Comments on: Time spent doing what you love is never wasted

By: vivek raykar

vivek raykar — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 18:03:55 +0000

Such a poetic depiction of astronomy.I am proud of science that rises to such a
level that there is no need of any so called religious or spiritual dimension
to be added separately to scientific experience.Science is enough.

By: Richard Drumm The Astronomy Bum

Richard Drumm The Astronomy Bum — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 13:44:42 +0000

Phil:
Sorry I missed this post, I’ve been terribly busy the last few days.
Of course, I wholeheartedly agree. I do the same thing when taking the trash to the roadside here in Albemarle County. On my walk back to the house I usually pause for many minutes to see what’s happening above. It’s my passion as it is yours.

Now if I could just get a certain National Observatory to hire me to make high-def video programs for them to get this same passion spread to others…
[sigh]

By: The Drinking Bird

The Drinking Bird — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 09:30:40 +0000

Why we do what we do……

I’ve been catching up on my blog reading and a couple entries on Bad Astronomy bear passing on.

The first one, highlights a talk given by Brian Cox on the importance of science funding and why exploring the universe around us is important. There’…

By: Lonny Eachus

Lonny Eachus — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 06:08:21 +0000

I am a software engineer, and I enjoy the challenges that brings. I have warned past employers: often my most productive time is when I appear to be doing nothing but staring off into space, and not “producing” lines of code. If in contrast I am perceived as obligated to produce a certain amount of code in a day’s work, they will get perhaps half the value out of me that they would otherwise. It will also not be my best work, and I will not be happy in the job.

By: BigBadSis

BigBadSis — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 04:18:44 +0000

Really great post Phil. I got a little verklempt remembering those days. But I’m so glad you told your story. It was your very public passion (and my husband’s — an amateur astronomer) that encouraged me to bring the stars to my Girl Scouts. For our last encampment in a rural area of Maryland’s Eastern Shore, I brought my husband’s huge binoculars with it’s tripod in the hopes of getting the girls’ sights off the hiking trail and up to the heavens. I told them that as Scouts, we often talk about the earth around us, the Leave No Trace philosophy for the trail and places we visit, but I reminded them to look up. Look up! How simple, but how powerful. They saw the craters on a full moon that almost blinded us, and several moons around Jupiter. All were amazed and wanted to look again and again. I actually got a little emotional telling them what they were missing if they kept their head on the trail. Maybe a little passion will get their attention. Thanks Phil, for your passion and your outreach.

By: The physical and the spiritual « Living Questions

The physical and the spiritual « Living Questions — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 20:30:03 +0000

[...] resistance to the harmonic co-existence of reality and religion everywhere I look. I read science blogs that tout atheism as the only sensible choice one minute and deliver the most profoundly simple [...]

By: Tom

Tom — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 16:56:10 +0000

Great comment Phil! I wish we were neighbors, since you “get it”. We could both bet standing out there together with our noses skyward….and bag of kitty poo in hand.

By: Derfisch

Derfisch — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 15:49:02 +0000

Haha. Phil cleans out the litter box only once a week!

By: Time spent doing what you love is never wasted « Men Into Space

Time spent doing what you love is never wasted « Men Into Space — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 14:42:58 +0000

[...] Recently, I was performing the mundane task of taking out the trash. I went from room to room, collecting the detritus of the week. I then spent a few minutes scooping out and changing the cat litter, and, sighing, finally tied up the bag and hauled it out to the bins around the side of the house. As I lugged the hefty bin out to the curb in the darkness, I did what I do, what I Read ahead [...]

By: kuhnigget

kuhnigget — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 13:47:28 +0000

The sky and the ground interest me more and make me more happy than the world inbetween them.

That’s the coolest thing I’ve read all morning!

By: Matt T

Matt T — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 13:46:31 +0000

Great post, very poetic… you should, I dunno, write a book or something.

By: Lav

Lav — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 12:33:31 +0000

I needed that. Thank you.

By: Marco Langbroek

Marco Langbroek — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 11:55:24 +0000

Ah, such recognizable sentiment! Vega rising, Regulus setting, and Antares low in the south…

Like you, I know the sky like the pocket of my pants (as we say in Dutch). Looking up when getting out at nightime is a second nature of me as well. At daytime, I tend to look down (I am an archaeologist by profession). The sky and the ground interest me more and make me more happy than the world inbetween them.

Thank you for this post.

By: Grand Lunar

Grand Lunar — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 10:49:12 +0000

Excellent post, Phil.

I get a similar feeling, but mostly when I observe the moon. I get that comfortable feeling when I take notice of that orb.

The stars themselves often still feel like strangers to me, even though I can name some of them on site.

