Hen's Wings

A pair of blue wings is hovering against the inky black covering within ‘Little Fox’ constellation of Vulpecula designation, portrayed with stipple sidereal in Hubble image ethereal, ‘Hen two dash four three seven’ labeled. A hen with fox is Aesop fabled, except it was really a crow in that apologue still apropos where pride overcame the bird’s good sense, so fox got the food through the pretense of disparaging its corvine caw; thus the crow dropped the cheese from its jaw. There are many stories much the same. In Middle Ages the bird became chanticleer; Chaucer’s ‘Canterbury Tales’ has one that warns to be wary of flattery false and specious praise, since fox on inflated ego plays with rooster to hear his special cry, hence to distract and snatch him thereby. Yet fox falls prey to his own conceit, and chanticleer flees to tree retreat. But coming back to high-flying hen which Hubble’s scope brought within our ken, this nebula with glowing surround was by stargazer Minkowski found then by Henize later catalogued as nebula with the name befogged in misleading term planetary, for that title is quite contrary to remnant of an imploded star, which is indeed what those objects are. As shown by the wings, it’s bipolar, cast off from a star like ours solar which nearing end of its astral span swelled to red giant’s flash in the pan then sent forth its layers into space, as a white dwarf for core took its place… And yet my inspiration’s essence came from the alae’s luminescence seen in this vast stelliferous sight against the canvas of cosmic night. Still, one might fancy those whizzing wings borne by empyreal bird that sings melodies wafted amidst the spheres only a starry-eyed poet hears. ~ Harley White * * * * * * * * * The image and info can be found by looking up Hen 2-437 on the net.