Photo: Olle ErikssonWhen I sit in the outhouse at my summerhouse under the stars with the door widely open a late summer eve, I can see the Big Dipper. It's always there, like a familiar friend. What is it that has made stars and celestial phenomenon trig people's imagination throughout history?
In Persia there were stargazers, who on the top of the Victory mountain gazed at the stars and eventual phenomenons like falling stars. When a star fell or there was an unusual phenomenon visible in the sky, a regent or king was said to be born or to have died.
The "three wise men from the land of East", who came to give gifts to Jesus, or to the "new king", are told to have been"Magics", or stargazers from the Victory mountain. Also the Persians were namely waiting for an emperor, but an earthly one, who would be born in a cave by a virgin and who was going to save the world. The Magics traditionally wore hats formed as cones and still today the "starboys" in Sweden have cone formed hats with stars on, when we celebrate Lucia.
"A star" is defined as someone on the top, an idol, someone glorious that glitters and shines. We also classify people and things by giving them a different number of stars or give a star to i e the best brand.
However, stars fall, both on earth and in the sky but there is actually one star that shines more than the other and that also is visible in the daylight, namely the star we call the "evening star", the planet Venus. If you google the exact phrase "The evening star", you get 380 000 hits and if you google the key words "the evening star" you get more than 38 million hits. So what about God?
VenusWell, God lives in the sky, of course, doesn't he? - and also heaven is there, they used to say. If you google "God" in English, you receive 140 million hits. In our own pre-Christian mythology it is said about the god Tor, that when there was a thunderstorm, Tor was angry and went into the sky, driving around among the clouds with his waggon, pulled by two billy goats, and fighting with his hammer, which was what caused the thunder. Tor is in old Nordic language 'Þórr', Anglo-Saxon'Þunor' and in old German 'Donar'. (Free Wikipedia). His name Tor is also related to modern Swedish "dunder", English "thunder" and German "Donner".
Obviously phenomenon in the sky, before which people have felt powerless, have made people both religious and worshiping. Also they have trigged our imagination much enough to finally make us wanting to investigate the planets and the universe, no matter costs or benefits. Studying the universe has thereby also become a way to explain and take control. What about the moon, then, our closest and most investigated neighbour?
Also the moon in its different stages is supposed to have a lot of impact on earth and life on it, from the phenomenon tide and growth, to birth and people's future. So why not just go there and see what it is like?! That's what the Americans actually did in 1969. That's at least what we've been told.
When I was in Washington DC in 1977, eight years after the first moon landing, I visited the Space Museum and touched a moon stone. I also went into a space lab, where one could travel into the human body with the same speed as the space rocket was heading towards the moon. The only big difference, beside the fact that it was faked, was that one travel was into microcosmos while the other one was into macrocosmos.
However, in August 15, 2006, one could read in the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter that Nasa had lost the first moon landing: "Nasa har tappat bort första månladdningen"; that around 700 boxes with taped material from Apollo were missing, among them the film with Neil Armstrong's wellknown moon-walk but also his famous words "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind".
Obviously phenomenon in the sky, before which people have felt powerless, have made people both religious and worshiping. Also they have trigged our imagination much enough to finally make us wanting to investigate the planets and the universe, no matter costs or benefits. Studying the universe has thereby also become a way to explain and take control. What about the moon, then, our closest and most investigated neighbour?
Also the moon in its different stages is supposed to have a lot of impact on earth and life on it, from the phenomenon tide and growth, to birth and people's future. So why not just go there and see what it is like?! That's what the Americans actually did in 1969. That's at least what we've been told.
When I was in Washington DC in 1977, eight years after the first moon landing, I visited the Space Museum and touched a moon stone. I also went into a space lab, where one could travel into the human body with the same speed as the space rocket was heading towards the moon. The only big difference, beside the fact that it was faked, was that one travel was into microcosmos while the other one was into macrocosmos.
However, in August 15, 2006, one could read in the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter that Nasa had lost the first moon landing: "Nasa har tappat bort första månladdningen"; that around 700 boxes with taped material from Apollo were missing, among them the film with Neil Armstrong's wellknown moon-walk but also his famous words "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind".
