“If a photographic plate under the center of a lens focused on the heavens is exposed for hours, it comes to reveal stars so far away that even the most powerful telescopes fail to reveal them to the naked eye. In a similar way, time and concentration allow the intellect to perceive a ray of light in the darkness of the most complex problem.” IfsWayProblemLightEyeScienceHeavenStarsHoursPowerfulDarknessFailingComplexesIntellectFocusedNakedPerceiveConcentrationMost PowerfulRaysExposedFar AwayPlatesLensesTelescopesDarkness To LightRays Of LightComplex ProblemsNaked Eyes Book:Advice for a Young Investigator Source: Advice for a Young Investigator
“Perhaps we are looking at this from a wrong perspective; this search for the truth, the meaning of life, the reason of God. We all have this mindset that the answers are so complex and so vast that it is almost impossible to comprehend. I think, on the contrary, that the answers are so simple; so simple that it is staring us straight in the face, screaming its lungs out, and yet we fail to notice it. We're looking through a telescope, searching the stars for the answer, when the answer is actually a speck of dirt on the telescope lens.” ThinkingLifeReasonFacesStarsSimpleAnswersImpossibleFailingPerspectiveComplexesMindsetContraryStaringMeaning Of LifeDirtLensesLungsThoughts On LifeTelescopesSpecks Author:Jason Calacanis
“"I think I know the real reason." "Which is?" "Alcohol in the dust clouds. Goddamn stuff is everywhere. Any lousy species ever invents the telescope and the spectroscope and starts looking in between the stars, what do they find?" He knocked the glass on the table. "Loads of stuff, but much of it alcohol." He drank from the glass. "Humanoids are the galaxy's way of trying to get rid of all that alcohol."” ThinkingKnowsWayTryingRealReasonStarsStuffTablesSpeciesCloudsGlassesAlcoholDustLoadGalaxyDrankTelescopes Author:Iain Banks
“The reason we have the stars twinkle at night is because the light is being kind of blurred by the atmosphere around the Earth. That is why the Hubble Space Telescope is so good, because it is above the atmosphere. So it is kind of like looking at the sun from the bottom of a swimming pool, versus looking at the sun above the swimming pool.” KindReasonLightEarthNightStarsSpaceSunBottomAtmosphereBe KindSwimmingPoolVersusTelescopesSwimming PoolHubbleHubble Space Telescope Author:Michael J. Massimino
“Man is the highest product of his own history. The discoverer finds nothing so grand or tall as himself, nothing so valuable to him. The greatest star is at the small end, of the telescope,--the star that is looking, not looked after nor looked at.” MenEndsStarsProductsHighestValuableTallTelescopes Book:Centenary Edition [of the Writings of Theodore Parker] Source: Centenary Edition [of the Writings of Theodore Parker]
“...Which brings me to the Hubble Space Telescope's newest images. If it's wonder that you're looking for, and mystery, don't just scan the photographs. Stop and think about them. Try to imagine the scale. The Earth is just a speck of dust on one distant whirling tentacle of the Milky Way galaxy, which contains billions of stars. A 'collision' of galaxies seems unimaginably large - and yet it is something scientists long ago imagined... The imaginings of pseudoscience are feeble by comparison.” IfsThinkingWayTryingLongSeemsEarthStarsSpaceWonderImagineMysteryEvolutionScientistPhotographBillionsScalesDustComparisonLong AgoGalaxyTelescopesCollisionSpecksPseudoscienceMilky WayTentaclesHubbleHubble Space Telescope Author:Mark Bowden
“Here's the problem, when you're stargazing on a mountain top you are partially oxygen-deprived and you're in command of million dollars worth of hardware. So as much as I would like to sip wine under the stars, it's contraindicated in the instructions on operating telescopes.” ProblemStarsMillionsMountainWineDollarsCommandInstructionOxygenDeprivedMillion DollarsTelescopesHardwareMountain TopStargazing Author:Neil deGrasse Tyson