Το σύμπαν της τέχνης και οι τέχνες τ' ουρανού

[kkokkolis]

Galactic Center, Rolf Wahl Olsen, 1998

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SuperNova, Rolf Wahl Olsen, 1998

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Arch, Rolf Wahl Olsen, 1999

[kkokkolis]

Uranus set fra Ariel, Rolf Wahl Olsen, 2001

[kkokkolis]

A Soliloquy of the Full Moon, She Being in a Mad Passion, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 1800

 

Now as Heaven is my Lot, they're the Pests of the Nation !

Wherever they can come

With clankum and blankum

'Tis all Botheration, & Hell & Damnation,

With fun, jeering

Conjuring

Sky-staring,

Loungering,

And still to the tune of Transmogrification --

Those muttering

Spluttering

Ventriloquogusty

Poets

With no Hats

Or Hats that are rusty.

They're my Torment and Curse

And harass me worse

And bait me and bay me, far sorer I vow

Than the Screech of the Owl

Or the witch-wolf's long howl,

Or sheep-killing Butcher-dog's inward Bow wow

For me they all spite -- an unfortunate Wight.

And the very first moment that I came to Light

A Rascal call'd Voss the more to his scandal,

Turn'd me into a sickle with never a handle.

A Night or two after a worse Rogue there came,

The head of the Gang, one Wordsworth by name --

`Ho! What's in the wind ?' 'Tis the voice of a Wizzard !

I saw him look at me most terribly blue !

He was hunting for witch-rhymes from great A to Izzard,

And soon as he'd found them made no more ado

But chang'd me at once to a little Canoe.

From this strange Enchantment uncharm'd by degrees

I began to take courage & hop'd for some Ease,

When one Coleridge, a Raff of the self-same Banditti

Past by--& intending no doubt to be witty,

Because I'd th' ill-fortune his taste to displease,

He turn'd up his nose,

And in pitiful Prose

Made me into the half of a small Cheshire Cheese.

Well, a night or two past -- it was wind, rain & hail --

And I ventur'd abroad in a thick Cloak & veil --

But the very first Evening he saw me again

The last mentioned Ruffian popp'd out of his Den --

I was resting a moment on the bare edge of Naddle

I fancy the sight of me turn'd his Brains addle --

For what was I now ?

A complete Barley-mow

And when I climb'd higher he made a long leg,

And chang'd me at once to an Ostrich's Egg --

But now Heaven be praised in contempt of the Loon,

I am I myself I, the jolly full Moon.

Yet my heart is still fluttering --

For I heard the Rogue muttering --

He was hulking and skulking at the skirt of a Wood

When lightly & brightly on tip-toe I stood

On the long level Line of a motionless Cloud

And ho! what a Skittle-ground! quoth he aloud

And wish'd from his heart nine Nine-pins to see

In brightness & size just proportion'd to me.

So I fear'd from my soul,

That he'd make me a Bowl,

But in spite of his spite

This was more than his might

And still Heaven be prais'd! in contempt of the Loon

I am I myself I, the jolly full Moon.

[kkokkolis]

Leica Zoom APO Televid WW ASPH Eyepiece 25-50x82mm

[kkokkolis]

Leica Aspheric Zoom 25x-50x, 18-9mm, 60-80 degree

[kkokkolis]

Artes Liberales, Astronomia et Ptolemaeus, 15ος αιώνας

 

Unibibliotek Salzburg

[kkokkolis]

This too shall pass, psnt.net (positive science | negative theology), Paul Wallace, Jun 07 2010

 

During my last few years as an astronomy professor, I started off the first day by walking to the front of the class and writing the following on the board:

 

ASTRONOMY IS A WASTE OF TIME.

 

I then ask: Why might this be true? The idea is to short-circuit some of their inevitable concerns up front, to adjust their expectations, and to motivate them. Once they see that I’m serious the students relax a little and the conversation begins to flow.

