Starship Asterisk*

Color the Universe

Explanation: Wouldn't it be fun to color in the universe? If you think so, please accept this famous astronomical illustration as a preliminary substitute. You, your friends, your parents or children, can print it out or even color it digitally. While coloring, you might be interested to know that even though this illustration has appeared in numerous places over the past 100 years, the actual artist remains unknown. Furthermore, the work has no accepted name -- can you think of a good one? The illustration, first appearing in a book by Camille Flammarion in 1888, is used frequently to show that humanity's present concepts are susceptible to being supplanted by greater truths.

<< Previous APOD

This Day in APOD

Next APOD >>

APOD Robot wrote: ↑Sun Apr 05, 2020 4:05 am
Furthermore, the work has no accepted name -- can you think of a good one?

There can be only one name for this work: "Dying To Know.".

On seeing it, my first thought was that the artist didn't understand the theory of the Celestial Spheres and the universe as a mechanism. He has all of the heavenly bodies on the one crystal sphere instead of each planet and the fixed stars having their own. While being artistically interesting, his design would make for independent movements of Sun, Moon and other planets rather difficult.

Still, perhaps we should allow for "artistic licence" and accept the image as being more poetry than Physics. More a cartoon than a first draught for the blueprints of a cosmos.

It is very pretty.

But I am sure I have seen it in colour.

When I was a kid, I had two kinds of coloring books. In one type, the pictures were drawn with strong black outlines, but they were otherwise completely white. You were supposed to use a crayon or some other coloring device to color the pictures yourself.

I hated these coloring books. Why would I spend time coloring pictures that someone else had drawn, when it would be so much more fun to make my own pictures instead?

Then there was the other type of coloring book, where the spaces inside the black outlines were filled with little black dots that contained pigments. You took a little brush, dipped it in water, and applied the water carefully to the fields inside the outlines. As if by magic, color appeared. It was like waving a magic wand over a dreary picture of black and white and have it bloom into color as if you had cast a spell over it. It would be an understatement to say that I loved these books. Unfortunately there were not many of them, and soon the producers stopped making them.

Today's APOD is the kind of coloring book that bores me, so I will just quickly and magically give it color by posting a version of the picture of it in full color instead. There, that looks nice, doesn't it?


All right, but what is the color of the Universe?














Yes, that's it. Cosmic Latte. Kind of boring, but there you are.

Brian Koberlein, Universe Today, wrote about the first color of the Universe:

We have a good idea of what that first color was. The early universe had an almost even temperature throughout, and its light had a distribution of wavelengths known as a blackbody. Many objects get their color from the type of material they are made of, but the color of a blackbody depends only on its temperature. A blackbody at about 3,000 K would have a bright orange-white glow, similar to the warm light of an old 60-watt light bulb.

Or similar to Betelgeuse. It would be like having a sky crammed full of Betelgeuses. Imagine.






Now the cosmic microwave background, which once made the entire Universe glow like one universe-sized Betelgeuse, has cooled to invisibility (2.7 K). Hot blue stars still do their best to paint the cosmos blue, but they can't compete with all the yellow stars in all the elliptical galaxies out there.

So now the Universe is like one gigantonormous cup of cosmic latte, although not so tasty as the Earthly variety and with less foam or cream on top.

Ann

Suggested name for the illustration: "The Other Side of the Night"

Here's a crazy idea, let's just call it by the caption used in the book.

Un missionnaire du moyon age raconte qu'il avait trouve le point ou le ciel et la Terre se touchent

[ A middle age missionary says he had found the point where heaven and earth touch ]

https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k ... /f168.item

Ann wrote: ↑Sun Apr 05, 2020 5:58 am

Woodcut image first appearing in Camille Flammarion's book 'The Atmosphere'.

---

Today's APOD is the kind of coloring book that bores me, so I will just quickly and magically give it color by posting a version of the picture of it in full color instead. There, that looks nice, doesn't it?



Ann

Ah, thank you, that is how I remember the image. You are right, it is nice. Pretty, too.

