Astronomy! Wow!
Ring Nebula. Not my photo. But I did see this.
Have you ever just went out and looked at the stars, I mean really looked? I’ve always been somewhat fascinated with them but more in an astrophysics sense than simple astronomy. I was always more interested in how the universe worked rather than how it looked. Supernovae were cool, constellations? Meh! But then we bought a telescope, an Orion 8′ Dobsonian to be precise. Let me tell you, it is truly too cool. We managed to get it out for the first real viewing Monday. The skies were clear and the little quiet area we found about twenty miles out of town was dark and wonderful.
After a bit of practice at finding what we were looking for, we saw wonderful things. Holy sheep shit, Batman! Fantastic things! Amazing things. In the words of my son, epic things. Globular clusters, open clusters, galaxies, planetary nebula,Venus. Beauty beyond imagination. Wow! It’s a slow scale fireworks of a magnitude incomprehensible to mere human minds. The universe is amazing and gorgeous, boggling really. We city dwellers forget what the Milky Way really looks like. We forget how small of a section of the universe we inhabit, that is, in fact, habitable at all. And for under $400 you can view it better than anyone ever did born before 17th century. We live in an amazing time, a time when the wonder of discovery is still open to anyone who puts in the time and effort but also a time when small investments in capital can yield fantastic results. We live in an age of wonders.
The fact saddens me that so many members of our species look back into an bronze age work of fiction for answers when the true beauty lies everywhere. If only they would buy a telescope and look.
And of course, think. Never our species’ strong suit, I’m afraid, in spite of all the beliefs to the contrary. Go out at night and look up. See the real creation story.
And they say science removes the wonder. How little they know. Did you ever read any of Isaac Asimov’s books of science essays? I think it was them that opened my eyes to the sheer grandeur of it all. And then there’s:
“Space is big. You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it’s a long way down the road to the chemist’s, but that’s just peanuts to space.”
…which isn’t only funny but true, too. It’s Douglas Adams, btw, for anyone who doesn’t know.
On a final note … You own a telescope. I’m about to throw a jealousy fit. There will be tears and screams, I promise. Toys will fly!
One of your most inspiring posts KK. Love it. Sagan will be smiling in his grave.
How old are you, Daz?
I’m 68. I cut my science teeth on Asimov’s non-fiction in my teens and 20′s. The Human Body, The Human Brain, Only a Trillion.
He even did a bible critique. But he seemed afraid to offend anyone. Not as good as KK’s I have to say.
Hear that, KK? You are doing better than Asimov did on the same topic. Of course, that was a different day. This stuff could not have been published then.
The times they are a-changin’.
I am humbly honored Mr. Capps.
Mr. Asimov was writing in a much less tolerant time. As annoying as we think it is today, people 30 to 40 years ago weren’t accustomed to people trashing their holy text. He also had a huge fan base which he didn’t want to alienate because punching them in the metaphorical face when they are expecting something else may not have been as productive as he really was in this endeavor. Personally, I view Asimov as a necessary step to where we are now. I think he did wonders for promoting our way of thinking.
That said, I’m honored you think I’m doing better. It’s the comedy. For all his ground breaking work, Asimov was never a comedian.
Hello Amos. I’m 42. I also cut my science teeth on Asimov. Mostly it was his collected Science fact essays from The Magazine Of Fantasy And SF, but I remember a dog-eared second-hand copy of Wonders Of The Solar System, too. Him, Clarke and Heinlein were, and I suppose still are to an extent, the central triad around which my SF zodiac revolves.
I’m actually in the process of reading Asimov’s Guide To The Bible as we speak! Picked it up in a second-hand book shop the other week. To be fair to him, it’s not really intended as a critique. It’s more of an attempt to look at the historical basis of the events, where there are any, and to put them into context of the surrounding history that we *do* know something about.
Now all I need to do is get my hands on his Guide To Shakespeare…
Forgot to click the Notify button.
@Mr. Capps–KK does have a way of saying what I suspect most of wish we could say, doesn’t he:))
KK–how did I miss this post? Oh! Right before going home for a month–I was packing madly. Did you know that you posted this on Tanabata? 7/7 is the Star Festival in Japan–the seventh day of the seventh lunisolar month is when the lovers Orihime (Vega) and Hikoboshi (Altair) meet on opposite sides of Heaven’s River (“Ama no Gawa”= the Milky Way). A very appropriate post, indeed:))