 

A common answer is: Astronomy is useless. This is true. Not that it is not wholly without use; our understanding of the Sun’s workings and of the orbits of near-Earth asteroids may one day be most helpful. Astronomy was once very useful for navigation, hence trade. Also for calendry and for certain religious purposes like setting the date for Easter. Routine uses of astronomy today tend to be highly specialized and have to do largely with ultra-precise reckoning of time. So it has its utility. But only a fraction of astronomy is concerned with the Sun or the orbital dynamics of bodies housed within the inner Solar System, and even within that fence much is clearly impractical. Astronomical science is almost wholly occupied with stuff that has no pragmatic bearing whatsoever: Saturn’s auroras, galactic evolution, quasars, cosmology. Arguments like No one foresaw the uses of the laser are familiar. And it is true that we cannot know now what we will need to know in the future. But if one were to order the sciences using any conceivable measure of usefulness, astronomy would come in at the bottom with plenty of daylight between it and the rest of the pack.

 

There have been other predictable answers, such as: Astronomy is expensive. This is also true. American astronomy is funded through two pipes: NASA and the NSF. For a good time, browse the 2011 NASA Science Mission Directorate and 2010 NSF astronomy budgets. You’ll get the idea.

 

These two answers were expected. But there was another popular answer that I was wholly unprepared for: Astronomy is depressing. Usually what the student had in mind is that we’re small compared to the cosmos. This is true. To say that the Earth is a drop in the ocean of space is so frantically understated as to be laughable. We would need to compare a single drop of water to 10^30 Pacific Oceans to get a decent comparison. (The number 10^30 is the same as the number 1 followed by 30 zeros.) And this takes into account only the visible universe. We have good reasons to suspect that there’s much more of it that we can’t see, that we will never be able to see.

 

What students are generally less aware of is that things appear to be winding down. The Sun is not immortal. It will die in a few billion years, and when it does the Earth will be cooked, its life extinguished and its oceans vaporized. Who knows where we will be by then. It seems unlikely that we will make it that far, because we have a lot more to cope with than ourselves and our toxic combination of violent tendencies and nightmarish weapons. Catastrophic meteorite impacts await us in the next million years, to say nothing of the next billion. Also dramatic climate changes. If we make it through and leave the Solar System behind before the Sun’s final gasp, we will no longer appear human by today’s standard. The pressures of evolution and biotechnology will see to that. But even if we make it we won’t make it, because the universe itself is dying. Currently astronomers think it’s headed for the ultimate freezeout. In this scenario the entire cosmos will continue in its current expansion into an infinite future, its ambient temperature on a one-way descent toward absolute zero, its dynamism lost in a total washout of physical structure. There are other possibilities, but all of them lead to a single conclusion: Humanity will not prevail against nature.

 

Thus I concede, at least partially. Astronomy can be depressing. But you know what? It’s just a reminder of what everyone already knows but doesn’t want to know: This too shall pass.

 

This fact of life occurred to me first when I was about twelve. Carl Sagan‘s Cosmos had just been published and Dad had a copy. In it was a series of four paintings of a single locale. The first one was edenic: A bright array of living things grew alongside an expanse of incandescent blue water. The scene was lit by a perfectly yellow sun. As the series progressed the sun became orange and bloated enormously. Life disappeared and the ocean with it. In the end the blooming prospect was reduced to a wasteland ruled over by a hideous red orb. Here is the caption. I read it over and over.

 

The death of the Earth and Sun. Several billion years from now, there will be a last perfect day. Then, over a period of millions of years, the Sun will swell, the Earth will heat, many lifeforms will be extinguished, and the shoreline will retreat. The oceans will rapidly evaporate and the atmosphere will escape to space. As the Sun evolves toward a red giant, the Earth will become dry, barren, and airless. Eventually the Sun will fill most of the sky, and may engulf the Earth.

