wondering if you too are fascinated with the cosmos, universe, etc..

[rollin]

I am no educated in Physics or Astronomy but I have a deep passion and curiosity about the cosmos. I hate to read (which is bad) but most any reading i ever do is realtion to the universe, spac/time, the cosmos in general. I do watch most all realted programs and documentries on such things.
One of my favorites is carl sagan's 13 episode award winning mini series "Cosmos" which (as old as it now is) is still amazingly imformative and ouitstanding. It really brings it all to layman terms as best as possible. I actually first had the VHS versions and then bought the DVD's coincidently almost on the day he passed away.

The entire cosmos of why, what, how, when, where for everything is just overwhelming. Beyond comprehension for even the most inteligent minds.

From how atoms are created in stars to the distances and sizes of whats around us. To how complex and overwhelming everything is to how tiny our world truely is. Even in my latset avatar when the Cassini spacecraft turned back from behind Saturn and just happen to catch a faint dot, a mear pixel in the frame that turns out is our home. Yes, all the golf that ever was played or ever discussed all took place there.LOL...

Whats amazing is that you can head so far out into the universe that our entire galaxy (over 100,000 light years across) would not only look as small as the Earth does in that picture but it can actualy disapear from view all together.

A million Earths fit into our sun and yet there are stars that our sun would look like just a pixel on the screne if it were floating next to them.

I can go on about a million different things and head off into a million directions but you get the picture. I find it all so very fascinating and awesomely inspiring. Its curiosity that never ever bores me. I can wacth such programs like th "cosmos" over and over and never get tired of it.

Anyone else cought up in the addicting curiosity and interests in this subject? Find it all so fascinating? perhaps some of you are very well educated in this area which is extremel hard to truely understand at any level. Even if good understanding of it, it is still awesome and mind blowing for sure. I mean that in agood way.

 

[wadesworld]

Absolutely.

And I don't want to turn this into a religious debate, but one of the things which gives me faith is that cosmos and the very world around us. The incredible complexity of the ecosystem with a billion moving parts. The millions of things that have to happen in our body every second. The amazing perfection of nature and its cycles.

I just can't fathom how all this around us happened out of pure chance because some hot gasses mixed together. (Yes, I realize I'm oversimplifying) Perhaps I'm just too uneducated in advanced physics and biology. But I've known some scientists that couldn't explain it easier.

The really cool thing is how science is continually amazed with new discoveries.

 

[rollin]

yea when it comes to religion it can get very touchy so i tend not to go there and just marvel at the explanations of what and how and why and just the total inspiring massiveness of it all.

 

[Richard Rodgers]

Yes Rollin I am into anything to do with astronomy and space.

Would love to be able to do more but am somewhat limited where I live due to light pollution. Currently saving up for a Meade LX-90 8" Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope. Looking at this baby due to it being quite portable so will be able to venture out of this bad area when conditions are okay.

Did astronomy as part of my physics work in school and would dearly have loved to taken it further with astro-physics degree, but the amount of maths on that course was not really what I wanted to do. Too much like hard work with all the equations side. I wanted to be more hands on and that is not possible at degree level without first doing the boring maths side.

 

[JRod]

[video=youtube;O-FvRyQOlbc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-FvRyQOlbc[/video]


Sorry couldn't resist.

 

[MarcH]

Hell yeah!

I've watched Cosmos billions upon billions of times. Listened to hours and hours of lectures from Neil Degrasse Tyson. Love cosmology. Something so big we can't begin to comprehend just makes it fascinating. Going out to dark sky parts of our country and seeing the Milky Way and all the stars...crazy. Looking through a telescope and seeing Saturn's rings and moons is kinda scary and cool at the same time. love love love

 

[Rhyno]

I love watching the skies, we live in a relatively Dark area of the state's, and during the summer I'll go out watch, drink, and wonder.

Wish I could get a telescope.

It's neat, that over time the amount of the universe we see will expand. Looking up at the sky a thousand years ago is very different then what we see today.

~Joseph~
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[tgtt]

The Universe is one of my favorite shows (History Channel). You can also check out some great courses here (http://www.thegreatcourses.com/tgc/courses/courses.aspx?s=820&ps=910) by some really good professors.

 

[One-T]

Absolutely.

And I don't want to turn this into a religious debate, but one of the things which gives me faith is that cosmos and the very world around us. The incredible complexity of the ecosystem with a billion moving parts. The millions of things that have to happen in our body every second. The amazing perfection of nature and its cycles.

I just can't fathom how all this around us happened out of pure chance because some hot gasses mixed together. (Yes, I realize I'm oversimplifying) Perhaps I'm just too uneducated in advanced physics and biology. But I've known some scientists that couldn't explain it easier.

The really cool thing is how science is continually amazed with new discoveries.

I like this response.

 

[TRyan]

This stuff intrigues me, but also makes my head hurt

 

[rollin]

To those about scopes. i have what i'd consider a decent one step above beginer scope. A 5.1 inch Rflector by Orion. I have found such things like the Ring nebula besides the solor system as well. It just takes up alot of time though to get realy into viewing with scopes and so it mostly sits in the garage nowadays unfortunately. Keep saying I'm gonna take it out callibrate and clean it up and all but never get the time to do so. I like when i hit saturn and the kids on the block come over to see. But i'm in a very well lit area and also too many trees makes for a limited window.

I would one day like to get a really nice 8 or 10 inch but of course it takes money and as said just not practical where i live. Though a good compact one would be nice so i can take it to places near by but the cost is too high and i will only do it if i know i'll have the time to use it often enough. Astronomy viewing can be an expensive and a very time consuming hobby.

But that doesnt mean we cant wonder, read, wach, and still apreciate the maginifigance of it all.

