Andrey Klimkovsky is a Russian composer working in the electronic music space. Musical images he created — «Music of Celestial Spheres», «Starry Sky», «ALEALA» and «DreamOcean» have become classics of the genre, gaining fame both in Russia and abroad. The musician regularly gives spectacular live concerts and collaborates with many other representatives of the Russian electronic scene, leads a popular community about synthesizers and workstations, participates in astronomical expeditions and practices a healthy lifestyle.
Galaxy M74 or NGC 628 is located in the Pisces constellation. Now astronomers know hundreds and thousands of galaxies within any constellation, but this galaxy is special.
Firstly, not many galaxies can be seen with your own eyes — it is visible in amateur telescopes. But it is visible at the limit — it is guessed when looking at it with peripheral vision, and it is for this feature that it received the name «Phantom Galaxy».
Secondly, the «Phantom Galaxy» M74 is a classic example of a spiral galaxy, which is visible from the Milky Way Galaxy in front — flat. Others — even closer and brighter "star cities" — the Andromeda Nebula, the Triangulum Galaxy, the Bode Galaxy in Ursa Major — all of them are visible in half a turn.
In recent years, the «Phantom Galaxy» has delighted scientists with supernova explosions three times — in 2002, in 2003 and in 2013. For astrophysicists, this is "just some kind of holiday." Thanks to a series of these events, the distance to the M74 galaxy was measured quite accurately — 35 million light years.
It is worth noting that the «Phantom Galaxy» itself is somewhat more modest than the Milky Way and the Andromeda Nebula. It contains about 100 billion stars (our Galaxy has about 200 billion stars), although it is only slightly smaller than the Milky Way in size.
«Manger» is one of the brightest star clusters in the earth's sky. It is inferior in brightness to the Pleiades and Hyades, but is one of the seven mysterious (obscure in appearance) celestial objects of the Almagest star catalog of Claudius Ptolemy, which means it has been known to people since ancient times.
This night the Moon will rise before midnight. It will move into Gemini constellation and will be close to the open stellar cluster M 35 (also known as NGC 2168). The open stellar cluster M 35 has an integral magnitude of about 5m, which means that under favorable conditions it can be seen by the eye. Indeed, this cluster has been known since ancient times. Its description , as a foggy spot resembling the sole of a sandal, is present in the astronomy textbook of the ancient Greek astronomer Geminos. Two thousand years later, in the middle of the 18th century, the cluster was independently rediscovered by Jean Philippe de Chezo (Swiss astronomer) and John Bevis (English astronomer and physician). Renowned French comet catcher Charles Messier listed the cluster as number 35 in his catalog of nebulous objects — the cluster has been best known by that number ever since.
Interestingly, M 35 is indeed located in the place of the Gemini constellation, where the impressionable priests and philosophers of the past saw the right foot of Castor — one of the characters in the Greek myth, due to the sudden death of which the Gemini constellation arose. So, the mention of the appearance of the accumulation in the form of a sole could have been inspired by mythical fantasies at that distant time.
The story of the Hyades is highly foggy, like an autumn morning in Greek Boeotia, when the radiance of the predawn stars melts in the rays of the rising Helios, but the clouds floating from the north bring only rain, and not the warmth of the passing summer...
Now no one will remember how many there were — star sisters born from the passionate love of the titan Atlas and the oceanid Aethra. Someone claims that there are only two, but there is a mention of fifteen daughters of the "Holder of Heaven" ... But are all of them Hyades? Of course not. After all, among the daughters of Atlas there were also the Pleiades and Hesperides. They also had a brother, Hyas. It was because of him that the very name of the Hyades arose — mourning about Hyas. Hyas was careless and died hunting. There are at least four culprits for his death — a huge boar, a ferocious lion, an angry lioness, a Libyan snake. His sisters could not come to terms with the loss of Hyas, wept bitterly day and night — so inconsolably that even the sky itself was moved, and began to shed tears along with the Hyades sisters.
The Moon continues to move through the constellation of Taurus, and will rise this evening not far from the open star cluster Hyades and the orange star Aldebaran, which heads this constellation.
In different locations on our planet, the visibility of the Moon's approach to the Hyades and Aldebaran will vary slightly. In Eastern Europe, moonrise will find the Moon exactly halfway between the Pleiades and the Hyades. Here, the Moon will gradually approach the Hyades and Aldebaran during the night, reaching its closest approach (8 degrees north — it's still far — not as close as the Moon approached the Pleiades last night) only at dawn.
In autumn they rise in the evening twilight. As the sky darkens and the autumn air fills with ringing coolness, they rise higher and higher. Their cold brilliant shine and slight shimmering catches the eye of a night traveler. It seems that they beckon to themselves, although they remain infinitely distant, indifferent to anyone who looks at them.
