HTownHero: Thanks for posting those beautiful pictures. It's easy to forget how amazing the universe is.
Those are beautiful pictures -- what an amazing sight right in our own galactic backyard. I got a six inch telescope for Christmas about five years ago. I remember the first night I took it out in the yard and pointed it up at Saturn -- I'd never looked through a telescope before, so I didn't know what to expect. I was blown away! Even though it was very tiny, I could see it right there rings and all, just like you always see it in pictures and drawings. It was so perfect, it didn't look real. It's still one of my favorite things to watch at night.
Thanks, Htownhero. Wow! The series where they show the ultraviolet, visible and infrared photos are stunning. The shot with visible light makes you think of how it would look up close and personal. Someday, we'll explore the Saturn and Jupiter systems. I hope my kids are around to see it. I used to think I would be. It would take an unforeseen scientific breakthrough for that to happen now. Some of you can never understand how far advanced so many people thought we would be by now regarding space travel. The space technology Arthur C. Clarke used in "2001: A Space Odyssey" didn't seem that farfetched 35 years ago. Clarke's Third Law: "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." Clarke's 69th. Law: "Reading computer manuals without the hardware is as frustrating as reading sex manuals without the software."
Yeah, I got a six-inch reflector telescope last year, and it's changed the way I see everything. Our "galactic backyard" (love that phrase!) is simply breathtaking. And, gazing from the shores of an endless cosmic ocean puts a bad day in context, too! Astronomy is a very humbling endeavor, that's for sure!
Twenty three and so tired of life Such a shame to throw it all away The images grow darker still Could I have been anyone other than me? Then I Look up at the sky My mouth is open wide, lick and taste What's the use in worrying, what's the use in hurrying Turn, turn we almost become dizzy -- Dave Matthews Band, Dancing Nancies Lying on the roof counting The stars that fill the sky I wonder if Someone in the heavens looking back down on me – I’ll never know So much space to believe Funny when you’re small The moon follows the car There’s no one but you see Hey, the moon is chasing me I worried if I looked away she’d be gone Don’t lose the dreams inside your head They’ll only be there til you’re dead Dream -- Dave Matthews Band, You Never Know
I was crusing around that site and found the link to live feeds from the telescope. Check this stuff out. Amazing!! So beautiful, yet so mysterious.
Great, now I have that song stuck in my head -- Interplanet Janet she's a galaxy girl, she comes to our solar system from a future world-- or something like that.
