Το σύμπαν της τέχνης και οι τέχνες τ' ουρανού

[kkokkolis]

Our Place in Space, 1960

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Our Place in Space, 1960

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Ladybird Achievements Book, Roy Worvill, B. Knight, 1964

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Ladybird Achievements Book, Roy Worvill, B. Knight, 1964

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Ladybird Achievements Book, Roy Worvill, B. Knight, 1964

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Ladybird Achievements Book, Roy Worvill, B. Knight, 1964

[kkokkolis]

Ladybird Achievements Book, Roy Worvill, B. Knight, 1964

[kkokkolis]

The Secret of the Universe, An Ode (By a Western Spinning Dervish), Edward Dowden, 1917

 

I spin, I spin, around, around,

And close my eyes,

And let the bile arise

From the sacred region of the soul’s Profound ;

Then gaze upon the world; how strange! how new !

The earth and heaven are one,

The horizon-line is gone,

The sky how green ! the land how fair and blue !

Perplexing items fade from my large view,

And thought which vexed me with its false and true

Is swallowed up in Intuition ; this,

This is the sole true mode

Of reaching God,

And gaining the universal synthesis

Which makes All—One ; while fools with peering eyes

Dissect, divide, and vainly analyse.

So round, and round, and round again !

How the whole globe swells within my brain,

The stars inside my lids appear,

The murmur of the spheres I hear

Throbbing and beating in each ear ;

Right in my navel I can feel

The centre of the world’s great wheel.

Ah peace divine, bliss dear and deep,

No stay, no stop,

Like any top

Whirling with swiftest speed, I sleep.

O ye devout ones round me coming,

Listen! I think that I am humming ;

No utterance of the servile mind

With poor chop-logic rules agreeing

Here shall ye find,

But inarticulate burr of man’s unsundered being.

Ah, could we but devise some plan,

Some patent jack by which a man

Might hold himself ever in harmony

With the great whole, and spin perpetually,

As all things spin

Without, within,

As Time spins off into Eternity,

And Space into the inane Immensity,

And the Finite into God’s Infinity,

Spin, spin, spin, spin.

[kkokkolis]

Skating Serpentine Sun Eclipse, 1871

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Lightwave render of the Lovell Telescope, Nick Stevens, 2010

[kkokkolis]

Τηλεσκόπιο, George Ostrets, 2011

 

Μεικτά μέσα

[studious]

Asteroids galaxy tour, The golden age

 

 

Μια ποπ διάσταση προσέγγισης του διαστήματος

[kkokkolis]

Kepler & James Webb Space Telescopes Stained Glass Window Project, Bill Rabinovitch, 2011

[kkokkolis]

TO SEEK…, Stuart Atkinson, 2009

 

Find us worlds, little one, real worlds!

Not more bloated bags of garish gas racing

crazily ‘round their stars, barely far enough away

from their seething surfaces to escape

being dragged down into their heart-of-Mordor cores,

but worlds where we could talk and walk

on springy, surf-soaked, sandy shores

and climb great mountains carved from stone…

 

Find us a place Out There where gentle grey rain

would wash our faces as we stood on the edge

of a sullenly surging ocean, feeling soft-scented winds

blowing in from islands oh so far away.

Find us a planet where, slowly crouching down,

we’d find real rocks scattered ‘round our feet,

lying on the dusty ground; a world where cracking

such old stones together would sound like snapping bones…

 

But there is no rush. Gaze at the glittering star clouds

shining silently ‘tween the Swan and the Lyre

as long as you need; we will wait patiently here

on the world below until you Know for sure,

then you can finally set us free, send our

spirits soaring into a sky revealed at last

to have been concealing Other Earths from view

all along – as many of felt, but could not prove…

 

I grew up knowing just one Earth – the one I stood on

when I looked up at The Moon, wondering how

it changed its shape; the one I walked on as I made my way

Reluctantly to school, wishing I could have remained

At home to watch the latest grainy Moonwalk on TV;

The one I gazed down on through my bedroom window,

Blanketed with unicorn white, pillow soft snow

On unbearable, endless Christmas Eves…

But if you succeed, the children of today will need

To find new words to describe the nature of their sky.

Their heavens will contain countless un-named Other Earths,

Each one a blue-green sequin spinning round a distant sun,

Glinting in the dark galactic night like a fisherman’s fragile fly.

 

And on that wondrous day, when weary travellers from Terra gaze

Down upon the surface of the first New Eden to be reached

They’ll whisper your name as they stand upon a golden beach

On the edge of an alien sea, and, staring at a strange,

strange sky, wonder how it must have felt to be alive

in that dark and lonely time when just one Earth was known to Man…

[kkokkolis]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWTo_V4ay3o

 

Kepler, John A.Marmie, 2011

 

Like another science fiction novel

curiosity has left me in suspense

Could there ever be another planet like Earth

Could there ever be another you...I doubt it

I keep searchin' for clues that you exist.

One more time around and I think I might have found you baby.

And I gaze

deep inside a our galaxy

to a world I've been imagining

a glimpse of paradise.