I don't know if they have found it or will find it, but some people already claim that it's all a fake: Was it? Read the arguments and counterarguments on BBC Science & Nature: DID WE REALLY LAND ON THE MOON?
Whatever the truth is, we can assume that the sky with its stars, black holes, planets, including our moon and sun, also in the future will raise questions among mankind like: Where does the universe end, what is behind the stars, is there life anywhere else than on earth? It is to be hoped that some of the interest for the unknown will spill over to the planet that is most familiar to us: The Earth, Tellus. But maybe it's typical: We are more interested in what we can not reach than in what we can reach? Or aren't we?
Well, interestingly enough "Earth" gives 226 million hits at Google, which means 86 million more hits than "God". Is this a sign that we start to be more concerned about our earth, the more we get to know about universe, where we this far haven't found nor life or a visible God?
In fact science about space has given us insight in and knowledge about, among other things, how we can affect the thickness of the ozone layer and thereby the prerequisites for life on earth through our life style.
So, maybe the possibility to enter space has given some answers about the stars, the moon and the sun, but raised new questions about surviving on our own planet Earth. Left are then still questions that will continue to tickle our imagination, concerning macro- as well as microcosmos....
To end up where I started, at my summerhouse and its late summer starspangled sky, I will tell you something that happened one night at 2 am in August some years ago.
I opened the bedroom window to let som fresh air in and watched the sky with all its stars. It was so beautiful! Then I saw something like a small star far away, just like one of the other stars, however this one moved in the direction straight forward from my viewpoint. I kept standing watching it for some minutes, wondering what it was.
Then suddenly another one, just as small and shiny, came moving on from the right, heading towards the first one. When almost there, it changed direction and then they continued together, side by side out into the universe..........
In fact science about space has given us insight in and knowledge about, among other things, how we can affect the thickness of the ozone layer and thereby the prerequisites for life on earth through our life style.
So, maybe the possibility to enter space has given some answers about the stars, the moon and the sun, but raised new questions about surviving on our own planet Earth. Left are then still questions that will continue to tickle our imagination, concerning macro- as well as microcosmos....
To end up where I started, at my summerhouse and its late summer starspangled sky, I will tell you something that happened one night at 2 am in August some years ago.
I opened the bedroom window to let som fresh air in and watched the sky with all its stars. It was so beautiful! Then I saw something like a small star far away, just like one of the other stars, however this one moved in the direction straight forward from my viewpoint. I kept standing watching it for some minutes, wondering what it was.
Then suddenly another one, just as small and shiny, came moving on from the right, heading towards the first one. When almost there, it changed direction and then they continued together, side by side out into the universe..........
***************************************End of blog, but read the follwing***:
Almost one week after having written this blog, I happened to find this film on the Internet. The interesting thing is that it is filmed on August 22, 2007, and I happened to see the phenomenon described above on August 22, I think 2003 or 2004. I remember the date, while I was intending to report my observation somewhere and also hear if some extraordinary exercise within the space industry had taken place or if anyone else but me had reported similar observations, but I never did. Regarding the date, this is almost too much of a coincidence.....or what do you think? Two space air crafts, side by side.... NB: Read the comments....aren't the palm-trees just too strikingly similar not to asume that it's a result of a computer and a user of it....? Well, space will probably still tickle our imagination as long as human beings remain on earth!
1 comment:
Your text is full of fascinating and deep insights and speculations, written in a personal style which is very appealing. Another plus is the way the ending links back to the beginning (the summerhouse). However - and this is the problem - you get side-tracked from the start and don't really answer the question. You need to make sure that you actually do what you set out to do. Next time, try to pre-plan your paragraphs, perhaps?
Language:
-Irregular plurals ("phenomenons"
-Don't overuse the definite article ("throughout the history", "science about the space"). The rule is this: Unlike Swedish, uncountable nouns used in the generic sense do not take the definite article (unless the noun has been made specific by adding a post-modifier). Confusing? Come ask me about it and I'll explain.
-You can't have a preposition before an infinitive or a that-clause ("Is this a sign of that we start to...")
-Long adverbials are usually placed at the end and never after personal pronouns which function as the subject in the clause ("...how we through our life style can affect...").
See you Monday!
/Teacher
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