Thanks for the comments, Dean. I love the new look, though I'm a glutton for most anything space related. A use of our tax dollars that I'm thrilled over is that much of NASA's images are not copyrighted and their use guidelines are extremely generous. I wanted to be an astronaut more than anything else when I was a child and it's never really gone away. I'd blast off tomorrow if I had the opportunity.
Here are some sites for NASA images:
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/index.html
http://grin.hq.nasa.gov/
http://nix.nasa.gov/
Once upon a time, I'd have to haunt antique stores looking for paper ephemera, either for my own collections or for my crafting, but what joy to find so much available on the internet.
I did step outside to watch the eclipse but only for about 3 minutes during the peak. It was frigid and 2 coats, 2 scarves, hat ands gloves still left me frozen to the bone. I really wish that I knew how to take night pictures. There have been some views of the moon that were breath-taking.
If you're also a Space fan, I'd highly recommend the movie "In the Shadow of the Moon." I saw it at the local museum, but it's now available on DVD too. I remember as a child sitting in class as we watched rocket launches and recoveries. There was a sense of awe and wonder that feels sadly absent in later generations.
And, I can't see the stars anymore. One of my strongest memories was of my first visit to the then uber rural ancestral home back in Bangladesh. The only lights available were wood fires and oil lamps. It truly seemed that that hemisphere of Earth had more stars in the sky than did ours. The Vancouver Sun had an article on the damage caused by light pollution that would be worth your time to read.
When I get home late at night, I do appreciate enough light to see that I can safely walk to the front door. But that's never caused me to gasp in awe or fill my soul as the drive through rural, no-lights roads on the way home always does. Motion-activated lights are the way to go.
Well, no politics tonight. I'll save that for another night.
Maimun
2 comments:
That's right, I've been thinking of you as a political activist for so long that I forgot the Star Trek fan side of you.
We saw a wonderful ranger talk in Acadia National Park last summer about stars and the place they have always played in the human imagination, and the problems of light pollution. Acadia has one of the darker skies in the lower 48 states but still it's not as dark as it used to be. On clear dark summer nights I can see the milky way from our house in Maine. I don't know if it's not there in the winter sky or if I don't stay outside long enough to get dark-adapted.
I was greatly enjoying going on midnight moonlight snowshoe walks this winter. Not so many stars as in the dark of the moon but still beautiful.
The problem with motion-activated lights is that you have to disable them if you want to go outside stargazing.
Salam Alaykum
I found your blog sort of accidentally through craftster. I looked through your art gallery and I thought that your art is truly beautiful and stunning. You are amazingly skilled! Mashallah. Always happy to see Muslim craters' and artists' work. :) Take care.
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