by Equinox » Mon Jul 24, 2006 6:59 pm
The July 12th APOD was awesome! This APOD helped show how our everyday lives touch astronomy, and at the same time connected us to our distant ancestors, who appear to have been much more aware of astronomy than many people today. Both my Native American ancestors as well as my European ancestors paid close attention to astronomy, with the much darker ancient skies as a close companion in life.
Ancient sacred spaces that are based on astronomy are surprisingly similar across cultures and millennia. There are literally hundreds of ancient, sacred observatories, including Stonehenge, the medicine wheels all over the western US, “mystery hill” in Massachusetts, Avebury, and many more. In fact, they are found on every continent except for Antarctica. Here are a whole bunch of them, with great pictures and background information:
http://solar-center.stanford.edu/AO/
We all have different tastes. If I enjoy the connection to our wider human family more than I do a picture of a galaxy, then I’ll write in praise for the APOD I like. If someone else likes one that I don’t like as much, then that’s fine – we can have different favorites while all liking APOD as a whole. APOD is a great way for us all to bring the wonder of the universe into our lives, and it makes my life more wondrous on a regular basis.
All the best-
-Jon
P.S. Won’t the same thing happen at sun*rise* on November 28th and January 12th? The alignment at 2pm everyday doesn’t seem as dramatic, since the sun is so high.
The July 12th APOD was awesome! This APOD helped show how our everyday lives touch astronomy, and at the same time connected us to our distant ancestors, who appear to have been much more aware of astronomy than many people today. Both my Native American ancestors as well as my European ancestors paid close attention to astronomy, with the much darker ancient skies as a close companion in life.
Ancient sacred spaces that are based on astronomy are surprisingly similar across cultures and millennia. There are literally hundreds of ancient, sacred observatories, including Stonehenge, the medicine wheels all over the western US, “mystery hill” in Massachusetts, Avebury, and many more. In fact, they are found on every continent except for Antarctica. Here are a whole bunch of them, with great pictures and background information:
http://solar-center.stanford.edu/AO/
We all have different tastes. If I enjoy the connection to our wider human family more than I do a picture of a galaxy, then I’ll write in praise for the APOD I like. If someone else likes one that I don’t like as much, then that’s fine – we can have different favorites while all liking APOD as a whole. APOD is a great way for us all to bring the wonder of the universe into our lives, and it makes my life more wondrous on a regular basis.
All the best-
-Jon
P.S. Won’t the same thing happen at sun*rise* on November 28th and January 12th? The alignment at 2pm everyday doesn’t seem as dramatic, since the sun is so high.