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Into space
One of the things that always fascinated me is the vast universe. I remember out in the desert in Palm Springs or in the Grand Canyon at night, you can see the expanse of the universe unfold in front of you with stars sprinkled across the dark night sky as far as the eyes can see. We are all isolated on this tiny spec in this vast expanse, called earth. Although we don’t have any means to really get out there, sometimes music can.
I remember when I use to commute to work, one of the small things I enjoyed was the comfortable commuter train that took me from Coquitlam into downtown Vancouver along the Burrard Inlet waterway. The tracks run along the south shore and on the north shore are the snow capped mountains that make this city a beautiful gem in the west. At 7 AM it would often be dark with the sun just coming up from the east lighting up the snow peaks. I loved listening to “Nothing Is In Vain” as my spirit was aloft over those mountains and into the clouds and beyond.
I remember when I first heard and saw MLT’s “Starman” cover video, it catapulted my spirit into the skies as well, and out into space. The magic of music, it can take you there.
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46 Replies
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Right now there are a number of probes, sent by different countries, exploring Mars to discover any sign of ancient life out there. It is quite fascinating to think there are other worlds out there of great dried oceans, deserts, mountains, and canyon that can make our Grand Canyon lame in comparison. While it is one thing to see news and documentary clips of outer space and other planets, it’s quite another to discover a glimpse of it yourself through a telescope. I took these shots of the moon the other day and wow!
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I’m on the same page as you here, Jung. I’ve been fascinated with space exploration since the Voyager flyby of Saturn 40 years ago. I even went on to earn a master’s degree in planetary science. That photo of the Mars rover being lowered to the surface may be on its way to becoming iconic:
Nice Moon photos! Have you ever considered dropping in on a meeting of your local astronomy club? You’ll likely find a lot of people obsessed with attaching cameras to telescopes and teasing out photographic details in a variety of objects in the night sky.
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Hi David, nice accomplishment on your planetary sciences Maters Degree. That is definitely an area I’ve always been interested in. Thanks for the idea about visiting a local astronomy club. We do have Planetarium in the city with a huge telescope so I am sure they do something there. Something I think I would enjoy doing. After I retire I would like to get a telescope and other hardware and software to explore space. Not sure though rainy Vancouver is the best place to be. Got to get away from the city lights too.
So it took the latest probes 7 months to get to Mars, so human travel there and return should be feasible with some more technological advances. I think humanity can do it this century, or maybe even our life time.
Always loved this Beatles song.
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Vancouver is a very beautiful city.
Listening to music and watching the scenery is definitely the right way to get to work. -
I’m going to add my 2 cents worth here… when the terrible tornado struck my area a few yrs ago, and we had no power for a day or two , it was the first time in years to actually see stars and their constellations because there were no lights, only the moonlight…
Secondly, the bass player from Glass Tiger has his own business venture out of his interest in astronomy, customized portable backyard observatory domes.
It is all quite all fascinating as seeing footage on man first walking on the moon ,( I was 6/7 months old at that time)-
That’s really interesting about the Glass Tiger guy, Jacki. I’m always thrilled to hear about musicians who have an interest in science; it shows them to be very well-rounded. I believe Mona and Lisa mentioned their fascination with the cosmos when they released their Starman cover.
Did you know that Brian May (of Queen) has a PhD in astrophysics? He worked on it from 1970 to 1974, then took a three-decade break for some reason, and finished it up from 2006 to 2007.
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Hi Thomas, yes there is nothing like traveling/driving etc with MLT music playing. Use to enjoy my commute because of that.
Hi Jacki, it’s amazing what they did in those 1960/70s Apollo missions using vacuum tube powered computers. They had to be extremely efficient with the available computational power at the time. I enjoy leaving the city to go out to the countryside away from the city lights just to look at those stars. One of the things that stood out the most with my Grand Canyon experience was at night walking out over the canyon which was an expanse of pitch black, and above it the brilliant stars like I’ve never seen before. It felt like being out in space.
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This footage of the Mars rover descent and landing was just released. Incredible!
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David, that is an incredible footage. Amazing to see the Martian landscape/terrain from that perspective, it is like being there. Will be interesting to see what they find on that delta it landed on, rich with sediment from ancient water flows. If there is evidence of life, no better place to look than in those sediments. Coming out of 2020, who knows what it might discover, nothing could surprise me now!
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Ah, my favorite Don McLean song!
Nice moon photos. Did you take those, Jung?
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Hi David. Thanks. I couldn’t believe I actually took those shots myself. I got a new massive zoom camera (Lumix FZ80) to replace my aging 16 year old Canon 12X camera that bit the dust recently, and it is a beast to say the least. Excuse the shaking in the video as I did it free hand.
Journey “To the Moon” with me:
https://youtu.be/vaW7yTtT3B4I’ve seen much better pictures of the moon than these, but when you do it yourself, it kind of feels more real and shocking.
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Off the wall here.
Do they really need a heat shield with practically no atmosphere ?
She does say “Seeking sign of past life”.Have you guys ever read “Death on Mars” by John Brandenberg ?
It’s not fiction.Cheers
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Yes, Thomas, at 12,000 miles per hour there is a lot of heat generated that needs to be dissipated. If you think about it, heat shields for Earth re-entry are used at altitudes where the atmosphere is much thinner than that of Mars.
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A heat shield is needed before a parachute is functional.
I never thought that through.It astonishes me that a parachute works on Mars.
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Well, the parachute has to be really big (70 feet across, I think), and it only works while the craft is still moving very fast. After it slows down they have to jettison it and land with retro rockets.
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There is a full moon tonight !
Just a 411
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