EXPLORING IOWA NIGHT SKIESSMITH'S ILLUSTRATED ASTRONOMY lists the planets as "Mercury, Venus, the Earth, Mars, (Fifty-seven Asteroids or small planets,) Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune." It asks, " What is the body called upon which we live? It is called the Earth, or World. What idea had the Ancients respecting the shape of the earth? They believed it was an extensive plain, rendered uneven by hills and mountains…
They believed it extended much farther from east to west than from north to south. It is more probable that the Earth is in motion than it is at rest." These are just a few of the statements in Lesson I from an 1864 version of an astronomy book created for teaching. It is a valuable resource in that the illustrations were painstakingly hand drawn and they give us a glimpse into the past. Pluto had not even been discovered yet.
Much of our knowledge has been updated since then. We have excellent teachers, extensive libraries, public television, and students along with many adults who thirst for more information about our planet and its companions that share the universe. In the late 1970's, CARL SAGAN presented to us the book and television series "COSMOS". His compelling descriptions and homey storytelling contributed to the lay person understanding the motion of our own Earth and all else out there. SAGAN'S narrative style made you feel as though you were in a big comfy chair with your feet propped up holding a fantastic vision within your being.
Swirling mist, gigantic red and yellow and green colored gas clouds, colliding atoms….these are just part of the "COSOMS" lesson. Another, the legend of the black basalt ROSETTA STONE included the deciphering of it by JEAN FRANCOIS CHAMPOLLION. When he was young, Champollion of France, was a boy genius in oriental languages, and went on to become an expert in translating Egyptian hieroglyphics. The Rosetta Stone was composed of a message written in GREEK at the bottom, in cursive hieroglyphic called DEMONIC at the middle, and on top, in HIEROGLYPHICS (meaning sacred carvings).
The Rosetta Stone had been "uncovered in 1799 by a French soldier working on the fortifications of the town of NILE DELTARASHID, which the Europeans, largely ignorant of Arabic, called Rosetta". In 1828, then 38 year old Champollion "set foot in Egypt, the land of his dreams, and sailed upstream from CAIRO, following the course of the Nile, paying homage to the culture he had worked so hard to understand. It was an expedition in time, a visit to an alien civilization:
The evening of the 16th we finally arrived at DENDERA. There was a magnificent moonlight and we were only an hour away from the Temples: Could we resist the temptation? I ask the coldest of you mortals! To dine and leave immediately were the orders of the moment: alone and without guides, but armed to the teeth we crossed the fields…the Temple appeared to us at last. One could well measure it but to give an idea of it would be impossible. It is the union of grace and majesty in the highest degree. We stayed there two hours in ecstasy, running through the huge rooms…and trying to read the exterior inscriptions in the moonlight. We did not return to the boat until three in the morning, only to return to the Temple at seven…
What had been magnificent in the moonlight was still so when the sunlight revealed to us all the details…We in Europe are only dwarfs and no nation, ancient or modern, has conceived the art of architecture on such a sublime, great, and imposing style, as the ancient Egyptians. They ordered everything to be done for people who are a hundred feet high." These were the words of Champollion as he embarked on the greatest journey of his life, and as retold in Sagan's wonderful book.
So find your binoculars, your telescope, your family, your friends and get thee outside. Yes, it may be 4-degrees Fahrenheit, but as you look up at other worlds, just remember, some of them may be 450-degrees below Fahrenheit! You can live with a little cold IOWA weather. Check our your local colleges, universities, high schools, and yellow pages for an observatory near you. BETTENDORF HIGH SCHOOL in Scott county as well as THE WAPSIPINICON ENVIRONMENTAL CENTER on the border of Scott/Clinton counties both have public viewing places. In Linn county south of Mt. Vernon, the CEDAR AMATURE ASTRONOMY CLUB'S site is also a wonderful location for viewing overhead vistas. Take the time. Discovery is fun. Exploration can change your life.
Don't forget to CPR: CONSERVE/PARTICIPATE/RECYCLE
For more information see: www.carlsagan.com
www.astronomy.com and www.skyandtelescope.com
Read "THE PLANETS" by David McNab and James Younger published 1999 by Yale University Press….see www.yale.edu/yup/
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