Okay, so it's not officially called "Galileo Year", but it should be. In commemoration of Galileo's lodestone that he pointed at the heavens in 1609, 2009 is going to be the International Year of Astronomy.
How do I know this?
Through the wonders of the streaming Internets. I still listen to KQED in San Francisco via their website, which is rad because WHYY in Phila... well, they can throw all the Marty Moss-Cowain they want at me, but give me Rachel Myrow and Michael Krazny over her any day, and twice on Sundays.
But back to the subject at hand: the International Year of Astronomy.
Astronomy is fascinating to me, ever since I learned about the 1919 eclipse experiment by A.S. Eddington that confirmed the theory of relativity. Matter really distorts space! Light bends according to the shape of space! Wacky! Wild! Awesome stuff!!!!
My Old bf in SF gave me a lovely book by Einstein that gives a popular recounting of the basics of relativity. How I miss him! (Einstein and Old bf, both. I haven't read any Einstein in maybe a year now.)
I ask myself, what should the International Year of Astronomy be? Shall we look for little green men? Shall we point the entire VLA in New Mexico at the North Star and see what we find?
I've always wanted to see the Southern Cross. I imagine people from Down Unda want to see the Big Dipper.
So strange that our skies look different above and below the equator.
What does the sky look like at the equator?
Random musings to start out this, the Galileo Year.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
I like looking at the stars. Unfortunately, I live where there are too many people, so it's not always easy.
I've been gazing at the stars since I was old enough to look at them through my Dad's telescope. Every time I travel somewhere I run outside at night to see what the stars look like. They were a little different when I lived in Hawaii compared to the continental US, but coming down here and looking up at the sky was really disorienting! I still can't name the constellations here. The Southern Cross is beautiful! I miss the Northern Star though... LOL
Post a Comment