Why are you fascinated by the night sky?

John,

"Why are so many people NOT interested in astronomy"

I believe we are without a comprehensive story of the universe. Historians, when articulating world history, deal not with the whole world but just with the human, as if the human were something separate from or an addendum to the story of the Earth and the universe. Scientists have arrived at detailed accounts of the cosmos, but have focused exclusively on the physical dimensions and have ignored the human dimension of the universe. In this context we have fractured our educational system into its scientific and its humanistic aspects, as though these were somehow independent of each other.

With all our learning and with all our scientific insight, we have not yet attained such a meaningful approach to the universe, and so we have at the present time a distorted mode of human presence upon the Earth. We are somehow failing in the fundamental role that we should be fulfilling the role of enabling the Earth and the universe entire to reflect on and to celebrate themselves, and the deep mysteries they bear within them, in a special mode of conscious self awareness.

Fundmentally, children nowadays have lost the 'AWE' of the universe, hence the above.


Eamonn A
MPC J62
www.kingslandobservatory.com

Fundmentally, children nowadays have lost the 'AWE' of the universe, hence the above.

That's where sidewalk astronomy comes to the rescue. The "wows" and wonder you get particularly from kids is great.
But, I know what your talking about Eamonn, kids today are fed a diet of PS2 and Wii and what have you, they rarely have time to take their heads out of texting on the phone to look up and marvel about whats out there. It is up to parents to change that, unfortunately most of them are the same as the kids.

we have fractured our educational system into its scientific and its humanistic aspects, as though these were somehow independent of each other.

The 1959 lecture by the British Scientist and novelist dealt with this question.
He said: “I spend my days with scientists and my evenings with artists. In doing so I move between two different universes.”
See:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Two_Cultures

Snow blamed the arts for removing all reference to science from their “culture”.

(This echoes Darwin when he said that you can get a first class honours degree from Oxford without ever having heard that the earth orbits the sun.)

Astronomy has not divorced itselfs from the arts however.

The moons of the planet Uranus are named after characters from Shakespeare and Pope.
Also, the “theme” for names on the planet Mercury is “the arts”.
(W.B. Yeats already has a crater there).

Hi all,

i was raised on aviation from as young as i can remember my dad used to bring me to airshows and the local airport to watch them, so aeroplanes have always been a facination to me....anything to do with the sky really intrested me even down to birds that flew init, i remember my da showing halleys comet in 86" so i caught always looking to the skies day or night growing up i always was into space travel ie..rockets/shuttle but im a late starter to astronomy only last summer buying my first scope but since then i have become intrested i look up now in awe @ a clear night sky wondering an thinking an realising how insignificant we are in the universe.......