Saturday, 2 December 2017

Astounding!

I was privileged to enjoy a special showing at the new Iziko Planetarium this morning, along with fellow Southern Star Party-goers. The young woman who did the presentation is an Associate Professor along with her partner in a similar position, and she gave an excellent talk at the Star Party, so we were all very keen to see what was to be presented.
It was obviously in scientific techno-talk (parsecs, data sets, etc.), so for a pleb like me it was very difficult to get my head around the immense and unimaginable distances referred to, but the depiction of the earth surrounded by every single satellite was astounding and makes it very obvious that we are now a planet entirely encased in a layer of man-made moons even if they are pin-pricks in comparison to the real thing.
The projection of a data set called Cosmos showed a pencil line extending from Earth (or maybe the Milky Way) to who knows where (it has to be seen) and is a map of every recorded galaxy in that minute piece of the universe. They showed data sets of infrared and cosmic webs that cannot be described.
The projection on the dome is almost overwhelming and I actually felt ill when hurtling through space, and when they asked if anyone was feeling seasick, I shouted YES and they immediately zoomed out, so it is obviously a side effect of space travel as well as earthly travel!!
So basically I'm trying to tell you that it is not possible to describe anything about what you will see. It has to be experienced. And after that, you will surely revise your beliefs and concepts of humans and their place in the universe.

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