On the coming night, the Moon, waning after the full moon, will be near the Pleiades open star cluster — it will pass 3 degrees south.
The Pleiades is the most beautiful open star cluster in the northern sky. It is perfectly visible to the eye — even with the Moon, although if the Moon is very close, it will be more difficult to see the Pleiades — someone will not see them with the eye. But it will be possible to observe the approach of the Moon to the Pleiades with binoculars or a spyglass — both will fit perfectly in one field of view.
It is believed that people with average (normal vision) see 6-7 stars in the Pleiades. People with excellent vision see 10-12 stars in the Pleiades — on a moonless night, of course. And those observers, who have a dozen of the brightest stars in the whole sky without glasses, see only one in the Pleiades — the brightest — Alcyone. Alcyone is by far the most luxurious diamond in all this starry placer. By the way, usually people with a little myopia or farsightedness see the Pleiades as a small foggy cloud in the sky. There is even an opinion that the observation of the Pleiades, as well as astronomical observations in general, is a very effective means for improving vision. With each subsequent night, the observer's skills increase, and more and more stars become visible.
The moon moves along the ecliptic - along the zodiac constellations. The planets also move along the ecliptic. It can be assumed that the Moon sometimes covers the planets. And this happens. However, this is a rather rare event. This is due to the small size of the Moon - only half a degree, and the fact that the orbits of the Moon and the planets do not lie in the same plane - the angle between them is up to several degrees. And more often than not, the Moon misses.
10 years ago, this wonderful concert took place, and soon a DVD disc with its full recording was released:
«Music of Celestial Spheres in Moscow Planetarium»
Composer Andrey Klimkovsky and Friends
There were only three friends: Igor Kolesnikov, Olya Zemlyanika and your obedient servant.
But in the concert itself, and around it, a lot of people took part. I can’t remember everyone now, and I didn’t even know someone’s names then. The Moscow Planetarium is a very large organization, and holding concerts under its dome is a very massive event, both in terms of the number of spectators and the number of staff involved.
The full Moon will come at 23:55 Moscow time. This is actually a great luck. After all, most often we talk about the night closest to the full Moon, but the full Moon itself can happen in the morning or in the evening, or even the day before. And when we observe the Moon at night, it has either already passed the full Moon, or the full Moon has not yet come — in both cases, the Moon is not quite full.
My previous studio session, filmed with many summer sunrise photos, was very much enjoyed by my listeners. And I thought - why not to make something similar with this session of intuitive improvisational music. And I did it - I just threw out the video layer with the keyboard of the synthesizer and my hands - I left only the background. And you know - it's great!
On the night of October 8-9, 2022, the Moon will come close enough to the brightest planet in the autumn sky — Jupiter. Perhaps you already saw the Moon last night and not far from it a very bright luminary. On the net, I met a lot of questions about this: "What is the star next to the Moon?"
Jupiter is not a star, but a planet. True, this is the largest planet in the family of solar planets — Jupiter exceeds the Earth by more than 10 times in diameter and more than 300 times in mass. And its dense cloudy atmosphere reflects sunlight very well — that's why it is so bright. Moreover, now it is relatively close to the Earth, because a few days ago (September 27, 2022) the Great Opposition of Jupiter took place. Of course, the Great Oppositions of Jupiter are not as significant as the great oppositions of Mars — the red planet has a significant spread of distances in oppositions, while Jupiter has a very minor one. But still, it's nice to realize that this gas giant is now in a special way towards us. And one more thing — the Great Oppositions of Jupiter are not so rare — they happen once every 12 years (for Mars — once every 15/17 years).
This coming night, the Moon will pass just 2 degrees south of Jupiter. Both luminaries will fit within the field of view of binoculars, a tube, or even a small telescope. The moon will be almost full — phase: 98.5%.
Jupiter will also have a full phase — the other one cannot be seen from the Earth. The brightness of Jupiter will be -3m, the angular diameter is 50" — it does not happen more over. Everything that concerns Jupiter will be record-breaking this and the coming nights — and the distance too — 595 million km — is actually record-small.
Back in early summer 2022, Kurzweil announced the release of a new version of the Stage Electronic Piano “Kurzweil SP7”. There is a certain shortage of microprocessors in the world now, and perhaps that is why they are seriously talking about the new product only now.
But it all started with a song. It was written by my old friend, with whom we studied at the Moscow Planetarium. The song was dramatic in meaning, if did not say tragic. In eight verses, it was told how the hero of the story was thrown down here — on Earth — still he was very young, and all his life he cannot find a common language with the strange inhabitants of this planet — not the kindest creatures, to put it bluntly.
But then I took it as proof of the theory of the transmigration of Souls. Who knows, maybe the soul of the author of the song in the previous incarnation did not live here, and remembers other feelings and relationships between intelligent beings... Or maybe I am the same, since it hooked me so much...