 

Clearly death awaited the world. A last perfect day. The words alarmed me. But I also felt the pull of a strange curiosity. Billions of years. No one I knew would be alive. But I looked around and tried to set the particulars of my environment into relation with the coming apocalypse. Even then the interstate freeways around Atlanta were crowded with cars, and I wondered when and under what circumstances those roads would be emptied. At the time the seventy-two-story Westin Peachtree Plaza was the city’s tallest building. To me it was monumental. I had watched it rise. When would it fall? Would it stand until the Sun melted it? One day it occurred to me with supreme force that, as a fact, my family’s house would crumble eventually. I stood outside with my nose three inches from the wall and wondered when the bricks, those bricks right there, would be separated from one another. Because, as a fact, they would be. On what exact calendar date? What would the weather be like on that day? Would there be clouds? If so, what would their configuration be at the precise moment of separation?

 

Heavy thoughts for a 12-year-old, maybe, but it’s real and we spend a lot of time avoiding the fact that things — all things — fall apart. Pragmatists ever, the Buddhists are keenly aware of this and even have a special word — anicca — to express this fact of life. It is one of the three interrelated marks of existence, the other two being dukkha and anatta. Dukkha refers to suffering. Indeed, suffering is a fact. I don’t think I need to convince anyone of this. Anatta, or “not-self,” refers to the idea that there there is no permanent self, that all phenomena — the earth, the sun, trees, ourselves — possess no true, everlasting essence. It is for that reason that we should not cling to anything: not material goods, not status, not nature, not education, not even life itself.

 

My New Testament professor, Luke Timothy Johnson, once said that of all major religions he preferred Christainity and Buddhism because only these two displayed an appropriate level of cynicism regarding our human station. I laughed when he said that but I wrote it down in the margin of my notes, thinking: I need to remember this.

 

What happens when one really embraces one’s impermanence? Does one commit suicide? Does one come to understand Jesus? Does one wake up? Or does one, to paraphrase Walker Percy, live happily ever after precisely because one does not have to?

[kkokkolis]

Ουράνια Σφαίρα, Copperleaf Studios, 2010

[kkokkolis]

Αστρονομικά Όργανα, Copperleaf Studios, 2010

[kkokkolis]

Voyager 2, Copperleaf Studios, 2010

[kkokkolis]

Αστρονομική Συσκευή, Copperleaf Studios, 2010

[kkokkolis]

De Motis Stelle Martis, Copperleaf Studios, 2010

[kkokkolis]

Πτολεμαϊκό Σύστημα, Copperleaf Studios, 2010

[kkokkolis]

Έκλειψη, Copperleaf Studios, 2010

[kkokkolis]

Βαρύτητα, Copperleaf Studios, 2010

[kkokkolis]

Luna, Copperleaf Studios, 2010

[kkokkolis]

Σελήνη, Copperleaf Studios, 2010

[kkokkolis]

Παράλλαξη, Copperleaf Studios, 2010

 

Όλα τα χαρακτικά σε μπρούτζο και τσίγκο.

[kkokkolis]

Hertzprung-Russell diagram, Nerd Art, Electricboogaloo

 

[kkokkolis]

Astronomy, John Rush

[kkokkolis]

Celestial, model Ref 5106, Patek Philippe, 2009

[wereniki]

"Η μοναξιά του Δον Κιχώτη"

 

Στίχοι: Sadahzinia

Μουσική: Active Member

Πρώτη εκτέλεση: Sadahzinia & B.D. Foxmoor, Μιχάλης Μυτακίδης ( Ντουέτο )

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMqG9bavaDE

 

Όλη η ζωή του ένας παραπονιάρης μύθος τυλιγμένος

στου νου του την ανέμη και στου ονείρου την απόχη

κι αυτός στ' άλογο με τα όπλα του στο στήθος φορτωμένος

περνάει κι όλοι γιουχάρουν "Δον Κιχώτη".

Λαμποκοπάει το μάτι του ρουμπίνι.

Το γένι του απλωτό ζερβόδεξά του

με το 'να χέρι χαιρετά, με τ' άλλο ξύνει

το χάρτινο καπέλο φορεμένο στα μαλλιά του.

