalog, developed by H. R. Dickel, H. Wendker and J. H. Bieritz in 1969, cataloging 193 distinct objects as part of their study of Hα-emission nebula in the Cygnus X region of the sky.
The Propeller Nebula is probably about 5,500 light-years away from Earth.

This stunning JWST image of M104, also known as the Sombrero galaxy, is one of the largest mosaics ever assembled from JWST observations. The hallmark of the nearly edge-on galaxy is a brilliant, white, bulbous core encircled by thick dust lanes comprising the spiral structure of the galaxy. This dust lane is the site of star formation in the galaxy. The center of M104 is thought to be home to a massive black hole.

Hubble easily resolves the Sombrero galaxy’s rich system of globular clusters, estimated to be nearly 2,000 in number — 10 times more than the number of globular clusters in our Milky Way galaxy. The ages of the clusters are similar to those in the Milky Way, ranging from 10-13 billion years old. Embedded in the bright core of M104 is a smaller disk (not visible in the image), which is tilted relative to the large disk. X-ray emission suggests that there is material falling into the compact core, where a one-billion-solar-mass black hole resides.

With an apparent magnitude of 8, the Sombrero galaxy is beyond the limit of naked-eye visibility but can be spotted through small telescopes most easily during May. M104 is located 28 million light-years away in the constellation Virgo, and with a mass equal to 800 billion suns, it is one of the most massive objects in the Virgo galaxy cluster.

M104 was discovered in 1781 by the French astronomer and comet hunter Pierre Méchain, one of Charles Messier’s colleagues.

Leonard Bernstein (/ˈbɜːrnstaɪn/ BURN-styne; August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, pianist, music educator, author, and humanitarian. Considered to be one of the most important conductors of his time, he was the first American conductor to receive international acclaim. Bernstein was “one of the most prodigiously talented and successful musicians in American history” according to music critic Donal Henahan. Bernstein won seven Emmy Awards, two Tony Awards, 16 Grammy Awards including the Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Kennedy Center Honor.

As a composer, Bernstein wrote in many genres, including symphonic and orchestral music, ballet, film and theatre music, choral works, opera, chamber music, and pieces for the piano. His best-known work is the Broadway musical West Side Story, which continues to be regularly performed worldwide, and has been adapted into two (1961 and 2021) feature films. Bernstein’s works include three symphonies, Chichester Psalms, Serenade after Plato’s “Symposium”, the original score for the film On the Waterfront, and theater works including On the Town, Wonderful Town, Candide, and his Mass.

Bernstein was the first American-born conductor to lead a major American symphony orchestra. He was music director of the New York Philharmonic and conducted the world’s major orchestras, generating a significant legacy of audio and video recordings. Bernstein was also a critical figure in the modern revival of the music of Gustav Mahler, in whose music he was most passionately interested. A skilled pianist, Bernstein often conducted piano concertos from the keyboard. He was the first conductor to share and explore classical music on television with a mass audience. Through dozens of national and international broadcasts, including Young People’s Concerts with the New York Philharmonic, Bernstein sought to make music both intelligible and enjoyable to all. Through his educational efforts, including several books and the creation of two major international music festivals, Bernstein influenced several generations of young musicians.

A lifelong humanitarian, Bernstein worked in support of civil rights,  protested against the Vietnam War, advocated nuclear disarmament, raised money for HIV/AIDS research and awareness, and engaged in multiple international initiatives for human rights and world peace. He conducted Mahler‘s Resurrection Symphony to mark the death of president John F. Kennedy,  and in Israel at a world famous concert, Hatikvah on Mt. Scopus, after the 1967 war.^[14] The sequence of events was preserved for posterity in a documentary entitled Journey to Jerusalem.  At the end of his life, Bernstein conducted a historic performance of Beethoven‘s Symphony No. 9 in Berlin to celebrate the fall of the Berlin Wall. The concert was televised live, worldwide, on Christmas Day, 1989.

Born Louis Bernstein in Lawrence, Massachusetts, Bernstein was the son of Jewish parents, Jennie (née Resnick)  and Samuel Joseph Bernstein, both of whom immigrated to the United States from Rivne (now in Ukraine).

Wayne Shorter (August 25, 1933 – March 2, 2023) was an American jazz saxophonist, composer and bandleader. Shorter came to mainstream prominence in 1959 upon joining Art Blakey‘s Jazz Messengers, for whom he eventually became the primary composer. In 1964 he joined Miles Davis‘s Second Great Quintet, and then co-founded the jazz fusion band Weather Report in 1970. He recorded more than 20 albums as a bandleader.

Many Shorter compositions have become jazz standards, and his music has earned worldwide recognition, critical praise, and commendation. Shorter won 12 Grammy Awards. He was acclaimed for his mastery of the soprano saxophone since switching his focus from the tenor in the late 1960s and beginning an extended reign in 1970 as DownBeat‘s annual poll-winner on that instrument, winning the critics’ poll for 10 consecutive years and the readers’ for 18. The New York Times music critic Ben Ratliff described Shorter in 2008 as “probably jazz’s greatest living small-group composer and a contender for greatest living improviser”. In 2017, he was awarded the Polar Music Prize.

Wayne Shorter was born in Newark, New Jersey; the son of Louise and Joseph Shorter. He graduated from Newark Arts High School in 1952. He loved comic books and science fiction growing up, as well as music. Shorter was encouraged by his parents to take clarinet lessons at age 16 and then switched to tenor saxophone prior to enrolling at New York University in 1952. His older brother Alan played alto saxophonebefore switching to the trumpet in college. While in high school, Wayne also performed with the Nat Phipps Band in Newark. After graduating from New York University with a degree in music education in 1956, Shorter spent two years in the U.S. Army, during which time he played briefly with Horace Silver. After his discharge, he played with Maynard Ferguson. In his youth, Shorter had acquired the nickname “Mr. Gone”, which later became an album title for Weather Report.

NGC 6946, sometimes referred to as the Fireworks Galaxy, is a face-on intermediate spiral galaxywith a small bright nucleus, whose location in the sky straddles the boundary between the northernconstellations of Cepheus and Cygnus. Its distance from Earth is about 25.2 million light-years or 7.72 megaparsecs, similar to the distance of M101 (NGC 5457) in the constellation Ursa Major. Both were once considered to be part of the Local Group, but are now known to be among the dozen bright spiral galaxies near the Milky Way but beyond the confines of the Local Group. NGC 6946 lies within the Virgo Supercluster.