Back in 1985, I tried to interpret the music of that song in my own way, written by the author with a guitar. But in the end, I wrote a lot of melodies that formed around the song into something larger in form — into a whole symphony... or just an album of instrumental music. But then I was 16 years old, and I didn’t record any albums then.
It's been a long ago. Some melodies were lost, forgotten. And the attitude to the plot of the song was greatly transformed. I began to consider it as evidence of spiritual growth.
The analogy is simple: children, while they are small, fit their own house and a playground nearby, but they don’t go to the playground near another house — it’s a stranger. And other children are often chased away with their own.
As a person grows up, he begins to associate himself with his city, country, planet ... and then the planet becomes small for him. Not all people, of course, from the first time live to such a level of self-acceptance as part of the Universe. But at some point, the question arises by itself: “Where did my Soul come from? — Did It really arise right here? And if I am the whole Universe, then my Soul has always been the whole Universe and manifested itself here only in order to put a point to growth trajectory — one of the points. And how many such points have already been? How many more will be?“
In the late 90s, this album reappeared in my musical plans. I expected to record it by 1999 — even the covers were printed. But then the recording did not take place. However, at least I rethought the musical basis again — I managed to remember something (after almost 15 years), and write something again. But I managed to approach the recording of the album «I was born not on the Earth» only in the mid of 00s. In the summer of 2007 the first half was completed and in August 2008 the album was finally released.
The original song sounds in the album in an instrumental form, of course, there are no chants here. But the irony is that later one of the melodies of the album «I Was Born not on the Earth» was used by the composer Victor Argonov for his electronic opera, and there it sounds like the main theme of the real song itself. And in general, the electronic opera «We, XXII century» can be considered as a logical continuation of the album «I was born not on the Earth». This is such an amazing thread.
Now the album «I was born not on the Earth» is fully uploaded on Youtube — you can listen and ask questions.
You can’t just talk about concerts at the Optical Theatre, the Museum of Astronautics, the Museum of the History of the Earth, but not talk about concerts at the Moscow Planetarium. There were three of them — in 2012-2013. But only one was recorded qualitatively — the middle one.
Probably, there is no need now to talk about how exciting the light show was on the largest dome-screen in Europe (the dome of the Moscow Planetarium is really the largest in Europe). But I consider it necessary to note the uniqueness of the musical component of that concert — each composition sounded in a completely unexpected playing, and new versions were prepared for some melodies. This became possible thanks to the participation in the concert of my colleague — musician and composer — Igor Kolesnikov, and an absolutely inimitable vocalist — Olga Zemlyanika. And although Olga participated in only two numbers, this concert is worth listening to only for her participation.
In 2013, the concert was released on CD, and now it has appeared on Youtube — you can listen (or you can watch — there is an indication of the DVD version in the description).
Friends, today — April 12 — the country in which I live — Russia — celebrates "Cosmonautics Day". It's strange — to wage war and be proud of space achievements at the same time. Personally, I can't understand it. But nevertheless, the first manned flight into space — it was performed by Yuri Gagarin in 1961 — is a world achievement, and our common big step into the Universe.
But on this day I decided to tell you a slightly different story — the story of the exploration of Venus by the space stations «Venera 13» and «Venera 14». There is a rather lengthy story about them in the description of this single.
It's hard to stop once you start playing Bach's music on the synthesizer.
The famous Prelude in C major that opens my new album «Delphinus» may sound different. This mini-single features two alternate versions. One of them is hidden - it is a bonus.
Friends, at this difficult time for our entire planet, I would like to wish all those living on Earth Peace, Friendship, constructive creativity, and all those people who are now in trouble, safe salvation and help, the symbol of which has long time been the Dolphin - good and a sentient being that we have underestimated for so long.
I want to remind you that dolphins are another civilization on our planet, which, unlike people, does not fight among themselves, has no territorial and racial claims to other dolphins. For its best qualities, the dolphin was ascended to heaven in the myths of ancient Greece, and became a constellation.
My new album is dedicated to the Delphinus constellation.
Let it become an outlet and comfort for someone, and give hope to someone.
Friends, for the past three days I have had an epiphany regarding the transformation of philosophical ideas into musical phrases ... okay, take it as a joke ... although, in every joke there is only a part of the funny, and the other part is serious. What if the path of Man in the Universe starts deep in the microcosm, and is directed to the stars and galaxies? We — none of us — certainly do not remember how we were once small atoms. But you don't have to remember.
It would not be superfluous to just think about it along with this music.
This is another five of the improvised studio tracks that are unlikely to be turned into anything finished. However, they listen quite well in this form. Besides, each melody here corresponds to this or that philosophical idea. This seems to be the richest studio session in mental and visual imagery. And also - it is the longest, which is not so important.
