The Sky's the Limit

Beautiful Dreaming, Sky Up Above,

Starlight and Space Dust Woven To Views That I Love

WIKISKY.ORG WowThis is a find and a half! I love astronomy and gadgets and learning and this combines them all in something I found using StumbleUpon completely by surprise! This is definitely a pleasant surprise. Not too much time to explore the site or the ones linking to it like an equally impressive looking SKY-MAP.ORG - Interactive Sky Map.

When I first layed eyes on it, it displayed a nice shot from - I would guess - somewhere in the middle of The Lace-work Nebula (NGC 6960) in the constelation of Cygnus and the legend was of a listing of "The Attractive Spots of the Universe.

I really must confess that the wallpaper on my MacBook conists of Astronomical shots of nebula and parts of Nebula from Hubble and Spitzer and the like. I am not sure, but there might be some from Chandra too. If you don't know it, these are various high-tech telescopes in orbit which observe the universe in visual, infrared, and ultraviolet... though off hand I couldn't say which telescope was which except that I know Hubble is visible light... Wait a second! this is the 21st Century and like the 20th Century Television Star Ship Enterprise I have at my beck-and-call tons of information using this very beast of mental burden at my fingertips... one sec... Spitzer is an Infra-red observatory. I should have remembered that from the fantastic shots of stellar nursaries... Okay, Chandra is an Xray observatory... I wonder where I got Ultra-violet from?

Hubble does some Ultra-violet... Hmm there is something called FUSE... I am not so familiar with the Ultra-violet observatories... I shall have to remedy that.

Anyway, I hope you can enjoy the two pages I mentioned and the images and information that are on them.

On a spiritual note, I find some of the images from the modern satellites and telescopes very awe inspiring. To me some of the nebula and galaxies are more worthy of the term "art" than many pieces of art that I have loved. To me it is a sign of the Divine... perhaps if only that the Creator created not only the ability to appreciate beauty, but the concept "beauty" as well. I try not to think of how many light years across some of the features are, or that some are created in the deaths of stars and planets, for out of their death also comes new life.

Later!
~ Darrell