|
As
a land surveyor I have been professionally tied to the
ground and measurements of our oblate spheroid as if
it were flat. Astronomy is a method by which I can launch
others off the flat earth model we innately cling to
and let them get a glimpse outside the atmosphere of
dim rocky blobs or gaseous nothings only reached by
a few hearty metal probes in the last forty years.
Although
rocket propulsion has enabled these recent close encounters
of the nearest kind only within our solar system, the
persistence of vision to travel beyond the solar neighborhood
is to be born by those new eyes as yet unopened to other
starlight.
My
earthbound vision has been enhanced by the images sent
back from the first space probes since the onset of
the space age as a young boy. It's doubtful I will ever
venture into space, but I can pass on my past views
to those unfolding events as a witness to future events
outside our atmosphere.
As
an amateur astronomer I have seen children and adults
vision being propelled at the speed of light to other
worlds in the blink of an eye by simply looking through
a cardboard tube with small lenses or mirrors at each
end. For an instant they realize they are spinning with
other orbs around a so-so average star bound together
by gravity and circumstance into unique family of stellar
siblings that have been going around together for almost
forever. That brief glimpse can sometimes last a lifetime.
 |
