Are you in the market for some HOT property?

(Play along with me here).

There’s a woman in Spain who has a sizzling deal for you.

Let’s just say that her idea of real estate gives “outpost” a whole new meaning …

More like, ah, Outer Limits.

Photo by Brocken Inaglory via Wikimedia Commons

Maria Angeles Duran of Madrid, age 54, is subdividing the sun.

Yes, that’s right—THE sun.

Photo by Zach Dischner via Wikimedia Commons

You’re probably waiting for the punch line, but this isn’t a joke.

Apparently, Duran has been selling 11-square-foot parcels of prime solar property (which she claims to own) for about $1 apiece … on (you guessed it) eBay.

The global marketplace just went intergalactic.

But, wait …

How, exactly, does one take possession of the sun?

(Where there’s a will …)

Duran staked her claim to the fiery frontier by way of a loophole in the UN’s Outer Space Treaty, which states that no nation can own a heavenly body.

Now you know.

The treaty, however, says nothing about individual celestial tenure.

Duran, quite simply, called dibs.

According to various online sources, she accrued some 600 online orders before “the powers-that-Bay” suspected a scam and, dashing many a dream, suspended Duran’s account.

Incensed at what she perceives as injustice, Duran is now suing eBay for damages, and a court in Madrid will consider her case to determine if eBay violated the terms of its seller agreement.

As for ownership of the sun, the verdict is still out—WAY out.

And Duran is purportedly still selling pieces of the ultimate pyromaniac’s paradise on her own website.

Get ’em while they’re hot!

We’ve all seen rainbows, right?

Photo by Donald Macauley from Carshalton, Surrey, UK via Wikimedia Commons

I count myself lucky each time I spy a ribbon of colors stretching to touch a rain-freshened sky. If I happen to be with my bedazzled grandgirls, I feel extra blessed, because their young eyes still shine with surprise.

My question to you is …

Have you ever seen a moonbow?

Photo of a moonbow at the lower Yosemite Falls by Brocken Inaglory via Wikimedia Commons

Look closely at the photo—those are stars in the sky. And yet, somehow, a rainbow (no, MOONbow) arches across the scene below.

This marvelous and seemingly mystical phenomenon is not a figment of fairy tales.

“A moonbow (also known as a lunar rainbow or white rainbow) is a rainbow produced by light reflected off the surface of the moon (as opposed to direct sunlight) refracting off of moisture-laden clouds in the atmosphere. Moonbows are relatively faint, due to the smaller amount of light reflected from the surface of the moon. They are always in the opposite part of the sky from the moon,” explain the worldly wizards of Wikipedia. “Because the light is usually too faint to excite the cone color receptors in human eyes, it is difficult for the human eye to discern colors in a moonbow. As a result, they often appear to be white. However, the colors in a moonbow do appear in long exposure photographs.”

As we can see in the photo above and this stunning scene from Victoria Falls in Zambia:

Photo courtesy Calvin Bradshaw (calvinbradshaw.com) via Wikimedia Commons

Oooohhhh …

Personally, I’d be giddy as a grandgirl to get a glimpse of a white moonbow, wouldn’t you?

Our best chance to catch a moonbow would be when the moon is at or very near a bright full moon. Ideally, the moon must be low in a very dark night sky, which is only likely to occur a couple of hours before sunrise or after sunset.

“Of course,” Wiki reminds us, “There must be rain falling opposite the moon.”

And a unicorn in your pocket.

Who knows?

It could happen.