 

[rollin]

I love watching the skies, we live in a relatively Dark area of the state's, and during the summer I'll go out watch, drink, and wonder.

Wish I could get a telescope.

It's neat, that over time the amount of the universe we see will expand. Looking up at the sky a thousand years ago is very different then what we see today.

~Joseph~
via Tapatalk

whats even more interesting is how what we see is what was in the past. and the whole entire time dilation thing, space/time being one thing and relativity etc...

 

[rollin]

I find it starnge how there are many people who never give any this stuff any thought. Like if to explain to someone how if we were to travel 7 times around the earth in one second, and maintain that speed it would still take about 2.5 million years to reach andromeda galaxy.How is that possibly not something that would make most people think about how awesome that truely is? I dont get how someone could let that go as just "eehhh, ok lets move on". I guess thats why you iether have a pasion for it or you dont.

 

[Rhyno]

whats even more interesting is how what we see is what was in the past. and the whole entire time dilation thing, space/time being one thing and relativity etc...

It's almost like time travel. We are literally watching the past.

~Joseph~
via Tapatalk

 

[will_i_dream]

i have the sky survey app for my iPhone, its great

don't know if you have ever seen this website, http://htwins.net/scale2/

 

[rollin]

It's almost like time travel. We are literally watching the past.

~Joseph~
via Tapatalk

maybe we could utilize some of this time dilation stuff with the obsessions many have with pace of play.lol... Someone could hit the ball into thier own a$$.lol.....

 

[rollin]

i have the sky survey app for my iPhone, its great

don't know if you have ever seen this website, http://htwins.net/scale2/

Havnt and that was awesome.

 

[Richard Rodgers]

The one thing that really excites me about stuff like this is that it is VERY likely that we are not alone in our galaxy never mind the universe.

Fairly safe bet that there are beings out there that are waaaaaaay more advanced than us.

 

[Rhyno]

The one thing that really excites me about stuff like this is that it is VERY likely that we are not alone in our galaxy never mind the universe.

Fairly safe bet that there are beings out there that are waaaaaaay more advanced than us.

There are no odds, you can't predict odds if you don't know what it takes to create life.

~Joseph~
via Tapatalk

 

[Richard Rodgers]

I agree that it is not possible to predict odds, but astronomers and scientists have found proof of planets orbiting stars that could potentially give similar conditions to those that we have here. Therefore the chances of life as we know it starting are increased.

However, there are other planets that are not in the same relationship of earth/sun but that does not mean that life could not evolve on them, it would just be different to what we have.

For us to think that we are the only ones in the universe is simply illogical.

 

[rollin]

The one thing that really excites me about stuff like this is that it is VERY likely that we are not alone in our galaxy never mind the universe.

Fairly safe bet that there are beings out there that are waaaaaaay more advanced than us.

I feel the same way, however when you realy consider just how many trillions of combinations of things that must go correctly and yet only one of them could go wrong I do not think its as high a probability as some assume. Now i do understand even with those enormous odds against it, that with the size of the galaxy and the universe it is silly to think life has not evolved elsewhwere. As far as intelgigent life, it would then be even more rare still but at the same time silly to think otherwise.

Even just so many things about how the earth formed and changes it went through once it did from. The smallest little variation in any of it at all would have easily resulted in a dead planet. For example (and i'm sure you know this too) The fact that the moon itself keeps the earth from wildly spinning on its axis whichs helps maintain a stable weather patterns which in turn allowed for life to eveolve the way it did.

Without it perhaps the earth would still have had life but would not have been suitable for us humans and many creatures to exist, flurish and evolve. The mass extinctions that took place. Had any of them not happened or happened in different ways at different times could have reulted in a totaly different type of evolution for many life forms on the earth. We can go on and on with so very much that has to go exactly so right for this to all happen.

Look at mars. perhaps one time held some sort of life even if at the microscopic scale, but just too small and its atmosphere is all but gone.

i always thoight how amazing if we existed not on the earth but perhaps one of saturns moons. Imaginge looking up every day and instead of seeing the moon we see the enomous planet saturn with its rings stretching across an entire third of the sky. How amazing and beautiful would that be??

 

[wadesworld]

I agree that it is not possible to predict odds, but astronomers and scientists have found proof of planets orbiting stars that could potentially give similar conditions to those that we have here. Therefore the chances of life as we know it starting are increased.

However, there are other planets that are not in the same relationship of earth/sun but that does not mean that life could not evolve on them, it would just be different to what we have.

For us to think that we are the only ones in the universe is simply illogical.

But there's also no evidence that "more advanced" life exists. For all we know, we're the most advanced form of life there is.

 

[RatFink]

Oh yes! I took two astronomy classes in my first year and they were among my favourite ones of my degree (even though completely unrelated). There is NOTHING better than sitting around a campfire and staring up into the cosmos and experiencing the peace, tranquility and awe of looking at the Milky Way and seeing meteorites streak across the horizon.

 

[rollin]

But there's also no evidence that "more advanced" life exists. For all we know, we're the most advanced form of life there is.

and just the same, for all we know there may be inteligent life so far advanced from us that they would view us as primitve as we do the cave man.

 

[Rhyno]

I agree that it is not possible to predict odds, but astronomers and scientists have found proof of planets orbiting stars that could potentially give similar conditions to those that we have here. Therefore the chances of life as we know it starting are increased.

However, there are other planets that are not in the same relationship of earth/sun but that does not mean that life could not evolve on them, it would just be different to what we have.

For us to think that we are the only ones in the universe is simply illogical.

Until we know how to create life, it is perfectly logical to believe we are the only lifeforms in the universe.

~Joseph~
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