Man, I was in fat city today! This is the weekend of the Northeast Astronomy Forum up in Westchester county. I have been going to this conference for over 25 years. You can find any piece of astronomical equipment or telescopes that you have ever heard of on display here. And the other cool thing is that walking around, I kept running into friends from all around the country, and we could stop and chat, and catch up. This is a view of the floor of the field house at the college where this takes place. Wall-to-wall telescopes and amateur astronomers! Like I said, fat city!
Yesterday I saw a film about the universe in a planetarium. The narrator (Tom Hanks) said that there are billions of galaxies. Now I know how we know that - there is an astronomer assigned to each one of them.
ReplyDeleteIf only there was "one astronomer assigned to each.". Sadly, the total number of professional astronomers in the whole world is only several thousand. Very few keep the whole universe "running well.". How come so many millions can't keep just the world down here in better shape?
ReplyDeleteNotice the preponderance of older men in the image? The "young'uns" are too busy playing video games or preparing for standardized tests to contemplate knowing anything of the goegeous universe above their heads.
Sam