Με βια ανεβαίνει ως τη ψηλή κορφή του λόφου

κι όλο κοιτάει με φαντασία τον κόσμο γύρω.

"Πάμε", φωνάζει ξάφνου στο βοηθό του,

"πάμε, του ιππότη τράβηξα τον κλήρο".

Τι να 'ναι το πιο δύσκολο σε τούτη εδώ την πλάση;

Αυτό ζητάει η καρδιά του ν'αλαφρώσει.

Να φέρει ανάσκελα το κόσμο από τη βάση

Που ν' αρχινήσει και τι να πρωτοσώσει

Τ'άγρια πουλιά να φέρει πίσω που έχουν μείνει

δίχως φωλιές μέσα στα ολόδικά τους δάση...

Κράτα τη φλόγα, παλληκάρι και θα γίνει•

της χήρας γης η ελπίδα εσύ κι η βιάση.

 

Φυσάει ο άνεμος, σκορπάει όλη τη νιότη

(σκορπάει τ' όμορφο ψέμα που έχει τυλίξει το κορμί του και το πνεύμα)

κι η περηφάνια ονομαστή μένει του Ιππότη,

(ξεσπάει με το κοντάρι να λύσει τα λουριά του νου του φοβιτσιάρη)

Η γη το παραμύθι λέει του ταξιδιώτη

(που 'χε αγάπη την ωραία, την πριγκιπέσσα την κρυφή τη Δουλτσινέα)

και κλαίει βουβά τη μοναξιά του Δον Κιχώτη.

(και κλαίει ξανά για το μεγάλο τον ιππότη)

 

Φυσάει ο άνεμος τη γέρικη του κούτρα

και η ξελογιάστρα του χαρά γελάει τον πόνο.

Ας τον επήραν οι σοφοί από τα μούτρα,

αυτός θυμάται ό,τι αγάπησε και μόνο.

"Το άγνωστο θα 'μαι εγώ" στο σύντροφό του λέει,

"και τα γνωστά, ψέμματα σ' εμένα τον τρελό.

Δε φταίει η φαντασία μου, η φρόνηση τα φταίει

που το μυαλό στις μέρες μας στεριώνουν με φελό"

Αυτά είπε κι όρμηξε μ' άρματα κουρέλια - ευλογία•

με το άμυαλο, σπασμένο του κοντάρι.

Και το λοιπόν, τη δεύτερη αρχινάει δημιουργία,

μα μπλέχτηκαν τα γκέμια στο ποδάρι.

Κρυφογελάει σκυφτός στου αλόγου του τη σέλα

με τη ζωή την πλανερή και τρυπιοχέρα.

Μοναχά απ' της μοναξιάς το πήγαιν' έλα

τα μάτια ό,τι ποθούν θα δουν μια μέρα.

Πείσμα το πείσμα Δον Κιχώτη και φοβέρα

κι αν σε γελούν οι ανθρώποι κι όλα τα άστρα,

ολημερίς χτυπιέσαι μ' ίσκιους στον αέρα

και παίρνεις ανεμόμυλους για κάστρα.

[wereniki]

"Αναζήτησις", Κική Δημουλά

 

Φεύγω.

Για πού δεν θα σου πω.

Έτσι θα καμωθώ

πως κάποιο μυστικό έχω από σένα.

Θα κρυφοκοιτάξω τους βυθούς,

θα συμφιλιωθώ με τη θάλασσα

εμπιστεύοντάς της την αντάρα μου,

Θ' ανακατέψω τ' άστρα με το ύψος μου,

θα παραμερίσω με τις προσευχές μου

το ενιαίο του ουρανού,

μήπως και μέσα σ' όλα αυτά

είναι κρυμμένη η αποστολή σου:

αν ήρθες για να ξανοίξεις τα χρώματα

και τους χειμώνες να καθαιρέσεις,

ή για να στρίψεις αρνητικά

τους διακόπτες του λογισμού μου

σκορπίζοντας τη φυγή σου.