Amazing possibilities

Could you be...smiling right back at me

thru this looking glass in time…

A good planet is hard to find.

 

Like the swirls in the sky of a Van Gogh Masterpiece

I stare in space and swear he traced distant galaxies

Did he close his eyes when he brushed the canvas

Did he think of you and smile when he made the planets

picture perfect cosmic harmony

A starry night reveals your face, I think he might found you baby.

Through Kepler’s eyes I see the light and all the world around me...all the worlds around me

Mesmerized, hypnotized, I call your name and I call your name and feel your warmth surround me

[kkokkolis]

Kepler with distant solar system, NASA, 2009

 

Λιθογραφία

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Kepler, Μοντέλο υπό κλίμακα, NASA, 2006

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Κανονικά Πολύεδρα, Μυστήρια του Σύμπαντος, Johannes Kepler, 1571-1630

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Shoulders of Giants, Padi Boyd & The Chromatics/AstroCappella, 2008

 

It was a calm and cloudless night but it was all still a blur

A shaking of our Universe was just about to occur

It was Summertime... 1609

when Galileo used his telescope for the very first time

 

and he saw mountains and craters on the moon

and a Milky Way with thousands of stars

and he saw Jupiter, with four tiny moons

he was the only man on Earth that night who knew

 

That Copernicus was right

come outside with me tonight

and I can show you wonders of the world

to surprise and delight

I've got my telescope with me

just wait until you see

that on the Shoulders of Giants....

... we'll see beyond!

 

The world turns round and round now around 400 years have flown

since Galileo's telescope first focused the unknown

Now we use bigger glass to peer into the past

And we're discovering the Universe's secrets at last

 

And there are geysers on Saturn's icy moon

and planets circling hundreds of stars

while all the Universe expands like a balloon

from Galileo's tiny scope we've come so far

 

Galileo was right

when he looked out in the night

and he discovered wonders of the world

to surprise and delight

I've got my telescope with me

just wait until you see

we'll stand on the Shoulders of Giants...

 

And every step follows the one before

and opens up a new frontier to explore

our 'scopes are dancing in space to see the beauty and grace

Oh, Galileo would approve, that's for sure

And still for me and you we can join in on this too

Just climb up here with me where we'll see more

 

It's a calm and cloudless night come outside with me tonight

and I can show you wonders of the world to surprise and delight

I've got my telescope with me just wait until you see (oh, wait until you see)

we'll stand on the Shoulders of Giants (Galileo knew)

 

That Copernicus was right (Johannes)

Come outside with me tonight (Kepler found those)

and I can show you wonders of the world (planetary motions on the)

to surprise and delight (Shoulders of Giants)

I've got my telescope with me (And Isaac)

Just wait until you see (Newton found his)

we'll stand on the Shoulders of Giants (Universal Laws)

(He stood on the Shoulders of Giants...)

...to see beyond!

[kkokkolis]

The Cosmic Tour Guide, Renee James

 

As a child, I was drawn to it as a tale of longing, grandeur, sadness, and playfulness. I was swept up in its images, whirling galaxies rising above an alien horizon, conceptions of bizarre life forms amid Jupiter’s clouds, billions of years of evolution taking shape against a background of simple music. First was the television show. One episode. Another. Soon I felt a craving for Sunday evening. Then came the book. And when that one’s index began falling out from overuse and abuse, another copy. Then came the soundtrack, a vinyl disk with the minds of musicians from Vangelis to Vivaldi scratched into it. I played it endlessly as I attempted to burn the static images of the book into memory before I forgot which music was supposed to accompany which pictures. And still sehnsucht, made all the more poignant by the closing theme of the last episode. The cosmos called. It beckoned. It taunted. In the days before YouTube and on-demand streaming rentals, I could only wait until PBS aired it again, if ever. Meanwhile, dreams of a galaxy rising over my backyard willow tree kept the connection alive.

 

Carl Sagan’s Cosmos was life-changing. It was what every fable promises. A simple street urchin is, in fact, long-lost royalty. Only it wasn’t a fable. I was connected to the cosmos. Me! The material in my body was ancient and painstakingly forged over billions of years, even if its particular organization was only 11 years old at the time. I was kin to the stars. No – I was even more privileged. My mind could grasp something about them, but they were powerless to understand me. I was, in Sagan’s own words, “a way for the cosmos to know itself.”

 

And I wanted to know more about myself. “If only,” I thought. “I could be like Carl Sagan when I grow up.” Yes, that would be fine. I would become a famous astronomer who understands everything (although I probably would lose the turtlenecks and tweed jackets). I would sail from the shores of this cosmic ocean, exploring – at least mentally – places and processes unknown to most. That would require hard work, a competitive spirit, and sacrifice. But where to go first? Everywhere, of course. The entire cosmos beckoned like a map with giant swaths of unknown regions. “I’m afraid you’ll have to specialize,” came the Voice of Reason. Specialize!? That would mean missing out on so much! Still, I chose a direction and promised myself that I would go farther than anyone had before.