By: Richard

Richard — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 10:43:03 +0000

My son emailed me the link to this page. He said when he read it that it made him think of me. A touching thought and a touching piece you’ve written. When I was a teenager most every night my head was bent over a telescope, especially in winter. Or, I’d wander around the outskirts of our very small town with my ‘chin up’ watching, memorizing, alone and enjoying it; I was so absorbed. You’re piece brought those pleasant memories back. And you are so right, Time spent doing what you love is NEVER wasted. Thank you. Thanks, Josh for sending it along.

By: Tobin Dax

Tobin Dax — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 10:41:01 +0000

Great post, BA. It seems like there’s always something new in the sky to be impressed by. And now I have to share. About a week ago, I was out around midnight. I got home, got out of my car and looked up (because, hey, I’m an astronomer). Lowish in the south was Scorpius, nice and big and clear. Antares was impossible to miss. The fish hook shape seemed to stretch across the sky. I don’t think I’ve ever seen it like that. It was absolutely beautiful. I wanted to just stare at the constellation for hours, but, unfortunately, I did have to get up at a decent hour the next morning.

I just had to share that. I’m sure that a number of you understand.

By: Chip

Chip — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 09:52:58 +0000

That’s a great little article. Though I’m a composer of mostly orchestral music and not an astronomer, I really do a lot of the same things – collect the garbage (and recycle stuff) and clean the cat box. Taking it out to the cans I cannot help looking up. I try to identify what I’m seeing. Being a total skygeek I tell Mrs. Musician (we’re both musicians) stuff like “there’s Scorpius” – “we’re looking toward the center of the galaxy” or “See that star there, from that star our sun would be in the direction of Cassiopeia, so in their science fiction, we’re the “Cassiopeians”.

By: JB of Brisbane

JB of Brisbane — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 08:04:55 +0000

Phil’s post and Kuhnugget @#43 remind me of an experience in my life. It was during my Year 8 school camp down in the foothills of the border ranges, well away from Brisbane’s light pollution. The first night I was there I looked up and marvelled at how many more stars there were. But what was that whitish stuff that I could see at intervals across the sky?
Then it hit me. “Omyg… it’s the Milky Way!” This was the first time in my then thirteen-year life that I had seen it. To cap the night off, a satellite went over (possibly even Skylab) that I pointed out to several of my fellow campers. The fact that it was the middle of July and the temperature was tipping below zero Celcius no longer mattered.

By: bob

bob — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 06:17:07 +0000

This post made me cry a little; tears of joy, at the sheer beauty of the universe, and tears of sadness, for I live in one of the worst light-polluted cities in the world, and if I go outside at midnight I am lucky to find even a single star in the cloudless Southern California sky.

By: Eric

Eric — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 06:12:09 +0000

This post resonated with me very strongly. I am also the one who ends up taking out the trash and scooping the cat litter. The only thing that makes it worthwhile is being able to check out the night sky. A satellite is always a bonus. Last night I was thrilled with how bright the stars appeared.

By: William

William — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 05:11:11 +0000

I’ve been following my own interests and it has lead me here.

I have a theory that’s a fine example of bad astronomy. However, it’s very creative. You can get video and pictures of just about everything here. I am considering several ideas. One of them involves things moving in and out of ultraviolet light.

July 1992 Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9, torn into pieces as a result of a close approach to Jupiter
July 16-July 22, 1994, fragments collided with Jupiter’s southern hemisphere
July 23, 1995 Hale Bopp A very large comet which was discovered
January 31, 1996 Comet Hyakutake discovered
February 4, 2010 Largest dust storm on Mars in 30 years
March 13, 2010 One of the largest solar flares ever seen produced CME
April 12, 2010 A large sunspot decayed
April 13, 2010 Astroid 2010(GA6) made close approach to Earth (http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=2010%20GA6;orb=1)
April 14, 2010 Volcano Eyjafjallajökull produced largest Eruptions
April 15, 2010 Meteor seen over Midwest USA
April 15, 2010 Nebraska shakes under 3.7 magnitude Earthquake
April 16, 2010 Meteorite found in Wisconsin
June 5, 2010 Fireball on Jupiter

Keep looking out…

By: csrster

csrster — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 04:30:19 +0000

But what I love doing is wasting time!

By: Talawallah

Talawallah — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 02:28:23 +0000

awesome piece. very inspiring.

By: Miss Cellania

Miss Cellania — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 02:09:54 +0000

That was a lovely post. It’s strange that I also took the garbage out -this morning- and stopped to admire the flowers in my front yard. I walk around inspecting the garden several times a day and it seems to restore my soul. Making plants grow is something I love.

By: Cindy

Cindy — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 01:59:02 +0000

My husband always jokes that people can tell I’m the astronomer as I automatically look up when going outside and he always looks down (he’s the biologist). Our daughter loves looking at bugs and our son loves looking up.