For Global Astronomy Month 2020 (272): Inertia of Inertia (118)

By Andrei Dorian Gheorghe (text and photos) and Florin Alexandru Stancu (design)

Published: Tuesday, September 22 2020 19:44

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THE MAN WITH AN ASTRONOMICAL LUNETTE
Astro-photo-poem (cosmopoem) by Andrei Dorian Gheorghe

The square of the Military Circle
(a superb palace made around 1910 -
architect Dimitrie Maimarolu)
had a courageous hero
who opposed the free lights of the sky
to a repressive system: a man
with long black hair in the interwar period
and long white hair after World War II,
who came here daily with a lunette
(from “Little Moon” in French)
to show the Moon and other heavenly bodies
to the general public
(until he disappeared without a trace in the 1970s).

Although the totalitarian regime (1948-1989)
almost banned amateur astronomy in Romania
(sometimes only allowing
small controlled groups of sky lovers),
he was not arrested for “agitation”
just because he had already become
part of the scenery.

I re-visited that square on August 22, 2020,
and I admired its beautiful old buildings
from the 19th century:
hotels (Boulevard and Capitol)
and the Capsa House
(the Romanian traditional meeting place for
aristocrats, intellectuals, writers and artists).

Unfortunately,
just the symbol building of the square
was under renovation.

Only a tower and the Little Moon remembered
the legend of “the man with a lunette”,
for whom I’ll make a monument
when I become
the mayor of Bucharest.