Taking Whitman to task on Astronomy

You

Have

To be

Kidding me …

Not astronomy!

(That teacher must have sucked, big time.)

Must not have had computers and must have been night school.

Having taught astronomy and been that lecturer, I can tell you that there is a mysticism to the night sky that cannon be captured by the formulae.

Till rising and gliding out, I wander’d off by myself,

In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,

Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars.

Just so. That is grater than any Cathedral, more powerful than any prayer, more humbling than any nebulous understanding of our role in this universe.

Rachel Carson said it better than all of them in describing the ineffable sense of wonder that should seize us all upon looking at the heavens in a way that cannot be minimized or circumscribed by the finite:

"If I had influence with the good fairy who is supposed to preside over the christening of all children I should ask that her gift to each child in the world be a sense of wonder so indestructible that it would last throughout life, as an unfailing antidote against the boredom and disenchantments of later years, the sterile preoccupation with things artificial, the alienation from the sources of our strength.”

— Rachel Carson

Perhaps one other author…

"I would, if I could, bring back into fashion the moon and the stars, the dawn and the sunset.

I rarely hear anyone speak of them.

One would think these perpetual wonders had passed from sight.

There is peace and rest in the contemplation of these miracles that nature paints on the canvas of the sky.

But we do not want peace and rest; we are enamored of noise and motion.

A St. Vitus dance has seized us.

Things must change. The nerves have a limit of endurance.

Tonight I looked at the moon for a while. There was a faint circle around it.

A friend came by and asked what I was looking at. I pointed to the moon.

"I don't see anything"

"The moon", I said.

He chuckled and went on. He will report me as growing queer.

The mystery of the night!

And our own mystery! Who knows what we are? No science has yet grasped us.

The moon - the beautiful, mystical moon - playing nightly to empty seats!"

--Max Ehrman

I don't think I am a bad teacher--I think that which I teach is greater than our ability to frame so mundanely.

Thank you for the pithy post, the Max part was mundane.

Welcome to Astronomy Online

Last Updated:August 18, 2009

This site is a testament that even though I have a physical disability - legally blind - I can still do things that helps other people. I even have a new project: Astro-Drummer, a site dedicated to my other hobby.

I also have a new image gallery. I call it Second Site Image Gallery.

The Max part was far from mundane and not nearly as mundane as you post. You’re very much like those who can see God only through their lens and must insist everyone see it as you do. * Sigh * What do to do with those who would make Herschel weep.

Astronomy has never been about sight—it’s about vision. How could you miss that? You can't! You must know that. Max was right, you (a fine web site but it underscores the point!). Most people miss that which is right in front of them. It doesn’t take the ability to ‘see’ the crab nebula or Orion nebula or horse head nebula (which paradoxically is dark) or M-31, or M-13 or any other stellar object. Having taught at observatories for years I can tell you that the wonder of seeing our place in that cosmos is what inspires the awe you refer to. You must know that.

The tangents and coordinates are so easy to find… and so difficult to fathom in their reality. Any true astronomer knows that. It’s why we are awake at 3 AM with a computer and lens and red light…. Trying to understand the reality of where (and who) we are.

And sacred order has been always one from chaos

By some burning faithful one

Whose human bones have ached

As if with fever to bring you to these

High, triumphant places…

Forget the formulas, remember men. Praise scholars,

For their never ending story is written out in fire

And this is their glory, read faith, as on a lover’s on their faces.

Demo:

Thanks for a good reply.

Every once in a while; I am reassured there is someone else out there who looks at the stars (while camping for me) and imagines. It was always fun to take the younger crowd with and teach them the location of the Big and Little Dippers and how to find the North Star, Orion's Belt and Orion, and the Southern Cross if far enough south.

"If a child is to keep alive his inborn sense of wonder, he needs the companionship of at least one adult who can share it, rediscovering with him the joy, excitement and mystery of the world we live in." Silent Spring

You do well by what you bring to the table. I hope the search is going well for you.