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The night sky is a common heritage of mankind. Whoever and wherever we are, the sun, the stars and the planets shine down on us all, provoking wonder and inspiring questions about our place in the scheme of things. In contemplating the stars, we focus outwards and we are drawn out of our mundane predicament, at least for a time. Setting aside our differences with our fellow human beings, we can stand, gazing up, shoulder to shoulder, not eyeball to eyeball, so it has been for thousands of years.
There is evidence that our ancestors as far back as the Ice Ages were interested in astronomy, noting the patterns made by the constellations and the rhythms of the seasons, the moon and the planets.
Our ancestors learnt how astronomy provided essential knowledge that helped keep time and the calendar. More subtly, astronomy formed the backdrop to our ancestors world picture, at first a cosy, almost infantile view that the universe is constant and reliable, organized around our human needs; later came the modern realization that we humans are a minute, transient part of a much larger whole, packed with eventual or sporadic disasters. The inspiring human reaction to this picture, which could be a terrifying and paralysing one, is that we have come to accept this reality with equanimity, and to investigate it's ramifications with even greater intensity. Thus we are living now in a golden age of astronomy, having passed beyond the technical investigation of the arcane mathematics of orbits to the hopeful contemplation of some of the major questions of existence.
How did it all start?
How will it all end?
Are we alone in the universe? We can tackle some of these questions scientifically. We have started to deliver at least some aspects of the answers.
There is evidence that our ancestors as far back as the Ice Ages were interested in astronomy, noting the patterns made by the constellations and the rhythms of the seasons, the moon and the planets.
Our ancestors learnt how astronomy provided essential knowledge that helped keep time and the calendar. More subtly, astronomy formed the backdrop to our ancestors world picture, at first a cosy, almost infantile view that the universe is constant and reliable, organized around our human needs; later came the modern realization that we humans are a minute, transient part of a much larger whole, packed with eventual or sporadic disasters. The inspiring human reaction to this picture, which could be a terrifying and paralysing one, is that we have come to accept this reality with equanimity, and to investigate it's ramifications with even greater intensity. Thus we are living now in a golden age of astronomy, having passed beyond the technical investigation of the arcane mathematics of orbits to the hopeful contemplation of some of the major questions of existence.
How did it all start?
How will it all end?
Are we alone in the universe? We can tackle some of these questions scientifically. We have started to deliver at least some aspects of the answers.