Attend Full Moon Picnic Wed June 11 at 9:30 PM middle of Pont des Arts

Ahoy there,

The next Full Moon Picnic will be Wednesday June 11 from 9:30 PM until 11:30 PM. Moonrise will be around 11:05 PM - a night owl special this time. Sunset will be around 9:50 PM

June was known to American Indians for the Full Strawberry Moon because this is the time to pick strawberries. (I pick mine in the market.) In Europe it was known for the Rose Moon.

WHAT: Everyone brings food and drinks to share.

WHERE: Pont des Arts. We'll gather around the 2nd bench from the Left Bank side of the bridge. Nearest metros: Pont Neuf and Louvre-Rivoli.

WHEN: Wednesday 11 June 9:30 PM - 11:30 PM

WHY: Share one of the most memorable sights in Paris with some of the nicest people around.

WHO: You and your friends.

HOW to find us: Keep your eyes out for a small white telescope on tripod if the sky is clear and a group of "lunatics" gathered around the 3rd bench from the Right Bank laughing and speaking English and French.

THEME: Strawberries and roses

BIRTHDAYS: Are you a Gemini? If so, let me know so we can celebrate your birthday this month and blow out the world’s largest birthday candle.

PUZZLER: Are we on a collision course?

PUZZLER ANSWER:
Yes. The details depend on what scale you look at. But no matter where you look it seems like we’re headed for big collisions everywhere. In the short term political and international confrontations at hot spots around the globe seem poised to explode like Mount Etna. Look at India and Pakistan. No, I mean in the long term. Much longer. The India(n) tectonic plate is in the middle of a high speed real-time crash subducting under the Eurasian plate. The collision started tens of millions of years ago pushing up the Himalayas and continues today. Pakistan is split between the two plates and recent data suggests the India plate may split in two (as India has already done with its political boundaries creating Pakistan. What goes around comes around?)

Step back and change the scale again. Armageddon is approaching in the form of Milkomeda. That’s the name for the result of the seemingly inevitable collision between our galaxy the Milky Way and our nearest neighboring galaxy Andromeda, 5 billion years from now, destroying both.

Wait. Stand by. I’ve just received a cosmic news flash. This just in….there’s good news and bad news, according to the study published in Nature Astronomy this week. Turns out that the odds have turned in our favor. Astronomers now say there’s a 50/50 chance the Milky Way and Andromeda may merely experience a close fly by. Good news! And it won’t happen for 10 billion years! Fifty/fifty? Come on gentlemen, let's get this figured out. It’s hard to sleep at night with so much uncertainty and chaos. (Oops, I promised not to bring up Trump.)

Speaking of Oops, did I mention there’s bad news also? Turns out the reason we don’t have to worry one way or the other about galactic collisions is a question of scale.We need scale back now and look closer to home. In a mere 5 billion years our little star, the Sun, will begin to die. It will expand gigantically engulfing Mercury, Venus and possibly Earth. Even if our little blue marble isn't swallowed by the sun, it will turn into a burnt ember.

“Thanks for this depressing puzzle, Bob.”
Not at all. I’m currently in Switzerland visiting an amazing magical chateau (www.liboson.ch/) and an even more amazing friend, Paul du Marchie, a sort of medieval philosopher of the cosmos. He just turned 102 years old, still as sharp and enthusiastic about his ideas as ever. (Some of you were at our Pont des Arts picnic two years ago when we recorded a full moon birthday video for him for Paul's 100th.) He’s not demoralized by the looming void of nothing but instead is astonished that there is something at all. He is only discourage that so few humans delight daily in the natural beauty around them. We are the only ones who can appreciate our rare little corner of this universe. Let’s not waste this miraculous moment distracted by the small stuff.

[https://edition.cnn.com/2025/06/02/science/milky-way-andromeda-galaxy-collision#:~:text=After factoring in the gravitational,the next 10 billion years](https://edition.cnn.com/2025/06/02/science/milky-way-andromeda-galaxy-collision#:~:text=After%20factoring%20in%20the%20gravitational,the%20next%2010%20billion%20years)

ciao for niao,
Captain Bob