It is nice to see someone else doing all of the work.

Take care, 'bye.

CuriousChimp wrote: ↑Sun Apr 05, 2020 7:08 am
Ah, thank you, that is how I remember the image. You are right, it is nice. Pretty, too.

It is nice to see someone else doing all of the work.

Take care, 'bye.

Thanks! Take care, you too, in these days of Covid-19.

Perhaps that is the meaning of today's APOD? People are confined to their homes, they need something to do... perhaps color an Astronomy Picture of the Day?

Ann

Is this an early SciFi contribution? The inspiration for Phillip Pullman's trilogy?

Hello, I am, as French, a little surprised by the statement "the current artist remains unknown":
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravure_s ... Flammarion
and
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flammarion_engraving
points to the author, Flammarion himself, who was a well-known occultist

So, suggested titles :
the mechanics of the spheres
harmony of the spheres
the music of the spheres

in french :
la mécanique des sphères
l'harmonie des sphères
la musique des sphères

Have a good confinated day

This reminds ,me a lot of a final scene in an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, when Picard visited his home (the vineyard) in France and met his 'Uncle' (was really his Nephew, that didn't remember what the term meant) ...at the end it showed the boy sitting under a tree, under a clear Starry night, watching the stars as a bolide, passed overhead.... And the word just kind of 'popped' into my brain... "WONDERLUST". I think that would be an excellent name for this Iconic Image...

Think cosmic !!
http://starmon.com/Flammarion.gif

I call it: "Shrooms" or "the Universe According to Timothy Leary"

Maybe "Cheech and Chong's Unreleased Movie"

After all, drugs are not a 20th Century invention.

COLOR OF THE UNIVERSE>
BY : YAHA The creator of all things.
http://grisham660.com

"Event Horizon"
That boundary between the known universe and the unknown universe concealed by the gravity well and singularity found within a black hole.

I like "The Hubble Barrier".

For a title, how about: "For the World is hollow, and I have touched the sky"

== John ==

P.S. Latte - fascinating.

Jean, d'Oran wrote: ↑Sun Apr 05, 2020 9:37 am Hello, I am, as French, a little surprised by the statement "the current artist remains unknown":
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravure_s ... Flammarion
and
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flammarion_engraving
points to the author, Flammarion himself, who was a well-known occultist

Actually, the references are quite clear that the artist is unknown, and that it is merely "plausible" that Flammarion produced the image.

I propose "New Heavens"

I think it's more like "One too many trips and missed the bus."

I can think of two but cannot pick one.

for·sak·en
/fərˈsākən/
Learn to pronounce
adjective
abandoned or deserted.



ex·pelled
/ikˈspel/
Learn to pronounce
verb
past tense: expelled; past participle: expelled
deprive (someone) of membership of or involvement.

title suggestion: "Where to now St. Peter?"

See Elton John / Bernie Taupin song of same title https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOHLQg4VfqE

When I was a child, I seem to remember a wooden engraving of this picture hung in the entrance hall of a conference centre my parents visited regularly.

I call it: Breaking through!
The consciousness breaking through into a totally new universe.

Sylvia

Revelation Original Thought Experiment = ROTE

Escaping the Corona.

Ann wrote: ↑Sun Apr 05, 2020 5:58 am Then there was the other type of coloring book, where the spaces inside the black outlines were filled with little black dots that contained pigments. You took a little brush, dipped it in water, and applied the water carefully to the fields inside the outlines. As if by magic, color appeared. It was like waving a magic wand over a dreary picture of black and white and have it bloom into color as if you had cast a spell over it. It would be an understatement to say that I loved these books. Unfortunately there were not many of them, and soon the producers stopped making them.

You can still get them. They're called "paint with water coloring books".

For something a little different, here are a couple of coloring efforts by an AI:
_

BeyondEarth_Unknown_960.jpg[/attachment]Ahh! looks to me like the chap is sticking his head outside our universe to see what is inside a parallel universe! Anyway, if that were possible; it would probably be dangerous! He'd be better off using a telescope or traveling in a spaceship!