Look at the Heavens: Unveiling New Wonders Through Science & Poetry

[honestrosewater]

What do you guys think about when you look at the sky, sun, stars, other heavenly bodies? I think about lots of things: various connections to legend, literature, and science; what's out there that I can't see; which stars are still there; 'the stage is too big for the drama'; someone or something may be up there looking back at me, so I should probably put some clothes on; what do other people think about when they look at the sky; if I ask the question in GD will anyone give me a serious answer...

... which reminds me of something else:

Poets say science takes away from the beauty of the stars— mere globs of gas atoms. Nothing is 'mere'. I too can see the stars on a desert night, and feel them. But do I see less or more? The vastness of the heavens stretches my imagination— stuck on this carousel my little eye can catch one-million-year-old light. A vast pattern— of which I am a part... What is the pattern or the meaning or the why? It does not do harm to the mystery to know a little more about it. For far more marvelous is the truth than any artists of the past imagined it. Why do the poets of the present not speak of it? What men are poets who can speak of Jupiter if he were a man, but if he is an immense spinning sphere of methane and ammonia must be silent.
- http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Richard_Feynman

Has anyone's view of the Heavens changed as you've learned more about science (astronomers/cosmologists especially)? Do you now see less or more?
I've been playing around with a poem comparing different fates of the universe to fates of men. Maybe some day I won't have to humanize these things to make them meaningful. Does an immense spinning sphere of methane and ammonia move any of you? I feel the wonder and amazement - what else am I missing?

 

[ranger]

I'm still trying to comprehen that all of these things, these celestial bodies really exits. It all looks so surreal to me. http://www.eso.org/outreach/gallery/vlt/images/Top20/Top20/topvlt.html pictures look too good to be true.

 

[hypatia]

When I look at the sky, sometimes{depending on where I am} it makes me feel like have gone back in time. That perhaps a 1,000 years ago, someone stood on this exact spot, and saw the same thing. I think back to a time when you lived off the earth, not lived on it.

 

[matthyaouw]

When my understanding or something increases, it doesn't take away my ability to enjoy its beauty. Even though when I look at a view, i can maybe identify most of the geological and geographical processes that shaped the landscape to what it is, I can still sit in wonderment at the spectacle before me and think nothing more than 'wow'. At the same time, it can make things seem even more impressive to me when I know more about them. I can hold some wonder in knowing that the landscape infront of me started life as a tropical sea, then a mountain range as high as the andes, and was then buried in ice up to almost its highest point, before becoming what I see. I've deviated from the sky theme a bit, but that's because I know precious little about astronomy. The same holds true about the sky though- it doesn't matter that I know what a shooting star is; it is still beautiful. If anything, knowing that the universe is as big as it is, and I could be seeing stars as they were a million years ago only makes it more amazing.

This thread has made me realize I don't look at the night sky enough. Damn street lights. It's just not the same here as some of the places I've been.

 

[Astronuc]

I look at the stars and other bodies, e.g. planets, nebulae, galaxies (it helps to have binoculars or telecsope), and wonder what's out there, who is out there, how much we don't see, how does it all work, and how beautiful each and the whole are.

I enjoy observational astronomy, and I like the quiet of the night, when I just sit or stand and look at the stars, etc.

I also take pictures of clouds and the sky, especially at sunrise or sunset.

 

[matthyaouw]

I saw a shooting star a few minutes ago, for the first time in a year or so. Still beautiful...

 

[cefarix]

I always focus on Mars and say "I'm going to be there someday"

 

[zanazzi78]

I, like Astronuc, enjoy Obsevational Astronomy.

I tend not to think too much when Observing, for me it`s an escape from the real world pressures, I normally spent half the night trying to capture images of the object i find, which focuses the mind and helps my relax and the other half locating new features and familerising myself with the seasons sky.

I often find myself question how and why the universe is the way it is and enjoying the beauty that nature has created.