 

With my compass in hand and a slightly heavy heart, I charted a course and headed out to sea. But as I set sail, an odd thing happened. I stole a last look at the shore. Countless people milled around on the beach, digging little moats, sniping at each other, and complaining about their impending sunburns or sandy sandwiches. Few gazed out in awe of that vast expanse of uncharted ocean on the horizon. Few contemplated the wonder of it all.

 

Then it hit me. Carl Sagan was an explorer, to be sure. But he was also a tour guide, taking people to some of the more fantastic places within easy reach of the shore. No matter how many times he showed people the same coral reef, he never seemed to tire of pointing out the colorful fish darting around it. More distant, exotic locales might have been accessible to him had he not spent so much time and energy on local tours, but he was driven to introduce this amazing cosmos to his siblings. Some of them would even be inspired to explore the cosmos in ways Sagan could have hardly imagined. What would he have thought about string theory? What would he say about the fact that we build the esoteric concepts of relativity into everyday GPS devices? How would he have reacted to discoveries of not just a handful, but hundreds of planets, some even potentially suitable for life?

 

My guess is that he would have reveled in these and more. Then he would have set about organizing tours to the newly charted lagoons so that others could share in his wonder. You see, Carl Sagan was not an inspiration because he left everyone behind as he explored the farthest reaches of this universe. He was an inspiration because he invited us to accompany him on his journey, so that we could all get a small glimpse of that great cosmic ocean. And he convinced me that being a cosmic tour guide is as important as exploring a distant corner of the universe.

 

For that I want to say thank you. And happy birthday, Carl.

[kkokkolis]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFGB9HJaVXA&feature=related

 

Let There Be Light, The Songs of Distant Earth, Mike Oldfield, 1994

[kkokkolis]

Planets glass system Wallpaper

[kkokkolis]

 

The Sun Song, Karen Smale & AstroCappella/ Chromatics, 2006

 

Our star, the Sun is a big ball of gas

And it's 99 percent of our solar system’s mass

It's an average star in our Milky Way

Warming the Earth every day

 

What powers our Sun and makes it so bright?

Come on and tell me, what makes all that light?

Hans Bethe long ago reached the conclusion

It changes Hydrogen to Helium by nuclear fusion

 

When fusion takes place light is created

And it makes its way out (although rather belated)

Through the photosphere that's the part that we see

The light comes out and shines on you and me

 

About a million Earths could fit in the Sun

But if you were there you wouldn't have much fun

It's six thousand degrees at the photosphere

And much hotter inside the solar atmosphere

 

There are a few places where it's not so hot

Like at the center of a big sunspot

But heat is relative it's still pretty warm

Sitting on a sunspot would do you great harm

 

Galileo discovered sunspots

What are those things, those funny dots?

They're cooler parts, scientists feel

Caused by a stronger magnetic field

 

Those spots move around the face of the Sun

Proving to all... solar rotation!

A strange kind of movement, to do a full roll

25 days in the middle, 36 at the poles

 

What about flares? I've heard of them here

They're like giant explosions in the chromosphere

The magnetic fields above those sunspots

Reconnecting again after being in knots

 

Above the chromosphere the corona is placed

It's millions of degrees and reaches way into space

It's very thin, but read my lips

That's the part that you see in a solar eclipse

 

That's the end of our song about Mr. Sun

We hope that you find that learning is fun

But never look at the Sun, you could go blind

Just keep on enjoying that warm sunshine!

[kkokkolis]

Strawhat Planets, BlueBastion, 2009

[kkokkolis]

 

Dance of the Planets, Padi Boyd, & AstroCappella/ Chromatics, 2001

 

When I was a child I tuned in to a beautiful fantasy

Humans just part of a peaceful Galactic community

I'd look up to the sky at night

And I'd ask myself could it be right

Are there planets like ours around faraway stars

Or are we all alone on our planet Earth home?

 

Are we whirling around imperceptibly

Caught up in the dances of gravity

A random Galactic anomaly

Nine planets around the Sun

 

Spinning and swirling, twirling and whirling

Around the Sun

 

Time marches on and astronomers hone their technology

Point their scopes to the sky with an eye to unravelling the mystery

And like the faintest of calls in the night

Lies a signal within a star's light

Like a beacon of hope in your burnt umber sky

The rising of 51 Pegasi

 

Dancing almost imperceptibly

Backward and forward from gravity

A companion of closest proximity

A planet around a star

 

At the edge of the Galaxy, clusters of stars

Their members a billion years older than ours

Hold wobbles of planets around their pulsars

 

They've had eons more time than we

Is it possible, could it be?

Am I watching you, watching me?

 

And at the dawn of the twenty-first century

The dream has become a reality

We're not quite as alone as we used to be

There are planets around the stars

Planets around the stars

 

Spinning and swirling, twirling and whirling

Around the stars

Backward and forward, they're coming and going

Around the stars

Daytime and nighttime, summer and winter

Around the stars

We've finally found them, there's planets around them

Around the stars